Interview Pixar Animator Aaron Hartline

Ub Iwerks: Animator, Inventor, Creative Mind

Ub Iwerks: Animator, Inventor, Creative Mind from Adam Osgood on Vimeo.

More Tangled

Kung Fu Panda 2 Teaser

The Making of Bambi

Is this Crazy or Supercool?

When we got up this morning, we noticed that some bright sparks had the idea of attaching a car to the side of Sky Tower - the tallest building on the southern hemisphere, as a part of a huge Christmas tree they're painting there.

Four guys and the car was hanging on the side of the tower in a huge crane, trying to attach the car which I assume is meant to be the foot of the tree.
 
I tried to find something about it online, but couldn't find anything. Maybe it's just a common thing down here to attach cars to tall buildings ;)

Sky Tower is getting ready for Christmas

Anyway....I think it's superduper cool - the crazier, the better :)

Back to Snells Beach

Yesterday my lovely wife Kari and I rented a car, got together with Joe and Gary (good friends and colleagues at Oktobor) and went for a trip up north to Snells Beach.

 

Kari and me at Orewa Beach

We made a short stop at Orewa before we headed for Snells Beach, where I finally got my hands on the most AWESOME Almond Croissants ever...they don't make them like that anywhere else - trust me, I've been searching. We also went down to the beach where I showed my wife and the guys the place I was living the last time I was working in New Zealand.

 

Joe, Gary and me at the beach in Snells Beach

Next stop was Matakana where they had a really nice farmers marked and then we headed out to Omaha Beach, but it was a little bit too chilly and windy for us to stay.

On the way back we stopped at Takapuna - a nice small city just outside Auckland - a really idyllic place. No doubt we're going back there once the summer really sets in.

It was great to go back and see the place I used to live two years ago - there wasn't that much changed though :)

Interview with Megamind Director Tom McGrath

Pure Awesomeness - Milt Kahl and Ollie Johnston

Milt Kahl & Ollie Johnston from Jamaal Bradley on Vimeo.

Tangled Featurettes

Be Thankful for Your Uniqueness

Great article from Pamela Kleibrink Thompson at Animation World Network.

From the article:
During the filming of Some Like it Hot, Tony Curtis (who just recently passed away) pointed out to director Billy Wilder that he was doing an impression of Cary Grant. Billy Wilder replied, "If I wanted Cary Grant, I would have hired Cary Grant."

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -- Bill Cosby

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE

Carlos Baena Interviews

Check out these two short interviews with Pixar animator (and Animation Mentor co-founder) Carlos Baena.

CREATING SPANISH BUZZ

TOY STORY 3 INTERVIEW: CARLOS BAENA

Excerpt of Interview With Bill Tytla

This excerpt of an interview with the legendary Disney animator Bill Tytla has been out there for a couple of years now, but it's new to me :)

Click here for more info

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE EXCERPT

The End - Lee Unkrich

Pixar: 25 Years of Animation Exhibition

A Look Inside Blue Sky Studios

Click on image to play video :)

The Hobbit Stays in New Zealand!

After a couple of months of uncertainty, it's now clear that the Hobbit movies will be made in New Zealand, which is totally awesome :)

More about the development on The Hobbit:

Hollywood Reporter
New Zealand Herald
TVNZ

You Can Fly! - The Making of Peter Pan

Interview with Bobby Podesta and Mike Venturini

Interviews with Gabe Hordos & Simon Otto

Behind the Scenes of Epic Mickey

Here's the trailer for the game:

DreamWorks Adapt Short Film ALMA into Feature

From Collidor.com:
In what sounds like something out of a Cold War spy novel, DreamWorks Animation has made a deal with Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas to adapt his award-winning short film Alma into a full length feature.

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE!

This is awesomes cool. I love this short and can't wait to see it developed into a feature.

Pixar Animator Everett Downing Interview

Interview Lee Unkrich and Michael Arndt

Director Lee Unkrich and screenwriter Michael Arndt discuss the final film in the Toy Story trilogy.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW HERE!

Once Upon a Dream - The Making of Sleeping Beauty

The Disneyland Stories

THE DISNEYLAND STORY - 1954












THE DISNEYLAND STORY - 1990ish

Peter Jackson directs The Hobbit

Awesome news! Peter Jackson will direct the two Hobbit films back-to-back.

From TVNZ:
The shooting of The Hobbit will begin in February with Sir Peter Jackson in the director's chair after co-financers gave the film the greenlight.

READ THE STORY HERE!

Interview AM Dreamworks Animators

First 5 minutes of MegaMind

The Making of Oliver and Company

Behind the Scenes of Dreamworks Animation

The Tangled Crew

Podcast: John Hill

From Speaking of Animation:
In this interview we sat down with an amazing animator and supervisor, John Hill. John was really fun to talk with and had so much to share. 

We discuss how he got his start, working at Don Bluth, animating Bartok in Anastasia, and most recently Rumpelstiltskin in Shrek Forever After. 

We also dive in deep about his thoughts and experiences as an animation supervisor and his process as an animator. 

This interview is packed full of great advice. While prepping for the interview we noticed that John’s IMDB page wasn’t entirely accurate so to start we decided to clear up his history. Have fun and enjoy the interview!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE!

Interview Mike Surrey

Morpheus - Free Maya Rig

Josh Burton are currently developing Morpheus - a free rig for Maya users that you can customize into a bunch of different characters.

The first Release Candidate of the rig has recently been released.

Check it out here!

More Tangled Videos

The Relevance of Mime in Animation

Glen Keane Interview

Sean Ferguson has posted an extensive interview with Disney legend Glen Keane on the Why so Blu website in relation to the release of The Beauty and The Beast on Blu-Ray.

Read the interview here!

Pixar on Pixar

National Museums Scotland in association with 55degrees presents "Meet the pros" as part of the Pixar - 20 Years of Animation Exhibition. This is from March 2007, but still pretty interesting if you, like me :), haven't seen it before. Enjoy!

The Making of Cinderella

Doug Sweetland Joins Sony Picture Animation

From PR Newswire: 
Doug Sweetland, the Academy Award®-nominated director of the 2008 Pixar short "Presto," is set to direct THE FAMILIARS for Sony Pictures Animation. Sam Raimi & Josh Donen are executive producers. Adam J. Epstein and Andrew Jacobson are writing the screenplay for THE FAMILIARS, based on their just published novel.

Read the whole press release here.

The Making of 101 Dalmatians

Sintel - Animated Short Film

Read more about this project at Sintel - The Durian Open Movie Project

Interview with Bruce Smith

Unfinished Mickey Short

Early 'Review' of Tangled

Jim Hill has just posted an early 'review' of Tangled and it sounds promising!

From Jill Hill Media:
... last night, I got to see a not-quite-finished version of "Tangled." And after that screening on the Disney Lot, as I was being introduced to Byron Howard & Nathan Greno, I couldn't help myself. I actually blurted out: "Holy cr@p. You guys figured how to make great animated movies again."

Read the whole article here!

Interview with Pixar Intern Austin Madison

More Behind the Scenes of the Lion King

Early Storyboard versions


Storyboard Pitch by the Directors


Can You Feel the Love Tonight - Early Storyboard Version

The Penguins Rocks!

We're just wrapping up the first full episode of the Penguins of Madagascar that I've been working on at Oktobor Animation in New Zealand this week, and the show totally rocks!

It's so much fun to work on the Dreamworks characters and I love the snappy wacky style and the humor in the show.

The studio is growing like crazy, It has almost doubled in size since I got here 2 months ago and more amazing people are coming in every week. I feel like I'm part of something big here :)

As we're moving towards summer here in New Zealand, it rains a little bit less and the sun appear more often, nice and warm. Auckland is a really nice and small city, but it kind of got the big city feel to it - lots of cool stuff to do in the weekends.

My wife and I are having a great time!

The Penguins of Madagascar is airing on Nick on Saturdays at 10am (ET/PT)

Guillermo del Toro signs with Dreamworks

From The Hollywood Reporter: "Guillermo del Toro has fallen under the spell of animation and is setting up "Trollhunters," a feature project he will write and direct at DreamWorks Animation."

Read the whole article here.

Behind the Scenes of The Lion King

The Circle of Life - In my opinion, the most beautiful movie openings of all time:

The Making of the Fox and the Hound

Can't help it :) Can't get enough of "Making of"-stuff.

The Making of The Jungle Book

Another Tangled Trailer

Milt Kahls Approach

I recently came across Sandro Cleuzo's blog Inspector Cleuzo, with lots of inspiring drawings from Disney movies, as well as some personal drawings.

Back in December 2009, he posted a very interesting post about how Milt Kahl approached a shot.

Read the post here!

It's also worth checking out the other posts on the blog. Lots of inspiration!

Behind the Ears - The Making of Roger Rabbit

"You're Going to Hollywood" by Cameron Fielding

Cameron Fielding, the author of the Flip blog and animator at Dreamworks Animation, has written a very interesting post about his journey leaving his home in England and moving across the Atlantic. Lots of awesome tips and advices!

Read the post here.

Katzenberg on 3-D Movies

New Trailer and Preview of Tangled

Milt Kahl - The Animation Michelangelo

In April 2009, Andreas Deja hosted a panel, featuring Kathryn Beaumont (the voice of Alice and Wendy), Sybil Byrnes (Kahls daughter), Brad Bird, Ron Clements, John Musker and Floyd Norman, celebrating Milt Kahl.  

Here's some video highlights from that panel where the participants share interesting stories about their experiences with Milt Kahl.

Chuck Jones Podcast

Here's a podcast from 1994 with Chuck Jones, by the Museum of the Moving Image.

They also got interviews with Brad Bird from 2005, Tim Burton from 2003, Henry Selick from 2009 and Pete Docter from 2009, as well as with a bunch of other interesting people from the motion picture industry.

Enjoy!

Megamind Feature Trailer

Can't wait to see this one :)

Interview with AM's Bobby Beck

Toon In - Animation Interviews

Just recently discovered the site Tune In...to the World of Animation. It's been around since 2006 and has a bunch of interviews with people in the animation industry, such as Brad Bird, Lou Romano, Steve Hickner, Bill Plympton and many many more.

46 episodes are recorded so far an it's updated regularly.

It's worth checking out. Enjoy!

Dreamworks Animation Studio Tour

Workflow Tips from DJ Nicke

Double your Animation Output from DJ Nicke on Vimeo.

Animation Mentor Student Showcase 2010

Check out all the great work coming out of Animation Mentor in the 2010 Student Showcase! 

Also, take a look at this clip where graduate Jeffrey Engel talks about the shot he did that made it to the showcase.

Acting it Out

Eric Scheur does an amazing job at the 11 Second Club providing animation tips and tricks, and I recently re-visited the Acting it Out article where he goes through acting out a performance and shooting video reference. There's also several video examples with actor Chris Murray.

I first read this article when it was published over a year ago, but it's nice to go back to it and read it again as a refresher. Read the article here.

Also, check out the other Helpful Hints articles Eric has published - awesome stuff!

Pixar's Sanjay Patel

Interview Lee Unkrich and Darla K Anderson

Toy Story 3 Trailer:

Jason Ryan Podcast

Speaking of Animation has just released a podcast with Jason Ryan where he talks about his journey into the industry and his recent tutorials, webinars and new animation school, iAnimate.net.

Speaking of Animation Jason Ryan Podcast
Jason Ryan Animation
iAnimate.net

Ruben Aquino Interview

Interview with supervising animator on Princess and the Frog, Ruben Aquino.

Doug Sweetland about Story

Short clip with Pixar animator/director Doug Sweetland (Presto).

Pixar Masterclass - Super Inspirational!

I attended the Pixar Masterclass with Andrew Gordon here in Auckland yesterday. A whole day stuffed with animation tips and tricks and coolness - an awesome inspirational boost.

I totally recommend going to his masterclass if he's visiting your city. It rocks!

Creating the Look of Tangled

Eric Goldberg Wisdom

I know it's been out there for a while, but it's still pure gold.

What's missing in CG and hand drawn reels:


Method of charting:


Benefits of Pose to Pose:


Benefits of Planning:


About Ken Harris:


And finally a cool video with Eric Goldberg creating a character:

Jeffrey Katzenberg Interview at the D8 Conference

Click here to watch the video on the D8 Conference Site

My First Laptop Ever!

Finally I went ahead and bought myself a tablet pc, my first laptop ever :) I ended up with a used Fujitsu Lifebook T4220 Tablet. I totally love it. It's sooo cool to finally be able to draw directly on the screen in Flipbook.

Even though it's a few years old, it runs Maya 2009 pretty good. I've played around with Bishop and it's no lag at all....even Bishop 2.0 works okay.

Andreas Deja at Van Eaton Galleries

Veteran Disney animator Andreas Deja gives a talk at Van Eaton Galleries.

Lovin' it in New Zealand!

Just finished my first two weeks at Oktobor Animation Studio in Auckland, New Zealand, animating on The Penguins of Madagascar.

The show is really cool with nice and snappy animation and I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm a huge fan of the movies and getting to animate some of those memorable characters is supercool!

We're settled in a nice apartment in central Auckland and even though it's mid winter down here, the temperature is pretty nice, 15-17 degrees Celsius. It's raining a lot though, but I'm happy as long as it's not snowing ;)

It feels great to be back in lovely New Zealand and my wife and I are having a blast so far.

Animation Mentor releases Bishop 2.0

Animation Mentor has just released a new version of their main rig, Bishop. This looks freakin' awesome! This gonna be fun to work with.

Oktobor Animation Opens in Auckland

Here's a news article about Oktobor Animation, the studio I'm going to New Zealand to work for. We're flying out on Wednesday and arrive in NZ on Friday.  It's a crazy 33 hour flight.

Working on projects such as The Penguins of Madagascar for Dreamworks/Nickelodeon is going to be awesome.

I'm superexcited and can't wait to get started.

Read the article here.

Inside Pixar: Toy Story 3

Here's a look inside Pixar on the Making of Toy Story 3 from The Guardian


Here's another Inside Pixar video from IGN:

Ed Catmull Talk - Keep Your Crises Small

Great talk by the president and co-founder of Pixar

GIRAF Animation Festival - Call For Submissions

The Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival is the only exclusively independent animation festival in Canada, with a focus on experimental and self-produced animated film.

GIRAF plays an essential role in the promotion, education and appreciation of independent animation from around the world, exposing hungry local audiences to the best animated content from at home and abroad.

The GIRAF Animation Festival takes place at Plaza Theater in Calgary, Canada from November 3 - 7, 2010 and they're now accepting animation submissions.

Important Note: Submission deadline August 2nd, 2010

Visit http://www.giraffest.ca/ for more information

Back to New Zealand!

Going back to New Zealand in a couple of weeks to work at Oktobor Animation Studios in Auckland.

They have some really cool shows currently in production and I can't wait to get started.

"How to Break into Animation" - Talk by Steve Hickner

How to Break Into Animation Steve Hickner Dreamworks Director from Creative Talent Network on Vimeo.

Interview with Jason Schleifer

Interesting interview with Jason Schleifer - Head of Character Animation at Dreamworks Animation.

Peter Jackson may direct the Hobbit after all!

I was excited about Guillermo del Toro directing the Hobbit films and was a bit disappointed when he had to step down a few months ago.

Learning that Peter Jackson may step in and direct the movies after all is really good news!

Read more about the news here

Interview with Mark Henn and Mike Surrey

Here's a roundtable interview that Disney animators Mark Henn and Mike Surrey did with the press in Dallas shortly prior to the release of the Princess and the Frog.

Click here to listen to the interview.




Here's another interview with Mark Henn

Pres-Aid - A fund-raising art auction

This got to my attention today and I wanted to make a post about it to get people to head over to Pres-Aid.

From the website:
"Animator Pres Romanillos has suffered a relapse of leukemia, and is in the hospital awaiting a repeat bone marrow transplant. His friends are putting together a charity art auction for his benefit.

The Talbert Family Foundation has set up a charitable fund for Pres. 100% of these donations will go to Pres and Jeannine, to pay medical and day-to-day expenses. These donations are tax deductible. Thank you!"

Pres Romanillos worked on such awesome movies as Mulan, Spirit, Pocahontas, Aladdin, Shrek 2, Madagascar, and many other films. Click here to read more about him.

The auction has some amazing pieces of art for you to bid on - head over to Pres-Aid and check it out.

The Theater's Best Kept Secret

I'm currently reading "Sanford Meisner - On Acting" and found a really cool documentary online - "Sanford Meisner - The Theater's Best Kept Secrets".

It's old and probably been posted tons of times before, but for those that haven't seen it, check it out!

I also recommend to grab his book "Sanford Meisner - On Acting", it's a great way to get introduced to method acting by one of the greatest acting teachers ever.