Workflows

I always find it very inspiring and useful to read about other animators workflows. At AM they showed us a bunch of different workflows and my current workflow is a mix of those. I think there's always something that can be picked up from seeing how others do things. Here's some workflows that I found on the net. If you read this and know about links to others that have posted their workflow, please shoot me an email :)

Anatomy of a shot - Kevin Koch
Reference footage and planning - Michael Makarewicz - Splinedoctors
Mike Walling Workflow
Keith Lango Pose to Pose workflow
Shawn Kelly Workflow
Turok Animation Workflow
Jacob Gardner Workflow 11 sec club test - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Making of Alien Song - Victor Navone
TJ Phan Animation Workflow
Glen Keane Animates a scene

Inside Pixar Animation Studios

This is an older short documentary about Pixar, but still cool :) I never get tired of behind the scene stuff like this. Super inspiring.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Disney Animation Special from 1981

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5

More quality online learning

It's awesome to see more quality online learning for animators is starting to pop up online.

David Weinstein's Digital Apprentice Workshop went online 4th of July and after a quick look at his site, it looks like a great addition to Jason Ryan's Tutorials and Keith Lango's Video Tutorial Service.

Animation is such a huge topic, so getting inputs and looking over the shoulder of different experienced animators are really valuable.

Check out the site. Looks pretty cool with (among other cool stuff) a video interview with the one and only Ray Harryhausen. Also, one of the animation tutorials are available free of charge :)

If you dream it - You can do it!

Awesome inspiring interview with Pixar animator Austin Madison.



Also, check out The Ending from CalArts 2006 Showcase (second film on the list) and Boy Meets Rex.

The Tale of Despereaux

I was so pleased when I saw the trailer for this movie. I've only heard great things about it, but watching the trailer made me think that maybe it's a good idea to stick around in Europe after all :) It looks awesome. It'll be Christmas for sure this year.

No charge for awesomeness

Well, I did pay $15 to see Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda yesterday, but it can be considered no charge for what we got in return. The movie will make you go blind from overexposure to pure awesomeness. Fantastic!

Jason Ryan Animation - The Basics

I've done all of the basics Jason Ryan tutorials and here's the Flipbook result of it :) Working in 2d is a lot of fun and it's amazing how much I feel that I've learned already from looking over his shoulder. I totally recommend it!

CG Excellence Award 2008

My short film, Forever Young is shortlisted for the CG Excellence Award at CG Overdrive in Singapore which takes place June 17th to 20th. It's such an honor to be picket together with fellow AM'ers Jure Prek with Crash and Anil Kapoor with Peppy, both awesome shorts!

Ramblings and more goodies

Wow. Time flies. Been quite busy the past month doing Jason Ryan tuts, 11 sec club and working away at HuHus, which by the way is still awesome. Learning tons on every shot and feel that I'm slowly moving forward. We're on our way into the winter here in New Zealand, but guess what, no snow! Woohoo. Can't really say I miss it. It's about 10-12 degrees celcius, which is kinda okayish for a winter :)

The big event lately has been the Jason Ryan site going live. And he's not letting us down. It's pure awesomeness. Doing the 2D Flipbook stuff really makes me feel like an animator and the most important thing that I get out of it at this stage, is that doing 2d forces me to think about the spacing at every frame. He's also big on opposite actions to get more entertainment into the animation. Great stuff! In addition to that, just peeking over his shoulder, getting into his mindset of how he animates, what he's thinking about and when, is invaluable.

Bobby Beck has posted a couple of really cool posts on his blog lately. Check out this squash and stretch video. Crazy stuff! He also shared some personal thoughts about your potential a few weeks back that I thought was spot on and super inspirational. He also have a follow up post, Positivity in the Workplace (scroll down a little) about how people found it hard to deal with his positive energy, which is just sad. Thank god he didn't manage to change. His energy is an inspiration which helped me a lot through Animation Mentor! To get a portion of the Boom-energy, check out the replay of the Webinar he did recently.

Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda is on its way. June 6! This movie looks awesome! There's a 2 min preview out and also a cool behind the scene clip just released. Tons of more Kung Fu Panda stuff here.

Carlos also keeps his blog going with lots of cool tips and thoughts. Check out his tips and tricks site! He also talked about 6 word stories a while back. "For Sale: Baby Shoes, never worn" (Hamingway). That's efficient storytelling and puts "less is more" in perspective. More 6 word stories here.

Kevin Koch has a very good post about the talk by James Baxter, Pete Docter, Andreas Deja and Eric Goldberg about mentor ship in animation. Interesting thoughts. He also got a post about the importance of physics and how it can throw the audience off without really knowing why, but just feel that something is wrong. Newton rocks!

Forever Young in the AM Newsletter!

My Animation Mentor short film, "Forever Young" is being featured in the May 08 issue of the AM Newsletter. Full article here.

Jason Ryan goes live!

Finally! Jason Ryan's tutorial site goes live Sunday May 11. This has been one of the big waits for me this year.

His Ramp Up tutorials has been awesome and with Flipbook purchased, I'm ready and set for getting an in-depth look at how he animate.

My current work flow is heavily based on one of his earlier lectures at Animation Mentor and I'm really looking forward to get more of his knowledge and to use it to hopefully take my own animation to a higher level.

Brad Bird on fostering innovation

Awesome article at Gigaom where Brad Bird talks about a few important things in our industry.

More Brad Bird stuff:
- Podcast by the Spline Doctors
- Pixar - A Human Story of Computer Animation
- Ratatouille Interview with Brad Bird
- Ratatouille Filmmaker Video

Get ready for Urmel!

If you're in Germany, get ready for the Urmel voll in Fahrt premiere on May 1st. It's a supercool movie and I'm very proud to say I've worked on it. I was invited to a pre-screening on April 20th, but unfortunately I couldn't make it to Hannover. I was at a screening back in December 2007 though and its a super funny and a very entertaining movie!

Hopefully it will get released internationally, probably under the name "Impy - Full Speed" or something (don't quote me on that, but the first movie was named "Impy's Island")

Anyway, if you get a chance - go see it!

Writing Cartoons at ASIFA

Director at ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive, Stephen Worth, is currently publishing a series of articles about writing cartoons.

Part 1 - The Gag Session
Part 2 - A Continuity Emerges
Part 3 - Structure
Part 4 - The Rough Board

(More to come)

Enjoy!

Jack Lemmon Interview

Four part interview with the wonderful Jack Lemmon from 1998

Jack Lemmon Archive Interview:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

A thought from Ollie

Hans Perk posted this on You Tube. An important message to all character animators from one of the greatest.

Ollie Johnston 1912 - 2008

The sad news arrived yesterday that the last of the Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston, has passed away.

- A tribute to Ollie Johnston by John Canemaker.
- Brad Bird's thoughts about the passing of Ollie Johnston
- The Walt Disney Company on Ollie Johnston


- Disney Family Album: Ollie Johnston (documentary) Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Idea boosting

I was surfing the internet the other day and came across Litemind, a great site with tips about how to boost your creativity.

I went through the archive and found, in particular three posts that was very interesting.



- Tackle any issue with a list of 100
- 6 tips to generate outstanding ideas
- Boost your Brainstorm effectiveness with the WHY habit

James Baxter Goodies

Notes from James Baxter lecture at Dreamworks - Day One - Day Two - Day Three (to come)

James Baxter Interview - The Animation Podcast

James Baxter animated himself dancing

Rough Animation from Hunchback and The Lion King

Ever Ever After - Music Video

Enchanted - Baxters animation from Enchanted

James Baxter Interview about Enchanted

Making of Enchanted short documentary

Part of the Making of Beauty and the Beast