Animation with a moustache

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Category: Animation

Looney Tunes Shorts online! 2

Animation / Education

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Looney Tunes Shorts online!

I just got told that the first two ReelFX’s “Looney tunes” shorts are now available online.

If you missed those look no further and watch them in their full 1080p glory on their own Youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/looneytunesshorts

The TDs did an incredible job to allow the animator to push CG animation to an extent that was never permitted before. Crazy smear frames, multi limbs, out of the ordinary facial and body poses.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZhlXAYtaMw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cYMoxBWEZw[/youtube]

I am still waiting to see the entire Daffy’s Rhapsody but the wait shouldn’t take too long.

I also want to point out that ReelFX’s Supervising TD Josh Carey and the other guys from Rigging Dojo have an incredible source of information on their website so you must subscribe to both their newsletter, and blog’s RSS Feed, even if like me you are not a professional TD but only want to understand how things work and learn few things along the way.

Lately they have had some really good interviews with Sony’s Character and Animation TD Martin Orlowski for his work on “Pirates ! Band of Misfits” (I am wondering more and more how much was stop motion now….) and Sony’s TD Tim Coleman for his work on “Spiderman” and “Hotel Transylvania”. The latter was only available on the Newsletter so this is why you need to subscribe to both.

That’s it for today. I will write a longer article about the importance of communication between TDs and Animators an other day.

Thanks Amy for the heads up.

Related posts:
Josh Carey’s Animschool interview
Josh Carey’s VFS submission
Ray Chase showreel
Aardman’s Pirates behind the scenes
CGMA Character Design Week 03

Animation Podcast unofficial Tangled animator’s commentary 3

Animation

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Animation Podcast unofficial Tangled animator’s commentary

The Animation Podcast show 32

I was so upset when I realized there were no commentaries on the Tangled Bluray you wouldn’t believe. I understand Disney is trying to save money but how do you want people to truely appreciate your movies if you don’t give them an in-depth behind the scenes or at least some commentaries! I won’t be buying Blurays blindly anymore, that’s for sure.

On Pixar’s Incredible’s DVD there were 3 commentary tracks!

Anyway Clay Kaytis and a bunch of Disney animators came back with a bang. They gathered to record an unofficial Tangled Animator’s commentary to listen while watching the movie!

Excellent!

The Animation Podcast show 32 – The “Unofficial” Tangled Animators’ Audio Commentary

Related posts:
Tangled crew (Raiponce)
Joe Bowers Thought process
Jamaal Bradley shot progress

What is good acting? 0

Acting / Animation

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What is good acting?

I wouldn’t be able to give you a clear answer to that but I think we can all agree that the following example is a really fine piece of acting starring child prodigee Henry Thomas during an audition for 1982 Spielberg’s E.T.

The video just surfaced on the internet at the same time as an interview for Esquire magazine where he explains how he approached the audition.

“I read a scene from some early version of the script, and then I was asked to do an improvisation. I think the gist of the improv was, “You found someone, and they’re going to take them away from you, and it’s your friend, and you really don’t want your friend to go away.” So I started crying, and really going for it I guess.”

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/henry-thomas-et-interview-13541489

According to the Huffington Post, legend has it that Thomas drew his inspiration for the scene from a deceased family dog.

Okay kid, you got the job!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV0vYQcmWK0[/youtube]

“The Quest of Digduguesclin” in Pixel glory 1

Animation

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“The Quest of Digduguesclin” in Pixel glory

My friend Sebastien Lasserre just released his 34 minutes shortfilm to the public and an official website showcasing some of the artwork that went into the making of the “short”. (few more minutes and it was a feature 😉 )

Sebastien took a year off from work to dedicate to this project, a shorfilm mixing medieval storyline and 8 bits video game references all animated in Pixels.

My only contribution was moral support as I only discovered the finished shortfilm when it premiered last year in Bayonne.

I should also note that the music and sound design was handled by my good buddy Vincil from Ummo whom I mentionned a while back on this blog.

http://sebastienlasserre.net/films/

Grab some drinks and popcorn, sit back and enjoy.

In the year of grace 1351, the entire kingdom is devastated.
Begged for by the king in order to reverse the cursed Malsanto,
Bertrand sets off on a long journey…
Scénario, director : Sébastien Lasserre
Dialogues : Michel Pasut et Sébastien Lasserre
Music : Sylvain Aubert,

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/50612323[/vimeo]

Character design research

After viewing the short don’t forget to check his other stop motion short films, and especially “Christmas time” which was selected at Annecy few years ago.

Related posts:
Christmas time is here
Saint Louis video clip

“Tangled” Joe Bowers thought process 2

Animation / Education

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“Tangled” Joe Bowers thought process

Joe Bowers gave a great walkthrough of some of his shots from Disney’s “Tangled” and “Bolt”.

I love when an artist explains what his thought process was when creating a piece of work. The thought process is as much important as the finished piece itself I feel and Tangled is a perfect example for that as Glen Keane really helped the animators to push their work to a new level in CG animation. Those days people are so focused on performance that they forget about stylisation. If performance is all that counts you might as well using motion capture.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/48497275[/vimeo]

On a side note, the more I look at Bolt and Tangled, the more I am amazed at the look Disney created for those movies with the use of their revolutionary Painterly rendering

if you missed them I am also posting two older but still great walkthroughs by David Anthony Gibson for his work on Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs and some, related to my work at EA.

Related posts:
Animation design
Cloudy with a chance of eyeballs
Spare parts cutscene 2b
Disney related articles

Dreamworks’ 12 pictures announcement 0

Animation / Business of animation

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Dreamworks’ 12 pictures announcement

I just saw an article on Animation Magazine announcing Dreamworks’ 12 next pictures.

Here is the important part:

The movies and their release dates are:

The Croods (March 22, 2013)
Turbo (July 19, 2013)
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Nov. 1, 2013)
Me and My Shadow (March 14, 2014)
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (June 20, 2014)
Happy Smekday! (Nov. 26, 2014)
The Penguins of Madagascar (March 27, 2015)
Trolls (working title, June 5, 2015)
B.O.O: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations (Nov. 6, 2015)
Mumbai Musical (working title, Dec. 19, 2015)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (March 18, 2016)
How to Train Your Dragon 3 (June 18, 2016)

With 3 to 4 movies released per year, Dreamworks will certainly become the busiest studio in the next few years offering a hell of opportunity for animators and artists.

Animation Magazine article

Blue Sky “Epic” 0

Animation

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Blue Sky “Epic”

Well well well…. no farting or burping jokes, no pop culture references, fairly realistic look …. this definitely seems different! The trailer reminds us a bit of “Arthur and the invisibles” but it is obviously too early to know what this is about.

At a time where most Animated Features look alike, it is nice to see Blue Sky is trying something different. Let’s hope it works out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xu3JLXfuwQ[/youtube]

Sony’s “Hotel Transylvania” June trailer 0

Animation

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Sony’s “Hotel Transylvania” June trailer

Compared to “Brave”, “Cloudy with a chance of Meatbals”, “Open Season”, the character designs feel really uninspired and pretty generic to me. Could this be because Sony finally settled for a TV Series director?

Some TV shows like “Samurai Jack” have great artistic direction but unlike most Genndy Tartakovsky fans, I can’t watch more than one episode of a TV series.

This looks like an interesting movie though and I am sure Kris Pearn and his team added a lot of magic to the script.

Since I have a thing for animated vampires and most Sony’s Animated Features were good surprises for me, I will probably go and see that one.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4RK3jY7AVk[/youtube]

Jamaal Bradley “Tangled” (Raiponce) 1

Animation

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Jamaal Bradley “Tangled” (Raiponce)

Let’s take a break from Storyboarding today.

Jamaal just posted a awesome shot walkthrough. Really lovely work.

I am not a Disney Princesses fanboy but if you still haven’t watched Tangled, rush to the DVD rental place near your house immediately, Disney made a magical timeless movie that instantly outdated a lot of its 2d production. The acting of Rapunzel is one of the most genuine ever seen in Animated Features.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/44181679[/vimeo]

Related posts:
Tangled new official trailer
Tangled crew
Jamaal Bradley, acting shot walkthrough

Annecy 2012 2

Animation

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Annecy 2012

Quick report on my Annecy trip.

I got to attend a workshop with Bill Perkins, a talk with Disney Story artist Josie Trinidad and Disney Vis dev guy Jeffrey Turley. I was also part of a classic 1h30 long queue for a pay-to-see “Lorax behind the scenes” that nearly ended in blood bath. The “Brave” and “Paperman” queues were 2h so I passed on those (my knees and elbows were still swollen from previous brawls). On a side note, Pixar didn’t hold their regular Mifa presentations which was really unexpected and sad.

Josie Trinidad won us over with her enthusiasm and Jeffrey Turley gave a very funny talk spiced up with lovely cartoony ink-brushed beatboards at the Disney booth. We were not allowed to take any pictures or report anything on their Wreck-it-Ralph presentation so I can only share with you the following pictures. (sorry for the picture quality, I had forgotten my charger and used my phone instead)

Here is the Wreck it Ralph trailer if you haven’t seen it yet:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf4r5q8-aWo[/youtube]

Despite the rapidly changing weather, Annecy 2012 was once again a great event and we will be back again next year …. with a mouth guard 😉

>Related links:
Wreck-it-Ralph official website and arcade game
Josie Trinidad interview