Animation with a moustache Blog

Showreel february 2011 5

Showreel february 2011

I am currently working on a new showreel with two new acting shots but in the meantime, here is a showreel with my latest work.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/25508250[/vimeo]

The first shots are from Chico Chica Boumba, a TV series I worked on at 2minutes (Angouleme).
The second shot is a self directed acting shot in french as I am currently looking for work in France.
The third shot is a short extract from my short film “Summer time”.
The Robots shots are from the EA game “Spare Parts”.

And if you are interested, here are my Work in Progress

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/20460994[/vimeo]

Exaggeration 0

Exaggeration

If you haven’t seen the Bluray version of Disney’s Pinocchio, you might not have realised how extensively the studio was relying on video references since their very first pictures but what I wanted to talk about today is Exaggeration in animation.

Someone just made a comparison video between some Alice in wonderland’s live action references and the final movie. It is a bit striking how close the reference for Alice is but all the other characters are way more exaggerated. A bit too much probably but this seem to work really well with the characters.

That video is really interesting as it shows two styles of animation, naturalistic versus broad, and how much a video reference can be pushed to create an entertaining performance.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZbOiv1Uf0s[/youtube]

via Spungella

How much Kung Fu Panda can you handle? 0

How much Kung Fu Panda can you handle?

If you are not worried you would be watching too much Kung Fu Panda 2 behind the scenes, check this out. I havet to warn you though…. there are a lot of spoilers!

What a feast for the eyes. That’s what cartoons should be like! I am going to put a preorder on the Bluray, toys, pyjamas and coffee mugs 😉

If the story works, that movie could probably break the 900 millions dollars.

Those Cintiq screens seem to be lacking brightness by the way. I have never worked on one but I feel that my LCD screen has a better picture.

Kung Fu Panda 2 behind the scenes

Smallriders is finally online 5

Smallriders is finally online

Few month ago I was telling you about a short film made by two of my Chico Chica Boumba uber talented coworkers.

Smallriders, Chloe Blocktaels and Joan Delmont’s short film is finally online and I am loving the final product.

The short was finished in Octobre and we have had to wait a loooong time but this was really well worth it. Joan is not interested in 3d anymore but I would love to see this as an animated feature or a TV series. The animation is really good and the character designs are very appealing. Ah I should also congratulate Benjamin Meyer who was in charge of the rendering or he will kick my butt 😉

Really nice work guys, you can be really proud of it!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Hks6UNEd0[/youtube]

Related posts:
Smallriders, first teaser
Chico Chica Boumba pilot
Back from Angouleme

Walk cycles from Disney Robin Hood 6

Walk cycles from Disney Robin Hood

A compilation of walk Cycles from Disney’s 1973 Feature “Robin Hood”?

What a great excuse to watch Robin Hood again! Robin, “Sword in the stone”, “Jungle Book” and “The rescuers” are my favorite Disney movies.

Does anyone know who designed the characters by the way? I think Milt Kahl did a lot of character design towards the end of his career but I think I remember Ken Anderson was doing them before him, any idea?

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

via floobynooby.blogspot.com

Related post:
Pencil test depot
Milt Kahl Disney family album
Milt Kahl the animation Michelangelo

Full Sail showreel 0

Full Sail showreel

At the beginning of Animation Mentor, AAU was kicking butt. It seems that other traditional brick and mortar schools, helped by the release of Norman to the public, have now upped their game. More and more great showreels are coming out of Florida based Full Sail university. I would be curious to know how high are the tuition fees though, French Gobelin’s nearly free tuition is long gone but we are still really far from north american’s costs.

If some of you are following Andrew Gordon’s website, you probably remember Drew Winey’s Pirate entry from the last Spline Doctors contest. I thought is other schoolmate should have won the competition but after watching Drew’s latest showreel I have to admit that the guy is really talented and I am not surprised he got hired by ReelFX.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/11900014[/vimeo]

I would also encourage people to check out his blog and see for yourself how he might have gotten where he is. Many animators are concentrating on long acting shots where Drew seems to be favouring quick 1 to 2 days shots that have a lot of entertainment value.

Drew Winey’s blog

Related posts:
AAU graduate showreel
What is AAU

Mike Walling … avec une moustache! 9

Mike Walling … avec une moustache!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/22386291[/vimeo]

Mike and I have been working on a French version of his great animation tutorial videos for the past few weeks and they are now available on the JRWebinar store page.

It is not very often that you see a video tutorial with a top feature animator working in a commercial package so you must recommend the videos to all your french speaking friends!

Mike Walling … avec des moustaches!

Mike Walling et moi avons travaillé pendant quelques semaines sur une version francaise de ses vidéo tutoriel de mécanique corporelle. Les vidéos sont à présent disponible sur le magasin virtuel (store) du site de Jason Ryan.

Mike Walling a commencé sa carriére d’animateur en 2001 et a joint Dreamworks en 2010 aprés avoir travaillé sur des films aussi prestigieux que L’Age de glace, Horton, ou Surf’s Up.

Ce n’est pas tous les jours que l’on peut voir un animateur de trés haut niveau travailler sur un logiciel commercial, aussi cette vidéo doit étre recommandée à tous les débutants et les animateurs plus aguerris qui rêvent un jour de travailler dans un studio de cinéma d’animation. Rappellons que les studios Dreamworks et Pixar utilisent des logiciels d’animation propriétaire aussi, rare sont les animateurs de ces deux studios qui connaissent Maya sur le bout des doigts.

Pour la traduction, j’ai repris la terminologie utilisée par Richard Williams dans son ouvrage Techniques d’animation. Les termes Key poses, breakdown, inbetween et spacing ont été respectivement traduits par Pose clefs, intervalle principal/breakdown, intervalle et espacement.
Les termes Ease in, drag, overlap, overshoot ont quant à eux été traduits par amorti, retard, chevauchement et dépassement.

Jason Ryan webinar website

Related posts:
Mike Walling walkthrough
Maya, mel scripts for animation

Ianimate new promo video 0

Ianimate new promo video

I am surprised not everyone knows about Ianimate yet. Good thing Jason Ryan just released a new promotional video explaining how the school works and showing the work of the first batch of students. You can also see the rigs they are providing to the students and some of them are really really appealing.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/21879011[/vimeo]

Ianimate is not as big as Animation Mentor yet so you might not be able to build up a huge network of animators friends as quickly as with the Berkeley based online school but all the Ianimate mentors are top Dreamworks animators which is perfect for someone wanting to work specifically in feature animation.

Ianimate.net

Related post:
Who is Jason Ryan
Mike Walling walkthrough
iAnimate Jason Ryan interview

TODOR & PETRU 0

TODOR & PETRU

I don’t have much time those days to keep this blog updated or even do any animation work so in the meantime, here is a video some Gobelins students did during an internship last year. I am finding this very refreshing. I shall be back with more educational material in three weeks.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/16051959[/vimeo]