my first Animatic!

I took this four-week class on drawing and story-boarding, and absolutely loved it! You'd be surprised how many drawings it takes to get a decent storyboard going for an animation project. When you take thumbnail drawings and place them on a frame-by-frame timeline, you get a very basic rough idea of what the actual animation is supposed to look like.

Here's what I did in the span of an hour's worth of drawing 20 different frames:

It's really cool when you see the motion happening between drawings! In terms of my skills, I learned that I take up a lot of time worrying about the details of an figure or object, rather than focusing on the movement and the supposed 'action' of a character. It's a perfectionist's problem I guess, but I am working out of that habit. Right now I'm getting really into drawing with ink again, as it helps me learn to work around mistakes and just look at the overall concept of an image.

Here's an apple study I did with ink:

This week I'm going to San Francisco to look at an animation program. I'm hoping I can visit Pixar while I'm over there! =P

UP!

I watched the Academy Awards last night, and I was so happy by the amount of praise that was given for UP!, among the many other great animated films mentioned. I can't remember who presented the nominees for best animated film - let's just say it was Samuel L. Jackson - but it really impressed me that he talked about how sometimes the best stories don't have to involve real people or live action. There was even a short bit before the nominees were announced, when they had a fake 'interview' sequence with the animated characters of the movies, and even though you knew it was all make-believe and scripted, I loved that these characters had the depth, mannerisms, and personalities of any real person being interviewed.

I'm pretty sure that if I could specialize in any area of animation, it would be in character animation. I love the idea of putting together a story, a background, and a personality in a character through movements and mannerisms. Maybe this is from watching too many Disney movies growing up, but you really get attached to the characters that show so much vulnerability and heart, even when you know they aren't real!

Another couple great moments I really got out from the Academy Awards was when Pete Doctor won for Best Animated Film for UP!, and he said "it's amazing what making a flip-book out of your 3rd grade Math textbook will do to you." When Micheal Giacchino accepted his award for Best Original Score for UP!, he said "as a kid, I would take my dad's old film camera and go around making short films, and he never once told me that I was wasting my time," and he kept going on, telling everyone watching to never stop being creative, and to never think of anything as a waste of time. I agree with both of these guys, because it just goes to show that creativity can start in the simplest of things, but it really takes a lot of courage and perserverance to make something great out of that creativity.

It was a wonderful, inspiring night for me.