Youtube has the whole collection of the Disney Family Album. It interviews all except one of Disney's "nine old men". It's an impressive experience being able to see their thoughts on animation and the difficulty and satisfaction of improving it. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24CWgNWf7eE
Mit Kahl, Ollie Johnston, and Art Babbit are just a few of the animators that interested me. You get to see the struggles they made in learning how to do things such as acting their characters, making believable animals(Bambie) and keeping the audience interested for an hour.
The whole series is worth a look, especially for an aspiring animator.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Music is like Animation
I'm a big fan of Classical music, my all time favorite is Bach. It's amazing to listen to his stuff and think about how he could make such things.
I realize now that music shares a lot of similar principles to animation. Music is built upon chords that carry the weight of the piece. You could compare this to key frames, which are the main poses that sell the animation.
Music also has connecting notes between chords, one of them is called a passing tone. You could consider this an inbetween that connects the two main poses together.
Different chords create different moods, like going from tonic to dominant, then back to tonic. Animation does the same thing; by moving from a key pose, to a breakdown, then back to another key pose.
Easing in and out in animation is the same in music. In music you dot a note, this causes it to last longer by borrowing time from the note after it. This last note now plays faster, just like easing out.
Last but not least, music has multiple actions and rythm. Both animation and music try to accomplish the same thing.
Many parts are involved in a musical score, such as melody, countermelody, harmony, and percussion. The same can be said for animation. You have the main action, secondary action, and facial action that all play together like an orchestra.
I realize now that music shares a lot of similar principles to animation. Music is built upon chords that carry the weight of the piece. You could compare this to key frames, which are the main poses that sell the animation.
Music also has connecting notes between chords, one of them is called a passing tone. You could consider this an inbetween that connects the two main poses together.
Different chords create different moods, like going from tonic to dominant, then back to tonic. Animation does the same thing; by moving from a key pose, to a breakdown, then back to another key pose.
Easing in and out in animation is the same in music. In music you dot a note, this causes it to last longer by borrowing time from the note after it. This last note now plays faster, just like easing out.
Last but not least, music has multiple actions and rythm. Both animation and music try to accomplish the same thing.
Many parts are involved in a musical score, such as melody, countermelody, harmony, and percussion. The same can be said for animation. You have the main action, secondary action, and facial action that all play together like an orchestra.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Porco Rosso
I watched my first Miyazaki movie a few weeks ago. Normally I prefer western animation to anime in style but Miyazaki makes a strong statement in the movie "Porco Rosso".
It's about a pig that flies old biplanes for a living. He is a bounty hunter in Italy hunting airplane pirates. The best part of the movie are the airplanes and visual effects animation.
A friend told me Miyazaki has a hobby of flying and loves old-World War I airplanes. You can obviously note the attention to detail he put into them.
He focuses on drawing stylistic planes with bright colors, which he indulges them into reacting to forces like wind, water, and collisions.
The planes would also exhibit a tense strain by repeatedly drawing frames over the same plane. This popping effect gave an organic trait to the metal hulls of the planes.
Overall, the strongest animation was in the effects and airplane models, enhanced by wide and sweeping camera shots. Usually western animation focuses more on character animation in place of effects. Imagine if both were executed together flawlessly.
It's about a pig that flies old biplanes for a living. He is a bounty hunter in Italy hunting airplane pirates. The best part of the movie are the airplanes and visual effects animation.
A friend told me Miyazaki has a hobby of flying and loves old-World War I airplanes. You can obviously note the attention to detail he put into them.
He focuses on drawing stylistic planes with bright colors, which he indulges them into reacting to forces like wind, water, and collisions.
The planes would also exhibit a tense strain by repeatedly drawing frames over the same plane. This popping effect gave an organic trait to the metal hulls of the planes.
Overall, the strongest animation was in the effects and airplane models, enhanced by wide and sweeping camera shots. Usually western animation focuses more on character animation in place of effects. Imagine if both were executed together flawlessly.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Thief and the Cobbler
I read awhile ago that Richard Williams directed a movie of his own called "The Thief and the Cobbler". Unfortunately, it didn't do well in theatres, mainly because its theme was similar to Disney's Aladin.
I watched the movie and found it fascinating. Apparently, Williams was working on the film for around 60 years. He had famous animators such as Ken Harris and Art Babbit help him with the animation. He even had Vincent Price, a famous horror actor, play as the film's antagonist, Zigzag.
Williams ran out of money to fund the film so he had to work with other studio projects. Unfortunately company bigwigs were getting impatient with how long he was dragging the production out. Eventually they took creative control away from him in order to beat Aladdin in theatres.
Some of the best animation ever seen crafted is within this movie. Generations of animators have constructed a powerful performance in this feature that rivals Disney and Dreamworks.
There's this one scene that shows Zigzag persuading the evil invader king. He has multiple fingers, each with a ring on each digit. He also displays incredible motion due to his multiple joints. He has 4 shoulders, 4 knees, 4 elbows.etc. Watching him deal cards is impressive. Richard Williams commented how he wanted this character to be multi-jointed in order to enhance his shifty, double-dealing nature.
I watched the movie and found it fascinating. Apparently, Williams was working on the film for around 60 years. He had famous animators such as Ken Harris and Art Babbit help him with the animation. He even had Vincent Price, a famous horror actor, play as the film's antagonist, Zigzag.
Williams ran out of money to fund the film so he had to work with other studio projects. Unfortunately company bigwigs were getting impatient with how long he was dragging the production out. Eventually they took creative control away from him in order to beat Aladdin in theatres.
Some of the best animation ever seen crafted is within this movie. Generations of animators have constructed a powerful performance in this feature that rivals Disney and Dreamworks.
There's this one scene that shows Zigzag persuading the evil invader king. He has multiple fingers, each with a ring on each digit. He also displays incredible motion due to his multiple joints. He has 4 shoulders, 4 knees, 4 elbows.etc. Watching him deal cards is impressive. Richard Williams commented how he wanted this character to be multi-jointed in order to enhance his shifty, double-dealing nature.
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