Ehow: career options for animators

Here are some nice videos from ehow.com. Good, informative stuff to watch, especially for the young, aspiring animator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfaU5yJRfM&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPB4D6DB894E474E2B

This is one of the clips in the series: "Career Options for Animators"

Heroes of my childhood

Let me tell you a little story.

Asterix and Obelix were the true heroes of my childhood. You know? The two gauls with superhuman strength (thanks to the magic potion made by the village druid) always ready to smack down any bypassing roman soldiers. I really loved those stories. And I still have ALL the comic albums in my bookshelf, the complete series!

The very first animation attempt I ever made was a shot with Asterix walking across the screen. I was about 9 years old and had decided to make my own feature film with Asterix and his friends. So I nagged on my parents for a couple of weeks until they finally bought me twenty celluloids and a couple of pens with ink that you could wash away with water.   (See? I was smart! I was planning to reuse those celluloids for the whole feature!)   I borrowed my father's double-8 camera, which you could cheat to take just one frame at a time if you hit the record button hard and fast.

And so I drew and painted my 20 celluloids with Asterix walking across the screen and recorded it one drawing at a time, slamming that record-button on my father's camera once for every piece of celluloid.  Then, after everything was filmed, the filmcassette was sent away to be developed at Kodak's factory somewhere in Germany, I think. I had to wait for over 2 weeks to get the developed film back, and by then I was shivering with excitement to see my completed masterpiece.

And yes, sure enough, my Asterix took his two steps across the screen........ but for some strange reason that I couldn't quite understand my hero kind of shrunk by half of his length while walking that short distance AND somehow he was also deformed into a increasingly shapeless blob by the end of this masterful 2 second shot.
- I was so disappointed! I put the celluloids and the pens in a drawer and didn't touch them again for almost 30 years.

But I never stopped re-reading the comic books.   :-)



Here are some fun interpretations of the two characters, made by different artists, googled from the net....

NOT for children

As a producer/director of children's tv shows, working at a public service company and often sitting in either end of the pitching process i.e. giving or recieveing a pitch depending on the situation... I must say I find this clip hilarious.

http://dauid.com/video/qt/barnen.mov

NOTE: you have to understand swedish to get the point. It's mostly dialouge anyway. AND you have to have a good stomach and not be sensitive to adult material, too. :-)

I'm pretty convinced that the guy behind this clip has had his share of experiences trying to sell his ideas to public service companies... (he is actually a accomplished animator!)

The title of the clip is "för barnen" ("for the children" in english)
Don't say I didn't warn ya.

The making of a commercial short from Aardman

This is a "making of"-film from Aardman, a commercial for a swedish bank, "swedbank".

- It just looks so fun to work with stop motion, doesn't it? Real materials, dolls you can touch with your fingers....
(- sigh, ...back to my maya blocking, staring at the screen....) :-)

The neverending frustration of a musician

Jeeeez - over a month since I last posted anything. Shame on me.

But - anyway....
Here is what I have been busy with lately. Right now I am in the middle of the "introduction to acting" class of animation mentor under the guidance of mentor Nicole Herr.

Here is the first assignment from this class; "Stewie vs. Bach"
If you ever have played an instrument you know how frustrating it can be at times :-)



As an extra bonus for those of you who are interested - here is the videoreference clip I used to study the scene.

Body language as presented by Desmond Morris

Desmond Morris, The Human animal, BBC series. Series in 6 parts, this is the third one "the language of the body". Good stuff for wanna-be-animators. :-)



part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1IEfdsD5H0&feature=related
part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLfbG8VTIyA&feature=related
part3: (this one) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDQklRKeF2g&feature=related
part4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa9XJA-czXI&feature=related
part5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeF7nOdqHfs&feature=related

Halfway finished already ????

How time flies by! I am already halfway through animationmentor - can't quite believe it myself, it still feels like I began just a couple of weeks ago.

These last days before christmas break we are summing up and reviewing what we learned in class 3 the past three months. It has all been about body mechanics, animating physicality, and I must say that this was the hardest class so far with lots of hard work on the assignments but also with a lot of new information and "stuff" pouring in all the time that somehow caused some kind of information overload in my poor head.
At this stage it really feels like I could stay at this level for months or years and just repeat the things I've learned so far, read the same stuff over, do the same kind of physicality exercises and work on getting to understand this complex area of animation better.

But - come january there will be new challenges as we go into acting classes. I'm really looking forward to that immensly, it will be a lot of fun.... but... I really could have used another three months of jumping and running and leaping and falling and balancing.

Here is my compiled "anim jam"-assignment from the advanced body mechanics class. I hope to get back to it later, in polish and portfolio class, and do some more polishing and maybe add some more detail to the setting.