The Animation Podcast

Show 31* – Disney Talent Development Alumni (*Animation Mentor Exclusive)

2009-10-07T07:20:25Z

“You learn everything from every production that you’re on, even if it’s, you know, a commercial that lasts three weeks. You learn something from it.”

It’s finally here – my exclusive podcast for Animation Mentor! It marks a few firsts: my first podcast in over a year; my first roundtable with five guests; my first women guests! Since this is an exclusive, you’ll need to head over to Animation Mentor to listen and download the show. My focus for this show was to grab five artists at Disney who recently went through the Talent Development Program at Disney and talk about how they got there and what it’s like to work at the studio. My guests include Story Artist Jeremy Spears, Visual Development Artist Lorelay Bove, Rough Inbetweener/Jack of all Trades Joe Pitt, 2D Animator Sarah Airriess, and CG Animator (and Animation Mentor alumni) Kira Lehtomaki. Please leave your comments and feedback on this this post. I’d love to hear what you think.

@Animpodcast on Twitter and #Animtip Tuesdays

2009-08-19T15:16:31Z

I’ve been sorely absent from this site for a large part of the last year, but I haven’t dropped off the hairy back of the internet. Pinched with little time to spare, I’ve fallen for the ease and short form of the tweet. I make a point not to tweet my life, so you won’t hear that I’m out of milk. But I do tweet about animation, which leads me to the best part…

I started a hashtag (a way to mark topics) on Twitter called #animtip.

Click this search and you’ll see what it is.

PLUS, every Tuesday is now Animtip Tuesday where tons of animation fanatics post their animation tips on animation. It’s fun and inspiring. Share an animtip on Twitter any day of the week, but especially on Animtip Tuesday.

I’ve added an icon at the top of the site to find me on Twitter. My username is AnimPodcast. If you follow me, send me a tweet to let me know who you are.

Sandro Cleuzo has a blog

2009-08-17T22:35:48Z

Fantastic animator Sandro Cleuzo sent me an email this week to tell me about the blog he has started. Only six posts in and it’s all great stuff. I can’t wait for more. He’s including some background of the images in each post, which will be of interest to those who like to learn about production work that never made it to the screen.

Sandro easily fits in my top ten of working traditional animators – if you think the drawings are beautiful, you should him move them on screen. I had the pleasure of watching him work on The Emperor’s New Groove, Sweating Bullets/Home on the Range, and The Princess and the Frog. Check him out:

Inspector Cleuzo

Site Re-design – kicking the tires

2009-08-17T07:46:38Z

In case you check back once in a while, wondering if the site is falling apart from disuse, you’ll see that it has been dusted off and slapped with a brand new coat of paint! This isn’t just a tease, I am getting back into the podcasting business. (I never left, really, I was only stretching my legs for a bit.)

I really wanted to get the shows into the spotlight. Now you’ll always find the latest show on the front page, above the fold.

This isn’t just a cosmetic overhaul, I decided to make some tough choices, like changing my link structure to a much simpler format. SO… if you’ve got links out there pointing here, they may not reach their final destination. That’s OK. We’ll rebuild together.

As with every revamp of the site – at least it’s been my experience – things will have broken, and may not work like before. I’ll be tinkering, discovering, and patching as I go. If you run into anything drastic, pitch me an email and let me know.

Some features are drifting into the shadows, while others are lurching forward and begging for some love. It will all balance out as we get back into the swing together.

I’m adding an image for when I tear it all apart next time and people wonder, what did it look like before?

Walt Stanchfield Books

2009-08-17T02:40:31Z

I’m going to take my time here, so I’ll put the summary first:
BUY THESE WALT STANCHFIELD BOOKS!
Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volume 1: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volume 2: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures

Ok, now for the long version…

In 1994, during my first week as an intern at Disney, everything was magic to me. They had a shelf full of fresh (and expensive) animation paper for anyone to use. Draw through your stack? Take some more! Unfathomable. The pencil supply shelf was like a treasure chest. I figured that these must be the most popular pencil choices of hundreds of the greatest artists from over decades of use. I took one of each to figure out which one would be the key to unlocking my latent drawing virtuosity. (None of them worked.) There were drawing classes every lunch hour – with food provided! Was this heaven? I was so wide-eyed and for years I saved every scrap of paper that came across my desk because I just knew that when I am 87 years old, I’ll spend my hours going through dusty old boxes, reading memos reminiscing how great life was.

The weekly newsletter was a treat. It was called The Twilight Bark, after the way dogs sent news in 101 Dalmatians. On Monday mornings a copy would be waiting at your desk. Reading it made me feel like I had been given access to an exclusive club (which, I guess, I had). On my second Monday, the newsletter ended with a few pages of advice on drawing with examples of quick sketch gesture drawings. At the end of the typewritten pages was the handwritten signature ‘Walt.’ I assumed it was an old memo from Walt Disney, but I never knew he did any sort of instruction like that. Well, he didn’t (except for a few memos that float around).

The Walt, I soon learned, was Walt Stanchfield. Walt had retired from animation production, and he was at least in his seventies at the time, but once a month he returned to the studio to teach for two lunches. That’s when he would drop off the pages for his latest newsletter and it would appear in The Twilight Bark to the benefit of the entire studio the following week. That was REAL magic.

Walt had the most joyful, energetic spirit I have ever known. Yes, his classes were about drawing, but they were also about seeing, judging, storytelling, passion, life, creation, sports, clarity, art. “Live life dammit!” is something he would say. He’d tell us to ignore all that garbage we learned in anatomy class. He wanted us to make decisions in the drawings and tell a story through the image. If we drew the model exactly, he’d show us how more interesting it would be if we pushed the pose, moved the hand out here for clarity, tilt the chin to direct the viewer’s eye to where we want them to focus. He didn’t want us to draw what we saw, he wanted us to take in the idea and power it on to the page with verve and directness. He was so hooked on creativity. He’d sometimes share his latest drawings that he made while driving down the freeway from his home near Solvang!

When anyone asks about what type of drawing classes to take, there are two answers I always give: figure drawing and Walt Stanchfield style gesture drawing. Walt’s drawing is a unique brand that isn’t taught very often. Luckily, some of the people I took Walt’s classes with have carried on the tradition and are teaching what Walt taught them. Tom Gately works and teaches at Pixar and Dave Pimentel works and teaches at Dreamworks. I’m working on some unsuspecting souls to teach at Disney right now. The reason I give for recommending the Stanchfield style of drawing is that it is what I use most in my daily work. Doing CG doesn’t demand much drawing from me, but when I’m planning out my shots in thumbnails, I’m using everything I can remember from Walt’s classes and his handouts to find clarity, directness, and entertainment in my poses.

After all these years, I’ve given or thrown away most of the things I saved those first few years, but not the Walt Stanchfield notes. Those are more valuable to me than anything I have collected from the studio. They’re just a stack of photocopies, but they are a symbol of Walt’s passion for life, and his constant search for inspiration that he translated into ways to inspire us. They remind me of the times when the model was stuck in traffic and he would get up and pose – he was the best model we ever had. They remind me of how he’d lean over my shoulder with his coffee breath to correct a drawing, then ask to have it. That meant it would probably show up in the next handout as an example of what NOT to do. He’d pat me on the shoulder and say, “Don’t worry, I won’t use any names.” I miss that coffee breath. They also remind me of the few times that he used a drawing I did as a good example. I can’t tell you how proud I was to be “published” in Walt’s “Words of Wisom.” It meant I had actually done a drawing that was good enough to possible inspire someone else. I’m sure he knew that helped students like me far more than any readers.

Last year, I heard that Don Hahn, of Disney Producer fame, was working with Walt’s widow to take the years of typewritten, photocopied handouts and compile them in to books so that anyone can have beautiful copies of this inspiring collection. Well, the time is upon us. Next month, the books will be released. I found out because I was contacted by Don to tell me that one of my drawings is included. Even after life, Walt has once again provided me one of my proudest moments in animation.

So if you can’t tell, I am giving these books the highest recommendation. The “Words of Wisdom” are that and much more. They are filled with fantastic examples of how to clearly draw, fresh perspectives (even after decades) of how to look at life and creativity, and tons of quotes and references to books and artists that will keep you searching out new avenues of inspiration, just as Walt Stanchfield did. Get these books.

For some more one Walt and his “Words of Wisom”…
See the trailer:
at Don Hahn’s website
Read about Walt and the books (with sample pages):
on Mark Kennedy’s blog
on Hans Bacher’s blog

Show 030 – Eric Goldberg, Part Two

2009-08-18T02:38:57Z

“I like to draw everything that has a sense of give to it, and a sense of life, and everything that will support the idea of the pose and then build the anatomy on top.”

The interview concludes in Part Two where Eric Goldberg shares his extensive knowledge and appreciation for animating as he talks about many of the projects he has directed including Pocahontas, Rhapsody in Blue, and The Monkey’s Tale while the conversation continues to touch down on the details of the craft of animation. Eric is currently animating on the upcoming film The Princess and the Frog.

Continue for Show Notes, audio file download links, and comments…

Get the MP3 here: Show 30: Eric Goldberg, Part Two
(29.1MB, 1:03:19 minutes)

Or get the enhanced version playable only with Quicktime, iTunes, or iPods.
(Includes chapter breaks, pictures and links in addition to the audio.)
Get the enhanced podcast here: Show 30: Eric Goldberg, Part Two
(30.9MB, 1:03:19 minutes)

Amazon.com Widgets

SHOWNOTES

00:00 The Intro Voice
00:05 Sponsored by –
00:23 Introduction
Character Animation Crash Course
01:36 Approach to drawing
05:29 Anything to add on the Genie?
09:31 The style and tone of Pocahontas
14:13 Pocahontas: Adventurous art direction
17:02 Pocahontas: Most difficult film to date
19:35 Pocahontas: Defending its biggest criticisms
22:11 Directing shorts vs. features
25:49 The breadth of sidekicks
28:37 Less accessible projects – The Monkey’s Tale
36:41 Storyboarding for animation
42:46 Eric Goldberg – cartoon voice
44:48 What is possible in CG that hasn’t happened?
56:06 How is it at Disney today?
57:42 Conclusion
57:55 Voicemails/Feedback info – Email Clay – Link to Voicemail
1:02:16 BOLT
1:02:42 Sponsored by –

Show 029 – Eric Goldberg, Part One

Animation Timeline

2009-08-17T02:31:25Z

For many years I’ve kept my eyes open for fast and easy ways to create dynamic timelines and it appears it is a concept who’s time has finally come. There are now many websites that let you create your own custom timelines and after checking out a few, I decided to create an Animation Timeline on Dipity.

I’ve added all the Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and Blue Sky feature films but I’m sure there are many more from years past that can be included. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t mind having anything related to animation on there. I started it, but I won’t claim it as my own – it’s for all of us! Any one can contribute since it is editable by anyone. Just create an account on Dipity and add away. You can even edit the information that’s there if you want. It took me a while to get all the films in there, so I’m putting a bit of trust in your hands that you won’t maul it in to a work of evil, but I know you’re a good bunch and animation types generally watch out for each other.

I would love it if individual events could be added from the accounts of these podcasts, but that is beyond my means. If anyone is willing, that would be very cool to see. Whatever happens, I thought it would be fun to share with you.

For me the most striking view is to open the timeline full-screen (click the button in the lower left corner) to see the pattern of how many films were released over the years. (See the thumbnail above.) You can follow the boom after Snow White, the fallow years of the 50s and 60s, and then the explosion of releases in the last couple decades. As you can see, animation is booming and that’s great for all of us!

Check it out and add to it if you’re inclined.

Show 029 – Eric Goldberg, Part One

2009-08-18T02:39:45Z

“So much can be expressed through a walk, you know. I think that’s one of the things that a lot of animators don’t do these days, is actually crack the walk so that it actually says something about the character.”

Eric Goldberg is one of the most admired animators working today. After years of developing his craft in the commercial business in London, he exploded on the feature animation scene with the Genie in Aladdin. After that, he co-directed Pocahontas and later directed two classic sequences from Fantasia 2000 – Rhapsody in Blue and Carnival of the Animals. Eric was also responsible for animating Phil in Hercules and he is currently animating on the upcoming film The Princess and the Frog.

Continue for Show Notes, audio file download links, and comments…

Get the MP3 here: Show 29: Eric Goldberg, Part One
(40.2MB, 1:27:39 minutes)

Or get the enhanced version playable only with Quicktime, iTunes, or iPods.
(Includes chapter breaks, pictures and links in addition to the audio.)
Get the enhanced podcast here: Show 29: Eric Goldberg, Part One
(42.2MB, 1:27:39 minutes)

Amazon.com Widgets

SHOWNOTES

00:00 The Intro Voice
00:05 Sponsored by –
00:21 Theme Song by DJ Sweettooth (Joe Moshier)
01:05 Introduction
02:00 Character Animation Crash Course
08:34 On TV as a child animation prodigy
12:09 Early animation
13:28 Learning animation at age six
17:12 Searching out animation
21:10 Career goals
24:36 Ken Harris and Art Babbit at Richard Williams’ Studio
31:03 Richard Purdum, Russell Hall
34:55 Workflow at Richard Williams’ Studio
40:25 Dick Williams – master of analysis
43:33 How to analyze footage
45:11 Expression through walks
49:09 Pizazz Pictures
52:48 Catching the eye of Disney
54:44 Being cast as the Genie
57:39 Grim Natwick’s 100th birthday party
59:42 Voicemails/Feedback info – Email Clay – Link to Voicemail
Ryan from Austin – Reanimators Podcast
1:07:23 What Clay is up to – BOLT – ADAPT Conference, Montreal
1:08:25 Sponsored by –
1:08:44 Closing

Show 028 – Ken Duncan, Part Three

2009-08-18T02:40:34Z

“It’s really great trying something out and then seeing how people react and if they don’t kind of react the way you think they should, it’s wise to be honest with yourself and try to analyze the work.”

Ken Duncan owns Duncan Studio in Pasadena, CA. Before that he animated Meg in Hercules, Jane in Tarzan, Capt. Amelia and Scroop in Treasure Planet, and he served as a sequence supervisor on Dreamworks’ Sharktale. In this final part of the interview, Ken shares more of his experiences on Hercules and Tarzan as well as futher insights in to his approaches to performance and how he approaches running his own animation studio.

Continue for Show Notes, audio file download links, and comments…

Get the MP3 here: Show 28: Ken Duncan, Part Three
(40.2MB, 1:27:39 minutes)

Or get the enhanced version playable only with Quicktime, iTunes, or iPods.
(Includes chapter breaks, pictures and links in addition to the audio.)
Get the enhanced podcast here: Show 28: Ken Duncan, Part Three
(42.2MB, 1:27:39 minutes)

Amazon.com Widgets

SHOWNOTES

00:00 The Intro Voice
00:05 Sponsored by –
00:21 Introduction – Duncan Studio
01:08 On acting and observing reality
03:12 Definition of texture in animation
06:01 Various structures of supervising on films
08:58 Animating Meg on Hercules
12:49 Dealing with criticism and getting better
14:30 Strength of female characters
14:53 Supervising at different studios
17:05 Animating a song
18:07 3/4 inch video tape
19:56 Style of Hercules – Gerald Scarf and cartooniness
21:01 Portraying women in animation
24:16 Actresses of the 40s – Barbara Stanwyck and Jean Arthur
25:26 Animating Jane in Tarzan
29:42 Supervising in 2D vs CG
31:23 Traditional animation methodology
36:12 Getting the right reaction
38:55 Analyzing and the human touch
42:47 Taking characters off model
45:14 Jane’s physical transformation
47:54 Treasure Planet
50:24 Starting in to CG – Oskar Urretabizkaia
55:48 Sharktale
1:00:41 The atmosphere at Dreamworks
1:01:37 Analyzing European animation styles
1:03:26 Other animation is going on out there
1:07:09 Setting up Duncan Studio
1:13:46 Opportunities for experimentation
1:17:44 Conclusion
1:17:57 Question about show length
1:18:14 Feedback info/Voicemails – Email Clay – Link to Voicemail
1:21:33 Preview of next show – Eric Goldberg
1:27:09 Sponsored by –
1:27:29 Closing

Show 027 – Ken Duncan, Part Two

2009-08-18T07:13:34Z

“To me it’s not about moving stuff around. It’s about thinking about a personality within a story.”

The conversation with Ken Duncan continues. In this second part of the interview, Ken talks about some of the his earlier films at Disney. Then the conversation focuses on his personal approaches to acting and his general workflow for animating productively.

Continue for Show Notes, audio file download links, and comments…

Get the MP3 here: Show 27: Ken Duncan, Part Two
(25MB, 54:20 minutes)

Amazon.com Widgets

SHOWNOTES

00:00 The Intro Voice
00:05 Sponsored by –
00:21 Introduction – Duncan Studio
01:03 Coming to Disney from Bluth
03:35 The experience of working at Disney
05:09 Rescuers Down Under and meeting his wife
06:14 Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin
08:33 Pocahontas and supervising Thomas
10:04 Dialog recording sessions
11:06 Figuring out acting
17:02 Boleslavsky – Acting: The First Six Lessons
21:06 Choreography of characters – The Odd Couple
24:02 Finding meaning in performances
30:10 Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold LLoyd
35:31 Animating in red for clean-up pt. 1
36:58 What is a breakdown?
37:57 Animating in red for clean-up pt. 2
39:55 A process to animate a large piece of the film
41:41 Discipline to rely on knowledge and not technology
44:12 Animation: a commercial art with finite schedules
47:07 Inspired by other actors’ approaches
48:57 Animators who lead the artform
49:59 Animation is a crazy idea
50:40 Conclusion
50:51 Question about show length
51:09 Feedback info/Voicemails – Email Clay – Link to Voicemail – Link to Michael’s blog
53:55 Sponsored by –
54:06 Closing