Back on Track

  Hello, my many (zero) blog readers. I hope everyone had a great Christmahanukwanzikka. I had a great one. I gave many gifts and it felt good. For some reason, this year I was bombarded with GREAT gifts. I've never really cared for receiving gifts, and usually tell everyone not to worry about getting me anything. This year nobody listened.
   Anyway, on to what this blog is really about: Cord's pursuit of animation excellence. I have a very beautiful, and far too giving girlfriend, who for Christmas gave me a custom built, top-of-the-line, superfastawesomepretty computer. The thing is a beast. My old computer was a used hand-me-down with 512Mb of RAM that I got for free from a school. Needless to say it couldn't run ANY software without pooping it's pants and falling apart. Hell, it took ten seconds to open the start menu.
   Today I used my new machine to do several quick exercises in Flipbook, something I could never do with the old one. I normally prefer animating on paper, because trying to draw detail with a Tablet is like trying to draw detail with a ten foot crooked stick. But drawing right into Flipook is great for knocking out exercises while quickly making corrections and learning from mistakes, without worrying too much about how well it's drawn. I definitely feel like this new computer is going to help pull me from the animation dry spell I've been experiencing.

This is an exercise from a Jason Ryan webinar about timing and spacing that I watched today. This isn't from my brain, I copied all of his frames to help me feel out how he does it. I learned a lot from doing this.

The bat exercise made me want to try other fast movements, like smear frames.

In this one, the  character drawings are ugly and downright embarrassing. But I wanted to focus more on the movement of the ball (which I'm pretty happy with).

Buncha stuff

 Haven't done much worth posting in a while, but I figured I could upload a few sketches out of the new sketchbook I've been keeping. Exhilarating, eh?

I did a lot of doodling at the Expo. Ideas, feelings, caricatures, etc.

When your dad's a taxidermist, a little animal reference is never hard to find.

And some more random drivel.

And hey, why not a bouncing ball I did today?

CTN Animation Expo

   I almost wasn't able to, but this weekend I got to go to the CTN Expo in Burbank, CA. It was fantastic. There were so many people: students, professionals and gods alike, all sharing the same space and exchanging ideas. I saw a few heroes, like Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg, Bill Plympton, Ron and John. And gained a few more, like Reno Armanet, Mike Nguyen, and Oscar Grillo

   I attended a workshop with French independent animator Reno Armanet, and learned a bit about running your own studio and remaining unique. My three years of French classes barely scratched the language barrier, but it was a fun class nonetheless. I also got a copy of the Animation Insiders book, full of individual artists' workflow process, signed by Reno. And a print of a character from one of his short films, OA, also signed by him.

   I attended a group conversation with the indy king, Bill Plympton, who shared his thoughts on the outlook of indy animation, and his rules for making a successful short film. I also got a copy of his latest feature, Idiots & Angels, and a doodle of his Guard Dog, both signed by the king himself.

   The most valuable workshop I attended was with Mike Nguyen. Mike graduated from CalArts in the late 80s and has since worked for all the big studios. Recently, he left and started on his own feature film called My Little World. Mike, like me, is a strong believer in traditional animation. His talk was about the various strengths of hand-drawn animation, and how to keep it relevant and fresh. He's all about the content, down to the tiniest atom of each character. Mike animates his characters from the soul, and works his way outward. You can feel his passion for the medium when he's talking about it. He quickly became a hero of mine, and I sure hope to see his film in theaters some day.

An early shot of one of the rows of booths. Later to be filled to the brim until the expo ended two days later.

Myself with the lovely girl that made it possible for me to attend. She was an awesome road trip buddy and hotel roomy.

   Overall, I had a blast. I met hundreds of great artists and was bombarded with ideas. It really opened my mind up. I can't wait 'til next year.

Shiny Robo

   Long time no post, but I feel like I'm making up for it here. Today I cleaned and colored an animation for the first time. It's definitely a lot more work, but hey it looks pretty.

I Painted Something!!

This little doodle happened for two reasons.

       Reason 1) Lately I've been aching to try painting, but I've proven many times in the past that it's not my thing.

       Reason 2) I've been trying to think up ideas for my first tattoo, and it has to be animation-related. I had thought of a few character's that would be ok. Stitch and Rafiki came to mind because they're interesting and I love the way they're animated, but that's not enough to justify permanent ink. Then this idea hit me. Necron99 from Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. He would be a great tattoo for so many reasons. Wizards is now on my top list of favorites, and Bakshi has become my all-time hero for his view on the world and his persistence to produce art and stories that are important to him, no matter what others say. So the tattoo would serve as a reminder to always ask, "what would Bakshi do?" Let's not forget that Necron99's a bad-ass, so that helps too.

 Anyway, I searched google for some images of him, and found this great pose. I love the simplicity in his design and color, and that sparked this urge to paint it. So I drew it, broke out some acrylics, and Ta-Daa! I can officially paint a flat level of red and yellow. Look out, Picasso.