What's the big deal about sophisticatin' yo' palate?

Finally sat myself down and watched Brendan and the Secret of Kells last night, which if you know me is a bit of an achievement. I've had a copy kicking around since the beginning of May, but like most movies I really want to see, I somehow just never got around to actually watching the blasted thing.

In any case, it was worth the wait and then some. The deliberately flat, iconic style echoes the medieval Irish illumination theme perfectly, and the pace of the film is nicely bouncy. Oh, there could be a bit more depth in the characters, but for a straightforward adventure study revolving around artwork, it's still a satisfying romp. Although it does amuse me how they studiously avoid calling the Book of Kells a Bible, despite the fact that's what it was. It's also interesting to note how the English trailer is all about adventure and dark threats, while the French trailer concentrates on joy and wonder. Interesting, no?

Sketches in the key of green today.

Easy money

Turns out work was way easier than I thought, giving me some time to putter about in my cute li'l 5x7" purse-sized sketchbook with the Robert Batemen cover (goat!). I probably should have done more, but it's really hard to get into it when you've got interruptions every 10-15 minutes or so.

My output tonight seems to be more on the "disturbingly biological" side than the "impressive megafauna" that I had been doing, but that's how it goes. Tonight seems to have been the night for slippery flukes and gnarled pseudopenii in any case, so that's what y'all get to look at.

Oh, one other thing, it seems I've got something cool to look forward to this summer. I was contacted by Algonquin about a summer animation workshop that's going on, and it seems I was identified as someone who could really benefit from the extra instruction. Well now, it might come off as "remedial" or whatever, but you know what? It tells me there's somebody out there who wants me to succeed, and they're tossing opportunities at my feet, that's what it tells me! And damn if I'm not gonna pick them up. It's 27 hours of class time spread out over the whole summer, starting on the 15th, and you know I'm gonna be there.

I'm pumped about this. So that gives me another week and a half to push my basic drawing ability, so my goal right now is to post new stuff every day until then, at least. Mostly Vilppu, of course, since that's my focus, but if anything else happens to get done, I'll toss that up as well.

Anyhow, blobs. Enjoy!

Off to the races

So I introduced Wendy to you already. Looks like she's gonna be a part of my life for some time, which is hardly a surprise. She'll be the standard model for the rest of first year, and probably the bulk of second year as well, so you'd better get used to seeing her here a lot. That's a good thing really, since she's such a nice, simple model that I can actually comprehend the mechanics of, which I really need at this point. Working with Wendy will seriously improve my figure drawing, and there's nothing bad about that.



So on the topic of projects, the latest is to animate the character from sitting on a box to standing upright. So to figure out the best way to do that, we've done thumbnails to work out each part of the action. I'm kinda new to thumbnailing characters, so it's really valuable information for me. And I see right away the use of it, it's great stuff. The ones with the stars are the images I picked for my progression from sit to stand.

The order to read them is 1, 3, 2, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 6.

New video

Try to contain your excitement.

Not so bad after all

Well, somewhere along the line I managed to salvage a wee bit of confidence, and got my assignment done. It turned out far better than expected, honestly. It's mostly familiar stuff, since it's a revision of the Antic Box I posted a few weeks ago, but with the addition of the cape, smoother movement and more detail on the background. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.

Now to see if the instructor agrees with me.



Oh, and the bad news is my November Project, doing all those Bridgeman studies, is gonna be on hold for a bit while I get my final projects for the term out of the way. Not to worry though, there will be sketches along the way.

Tidy Seconds

So my first animation with the bouncing ball went over well, so I'm trying to carry that on to my second assignment. Here it is, just as it's getting submitted on Monday morning.

Ottawa Animation Festival Part 4

And so it ends, today was the last day of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and the closing party is presumably going on as I type this. However, I've got school in the morning and while it was a great week, it's time to get back to work.

I only ended up going to four screenings instead of five, since the last was just going to be the Best of the Fest, and honestly with the way the buses are on Sundays at this end of town it was better to come back early. So here's what I actually did see:

Short Competition 3 Unfortunately, my day started off with a disappointment in the form of All The Time, a blurry, smudgy mess to the tune of the Tom Waits song by the same name. Now I recognize that it was the hard work of a high school student, but when I can't even see what's going on most of the time, I wouldn't consider it a success, and messing with one of my favourite artists just isn't on. Fortunately this was followed up with the much more interesting (and comprehensible) video for U2's I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight. The other letdown for this screening was the sophomoric and just plain stupid Mak the Horny Mac Daddy. Seriously, this wasn't even a funny gag, how did it get into the festival list? Most of this screening was pretty laclustre really, although if I were to pick a best of the bunch it'd be Please Say Something, about the relationship between an abusive mouse and emotional cat, with occasional rewriting of history along the way. Other decent showings were The Bellows March, Son of Dino-Orange and Shot in the Dark. I dunno. On reflection, there actually were good pieces, but maybe the presence of the two disappointments brought my mood down for the showing.

Short Competition 4 This was a very good competition, from the adorable Did U See that!? and Inukshuk to the mysterious drama of The Drawer and the Crow and the stylish Lebensader. Also worth noting was the presence of Pete Candleland's wonderful Monkey King goes to the Olympics promotion for BBC. Altogether a lovely experience.

Short Competition 5 This was by far the most heavily attended screening I went to all week, which made me a bit nervous since it was the one must-see of the whole festival for me. And why was I so desperate? Was it for the new Wallace and Grommit short? No way! It was for the premiere for Cordell Barker's newest film, Runaway, of course! I've loved Barker and the other Winnipeg studio crew for ages, so this was an incredible treat and totally worth the wait. Hopefully the NFB will have it up on the site once it's finished the film festival rounds and I can see it couple more times. Loads of fun. Oh, and the Wallace and Grommit short was also good. Aside from that, there was a really interesting surreal piece named Kitchen Dimensions, which was really well put together, but I thought it went a bit overlong. After two long surreal sequences, I wasn't really in the mood for a third after that, but what are you gonna do? Also worthy of note in the sheer hard work category was Postalolio, which was entirely animated using postcards which had been sent through the mail back to the studio. Great animation, great concept, and a whole lotta postage.

Canadian Film Showcase This was the last screening I attended, and what a lovely way to wrap up the festival. These films were excellent, from beginning to end, and went a long way to showing why Canada is unquestionably on the map in international animation. I'll let the films speak for themselves: The Vegetation of Zig 5, The Spine, Hazed and The Man Who Slept. There were others I couldn't find video links for, such as Peggy Baker: Four Phrases from the NFB, and Nanu and Animal from Sheridan, but those are enough to give you a good idea of the level of quality.

All told, this year's festival was a fantastic experience. Next year of course my focus will be less on watching the films, and more on making contacts, networking, learning more of the business side of things and trying to attend workshops, so I'll be seeing less new animation. But as a first year student, I still have the luxury of relaxing a bit and just soaking in the creativity.

As a side note, the winners of this year's festival have been announced! And among them, a good number of films I've seen and liked. Good show!

Ottawa Animation Festival Part 3

Gonna be brief with tonight's update, since I'm a bit on the tired side. But here we go in any case.

Mary and Max Good heavens. Before I say anything else, I just want to say that this was the only thing I've seen so far in the entire festival that made me cry. Seriously, it grabs you that much, and makes you care about the characters. Nevermind the seriously bittersweet ending, the waterworks were on even before that happened. An Australian stop-motion film, Mary and Max is the story of a 21-year long relationship by mail between a lonely little girl, and later a confident woman, in Australia, and a middle-aged man with severe Asperger's Syndrome in New York City. By times ridiculous and deeply moving, this is a film not only worth seeking out, but worth hunting down. Go well out of your way for this one, especially if character-driven movies are your thing.

Short Competition 2 Another mixed bag, as are all compilations of short films. There weren't any show-stoppers in this batch but the clear favourite was Madagascar, A Journey Diary, with its variety of animation styles that showed the beauty of the land and creatures, as well as vivacity and complexity of the people during a Famadihana festival. The other one that caught my eye was a more experimental piece called Twist of Fate, a trio of stories about lying named, appropriately enough, Lies and a charming little Chinese short about the secret world inside a cotton candy machine named The Universe Cotton. The big disappointment for me was Nick Cross & Dave Cooper's music video for Danko Jones' King of Magazines. After all the buzz on the animation blogs, I was expecting something special, but what did I get? Unappealing drawing, action that had no connection to the lyrics or the beat of the song, and characters whose motivations didn't make sense. Personal opinion of course, but a poor showing overall.

20 Years of Studio Film Bilder This was a treat from beginning to end. Film Bilder is the major animation producer in Germany, and has produced a stunning body of work over the past two decades, including surprisingly enough the animated stairs sequences from Run, Lola, Run. Great fun, and sometimes unflinchingly dramatic, it was a joy to watch.

Seven Reasons to Love Animation This was unexpected, really. I went in with the expectation of getting some old NFB shorts, and what I got was a selection of unusual and outstanding films going back to 1957 Denmark. I had to laugh though, since earlier I've mentioned the names Norman McLaren and The Brothers Quay here, and what comes up but Begone Dull Care and The Comb. In fact I'd already seen four of the seven films in the program, which I guess means I'm cultured or something. Aside from the two I mentioned, I've also seen 78 Tours and Balance, both of which I recommend.

Can't Draw Straight: Queer Perspectives in Animation This was an extremely odd program, not the least because several of the selections didn't seem to have anything at all to do with queer perspectives. The most puzzling choice was PES' Roof Sex, which clearly shows a heterosexual tryst. Similarly, Tango Finlandia was a great little film, but I'm at a loss to tell you what was queer about it. There were some nice bits though, particularly the noir animation Beloved Murderer, about a pair of lesbian assassins intended to destroy each other, although it doesn't end up like that. Overall, not the most impressive screening I've gone to this week, but not without its charms.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow is the last day of the festival, and I intend to fill it with most of the remaining short competitions and the Canadian compilation. Hopefully my luck will hold and none will sell out.

Ottawa Animation Festival Part 2

Another day, another crop of AniFest reviews! Got to see four screenings today, which is one more than I'd planned, so that's a bonus. Here's the rundown:

$9.99 The first feature I've seen during the festival (out of three planned), $9.99 is an Isreali film about a group of characters all inhabiting the same apartment with interrelated lives to one degree or another, although sometimes the relationship is coincidental at best. An entertaining film, certainly, and the characters have a lot of honesty to them, but I have to question the fantastic elements of the film. The worthless angel that appears to the old, lonely man is good, but what happens to the repo guy is totally jarring, and the hallucinatory drinking buddies of the guy whose fiancee dumped him really doesn't work as well as it should. But despite that, the character development of most of the characters works well, and there's some sense of cohesion. Worth a look, but probably not going too far out of your way for.

International Competition 2 One of the festival's competition screenings, this was a crop of short films from a number of countries, primarily European. There was a very slick French film named French Roast which was quite clever, and a new Pixar short, but honestly what stole the show was L'homme à la Gordini, a wickedly funny short about a society where everyone is pantless and wears only orange tops (enforced by law!), subverted by a man and wife team wearing blue, and a mysterious caped man waging his own subversive war against the customs. So 70's in style it HURTS!, the film is infectious and funny. This one is definitely worth going out of your way to find.

A Stan VanDerBeek Retrospective This was probably the most jarring moment of the festival for me, going from the slick, polished and professional entries in the International Competition to a collection of extremely experimental short films made by the man who later went on to create the vids for Paul Simon's "Boy In the Bubble" and Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone". Dissonant, chaotic and confusing, but full of energy and not without humour, VanDerBeek pushed the envelope of collage filmmaking, and even worked with the early pioneers of CG. Not an easy screening to sit through though, and a number of the audience left partway through. I'd say it was worth it, but I grew up watching Norman McLaren stuff, so it's not so new to me. But seriously, what's with all experimental films using this ear-wrenching avant garde dissonant crap for a soundtrack? What, it's not experimental enough if you don't have clashing noise where music should be? I don't get it. At least McLaren had the decency to use jazz.

Edison and Leo This was fun, and a good antidote for the heavy experimentation and dissonant soundtrack of the last screening. The first Canadian stop-motion feature, this is an iconoclastic and unquestionably Canadian story about an amoral inventor, his two sons, and the giant metal effigy of his late wife (his fault). Oh, and his son is charged with electicity (also his fault), and a tribe of female warriors have laid seige to his lab (his fault, yet again...there's a pattern forming here). The story is surprisingly unflinching at sex, violence, and emotion, which helps bring the very obvious models alive as characters. The writing is sharp and witty, the motivations of the characters is clear, and everything comes together in a nice, tidy, but not neat package. The real shame is the deaths of some characters who really don't deserve it, but omlettes and eggs, you know. Honestly, thinking about it after it would have come off as too much of a sell-out if they hadn't, so it's just as well. Another one to look for, I recommend it.

That's it for tonight. I've got five screenings scheduled for tomorrow, hopefully I can get in to all of them. I'll report back after with my impressions.

Ottawa Animation Festival Part 1

So this week is the Ottawa Animation Festival, and it's a pretty big deal in the animation world as one of the big festivals of it's kind. And as an animation student, I'm tremendously lucky to have this literally on my doorstep. So I've been volunteering like crazy (I've done 14 hours already, and another three tomorrow) in return for a coveted volunteer pass, which gets me into most screenings and workshops. Well worth the effort, although I'm doing twice what's actually required. Next year, I plan to concentrate mostly on the Television Animation Conference, which runs parallel to the festival, and make contacts there.

So over the next few days, instead of presenting art, I'll be giving my impressions of the showings I've seen that day. I'll provide links to as much as I can along the way.

So here's what I went to see today:

The Stereolab at the NFB: Exploring Three Dimensions This was an interesting collection of independent films done using current 3-d processes, funded by the NFB (save for one). As you'd expect, a lot of it was pretty artsy and experimental, although a surprising amount of it was just plain gimmicky, so instead of well crafted visuals, you just got a lot of poorly drawn crap getting thrown at your face. So for at least a third of the program I wasn't impressed. However, there was a 3-d treatment of Bashnie Tatlina Tower Bawher, which was pretty stirring, and the real star of the show was Facing Champlain, which is a wonderful animation/live action hybrid that uses the 3-d format in service of the plot, rather than just a gee-whiz gimmick. Strangely, the other good moment was a non-NFB film out of Winnipeg that went whole-hog with the gimmick, but with such quirky humour that it worked. Goes to show you can salvage just about anything if you got heart.

In the evening, I had the good luck to get a spot in Stevie Vallance's voice acting for animation workshop, and let me tell you that was a serious stroke of good luck. I met Stevie the day before during a shift at the TAC conference, and I was impressed with her then, and I am certainly no less impressed now. She's a brilliant performer, and a great teacher for aspiring voice actors. It's a shame I can't manage to make her all-day workshop on Sunday, but she's been talking about coming back to town to do more in a few months, so there's hope.

Lastly, I managed to catch Québec My Love: Contemporary Indies from Québec. I was initially hesitant, since I don't really speak the language, but it turns out I didn't need to worry. What wasn't subtitled was generally either wordless or non-narrative anyhow, so no big deal. Unlike the largely gimmicky Stereolab presentation, this showing veered sharply into the pure art and experiment realm, with films that in some cases even defied the concept of animation itself. Very edgy, sometimes as far as inaccessable, it was still a fascinating program. Although there were a couple of more orthodox animations, like Pierre M. Trudeau's professional-looking CG short Garbage Angels, the surreal and ligne claire-esque Astronomer's Dream, and the very personal but told with simple linework The Occupant, the one that really made me sit up was a seriously surreal take on relationships, Chromosome X-Y-Z. Compelling and disturbing, full of dark and surreal but sometimes hopeful and beautiful imagery, and owing more than just a little debt to the Brothers Quay with their almost-mechanical, insectlike vibrating elements that never fail to unnerve me, this is the short that really grabbed me. I don't pretend to understand it all, but I doubt that matters.

It's late and time for bed. More tomorrow!

Starting down that road

Well, I got it done and submitted, my very first animation. Pretty simple, it's the classic bouncing ball that goes all the way back to the early Disney days, and just about every animation student does it at some point. It's a good way to start though, since it boils everything down to basics, and I think mine turned out pretty well.

Background is mine, too. Not my most inspired work, but I like it.



In other news, I just watched the Spanish animated feature Nocturna. Seriously, why does this film not have a North American distributor? It's well drawn, well animated, full of appeal, the story is engaging and doesn't talk down to the audience, full of action and spectacle. All in all, what an exceptional bit of animation should be. There's a musical interlude at one point, midway through that really struck me in its sheer subtlety. The comparison to American features' need to shoehorn songs into every animated feature (I'm looking at you, Disney!), to say nothing of dialogue into every single moment is striking. If you can find a copy, and unfortunately it'll either have to be a download or an import, I highly recommend it. You won't be sorry.

On with the show

So school has begun, although not exactly a great start. They suddenly changed my schedule, so I ended up missing my first Enviro class. Not to mention, where I didn't have an 8am class before, I've got one now, which means I have to get up at 5:30am on Wednesdays. To go to a 4-hour class. Followed by a 3-hour class. Followed by a 2 1/2 hour life drawing session. Yaaaaay!

But in any case, the rest of the week has been mostly talk-talk with precious little drawing, although at least in Animation Drawing class we've started in on the 12 Principles of Animation. So that's positive. So coming off of that, we've got two main tasks to accomplish, starting right away. Read Illusion of Life, a cornerstone book of animation, and study Preston Blair. And for an artist, "study" means "draw". It's your hands that do the learning.

So here are a couple of pages I did today of Blair's eggheads. I'm getting a bit better at capturing the forms as I go along, but with most simple things it's actually quite difficult. I'll be working them more tomorrow, trying to get closer to what Blair drew on pages like this. Expect to see a lot of this sort of thing over the next few months. And, hopefully, a bit of improvement as I go along.

Wish me luck.

Books & Books & Books!

FOUR HUNDRED BABIES BOOKS!!


Well, not four hundred, but a lot anyhow. Even though I already had six of them, and even though I bought some used and thus got a discount, I still ended up spending CDN $330 on the things. It's hard to be an art-book-aholic.

Anyhow, here's the rundown, from the top of the pile down:

Perspective Made Easy by Ernest R. Norling
Perspective by William F. Powell
Timing for Animation by Harold Whitaker and John Halas
Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair
Draw the Looney Tunes (no author given)
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
The Art of Animal Drawing by Ken Hultgren
Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm
Creating Characters With Personality by Tom Bancroft
Anatomy A Complete Guide for Artists by Joseph Sheppard
Vilppu Drawing Manual by Glenn Vilppu
Building Construction Illustrated by Francis D.K. Ching
Human Anatomy for Artists by Eliot Goldfinger
Drawn to Life Vol 2 by Walt Stanchfield
The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams
The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson

Whew! And if that weren't enough, that brings my personal library of art books to 76. And goodness knows, I'm probably not done yet.

Oh, and since it's Friday, blogger law requires I post a picture of a cat. Far be it from me to argue with the law.

Wait'll they get a load of me!

Eight Days

You know what's wild? I start school on the same day that 9 comes out in theatres. Totally can't wait for that. And the Ottawa Animation festival is coming up soon too, so I might get a chance to see Cordell Barker's new film, Runaway, and the release of the Astroboy movie a week after that.

It's a good time to be into animation.

But school's creeping up fast. Tonight was the last Sketch Night of the summer (they don't happen during the school year), and tomorrow will be my last Wednesday night life drawing for a while. Gonna be a whole new kettle o' Pisces, starting in a little over a week.

Only one pic for you today, a bone beast girl I made up tonight. Her name is Darla, ain't she sweet?

Ponyo!!

So a bunch of us went to see Ponyo tonight, and it was great! As expected of Miyazaki, of course, but it was great to see his work on the (relatively) big screen again. Well worth watching if you like family films at all, although it doesn't have the deeper themes of stuff like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke. It was more like a fond call-back to the simple, sweet stories he'd done in the past, like My Neighbour Totoro.

It was also the first time the bunch of us who became friends back in Pre-Animation had gotten together since the wrap party at my place. Pity Kris didn't make it, though.


So as usual, Preston Blair studies. Only one page today.


Sketch Night at the school tonight. So I applied my new style to a piece from a Dean Weagle sketchbook and one from another book the artist of which I can't recall. I'm really getting to like this, and I'm learning all sorts of things I didn't expect.



Beware the NUNJA!!

Silently kicking ass for the LORD!

Yeah, someone came up with the name, and I had to draw it. Sue me, why don't'cha?