24 Comic Day, Perth

Why comics? Comics are often cited as good reference material for animators - each drawing is a story telling pose -  like the initial breaking down of an animated sequence into key shots and poses to tell the story the best way possible.

The last day since 10am Saturday morning was drawing flat out with 20 or so comic compatriots. I'm very impressed by the quality of work. There were alot of laughs to be had from reading the work.  I thoroughly enjoyed the process and meeting a bunch of really cool and nice people. Today I am totally shattered, and will very much enjoy some sleep, soon... ish.

My comic does not contain many laughs. By contrast it is a existentialist tragedy - but I got alot of laughs during the creative process :) I liked writing the story and plotting it out - I was inspired mostly by
a) The FTI building itself (featured on page 2). Once this was locked in the other pieces fell into place.
b) Books -  Holy Blood and the Holy Grail , all about the history of the knights templar, with lots of secrets hidden for centuries in it, and Umberto Eco's Focault's Pendulum, a great book and finally
c) A news article I heard about a discovered underground passageway between an old monastery and a nunnery.

 Also I enjoyed nutting out the arc of the story and using elements to help build it - eg repetition, pacing, and reveals. Also the intentional use of graphic elements to represent different things - e.g. gradients represent the 15th Century. It is so short it all flies by and you could miss it all, but it's there.

Like all the comics on 24 Comic Day, the story was created on the day, with no preparation.
If you read it I would like to hear your thoughts on it - just reply to this post :)
My entry is here.

Simon Allen rocks

Thanks, Simon, for sharing so many gems. I'm sure I'll be learning from these 2 days for quite some time yet. Here are some gems that I picked up, that I hope will inspire others to attend your workshops.

Try to capture the essence of life.
Show one idea at a time.
Get an office with a bar.
To get more work done, workout!

For me the 2 days of workshops cemented ideas that had been sifting in from various other places. For others I know it was simply enough to sit and listen, and soak up the goodness. I, on the other hand, recorded as much as I could. I feel so little and young compared to the ancient giants of animation, and like I need to absorb as much as I possibly can.

But now, there are no more notes to edit. I've read and re-read ( and will re-read more again). But there is simply nothing left for it but to put my head down, butt up and draw, draw, draw.

Simon Allen of Pixar talks to Wanimate.

Simon spoke easily, practicedly perhaps. Nevertheless the jokes queued the laughs and everyone was enjoying the presentation this engaging fellow from Pixar (from Perth) had to offer.
Key points for me were:
Pixar invest heavily in having high morale - because directly it affects the fiscal return.
That a group like Pixar values ideas as well as being awesome at animating, or editing, or lighting.
That being fit in body and having a fit mind are importantly related.
That the Pixar's art department work the longest on a movie of all departments.
That a lucky break can be enough to get you into the big time.
That top students are pulling 80-90 hr weeks.
That Perth is deemed as good a place as anywhere to set up. If Weta can do it in Wellington, why not in Perth?
That online learning, in particular Animation Mentor, is valued highly in the States as a cheaper but viable (even prefferable) method to learn animation deeply. And you can train anywhere because of that. Some Pixar staff also mentor and teach for Animation Mentor.
That constant learning is highly valued.
There were others, but in a nutshell it was an entertaining talk. I'm looking forward big-time to the emerging animator and masterclass days next week!!

Screenwriting Workshop 101

The weekend was one big long screenwriting workshop, presented by Ben Young. And it was great.
I suprised myself by taking comprehensive notes and recording as much as I could (with a somewhat unreliable iPhone recorder) and then spent most of Monday compiling them.
I am grateful to FTI for making positions available on the course to the Diploma students currently enrolled. In the end there were 3 Diploma students and 7 participants.
Screenwriting is a remarkably concise, predictable art. Beginning, middle and an end, conflict, twists, comedy and tragedy, the lows and the highs are all formulaic. So the structure is more like maths than art. The effectiveness of the writing? That is the art.
All in all I found it very informative, and an excellent investment of my time.
I'm looking forward to having a crack.

Caveman clock test.

Flash submission - finally! - Qing loses her magic pearl... Again.

Flash project draft compile

Draft video of Qing Loses her Magic Pearl Again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B-w1BeblNU
Grr - aspect ratio compromised..

Background concept art - Jar Pixie

Tradigital walk-cycle showing secondary action

This one was from a while ago - clearing out some projects to make way for the final. I got stuck on processing the images in photoshop - I ran into a funny little thing where any adjustments I made wouldn't apply - it put me off it for a while. Eventually I figured out a work around. So this is a pencil drawn walk-cycle, scanned and imported into photoshop, enhanced, bitmaps brought into Flash and vectorised in flash. Backgrounds drawn in flash.

Max Frenkel kobold - Ushan Boyd walk cycle

This link will take you away from this site. You need the Quicktime plugin to view.

https://www.me.com/gallery/#100050/kobold_walk_loop2