Saturday, January 27, 2018

Facial Expressions

Facial expressions tell your audience how a character is feeling at that moment by their emotion and without the use of words. They are kinda like drawing hands in that they take a little practice to get them to pose the right expression. Can you decode these emotions?


Here's a good article about real and fake facial expressions in animals in a test format, can you tell which is which? http://www.garyfaigin.com/faigin-face-blog/facial-expressions-animals-part-4

And speaking of facial expressions, Aardman Animation is back working with clay again with their latest feature film, Early Man.

 

Here's a fun video with the stars of the movie making a character out of clay.

 

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Monday, January 22, 2018

Richard Williams

This Day in Animation. 1/24/18

Related image

1961- Warner Bros. cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc had a terrible auto crash. He lingered in a coma for several weeks. The way the doctor brought him around was to say: “Hey Bugs Bunny! How are we today?” Blanc replied in character:” Ehhh…fine, doc!” This is an amazing story to hear!

2006- The Walt Disney Company acquired CG animation studio Pixar. Apple and Pixar head Steve Jobs got a seat on Disney Board, Ed Catmull was named head of the studio, 1 and director John Lasseter became it’s creative head.

I first discovered Richard Williams when I was in High School. Years later, I got to meet him in person at a studio where I worked. He gave us his 2 day Master lecture based on "The Animator's Survival Kit", which he was writing at the time. Check out: The Truth about the Bottom of Page 83 .

The whole studio had to end this once in a lifetime event. I remember seeing several producer in attendance, who were either trying not to fall asleep or were wishing they were somewhere else. The rest of the audience were learning for a master animator and taking notes. 

Another occasion was when he signed his ASK book for me at Dreamworks and later when he was being honored by the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. 

Here's a very interesting video about Richard Williams which you should see.

Richard Williams- Animating Movement from The Royal Ocean Film Society on Vimeo.


And here's a cut of his Thief and the Cobbler.


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