I've been a bit poo at this blog thing since winter hit. No, I haven't been hibernating - but I have been jumping around VFX companies, and as such have commited all my attention to them and making good impressions and what not.
Actually have a stack of cool posts I wanted to make based on more animation news findings. But let's start with this one....
USA Today released lovely artwork for "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2", looks like we'll be seeing a whole load of funny half animal/half food creatures, which can make for some fun story ideas.
"I think we're seeing a cultural shift -- for
instance, George Osborne announced that the latest Tom Cruise film
will generate 500 jobs. I don't think even a few years ago we would
have seen a chancellor announce a new film, but it's now seen as an
important part of the economy."
~ Ed Vaizey, Minister for culture,
communications and creative industries
Some really exciting news and well deserved attention for the VFX workforce in London's Soho.
Follow these links for more information and articles:
A common issue I come across when animating, is knowing when to keep things moving and to hold that lovely pause for effect - but even then, eyes are probably darting, maybe there's a quiver in the lip etc etc and it's these moments when I try to watch people sitting around on the train or on the phone to someone, but this is when people are trying to be their most composed I find.
What I should look out for (and will from now on) are interviews!!!! I was watching this interview of Jamie Hewlett and I could not stop staring at his hands, he fidgets like mad and strikes some strong poses using them. If you've done that great lip sync and think 'this is missing something!' add a fidget or 2 to show the character's emotion ranging from nervous, vulnerable, excited etc etc. But try not to let this overtake your main animation, these little bits should compliment your animation, not take away the attention.
C21media has reported that UK preschool channel CBeebies has commissioned a second season of its ratings hit Tree Fu Tom!
Hopefully this will be good news for Blue Zoo animation studio in London, as they did the work for the first season and many local animators got to work on it (including a few of my friends).
I was forwarded this interesting Tedx Talk by LeSean Thomas, Television Animation Producer, director, animator, comic book artist, writer, character designer, and how his career progressed from LA to Seoul, South Korea.
He has worked on some of my favourite shows like The Boondocks and Avatar: Legend of Korra so I was pretty excited listening to his experiences and how he got there.
http://comedyforanimators.com/ posted a great link to Rowan Atkinson's guide to visual comedy 'Laughing Matters' on YouTube.
For character animation I think comedy is one of the most fun things to do, these videos show a great insight into classic British comedy such as Monty Python and Faulty Towers through the eyes of Rowan Atkinson.
I think this circulates the net quite often but if you haven't seen it, Enjoy!
