Fantasmic! with Wizard Victor
I like cinema, animation, art, Disney, sci-fi/fantasy, comics, toys, and Discworld.
Some say I'm eccentric, others say I'm annoying. Sometimes I go on rants, but usually I'm a pretty chill guy.
I am a DAPs Network Member!
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Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003)
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Part of my about me project for COM…of course I had to make something sunday crew..I’m no artist >.> But I love you all
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Random request week results 2 of 3.
“The Disney Princesses at high tea, drawn to look like their film’s ages (Snow White is 75, Cinderella is 62,...
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Happy Birthday Roy E. Disney (January 10, 1930)
hairahcaz Asks:
wizardvictor Said:
I made that gifset to show the type of person that Walt Peregoy was. The Disney Studio was never a harmonious place where artists all collaborated and worked together peacefully. There was always disputes and differing opinions among them. Walt Peregoy is simply one of the looser cannons who felt entitled to his opinions and had no time to filter anything he would say. You have to remember, just because he’s a Disney veteran and a “Disney Legend”, doesn’t mean everything he says correct. In The Animation Guild interview, he accused Marc Davis of being a homosexual. In other words, Walt Peregoy is simply a cantankerous, politically incorrect man of the 20s and 30s.
Floyd Norman recalled on many occasions that, back in the 50s, some of the younger artists would go into Walt’s office every so often to hear him gripe about management (Adrienne, correct me if I’m wrong).
It’s all a part of studio politics.
And demonizing Disney? I don’t think it does that. I’m a big Disney fan too; I grew up on Disney films, I’m friends with many people who worked with Walt Disney, I have a priviledged perspective on Disney that allows me to see him from a slightly different light. I think it humanizes Walt Disney in a way that makes Tumblr uncomfortable. The Disney-centric media tends to play off Disney as this holy visionary angel who can do no wrong, but he was just as human as anyone else. He swore, he drank, he overworked his employees, but he was also kind, generous, and willing to lend an ear. He’s done some great things (Disneyland), he’s done some bad things (HUAC). Walt Disney was an asshole the same way Steve Jobs was an asshole. When I watch that video of Walt Peregoy, I don’t see an old man who recalled all the negativity of the Studio during his tenure, I saw an overworked employee grumbling over the demands and expectations of his former boss.
And no, I didn’t mean for it to imply “Walt committing suicide”. I simply cherry-picked some of my favorite “Peregoy moments” and made gifs out of them. He was referring to artist Ernie Nordli, who apparently starved himself in San Francisco.
elliefredricksen Asks:
wizardvictor Said:
Hi Simoa,
I actually think what he’s doing right now is running Disney the complete opposite of the way he ran Pixar in the past. And the reason why he doesn’t feel there’s room for 2D at Disney isn’t because of his devotion to CG and Pixar, but because he’s thinking more practically.
I’m sure you’ve read Tom Bancroft’s view on the matter, but if you haven’t, you can find it here.
Basically, what he said is that now that Lasseter is an executive in charge of running Disney Animation, he’s been forced to evolve more as a businessman, and sometimes that means forcing creativity to lie dormant. Back when he first started with Pixar, he had other pencil-pushers (Catmull, Jobs, and those guys) to help him out while he guided the company’s overall vision.
In fact, it was Lasseter who was responsible for keeping these 2D animators at Disney for years, without any work to do (I’ve heard told that Eric Goldberg’s been reduced to a tiny office on the first floor) because they were his friends.
Think about it. Walt was the one who came up with all the crazy ideas and Roy O. was the one who grounded him in practicality and financial budgets, making sure the company doesn’t falter from Walt’s overambitious visions. So, without Roy, the company really would have shut down right after Snow White, or WWII, or Disneyland, etc.
But now, John Lasseter has to take on the jobs of both Walt and Roy. It’s a hard thing to do, but after 7-8 years of being “Chief Creative Officer”, he’s learned that he has to make decisions that earn the company immediate success, rather than long-term recognition and legacy, because that’s what keeps the company generating more revenue.
Now, Roy E. Disney knew this (if I may indulge my fanatical love of Roy for a minute). In fact, he purposefully surrounded himself with a group of executives (Eisner, Wells, Katzenberg, Schneider, etc.) just so he could focus on animation’s legacy and creativity, while the others (who were hired by him, and respected him) worked around his vision for the company. After Bob Iger became CEO and made Roy a Director Emeritus, he went right back to exactly what he did best, which was roaming the halls and encouraging the animators and artists to continue the legacy of the company and inspire a new golden age.
In my opinion, that’s where The Princess and the Frog came from. Not from John Lasseter’s insistence of 2D every other year (though he did help immensely with bringing back 2D, if only for that short period of time), but from Roy E. Disney, who once again came back to champion 2D, without any facts, charts, or graphs to hinder him.
So the question I have is, who will be the next champion of 2D animation?
The Annie Awards have shown that you do not allow a group of animators and voice actors to occupy a building and not give them any work to do.
As suggested by seadeepspace
Genndy Tartakovsky. This guy. He broke the rules.
this-is-where-i-draw-the-line:
- Pay attention 2 negative space-the space AROUND your characters. Without it, U can’t build silhouettes & clarity.
- Spend 75% planning and 25% animating.” - advice passed to Mark Henn from Eric Larson from Ham Luske
- Planning: ask yourself “What does this scene have to do? What is important? What is entertaining about this scene?”
- Poses should reflect power and energy. There is LIFE and electricity inside these characters!
- The negative shapes are like a contract between characters. Are you designing your negative shapes?
- Two characters onscreen CAN’T think the same thing, so they CAN’T react the same way.
- Frank Thomas would refine ONE pose that defined a scene until it was right. Then he would add more poses as needed.
- The smaller the character (a little mouse, for example), the less detail you want to show. More detail implies more size.
- Do your characters always stand straight up? Throw them off vertical-lean & flex the spine for attitude/interest.
- To build the line of action through your characters use a bend or twist - ALWAYS better than a straight, stiff body.
- “You never let ANYTHING interfere with the main thought.” - Milt Kahl
- Three frames down, and four frames up, with brows leading the action by a frame = a nice, standard blink @ 24 fps.
- “You’re not supposed to animate drawings. You’re supposed to animate feelings.” — Ollie Johnston
- “Have fun with the push/revision calls and the evolution of your shot”
- “I know where the weight is coming from, and where the weight is just traveling, and where the weight is transferring to.”Milt Kahl
- The foundations of good weight? Balanced poses, solid arcs, controlled spacing and believable drag/overlap. Get ‘em right & win.
- Understand the dynamics of your character’s relationships. Any given still frame should clearly show who is driving the moment.
- Analyze a character in a specific pose for the best areas to show stretch and squash. Keep these areas simple. -Ollie Johnston
- People usually blink if they understand what is being said by another person. “know what I mean?” *blink* “yeah!”
- Try to communicate your scene in 5 drawings—if you can then you’ve efficiently communicated!
- Don’t animate every word of dialog, or every phrase; animate the mental “gear shifts” of your character. They’re more meaningful.
- don’t be timid with your posing OR your acting! It’s often better to push too far and then pull back on the keys …
- Clean your anim by deleting unnecessary keyes. It will unclutter your timeline and your anim will look better.
- Animation Process in <140: Start with storytelling poses; guess timing by spacing them out on x-sheet; do breakdowns; adjust timing
- Keys=What yer doing; Breakdowns=How yer doing it (E. Goldberg)
- FLIP! Constantly flip your drawings whether you’re doing hand-drawn, 3D, Flash, whatever. Flip to check for spacing & volumes
- I know it’s not easy, but train your mind to “see” what you want to draw before you put it on paper. Learn to see in your mind.
An homage to Rapunzel’s hair. Concept art by Glen Keane.
Some awesome animation from Disney’s Saludos Amigos (1942)
submitted by -Anonymous
Usually I don’t re-blog stuff like this but I really have to reiterate something that you learn over the years working as a professional artist, or even get pointed out to you when you apply for certain jobs.
Animators and comic artists who do these wacky characters with long legs, flappy arms and big heads - ALL had a good understanding of normal human anatomy first. You need to KNOW the rules to BREAK them. If you don’t, your characters will look inconsistent and unbelievable.
The OP has used Fairy Odd Parents as an example, and it’s a good one because it shows at least two shape / body types the show is portraying. Even though we have really tall characters thrown in with really short and even ‘tiny’ characters, they look as though they should exist in the same Universe. The composition of their faces is all very cohesive, as if hands and feet.
Growing up I would hear the ‘but it’s my style!’ thing thrown around constantly, especially at places like DeviantART. Even artists that do the most wacky styles like Pendleton Ward and Skottie Young were only able to have their cartoon-y style work so well because they have years of hard work and understanding of how the human body works to make it work.
Years and years and years ago, before I even started High School and there was still an old skool Disney animation studio in Australia, I applied. Do you know what they asked for, the ONLY thing they asked for? Life drawing samples. That is all they wanted to see from applicants. They didn’t care how well you drew a Disney Princess face or a stylized Disney lion, they wanted to see how well you understood the human body and how it moved. They could tell from just your life drawings whether you were going to be a good animation artist.
I didn’t get the job, I was young and had never done life drawing before I did up my samples. They could tell of course because I didn’t have the understanding they were looking for.
Long story short, life drawing classes and drawing from life is always something you should be doing if you want to be a better artist. I still draw from life to improve my work.
(via fredseibert)
Why animators should unplug when working…the ghost of Milt Kahl will haunt you!
Richard Williams. The Animator’s Survival Kit. Faber & Faber, January 2002.
this-is-where-i-draw-the-line:
Glen Keane’s Ideal Animator
- CRITICAL - continually striving to improve
- IMAGINATION - thinks creatively
- HEART - feels what he draws
- INTUITIVE - principles become second nature
- PERFORMER - satisfaction in entertaining audiences
- DRAFTSMAN - drawing has a spark of life
- TEAM PLAYER - works well with anyone - the ultimate team sport
Give something NEW to the audience
See a lot more than is there
Learn to Observe - make judgments when you look at something, use words
While Animating
1. break scenes into phrases “bite size chunks”
2. show how the character feels
3. find something to relate to
4. feel confident about your scene
5. have something of interest all the time
Walt Peregoy, everyone.
