The Art Of Storytelling

Very good.

What it takes to become a successful animator

I dusted off some notes from my 1st year  AM mentor Anthony Wong as he was giving advice that he had taken from a Glen Keane talk.

1. Imagination - most important in this creative career.
2. Critical of ones own work.  Always aim for better and not perfect.  This is important perfection can lead to stagnation.  We want to be critical but not in a way that cripples your production.
3. Embrace the challenge.
4. You got to have heart and along with it a good dose of personal expression.  This is putting yourself into the character and not settling for those first ideas that pop into your head.
5. Being a good draftsman.  Now with 3D we can say that this is creating great story-telling poses that are both informative and appealing.
6. A desire to entertain.
7. A desire to communicate with simple clarified direction.  I think this idea can ripple into many meanings in animation.  From the overall idea to each individual story beats of a scene.  Be aware of having enough time to deliver your intended meaning.
8. Be a good team player.  No one wants to work with a jerk.
9. Developing and becoming your artistic signature.  This is how you are recognized by others around you.  As an artist this is what we strive for to be unique.
10. KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid.  Simple does not mean dumb it down.  It means be exact, clarify with whats needed to push your story forward.

The Little Prince Trailer

Really looking forward to seeing this.  Looks like we'll have to wait a bit for it to come to the states.  Enjoy the trailer.

Keane - Treasure Planet

Thought I post some Keane magic.  Enjoy!

New zBrush Sculpt

Working on a new zbrush sculpt.  I'm learning some great techniques from a tutorial by Matt Thorpe.  I recommend checking out his tuts to those zBrushers who want to learn some great workflow and/or are a little hesitant in getting started.  I've been busy with work but I hope to finish this boy in a few days and will post the final.

The Mothman - Great Free Rigs

Woo nice Mr Mothman!!!  A big thank you to giving us your awesome rigs.  This guy has some of the best free rigs I've seen on the interwebs.  Have a look and if you decide to DL please thank him!

Quotes

 The following are a series of quotes I picked up while listening to TED talks.  These are the ones that registered with me and have made it to my blog.  I think as artists we become consumed by the idea of failure and the idea of just being a hack.  It's important to realize that they are all normal thoughts and that the best way to kill these thoughts is with action, by doing and trusting who u are.

If you're not prepared to be wrong you'll never come up with anything original.

 

Fake it till u become it.

 

People don't buy what u do they buy why u do it.

 

Have the courage to be imperfect.

 

Have compassion to be kind to yourself first and then to others.

 

Have a connection as a result of authenticity - be willing to let go of who you think u should be in order to be who u are.

Fully embrace vulnerability be willing to invest in something.  Say i love u without guarantees.  Vulnerability is the birth place of joy, love, creativity of belonging.  We are worthy of love and belonging -were not perfect but... I believe I'm enough.