Didier Ghez has posted a clip of an interview with the famous Disney animator, Bill Tytla.
Personally I never really thought Tytla was all that great - the devil in Fantasia didn’t do much for me, but Stromboli was pretty cool. I appreciate the “strength” and “force” with which he animated, but I was never really a Tytla fan-boy.
Still, this clip is a rare find and an excellent gift to the world of character animation.
Just finished listening to this and I thought it was great that they brought up his freshman “CG” film Everything That Comes Around (I think that’s the name).
If there was thing I remember about Doug from CalArts it was that film. It’s pretty much the only story I have to tell when someone brings up his name.
I was an upperclassman who, because of my devotion to traditional hand-drawn animation, rarely stepped inside the computer lab. Well, one day I had to go in there to do some editing and I was stopped dead in my tracks by that film. It was just looping incessantly over and over on one of the Amiga computers. I was with there with some of my friends and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. The timing was impeccable, the spacing elegant. As I recall it was just some guy flipping a yo-yo but it was miles beyond what anyone else was doing with the computer at that time. Super-appealing. We couldn’t figure out if it was drawn, if it was scanned it, whatever.
When we asked around who did that, someone simply answered, “Oh, that’s Doug Sweetland. He’s really good.”
And they were right. Woody coming out of the box in Toy Story 2, Buzz on the bed meeting Woody for the first time in Toy Story, and now Presto.
Hopefully someone has a copy of this short film and can post it.
I also liked his explanation of CalArts as a school filled with “drawing” kids. Having been one of those kids singled out in high school because I drew all the time (mainly Disney characters on my grocery-bag book covers), I could totally relate.
If I was going to the San Diego Comic-Con next week, I’d definitely have to sit in on this one:
The Disney Animation Story Process—Nathan Greno (head of story, Bolt), Don Hall (head of story, The Princess and the Frog), Mark Kennedy (head of story, Rapunzel), Joe Mateo (story artist, Bolt), Michael LaBash (story artist, Bolt), Paul Briggs (story artist, The Princess and the Frog), and Josie Trinidad (story artist, The Princess and the Frog) offer an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look into the story process at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Coming together exclusively at Comic-Con, these story team leaders will take you from first concept to final story approval as they discuss the art of storyboarding, re-create story pitches, and share boarding styles from their upcoming animated features. Don’t miss this revealing and humorous panel and your chance to get a sneak peek at Disney’s next animated feature, Bolt!
A couple of familiar names in there!
According to the director’s commentary on the Ratatouille Blu-ray disc, this dog (hidden in silhouette in the movie) is featured in the upcoming movie Up. The scene is near the beginning when Remy is running through an apartment - the one where he gets chased by a dog. Brad Bird mentions that it was a teaser for one of Pixar’s forthcoming films.
My grand FriendFeed experiment ended in success today! After a week and a half of intense after-hours hacking and coding I finally found a solution that effectively brings in my comments from the FriendFeed social networking service and places them here in my own personal blog. If you’re at all interested in how I did it or how you might be able to do the same with your own site, read on.
If there is any one thing I can point to as inciting my interest in character animation it would have to be the above special from 1981. I remember clearly sitting in Ms. Guho’s Art Class at Hart High (c. 1988) when she turned down the lights and started this video. I’m pretty sure I was the only one who sat enthralled for all 45 minutes or so, but when the lights came up I immediately knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
The high point, of course, was Glen flipping through his scene from The Fox and the Hound. I asked my teacher if I could dub it (you know, with two VCR decks - old school style) and she was gracious enough to let me. I must’ve watched this show 500 times over that summer. It was also the reason why I decided to drop out of football 4 days into Hell Week. Why get pummeled into the ground on a regular basis when I could be home still-framing through the classics and deciding which I liked better - top pegs or bottom pegs?
Thanks so much to whoever posted this. It was on my long list of things to digitize and publish (I still have the tape), but unfortunately never seemed to get around to.
Bill Taylor, author of Mavericks at Work posts what he considers to be some of the secrets behind Pixar’s constant success.
His first is Pixar’s preference for long-term agreements over picture-to-picture deals:
a tightknit company of long-term collaborators who stick together, learn from one another, and strive to improve with every production. Andrew Stanton, who directed Wall-E, was a key figure behind Finding Nemo, which won two Oscars, generated worldwide box-office of $840 million, and became the best-selling DVD of all time. But Stanton didn’t follow the success of Nemo by offering himself to the highest bidder or demanding perks and special treatment. He went back to his job as an employee of the studio, to pitch in on other films and eventually begin work on his next major project.
He then goes on to give great praise to Pixar University and its availability to all employees, regardless of position. Dean Randy Nelson explains why:
“Why teach drawing to accountants? Because drawing class doesn’t just teach people to draw. It teaches them to be more observant. There’s no company on earth that wouldn’t benefit from having people become more observant.”
I still have yet to see Wall-E, but from what most of I’ve read I’m sure it will be phenomenal. There are some people I’ve talked to who say the film takes a nosedive once the humans enter the picture, but the majority of reviews I’ve read absolutely love it. In fact, in some places they’re already talking Best Picture nom. come Oscar time next year. I haven’t heard that about any other film this year so far - animation or live action.
From everything I’ve read and everything I know about working at other studios, Pixar represents a completely different way of approaching filmmaking. Ironically, it’s the closest to what I imagine it would’ve been like to work at the Disney studios in the 1930s and 40s. So it’s not so much revolutionary as it is just plain smart business. After nine consecutive number-one hits, they’re obviously doing something right.
As Bill puts it,
You can’t win big unless you change the game in your field.
Success!!
I finally got my cronjob to work correctly on my server! Now all my Tweets and other assorted RSS goodness from other sites can start filtering into my weblog...automatically. Excellent news.
Assistant animators Al Stetter and Chuck Williams take time out for coffee during the 1960s. Probably complaining about what a pain-in-the-ass Milt was to work with.
Must have been awesome.
The girl who freaked out over the trailer makes it big.
What do Sean Penn’s Into the Wild and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense have in common? Much more than you would probably think.
Great look at the use of shadows in Alice in Wonderland. This has always been one of my favorite things about the old Disney features - the subtle and artistic use of depth in certain shots. It reminds me of another shot in Ichabod Crane where he’s reading in bed. I love that shot!
This won’t last.
In a letter to a fan, Ollie Johnston lays out the differences between the old way of doing character animation and the way it is done now (at least, in 1989).
Michael has posted Part 2 of Rico LeBrun’s Bambi Guides (Link to Part 1 here). Again these are just beautiful beautiful drawings that showcase the foundation the animators had in preparing for Bambi. One look at these and you have to agree with Sky-Davis’ comment after the jump (he also provided these stunning images): Long live Hand Drawn Animation!
More animation goodness from Team Fortress 2.
Video of a probably-way-more-than-I’ll-ever-be-able-to-afford flight simulator.
Doing more often results in actually doing less.
First look at Doug Sweetland’s short for Pixar.
First look at Disney’s Bolt.
"Funny, I always wait until the following Monday or even Tuesday to post things written on the weekend. Mainly because I rarely read my feeds during those days. Also, I find that waiting a couple of days helps with any rewrites that should be done before it is published. "
"I've had XM for 4 years now and am considering dropping them because of iPhone applications like Pandora."
"Awesome! We always stop at Harris Ranch when visiting up north. I'll have to try that next time."
"A one-time purchase of $300 is nothing compared to the ever increasing weekly trip to the pump."
"Scoble is the reason I joined Facebook and the reason I told all my friends they HAD to get an account. He's also the reason I'm here (on FF) as well - but I can't convince a single friend to climb aboard - none of them trust me now."
"Soulhuntre: thats why WB caved to Bluray - to try and quickly sell some sort of HD discs before digital distribution takes over. Have to say, I much rather renting in HD on my AppleTV then buying a disc. I usually only watch a movie once."
David Milch certainly knows how to inspire someone to write.
Contrary to popular belief, the two are not always the same.
Why does it take so long to tell a meaningful story?
In a letter to a fan, Ollie Johnston lays out the differences between the old way of doing character animation and the way it is done now (at least, in 1989).
Richard Williams relates what Milt told him: No headphones!
Is it Frank’s head on Ollie’s body, or Ollie’s head on Frank’s body?!
"Finally saw Dark Knight tonight...I am not worthy! Nolan slammed it!!"
Forgot to order yours on Amazon (like me)? Head over to Samuel French’s on August 6th. That’s where I’ll be.
Old timey collaboration at its best.
Insane. 1st person camcorder view of what you see when you’re hit.
Nice! Now if I could only find one of these for ExpressionEngine…
Are you serious?! This is fantastic news. The only thing that annoyed me about my Apple TV was entering text with that little plastic remote. The iPhone delivers once again!
I was here this day. These pictures, while all awesome, do not convey in any way how incredibly hot it was!!
Interview with Andrew Gordon - supervising animator at Pixar and the artist behind my favorite scene in Presto—the one where the magician thrusts the hat out for all of the audience to see—cracks me up everytime.
Rare look at how they used to do overlap and follow-thru in the old days.
Good to receive some news on this film. I was worried that they would go 100% crowd-pleaser. This makes me think there still might be some hope.
Great idea to use the MobileMe address for notifications from your own servers, and even from other services. Hadn’t thought of that one.
I remember when I was told there was no place for me at Disney’s. Sad day, Indeed.
Not sure about this one. I like the novelty of it, but I think I’d much rather play the full version on the PC.
This game reminds me of the one that kid was playing in Children of Men. You know—the kid completely oblivious to everything happening around him. It’s fun and completely depressing all at the same time.
Neat look at Pixar Animation Studios. Although, I’d have to agree with one of the comments on this post - from what I’ve heard the proposed new Animation Building in So. Cal. is not happening.
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