Drawing 101 Pt 2: 'Life drawing is dumb.. why should I do it?

      After copying, comes creating. Copying builds skill, life drawing hones talent. 

      Copying is for learning the basics. When you start to leave copying and start to create, there comes a new level of learning.. that can be scary. Bc then you really start to see how little you truly know. When you leave copying pictures and start drawing from life, it will probably be the biggest shock in your drawing life. Take my experience for example:

     All through out grade school I copied my favorite characters from magazines and posters. I would draw every single Pokemon when I was in elementary to my favorite artist's album cover during highschool. I would draw some things from life but they were mostly of spaces or buildings. Always staying a little abstract to hide my flaws.
      Then came freshman year of college: Week one. All us students came with our new biggie boards and freshly sharpened pencils and sat down in our life drawing class. The model is nude and getting ready to start posing. I have never drawn a nude model in person before and it was quite odd to realize the immaturity I was feeling all bc there was a penis right there hanging like no bodies business. All that went away when our instructor told us that we were not to EVER use pencils and to walk over and grab a piece of charcoal and to begin drawing the model. Then began the 30 seconds poses. Then with in 20 seconds I realized exactly why the instructor made us use charcoal and not pencil. You can NOT draw details with charcoal and finish a drawing in 30 seconds. It forces you to be broad and to commit to your lines even if they weren't perfect. It makes you live with the mistakes you create on the paper and because of that you are INSTANTLY AWARE of everything you are not good at. When you draw with pencil you can erase your mistakes... not in life drawing.
     We eventually learned its not about being ACCURATE and replicating a true depiction of the model. but to capture something .. deeper. You try capture the 'feeling and energy' of the GESTURE.  (if you didn't notice I capitalized and bloded the word gesture. That means I'm trying to make a point.) I'm not drawing wrinkles in the clothes and every single finger, but I'm drawing ONE line that goes from the head to the toe with in a second. I am overlapping, and drawing over the whole body in one line that never leaves the paper, not worrying about mistakes and smudges my hand leaves. Because when you finish 2 hours later.. It all comes together. Those 'mistakes' help support and add energy to a drawing I could never really quite capture back in the day when I use to copy. Copying another drawing is copying 2D and translating it to 2D again. Drawing things from 3D to a 2D surface is a whole different world.

      Some people life draw very accurately, some people life draw very abstractly.. Learn to do it both ways. Don't worry about what you are drawing BUT HOW YOU ARE DRAWING IT. No one will ever see what you see, so they will never compare your drawing to the real model and criticize you. What they will do is criticize your drawing and how you did it.

- 'But but.. DANNY, the model moved and Thats why my drawing looks bad. Its not my fault.'

       Hey well guess what. It is your fault that you created a bad drawing. The models job is not to stay still, the models job is to give you a concept, an idea of a pose. The model plants the seed and you take what the model gives you and then YOU create from that. You are not copying, if the model moves, that should be no problem to you bc you are to of already captured the gesture within the first minute of the pose SO that if the model does move you already have the foundation of the original pose on your paper. You are on to blame for YOUR drawing, not the model because as far as they care, they have nothing to do with your drawing.

     Life drawing teaches you not to be precious with your drawing. It may have something to do that after an hour you probably have made over 60 drawings. Who has time and the energy to care about that many drawings?? When one copies OF COURSE you get precious over drawings bc you probably spend weeks on one drawing.
     Everything you did learn while you were copying does not go to waste, you just become efficient and learn how to do all your tricks faster. Your skills become second nature. It is essential to do life drawing with an instructor, even if you do not agree with their style or notes, bc no matter what you think, what they have to say is important and will only add to your knowledge and skills. If you find your self ever saying, 'I don't want to hold the stick sideways to draw, its not my style." You might as well use the money you're paying for your art school to wipe your own ass. Try everything that is told to you. Use every medium offered to you, learn how to create and let your style come through in all mediums and techniques. Learn how to do things academically, then learn how to do things experimentally. Then last but not least learn how to do things in your own way. Break out of your comfort zone often and early.

Thanks for reading
-Daniel

Animation Schools: Looking for Them?

Animation Schools... There are tons,
There are the The Art Institutes, up north is Sheridan College, Westwood, Academy of Art University right across the bay, Savannah College of Art and Design, ITT Tech for the gamers, for the eager Animation Mentor, and the big one with a lot of weight to throw around: California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts)

But I want to Talk about one: California College of the Arts

     I went four years through their animation program and now I'm animating at Pixar. Yes I am 23 years old.. If you haven't guessed what this post is by now, get ready, I'm about make THE CASE of why you should go to California College of the Arts for animation. And since this is my school, hell yea I'ma go ahead and say this school is one of thee best, this will be hard-core juiced, ultra favorably biased, and VERY VERY DETAILED, the good the better and the best of CCA.

California College of the Arts: Is it The best Animation School?
     -Danny explain yourself..

     First I'd like to get to the point, It is unbearably close to Pixar :) I leave the parking lot of Pixar and can get to California College of the Arts in 5 minutes, Mapquest.com says it's seven minutes, but what do they know.
     And the consequences of being so close to pixar..  a lot of our animation faculty who work here lead double lives.. Pixar Animators by day, teachers by night. The student to teacher ratio is TINY. An animator teacher rarely has more than 12 students in their classes. They like the intimate face-to-face time, it seems to help the students learn more and develop better. Revolutionary.. I know..
  
Who's Teaching now at CCA? 

     We've got story artists, animators, directors, art and design... To throw a few names out there can tell you that Andrew Gordon is amiably teaching animation, director of future Pixar film Mark Andrews is teaching his brutal Visual Story Telling class, Anthony Cristov amazing drawing skills are also at work here, Brett Parker teaches in experimental animation and as well as Film based classes, Don Crum is on top of good old traditional animation and making sure the students are exposed early in their curriculum to the basics (His class I can say was AMAZING) I can not leave out Stop Motion! Doug Sheppeck is busy in those trenches teaching this fascinating style of animation and keeping it alive. I can go on and on with our faculty and the classes CCA offers.
      Do not get me wrong, Pixar is great but we also have other faculty that are also worth boasting about. They hail from Tippet Studios (awesome place) and other Animation studios that conveniently in the area CLOSE to California College of the Arts. (Tippet is located just up the street from CCA towards Berkeley as well.) We even have teachers who worked at Disney in their Second Golden Age that work here now. Yes CCA is spoiled when it comes to faculty... but it doesn't stop there. Connections baby..
      You want complete connection to professionals who still have their feet wet from the business, This is the place to be. With the small class sizes they are not only your teachers, they end up being your friends. I was going to save this juice 'till the end but I'll just spit it out now. -

Monday April 25th, Pete Doctor will be giving a talk at California College of the Arts. Why?

       Because he can. He's a boss. He can talk where ever he wants, and he wants to talk at CCA. (He was originally just going to talk to just a lucky class of students, but he ended up choosing to talk in our lecture hall.)
       This is open to the Public. And will be either around 6:30 pm or 7pm in NALL HALL (Right around the corner to the animation department) Be there, you know I will. *cough *cough.. It's only 5 minutes away.. Are you applying to CCA yet? Fine, ok here's some info on the Anim Department..

The Animation Department: 

       Has a lot of good things going for it. The Department is still in it's infancy (only barely on it's 3rd graduating class) and it's growing exponentially every year. CCA will supply you with anything you need. You need Down-shooters for your 2D short? We have a whole room for them. Animating on maya? They have rows and rows of spanking new powerfull imacs for you, each one with a Wacom tablet. Have you ever animated on a Cintique? Well you will here, tons of new Cintiques to use for animation (seniors get priority on these.. nice..), there's nothing like Animating 2D directly on a screen and pressing the arrow key for a new blank page..

      The facility got a make over with a new lay out that include new classrooms and a new sound recording studio included. The thing I always repeat about CCA is that they don't have any other agenda other than to make you the best artist YOU want to be. You just want to be a modeler or story boarder, go ahead, you only want to do experimental animation, fine! Character animation is your interest, CCA will help you be what you want to be. This is no cookie cutter Art College, these teachers will FAIL your ass if you suck garbage, or maybe they'll just let you know that your work is bad and then tell you how to fix it. But ultimately you are your own person and the Medium of animation is at your mercy. You will not be FORCED to changed, but you will be showed how to become great. 

     With all the improvements to the department, you are missing out on a great experience if you pass this school up. The sweetest addition to the department in my opinion was the Light Table bar that lines both sides of the whole entrance way to the animation department. It is open 24/7 you will always find some one flipping their animation there. 

_____________________________________________________________

California College of the Arts:  

     CCA is over a hundred years old (1907). It didn't start out as an animation school but was founded during the Arts and Crafts movement. So this school is ARTSY. It has a very, very, VERY broad range of disciplines here. Here's a few:

Painting,

Sculpture,

Drawing,

Glass blowing,

Ceramics,

Printmaking,

Photography,

Furniture,

Stuff we don't even have names for!

        As well as.. Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Architecture, Illustration, Industrial Design, Jewelry and Metal Working, Tons of Drawing classes,Visual Studies, Writing and Literature, Fine Arts, Film, Community Arts, and more.

-CCA is an ART SCHOOL,

   ..no more no less. It's not just filled will tech heads or JUST animation students, you get EVERY possible kind of artist you could think of! (Fine art, Abstract, Impressionist, psycho, emo, hipster, introverted, bubbly, troubled, conscientious, yoga enthusiast, urban, B-boy/girls, activist, face value type, passivist, too serious, partyer that always has a funnel, the stoner, the straight edge, the coke fiend, the zen master, the liberal, the conservative (Very rare) the rocker, the gay the straight the in-between, black shades beat poet, promiscuous, nerdy, and All the internationality's you can think of..etc etc I can go on)
     Being an art school so close to University of California, Berkeley has history of being involved in social issues. Being so close to San Francisco and hippie lifestyle Oaksterdam University it comes kinda expected that The Princeton Review would name CCA one of the most 'Green Schools of 2011'. The bottom line is that CCA has a diverse population of artists. And you constantly get to see their work and mingle such as Spring fair help on campus for selling and trading art.

     HOLD UP. Don't think it's all fun and games. This school is accredited. You do earn a REAL bachelors that can be used to get a job other than animation or art.. you WILL have to to take english and science still. And being right next to Berkeley, one of the best universities of the world, we do get teachers from Berkeley teaching at CCA. (Art school producing well rounded artist?  whaaAA!?!?)

-CCA has two campuses,
     One San Francisco and one in Oakland (animation is in Oakland) There is a shuttle between the two campuses. Sometimes you might have a morning Life Drawing class in Oakland  and then Philosophy class on San Francisco campus. :) San Francisco offers the urban modern feel while Oakland keeps it Old school and full of nature.

 






Student Life:
       Hands down what CCA is good for is scholarships.. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for those scholarships. California College of the Arts might not be the biggest school on the map nor the most famous one, but it is one of the best. CCA has tons to offer. Your experience there will be one of a kind. Your first year you will most likely be in the Dorms.

 

     Dorm life IS the business..

 ..for like only a year. You could only handle so many dorm room parties haha, and with Berkeley down the street and San Francisco 15 minutes away, you will never run out of fun things to do. And Oakland has some fun spots as well. I've been here 4 years and am still finding new spots here in the bay. You can go hiking, bomb fire on the beach, drive to the snow, visit one of countless museums here, be a tourist, I can go on for a while and this post is already quite long.
    
      So I hope I made my case of why you should pick CCA as your animation school or just as your art school in general. I came from no where, a slummy, run down, druged out, hood banging neighborhood, single parent mom making under 25,000 a YEAR and Look at me now. You would of never known. Maybe it was CCA, maybe it's because I worked my ass off, maybe it's no ones credit and it's the way the cookie crumbles...

Either way, California College of the Arts a bad ass school and it's waiting for you.

-Daniel Gonzales

Success Survival tips #1

I get a lot of emails. Sometimes they are not all quick-times of animation, but honest questions. And they are not rare questions and a lot of professionals will answer them, but in like one paragraph. I know if I was to describe what I had to learn to get to where I am it would take longer than a paragraph. We all want to be big Redwood Trees but we all have to start of small like a seedlings. I know I did. So here is the email I wrote back. Hope it helps and gives insight to those who seek it. 

Hi Mark,

     There's only two things you got to think when thinking about getting into Pixar or any other place you might want to. 

      First, you have to make your work KICK ASS.. sorry for the lack of a better term, but you have to know animation inside out AND be able to perform and deliver. Even if it's not animation you must know your CRAFT and skill inside out and be able to do ANYTHING asked from you, or at least know what you would need to do to complete a difficult art piece. Some people stop there (Learning their talent inside out) but you also have to be creative, you have to be an artist with your animation/craft.That will hopefully come naturally but the hard part is getting good and honing your skills. That just takes time and dedication. Then all you have to do is combine your skills with your creativity and you're on your way to becoming a great artist.

      Second: You have to be or at least try to be a people person. I'm not saying you have to learn how to brown nose and such, but you must know how to just be a genuinely pleasant person to work with. Never burn any bridges, you never know who's help you might need in 3 years. YOU NEVER KNOW! So even if you don't like a peer or a teacher, never burn that bridge, just stay as an acquaintance or something where if you ever need to ask for a favor they do not have a reason to say no. That being said, do beware of fake people who are only nice to get themselves ahead. For example if they treat you like shit at first glance, but then they find out you are a very good animator or work someplace nice, all of a sudden they are your best friend and want to work with you. Pay those people no mind and try not to blend in with them, bc the actions of the people around you reflect on you. AND just watch out for people who are just nice because they KNOW they HAVE to be nice (like as if a douche bag read this post and says, 'Shit i gotta start being nice now') 

_______________________________________

       And that's all you need to know. Everything else falls into place if you can nail these two pieces of advice. Opportunities will find YOU and you won't have to search around. With me, I learned fast, but I learned and pushed my self to get my skills to become second nature so I can animate and focus on my ideas and creativity. You need to focus on your weaknesses and make them stronger from someone who knows what they are doing, ASK FOR HELP when you need it. bc all that time spent trying to figure it out on your own could of been put to better use. Find out what you want to do or get better at and learn to do it.

       You are 17, i do not know your skill level and how much back ground you have on animation. hell im only 22 and I'm here. SO IT IS POSSIBLE. Here is one piece of advice that I wished a lot of people would of gotten when they first started...  

      Do not through all your marbles one ONE PIECE OF WORK. Do not think that a whole semester on 46 seconds of animation will guarantee you a spot or a job if you bust your ass on it. Do not put your faith on one film for two years. Sure quality is what matters, but you ARE assuming you are a genius and you will get it right the first time... you need to produce a lot of work so that you can fail on 2 pieces and LEARN from them. There are things you can only get through experience and that is perspective and how to plan and see time and gauge your limits and skills. And knowing those things will help you make your third, fourth eighth film the best. You need to complete more than one film so that after it's all said and done, you have a group of work to choose from and see your progression. Quality is good obviously, and quantity is just as valuable, especially in a very time consuming medium that animation is.

     So listen and learn, then get good, then get fast, so that all you have left is to further develop your mind as an artist

     Your life long dream should not be to WORK at your dream job, it should be to do what you love WELL. So start doing the steps you need to get that ball rolling.

-Regarding the question how is it to work at pixar?

      Working at pixar is like going to school, but they are paying you to go. You are free to create and develop yourself as an artist. You work with great people and you are always learning and motivated to push your work and make it better. 

      In a nut shell thats all it is. There is no magic, these people are human like you and me. Art doesn't magically happen. Just like you working on an assignment and that takes time and thought.. Thats the same as me working at pixar on my assignment. Except at pixar you better be able to knock it outa the park eventually once your start on it, not necessarily on the first try but eventually.

       So start collecting all your dedication, and get ready mentally to make hard decisions. Sometimes you will have to sacrifice a social life when something is due in 2 weeks and YOU KNOW that it's gnna take you 3 weeks wort of work to finish. Be prepared to not have all the answers and YOU WILL discouraged. Best of luck to you, and if you ever find your self stuck send me an email and I am always here to help you out. Send me your work or shoot me a question. Anytime. Learn form people and teach people what you learn. Matter of fact, if you see some one who is in your spot too, let them read this email. bc it might help them out if it helped you out. You learn more from helping other people learn than trying to learn by yourself. I guarantee it'll be worth your wild. 

Aim high Mark, 

-Daniel Gonzales

A Critique of Blocking

Here is a recent critique I did. Thought I'd share because it deals with the blocking stage of animation, and people always fine this the hardest part to get through. So hope this gives insight.

Next post on (SOME TIME BEFORE FRIDAY) will be my side animation I've been working on.

THE LETTER in raw form:

Hey ______,

      Very very entertaining. Things to tweak but not things that you missed. Just PUSHING things you already touched upon. Which is very good. This means you are not missing the point and there for do not have to learn anything from scratch. So far so good _____. 

So in this long ass critique, I'ma talk about two things. SELLING YOUR IDEA and ANIMATION. The latter being just regular animation notes and the first one is mostly about your CHOICES, not your technique. Second one skill, first one Personal. Cool? ok.. here we go...

SELLING YOUR ANIMATION-

    Your audience is number one number one number one. You are doing character animation so your audience by default is number one. Character animation isn't conceptual or just animation for animations sake, you are doing it for your audience. 

    Your idea gets across. it's gum. on a shoe.. and he wants it off. YAY, but don't pop champagne bottles over this just yet. As a character animator to get the idea across is NOT THE POINT. (And if you get ANY ONE THAT SAYS OTHER WISE give them my address so they can come to MY HOUSE and I can tell them personally. [bc I'm not going to go waste my time going to their house to tell them something I know..]) I repeat, to get the idea across in an animation is not the FINISH LINE. You have to make us experience with the character what the character itself is feeling. The point as a character animator is to make us Feel what the character is feeling. And we do this by emphasizing story points and having good acting with correct timing to compliment the mood. Movement has texture that highlights whats important and what is not. everything works together like how all the muscles in the arm, back, and torso controls a ballerina's delicate arm motions during a performance. 

Ok, Now to business. ~FRAME 51: this pose. THE MONEY POSE, this is the pose your whole assignment is revolving around. very nice. Clear silhouette. BUT you only give it 12 frames for the audience to register it. You need more. Here's why:

-You give the walk more than 20 frames..You give 37 frames to pose after he looks at his foot (the OH SHIT WHY ME pose i call it). 25 frames are given to the nice entertaining walk to the edge of the curb.. You give 20 some odd frames to him scrapping the curb with the bottom of his shoe.. 30 frames to scraping the sidewalk with his shoe at the end.

    Just about every action is given more attention than the crucial pose on frame 51.. You give it 12 frames AND you still have to ease into it so i say you actually have given it 6 frames. So when starting an assignment here's what I look at.

'Can I take out this Pose/Action and the assignment still make sense?'

      There are only 2 poses/actions in your shot that if we took out, would cripple your shot: The Walk and The First Look underneath the shoe. Everything else is icing on the cake. So priority is always to be given to these two poses. the walk is fine. :) but you neglect the Look at the Shoe pose like a little red headed step child. haha. Give it more time and you'll be fine. 

    PS. I know your limit is 200 frames, I'm not insensitive to that, and I do recognize the feet sliding at the end is actually some of the most entertaining animation you have in this assignment.. My solution?  You have TWO foot scrapes on the side of the curb.. Make it ONE. Take that time and add it to hold your story telling pose (first look underneath foot)

That's just one note.. hahaha

(DISREGARD this note because I just found out that the eyes cannot be animated.)

Ok second note. I know i know you are short on frames. Other wise I would say to make the second look underneath the foot longer. BUT you can't. bc of restrictions.. doesn't mean we over look the note. Can his eye's be animated in any way more than a blink? If so, please atleast show him get angry in that pose (only in the eyes) it would really compliment the last foot sliding action. The foot sliding action right now comes out of no where (which is funny) but you can not REALLY make it come out of nowhere. everything needs a lil anticipation. so his eyes getting angry (that the gum is still there) is his anticipation to scrapping the shit out of the gum until it dies :)

Other than these two notes I hesitate to say more. bc I really want your idea to shine and be made to work. This is where as commentator I have to recognize I am ONLY a commentator and not the animator of this shot. I am to improve it not change it to make it my own. Only supply changes that can help make it stronger. 

I won't talk too much of specific animation notes bc this is just blocking. Just watch your arcs. (heels, torso, hips, shoulders, head, knees.. EVERYTHING in other words) watch momentum (inertia), and remember to keep your poses and not lose your timing when you move forward with this. 

ONE real fast animation note. The foot scrape on the side of the curb.. very nice. nice leg animation and head animation... even good side to side hip animation! BUT try doing that action in real life... to keep your torso at that height with out going up and down during scraping GUM of the bottom of your shoe... not possible... unless it was a sissy scrape...

So watch out for that. When doing a physical action YOUR TORSO WILL ALWAYS BE MOVING. every avar. even if it's just a little. Never should be flat flat flat in your graph editor. so watch out for that.

Hope everything goes well. I am very excited for this shot and look forward to seeing you progress on it. Your going to do fine.This blocking already kicks ass as it is.

PS.. ima post this on my blog..

:)

Daniel Gonzales III