Study 101: Compare and Contrast ACTING

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     Here is a wonderful example of two actors delivering the same line and getting two very different results. Ask your self: They are both well done, but how are they different. What is one actor doing different than the other actor, Why do I like that one the most. etc etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEN0gCHl7Vc






I hope you enjoy the clip,
-Danny

GRAPH EDITOR: when you are panicking

Animator specific post...

     Graph Editor Tricks that I have found my self using. One is for when I am animating in stepped and the Other trick is for when I'm animating Layered. (stepped is when your graph editor does not allow your splines to curve and keeps looking like steps, layered is a way of animating when you FEEL the animation and its timing from the root out)

     I'm not here to debate which way of animating is better, I'm not about to regress into a school girl type of shouting match. I'm just going to give two tricks I find my self using often and the help me out a lot. Actually.. they've saved my ass more time than I care to admit :)


     So.. lets say you are animating Layered, so happy that you are getting results super fast and you even dare to think you might actually finish before the deadline. But soon you perfect start disappears and soon you animation is muddy, your timing is wrong, your takes melt into each other and nothing is left of your initial timing! You were almost done but now you don't know what to do. There are hitches in the arms, the nose arcs and you even discover you have problems in your root! What are you going to do?

What I do is:

I do hope this makes sense. The numbers at the bottom are frames on the time line.

     So I kind of start over but keep my 'blue print' of what my animation once was. I use the buffer curves (ghost curves) to guide me. I go through each curve pretty fast and double check its right and working well with the curves before it on the hierarchy. Doing this process saves more time than actually trying to fix everything while all the body parts are moving. And most of the time you don't even know that the curves you are fixing are responsible for the pops or bad timing in the first place. So that's why once you remove all the curves from sight and slide them back one by one, you easily come across the bad curves that were messing everything up. Its a bit tedious but it goes by fast. and you know once you are done, you have done everything you could have done and that leaves you feeling satisfied.


     The other situation where I use one of my tricks (well I wouldn't call it a trick, its more a piece of advice) is when I'm animating in stepped. Usually I'm pretty far along with my animation and I'm ready to start splining and making my curves smooth when I realize when that making my curves smooth is LOOSING all my timing etc. Now I'm faced with a choice: Do I continue smoothing out my stepped curves and FIGURE it out like how us good little animators were taught?? Or do i say fuck it and just keep animating in stepped?

I say Fuck it!... bad choice of words danny.. bad choice..

     BUT DANNY why would you animate like that? I don't make this decision out of laziness all the while as I am adding breakdowns I have my eye on the graph editor watching the curves FORM as breakdowns and poses are added and added. once I can see the curves develop more defined, then I will start to clean them up (all the while in stepped) Eventually my animation will be on 2's 3's and 4's here and there. This method keeps my timing and I spend more time animating than fighting with the graph editor. I never allow my graph editor to become messy and I never ignore my curves. I baby sit them the whole way still using as little controls as I can while getting the most out of them.

    These are my methods, they are not wrong, they are not right, but they allow me to finish my animation. It works for me and I encourage that if these methods do not seem to help you, you will search for a way that does. Many times I see a lot of great blocking and Ideas turn into mush and then becomes forever lost in the graph editor.


    Internship deadlines are coming fast in the spring, I wish all of you who are applying to places the best of luck and happy holidays! I guess I should mention here that I will be trying out tutoring after the new years. Not online tutoring but a real legit person to person hands on tutoring. I'll see how it goes. It might be cool it might actually be a utter complete business failure :) I'll do a post in a few days with more details about my plans for this... experiment!

Drawing 101: Training Your Eye

"There are two ways of thinking about painting, how     not to do it and how to do it; how to do it -- with much drawing and little color; how not to do it -- with much color and little drawing." 

(Letter to Theo van Gogh, April 1882)

      No matter what style you might draw/paint in, it is essential to at least know how to depict things with accurately. The foundation of being able to do so, is knowing how to judge proportions. When I judge proportions while life drawing, I try don't rely too much on my background knowledge of anatomy. I try to judge and draw with what my eye sees instead. Learn how to OBSERVE! Things I might say to myself while I draw, "Well from this angle the head is half the length or her thigh.. her right thigh is parallel to her left arm, and it looks like her head also lines up with her left arm but it obviously doesn't have the same angle as her right thigh. Therefore her head has an angle of its own I have to reflect in my drawing." etc etc... (notice how I talk about parts and not the body as a whole.. You must learn to see and draw the parts that make the 'whole'. You use the 'whole' to guide the over all direction of the smaller parts it consists of so that they exist and look as one.)  

      Looking at a model, a building, an object with this mindset/perspective is not easy. Its a very technical way of looking at your subject in order to get an accurate drawing. Thats why life drawing WITH a teacher is always more beneficial to you than drawing alone because they point out where your eye is weak in observing the subject. The teacher guides you. 

      When I was in high school we didn't have classes like I had in college. So I had to find my own way to improve and start training my eyes. The easiest way to start training your eyes to start learning how to line things up and see the PARTS of your subject instead. Using a grid is a simple example of using lines to guide your drawing. Soon with enough training you will be able to use the same technique with out any visual aids. But if you are just starting to learn how to draw, stick with a grid until you can use it to draw your pictures very accurately. 

      - To use a grid, you grab a picture and draw a grid over it. how many lines the grid has is up to you. But make sure that the grid on your drawing paper is pretty much exactly the same!

 - Then start section by section. Look at the parts that make the whole and draw the shapes they make and not the subject. Look for negative and positive shapes (if you do not know what I mean USE GOOGLE.. you have all of mankind's knowledge at your fingertips. start tapping into it by googling something for yourself. you'll be glad you did.)

Here, the Helen South (awesome tutorial instructor) started to cover parts of the picture so that they could focus on a section of the drawing. 

Remember I mentioned something about positive and negative shapes? on the right hand side: the negative shape is shaded in. You can think of a negative shape as: the space that your subject does not occupy. Notice where the edge of the jug crosses the grid line (is that half way? 1/3? 1/4th?? ) and make sure that your drawing does the same.

      When I was younger I would love to use the grid to draw some of my favorite characters and pictures. Always keep in mind: copying is not the goal! Training your eye is! As soon as you are good at using the grid to replicate drawings, then its time to move on to other techniques such as life drawing and depicting things that are in front of you. To many people get comfortable  and content with themselves in being able to copy very realistically. but when you ask them to draw a face from real life.. they are unable to. This is because copying only deals with LINES not FORM. One must learn to draw things with volume and form. You can not learn this from just copying flat pictures. This is why its important to move on and to not become content with being able to just copy. Your imagination dies when you get stuck copying. 

      I drew this in high-school using a grid on a 3in X 6in magazine photo. 

   This is the first post of a 3. Next will be a little more about whats the next step to do to develop your eye. I hope this post helped out any readers who need the help! And for those who are just curious, I hope it gave you insight into a perspective you might not be familiar with. Happy drawing. 

Thanks for reading,  -Danny

Un-Finished work: What to do with it?

Mozart- un-finished symphony

-Franz Kafka had unfinished writings published after his death,

-Mark Twain made THREE versions of the mysterious stranger..

never finished one of them..

-If John von Neumann never would of wrote that incomplete "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" ---Computers would not exist as we know them to be today.    

-Geoffrey Chaucer never completed "The Canterbury Tales to the extensive length that he originally intended..

-Michelangelo left a lot of sculptures and paintings only partially finished to inspire others!

-JR Tolkien made 12 volumes of the History of Middle Earth, huge parts unfinished and in draft

-Edmund Spencer wanted to make 'Faerie Queene' 12 books long. He only made it to 6, and it's the longest epic poem in the English language. 

Un-finished work is no less better than most finished work.

     If you started a walk cycle, worked on it for two weeks, stopped, let 5 months go by.. do you go back and finish it? Would your time be better used if you would just start a NEW walk cycle instead of trying to fix the problems of the old? Wouldn't it be better to take what you learned from the experience of that un-finished walk cycle and pu tit towards a whole new assignment? Here is some work I did waaaay back in sophomore year of college. I cringe when I see it, but I find it healthy having this anthology of files that show a lot of finished and unfinished work. You end up seeing your progress. So if you are asking me, DO NOT go back and touch up every old piece of animation...

So here I'm sharing one of MY old unfinished piece I did in a span of 2 weeks. Hope you can make sense of it :)

Do not feel like you are wasting time by leaving your work unfinished, you ARE STILL LEARNING as long as you are animating. But FINISH your work when it counts. Nobody likes a quitter.

To further prove my point. Here is some unfinished work by John Lennon released in 1996, even recorded with a hand held mic, it still is a wonderful timeless piece.

Cars 2 Drawings

     


     So the Film is done, the press is out and about, Festive air in the studio, it's a wild time to be at Pixar right now! It probably being the last time John Lasseter ever directs a film, it was a real treat to see him in action this past year.

     I thought I'd share some sketches that I've accumulated over the years and since all these characters have been either in trailers or posters, so I think I have the green light to reveal my drawings. I usually draw in dailies while JL is giving notes to animators or while in meetings. It's a good way for me to stay concentrated and not have to settle for going and getting coffee.

     This is Francesco, Italian Race car. Cocky as hell. my kinda car.. Even though cars are limited in their movement you still have to try to give them angles and line of actions. Otherwise all you have is a box with eyes....

     Like Fillmore, a simple characteristic such as the eyelids is enough to give this care it's distinct personality.. 

     My favourite car would have to be Finn. Not just because it's Michael Caine as his voice actor... well yea maybe that's why. Finns dialogue was especially hard to animate because the mouth shapes had to be "English Accent" mouth shapes rather than American mouth shapes. (Yes there are differences)

     Zunndap, or professor Z. close second for my favourite character... There character designer was clever enough to make the racks on the top of the vehicle also be some sort of 'comb over" for the car. All the character designs and the set designs are amazing in this Film, especially once they are rendered out.

     Sometimes you say more with fewer lines. When you have 2 seconds and a marker, you have to be efficient!

      One time I saw mater driving pass me towards the bathroom.. I had to sketch him quick....  nothing but quick lines and trying not to lift your pencil will increase your chances of getting interesting line work in your work!


      Below, are pictures from my sketchbook. You never know what you're going to draw next so I always like how the compositions end up. Here you'll see some other cars that will be in the film. I was really horrible at drawing any sort of car when I first came onto the film, I hated drawing cars (mainly because I sucked), but that's no excuse to not to try to learn.

     Last but not least: here are two Mater drawings I did.

      Even when you find yourself really busy still try to find time to draw and sketch. Believe me when I say for every semi interesting drawing I have here there are 10 bad drawings banished in a corner somewhere. Cars2 comes out June 24th I believe, and I hope all of you go to see it and enjoy the playful, fun, action paced film. Once more here is the trailer.

Noticing Something Different

"Danny! Where have you been?"

    Animating. Yes Cars 2 is done, but I am currently animating for the California College of the Arts Animation Show. They asked me to do the Opening Title Card of this years show in May. MAY!? Wait, that's like.. Tomorrow! I know. That's why I have been busy animating like a beast. I'll be sure to post it once my animation is done.

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   --In the mean while I want to touch upon  a little rant on work flow and on how to make your work a little unique.

    You can ask a thousand times for the best tips and what do the Pro's do to stay focused but it all that doesn't really help when YOU are in YOUR work flow. But maybe my way of staying focused when I'm in the middle of doing a marathon of animation (like I am now) and the finish line seems so far away.

    I need something thought provoking, something to makes me think. What makes me think? Great art makes me think. But hanging pictures and stuff on my walls doesn't cut it all the time. I need the ear phones on full blast. But there's a lot of crap out there that tries to call it's self music. A lot of music I like for two reasons, 1) either I like HOW IT SOUNDS, or 2) I like WHAT IT SAYS. and when I come across something combining both elements.. well that's rare. (Like The Beatles)

    This is a recent song I found that has both elements for me. And the best part is that it makes me think, and when I think: I animate faster (I don't know why) I seem to solve problems faster and everything flows smoothly. (Holy crap! Is this what A BRAIN IS FOR?????)

Lupe Fiasco - 'Words I Never Said"


      I like it. Not because what he says is controversial and true, no I like it because HE is putting his thoughts on the forefront of his work. He is not  talking about b*tches and getting those Dolla Dolla Bills. You feel like you know him after you listen to the album. And I love when people put themselves into their art to make it specific. If you cannot tell nothing about a person after seeing a chunk of their art then it most likely there was a very good chance the work was dull, superficial or flat. It's not wrong if it is flat or superficial, it just is what it is.
      I try to inject my thoughts into my art when ever I can. Most noticeably in my roughly put together piece for my schools animation show in 2010 "A Comment on Animation" You see little things on how I like things outside the box, thoughts about the animation business, my like for science fiction zombie flicks, me being an atheist, how I like nature (otherwise I wouldn't of spent two weeks animating that damn seedling growing) etc etc...   You cannot be timid to say what you want to say. Even if it's political or personal, just say it.  



    If you ever want to stick out of a crowd, STOP wasting time looking for unique ideas when The most unique thing in the world is RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.

    Nobody is like you. NOBODY IS EXACTLY LIKE YOU. So you want your demo reel to stick out from the rest? Inject some personality in it, your personality. Say what you want to say and make do you best work on it, make it GOOD.


-Daniel Gonzales

Animating 101.5: 'Balance and Weight'

       A teacher or Mentor would give you the following video and say study this... what they need to say... HOW TO STUDY THIS..





FIRST: A Rant On 'The Responsibility of the Animator.."
  
       I see a lot of green animators having a hard time animating balance and weight, but here we see ROBOTS are great, mastering it, with 1,2,4 legs.. I bet they can also do it with 8. Very sad when a robot can learn to walk before you can learn to animate a very convincing gait. If a robot can do it, so can you! but do not take for granted the work you have to do. If you think your job should be easier, bc you think all you have to do is drawing, while that robot calculates all day since morning, then it is not alarming, that you darling, are have such a hard fucking time day in and day out with that mouse in your hand the pencil in your mouth, animating. :)

Just because you made a life choice, to do your part and make some art, it does not excuse you to be ignorant. So here is my rant about give learning a chance and learn that the world has more to it than what you take in from first glance. Your job as an artist is to observe the world around you carefully, just looking doesn't count, and memorizing patterns is such a wasteful account, you need to learn the fundamentals to understand reality. WHY and HOW should be the basis of your new philosophy.

Your an artist but more than that you are a human being.
-'but danny I do art bc math and school were just not my thing"

Then you should not be doing art, bc in school 'Learning' was the trick. And learning in ART, is just as hard! ..if talent was not given to you as a natural gift. It is hypocritical to say you are going to learn art and animation inside and out, but when told to deal with the Math of a walk cycle, with it's frames per seconds and spacing, you start to groan and shout.

imagine how much potentially better work can be with a little more understanding and knowledge.

The End...

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Now: A Non-Rhyming Rant On "Weight, Balance, and Forces":
  
     There is no weight, there is no balance, those are descriptions. It is GRAVITY. You are not "selling" the weight.. Nor are you making the balance "work"... What you are trying to do is convince me that gravity EXIST and is acting upon your character or what ever you might be animating. So when a teacher says, "it needs weight.." it should be translated to, 'Your gravity is not convincing.' 


      Look at the video around ( 0:18 seconds) here is a one legged robot doing a nice job keeping it's balance. It lands it's leg exactly where it needs to be to counter the gravity that is always pulling down on it. Here are WRONG drawings of a robot trying to keep it's balance...

     This is wrong because the robot would still fall over.. the placement of the 'foot peg' DOES counter the gravity but not the Momentum the robot has moving towards the Left... so not only does the foot need to be under the robot, but it also needs to be opposite of the direction that the momentum is going. This will counter act it and result in the robot coming to a stop...
Here is how it should be..

      This is much more physically correct, and thus believable.

      It's all about knowing what forces are acting upon the thing you are animating. That is it. All 4 basic forces work either as a push or a pull. Electro Magnetism, Gravity and the Strong and Weak nuclear forces all either push or pull. This is 7th grade physics. Every day, all day these forces act as either a PUSH OR PULL, (note to get diagonals and arcs, multiple forces have to be in play..more on that later) there are no flying or side-ways actions, gravity doesn't say 'im tired, im not gnna work today'. Even when your character or object is doing nothing, gravity is still happening...


      -So direction of force is a key concept to move any object... You can push in the opposite direction of where you want to go (hmm this sounds familiar.. what is is called.. can this be ANTICIPATION????) So if you are going to the LEFT and down.. you want to push to the RIGHT and UP.
     NOTE: ever see something over animated? most likely they are using too big an anticipation (force) than the action needs in real life.


      Gravity, is a PULL. The more you pull at something the faster it will go as long as there is nothing pushing or pulling in the opposite direction...
     THIS TIES IN WITH SPACING: when something falls it gradually will pick up speed... (the spacing of your frames will get bigger and bigger)
     Gravity pulls on everything equally. unless there is another force at work. So the spacing of a bowling ball falling and a ping pong ball falling ARE EXACTLY THE SAME. a body falling from the sky, a dinosaur foot landing in a walk cycle.. the SPACING WILL BE THE SAME period. (Galileo 101 people.. jeez..).

The only difference is the bounce UP.

    -The ping pong ball, having more elasticity, can Push against the floor resulting in high bounce. (you see this as squash and stretch)and all the bounces after that work the same.. THE BALL NEVER BOUNCES GREATER OR BACK TO ITS ORIGINAL HEIGHT. Each bounce being smaller than the last because the energy is being lost as movement and heat while the pull of gravity never lets up.. resulting in smaller bounces..)

    -The bowling ball on the other hand cannot squash and stretch as much and there for the Push off the floor is not as strong. BUT like a smart logic seeking student you are, you ask, 'Where did the energy go?" It transferred as heat and vibrations. The ground where the bowling ball hit immediately after the bounce is slightly warmer than the surrounding surface.
      If you do not believe me or SCIENCE in general.. Fine, You can test this out your self by bouncing a basketball over the same spot of an extendent amount of time.. you will then feel the heat on the bottom of the ball and on the floor.


     The sooner you learn to see these forces as clear as you see how fast food is made from the shittiest quality food EVER... then you it'll be very very easy to tell if something animated is not 'feeling' right.   :)


An Example of pushing:
    -when you stand you are pushing. your foot is not resting in it's natural shape. It is pushing against the floor. 

    -A very nerdy way of thinking of animating is that animating is The Controlling and Manipulation of Directional Energy.  ..add some knowledge of texture, principles and timing to this along with a concept and acting choices and.. HEY, you might be making ACTUAL art!..

shocking..

     -Remember that things need directional forces to move. and in order to CHANGE direction: one force must be greater than the other.. The greater the inequality the faster it can change direction.
     Visualize: A five year old trying to tackle you... you won't budge more than 2 inches. Now imagine a whale tackling you..   ..Exactly :)

    Thought Exercise: In any action it can be very helpful to break down what forces are happening. For example: Raising your arm to point to the TV screen..

     Is this a push or a pull? WHAT is pushing or pulling? It will be the shoulder muscles and some triceps (lets just say elbow) But more shoulder than elbow. The shoulder will LEAD the movement and everything will follow. this is how you would show that the elbow is pulling

     The pull of the shoulder is a force, but do not forget there are other forces at work here. Gravity will be fighting against this movement of the shoulder. the easiest path of compromise between these two forces is this ARC..

     This looks natural and effortless.Any other arc would be wrong, unless it's done on purpose. You would need a stronger pull from the shoulder (bigger anticipation) then you can get a showy showman gesture like this,

       So This is it for my rant. I hope this gave you insight on a new way to think about animation and the world around us. To show weight is to show gravity. It's not magic, gravity is not the weight of god's expectations on you, haha, it's good old fashion space time distortion and it's effect on you. Think that's just some fancy explanation scientist just made up? no way, gravity affects lots of things. Even time: farther away you are from a gravitational mass, the faster time seems to pass. So this means the clock in a satellite ticks faster than the one of your wrist. GPS satellites are well aware of this and have compensated for the different time speeds. Did you learn something new? Good, I hoped you liked it. Now go get lost in wikipedia.. all human knowledge at your fingertips.

-Daniel Gonzales

Cars 2: What I've been Working on...

So I've been busy.   ..busy animating a movie...

         -Pixar redecorated it's walls in preparation of the hoard of journalist that are about to flood the studio..

      

        Working on my first production has been CRAZY. You get to see the 'machine' in action. The whole studio buzzing, everyone with a job to do and guess what, they ALL do their job damn fucking good. 

         My animation job at Pixar can be called no less than basically 'Quality Control'. There are 12 of us that are on this 'quality control' team. We are the last animators to touch the film, and once it leaves us, it better be mistake free bc there is no one after us to catch it. Talk about putting on the pressure right? 

         So what kind of things come up that we have to check and fix? Well they can be little mistakes, like a blink or some intersections... but we also get heavy fixes such as; having to reanimate a lot of dialogue, and sometimes they even tell us to just redo the whole shot. There are a variety of fixes that come our way that we encounter, so our knowledge of animation (technical and aesthetically) has to be always fresh, we have to be on top of our game every day.

         Between us 12 fixers (thats what they call us) we easily hit more than a hundred completed fixes a week. like nothing. because we're bosses like that. (winning) It's been a real hell of an experience sitting within 20 feet of John Lasseter and the other animation leads as they direct and over watch the making of this film...

         Well I'm not here to geek out and gloat about this experience but I do want to say that this movie WILL be entertaining. It will hit it's target audience like a hurricane. I'm sorry you older people but you guys are gnna have just take it bc this movie is not for you, it's for the 4-10 year olds that for some reason LOVE, with a capital L, Cars to death. They made it a little people phenomenon bc Cars has made easily over 8 billion dollars world wide JUST on merchandise. Little boys like cars.. who knew? haha. here's the trailer (UK version bc i do think this one is better than the US version) I do hope you check it out and be on the look out for my name in the credits! 

Cars 2 Trailer 'Extended Version'

I know this is CARS.. but I've seen the movie... and I'm STILL excited to see this movie. All I'm saying that you better go to a movie theatre with a bad ass sound system...


Stay classy,
-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

If you want to achieve greatness, then stop asking for permission

      “There is a visual conversation that takes place on the streets of urban environments. This conversation is dominated primarily by advertising and utilitarian signage and assumes  passive participation. Whether invited or not I am going to participate in this conversation.Public spaces were never intended to be coated from top to bottom with photos of consumer products. These spaces should, in some manner, reflect the culture that thrives in that space.” -A Street Artist


       As you know (and if you don't you are about to know) I truly believe to use art for it's fullest potential is to say something with it, and what better place to do it than right in front of the public eye. Before some of you start to roll your eyes and start to whine about how, 'I don't get art, I'm not artsy, I'm an entertainer, most of the stuff doesn't even make sense!, what does a spray bottle dressed as Cambel's Soup even meeeaaan????' I will agree with you SOME stuff is just general hash hosh and you shouldn't hurt yourself trying to overanalyze it. But that shouldn't take away from the art that actually has something to say. For example the photo above has a piece done by the artist that goes by BANKSY. Simple but just complicated enough to provoke a wee bit of thought. It won't change your life but might be enough to at least get you to feel something, and isn't that what we are ALL trying to do with our art? Whether it be with music, painting or even animation. ISN"T THAT THE POINT WH WE CREATE? ..To get our audience to feel or to think? '..No danny, I make it so people can smile and laugh....'


     No shit Einstein.. To Laugh is pretty much visual evidence that you are feeling something, and you have to comprehend what you are seeing in order to laugh at it. So even if you are a creator for commercial reasons you are still an artist


     We are all artist. and our motives for making our art, no matter how different they seem, still come from the same deep drive and urge to create. Some people might say some motives to create (like money) are un-honorable and do not count. (I agree, but the things that are created for money are still created with the same passion that comes from us when we make art) If you haven't watched 'EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP' I really recommend it, it was a contender for an oscar and it was the focus of many jokes during the show last weekend. It explore the example above in a way that hits hard by the end of the documentary.

      Even the smallest gestures of art can bring a spot to life. Even if it's not visually evident you will feel it just by looking at it. I walk through Oakland to my work every day, the art that is found through out this city is precious in it's own way. These are lil bits and signs of humanity show up among the cement desert of billboards and advertisement that yell at your face to buy.. I bet your city is similar, and screams out just like mine. People who do street art might be called vandals and punks, but they are just trying to make the space they live in reflect the voice that it hidden. Public space is usually dominated by companies and advertisements and thus ceases to be public when you cannot even express your art or self through these damn public space. 
       You do not have to be a brilliant artist like Bansky to have something to say or become Andy Warhol to create something that grabs attention. My buddy leaves his mark with Post-it-Notes every where he goes. Other artist use stencils or paint directly on walls. The most popular starting tool is to create stickers and slap them on public places. Remember that painting and spraying on public property is illegal. Never paint for the simple goal of vandalizing – It’s better to create than to destroy. Never paint over other artists work, and never paint racist and explicit images. be classy about this and don't act like your 12. Here is a wonderful Blog about the very stuff I am talking about. 
OAKTOWN ART BLOG: How to make a Stencil

If you like the idea of doing your own art for your city  or just want to make something that says something.. and do not know what to start brainstorming, here's a check list.




Do you have a message?
Do you want to make something pretty? or shocking?
Do you want to challenge the status quo?
Do you want the people who see it to have a certain experience?

     I do hope I've gotten you to think about this art form and hopefully it finds some use in your future work. Drawing is the medium that is most accessible for this type of art. but I am sure that animation, music, and writing have their own power to show in street art. Go be an artist, or at least start thinking like one. you'll make the world a better place.