Why does Disney still have drawing classes?

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(I read this really cool article a while back! Thought I'd summarize it here because it touched upon some important things students and new animators should keep in mind! Enjoy the post!)

The Disney Studios

"Disney makes movies with only computers now, nobody draws, CG is destroying the business, Remember when animation used to be good??"

      This is shit I read on the daily.. But it couldn't be further from the truth! Over here at Disney we draw, and are always learning. For about 82 years this studio has been developing and teaching artist behind the scenes through figure drawing classes and with lectures on classical drawing.

Why??
       As artist we are dealing with characters. Characters have bodies and we have to know how to move them believably! Other wise you get animation that looks like it came straight out of 'QWOP'

      In these drawing classes here at Disney, they don't just lock us in a room with "it's a small world" blaring from speakers as projectors flash the words: "MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC" over and over, lol. We actually have some pretty cool drawing masters lead the class and walk around as we draw the model. Sometimes as they will politely interrupt you and say, "Nice!" While other days they might sit down and give you a personal demo on how to nail that foreshortened knee.

      You can create an animated film with out knowing how to draw. But it's more about what drawing knowledge can add to your art. "You can't achieve dynamics with out bones and structure, and in order to have structure you need to study it. From there one can extend out in any direction towards any style." -Karl Gnass

      Check out this drawing by Glen Keane. Drawings like these influence how the characters are created and sculpted in computer animated films.

   On a more personal note, these drawing classes aren't to just have us in tip-top shape 24/7. They also serve as an escape. I know I go to these 2 1/2 hour classes during lunch to get away once in a while. Some people play Foosball, others sit and video chat with love ones. All day you are working on the directors vision and bringing it to life which is awesome! Though, getting some 'me' time to remind myself, 'hey I have ideas too' is also great. I get to do what ever I want in that class and have some fun creating something for no one other than me. That opportunity to do that in your work place is priceless!

      Who do we have to thank? Art Drawing classes started at Disney around 1932 thanks to Art Babbitt. It was uninstructed at first, but then Disney hired Don Graham, who taught at an art school in Los Angeles.

Figure Drawing back in the day

    Now to something relevant: You will see computer artist who are attending drawing classes with the sole intent to gain some secrets of how things move by studying anatomy and structure. They don't understand that its more than that. You have to not only understand why something is right but also how to create it from the inside out with feeling. (WOA DANNY, that was way tooo artsy. slow down there) All I'm saying is that you don't draw to become an animator or to work in animated films. You draw to help yourself become an artist. And that said, Artists can make the best animators.

Thanks for reading!
The original article is here so make sure to give it a look for it is much better written :) Original text

Self Education

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More on Self education in my WORKSHOPS tab ^^        

I've always been about making education if not affordable, well at least free. "But Danny now you are teaching for a hefty price... what gives?"

         -Yes, I thought about that and that's why I'm writing this post. There's a lot of people out there who can't afford colleges, animations schools or workshops. They lose hope and don't know Self teaching is an option. It's hard but IT IS POSSIBLE. I came across many students trying to teach themselves how to animate as I did research on this topic. Some had the self taught route under control and knew what they were doing. I'm passing along what I found so that it may be a guide to those who want to become animators but are lost because they can not afford higher education.  

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       Personally I can relate to the self-taught route because growing up all I did was study on my own and teach myself to draw. Even though teaching yourself how to animate and teaching yourself how to draw are very different, they share a lot of the same hurdles and issues. Self Education is not easier than going to college, in fact it is harder because you are doing this on your own with no teachers or mentors. Many people try to go the self taught route and fail (True Story)

IT TAKES TIME

       - Yourself is not a walk in the park, teach at your own pace, smooth merry go round full of fun. It's as much work as a full time job. The amount of effort you put into your self education is equal to the results you should expect to receive from it. If you spend 5 hours a week self teaching while there are students in colleges spending 6 hour days, 5 days a week taking classes, what do you think your chances are when it's time to hire you or them? 

IS YOUR DRIVE BOTTOMLESS

       -You have to want your goal really bad, but your WANT can not be more than what you are physically willing to do. Example: You want to be an animator but you didn't realize it was so tedious to create animation. You must have patience and foresight to keep the light at the end of the tunnel with in reach. 

REALIZE YOU ARE NOT A PRODIGY

        -Surround yourself with people who do better than you, work harder than you and want their dreams just as bad, they just might rub off on you in a good way

We aren't all just destined for greatness - it takes hard work to get there!

Here are some Idea's I compiled from online sources of things to do for experience:

1. Make your own animated film, even if you have no budget. It doesn't matter if it's very bad,  stop motion with Lego figures, or an experiment with Post it notes. Making a film will show you exactly how much work goes into everything and help develop perspective and respect for the business. (though making a film should not count as practicing working on your skills - PRACTICE ROUTINE)
2. Watch a lot of movies, take notes, and listen to the director commentary tracks. The commentary can be a gold mine of information on why directors made the choices they made, the challenges they faced, etc. Sometimes they'll call out things you never even noticed.
3. Learn a lot about story structure, and what makes something engaging, entertaining, satisfying. Here are book I found people mention
   • Invisible Ink and The Golden Theme by Brian McDonald
   • Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
   • Francis Glebas' blog (especially his "Ride the Dragon" story structure)
   • The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
4. Once you've figured out story, then learn about Visual storytelling. It's is an awesome tool for your 'mental toolbox'. In any film, but especially animation, you want to say as much as possible with the visuals, and use as few shots as possible to get it across. Watch really good movies, do sketches of the key moment in each shot or a whole scene and take note of all the different shots there are, and put them together in a reverse-engineered storyboard, so you can see how they were constructed and why the director and story artists made those decisions. There are a few books that have been recommended to me on this subject, but that I have yet to read:
   • The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media by Bruce Block
   • Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner
   • Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts by Nancy Beiman
   • DREAM WORLDS - Hans Bacher
   There are also plenty of video tutorials on Vimeo and YouTube, if you search for them. One great video lecture I read that was recommended Sherm Cohen on Vimeo, about the 7 Hidden Patterns of Successful Storyboards.
5. Take a look and see if there are any workshops, classes, or other resources you can tap into to help inform and build your knowledge to create your own curriculum. Skillshare is popular, and it's very affordable as well. there are courses from Sarah Zucker that teach a bit about story structure with the added benefit of valuable feedback from peers. The course was Screenwriting: Writing the 10-minute Short. Daniel Gonzales, an animator at Disney, is also teaching a course called Constructing a Story: Advanced Visual Storytelling, and his lectures have been invaluable from the visual storytelling perspective. Another resource that you may be very interested in is a new book by Tony Bancroft, who directed Mulan. The book is Directing for Animation: Everything You Didn't Learn in Art School.
6. Learn how to make decisions. There is an interview once with Brad Bird, where he compared being a director to being one of the grasshoppers who get pummeled with seeds in that scene from A Bug's Life, when Hopper makes a point to his gang. The seeds are questions, and as a director, you are buried in them every day - you have more than you can possibly ever answer. But as director, you can never say "I don't know..." you always have to know, because you are the #1 decision maker, and there is no one else for you to go to. So figure out how to look like you know what you're doing, so your crew can trust that they can come to you and get an answer.
7. Aim to make your work compete with the quality of the work of someone who has a job you want! Aim high and never settle
8. LEARN FROM ALL ARTS: straight from Lips of Brad Bird (Director of the 'Incredibles')

        So those are some things to do. I know the reality right now is that you'd love to go to a school and have a mentor, work with peers, and get all the benefits that a study course would offer... but you can't. I hope this post is a little beacon that gives you a little more guidance than you'd have other wise if you are thinking about taking this scary journey on your own. 

Why is it great to be an animator. Here is Steven Spielberg saying why

Improving Your Animation 101

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lol

       If you are an aspiring animator (or artist) and you find yourself spending more time reading than actually DOING anything then I'm writing this for you. No  baseball player ever read a lot about baseball and then was an amazing baseball player. If you think that since animation isn't a sport you do not have to practice?? Wrong. Articles and tips can get you motivated and inspired to work but thy wont make you great.

      The nine old men of animation (9 men who invented the guidelines of HOW TO ANIMATE) they didn't have anyone give them tips or tricks. They had to do Good ol' hands-on-training. I've searched the internet and asked around and I have put together a list of exercises for an aspiring animator to do! Even if you consider yourself advanced I would suggest you still start from level one. never hurts to make sure you have your abc's/basics locked down :)

      Always remember the 12 principles of animation (google it if you do not know them bc it will change your world!) you should try to incorporate all of them in all your animation test if possible! I put in parenthesis the skills the exercise challenges but always remember that all the 12 principles should addressed.

Basics
Bouncing ball (loop) (squash and stretch/spacing)
Bouncing ball across the screen (2 bounces) (squash and stretch/spacing)
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Cinder Block sliding off a shelf, hitting the floor. (spacing, form)
Flour Sac Jump (mass)
A blink (spacing/squash and stretch)
A head turn (transitions/ arcs)

breaking a sweat
walk cycle (technical)
run cycle (technical)
character jumping (physical/ spacing)
Suicide backwards fall off a ledge (subtle delays and overlap)
A character getting up from a chair (physical, anticipation)
A smile (face muscles, appeal)
A sneeze (exaggeration and timing)
Do an action that requires a 'smear' (technical)
Laughing (reference studying)

Marathon training
Animate a hand doing something-close up (anatomy)
character lifting a heavy object (weight)
animate a dog shaking after a bath (overlap follow through)
hammering a nail (timing spacing)
character blowing up a balloon (physicality)
piano falling on a character (timing weight)
character brushing their teeth (personality)
character eating a sandwich (personality)
getting up out of bed (physical personality)
waiting for the bus stop (entertainment/ appeal)

Quitters quit, winners win
character throwing a bucket of water on another (physical acting)
tug of war b/w two characters (tension)
character drinking wine (research)
character making an egg- full process from fridge to mouth (rhythm and timing)
A feather falling and being blown by the wind (reference)
character reacting to "your parents are dead" (acting)
putting on a pair of pants (physical)
sleeping character being startled, then going back to sleep (rhythm and texture)


KEEP IN MIND - These will make you better not get you a job. Studios want to see dialogue and acting. what these exercises above do is help you become a better animator!

You are not animating lines, you are animating a personality, an emotion, the feelings. you are animating something deeper than just what you see.

keep it simple.

You don't have to show anyone, these tests are for you!!!

working out isn't fun, animation should be. that is the ONLY difference between sit ups and animation :)

internship deadline 2 weeks away?  ...SMH

The Process 101: Critiquing A Short film

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Since I always encourage people to send me work here is the result of one of these emails. I thought this letter would also give some insight and help others who might find themselves in the same predicament. Enjoy :)
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So lets get down to business. (excuse my misspellings and forgetting to CAP my sentences and much much more) Here is a rant of questions I have regarding your short film

       Why is he writing, for who, for what? Does he get what he wants by the end? What does he even want? Why does he not want the skeleton to read the paper, how does he know if its the same paper he was writing on? why does he want to keep the skeleton in the closet, doesn't he want to show off a walking skeleton thats alive?? If it represents something i dont see it whats the relationship between the skeleton and the boy. who's the boy in the photo, he looks like the main character, is the skeleton also writing a story, why are the crumbled papers so important, why does the skeleton go to the door, does magic already exist in this world, why is the boy not freaked out, what does the skeleton want and why? (on a side note, another reason your story is confusing is because you have to hint to all the elements of your story in the beginning. You introduce magic but the story is under way and it came out of no where. It is possible to keep the supernatural part of your story but that I can discuss later if you want)

      So that's a little bit of a rant. They're all rhetorical questions so no need to answer them. But one thing is apparent, your intent and your symbolism is overtaking your story to the point that the story isnt making sense. So this is how I would fix it:

       Lets keep your theme. "Coming out of the closet." ..thats not a theme by the way. The theme is more:"Accepting something about yourself" So EVERY decision I make is going to be based off that sentence. 

       Since by the end of the story the boy has to accept himself ,then to make a full character arc, we shall in the beginning make him not accept something. (original story: you have him being frustrated. thats one reason your story feels like its all over the place. unless you would show at the end of your original animatic that he was overwhelmingly calm)  

        Another thing I want to change is your symbolism.. or.. at least tone it down, One thing to remember is you can not carry a story based on symbolism alone, symbols have to support your story not take front and center. I'm going to keep your symbol of the closet but ditch the literal skeleton. I'm also going to take the magic out of your short. It doesn't need it. So bear with me and read along my version of a story about accepting yourself. I'm changing a lot so dont get scared. But notice how in the beginning our character isn't accepting and through things that happen I force him to change. (change shouldn't come easy it has to be hard, if it was easy then there wouldn't be much of a story to tell bc he would change in the first scene)

STORY:

-Its a boys 8 yr old birthday. All the cool kids with their flashy clothes are there at his party 

-He gets a jacket as a present, he is embarrassed of it because its ugly.

-First day of school. it's windy outside. He chooses not to wear the jacket and throws it to the back of his closet. He's very cold all day

-Second day of school. It's raining. He looks at his jacket. walks to the closet and reaches for--- a magazine. walks to school and uses it to block the rain. He gets very very soaked and is very cold all day and gets sick

-Third day, ITS SNOWING. He reluctantly takes his jacket from his closet. He arrives at school. He anticipates the kids making fun of him and his jacket bc it's ugly. But they don't even notice his jacket. They tell him to hurry up and join them in a game. 

-alterante ending- he gets to school and is so happy being warm and not wet and cold he doesn't care about being made fun of. he's warm and everybody's fancy jackets don't even come close to keeping them as warm as his does.

DONE

       Super simple. lots of opportunity of cool character animation especially when he's making decisions. Sorry about taking out the magic. I really liked it but it's too much trouble for what it's worth. You can still use a skeleton, just put it on his jacket :) See how the symbolism is there? but it's now lowered to a supporting role. :) This is a lot of stuff happening for one story your sanity will lie with how efficiently you story board it. I will do one supper little pass to get you started. 

NOTICE HOW I ONLY USE AND SHOW WHATS IMPORTANT. AND IF IT''S NOT A SUPPER IMPORTANT STORY POINT, I SHOW IT AND THEN MOVE ON. DO NOT LINGER. 

I wont linger doing unnecessary shots if doesn't add/show new information to the story. 

NOTE, 

       I over simplified and of course it looks like a 3 year old story boarded it. BUT it's clear and when you redraw these with cool angles and such, make sure you make your drawings just as clear. are your main story points clear. All the detail you add to your drawings should some second to the story telling elements. Besides, you shouldn't focus to much on story, you want to animate then right? Then get to it. also notice how i re-used some camera shots. YOU ONLY RE-INTRODUCE A SHOT if you have something new to say. the less shots you use, the less confusing your short will be.That is super important. Try to do the same if you are going to change the shots. You can add shots but I wouldn't recommend it. Its already a lot to animate. 

      Your longest shot should be the walk to school! also notice by doing that you are spending the most amount of time on the most important part of the story. Not the end, not the beginning, but the whole part before he gets to school on the last day. Thats his most emotional part (he should be thinking, 'omg what are the other kids going o think of me, omg omg etc) I could of spent more time in the beginning at the birthday party but then I'm going to make it compete for importance with the walk to school on the snow day. REMEMBER, how much time you spend on a moment = how important it is. So DECIDE whats your most important and what isn't important. And use your time accordingly.

I hope this helps!

WRECK IT RALPH: sketches

WRECK IT RALPH

     I hope you all have gone and seen the movie! It was a lot of fun helping create such a fun film. I thought I 'd share some sketches I did while on the film. They are just little doodles and chicken scratches on post it notes and toss away pieces of paper.

ONE of my first sketches of ralph... when I actually had time to draw

'BUT DANNY TELL US SOMETHING INTERESTING?!'
     Hmm, Well working on the film feels like you and your co-workers are on a giant boat. Everyone has their job to do and something to help out with. You learn and become close with your 'crew' bc you end up seeing them more than anyone else, even your family and loved ones. So they in some sense.. a sort of family to you as well.
     And just like a real boat there are rough times and easy times. During the harsh times, there is no sleep, everyone is hard at work, we are all stressed, and it feels like there is no end in sight. Smooth times always come early on in the making of the film. It'll ramp up and get busy until a climatic few weeks of overtime and hell... and then.. its done. Then you have to remember how to live life again and find out what were your old hobbies, and remember that people exist outside of your work life. And you have to be social! (unless you can not remember how to be social by this point)
    Watching the world react to the film through Facebook and reading the reviews in all the magazines is a pretty crazy feeling. It's kind of having a venerable sort of feeling in your gut as you read what people say about the movie. Last but not least, seeing your name in the credits.. makes a landmark checkpoint of emotion that causes me to reflect and see how far I've come and to be excited about the future. I have a lot of life to live and my road is just getting started.

      There was always something to do! It left very little time for drawing, but the sticky notes above I did while animating those characters. Drawing on post it notes is a very good way to become detached to your drawing and let loose. You find yourself drawing very fast with out being precious about each little line you do. And even though that line isn't perfect, there is some energy captured in it that no amount of fiddling and perfection would repeat.

      Animating Vanelope was very fun. I was intimidated by her a lot until I was given a few shots with her.  Vanelope has a very cartoony 2D appeal to her that we always had to be aware of. Not as much as king candy but still a decent amount.

Sometimes when I'm stuck I figure out my problems with drawings

     I spent most of my time animating in Sugar Rush as you might figure out if you look at the ratio of candy racer drawings to everything else. I also animated a lot of characters in the Game Central Station, the Felix party in the beginning of the movie and at the climax of the movie. I do have a lot more sketches but I'll save them for another post. I hope you all enjoyed the movie and make sure to watch it a second time to find all the hidden things in the back ground (hint: look at the graffiti on the walls in game central station)

Animation: Boy with Fire

 

      And you can always see what kind of student some one is by looking at their work. I went to the California College of the Arts Animation Show last week and saw a lot of amazing good stuff. A little Stop Motion, a little modelling and rendering, some amazing 2D animation as well as some very nice 3D animation. But no matter the quality you can always kinda guess the students work flow. Just keep that in mind when you are hoping that you can fool your teacher by doing your work the day before it's due...

When ever an animation assignment is given to a student, there are three types of students that I have observed.

-The type that procrastinate. They start late, they have an epic short film and want to finish it two weeks before it's due..

-The type that over estimate themselves. That start early and they want to do a fifteen minute short in 5 months...

-And lastly the type that is right in the middle. They don't aim to be epic, and they do not procrastinate.

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Here is what I animated for the CCA Animation Show 2011. Hope you like it.
If the Video Does not play, here's the link Boy with Fire



      I was asked to make this 3 weeks before the show, so that gave me 2 weeks to animate. So a couple of all nighters here some Starbuck breaks there and this is what you get. Thanks to my friend for the special effects with photoshop!  I also Provided my Pencil Test version with no sound and no special effects so you can see all my notes and mistakes flash and pop in the corners of the pages. You will see numbers and drawings and those help me keep track of my drawings and planning when I am in the middle of animating. Do notice the fire! It was my first time animating fire and it was fascinating. I will have to do a whole post about just fire soon to share some stuff I learned.

(Sorry no Pencil Test, could not upload)

      I cannot stress how important it is to always do your own work on the side even when you do have a job animating. A lot of Artists NEED that certain type of freedom that allows them to explore, and there's no better way to do that than on your own terms.
      But if you do need some structure I want to tell you about SPLINE DOCTORS. They're are having a month long animation contest. It starts May 9th and ends June 10th. If you're gnna say that you wish you had time or that you are too busy, those are excuses. The hours from 10PM to 2AM I find are Prime animation time that any one can tap into to. No one bothers you, nothing on TV. It's golden. MAKE TIME to do art. The link to The Spline Doctors Web Page is on the upper right side of my page. They are offering Prizes for the top three best animated pieces they receive. Good luck!

-Daniel Gonzales

Attention To Details...

Some people learn by example. So I'm posting a link at the end of this post. When you watch this video look at how the main guy (Brian Wilson) doesn't accept anything but what he has envisioned in his mind.

     When you know what you want to create, you don't settle for any variations. Don't go for accidents that look ok and then take credit for them. Painters: make every color because YOU mixed for it. For drawers: make every line deliberately. Same with animation. Don't accept an anomaly in your animation and say, "Well I was going for sneak walk cycle, but this looks like a double bounce.. sooo I'm going to do a double bounce now."
     You learn nothing like that. Spontaneity is good sometimes, but do not rely on it. Learn how to control details.. The purpose of learning details is so your work not only looks good the first time around but also when people take their time and stop to check out your work. You don't want it to look nice from afar and then when they come close to see it actually looks like shit... In high school that is one thing I worked really hard on, details. It teaches you patience and trains you eye and hand. Here is an example, the following picture I drew back in the summer of my sophomore year in high school. It was for my brother.

      In the close up, you can still see my pencil marks, my goal was to make it so perfect you couldn't tell it was done in pencil. I was close, but the point was that I was trying to control my level of detail and not just let random lines make up my drawing in a span of ten minutes.. TAKE YOUR TIME! There is no rush. You'll be so surprised in how much you can learn when you spend two hours on something..

     Here's a link I promised earlier. when you listen to it, again, just listen to the directors specific choices. he knows what he want's before he starts. And once you have that kind of mind set, your work might be tremendously complex, but it'll be under control because you know every detail and how you want each one to turn out. So check out this video. It's a real treat to see this genius at work. Brian Wilson is one of the greatest song composers of all time. So take your time and listen to all of it. And then go put as much dedication into your own work.

super awesome video

-Daniel Gonzales