https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu5TE6xAnMg
Lifehacker has an interesting article by Andy Orin who interviews Sketch MacQuinor, lead animator behind Adult Swim’s Squidbillies.
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Tag Archives: Cartoon
Learning Animation 2016
Want to learn how to be an animator? In 2016 it’s not as hard as it once was. Years ago, you needed pencils, xerox machines, white out, pencil sharperers, X-Acto blades, tape, animation cels, animation paper, cel paint oh yes and an Oxberry camera! Never mind that there were not many animation school options to choose from. Fear not however, as the digital age is here to help you and thousands of tutorials are available allowing you to learn quite a bit about animation and the various techniques out there. there are also many digital options open to the animator in 2016 allowing you to cast away all those costly supplies once needed.
Schools
In the US there are many solid animations schools to choose from but in my opinion the best of them is Cal Arts here in Los Angeles mostly for the connections it has to the studios. Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks all harvest students from there yearly. There are many others around the country as well such as The School of Visual Arts in New York City and Full Sail in Florida. In Paris, Goeblins seems to produce some fantastic animators and I drool over the shorts their students make yearly. I personally went to a small school called the Joe Kubert School located in New Jersey which is also a good solid place to learn. A decent list of animation schools can be found on AWN and while it can be daunting because there’s so much, it’s a good place to start. I believe most of art school is what you choose to put into it and the plain old ‘pencil mileage’ that you put into your craft anyway so the school does’t matter as much to a focused student.
But what if you can’t relocate or don’t have money to go to a school? There are still options open to you to pursue. One is Animation Mentor.com which will allow you to learn remotely and is run by well respected animators and artists. If you can’t afford that, I would suggest simply studying animation frame by frame and copying what you see. While Youtube doesn’t do frame by frame you can easily download stuff and watch it with Quicktime. DVDs work as well.
Traditional Animation
Of course the old school way of tradition paper and pencil is still a viable way to learn but it’s getting harder and harder to finds supplies. Animation paper and peg bars can be purchased at Cartoon Color and other places around the web and you can film your scenes frame by frame but you’ll still need a computer to digitally put them together. An excellent free option is Monkey Jam which turns your webcam into a pencil test system. You could also use as digital camera and film your scene frame by frame but that’s not the best approach. Honestly most studios expect you to understand how to animate digitally so you’re going to have to learn this eventually.
Hardware
Most gaming PCs are powerful enough to produce animation both 2D and 3d, and even iMacs and Mac Books can do it. Most studios use Wacom Cintiqs to draw with but they’re mega expensive and not for everyone. There are also cheaper knockoffs of Cintiqs such as Yiyinova, Bosto Kingtee and X-Pen but you get what you pay for and they are not as good as Wacom’s flagship offering.Fortunately there are some cheap options out there to help you. Many studios use Pen tablets such as Wacom’s Intuos line which allow you to draw on a pad and look at your monitor. They’re not for everyone and I’ve never been able to effectively use one well but many people do amazing things with them. Another cheap option is purchasing a Motion Computing LE 1700 for a few hundred bucks and installing Sketchbook Pro which has a timeline that you can animate with.
Software
Software-wise, there are a number of free options out there such as Plastic Animation Paper and Pencil. If you have deep pockets, you can’t go wrong with Toon Boom Harmony which is used by Disney, Starburns Industries, Bentobox and many other studios to produce 2d animation. Toon Boom even offers a subscription so you can pay as you go. Finally you can also subscribe to Adobe Animate and while it’s not the greatest to draw with, there are many studios currently using the software to produce network TV such as Titmouse and Renegade Animation. Globally there is Mukpuddy, and Boulder Media.
If you’re into 3d animation it’s hard to go on the cheap but Autodesk now offers subscriptions for it’s Maya, and 3D Studio Max softwares so you can sign up with them and pay monthly. In contrast Blender is a solid 3d animation program and it’s free but most studios use the Autodesk software so you’re eventually going to have to learn their interfaces somehow.
All in all there are many options open to an artist seeking to learn animation in 2016 and so you have less and less excuses to not pursue your dreams, so stop reading this and get out there! (and don’t forget to come back and do an interview for us once you’re established!)
Roja Huchez
What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Roja Huchez.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
When I was a kid I used to work in the automotive industry handing out car parts to Mechanics. I realized early in life I needed to go to school to get a better life otherwise I’d be doing that type of work for the rest of my life. A great job, but it wasn’t for me, I needed to do art.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I worked on some characters in the movie Avatar among other films in a studio in New Zealand. It was a humbling experience being part of such a talented team. I learned a lot and hopefully now can share that knowledge wherever I go.
How did you become interested in animation?
Same old story as everybody else I guess. I was one of those kids who stayed in to draw. Mostly copying comic book covers. All the way through school I found Continue reading
Boltron Ultimate – The Infinite Army (Part 2 of 4)
Episode 2 of Spindo’s Boltron Ultimate created and animated by Chris Burns and Bob Fox is up and I really love the character designs on this as well as the stylized animation. We posted the first episode of Boltron Ultimate a few weeks ago if you’d like to catch up on the story and did a mini interview about the process with Chris and Bob as well. I have to say, watching these always makes me feel super nostalgic so it just might be time to get out my old Sonic the Hedgehog games! I think they need to make this an actual game! Incidentally,we interviewed Chris last July.
“Voltige” by Leo Brunel
A clever piece with great timing!
Rich Dannys
What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Rich Dannys. I’m currently working as a Layout Artist at Yowza Digital, here in Toronto.. We’re in production on a new web cartoon series for Nickelodeon.
My name is Rich Dannys. I’m currently working as a Layout Artist at Yowza Digital, here in Toronto.. We’re in production on a new web cartoon series for Nickelodeon.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
My summer jobs during high school, involved working at a pickle factory: shipping, receiving, and (later on) in their “Tank Farm”. Smelly work, but at least you could work on your tan! Â After college, I worked for a time at a comic-book distributor called “Andromeda”. Distribution nights, involved making very early-morning drives to both a nearby bus terminal for accounts in Montreal, Ottawa, and the Maritimes. And to Toronto Airport for accounts in Calgary, Edmonton, and Victoria, BC..
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve enjoyed most of the stuff I’ve worked on.. Layout on ‘BEETLEJUICE’ holds a lot of happy memories for me. My start in the business, and not a bad cartoon either.. When I started work in Design, I got to work on ‘CADILLACS & DINOSAURS’.. A very small, tight crew. I think we did good work, that was helped by a solid Japanese overseas studio.. Â Working on ‘RIPPING FRIENDS’ at Red Rover was also pretty great.. We had a lot of freedom on that cartoon, and Andy Knight had a genuine respect for all of the artists working at his studio..
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?Â
I’m from Scarborough, a suburb in the east-end of Toronto.. Went to Sheridan College for ‘Classical Animation’ from ’83 to ’85, but dropped-out before finishing. Was working retail at a comic-book shop when a buddy suggested I take the Layout Test at Nelvana.. They seemed to like the work I did on it, and hired me to do Layout on their ‘BEETLEJUICE’ cartoon in 1989. Later, I did some Design work at Nelvana, for their action-adventure cartoons.. And in the mid-90’s, I began freelancing full-time under my own corporate identity: ‘Flying Dutchman Studios, Inc.’
What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
Get into the studio around 10am.. Get my Scene list and check it against the current animatic. And then either begin roughing-out or cleaning-up my individual scenes. This also usually involves designing some stuff that hasn’t been designed yet.. Lunch around 12.30 pm. And a mid-afternoon coffee run around 3.15 pm, or so. Head home around 6.30 pm.. Lots of kibbitzing with fellow in-house artists, throughout the day, etc.
What part of your job do you like best? Why?Â
I get a lot of satisfaction purely from the act of drawing.. I really love drawing. Particularly, when I have a good idea of what each scene requires. The art of composition and making things “read visually” is also enjoyable. The staging, etc.. And when you get those rare moments when you can sneak something into a cartoon that you find funny or amusing, on the Design or Layout end. That can be a lot of fun, too..
What part of your job do you like least? Why?Â
Working from poorly-executed storyboards can be a real drag.. Trying to “fix” stuff that just isn’t working, but has somehow already gotten past layers of approval.. That, can be a frustration. But you always do what you can, to “plus” things. And hope that the phenomenon won’t materialize again, or continue throughout the duration of the production..
What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis, how has technology changed in the last few years in your field and how has that impacted you in your job?
Right now, I’m using Photoshop on a cintiq.. I still prefer the old analog pencil-and-paper. But realize that it isn’t coming back anytime soon, and that’s a shame. The hardest thing for me to get used to now, is no longer having a nice thick storyboard that I can leaf thru at my leisure and make my notes, etc. Having to log onto a computer just to check an animatic, is annoying. And nowhere near the same experience.. I don’t read my books digitally. And would prefer not to “read” my storyboards that way either, given the chance..
What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?
Keeping pace with new software and new methods of production.. Each studio invents it’s own production pipeline. Some are good, some not so much.. The changes in the industry are happening so fast now, that it’s hard to keep pace with it all. Â Working contract-to-contract can be difficult, too. Though that aspect does seem to be improving lately, to a degree. Working full-time as a freelance artist will always be a challenge, I think. Â And having a regular gig is something that we all dream of..
If you could change the way the business works and is run how would you do it?
It’s always nice to have bigger budgets with longer production schedules.. But my entire Animation career has been in TV production. So that equation doesn’t seem to materialize very often.. More money to make cartoons, and more time to create them? That would be a nice improvement..
In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?
I don’t really have Animation heroes, per se.. I had Kaj Pindal as my Animation History teacher at Sheridan. He’s a bit of a local legend here, I suppose.. And I enjoyed working alongside Jim Smith when he came up to Red Rover studio, during production on ‘The RIPPING FRIENDS’. Looking over his shoulder as he storyboarded, proved insightful.. Most of my artistic heroes come out of the Comic-Book field, I guess? I got to meet Mark Schultz, when we did ‘CADILLACS & DINOSAURS’.. Later on, I got to know Dave Stevens pretty good.. He’s famous for creating ‘The ROCKETEER’. But he actually started out as an Animation Layout guy; working at both Filmation and Hanna-Barbera. So, we were always able to discuss Animation on that level.. Boy, I really miss that guy!
Describe a tough situation you had in life.
I’m currently seperating from my wife.. Does that qualify? hah  In the past 10 years, I  also spent a good deal of time caring for my aging parents.. That too, posed it’s share of challenges.  But for the most part, I’ve been very fortunate in my life. For which, I’m very thankful!
Any side projects you’re working on that you’d like to share details of?
I’ve been talking it up for years, ad nauseum.. But one day, I AM going to publish my own comic-book project! I self-published a sketchbook in 2003, and loved the entire process.. Taking control of one’s own artistic destiny, can be a tremendously satisfying endeavour.. Â I heartily recommend it!
Any unusual talents or hobbies like tying a cherry stem with your tongue or metallurgy?
As a younger man, I used to take stairs (both up-AND-down) two steps at-a-time.. I’m a short, stocky guy. with very strong legs. I inherited my Dad’s physique, I guess. Dunno, if I’d try it now though. I’m a lot older. Perhaps, wiser?.. Some, would argue that point. So, I guess the Jury is still out on that one!
Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business?
Draw, draw, draw.. And draw some more.. I’ve taught a little bit. And always tell my students that drawing is the very foundation of the Animation (or Comic-Book) business. Storytelling too, certainly. But without learning fundamental drawing skills, you’ve really crippled yourself from the very start. Â After that, Humility is a pretty good tool to have, too!.. When you stop learning in Life, you get old very quickly. So make a point of learning something new each and every day!
