Evangeline Than

The web series that I’m helping to produce is looking for animators. Check out the ad here: http://gatestreethigh.blogspot.com/2010/01/animators-wanted.html

Yesterday evening I attended my first animation writer’s group meeting.

Kate Vyvyan, a well-known animation writer and producer, chaired the meeting and kept the conversation flowing.

Also present were Adam, a doctor turned animator with some unusual ideas for a new animated TV series, and Geoff, a cartoonist with a dark sense of humour who was thinking of making his ‘toons into a short film. Adam treated us to a special viewing of the opening credits for his show, and Geoff passed around sheets and sheets of hilarious Gary Larson-esque cartoons.

I seized the moment and showed Kate, Adam and Geoff an idea that I had pitched for our Diploma of Animation final project, and received some excellent feedback, filling up a page with notes on how to increase my character’s appeal and engage the audience.

Kate also talked about what was going on in the animation industry, events that she had attended and would be attending (SPAA! MIPCOM!), and we also had a look at this month’s topic, adapting children’s books for animated film and television.

As usual, many heads are better than one and I found the writer’s group meeting encouraging and invigorating. It looks like I have another event to mark permanently on the calendar!

When: Meetings are usually held on the second Tuesday of every month, but it is best to check with Kate beforehand. You can contact Kate through WAnimate’s Wiki page at http://wanimate.pbworks.com/Animation+Writers+Group.

If you receive an invitation to the next meeting, do RSVP as soon as possible to confirm your attendance. Meetings are cancelled if there aren’t enough attendees.

Where: The Australian Writer’s Guild HQ, 196 Oxford St, Leederville.

Here are some notes from an Industry Knowledge presentation I gave while studying animation at FTI.

We were each assigned an organisation to research and then presented our findings to the class, explaining how this organisation would be useful to people working in animation.

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ORGANISATION: Digital Labourers Federation (DLF)

WHO ARE THEY: A social group for anyone working with or interested in digital art. DLF members communicate via a mailing list.

HOW TO JOIN: Membership is open to anyone involved in creating images made with computer technology. Many DLF members work in film and television.

Go to http://dlf.org.au and click “If you want to join then click here and fill out your registration form.” You will be taken to a registration page which asks for your full name, company, contact details, website and occupation.

After you submit this form, and your registration has been approved, you will be sent three e-mails welcoming you to the different mailing lists: dlf-mailout, dlf-news and dlf-jobs.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU JOIN: You will receive lots and lots of e-mails and basically have a forum running in your inbox.

WHO LOOKS AFTER THE DLF: Kit Devine (an animation lecturer and 3D animator) and Grant Fraser (a professional photographer) manage membership for the mailing list, moderate the list (this includes booting out any trouble-makers), and keep e-mail headers consistent.

Kit and Grant are also active participants in the DLF mailing list; they post information about jobs, highlight interesting articles or news items, or just add their knowledge to the pool when questions are asked.

As in any Internet forum, there are also regular posters who work in the industry and are always happy to dispense advice.

MAILING LIST CONTENT AND MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS:

• Content varies widely but ranges from people asking what everyone thought of Wolverine’s CG blades in the latest X-Men movie, to very specific discussions about how to get a certain texture in 3D Studio Max, product reviews, beginners asking for help, and advice regarding breaking into the industry.
• Kit and Grant also post information about jobs available locally, interstate and internationally, competitions, social events, new courses, and the latest animation news.
• A lot of people post links to their show reels and portfolios and ask other DLF members for constructive feedback, which usually given in large quantities and with excellent response time.

SOCIALISING THROUGH THE DLF:

• 26 May 2009 – Through the DLF mailing list, I found out about “Show Us Your Bits” (http://letsmakegames.org/2009/05/14/letsmakegamesorg-may-mixer-and-showcase/), a mixer night organised by “Let’s Make Games”, a support group for the Perth games industry. I met games development students and lecturers from Edith Cowan University, enjoyed the hospitality of the Brass Monkey,  and got to see Tim Beeson’s “Bacon Wings” game make a public debut.
• 28 May 2009 – Perth doesn’t have regular DLF meetings like the Eastern states, but cartoonist Mathew Hampton was enthusiastic enough to organise a Perth DLF drinks night at the 43 Below Bar. What a great night – Chris Toovey (an FTI alumnus) came, along with most of his co-workers from Last Pixel (http://lastpixel.com.au/). I had an entertaining and informative chat with them about how they entered the industry and what kind of work they were doing now. I also met Simon Boxer, who used to be a concept artist at Interzone and is now working freelance, and we had a very interesting discussion about the Perth games industry. It was a fantastic meeting of like-minded people who are all passionate about what they do, and I hope to be fortunate enough to work with them in the near future.

TIPS FOR GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE DLF:

• Set up e-mail filters so that DLF messages are forwarded to a special folder where you can read them at your leisure. Within this folder, sort by subject so that you can read each thread in an uninterrupted manner.
• The sheer mass of mail you receive can become unwieldy very quickly, so archive and delete DLF mail ruthlessly, making sure you keep any gems that will be useful to you in the future.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions. DLF posters are supportive, kind, and generous in sharing their knowledge. Kit and Grant run a tight ship!
• Take advantage of networking opportunities!

CONCLUSION:

• I strongly advise all animators to join the DLF mailing list, by doing so you will really have a finger on the pulse of Australian animation. In addition, joining will give you access to the knowledge and support of hundreds of Australian animators of all levels.
• The DLF is an invaluable support group for early career film makers and animators.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint Exupéry

This wonderful animated short by Louis Clichy, a Pixar animator and Gobelins graduate (the same school that produced Oktapodi) is pretty close to perfection.

You can view more of Clichy’s work at the Cube Creative Computer Company website.

Sources: embedded video from Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePMK3FeyYxI. I first read about this film at Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, URL: http://drawn.ca/2009/05/08/a-quoi-ca-sert-l%e2%80%99amour/ (posted May 9th, 2009).

At last! Being swamped by the missives from the DLF mailing list has paid off!

I mean, I love getting my DLF mail, because they do discuss a lot of cool things and I can pretend I’m really, really popular, but a lot of the subject matter goes over my head in these early days. Mental ray velocity passes? Yeah, I’ll just lean back with a faraway look in my eyes, stroke my imaginary goatee, and pretend I know what you’re talking about, dudes

This evening, stib from pureandapplied.com.au posted a link to a 2007 post by Keith Lango, an animator who also runs the Animation Personal Trainer program.

Keith has excellent advice for indie animators working on personal projects, especially people like me who are always trying to be faster! Stronger! Higher!

We can’t produce similar stuff to the big studios because we just don’t have the (wo)man days and resources to do so, but instead of being discouraged, we should use these limitations to open up new possibilities and spark creativity.

Read Keith’s pearls of wisdom here.

Sources: Blog post by Keith Lango, “The Fool’s Errand, Part 1″, URL: http://keithlango.blogspot.com/2007/07/fools-errand-part-1.html (posted July 14th, 2007). I first read about this on the Digital Labourers Federation mailing list, April 21st, 2009.

The How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator blog has a great Google Video clip taken from the documentary, “Finding Lady: The Art of Storyboarding”.

The 13-minute-long clip is hosted by Disney Animator Eric Goldberg, and shows storyboards from old and new Disney movies. Animation is the main focus, but it also includes information about storyboarding techniques used in live action movies.

And according to the writer of the post, storyboards are invaluable when planning children’s picture books too.

Winging it can be fun, but storyboards make everything better!

Watch it here.

Source: “Let’s Board It Up!” The Magic of the Storyboard at How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator,  URL: http://howtobeachildrensbookillustrator.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/storyboard-video/ (posted April 21st, 2009).

Wow-wow-wow. Check out illustrator and animator Joel Trussell’s new website out for some very cool retro style. I especially like his music videos.

Joel also has a blog (http://joeltrussell.blogspot.com/) where you can see what he’s been up to and working on. I’ve already subscribed to the feed. The links sidebar in his blog is a treasure trove of new artists to discover–I’ll get through them all one day!

Source: I first read about Joel on the Drawn! blog, URL: http://drawn.ca/2009/04/03/joel-trussells-new-site/ (posted April 3rd, 2009).

Two weeks ago I won a double pass to see a screening of Mary and Max, thanks to FTI, Luna Palace Cinemas and project Anomie.

It wasn’t just any old screening either. It was a SPECIAL screening (held on the 29th of March), followed by a Q & A with Adam Elliot (writer, director, Academy Award winner), and Melanie Coombs (producer, cheerleader, cajoler, magician).

Mary and Max is about the growing and evolving pen-friendship between Mary, a lonely eight-year-old girl from the Melbourne suburbs, and Max, an obese, Jewish, New Yorker with Asperger’s Syndrome. The film is wickedly observant and lovingly peppered with bits of Australiana that will make you smile with recognition.

Shivering in anticip…ation.

Actually, it was rather warm so I was perspiring gently with anticipation, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring.

Before the movie started, we were treated to a short claymation film made by three of my classmates from FTI’s animation course.

The … ah … opening credits for the introductory short.

The client brief stated that it was OK if the short ended up looking “really, really crappy”, but I still think it has a certain charm. It took two days of hard work to make, not to mention a lot of admirable restraint. (Do you know how hard it is for talented artists–trust me, I’ve seen their normal work–to make something that looks crappy?)

A still from the introductory claymation. I would have liked to insert the actual film here but my blog editor doesn’t like .wmv files, for some reason.

Hurrah for Daniel, Miles and Crystal! (That’s Daniel Kristjansson, Miles Hansen, and Crystal Bradley.) And special thanks to our training facilitator, Ebbie Williams, who came in on the second day to help (above and beyond the call of duty) and then spent hours putting it all together in post-production.

The idea and the voice (now with extra grunting!) were provided by Christian Horgan from the ABC. He is the man with the elegant head sitting on the right, in the picture below.

At last–Q & A time! (From the left: Mary and Max producer Melanie Coombs, director and writer Adam Elliot, and presenter Christian Horgan.)

This was my first film Q & A, and I made some quick notes so you can share in the goodness too:

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD

Adam:

• On how he comes up with his stories. “I tend to start with the details and then work backwards.”
• Adam described himself as “a very impatient film maker”. “I try to create really dense films … so when [the audience] leave the cinema, I haven’t wasted an hour and a half of [their] lives.”
• “Even though there’s a lot of dark matter, I try to make the ending as hopeful as possible … If I really wanted to make it dark, Mary’s baby would have died and Max would have been eaten by his pets!”
• He strives to create characters that are “authentic and believable”, saying, “I want you to be moved by [Max],”  and, “We make ‘clayographies’.”

Some interesting making-of information:

• Miles asked how smoke was created, and Adam replied that they used black velvet and coiled white wire, carefully rotated and shot frame by frame to add transparency.
• Making water and waves: most of the water, in glasses, fishbowls, toilets, was actually clear lubricant. To make ocean waves, about 50 tubes of lubricant (!) was emptied onto a sheet of Perspex, and then cellophane was laid over the top. The cellophane, plumped up with lubricant, was poked and prodded to look like waves. A frame would be shot, the cellophane would be manipulated again, they would shoot another frame, and so on.

Melanie and Adam specially thanked Perth animators and crew who had worked on the movie, mentioning Pierce Davison, who was in the audience.

I also learnt some Q & A etiquette for next time. These scientific observations have been derived from watching the audience, listening to the types of questions asked (and the responses to these questions: formulaic? Excited? Pithy?), and my rising or ebbing blood pressure.

• Do some research before attending the Q & A. Go to the film’s website, Google the film title, and read interviews. This will help you with the next bit.
• Come prepared with questions that have not already been answered by the website, or in interviews. There will be many people in the audience who will be bored (OK, maybe just me), and using their imagination to quietly stab you (again, maybe just me). You are talking to the film’s creators in REAL LIFE. They are your captives. Now is the time to ask them any questions that were not in the sanitised press release; hard, gritty, unusual, burning questions!
• Hmm, how to put this nicely … compliments are nice, but do keep them short, and for the love of [insert deity] please do not say things like, “This is such a wonderful film. I like how wonderful the characters were. My question is: how is it that you are so wonderful?” AAARGH.
• On the other hand, any question is better than an uncomfortable silence (it’s OK, there weren’t many).

But really, it was a fantastic experience, made even more enjoyable by the presence of good friends and colleagues. I’ll leave you with a quote from Melanie that I thought was particularly apt:

Friendships sustain all of us, all through our lives.

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Update (April 9th, 2009): The ScreenWest News and Events page has a short interview with Perth animator Pierce Davison, who was invited by Melanie to work on Mary and Max. Read all about it here.

Source: ScreenWest News and Events page at http://www.screenwest.com.au/go/news-and-events/news-articles, posted April 8th, 2009.

Oh dear, another book to add to the giant wish list of Animation Books That I Must Have.

I will quote Stanchfield’s Wikipedia blurb here, because it will tell you all you need to know, much better than I could:

Walt Stanchfield (1919-2000) was an American animator.

Stanchfield was born in Los Angeles [1] and began his career in animation in 1937 at the Charles Mintz Studio. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then worked at the Walter Lantz Studio prior to his lengthy tenure at The Walt Disney Studios. While at Disney, he worked on every full-length animated feature from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) through The Great Mouse Detective (1986).

In the 1970s, Stanchfield focused his efforts on establishing a training program for new animators along with veteran animator and director Eric Larson. Stanchfield held regular weekly drawing classes and lectures for the crew, and among his students were young talent that went on to become prominent figures within the animation industry: Brad Bird, John Lasseter, Don Bluth, Joe Ranft, John Musker, Ron Clements, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, and Mark Henn, among others.

In the mid-1980s, Stanchfield taught weekly gesture drawing classes for the entire studio. At the end of each class, he grabbed a few drawings that inspired or challenged him, then pasted them up with his typewritten commentary as a handout for everyone in the class. These weekly lecture notes, along with his early writings for the animation training program, are now gathered and published in the two-volume collection entitled Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes which is published by Focal Press and edited by animation producer Don Hahn [2].

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volume 1: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures can be found here at Amazon.

Sources: Wikipedia article found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Stanchfield on March 29th, 2009. I first read about this book at Cedric Hohnstadt’s blog, URL: http://cedrichohnstadt.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/walt-stanchfields-drawn-to-life/ (posted March 2nd, 2009).

I can’t claim to be an expert in this area, but I’ve seen a lot of animation and read a lot of books, and this appealing short has the following elements of a successful creative work:

• It all starts with a great story.
• Leave in only what’s necessary, nothing more.
• Show, don’t tell.

We also had a life drawing class at Perth Zoo recently, and it gives me a thrill to see the lemurs, penguins and bats again (and in cartoon form to boot)! Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to present Zoologic by Nicole Mitchell:

Sources: embedded video from Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePMK3FeyYxI. I first read about this film at Lost At E Minor, URL: http://www.lostateminor.com/2009/03/27/zoologic/ (posted March 27th, 2009).