The Queen is dead. Long Live the Queen. - repost

For the frequent readers: yes, this is a repost. I deleted this post a few days into it in order to revisit the content. So here we go again. Updates in red.

I just had to write that title for the subject. I watched Elizabeth over the week-end [which is now a few week-ends ago] and I really liked it. Can't wait to watch Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Great performances!

But the more appropriate title for this post would be: The Classes are dead. Long Live the Classes!

That's right, there will be more animation rants, but in a slightly different way. Nothing has been finalized yet [pretty close though], but the current plan is to use a conference room downtown, courtesy of The Resource Corner, LLC, at One Sutter Street, two or three blocks away from the 79 buidling, close to BART, Muni, etc.

The specifics so far are:

• 16 sessions in Spring & Fall (one session per week)
  
• 16 sessions in Summer (two sessions per week)
• 7 to 10pm
• 12 animators
  
• $740 total per animator (paid in full prior to workshop start)

The course model will be the same I used at the Academy. You can bring in any clip for review during the session and email me during the week for further feedback. Clips can be anything ranging from bouncing balls to short films. You can come in to start with the basics or to do a demo reel review, that's all up to you.

There won't be any grades, no homework, etc. so no "midterm" and "finals" and I won't "fail" you. It's a workshop environment with reviews as well as lectures and spungella.com will serve as an extension to the on-site sessions. If you've attended any of my classes, then you know the drill. I'm here to help, but be ready to get honest (albeit subjective) feedback.

The current start date for this Fall workshop is September 1st and will last until December 15th. The start date is pretty fix, but the end date might change a tiny bit depending on what day class starts. Right now I'm shooting for Tuesday evenings.

Again, I'm still ironing out all the details, but that's the basic idea for now. Once everything is laid out I will post an official announcements [this Monday] with all the gory details and an FAQ.

Sign-up will be on a first come first serve basis via email request on Monday, July 20th 2009, 1pm.

I'd love to get some feedback about all this in the comments section though [which I got already last time (thanks!!), but feel free to add more]. Any questions, ideas, suggestions, I'm open to whatever I can do (within reason) to make this as awesome as it can be.

I'm also looking for a name for this class and despite some ideas, would love to hear your suggestions as well.

This whole endeavour will be called:

• S.O.S. - as in Spungella On-Site.

Thanks Ting and Bernie for the suggestions! Again, an official site with proper will be out on Monday.

Cheers!
JD

The Art & Feel of Making it Real

This book by Mark McDonnell looks really cool! I know what I'm getting next! - more info @ John Nevarez' blog

Animation Mentor Newsletter - June 2009

And here we go, another AM newsletter! This month you get:


- Progression of Studio Styles Through Time: Disney, UPA, Pixar
- Animation Mentor in the News!
- Mark McDonnell’s new book, The Art and Feel of Making It Real: Gesture Drawing for the Animation and Entertainment Industry
- Short Film by Issam Zejly
- Mentor: Paul Allen
- Student: Heather Kilber
- Tips&Tricks: What is a Moving Hold? by Shawn Kelly

On Film Acting - Carlos Baena

Great post with clips @ CarlosBaena.com, go check it out!

More game trailers

I know, I know, why not live-action at this point, but besides all that, check out the crazy sweet renders for the Assassin's Creed 2 trailer!

And Cartoon Brew points to The Last Guardian. Pretty cool too!

Aziz Kocanaogullari’s Masquerade

Masquerade from Aziz K. on Vimeo.

Academy of Art University School of Animation alumni, Aziz Kocanaogullari’s Masquerade animation video is featured on the Designspotter blog. Congratulations!!

[updated] Great positive comments, awesome! The short was even on Kanye West's blog!

You can check out his portfolio site here.

Interview with animator Guilherme Jacinto

Head over to sacurrent.com and check out the interview with Guilherme Jacinto! Here the intro:

As a young, aspiring animator, Guilherme Jacinto moved from his home country of Brazil to San Francisco to study at the Academy of Art University in 2003. With zero credits to his name, he hoped he could break into the very competitive animation industry on talent alone. You could say he started his career on the right foot when his very first professional job came to him by way of Pixar Animation Studios. His assignment: to work on a little film called WALL-E.

You can also visit his portfolio site here.

Hayao Miyazaki in Berkeley

Jeff Lee sends in this cool new info:

The Center for Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley is proud to award internationally acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki with the 2009 Berkeley Japan Prize, which honors individuals from all disciplines and professions who have, over a lifetime influenced the world's understanding of Japan. In conjunction with his in-person acceptance of the award, Hayao Miyazaki will be honored with a series of events held on the UC Berkeley campus, celebrating his timeless body of film work.

For more info, go to ieas.berkeley.edu.

Toy Story 3 - Teaser

I'm sure you've seen it by now, but just in case you haven't, Apple has the new Toy Story 3 teaser. Thanks Michael Mahy for the tip!

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Trailer

Check out the trailer for the new Star Wars: The Old Republic game. That looks so cooool! Full movie like this please!!

- pic source

Meet the Spy

A Christmas Carol - new image and first clip

Latinoreview got a new image and some footage for Zemeckis' "A Christmas Carol".

Factor 5 closes down

I was saddened to read about the closure of game studio Factor 5 yesterday. Kotaku mentioned rumors before, but I was hoping that it wasn't true. Unfortunately they were...

After graduating from the AAU in May 2003, I sent out my first wave of demo reel submissions and got barely any responses (because it sucked). After some at home practicing during the summer I took another class in Fall and thanks to Scott Clark and Angus McLane my new clips had improved enough to grab recruiters' attention and interviews started to happen. One of the companies which showed interest was Factor 5.

That interview is to this day the best and most fun interview I ever had. I expected it to last maybe 30mins tops, so my then-girlfriend (now awesome wife) drove me to Lucas Valley Road in San Rafael and waited in the parking lot until I came back. Neither of us anticipated a 3 hour interview (might have been longer even). But she patiently waited and didn't complain once when I came back. I love my wife.

Why did it take so long? Well, first I got a very warm welcome and then they gave me a tour of the studio. I was told that they just finished and celebrated a milestone the day before, which explained all the bottles of alcohol. :) I was desperately trying to hide how much I was geeking out, because I grew up with Turrican and the Stars Rogue Squadron games. As a kid I was reading tons of gamer magazines and I was very familiar with Julian Eggebrecht and the company. And now I was actually there. It was so awesome. And everybody that I met during the tour was so friendly, really welcoming, it was a really cool group of people. After the tour they all went to lunch and grabbed me with them to an Italian restaurant with lots of wine and great stories. It was all so relaxed and you could tell that the people there were more than just work colleagues, they were like a family. I was just amazed. This is how it's going to be as a professional animator? How cool is that?! After a good lunch we all went back and then the actual interview started, which was a bit more formal, in a separate room, etc. I met Julian and some of the lunch guys (and girls) sitting next to me were there as well. They asked me about games, the type of animation I liked, how I would approach specific game animation problems, etc. It was very interesting (especially since it was one of my first interviews) and still very relaxed. Julian was very upfront and really professional. I remember that he was looking for someone with a dedication to games, and not someone who would see this job as a temporary opportunity. I was very honest in my answers, that feature animation was my goal but that I needed to learn and gain experience and that I would love to work at Factor 5, but that it wouldn't be a 10 year commitment. After such a warm welcome, the last thing I wanted to do is bullshit him, so despite the chance of ruining my chances, I felt the least I could do is be honest and not waste his time. But they all understood my reasoning and again were really cool about it. Since my reel was mostly acting shots, I offered to do a test for them with more game specific content and they gave me a shot. A week into the test though more interviews came up and I eventually ended up at ILM, which was my ultimate dream. I felt really bad telling them that I accepted another job, but the email response was once again very professional, yet really understanding and cool, wishing me good luck and all the best.

What a class A group of people.

And now the company has to close... I hope the employees are finding other job opportunities very soon and I wish all of them only the best. Take care and thank you for everything.

JD

Ukulele Trio - by Jorge Ruiz

Nice work Jorge! Watch the clip here.

New Princess and the Frog Trailer

Check it out @ Animated-News
- poster source

Ward Kimball Letter

Michael DeBrosse (thanks!) points to willfinn.blogspot.com, which has a cool post about Ward Kimball's letter. Go check it out!

Squirrely Rig by Josh Burton

Matt Ornstein sent a nice tip regarding a new rig by Josh Burton. Head over to AnimationBuffet for more info on this fun looking rig! Here a rig test video and more by Josh:

Squirrely Obstacle Course Part 1 from Josh Burton on Vimeo.

030_030_060 First Pass from Josh Burton on Vimeo.

The Princess and the Frog footage

Cartoon Brew points to a new (crappy) youtube vid of Disney's The Princess and the Frog and holy moly is it being ripped apart in the comments section.

Looks like I'm in the minority then, because I like it. I miss 2D and it doesn't matter to me how over the top the frog acting is and whatever they tear apart. Plus I prefer to see the whole movie before judging it.

- pic source

Animation Mentor Newsletter and Workflow Webinar

Jeff points to the latest AM Webinar and it's all about workflow, which is always interesting. Make sure to check it out.

And we got the May AM Newsletter as well, featuring:

What Ever Happened to Saturday Morning Cartoons?
Sony Pictures Digital Productions, Animation Mentor Put New Twist on Old Tradition
"Super Market Fever" short by Hichem Arfaoui
Mentor: Shaun Freeman
Alumni: Opinder Chaggar

Make sure to read this one:
What Kind of Politics Do You Encounter in the Industry and How Do You Deal with Them?

Critique - Scared of failing

Looking better and better! Definitely start to offset keys, add smoother transitions between poses, more mouth shapes, all that jazz. Here a few areas I'd look out for:

Guy on the left:
- change the timing a bit of how the ring box is closing, it's a bit linear. Those type of boxes have a very strong spring in it, so it's going to take some force to make it close, but it's going, it will snap shut
- slow down the hand that puts the box on the table around x79, right now it's too fast, I would ease out of that holding pose more. I would also work on the timing of how he pulls his hand back to his other hand, the arc is very flat, the hand locks once it's back on x98
- the fingers moves at the need the same sort of attention, make them less pose to pose, vary the timing, etc.

Guy on the right:
- watch out for fast movements or sudden stops that kill the weight and believability of the character, for instance the sudden upper body stop around x23 as he leans forward, same deal around x98 and especially the sudden hand stop on x130
- I would subtle head accents during "... as an excuse..", little ones though
- the transitions between eyebrow pose changes feel a bit soft in places, a bit slow, for instance during the x35ish area
- like you said, do another pass on the lipsync and mouth shapes; generally it's there, just focus on certain snappier parts and accents, but it's working well already

Hope that helps!
Cheers