2nd "Fantastic Mr. Fox" Trailer

- found @ iwatchstuff

Family Guy's 8th Season Premiere Episode

Cartoon Brew has a great post with full episode of Family Guy. Particularly interesting is the comment section where the episode director and lead animator share their production info.
In the episode Brian and Stewie travel between alternate universes. There are segments shown in different styles and it's awesome (especially the Disney and Robot Chicken one). So make sure to head over there.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Eyeballs

Great post by David Anthony Gibson (thanks Eric for the heads-up!). He discusses his working method via a sequence of 5 shots he animated:



Head over to the post in order to check out the whole analysis. Very cool!

It's all in the Eyes.

Ok, maybe not ALL, but you shouldn't underestimate the fact that the audience will be focused on the face of your character, especially the eyes/eyebrow part. You could have Muppet style lipsync but fantastic emotion in the eyes and eyebrow and it would still work. Of course there are exceptions, but people focus on eyes, so don't neglect that area in your animation.

I got reminded of that while working on a clip at home. The beginning of the first shot has three guys peeking above a sand hill and two characters only have their eye area visible and the third one a bit more of the face. It's a lot of fun to concentrate just on the eyes.

That reminded me of a movie called Baraka. At the beginning of the movie you have two great shots of a Japanase snow monkey. With nothing moving except his head you really focus on his eyes.

_______________________________________
Video clip is for educational purposes only
Copyright © 1992 Magidson Films Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

3D Animation Masterclass: Acting Tutorial Highlights

- found via twitter.com/GyuBo

Cool new "The Princess and the Frog" Poster

- found @ Latinoreview

Animation Mentor Newsletter - September 2009

Featured in this month's newsletter:

- The Film Festival Experience - "Distraction"
- Watch "Distraction" by Mike Stern
- Incentive to apply for Winter Term 2010
- Behind the Characters: Professional Animators ebook
- Behind the scenes at Animation Mentor with Bobby Beck
- Mentor: Mario Pochat - Mimo Films
- Alumni: Matt Strangio - Pixar

- Geek Corner: Inside Dailies at Pixar
Victor Navone outlines the dos and don'ts during dailies and this is a must read!

Toy Story Doublefeature 3D TV Spot

- found @ upcomingpixar

Kids being tempted Reference

Thanks Chris Marshall for sending me this. The video is absolutely classic! Ah, kids...

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Pencil Test Depot

The Pencil Test Depot is a really cool site which collects... well... as the name says... Pencil Test.

- found via Scott Clark's Twitter

Official Toy Story 3 Teaser Poster

Oh yeah.

- found @ Latinoreview

11 Second Club Winner BJ Crawford

Make sure to head over to the 11 Second Club and watch BJ Crawford's winning clip. LOVE IT! Gestures, details, design, facial, paper, etc. etc. LOVE IT!!!

A Christmas Carol - Full Trailer

Head over to filmdrunk.com for Robert Zemeckis' full trailer of A Christmas Carol.

I miss the Back-to-the-Future-Zemeckis...

- poster source

Critique - Thief

That's much better! You're really guiding the eye now. What's still getting lost though is the part where his fingers are being pricked by those super small needles. I would make those much bigger or find another mechanism that makes it very clear what you're doing to this fingers.

You're next step is to work on the rhythm of the machines. The timing is a bit even for them and I feel you could spice it up. I recommend you watch Wall-E for good reference. Moments like when Eve is on earth for the first time, how the machine unfolds and opens up and releases Eve out of her shell is a good moment.

The guy is clear in his actions, so I would go to the next step and work on the poses and timing as well. For instance his left arm is in the same pose from the beginning until around x200. Or his left foot orientation is the same from around x160 on until he gets sucked in, etc.

For the first big vacuum thing I would also add little bits and pieces flying towards the sucker, so it's clear from the start that this thing is a vacuum and sucks everything in (I know a museum is supposed to be clean but you know what I mean... ;) ).

Cheers
JD

Critique - Really Ugly

This might just be me and other people wouldn't mind, but the sound feels echo-y and like in a room, so the hear that and see it in this outside setting is a bit weird. But you could add little birds chirping in the background (not too loud) to make it more seamless. But again, that's just me.

What is weird (and probably still just me), is how the sound just cuts off at the end. Yet the animation continues. Whenever that happens it feels like the animation is added at the end (which it obviously is) and there's a weird break. Again, might just be me. But at least cut it after ugly, so there is no "ts" at the end.

Regarding the rest, it's clear that he talks to the other animals. Breaking the stick would be neat as well as him getting up and plumping down at the end. You can make it very child like and disappointed.

Looks all good, I'd keep going!