Animation Time! - Brute Rig

Today's Inspiration:
“Animation is very slow. When you’re an actor, you depend on spontaneity in a scene
and it’s hard to work up spontaneity when you’re doing separate drawings.
The faster you work, the more spontaneity, and that was one of the secrets of the early
Ferguson animation drawings. He could draw almost as fast as he could think.”

“I thought Pinocchio was harder for everybody than Snow White. We finished Snow White and we said
‘Ha. We can do features!’ And everybody went into Pinocchio with this great load of confidence.
Boy, six months later we found out, and Walt found out,
that what you learn in one picture doesn’t necessarily work in the next picture.”

- Ward Kimball
http://wardkimball.tumblr.com/
https://youtu.be/YBORMx3nOmY

World Zombination
https://twitter.com/playzombination

Sterling Reames
https://twitter.com/SterlingReames

Program - Maya 2014

Rig - Proletariat - Brute


Animator's Bibles:
Character Animation Crash Course
Animator's Survival Kit
Illusion of Life
12 Principles of Animation
Drawn to Life


http://www.caseyturbos.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/caseyturbos
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caseyturbos
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/caseyturbos

Like what you like!

Between watching old Disney videos on youtube, the CalArts history video, and listening to Brad Bird (who trained under Milt Kahl) on the Spline Doctors Podcast, I've really found a lot of similarities in their approaches and advice. Disney himself had a passion for animation, but it was fueled and influenced by all of his other interests. CalArts approached and still approaches art by trying to give the student a broad view of what is out there by mixing music, with dance, theater, visual arts etc. Also while listening to Brad Bird speak he talked about what he thought animators should do and what he observed the 9 Old Men doing and that was to get inspiration from everything, and feed your outside interests. Don't just stare at your paper and pencil, but watch how your loved ones interact with others, pause to see how the trees blow in the wind or how your little puppies play together outside, play a musical instrument or in Walt Disney and Ward Kimball's case fall in love with trains. All of these unique views, special interests, and outside knowledge will only help inspire and influence your art. Thanks for the inspiration!

Camel Gilligan

Gilligan performing with his sock puppets.

Claude and his turtle going for a ride.


Claude and his turtle having a dance party.


Pirate a Day


Pirate a Day section B


As soon as our little hero got back to town, a crowd began to form around him. Everyone was wondering what had happened to the monster, how did he get back, and most importantly what was in his gigantic gunny sac.


Once our little hero had settled the crowd down just enough, he threw open the bag and out poured the most delicious scent any of the towns people had ever smelled. Right when they started to wonder what that mouth watering aroma was, the skies seemed to rain bacon.

Speaking of Animation (the podcast) put out another fantastic episode this week. They got the extremely talented Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois talking about my favorite film I've seen so far this year, How to Train Your Dragon! I've loved Chris Sanders drawing style for quite a while and it was fascinating to hear about his and Dean's process. From learning about the evolution of their Nightfury design to old stories about Mulan this is a podcast that can't be missed!

A funny drawing gets funnier when it's animated!

I finished another sketchbook last night! Which means I'm averaging around 100+ pages every 2 weeks. I've heard professionals say 1 good drawing in 10 is a pretty good ratio. I think I'm at least there.

I got a chance to read some more of Walt Stanchfield's Drawn to Life Vol 1, and it got me thinking. I'm sure some one else has felt this before, but you know that feeling you get when you have an idea in your mind and when you go to put it down on paper it doesn't come out quite like you really want it. Well, Mr. Stanchfield was talking about the Six Rules of Perspective, and how he uses them either consciously or subconsciously on every drawing he does and the line from chapter that caught my mind was "Knowing and using these principles when needed is like having a good road map when traveling in unfamiliar places." The rules aren't gonna get you there, but they will definitely guide if know where you're at and where you want to go.

Gilligan taking a snooze.


Claude and his turtle having some good old fashion fun.


Pirate a Day


The enraged monster must not have been aware of his own strength and rage, either that or he wasn't quite using all 2 ounces of his brain power and snapped the skewer in half. Our little hero used the drastic change of circumstances to his benefit.


As I've mentioned in the past I love everything Disney Animation related. So last night after finishing my daily drawing and blog post I hopped over and browsed Cartoon Brew, and came across the Ward Kimball tag. Of course that meant that the next few hours I'd be reading, watching, and drawing all things Kimball. I have to admit at first I wasn't a big fan of Kimball's being a Milt Kahlite his drawings always seemed inferior, but after a decent amount of actual exposure to his work he really can capture an idea. I love his sense of humor and his attitude towards life. It really comes across in his drawings. They are really expressive and every one feels like it's moving on its own. After watching a few great video interviews, really examining some of his images and reading a bunch of articles about him I found this great quote of his. "A cartoon character who is funny to look at before he is animated is going to be made funnier by the movement." Thanks for the inspiration!