Welcome to my animation Desktop!
In a world where the face of animation has changed dramatically over the past ten years or so, and the age of the animation ‘apprentice’ is sadly long gone, it is rare to have direct access to the traditional knowledge of movement from someone who knows. I personally learnt at the Desktops of some of the late, great, ‘master’ animators from the old Disney and Warner Brothers' studios of the ‘golden age’. For me this was always the best and most effective teaching I had.
This forum offers you that opportunity too. I am currently in the intensive process of creating a new film and book that will be released simultaneously in 2005, therefore my time is restricted. However, I am inviting visitors to the Desktop to ask questions on animation technique that I can maybe answer. A significant amount of knowledge cannot be found in books alone… yes, even in my own ‘Animator’s Workbook’… therefore this is a good opportunity for you to supplement your knowledge. Often, other visitors to the Desktop will more than answer your questions... as everyone is hanging out at the Desktop is fully encouraged to share and chat as much as they like… as long as its animation related. However, if your question on the traditional process of movement remains unanswered, then I will happily jump in and help out whenever I can.
So… if you truly want to learn to improve your skills in this great tradition called ‘animation’... then just pull up a thread, grab a cup of caffeine and jump straight in!
Tony. :^{)}=-
Tony. :^{)}=-
Personal Blogsite:
http://blog.animaticus.com
"The Animaticus Foundation"
http://www.animaticus.com
Good to see the desktop back up Tony. Sounds like you have a busy year ahead of you.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Hi phacker.
Yep very busy. But actually its only one more year on top of two already busy years for me... that is, from the actual start-up of the film! Now I'm just trying to drag myself across the line right now... but I'll get there. I think everyone will think it's been worth it when its all over though. (s)
Tony. :^{)}=-
Personal Blogsite:
http://blog.animaticus.com
"The Animaticus Foundation"
http://www.animaticus.com
Oh man, thnx so much for putting together a book like this Tony. I know it's probably nowhere near it's gloryious completion, but I think it's so great that you are taking the time to assemble such a tremendous book such as that. I haven't read your first book but have heard nothing but awesome reviews on it. I do put before you one question. That being, will this new book and video be containing most of what you learned from either "Golden Age" master of animation aniamtors from warner bros. etc. ? Or is it going to be some of what you learned from those still reveared animators, then your own knowledge from over the years? Oh well, either way, it will be outstanding and I just wanted to thank you for doing this again, because of that same desire that those animators had way back when, I have today for traditional animation and animators. I think that if u loose those awesome roots of "tradition, then what have you got? Not a whole lot, besides the computer and your "trusty" mouse, but oh well, I just don't wish that traditional animation EVER be forgotten. Also, another thing I wish for the business, is that the "digital age" slow itself down and not be so dominating over the game you know. So, there's my two sense on it and I know that 2d animation isn't dying as rapidly as most would think, so it's not all lost yet. :)
-HannaBarberaGuy-
Hi HannaBarberGuy.
Hey, thanks for posting and thanks for your comments. I sometimes feel that as part of an 'older generation' my feelings may be out of touch with the younger mainstream animators today. But your posting perfectly echoes my sentiments. I think you speak the Truth… and Truth reins eternal... so they say!
I think this kind of book needs to be written right now, however hard it is to do so. The great ‘tradition’ of 2D animation is indeed dead… at least as we know and love it at the high-end of things. With the final closure of Disney 2D animation (except for the Australian studio... where I hear things are rapidly in decline, in favor of speed, static & staccato movement and compromise) we have most certainly lost the last vestige of an apprentice-style continuity. Now there is nowhere I know of where the mature and seasoned animator can teach the young wannabe in a working environment. Indeed, there are few places where the mature and seasoned 2D animator is even welcomed or respected anymore! At the same time, new and rapidly-evolving technology has hijacked the animation industry... meaning that now, technically at least, software does replace many of the functions that the experienced animator once applied to make things move. Of course, technology doesn't usually make things move better... unless there is an experience pair of animator’s hands driving the software… but it can indeed make things move. There lies the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ of our new era.
Add to all this the fact that technology has enabled the 3D world of animation to flourish and overtake the 2D world. (And this is fine in my book… in that this new generation is now able to take animation on further and do things that were never possible with the traditional approach!) 3D is definitely a 'sexier' artform for young minds... where you can not only animate your ideas but you can be director, producer, cameraman, director of photography, props master and everything else at the same time. I applaud this, as long as the essential and time-honored skills of ‘movement’, ‘storytelling’, ‘film craft’ and ‘quality production values’ are not neglected.
However, with the wonders of modern technology it is very dangerous to dismiss all that is of the ‘past’, and of the 'tradition', as now being entirely ‘done and gone’. Just go back to the great classic Disney movies of the more distant past (i.e. Walt’s ‘golden age’) and attempt to watch them from the ‘pure animation’ and ‘character acting’ point of view… rather than just watching it as simply a ‘movie’. Get the 'Frank and Ollie' video/DVD and see what those guys did and really know about the art of character movement. You will soon realize that we still have so far to go in the modern era of technology-based animation, with very few points of reference on how the two can be married. Pixar are the path-beaters in all this, of course, but the rest of the world is still far, far away from catching up.
Anyway, being that I have one foot in the old ‘tradition’ (through the amazing but mostly long passed-away Masters of animation I have been privileged to have learned from)… and at the same time the other foot in a world of teaching contemporary students the fundamentals of the new digital technology that is more and more available to the contemporary animator… I felt that I was perhaps in a good position to build a sound and secure bridge between the two. This way the great understandings of the past and the miraculous technological gifts of the present can be molded into one package... ensuring that ‘the knowledge’ is there for everyone, everywhere and for as long as this material can remain available. The book… and the film that illustrates the book... is my attempt to do this. I'm sorry that it will be a while before this is all available but, as I've said before, I do believe the wait will be well worth it.
Thanks again for writing HannaBarberGuy... and for your comments, which I hope reflects the thinking of most of the industry still? If so, then there can still remain a future for the 2D tradition, alongside its more recent 3D partner. (s)
Best wishes,
Tony. :^{)}=-
Personal Blogsite:
http://blog.animaticus.com
"The Animaticus Foundation"
http://www.animaticus.com