Animation Round Table
A bunch of us animators, Adam Burke, Angus Maclane, Scott Clark, Stephen Gregory and I thought it would be cool to sit down and just talk animation. The result is this podcast. I’m not sure how it worked out, so let us know. We basically, set up a microphone, put out some snacks and drinks and began with whatever came to mind. I am in the process of updating the itunes feed, so dont expect it to be on itunes for a bit. I hope you enjoy it. Remember, all of this is just for educational purposes and by no means do we think of ourselves of knights or doctors of animation. We are are still learning and always students…
KarazyKayhill
Just listened to the podcast, definitely an interesting discussion. I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed it and that I definitely pulled out the “make it simple…..as much as possible” idea and will try to think about that in the future.
Also, I started thinking about the torso types of shots when that was brought up and had a question about it. My question is, when animating a cropped shot (like a torso shot), do you animate the whole piece (the whole body, for example) to try and obtain that sincerity?
I’ve been taught in drawing that when I’m drawing a picture that I plan on cropping, it’s best to draw out the whole thing and then chop it down to that cropped perspective. Soooooo, do you see that as being important in animation?
Thanks.
Mark DeRidder
Nice to finally see what it’s like to be a fly on the wall at Pixar! Thanks Andrew great stuff.
Good to know I’m not the only one who likes the layered approach.
-Mark
k. borcz
Can’t wait to plug in my IPod when I get home…
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
Hi there! Just wanted to thank you all for offering this discussion for all of us to enjoy. I’ll be sure to make a mention of this on the Ghibli blog. I’ll just need to get some sleep and recover from this cold. Ugh!
Great work, guys. You should do this on a regular basis. Just get a small group together once a week for an informal roundtable chat. You could talk about, well, anything, whatever comes up. Animation, the movie business, whatever.
Bobby Pontillas
Thanks for getting together and takin the time to do this.
Max Ward
I like what you guys are doing, consider me a listener.
j.mcarthur
great podcast, really dug it.
Cheers Jason
Lluis Llobera
Wow.
What can I say other than “wow” ?
It was awesomely inspiring to hear you guys talk about animation, acting, subtleties, working with the director, simplificating, and so on, and about scenes you did in the past.
And I really enjoyed the casual and informal way that the discussion took place too.
I can only hope there will be more podcasts like this !
Thanks for taking your time to do this, and sharing it with us.
HONK -
Lluis
Bobby Pontillas
Which was the one who made the transition from 2D? Was that mentioned?
Anonymous
i know adam burke used to be a 2d animator on iron giant. Angus maclane coming from calarts has obviously done some 2d as well
Dr. Gordon
Adam Burke and Stephen Gregory went to Calarts. Adam worked as a 2d animator for many years. Scott Clark and Angus both went to RISD. They made 2d films and learned 3d at Pixar. I went to school in Vancouver, BC and studied traditional animation. I already knew about computer animation. I worked at Warner Brothers after school as an animator. I was always around all the 2d guys and they helped me develop a more traditional approach to animating on a computer. Guys like Frank Molieri were my mentors. When I got to Pixar, their were hardly any professional 2d animators who became 3d animators. Most were guys like Doug Sweetland and Mark Oftedahl who went to calarts and then came up to Pixar. It is only in the past 4 years, that we have many former 2d animators that made the jump. The biggest transition was for the Incredibles.
Josh Garlick
You guys rock. Thanks so much!
Evil Ivo
To me it was interesting to hear the mentioning of getting stuff done on schedule. I am currently confronted with a tight schedule. As a result i cannot polish the shots as much i would like to at the moment. These things used to be a little more relaxed at my last place.
Great podcast!
Mac
Awesome podcast dudes! Hope you guys do some more. Nice to here some real insider tips. I’m an independent animator and just getting into 3D myself, it’s nice to hear some pointers. Of course most of the stuff you talked about could relate to any form of film/animation, nice!
OV!
awesome discusion.
sounds like you guys are on the set of IRON CHEF.
>oVi
Anonymous
Thanks so much for this.
I have a question, that maybe you could touch upon in your next meeting.. ?
How do animators that work in a layered way present their acting choices for feedback ? Detailed and skilled blocking must be much easier to direct, whereas the layered approach is leaning more towards straight ahead, and a less 2D way of working, so it must be harder to show ideas to the director early on ?
For example – would it be applicable to show acting choices and ideas through different media ? – so if you are a more straight ahead or layered animator – can you show loose thumbnails, or even video reference of yourself to sell your ideas early on ? or are people mostly used to directing from what they actually see posed up and moving in 3d ?
davidbernalr
Awesome!!!!!!!!!
I love all of it!, but specially the stories!!!!! all the anecdotes about the shots!! that was awesome!! The bgs and all the funny stuff you went through!! Love it!!
kling
nice to listen to. bring me more.
a jones
just want to say the audio roundtable of animation was wonderful to listen to, to understand some of their thinking process, struggles, and things they deal with… it was great. Thanks so much!!! a jones
Anonymous
Thanks a lot!
would it be asking for too much if you guys could do one of these roundtables every month? that would be really great.
thanks again
Dr. Gordon
Sure, We can do one every month. I’ll just have to quit my day job. If you want to start paying us to do them, then maybe we can talk. Look, just be glad we have the time to do anything. Everyone here is in crunch. We would love to do more of these, but it takes alot of time to set up the equipment, get people together, edit it, publish it and so on.
-Andrew
Dr.Burke
Unfortunately, it would be asking quite a bit to do the roundtables with that level of frequency. First, I don’t think it would be long before we started sounding redundant or like self-important blowhards. Second, as the sight says, we’re working professionals and getting the five of us in a room at the same time is more difficult than you’d think. Having said that, we’re all a little surprised at the overwhelming response to the roundtable and appreciate your feedback, so we will be recording another next month to touch on some of the topics and questions you all have brought up in your comments. We just can’t promise them with any regularity, but we’ll make the effort to continue them from time to time. Thanks for visiting the blog and we’re glad there are those of you out there who find it useful.
Adam
sir_tubby
Great discussion. I’m not sure exactly what it is about these types of talks, but they get me amped to animate as much as watching good animation. It’s good to hear the commonality in ideas and struggles fellow animators share. Hope you find time in the future for more of these.
Tony C.
Great idea on the round table format. I love the interviews as well, but this is a fun way for a lot of information to come across. And some interesting stories tended to come out as well.
Thanks for taking the time to put these together!
Neil K. Marriott
Great podcast! Really enjoyed it.
Kirby
(re. deleted comment – ’twas meant for the Brad Bird post.
But, I shall savour the thought of listening to this one next. Totally envious folk who can all get together in a room and “talk shop” about animation.
*wistful sigh*
Thanks for doing so!
~ Kirbs. )
otomobile Shoppe
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