Brad Bird on Caricature.
A while back I did a lecture for the CTN animation expo in Burbank on the successful traits of an animator. For the lecture I asked a bunch of people what their thoughts were on the subject. I was unable to get this into my lecture for lack of time so I wanted to post this snippet of gold from Brad Bird. Big thanks to Brad for taking the time to do this. Brad is always so knowledgeable and inspirational. I hope you enjoy this short clip…
The question was: “What are some traits an animator should have?”
-Enjoy…Andrew
Herman G.
Hu-Zaahh! appreciate it. I heard from your earlier casts on him, he like a child prodigy and stuff, love his movies. Big fan.
Dave
Fantastic clip Andrew. Thanks for posting it!
Dave G
Brad is a genius, I could listen to him all day. Thanks Andrew.
Theresa Adolph
Andrew! Thanks for the great post. I was listening to Brad and then it ended and I was like “What?!! It’s over?” You should see if he’d sit down with you again for a longer chat. It’s incredibly interesting.
– T
Jeremy Jutras
Wow, I love his way of explaining caricature. He makes me understand the difference between seeing unique animation and standard animation. You may have the best body mechanics in your shot but if the engaging acting is not there it would be no more exciting than if I were to stand up now and perform it myself. I think we would much rather see it come from a Brando or a De Niro than myself… you know, unique, natural acting choices.
Luke
Superb post Mr Gordon. Just attended your lecture today in London (er yeah I was the annoying questiony guy in the front row, pink tshirt, glasses)… AWESOME stuff… to break it all down, whether it’s storyboard, keyframes, the theme in general, whatever… seems to me (as per Mr Bird’s words) that it’s all about distillation…. a simplification, but where nothing (important) is lost as part of the process.. every part of the process is caricature. Or to coin a new (crappy) phrase ‘distallure’. Love it. Lookin forward to new epiphanies tomorrow with Matthew.
Matthew
Thank you for posting this. I was revisiting my scribbled notes tonight from your talk at CTN. Very prominently on the page is: “You have to study spontaneity and understand what that looks like.”
Kaki
Your CTN Expo talk was super informative, you definitely need an hour. The talk outside at the table, where you showed us clips of characters and had us analyze and talk about them was fun. The 40-foot tall headshot-framed video clip of Brad Bird with a message for those of us at the Expo was inspiring; kind of an Iron Giant size Brad giving us advice.Woah. Hope you come back to the Expo again.
Amit DM
Alot of character in the caricature… you can almost feel the atmosphere, very nice indeed.
Thanks.
Stephen Davidson
Hey,
Thanks so much to all the SplineDoctors for their podcasts and articles, a lot of people look up to you as artists and its great that you guys share so much.
Regards.
Steve.
Brad Bird on Caricature - Chronicles of an Animator
[...] @ Spline Doctors Inspiration [...]
Successful Traits of an Animator - Chronicles of an Animator
[...] check the audio clip where Brad Bird talks about caricature HERE. Inspiration [...]