Wednesday July 20th 2011 Animation Seminar

[arif]

The seminar starts every Wednesday at 4pm Arizona time.

We start this thread early to give members a chance to upload any video or images they want critiqued on the weekly video seminar. Throughout the week, Dave will try to incorporate as many images and video clips as possible into the live seminar.

Image and Video Rules:
1. The best format for video clips is .MOV files, preferably MPEG-4. You can upload them here.

2. Please clearly label all of your drawings in your images, example "a, b, c, d... etc" so that Don can easily refer to them.

3. Please clearly label all animation pencil tests with large drawing numbers so that Don can easily refer to them.

4. Please do no post images or videos from the current workshop as it is not fair for the other members. However you may post images or videos from workshops that have already ended.

The deadline for clips and images to be critiqued in the live seminar is 24hrs prior to the seminar date and time.

Please keep your questions concise so we have time to answer everyone. Only questions pertaining to animation technique will be addressed.

Thanks

Here is the link to watch the live Seminar.
http://donbluthanimation.com/_Don_Bl...e_seminar.html

You must be logged into your Don's Club account to see the stream.
Edit/Delete Message

[MoonLightRose]

Hello Don!
This is an older animation I made. Do you have any comments about it? And I know that I should number the sheets of paper, because I have recently heard you saying this during the live seminar. I'll try to get used to numbering my drawings. I have my own way of animating and I hope you can understand that, seeing as I am mostly self taught.
http://www.donbluthanimation.com/videos.php?showvideo=770

Also here are 2 drawings with one of my characters. Her name is Rose and she was initially a flower.Her story: One cold winters night, a forest fairy found a single small blooming rose that was trying to survive a terrible blizzard. The fairy protects the flower until the storm is gone and then transforms the flower into a human, giving it the freedom to move. The fairy does this because she was impressed by the will to survive of that one flower. And because Rose was born from a flower she has a tattoo on her chest that resembles the flower from which she had bloomed from.
On the second drawing, the numbers 2,3 and 4 represent details of the character: number 2 shows a front side view of her face, number 3 shows how long her hair is, and number 4 shows her tattoo more clearly.

[lavallelee]

Hey Don,

I have been doing some Winnie the Pooh study in anticipation of traditional animation back on the big screen. What do you think of them, and the new Winnie the Pooh movie? Will you go and see it?

http://4mchan.org/Forum/gallery/2_07_07_11_2_58_42.jpeg

http://4mchan.org/Forum/gallery/2_07_07_11_3_00_22.jpeg

http://4mchan.org/Forum/gallery/2_07_07_11_2_58_56.jpeg

http://4mchan.org/Forum/gallery/2_07_07_11_7_51_06.jpeg

[OwenWelsh]

Hi Don,

I was looking at Pete's Dragon the other day and I noticed in this camera shot you have the dragon on 2s even though there is some slow pan movement going on. I don't really notice any strobing. I guess is the camera move is slow enough we wont notice the strobing if the animation is put on 2s?

PS. I removed the audio so Don can talk over the video.

http://www.donbluthanimation.com/videos.php?showvideo=768

[OwenWelsh]

Once again I have taken another stab at the snap dragon creature. Please let me know what you think about this new design.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p143/robertow/snapdragon-c.jpg
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p143/robertow/snapdragon-roughmodel.jpg

[andrew sharp]

Hello Don and Dave I was wondering if you could go through these drawings and help me build up an up to date portfolio, which are good drawings and which should be excluded
Some drawings of my son with his yoo yoo
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc396/andrew_sharp1/max1-1.jpg
More sketches of max
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc396/andrew_sharp1/max2-1.jpg
my son and my daughter
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc396/andrew_sharp1/morganmax-1.jpg
I have been reading Michael Mattesi's book a" Force Animal Drawing" I created this creature he moves the same way as a dog or as a person on the pads of their hands and feet. Quadrapeds are still a mystery to me any help would be great thankyou, Have you ever thought about a workshop with 4 legged animals? Thankyou Don and Dave.
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc396/andrew_sharp1/dogcomparativeanatomy.jpg

[AJartist]

I think you said that you take a break every 20 minutes when drawing. However, how long should those short breaks last? Sometimes, I draw for 20 minutes, then take a 20 minute break, but that might be overdoing it.

[AJartist]

The pose this girl is doing in the photo reads as sort of a ****y defiant back pose. Does my intepretation read as such, or does the drawing come across as her just leaning in a relaxed pose? Also, what could I have done better?

http://donbluthanimation.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=254&pictureid=1619

This is a design for birthday card invitations...As you can see I originally had the girl's left arm going in a straight, because she's pointing to a birthday message.....or perhaps do you think the girls arm is ok the way I left it in the final design?

http://donbluthanimation.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=254&pictureid=1620

[BookLover]

It's probably too late for posting pictures... I can wait till next week if I need to! Sorry!

This is the first time I've ever really tried to come up with a character design that isn't a human being or real animal. He's supposed to be a goblin, but I didn't want to make him too scary because it's supposed to be for a children's book. Is there anything you can see that could make it more interesting, or that needs to be fixed?
http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/313/002dcz.jpg

[Richard Willimot]

Hello Don and Dave, missed you last week :) I'm still working on the character design for my cg short. This is the redo of my cowboy character after Don's suggestions a while ago. The character loves to eat and is very full of himself. I'm trying to really push the shapes with this character and break out of my usual drawing style. Any advice Don could give on improving him would be great.http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy147/pengy300/ringoffire_cowboy1.jpg http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy147/pengy300/ringoffirecowboy2.jpg

[joedorsey]

I've been drawing some of Rabbit from Pooh and wanted to know how you handled the secondary action of Rabbit's ears. Was it a challenge to not have them float around on his head?

The ears also helped to reinforce what mood Rabbit was in. Do you have any tips on using extremities like tails and ears to help a character's emotion without it becoming too distracting.

[lavallelee]

Hey Don,

I saw Winnie the Pooh, and the animation was really fun to watch, I even stayed after the credits and watched the ending short.

I was wondering what do you think about Winnie the Pooh being released on the same day as the last Harry Potter?

[Richard Willimot]

Is it mostly decided by the script as to how much human characteristics an animal would have?

[BookLover]

I can't get into the seminar. Could someone let me know what Don said about my character? Sorry, I don't know why I can't get in. It just keeps trying to load... :(

[Dave]

I can't get into the seminar. Could someone let me know what Don said about my character? Sorry, I don't know why I can't get in. It just keeps trying to load... :(

Try updating your browser. It sounds like your flash player is out of date. Alternatively, you can download Google Chrome and the latest flash player will download with it.

[BookLover]

I'll try that! Thanks Dave!