An Interview with Ralph Eggleston

First off, special congratulations go out to Wall-E, Eve and the gang for snagging the Oscar. Dave Schlafman just passed along an interview with Ralph Eggleston, production designer on the film. He details some of the artistic goals and production challenges of the the film. I especially enjoyed reading about his thoughts on color. He gets into texturing, too. Well worth the read.

--> Design With a Purpose, An Interview with Ralph Eggleston

Deadlines got you down?

...take a note from Glen Keane, Disney animator extraordinaire. There is a great article about him on Lineboil.

My favorite portion of this article:

Do you have any routines for uncorking your creativity?

GLEN: Get away. That’s what I need to do when I am stuck. I go for a long walk and refresh my soul. I go to a museum to remind myself that I am an artist and need to think like one. Often the thing that can happen to someone working for a big studio like Disney, or any studio for that matter, is that you can forget why you love this art form. It can quickly become about meeting a production goal. Schedules and deadlines are important, even essential, because they create a fire and heat that seem to force you into your best ideas. However when you feel creatively empty and uninspired, the deadline mentality will say “It’s okay just let it go. So what if it’s not your best work - you’ll get another chance next time. Hand in the scene and at least you can feel good about hitting the numbers.”

I reject this voice and instead do something that feels entirely counter-intuitive. I take that seemingly all too precious time and walk out the door of the studio, hop in my car and drive to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. I marvel at the Rodin sculpture at the entrance. I study the Degas pastels and figurines… I start to remember that I am an artist first and animator second.

Demanding the Grade

Just read an interesting article in the NYTimes:

--> Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes

“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,” Professor Grossman said. “Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”

—that's not Brian ;)

“I noticed an increased sense of entitlement in my students and wanted to discover what was causing it,” said Ellen Greenberger, the lead author of the study, called “Self-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting, and Motivational Factors,” which appeared last year in The Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

“I think that it stems from their K-12 experiences,” Professor Brower said. “They have become ultra-efficient in test preparation. And this hyper-efficiency has led them to look for a magic formula to get high scores.”

I know I always worked hard for my A's in high school. The curve was much more prevalent in college, and I do recall certain students going up to the professor—disgruntled that they got a B. Average work deserves a C...there's no sense in inflating someone's sense of mediocrity. But it must be tricky at colleges, where students are often treated as customers because they are seen as paying for their education.

Comics Grammar And Tradition

I just came across this post about comic book lettering that talks about all of the "rules" (which were made to be broken, sometimes) involved with laying out text in speech bubbles in comic books. It's very cool how much of a "language" there is involved with this, and how much a few marks (i.e., the "breath marks") can tell us.

Ditch Digital

Floyd Norman has a rather bold suggestion sure to stir controversy:

"I’m going to apologize in advance for today's column because I'm sure that it's going to make a lot of people angry. I have a plan that some might call radical. But it’s a plan that I’m afraid we need. Tough times demand tough decisions, and here’s one to consider:

Get rid of digital animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios."

--> Link to column

His argument is from a business perspective, mainly that Disney should leverage their history (the brand they established over an entire century) and return to what they have always excelled at. Especially in a world where practically everything is CG, and they already own Pixar. Interesting read, for sure. Thanks to Sherm Cohen for sharing the link over Facebook.

The Art of Storyboarding

Walt Disney: "At our studio we don't write our stories, we draw them."

Alfred Hitchcok: "A storyboard artist has to be a good storyteller."

Andrew Adamson: "This is an expensive writing tool, but a really inexpensive production tool."

via Presentation Zen

Noteworthy

Looking through the list of animations that were at Sundance this year, Max and Mary caught my attention. It's by Adam Eliot- who made Harvey Krumpet (if you haven't seen that- it's a good one to look for!)
Short summary- It's about two lonely people connecting. That was short wasn't it.

Here's a link to a proper review-

And

Here's a link to the official site-

I can't find any kind of release date so we could see it in Boston- but once I find out I'll update here.

Donald Duck is funny

Donald always has bad stuff happen to him. He's picked on, taunted...his tail's always getting smacked or mistreated...and yet we laugh at him. He's one of the few Disney characters that we route against in a fun way, and yet he's likable. Ask most people who their favorite Disney character is (fighting off the Disney conditioning that wants them to say MICKEY), I bet most of them would say Donald. Is it easier to laugh at his misfortunes because he's so angry all the time? Sometimes he shows a softer side, but we all like him when he's waving his fist ready to give it to'em.

Anyway, think on that, and watch these classic Donald Duck cartoons :)

Donald Applecore (1952)


I always wondered about the "Applecore" joke in this. Wikipedia says it was a schoolyard game...how sweet!

This one won't allow embedding for some reason:
--> Bee at the Beach (1950)

Note that these are a full 15 years later than the cartoons I posted yesterday. It's interesting to see Donald's design morph over the years.

When Cartoons were Funny to Watch

Cartoons have always been good for a laugh, and still are. But there was a time when they were also funny to watch. I've been watching a lot of old Disney cartoons from the 30s as of late, mainly to admire the drawing and animation that went into all these great films. Man, some GREAT drawing. But seriously, you could watch these with the sound turned down, and still be just as amused. WHAT HAPPENED? Sure, a lot of the humor is in visual gags, but dialogue and writing have definitely stolen the attention in most contemporary animation. Where scripts trump storyboards. My guess is that funny writing is cheaper to create than funny animation. But if enough people demand it, the studios would bring it back. We've been lulled into talking heads delivering the goods (if there are any goods at all).

Anyway, here are 3 Disney Cartoons featuring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. It's weird that we have to be reminded that Disney actually made really funny cartoons at one time. Even funnier to see a Mickey with a bit of a temper. If you click on the arrow in the corner of the YouTube window, you can select HQ and watch them in higher quality (a new feature I recently discovered).

The Band Concert (1935)


Moving Day (1936)


Mickey's Circus (1936)

Craig McCracken on deviantArt

Look what I found!

--> Craig's deviantArt page

Tons of goodies and sketches to look at. It appears to be mostly drawn in Flash.


A Foster's Home comic:


Here's also a great interview with Craig about the Powerpuff Girls on ColdHardFlash.

FlashTip #1: Drawing with a Brush

Greetings Creative Juicers! Over the next couple weeks I'll be doing Flash tips and tutorials over at my blog, Drip!. The first post is a walkthrough on how to unlock the power of the Brush tool in Flash.

-->View here

Secretary of the Arts?

I was looking through 'causes' on facebook- and noted a petition to send (soon to be) president Barack. It was for a "secretary of the Arts" position.
I was wondering what other folks thought was on this.
My initial reaction was "oh hey cool! maybe we'd definetly ensure arts in public schools that way!" But with a little more thought I became skeptical. There is a lot at stake when talking about individuals intellectual properties. Who's to say that whomever that secretary would be wouldn't wake up one morning deciding that any art created in the us, belongs to the government and not the artist themselves. I know that is a bit of a stretch since that would cause quite an uproar, but it is a feasibility. It would be almost like there was an official art director of the US, and what if you don't agree with them. At least if you don't agree with the other officials you can express that in your art. I'd fear whomever that secretary was would be rating each artist- and that's not the point of art. I'd rather be able to express myself without worrying it wasn't good enough (goodness knows artists do that anyways!)
I do see how my fears could be slightly irrational, but at the same time I think they're ones to give serious consideration to. What if there were a board judging arts the same way teachers and doctors are judged. Granted I think the later is needed because of the affects a bad teacher and doctor can have on a person, yet I worry about art being censored completley.
What do you guys think?