Click the image to be taken to a great article by Vanity Fair on the ink and paint girls at Disney Animation in the early 30s, 40s, and 50s.

The Envelope has a short interview with Pete Docter where he discussing the film making choices behind the opening sequence for his second film, Up. I particularly liked where they drew their influences from for making the intro silent. Docter says,

We also talked early on about most of us grew up in homes where our folks were taking Super-8 films of our family. And when you go back and look at those, they’re also silent, but there’s something powerful about having no sound.

It’s just feels so right.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Somebody asked me in the comments of another post what are my “staple books.” That is, the books I’ll never get rid of.

Well, to qualify as part of that category, a book only has to meet one requirement. I have to be able to pick it up any time and learn something new. It’s only one prerequisite, but it’s a tough one. There’s only a few books that can meet this criteria, and The Animator’s Survival Kit is one of them. Most other books will inevitably be expendable at some point in my career as the weight of owning so many books warrants random book sales from time to time.

If you’ve ever met Richard Williams, and heard him talk, you know he can go on and on as long as you’ll let him.  And you know what it’s like to just let him (awesome!). The guy is a walking story book of animation information.  I had the opportunity to meet him, and shake his hand recently, thanking him for the inspiration he’s given me over the years. His stories are filled with such passion and love for the medium that you feel like you were a part of them as you hear them.

His famous book was recently reprinted with new material, and the publisher was kind enough to send me a copy to review on this blog. I was anxious to read the new material, and having finally found some time to do so, I can whole heartedly recommend that you invest in a copy.

Some have said the book is so much larger than the original, but the reality is the new material is small. But it’s quality and NOT quantity. There’s an invaluable section on animal animation which is a nice compliment to any Muybridge books you might have. Richard also chimes in on the great Motion Capture debate with a thoughtful and convincing argument that I can’t help but stand behind 100%. This to me is the highlight of the new material. He briefly addresses figure drawing for animators, something that is often misleading, at least up until Matessi’s books. There’s a few other topics that he touches on, but the thing I love about the new text is that it’s filled with the aforementioned animation stories. He teaches in the quintessential Richard Williams style of merely relaying information he learned from the greats. Essentially, he’s passing the torch. (Sorry I can’t help it, I’m so caught up in the Olympics right now…)

I must say though, that this new edition is merely a compliment to the DVD Series he recently released. I’ve been slowly going through the exercises, going back and forth between the book and the DVDs, and I can honestly say it’s the best animation education I’ve ever had. I just wish I had more time to do it more often.

Buy the new book, but if you can, buy the DVD Set too. If you have the new book or DVD series, I’d love to hear your comments.

Victor Ens has pointed out some great links and media for Sylvain Chomet’s next masterpiece, The Illusionist.

Don’t miss the trailer for Waking Sleeping Beauty now up at Apple.

I just spent the day downtown. Today I learned how much cooler the Olympics are when they come to you. There’s such an electricity in the air. I’ve never seen so many people in Vancouver. I actually felt like a tourist in my own town. Props to VanOc for doing such an amazing job with the organization as well. It’s very impressive to see how smoothly everything is running. I love this town. It’s great the world gets to see just how amazing it is.

I’ve been getting a bit of traffic from Animation Mentor. I’m curious what it’s all about. I can’t access the page that is referring students to my site, so I was hoping one of the students could send me a screen cap?

It’s tough to get posts in these days. I’m so distracted by the Olympics everywhere around me.

Thanks to David Nethery for the heads up on these. Part three is the highlight for me.

Starting tomorrow the Vancouver Art Gallery will be hosting an exhibit featuring the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. Quoting the website:

Shown for the first time as a complete group in this exhibition, Manuscript A encompasses thirty-four of Leonardo’s pen and ink anatomical drawings on eighteen sheets of paper, rendered during the winter of 1510-1511. Included are the first known accurate depictions of the spinal column and two magisterial sheets depicting the musculature of the lower legs and feet. The works are graciously loaned by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II from The Royal Collection, Windsor.

While this is all very exciting, the VAG has a history of disappointing me. The last exhibit claimed to have Vermeer and Rembrandt featured. It was only after I paid my $50 that I discovered that out of the hundreds of works of art there were 3 Rembrands, and 1 Vermeer about 8×8 inches. I will be very cautious before I attend another event at the VAG, and I’ll be waiting for testimonials before I go to this one. Please leave a comment if you go.

Great motion reference. I especially love the rabbit stuff. There’s so much subtle movement going on there that an animator can feed off of.

From Spungella.