Happy Halloween 2011

Once again I will be setting up the yard to welcome all the little tricksters. 

This year they'll have to slowly walk down our driveway of dead souls 

to earn their sweets. Lets see if any are brave enough..... 

I'll update this after the night and post some photos.

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Right after Halloween I was talking to my friends Kendra + James Baxter and we were exchanging our Halloween stories { they get into as much as i do :-) }

 They were telling me of the 'Pumpkin King' from Nightmare before Christmas that they had made and set up in front of their house in southern California.

Below is one the photos they sent me showing their 'Pumpkin King'. Beautiful work.

Having the clouds with the moon in the background. I love this :-) 

Here's a quick shot taken on Halloween during one of my story classes as I was talking over some ideas with one of our senior students, Tara Barker.

 I must say..... i certainly do tidy up to make for one beautiful Blonde. VERY Beautiful. ;-)

The Land Before Time - John Pomeroy sketches 2

Here is another sketch from my friend John Pomeroy during our time in Dublin Ireland while we were working on ' The Land Before Time '.

Again, beautiful work.
John has such an appealing wonderful design sense when he draws.

Rough Animation Drawing - JOHN POMEROY - 1988

Mark's Notes - 2

Just thought i would add a section to my Blog where I will post some of my notes to my students here at VANarts. These are some notes that are for a term 1 Story assignment where the students try to tell their 'story' with one silhouette pose. We are always searching for that as animators. A strong clear pose that has a good silhouette.

I ask them to think of creating this assignment as though they are drawing only one image for a children's book.

Be very clear with the pose, pushing the attitude { the emotional state } of the pose so that it reads as clear as possible. If it is a physical action, look for a strong pose that explains the action, the motion involved. 

And of course, look for a strong silhouette as it will make the pose be easier to understand, having the whole body be apart of the story you are trying to tell.

There are many ways to tell the story with the one drawing. 
I try to take the students original idea and work with it 
{ instead of just doing what I would do. }
I look at what the student is wanting to tell from their poses, what the story is, and then i try to add any quick positive constructive notes from there.

Below are notes over the students work of someone 'accusing' someone else:
  

Below are notes over the students work of someone being chased :

INSPIRATION 13 - Ken Duncan Interview - Aug 2011 - Video 3 - The process of animating a scene

Here is the 3rd video showing Ken Duncan answer our senior student Ghaydaa Salem's question regarding his approach to animating in 3D.
Ghaydaa had finished her course at the online school Animation Mentor { where I also teach advanced acting } and joined us in our traditional 2D animation course. She has since shifted back to 3D as she enters her Senior terms here at VANarts in downtown Vancouver Canada.

 The photo above shows Ghaydaa as she talks over her question with Ken.




In this video Ken talks about 'being in the Zone' while you are animating. He mentions that at times he gets irritated when someone interrupts him while being so focused... { I do remember that 'look' at times ... lol }

When discussing the process of animating the characters performance, Ken mentions it's like sculpting a performance....really building something from nothing.

He talks about this list of questions that he goes through before he starts to animate :

- What is the Story ?

- Who is the Character in that story ?

- How are they physically going to move ?

- How are they Emotionally going to feel at that given moment...

- ... and how do I capture that in a pose ?

Lots of great insights - Enjoy -