DRAGONS LAIR 2 - John Pomeroy drawings

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays 2012 everyone !
One last post for this year :-)

While working at Don Bluth Studios for the earlier part of my career I was fortunate enough to be able to work and learn from some amazing talent.

As mentioned in earlier posts, John Pomeroy was the artistic leader and I always found him open to pass on any tips and encouragement. He was extremely busy and when you were able to have a moment with him as he talked about the art of animation, it was always very enlightening and positive. There was always this excitement and passion and you could tell he loved what he was working on. It also shows in his work as  here are some beautifully drawn images from one of his scenes from Don Bluths ' Dragons Lair 2 - Time Warp '. 

The drawings are from the end of the game when the hero Dirk rescues his love Daphne and they come together for the kiss. Beautiful. 

desk doodle 9

Emperors New Groove - Kuzco rough test

Here is another one of my rough animation tests for Disney's animated feature ' Emperors New Groove '.
It is Sequence 1 Scene 76. 

I'm forgetting who, but I know I gave one of the incidental characters to my rough assistants at the time. There was a pool of rough assistant animators at Disney and you could use them to help complete the scene as needed. { if there was one available at the time }.

Emperors New Groove - Kuzco Rough Animation Test 3 from Mark Pudleiner on Vimeo.

 I animated a few scenes in a row in this section, also doing the scene directly before { scene 75 } 

where the 3 babies are held up to Kuzco and he 'kisses' them with a rubber stamp. When animating that scene, I named the babies after my two boys, Steven and Mathieu and then the middle baby 'Sam' { if we were going to have a girl someday, that was to be her name } All unofficial as they were only in this one scene, but hey, that's what i labeled them on my animation charts :-)

I recently found the rough test of the beginning of this scene. Here it is :
Mark Pudleiner ENG baby Kiss scene from Mark Pudleiner on Vimeo.

This film was a nice change as the timing of the animation was leaning more towards the snappier 

WB style. Snapping into key poses and following through with the overlap. Below are the 2 scenes as they play out together.

                                       copyright Disney Animation



Here is a link to an old Burbank newspaper article regarding the scene > click HERE

How much money can I make doing this ? - 2012 USA Wage Survey

Once again, here's a recent article from the American Animation Guild 839 Blog in regards to the WAGE SURVEY that was sent out and information gathered. It lets you know roughly what is happening within the industry in the states. These numbers are from union as well as non-union shops.

Please note that these numbers are the results of the Wage Survey in the United States in 2012:
For comparison purposes, all salaries are computed based upon a forty-hour week.

                                                             Minimum                      Median                     Maximum

Directors { features, DTV }    -              $ 1,868.75                    $ 3,552.50                $ 7,692.30    

Story Artist { features, DTV }   -           $ 1,300.00                    $ 1987.00                 $ 3,500.00

Visual Development    -                       $ 1,178.24                    $ 2,100.00                $ 4,500.00

Supervising Animators    -                   $ 1,326.00                    $ 2,475.00                $ 3,272.73

3D animators    -                                  $ 1,220.00                    $ 1,911.77                $ 5,200.00

2D animators    -                                  $ 1,000.00                    $ 1,600.00                $ 2,500.00

Effects animators    -                            $ 1,356.64                    $ 1,850.00                $ 2,591.00

Flash animators    -                               $ 800.00                       $ 1,400.00                $ 1,628.00

Below is the completed Wage Survey for 2012. Click at the very bottom below to see it larger - Mark   
 

Click HERE to open a PDF file

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Emperors New Groove - another rough animation test

Here is another one of my Emperors New Groove rough animation scenes. After waking, Kuzco is realizing that being alone really isn't the best. It is production Sequence 12.8 Scene 4.

Emperors New Groove > Kuzco Lama Rough Animation - Test 2 from Mark Pudleiner on Vimeo.
copyright Walt Disney Animation

Networking

Here's a quick link to another event we recently had at VANarts :  click here

Emperors New Groove - Rough Test

Here is one of my rough Emperors New Groove scenes where I have Kuzco waking up and realizes that he is still a Lama. He's licking his lips etc as the bad taste of grass is still in his mouth. Lama's don't eat the same meals as the royal kings do. It is production Sequence 12.8 , Scene 2 Most of my scenes on this production were Kuzco as a human. As those scenes were completed, we continued on animating the emperor as a four-legged.

copyright Walt Disney Animation

Willy Pogany 2

Here are more Willy Pogany's beautifully drawn studies of Head structure and facial details.  Enjoy. { click images to view larger }

Posted directly below are some very informative notes worth reading:

 

Mark's Notes - 8 - Breakdown of a scene - No. 2

Here is Video 2 of me breaking down another scene 
for my Story students at VANarts.

In this video I discuss the extra layer of believability that the 
animator James Baxter has created to add to the overall performance. 
Some thoughtful subtle acting decisions can add to the 
character being very much alive.

Summer 2012 - some sketches

Sorry for the lack of posts during the last couple of months.
Been busy doing summer things :-)
Here are some rough sketches while we were away. 
My wife and some others poolside.

Mark's Notes - 7 - Reference from Live Action

 Teaching Animation and Story-Visual Language here in Vancouver BC at VANarts, we have the students shoot reference for their animation tests for various assignments. The knowing how to use the reference is one of the lessons to learn. The reference can help explain to the artist how the body parts are being effected as the body moves through the motions. The weight shifts from one hip to another. The balance of the body etc etc. 

But following the reference too close will result in animation looking too much like live action, too rotoscoped. 

If the scene requires the use of live action reference, the trick is to take the needed information from the reference and then put the reference away. { Don't throw it away as you may need to look back at it again. } Using the reference in the earlier stages, you then push the idea and make it animated. Not relying on the reference alone to dictate the performance. You have the information from the reference, now take it and be creative and push for the scene to be more entertaining than the live action. I discuss this more to the students as we go forward in the course.

I put together a few of my notes regarding my approach as i quickly scan a person hitting a pose. These notes are somewhat the order that my mind goes through as i take in all the angles of a persons body as i take down the information in my head. This is how i do my quick sketches as i draw someone on the bus or in a line at starbucks etc. This check list goes by very fast as the person may move to another position and i have to remember the angles from memory. 

Here are some examples of my quick sketches where I use this approach :  HERE and HERE

Using a great photo from Buddy Scalera { beautiful photo library for Artists - click his name to go to his site } - I broke down the quick steps I use as I scan a pose that someone has made.

I know these notes may not always be correct, as it depends  on the actual position of the body, but in this example I am just using this one pose to go through the steps.

Willy Pogany 1

Here is one of my favorite artists as a kid. My dad had a copy of Willy Pogany's drawing book which he used for reference himself. The book also gave me hours of inspiration on how to draw the human form with solid structure and volume. I learned to 'shorthand ' with simple shapes first as i searched for the correct pose. Then draw in the details. I still use his way of thinking today when it comes to working through the drawing process of a pose. 

I will post various parts of this beautiful reference book. My friend Clint Morris scanned my dad's original book for reference. Thanks Clint :-) Hope some of you will find this inspiring as well. 

Below are details about the artist :

 Willy Pogany

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Andrew ("Willy") Pogany (born Vilmos Andreas Pogány) (August 1882 – 30 July 1955) was a prolific Hungarian illustrator of children's and other books.

Biography

Pogany was born in Szeged, Hungary. He studied at Budapest Technical University and in Munich and Paris.^[1] Pogany came to America via Paris and London. While in London, he produced his four masterpieces, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1910), Richard Wagner's Tannhauser (1911), Parsifal (1912) and Lohengrin (1913).
In 1918 he illustrated a children's retelling of Homer, The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy written by Padraic Colum.
Pogany's best known works consist of illustrations of classic myths and legends done in the Art Nouveau style. He also worked as an art director on several Hollywood films, including Fashions of 1934 and Dames.
Pogany authored three art instruction books: Willy Pogany's Drawing Lessons, Willy Pogany's Oil Painting Lessons, and Willy Pogany's Water Color Lessons, Including Gouache.
Asked how to say his name, he told the Literary Digest that in America it was po-GAH-ny. "However, in my native Hungary this name is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable with a slightly shorter o and the gany is as the French -gagne (the y is silent)": PO-gahn.^[2]

Pogany's public art can be seen on the walls of the Ringling Mansion in Sarasota, FL, the theatre of El Museo del Barrio at 1230 Fifth Ave., and the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on 45th St in NYC.

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This first section I'm posting is the cover art and introduction.

The 2nd section are studies of drawing the hand. One of my favorite areas of this book. I love the way he breaks the hands down into simple shapes as he searches for the pose.

2011-12 CHAMPIONS !

James Baxter Interview

This past Monday I was able to interview my friend James Baxter over skype for our character animation students. This was the 2nd time James was able to answer the students questions and I'll post some of them on the blog shortly.

Once again, thanks to James + Kendra for all their time :-)

Here is the link :  CLICK HERE