Memory Lane 12 - 'An American Tail' - Nov 1986 Cast and Crew Screening

First of all, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to everyone - 2014 !
I was finally able to have some time to transfer some of my old videos from my early days as i was just getting into the animation industry. 

Here is one that I'm sure will bring back some memories for others. 

This is the Cast and Crew screening of Don Bluth's animated feature ' An American Tail ' back in November 1986. We had already started the next production, ' The Land Before Time ' and were starting to pack up our belongings to get ready to fly over to our new studio location in Dublin Ireland.

But before we all left southern California we were able to gather as a studio one last time for this Crew screening. It was an exciting night as after a few years of hard work we all were finally able to see how our efforts all came together. 

Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy had just returned to LA that day for this screening as they were away on the publicity tour being interviewed throughout the country in time for the films release. 

It was an exciting time for the young studio. The artists I was able to work with were so open with sharing their knowledge. So many positives at this time and I was very proud and fortunate to be able to have these people in my life. This truly was a 'small' studio and it felt like a family { yes, sometimes a dysfunctional family.... but hey, what family isn't ;) }   Wouldn't change anything and all I can say is thank you Don, Gary and John for your leadership, the opportunity and the support you gave the crew during this production. 
I also have to thank my boss at the time during this production Vera Lanpher { now Vera Pacheco } as she pushed me to always do my best.

Below I have posted the names of the people that I know in the video as they walk by in order. Note, I wasn't able to record everyone as multiple things were happening at the same time...so if you're missing... sorry about that.
{ If you have any names of people that I have left out, please let me know and I'll update the list }

The film opens with my friend Joey Mildenberger whom I shared a room with at the studio. He drove me early to the screening so that i could get set up before the crowd gathered. It's sort of funny as he thought at first his name was NOT on the credits, but he quickly found it and everything turned out fine :-)
Also, the first boy that enters the lobby is Phillip Glasser, the voice of the character Fievel.

Hope you enjoy watching the video.

- Mark

People in the video in order of appearance :

David 'Joey' Mildenberger   -   special effects inbetweener  Mark Pudleiner   -   character key assistant  { holding camera in mirror } Phillip Glasser   -   Fievel Mousekewitz { voice } James Mann Deborah Rykoff-Bennett   -   paint lab supervisor Mannix Bennett   -   rough animation inbetweener David J. Steinberg   -   assistant director Dave Tidgwell   -   special effects inbetweener Anne Marie Bardwell  -  animator Ralf Palmer   -   animator Paul Riley   -   visiting animator from Toronto Konrad Winterlich   -   rough animation inbetweener Helene Blitz   -   production accountant: USA Jeff Etter   -   animator Anne Hazard   -   ink artist Jon L. Hooper   -   character key assistant Barry Atkinson   -   miniature model maker / background artist Ralph Zondag   -   animator Dick Zondag   -   animator Tom Hush   -   special effects animatorJesse Cosio   -   animator William Lorencz   -   miniature model maker / background artist John K. Carr   -   editorial assistant Linda Miller   -   directing animator Susan Vanderhorst   -   animation color stylist Daryl Carstensen   -   xerox checker Michel Gagne   -   assitant animator Ciaran Morris   -   xerox checker Brenda McGuirk   -   paint lab assistant Paul Newberry   - Kevin Wurzer   -   animator John Cawley   -   production coordinator Shawn Keller   - Vera Pacheco   -   character key supervisor (as Vera Lanpher) Dorse A. Lanpher   -   special effects directing animator / title designer Diann Landau   -   special effects animator Cynthia Ankney   -   assistant: Gary Goldman David R. Ankney   -   animation camera David McCamley   -   special effects inbetweener Patrick Gleeson   -   rough animation inbetweener Russell Boland   -   xerox processor Sandra Ryan-Moran   -   cel painter Sinead Murray   -   cel painter Hope Devlin Kristiansen   -   apprentice mark-up Gary Perkovac   -   animator Jean Morel   -   character clean-up artist Eric Daniels   -   character clean-up inbetweener Margie Daniels   -    Sue Shakespeare   -   assistant director Terry Shakespeare   -   character key assistant Colm Duggan   -   rough animation inbetweener Helen Lawlor   -   rough animation inbetweener Mary Walsh   -   rough animation inbetweener Nollaig Crombie   -   rough animation inbetweener Thad Weinlein   -   production manager Rachel W. Leighton   -   assistant accountant  ( as Rachel Weinlein ) Barbara Ritchie   -   animation checker Don Bluth   -   director / producer / production designer / storyboard artist Rocky Solotoff   -   animation camera Scott McCartor   -   production camera supervisor Pamela + Christopher Scudder { my future in-laws ... i had no idea :-) } Diane Albracht   -   ink and paint assistant supervisor: USA Gary Hall   -   cel painter Robin Police   -   final checker Alan Fleming   -   xerox processor Carla Washburn   -   animation checker Fred Craig   -  supervising production manager / director of special photographic effects Todd Waterman   -   character clean-up inbetweener Gina Evans   -   cel painter David Molina   -   animator Ashley McGovern   -  rough animation inbetweener Dan Molina   -   film editor Gary Goldman   -   producer John Pomeroy   -   producer / directing animator Olga Tarin-Craig   -   color mark-up / ink and paint supervisor  Saskia Raevouri   -   final checker Kerri Swanson   -   ink artist Mark Swanson   -   layout artist Tamara Anderson   -   rough animation inbetweener Kathleen Quaife-Hodge   -   special effects animator Don Paul   -   special effects animator Mark Swan   -   miniature model maker / layout artist Larry Leker   -   layout supervisor / storyboard assistant / title designer Morris Sullivan   -    co-founder of Sullivan Bluth Studios Silvia Hoefnagels   -   character key assistant T. Daniel Hofstedt   -   animator / rough inbetween supervisor Stephen B. Moore   -   special effects assistant Jorgen Klubien   -   additional animator David Goetz   -   background artist Skip Jones   -   animator Fred Reilly   -   apprentice mark-up MISSING FROM VIDEO but where there that night : Emily Jiuliano   -   character key assistant Joe Jiuliano   -   animation camera

My biggest Inspiration

Rest in Peace dad - love you always

KINGDOM of the SUN - Rough ' Nina ' sketches and Animation Test

Here are a few of my rough sketches during the beginning months of Walt Disney's feature ' Kingdom of the Sun '. I was cast to the lead character ' Nina '  supervised by Doug Frankel. 

This was to be my 4th Main female lead character that i was to animate at Disney's. The others being Esmeralda, Meg, Mulan and now, Nina. I really liked the work Doug had done on her design up to this point. Having the face be wider in design but still keeping the appeal. And I loved the large shapes to work with regarding the hair and outfit, even the earrings. I love having shapes to play with regarding overlapping action and I was already visualizing how the hair could move in and out of actions, looking for appealing shapes and using the drag and follow through action as a nice accent to a movement.

We had some time at the beginning to discover the character, learning to drawn her to understand how her design could move around. 

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BELOW is a rough animation test i did of  ' Nina '. I was one of around a dozen animators or so that were on this film for around half a year. Production stopped on this film as the company reworked the story and recast the direction. The new film became ' The Emperors New Groove '. This film was more classic Disney in it's animated style - more traditional than the more comic style of ENG. This test of Nina is just a rough i was having fun with before scenes were cast out. It's rough, off model, not completed. It's also based on a good family friend Lisa Salamone Smith { Disney TV } who I tried to capture some of her personality as I have her walk towards the camera. At times Lisa would have her hair flop down over the side of her face while talking and then take her hand and brush it aside. I tried to put that in the test just to add a bit to the appeal of the performance. As mentioned, the test isn't finished, still in the rough stage, but you can see where I was going with it. :-)

Mark Pudleiner - Kingdom of the Sun - Rough ' Nina ' animation test from Mark Pudleiner on Vimeo.


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Here are 3 key poses from the first scene where I animated Nina. I was sorry when this story was stopped and along with it all the work done on the character. We moved on after a break to the new film 'The Emperors New Groove' which was a completely different story being animated in a completely different style. And that ended up being another positive experience.

2 Videos - 28 years apart.

2 Videos showing me a few years apart. The top video is a recent 2014 Video clip from VANarts where i teach Character Animation and Story. It shows one of our recent graduating students Emily Cooper discussing her experience coming to the college in Vancouver Canada to learn Animation. The 2nd Video below shows me much earlier in my career as I am filmed during my early days at Don Bluth Animation - 28 years earlier { Yikes ! }

2014 Video

Emily Cooper - VanArts Graduate from VanArts on Vimeo.

click HERE to go to VANarts Website





1986 Video - 
This video is from my good friend and amazing animator and designer Sandro Cleuzo.  
who worked at Bluth but I met during our years at Disney Feature Animation. 

Check out Sandro's beautiful work at his website here > click
  
The video below shows the DON BLUTH studio as we were working on the features :
 ' An American Tail ' as well as ' The Land Before Time '. 
I am definitely a younger version as at the video time of 4:24 it shows me at my desk
working on a Fievel scene from 'Tail' as I am doing Key Clean-Up. This is taking the animator's
rough animation drawings and putting down a final line, making any corrections to putting things on model 
{ while keeping all the animators energy and life in the drawings }.
Time flies - it doesn't feel like almost 30 years that this is where things were at.
Constant learning and amazingly good times working with all the various talented artists during those days.

How much could I make in Animation in 2014 ?

Below is the latest from the Animation Guild in California USA.

Click the link to go to their website > Click Here

click HERE to see wage survey larger

Hello World ....

Our senior students here in downtown Vancouver have 1 more week to go until they walk out our door for the final time. It's been a busy week as they finish their final senior short films and gather their best efforts to create their portfolio to show the studios. Many have also made the short walk over to Siggraph 2014 to visit the job fair, their best scenes in hand. 

With positive thoughts, some anxious and nervous energy, they hope for the best. 

And so do I for them.

I had to stop for a moment in class today to sketch out this little drawing of how it all must feel, the excitement of finishing college and stepping out into the future.

Here's hoping the future is nothing but successful :-) 

Memory Lane 11 - My desk @ Disney during Hercules Production - 1996

At my desk during the production of Disney's animated Feature 'Hercules'.  This was most likely taken early 1996. My friend and supervisor on the film, Ken Duncan { he was supervising my animation of the female lead 'Meg' } , was going around at times taking photos of people working on the project. He came into my room, stood on a chair and pointed the camera as i looked his way. Looking over my shoulder I recognize that was my first scene on the film, meg walking through the forest as she is about to meet the characters 'Pain' and 'Panic'. 

It was the first time I was to deal with those round Meg hips as she snapped from pose to pose. Also the overlapping hair and dress that was part of her design. I've always loved that challenge of animating the female character with all the overlapping design elements. They are great assets to use for adding accents to a performance. 

And yes, I have no idea why my glasses are so damn big  :-)

Getting into Disney Feature Animation in 1993

Late 1993 I was wondering if I should take the Disney Animation Test that I had heard about. One of my friends at the studio warned me to not take it as Disney never hires anyone if you do a test. Instead, to get in, I should just hand in my portfolio. I thought about it and decided to do the test any ways. I thought, I will take time off work, a holiday, and work on the test during my break, doing my best. And hopefully it'll work out.

It was a Friday afternoon as i drove over to the Disney building in Glendale where the production of Pocahontas was in full swing. I walked into the reception area and asked for the animation test. The girl behind the desk handed me the one sheet i scanned below and told me to hand it back in 2 weeks later.

So i quickly went home that night and started. I had to animate one scene of Alice picking up a pot of tea, pouring the tea into the cup she was holding and as she lifts the cup to her lips ' something ' happens and she reacts. 

I thought I'd be clever and make a test that would make someone laugh. I roughed out a first blocking test of Alice picking up the pot, pouring and just about to sip the tea when suddenly the facehugger from the Alien movie shoots out, grabbing her face, throwing her backwards and all we are left is seeing Alice's legs thrash about.

I asked my college friend , Ken Duncan , {who was directing a small role of the young man Thomas on Pocahontas} if i could drive over to his house in simi valley and see what he thought. Thankfully Ken said yes and after seeing what i was up to he asked me to shift direction with the test. "Know the audience Mark" he said, " You need to understand who is looking at this, it's Disney feature. You have to think of their sensibility and what they are doing. Think more charming. Something more Disney-like. "

Strong advice. Thank you Ken ! 

I truly believe if i had continued with the violent test, I would had been passed over.

So, instead I returned to my apartment and started over. It was Wednesday night when I drove to Simi and saw Ken. It was now Thursday morning. Blank paper on disc. Drawing one.

I returned back to the studio 2 weeks after I first received the test, handing them my work.

I hoped for the best. 

After talking to Ken, I decided to have the Cheshire Cat pop out of the cup and grabbed the twirling cup in mid air then smiling at the young Alice. I studied the Alice work from the film and tried to make her reaction as close as Alice-like as i could. React but a bit constrained, keeping her ladylike as the young lady she is.

I was told by a friend, Dave Goetz { who lived near us in Santa Monica } that the test went really well and that the producer Roy Conli on Disney's new film, Hunchback, wanted to have me phone him.

{ note to students : if you know the studio that you will be focusing on, if possible, make at least one animation test fit into their world {design + performance}.

I started my first day on Jan 17th 1994 joining the Hunchback Crew as an animator. 

That was the morning all of  LA woke up around 4 in the morning ... but that's another story :-)

Hips with attitude

 Here's a quick note I left on one of my animation student's desk.

While she was doing a good job working hard on her senior project, she was overlooking one thing.
She was animating the upper body yet not having the Hips be part of the action. Suddenly the body
parts were not feeling connected.

Upper Body rotating slightly, hips with attitude saying " Nope, we're not going along with this. "

Ugh ... Hips. Always causing problems.
She liked the note. And she's working in the industry now :-)

Calgary Comic + Entertainment Expo 2014

I will joining the Calgary Comic Expo this coming weekend and will be giving a talk on the 'Breakdown of the animated scene'. If you're there, feel free to stop by and also visit the VANarts booth as I will be at the booth Saturday afternoon and most of the day Sunday.

Below are the details of the talk I will be giving. Hope to see you there. 

Breakdown of the Animated Scene

Room: Palomino D

Time: 1:45PM - 2:30PM

Various animated scenes are broken down in detail explaining how the scenes play out their own moment of Storytelling in a clear and entertaining way. We learn what isn't moving is, at times, the most important moment of what you're seeing on screen. By approaching scenes early on in a simplified way, the animator can direct where the audience will look as the scene plays out it's action and performances.

- See more at: HERE

Don Bluth - Storyboards - 1 - The Secret of NIMH

Back in 1985 while I was working on 'An American Tail ' at Don Bluths Studios in Van Nuys California, I noticed some boxes with some old storyboards from earlier productions. I still remember the feeling as I stood there holding storyboards in my hands from one of my favourite features 'The Secret of NIMH'. As a young artist, my eyes were wide open flipping through the panels taking in Don's amazing ability to tell the story with such appeal in his drawing. Each panel had such life with such a strong sense of design. He made it all seem so easy with every pose explaining the action and performance.

So, hoping they wouldn't mind, I headed over to the xerox machine and copied some panels for my own reference. I had a feeling they wouldn't mind as Don, Gary and John were amazing to work with and they were all so open for us learning and pushing ourselves to only get better as artists. They truly believed in passing on the knowledge, not keeping it to themselves. It was a great time to be with them during those early productions. 


Back a few years Don released a great book were he talks about his approach when it comes to Storyboarding. The book is hard to find but you can look here : 
 DON BLUTHS - The Art of STORYBOARD

I really like Don's insights that he shares. Here is one of his quotes from the book :

' Read the script and come to believe it. If you can't believe in your script, you'd better choose another. Once you have your script, sit quietly with your eyes closed and envision the picture in your mind, finished if possible. Don't edit yourself at this point. Select a section of the script that you like and try to view it in your mind's eye. Envision the characters - their actions, costumes, and facial expressions. Hear the voices, the music, and the sound effects. My brain is not always willing to do this exercise on command, so I don't force it; often, it wakes me up in the early hours of the morning when it's good and ready.
Keep a sketchpad handy to jot down the ideas and special notes when this inspiration session is over. Don't edit your ideas, but collect them. I have often recounted these small visions to John or Gary to see if they make sense. Good ideas stand up under scrutiny, whereas poor ideas do not. With that in mind, let your friends' reactions help you filter out the bad ideas.'  - Don Bluth

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Below are the 1st panels from NIMH that I have. I just love the design of his panels. Don's approach to drawing feathers has always stood out as he finds ways to make them read and feel so appealing with the grouping of feathers, turning a ' Wing ' into a ' Hand ' when the story needs a hand to be shown. Also the way the feathers arc off Jeremy the Crows head, the use of negative space giving the feathers a feeling of looseness yet also being seen as very solid. Some beautiful design work here. 
Also, notice how Don draws throughout the panel, staging the characters within the frame and allowing himself as the story artist to really know and understand how the characters will be balanced in the overall composition. 

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I love this Sequence below as Don draws Jeremy land on the ground and roll around in laughter. Don is a master at drawing birds. There is such the solid structure of the bird anatomy as Jeremy's poses explain the action. I love the design of the wings once again using space and then grouping feathers together to create the feeling of wings as arms as he hugs himself. I can almost hear the voice actor, Dom Deluise, laughing as these panels are played out in order. Beautiful work. 

John Pomeroy's Clean Up Notes 2 - All dogs go to Heaven

 Here is another one of my notes I got from JOHN POMEROY while we were working on Don Bluth's production of  'All dogs go to Heaven '. It was around 1987- early 88 and we were still in Dublin Ireland.
I was supervising the Clean Up Department for the production and every now and then I would knock on John's door to ask for his thoughts regarding design.

Again, as a Clean Up Artist I have always loved the challenge of searching for appealing designs while keeping the rough animation of the animator intact. 

Below is one of the animators rough key drawings of the character Anne Marie as she is quickly turning her head, making her hair swing upward and around in motion.

The next drawing is John's Version of how the design of the hair should be drawn. 

John was able to explain the action of the hair beautifully showing the weight and drag of the hair while adding to the design making the animation only stronger.

James Baxter the Horse

Below is a quick Video of my latest interview on October 23rd 2013 with Dreamworks Animator JAMES BAXTER.

Once again, James agreed to talk with our students at VANarts Media College in Vancouver B.C. Canada and answer any questions regarding his approach on animation.

It was another great morning as James and his wife Kendra joined us for over 2 hours of their time. I'm very thankful that they are willing to join us.

I took the opportunity to ask him about how he became involved with his work on the TV series Adventure Time episode  'James Baxter the Horse'.

James explains the details of how the Idea was originally thought up over 10 years ago, { At least the Idea of a Horse balancing on a beach ball } and then years later how the idea grew to become a new character for the show.
James animated the character as well as the voice performance.

It's a great moment hearing the details so I hope you enjoy this as well

-Mark

James Baxter the Horse from Mark Pudleiner on Vimeo.
VANarts Animation + Story Instructor Mark Pudleiner interviews Dreamworks Animator JAMES BAXTER regarding his work on the TV series Adventure Time episode 'James Baxter the Horse'.

200,000

Just a quick note saying Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to all of you that come by the Blog for a visit. Just noticed that we have had over 200,000 views ! Not bad for a small little blog out there in the big internet universe :-)
I have lots more to post as we go forward { once I finish some freelance story work }
All the best in 2014
- Mark