Back from a long summer...

When I try to think about my summer all that comes to my mind is work, work and more work (but at the restaurant, so it was boring).
Never the less, there where a few highlights on it.
Just at the beginning of it I had the chance to go to the closing gala film of the 66th Edinburgh International Film Festival where I watch the European premier of the newest film from Disney Pixar: Brave.
Not going to lie, not only Edinburgh was beautiful and full of life and events, but the film was absolutely fantastic! A master piece in my opinion. Also, having the opportunity of shake hands with Brenda Chapman, Robbie Coltrane and Kelly MacDonald was just added extra token to it.

After my disappointment when I found out that my skydiving session was moved to the 21st of October, I decided to get creative and started a commission challenge with Sophie, Ryan, Sarah and Lija in which it gave me the chance to practice a bit in some aspects that I find myself lazy to doing on my own.
Created this character, made an expression sheet and started a modelling on 3D on Zbrush (this last one didn't go as well as the rest).
Also I made a background concept, and even though I failed at putting colour, the outcome thought me a lot that will be useful for future projects that require any sort of structural background. This one in particular ended up being too technical, but it only reflects my influence from architecture in which every detail is important. I'd love to try something more lose and sketchy for future projects; something that gets a traditional media feeling.

The last highlight of my summer was to join and attend to the first meeting of All Animated, a new network for animation up north. It was a good opportunity to gather around people who do animation on a professional level, to see where my work stands, to hear some news in the industry, make connections and at the end, to grow some balls and show my work to other people.
It was a good starting point and I believe I will continue to attend to them. Hopefully in the future I manage to get more contacts and possibles collaborations with people in the industry, and also an extra place to show up my uni work and get some feedback from a third party.

Glen Keane - a master of animation

As we've been working with character design and animation for those characters, I came across with someone who's been working for years on the animation department and it's responsible for many iconic characters in Disney's industry: Glen Keane.

He's the supervising animator and character designer for Ariel in The little Mermaid (1989), Beast in the Beauty and the beast (1991), Pocahontas (1995), Tarzan (1999) and recently Rapunzel in Tangled (2010); among many MANY others.
The quality of his work speaks for it self, since he's been employed by Disney studios since 1974.
He's a traditional animator, but that didn't stopped him from being the executive producer in Tangled, as he kept giving perfect examples of Rapunzel's character, movements and personality. Here's some gifts of what he's work look like.



Also, in the video below he's talking some aspects of the character; little details that help him understand her and give a reasoning for her actions, likes and personality itself.
It's funny how every time I watch an interview to famous animators or concept designers, they always seem to get inspiration from their personal life (in many cases, their kids).





I need to pay more attention in details and behaviors to manage to transfer those feelings into my future characters/animations.
Another thing I'll try to do for my animation is find the main aspects to make the movements more fluid, rather than focus on little details.

Humorous image above of animator Glen Keane playing the role of his character Tarzan.

The Bear and the Bow

Desperate to go and see the Lion King on 3D and watching for the 10th time Tangled, I remembered about the new film of Disney Pixar that's coming on June 22nd 2012: BRAVE.

It's a story that takes place in ancient times on the mysterious Highlands of Scotland where the first Pixar's females protagonist Merida, a princess full of courage, confronts her traditions but her actions unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an old witch for help, she's granted an ill-fated wish. Now she has to discover the meaning of true bravery to undo the beastly course and on the way to carve her own path in life.








Here's also an interview with the director Mark Andrews and some of the voice actors that describe the characters a little bit in more detail.



(....CAN'T WAIT! ... mean while Lion King on 3D ...)