[PERSONAL] Character Pages in my Book

Although unfinished, these are my work in progress snippets of the character pages in my "Art and Making of" book, below you can see examples for Max the Cat and May the Cat, I will be creating pages like this for all four of the characters however. I want to split the character design ages in the 3 sections; Information about creating the character, information about the character, and inspiration for the character. 

I want these pages to be the most important pages, as these will be filled with information, drawings and concept art. I want to show the design process and how I have developed these characters from the initial sketches. I also want to show how I have been inspired to create these characters using the inspiration section. 

I want these pages to follow a pattern and have a similar style, this shows a somewhat resemblance to some of the Disney Art books I used as inspiration for these pages. I am hoping to be able to fill these pages with a good amount of inspiration, to do this I will go back through my blog and retype up some of my initial thoughts about the character during the beginning of the project, and now that I have sectioned my blog up with tags, it'll make it easier to find what I am looking for.

[INSPIRATION] Model Sheets

As I am about to start animating Max the Cat, I have been reading that it is useful when animating using a light-box to have a reference at sight at all times. Most animators use a model sheet and pin it to the wall so they constantly have a reference to look at. I want to be able to create a model sheet for Max the Cat which is true to the old style of model sheets, as well as informative and will aid me when animating the traditional character.

Model sheets consist of a few elements, the character in various positions, different limb moments, information about the drawing and the do's and don'ts of drawing the character. Some model sheets have size comparisons, however as Max will be the only character that will appear traditionally, I don't need to worry about his size compared to the young animator and the old animator.

One of the model sheets I will be creating however will be for his hands and feet. I find these the hardest to draw and animate, so I am hoping that if I can have a reference available at all times I will be able to draw them without making mistakes. I also want to try and draw a full character rotation of Max the Cat, as this is something I have neglected for the other characters. However, now that the other characters scenes are finished, I don't believe it is necessary for the animation, however I could do it for personal gain. I feel that doing a character rotation for Max the Cat will help me understand the dynamics of his character, what could work and what wont work when animating him.

Overall, I am going to focus on creating a model sheet for Max to aid the animation process, these model sheets will constitute a model sheet of Max the Cat, a hand reference sheet, a foot reference sheet and a character spin. I would have drawn a character size chart, however like I stated before I don't think it will be necessary for what I am wanting to do.

[PRODUCTION] Week 16 - Break from the Animation

After getting the animation fully timed, I've taken the week out of actually animating the video in order to catch up on my job. This has been a good time to reflect on my animation, as I have had a lot of time to not pay too much attention to it, then going back to it today has really opened my eyes to the flaws it has. These flaws have mostly been addressed in the changes list, however it is more evident now that I have taken time away from it. 

This week, I want to be able to get the final scene animated fully, get rid of any continuity errors, and hopefully get all the drawings on the back walls. I don't anticipate getting everything done this week, as a lot of the flaws involve adding shading to the characters, as the only scenes that are fully shaded are scenes 1 and 2. Overall, I will spend as much time as possible trying to get as much done for the animation as I can, I have now finished the work I was behind on with my job so I don't have that tying me back.

[INSPIRATION] Bimbo Character Study

Fleischer Studios is a huge inspiration to my work, especially with this project. Over the past few weeks I have been studying how Fleischer Studios animated their characters, I have previously wrote a post about the Betty Boop shorts and how they have influenced my animation. However I feel I should talk about the company as a whole in terms of their animation styles. One particular aspect I am going to focus on is how Fleischer Studios animate their walk cycles.

Fleischer Studio are unique, in a sense that their animation isn't realistic, it created it's own brand of movement; rubber-hose. I have recently been studying the movements of one of Fleischer's main cast, Bimbo the Dog. Bimbo, out of all the Fleischer cast is a very similar build to Max the Cat, as Bimbo was where I gathered a large amount of inspiration from for Max. Studying Bimbo, to me, will be the best way to help me animate Max as he will walk, jump and move almost exactly like Max will, as they have the same structure. 

I feel that looking deeply into the design and animation of Bimbo, I will be able to get a much better feeling for Max and I will be able to animate him much easier than previously. I am going to continue to study Bimbo and collect reference images and model sheets.

[BOOK] Animation; The Global History

Animation: The Global History is a fantastic and comprehensive look into the history of international animation. It focuses on both the artistic achievements and the technical achievements from around the world. It delves into a variety of different areas, from the development of animation, animation in World War II, experimental animation, television animation, international animation and modernist animation plus many many more.

The book is written by Maureen Furniss, a program director of experimental animation. She teaches a range of animation history courses at CalArts and is the founding editor of Animation Journal and is also author to many other books about animation.

One of the main reasons that this book is a huge influence on my work is that it delves deeply into many major studios, particularly the Fleischer studio, a huge influence for When Dreams Became Data. It talks about the animation process the studio use, their character development over the years of animating and the entire timeline and history of the studio.

Overall I found this book to be a fantastic read, it is insightful and very informative, easily one of the best books I have read. I highly recommend this book to any animation enthusiast who is at all interested in the history of animation.

[PERSONAL] Writing the Story for the Book

I am currently working on the book which will be handed in along side my Practice 3, I have just finished the rough for the Story section of my book, which I explain; the log-line, synopsis and the overall plot. These pages will be at the very beginning of the book, as I want the audience who read this book to understand the overall plot of the story before reading onward and looking at the pre-production, production and post-production.

One of the aesthetics I wanted to get across was simplicity at first, as these are the first few pages of the book I wanted a few initial sketches during the opening of the book. So many of the original concept drawings will be spread around the first few pages. Because of this, I want to keep the colour scheme black and white, to give the feeling that it is the early stages. I feel that this will be a nice preparation for the rest of the book which I want to be bright and colourful.

I will probably end up changing the designs at some point in the future, I want to add figure references to each of the drawing so the audience can understand when the drawing was created and for what purpose, however, for the time being I am very happy with the overall design of the first few pages.

[TELEVISION] The Walt Disney Story

The Walt Disney Story has a very similar premise to the BBC 2 documentary Walt Disney, a biography into the life of Walt Disney himself. However there was one major upsize to this documentary compared to the BBC 2 one, this one is presented by Diane Disney Miller, Walt’s daughter, and is filled with interviews and has never-before-seen colour home movies shot by Walt himself.

Unlike the BBC 2 documentary, it starts right at his childhood and we find out what he was like as a young boy. We are then met with an array of interviews from his friends, family and ex-employees, each interview giving us a better insight than the next. Rather than focusing solely on the work Walt had done, this focused on his entire life, it showed us there was more to Walt than an entrepreneur and an animation pioneer, he was a husband and a friend to many.

This was an incredibly insightful program, and I would recommend any fans of Walt and his work to watch it. It can be viewed here until the 17th of May.