Darren Brereton

My latest revelation is intended for those who don’t spend hours in front of their computers laughing at others getting injured in slow motion.  This is all meant to be good fun and for a good cause- to make us all better animators.  We animators are a wacky bunch.  We make films one frame at a time, in order to capture the essence of true life.  If capturing the essence of true life is to (among other things) exaggerate, then studying slow motion can at least show us those grotesque exaggerations upon the human body, animals, water balloons, etc. in those fleeting milliseconds.  If these examples of gross exaggeration are happening in slo-mo, why aren’t we exaggerating what we see here & put it in our drawings (or CG poses) at 1/24th or 1/30th of a second?

Human anatomy:

Time Warp – Face Punch

Action Figure Slow Motion Punches

Time Warp – Martial Arts

Time Warp- Slow Motion Masters

Ripstik Stack in Slo-Motion

Animals:

Fastest animals on Earth in slow motion – Animal Camera – BBC

birds ultra slow-motion

EFX:

Time Warp- Wednesdays @ 8pm E/P only on Discovery Channel *

Time Warp / Lighter vs. Blender

The BEST Slow Motion [HighFPS] Footage

and about a million other “bullet” videos

… now that you’ve looked at all my links, and all the related links they referred to, I apologise for taking those 4 hours you intended for other pursuits…  But after all, we’re animators aren’t we?

I add this via Kora Kosicka (thanks Kora!)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCJrg4kLYxU&feature=player_embedded

I think the most common complaint I get, from both Emily Carr animation students and potential recruiters alike, is that students struggle with drawing. Life drawing in particular.

Without pouring gasoline onto the fire, I want to help bring some info your way. When I worked at Disney’s here in Vancouver, we were visited by the great Glenn Vilppu.
He was and is simply the greatest teacher of figure drawing. He taught many life drawing courses and all the studio’s animators learned a huge amount in the short time he was here. Glenn is a drawing machine. He always had a sketchbook and pens (his preferred medium) with him. He “confessed” to filling a sketchbook every other day. He has a great way of simplifying
gesture

anatomy

volumes

3D forms

building simple forms

planes

and how one form fits into another

If you like these demos, check out his first in a series of articles on drawing for animation on AWN, as well as his whole series of articles on the subject of drawing.

This film was sent to me by a friend of mine, and I, in turn, pass it on to you.
For more info, see http://www.gobelins.fr/galerie/animation/index2007.htm, http://www.oktapodi.com/makingof.html

Enjoy,
Darren

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6gqtg_oktapodi_fun

Have you ever wondered, “What would Glen Keane tell me if I needed a pep talk?”, or “I wonder what Milt Kahl would say about animation”, or “What was it like for Nik Ranieri to break out of the Ottawa Atkinson scene and break into Disney’s.”  Well even if you haven’t, I highly encourage you to take a look at Clay Kaytis‘ Animation Podcast.  It’s a great resource to have, with a click of a mouse button, all the animation greats talk about their work, their careers, their processes, etc.  I find them highly inspiring.  Clay’s approach is of that of a fan, and he comes across humble without fawning, experienced without being pompass.  His “vault” of interviews include Andreas Deja, Nik Ranieri, Ron Clements and John Musker, Eamonn Butler, Milt Kahl, Glen Keane, Burny Mattinson, Ray Harryhausen, Dale Baer, James Baxter, Ken Duncan, and Eric Goldberg.  Each are available for streaming or MP3 download links, for future listening.  There’s all kinds of goodies on the site so by all means, check it out!