The Anachronism

Grab yourself a camera and your friends and go make a film. I'm amazed everyone isn't already doing this.

Official site

The Anachronism (Full Film) from Anachronism Pictures on Vimeo.

Bear Film

Nice style. Well told. 3rd year Calarts film by Kris Anka

a bear film from kris anka on Vimeo.

kuki se vraci

Don't know anything about this but it looks cool. Extra points if it's all real world.

Ed Catmull

 Ed Catmull talking about the way Pixar works. Really interesting how clued in he is to how people's heads work, and how to work with that. Watching him it's clear that he's the real genius behind Pixar. The director's might make good movies, but Ed is the foundation that put it all together and makes sure it all flows, makes it work as a group project instead of rising and falling on the individual personalities.

He talks about how they build change and xxx into the system so that they don't get complacent, they assume that the problems they are having now, they aren't even aware of them. "Which means the things that are happening now that are wrong at Pixar are already happening and I can’t see them. And I have to start with that premise."

He talks about how the successful director's are the ones who can accept help. That every time there comes a point where the director is just completely lost, and that's when if they are a good director they can accept help from others and together find a way out.

I think the big secrets that Ed and team have is that they encourage everyone's feedback, so everyone has ownership of the piece, because if it's your project you're going to put everything you can into it. And they encourage individual vision, like Pete Doctor's UP, a very personal thing he wants to say, which makes it unique and at the same time more universal.

Ideas are not scarce. It is more important to have a team functioning creatively then to have one person who doesn't work well with others but has brilliant ideas. Someone who has the vision is rare, but more then that they have to lead the team well and draw out the best from all the team members.

Director lead means that the director has to be leading, so if the team says that they are not following, then it's time to replace the director.

Painting with Color & Value

 Cool exercise I knew but had forgotten about. Found it on this site.


Also found this gamut tool for choosing a harmonious pallette, which makes sense with so many people painting their values first and color 2ndly.

Gamut tool and website by Richard Robinson (and the image above)

Animation Progression Reel Blog

Spungella pointed to a really cool site: Animation Progression Reel blog. Puts up something new every week. Always encouraging to see that blocking looks the same no matter how quality the production.

Capturing Souls

Was watching some artist critique. The critiquer was mentioning an Observational exercise. Basically life sketching in a public place, but ignore details, even ignore structure, you're trying to capture the essence of what they're feeling. If there are three people talking and one is falling asleep so tired and another is wishing the 3rd would just shut up, focus and try and capture how you're getting that impression. Figure out what the tells are. You might not even be able to draw it, so throw down notes also. It's practice at observing and catching the soul of people.

Here's Brian Wong doing it. Late in the vid the camera glances up and you can see subjects are regular people, but his drawings all look like 18 year old fashion models, so he's spending his time trying to capture the inside not the outside.


Marc McDonnell similar, though he kind of uses the internal as a springboard for his own stories.



(relevant to me because when drawing from life I always end up trying to accurately recreate what I see, and then am dissapointed with my results. Has had me wondering about practicing the wrong thing doesn't actually get you anywhere.)

Simplicity eats complexity

Keith Lango  has links to a new article and idea. That old media has gotten so big it's collapsing.

Movie's and Television are dying. All those reality shows are cheaper to make then a real show. Obvious next step is people just making their own reality show on youtube (which I'm sure they are).

I won't be surprised if the medium of storytelling shifts away from film and television. I wonder if games might carry it for a while. Why read about someone's adventure when you and your friends can have an epic one of your own? Why watch Avatar when you can live Avatar?

Interesting times.

Van Gogh & Picasso

Just ran across this site that collects all of Van Gogh's letters, you can see the originals with their sketches and read a translation of them, pretty cool.

Reminded me of this site that catalogues Picasso's artwork day by day, so you can look at what he created on his 23 and a 1/2 birthday.

Red Star Studio

Pretty cute. Would have rocked if it where done in Stopmo. I think it was done in XSI.

Red Star Studio