“That to me is one of the funnest things about animation; is experimentation. And that’s…that’s the spirit of animation.”
Ken Duncan has served as a supervising animator on four Disney films. His characters include Thomas (Pocahontas), Meg (Hercules), Jane (Tarzan), Captain Amelia and Scroop (Treasure Planet). Ken was also a sequence supervisor on Dreamworks’ Sharktale. He currently is running his own studio, Duncan Studio, based in Pasadena, California. This is part one of the interview.
“It’s still really intriguing for me to see the trick happen, to see things come to life. That has not got boring.”
The interview concludes with part three as James Baxter talks about learning from the old masters, what inspires him, and his experiences on films from Beauty and the Beast through Madagascar. James was the supervising animator of Belle, Rafiki, Quasimodo, Spirit, and director of the animation for Enchanted. This is part three of a three part interview.
Q.I was wondering if you had any idea about how recruiters react when seeing generic rigs in the demo reels they receive. I heard that they lose interest as soon as they see animation created using certain “free online rigs”. Continue reading ‘Q&A: Using generic rigs’
The crazy thing about me doing an audio show is that I sometimes find it so darn tough to put my thoughts in to words and then have those words come out of my mouth. Go figure! While I will always strive to improve my “on the air” skills, I find that I receive quite a few questions from listeners that I would like to answer and share with everyone. Most of the time I try to reply to emails, but that only gets the info to one person. To do that in the podcasts would take more time than I’d like to admit. So today a new section is born!
When I get a question in an email or in the comments of one of the posts that is worthy of singling out, I’ll break it out and drop it in it’s own Q&A post. Eventually, there may be quite a bit of information here that many people would like to know so it seems logical to keep it under the Animation Notebook section of the site.
“That’s probably the hardest part, I think, is to be able to capture that lightening in a bottle and, you know, to be able to take that moment of inspiration and for the next week or two weeks maintain that spontaneity.”
Part two of the interview continues with James Baxter, supervising animator of Belle, Rafiki, Quasimodo, Spirit, and director of the animation for Enchanted. The conversation goes in to deeper detail regarding the technical aspects and processes James applies to his animation and acting - a must-listen for any animators looking to improve their workflow and craft. This is part two of a three part interview.
“I think the thing that came to me quickest was probably the understanding of how things move… It took me a lot longer to try and conquer things like good communication and character and drawing and expressions and acting and the really important stuff.”
James Baxter is one of the most talented animators working today. As a supervising animator at Disney and Dreamworks some of the characters he brought to life include Belle, Rafiki, Quasimodo, Moses, and Spirit. On the CG side, he also served as a supervising animator on Shrek 2 and Madagascar. James’ latest work was creating all the animation sequences for Enchanted at his studio, James Baxter Animation. This is the first part of this interview.
In case you haven’t subscribed in iTunes already and find yourself out on the road, needing some animation love, you’ll find a simple page there with all the shows laid out for you.
“When things get down and people get scared and they get nervous, are they’re running around, like, saying, ‘What’s happening? The world’s coming to an end,’ it’s just part of the - that wierdness of this business.”
Dale Baer came to Disney’s as an animation trainee in the late sixties, when the era of the Nine Old Men was coming to a close. He has worked for Filmation, Disney, Ralph Bakshi, and at his own studio, Baer Animation. Dale has been back at Walt Disney Animation Studios since The Emperor’s New Groove and his credits include supervising the characters of Yzma, Slim from Home on the Range, and Wilbur from Meet the Robinsons. Dale recently finished animating on the latest Goofy short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, and he’s currently working on the upcoming film The Princess and the Frog. This is part two of a two part interview.
I threw the switch and changed the layout of the site. As I expected, some things got pretty thrown out of whack! It all seems functional now, but I’ll be fiddling with it to get it the way I like.
Arezou, Teresa, Joe, Hugo [...]
David Nethery, Jay, Nate Lane, Nathan Fulton [...]
Floyd Norman, K. Borcz, Valdimar Baldvinsson, Mark DeRidder [...]
Rob D, Don Dixon, Pritish, Ryan [...]
Emma Merrell, AnimationPodcaster, Teresa, Teresa [...]
Dean, marcos, Benjamin De Schrijver, shawn [...]
Clay, Glenn Cooney