The Animation Podcast » James Baxter

Show 025 – James Baxter, Part Three

Clay — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:43:10 +0000

“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.

Continue for Show Notes, audio file download links, and comments…

Get the MP3 here: Show 25: James Baxter, Part Three
(25.7MB, 55:39 minutes)

Or get the enhanced version playable only with Quicktime, iTunes, or iPods.
(Includes pictures and links in addition to the audio.)
Get the enhanced podcast here: Show 25: James Baxter, Part Three
(26.3MB, 55:39 minutes)

SHOWNOTES

00:00 The Intro Voice
00:05 Welcome & Thanks for 25 Episodes!
01:11 Sponsored by –
01:28 Welcome & Thanks for 25 Episodes!
01:46 The Animation Podcast Swag Shop – Link to Shop
02:24 New blog section – Q & A
02:24 Advertise on The Animation Podcast – Contact form
02:55 Intro – James Baxter Animation
03:22 Studying animation voraciously – reading The Illusion of Life

04:30 Learning from past masters
05:21 Supervising at a young age
07:49 Philosophy on supervising
10:06 Who inspires James today
11:53 Creating original performances in animation
14:21 The potential for traditional animation
17:49 Teaching interns – starting with fundamentals
19:28 Looking deeper in to the twelve points of animation
20:43 Beauty and the Beast
21:32 Quitting Disney and going to Passion Pictures
23:29 Supervising Rafiki on Lion King
26:20 Designing The Hunchback of Notre Dame characters with Tony Fucile
28:04 The Ronald Searle influence on Hunchback
28:43 Supervising on Quasimodo
29:29 Going to Dreamworks – The Prince of Egypt
34:17 El Dorado
35:41 Spirit – learning to animate horses
39:51 Sinbad
41:19 Shrek & Shrek 2
43:00 Things learned from CG
48:21 Madagascar
48:54 Starting a studio – James Baxter Animation
51:22 Closing comments
52:12 Conclusion
52:31 Feedback info – Email Clay
52:50 Voicemail – Link to Voicemail
55:02 The Animation Podcast Swag Shop – Link to Shop
55:08 Sponsored by –

55:23 Closing

Show 024 – James Baxter, Part Two

Clay — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:04:19 +0000

“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.

Continue for Show Notes, audio file download links, and comments…

Get the MP3 here: Show 24: James Baxter, Part Two
(19.6MB, 42:14 minutes)

Or get the enhanced version playable only with Quicktime, iTunes, or iPods.
(Includes pictures and links in addition to the audio.)
Get the enhanced podcast here: Show 24: James Baxter, Part Two
(17.7MB, 42:14 minutes)

SHOWNOTES

00:00 Sponsor

00:17 Intro – James Baxter Animation
01:18 Planning animation
04:25 Timing out action
08:12 The first phase of animating a shot
09:52 Tying down pass
12:49 More on first scribble pass
15:50 Finishing up, including overlap
18:03 Transitioning to CG
20:33 Drawing and the trickery of animation
23:11 Planning animation in CG
24:33 Analyzing acting and movement
29:46 Acting in animation
31:38 The perfect animator
33:46 Acting stuff out
38:09 Different schools of acting
41:34 Conclusion
41:45 Feedback info – Link to Voicemail
41:52 Sponsor

42:04 Closing

Show 023 – James Baxter, Part One

Clay — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:32:57 +0000

“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.

Continue for Show Notes, audio file download links, and comments…

Get the MP3 here: Show 23: James Baxter, Part One
(18.4MB, 39:48 minutes)

Or get the enhanced version playable only with Quicktime, iTunes, or iPods.
(Includes pictures and links in addition to the audio.)
Get the enhanced podcast here: Show 23: James Baxter, Part One
(16.7MB, 39:48 minutes)

SHOWNOTES

00:00 The Intro Voice
00:05 Sponsor

00:21 Theme Song by DJ Sweettooth (Joe Moshier)
01:06 Intro – James Baxter Animation
01:47 Education and early animation
08:34 Who Framed Roger Rabbit
12:19 Spacing and the technical aspects of animation
14:49 Framing through animation and live-action
16:40 Animating on Roger Rabbit
21:41 Struggling early on – The Little Mermaid
24:46 Rescuers Down Under
27:32 Finding a workflow
29:27 Analysing Milt Kahl
36:19 Working hard and learning
38:38 Conclusion
38:47 Feedback info – Link to Voicemail
39:22 Sponsor

39:35 Closing