Show 030 – Eric Goldberg, Part Two

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“I like to draw everything that has a sense of give to it, and a sense of life, and everything that will support the idea of the pose and then build the anatomy on top.”

The interview concludes in Part Two where Eric Goldberg shares his extensive knowledge and appreciation for animating as he talks about many of the projects he has directed including Pocahontas, Rhapsody in Blue, and The Monkey’s Tale while the conversation continues to touch down on the details of the craft of animation. Eric is currently animating on the upcoming film The Princess and the Frog.

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/animationpodcast/AP030.mp3]

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

Get the MP3 here: Show 30: Eric Goldberg, Part Two
(29.1MB, 1:03:19 minutes)

Or get the enhanced version playable only with Quicktime, iTunes, or iPods.
(Includes chapter breaks, pictures and links in addition to the audio.)
Get the enhanced podcast here: Show 30: Eric Goldberg, Part Two
(30.9MB, 1:03:19 minutes)

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SHOWNOTES

00:00 The Intro Voice
00:05 Sponsored by –
00:23 Introduction
Character Animation Crash Course
01:36 Approach to drawing
05:29 Anything to add on the Genie?
09:31 The style and tone of Pocahontas
14:13 Pocahontas: Adventurous art direction
17:02 Pocahontas: Most difficult film to date
19:35 Pocahontas: Defending its biggest criticisms
22:11 Directing shorts vs. features
25:49 The breadth of sidekicks
28:37 Less accessible projects – The Monkey’s Tale
36:41 Storyboarding for animation
42:46 Eric Goldberg – cartoon voice
44:48 What is possible in CG that hasn’t happened?
56:06 How is it at Disney today?
57:42 Conclusion
57:55 Voicemails/Feedback info – Email Clay – Link to Voicemail
1:02:16 BOLT
1:02:42 Sponsored by –

Comments

35 responses to “Show 030 – Eric Goldberg, Part Two”

November 3, 2008

Michael Woodside

CLAY! So good to hear from you. Listening………

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November 3, 2008

ed

Alright Clay! Back from the dead! Cheers – really appreciate you putting these out!

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November 3, 2008

Liz

He’s back!!! 😀

*Starts downloading*

Thanks a babillion, Clay!

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November 3, 2008

Dan Siciliano

Yay! Clay’s back!! You said that by the end of the year, you were about to give us the rest of the Nik Ranieri series. Either that or a new guest would fit us good.

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November 3, 2008

Andrew

Thank you for your continuous effort in delivering us these great podcasts Clay. I really do enjoy listening, and take away so much from each interview you put out there. Thank you.

-Andrew

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November 3, 2008

Andy Seredy

HOOOOOORAY!!!!
Now I can get my animation fix.

TAP = meth for animators

also… <3 the animation podcast

Cheers,
andy

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November 3, 2008

Nathan

Just got done listening while animating at work. That was fantastic! What a way to end it! I definitely love the longer shows. Thank you so much for doing this!

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November 3, 2008

Rob Somers

Awesome show, Clay! So glad to have another show with Eric. Can’t wait to see who the next guest is, and of course, the upcoming exclusive Animation Mentor podcast! As a student of AM, I know I’ll be listening to that one forever. Any chance we’ll get an interview with Bobby Beck, Carlos Baena, or Shawn Kelly one day?

Keep up the great work!

– Rob

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November 4, 2008

Andy Seredy

It’s that time in production when I end up rigging for a month, with no time to animate. As usual I’m adding a bunch of toony features we’ll never have time to fully use. Listening to Eric, however, makes me push the effects even further. Thanks a ton, Clay and Eric, because when I’m rigging these pod casts keep the animation flame burning bright. I end up cacheing up all the motivation, so when I’m back on frames, I’m on fire. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

cheers,
andy

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November 4, 2008

Dan

Great to have another podcast Clay! Love the interview. Keep up the awesome work and my daughter and I will definitely be out to see Bolt opening weekend. Take care!

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November 4, 2008

Vince

Thank you Clay! I love these podcasts. You were the supervisor for the hamster in Bolt!? I haven’t seen the film yet, but in the clips I’ve seen, the hamster is the strongest character. Congratulations!

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November 5, 2008

Clay

Hi all, thanks for the welcome for my “return.” Gee, now I miss two months of shows and you guys act like I’ve been kidnapped! anyhow, it’s great to put out another show. I haven’t decided what’s coming up next, but I’ll try to make it good.

Some people’s ears were blown out by Eric’s laughter in the first part and I hope I took care of that here. I’m no audio expert, but I think I figured it out. Let me know if this one was easier to listen to.

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November 5, 2008

Jon

Absolutely love the podcast. Not an animator, but I can’t get enough. I don’t even know how I learned about it. It is wonderful to hear artists speak with such passion about their craft. You do a terrific job of asking thoughtful appropriate questions and then staying out of the way of the answers.

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November 10, 2008

Jeff Nevins

Thanks very much. I was anticipating this one, and it was well worth the wait. I enjoyed his insights on Pocahontas, shorts vs. features, approach to drawing, etc.

Good dynamic between both of you since you’ve worked together (as on the excellent Fantasia 2000 NYC short).

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November 15, 2008

eleonora duvivier

Great thoughts! Animation is after all a reinvention of life!

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November 17, 2008

Brian

Thank you so much! Eric has such good insights on drawing. The idea of drawing your character from the inside out, from the simplest line of action to the anatomical detail, is one of the biggest epiphanies one can have as an artist.

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November 18, 2008

Chris Boyd

I currently work as an illustrator and character designer.

As someone who has never done any character animation at all, which book would be better for me to start with – Eric Goldberg’s “Character Animation Crash Course!” or Richard Williams’ “The Animator’s Survival kit” ?

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November 18, 2008

Chris Boyd

Oh, and by the way Clay. I meant to gush about the podcast too. It’s really amazing. I’m about half way through listening to them all for the second time.

Thanks a lot!

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November 18, 2008

Dan Siciliano

A compliment to Eric: my mom loves “Rhapsody in Blue” from “Fantasia 2000” because she loves Gershwin and so do I and we like his laughter. it’s one of the funniest laughs ever.

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November 24, 2008

Mariana Moreno

Hi Clay!

First of all, thank you for this great effort you’re doing, I believe we all really appreciate it.

I’ve been wondering if you’ll be interviewing Mr. Glen Keane again someday soon. I’d like to send to you a couple of questions for him to answer if it’s possible.

Thank you again!
Big regards from Mexico.

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November 27, 2008

James

(sorry, posted this on the Timeline post below by mistake <_<)

Hey Clay! Great interview. Eric Goldberg is my hero 😀
By the way‚Ä¶ saw Bolt today‚Ä¶ excellent job on the animation and kudos to all the animators (including yourself) who worked on it!

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December 1, 2008

Floyd Norman

Thanks for another great interview, Clay. I never want these shows to end. By the time you guys were closing — I wanted another two hours.

It reminds me of the times we talked with the old Disney guys back in the fifties. We never wanted those talks to end. I sure wish this technology had been available back then.

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December 2, 2008

Marcos

These interviews are going to live forever…Floyd is right, it would have been nice to have had this technology available during the golden era….

Congrats to the Disney guys for Bolt! It’s great to see Disney pushing the state of the art again….Dogs on 4 legs acting like dogs…boy that was refreshing 🙂

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December 5, 2008

Ingo

Hey Clay. Just read your interview on CGSociety on the Rhino rig, cool stuff! You should post the link on the blog. I’m a 3D character animation student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, currently finishing my first 2D animation class. I’m one of those guys who never drew as a kid and got into animation purely through 3D. Despite that I now feel like I’m finally getting it, just because I had to sit down and figure out keys and breakdowns on paper. My problem in 3D animation has been structure, it usually becomes messy and unmanageable really quickly. Now it feels like I can go back in there and make sense of it all. Listening to all your interviews again, which I do regularly, (especially now, since I spent hours and hours in the garage animating!)suddenly all the stuff that James Baxter, Ken Duncan and all the others said on technique makes a lot more sense :-). Right now I’m on my way to listen to Eric Goldberg talk about animation and have him sign my brand new copy of his book. I’ll say hi for you ;-). Hope I’ll have time in the coming weeks to take my 9 year old to see Bolt, looks really good.

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December 7, 2008

Tim Reynolds

Nice post. Thank you for the info. Keep it up.

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December 9, 2008

Sean

Clay,

I read your bio and have been really inspired. It is awesome to think that I can achieve my goals just like you did. I am attending animation mentor starting in January. I was/am really worried about not being able to draw. I have a very similar background as you and was wondering if you could direct me to some helpful books/websites/hints about learning to draw thumbnails. I have caught the animation bug and want to become the best animator I can be. I was going to email, but decided to post instead just in case someone else is going through the same situation as me.

Thanks for your time.

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December 21, 2008

Chelsea

I hope you’re enjoying (or enjoyed, if you’re back at work)your vacation, Clay. I’m currently going back to school to get a better knowledge of this 3D animation thing. Anyhow, Eric Goldbreg really gave me some hope on this new medium, that there is still hope for 3D animation.

Do you think that traditional animation might cross over to Flash Animation?

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December 21, 2008

Chelsea

Also I was thinking if you maybe interesting in interview Bernard Derriman. He seems to be one of the few animators who are using Flash MX for their 2D animation.

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January 7, 2009

Paul N

Listened to this podcast recently while going to Eric’s presentation and book signing at the Cartoon Art Museum in S.F. Got there early and was going through the Totoro exhibit with Eric in my ears. Turned a corner, and there he was, right in front of me! Weird (and cool) to be hearing Eric talk about his experiences while he’s looking at the Totoro art! :0)

Also went back recently and listened to the earliest podcasts with Andreas. I’d forgotten that they were only 15 minutes long, and I thought that was amazing at the time! You’re giving us a ton of great information Clay, and I don’t think we can thank you enough.

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January 28, 2009

Andy Leeke

Ive just listened to Episode 30, and i just want to say, regarding pocahontas, I abolutly agree that it was a film that was needed. i was just becoming a teenager back then, and i can honestly say, that film shaped a large part of my attitude towards understanding relations between all races.

In the very multi-cultural place where i grew up, it could have been so easy to slide the other way. Art like Pocahontas speaks to children, and the child in all of us. sometimes, as a society, we need things spelled out in big bold letters. It will always be a film I will consider important to me despite its flaws.

A lesson and a movie that ill never forget.

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February 14, 2009

Nicole Caverta

Great courageous thing to say. This is a great source of inspiration.

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February 19, 2009

Chelsea

Alittle late on my listening, I actually just finished the 2nd half of the Kevin Duncan interview. And I have to answer you question on whether we mind having more to listen to with each podcast. Well I say, the more the better. Keep up the great work. 🙂

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May 16, 2009

Ellen Ault

Just finished the second Eric Goldberg podcast and loved it! I first heard him at the Disney Institute in summer 2000 for the Fantasia 2000 festival and he is so inspiring and passionate!
Quick question regarding a section in his book and something that has been mentioned before about exposure sheets. Are they still being utilized in 3D animation? Eric’s book has a great breakdown of them.
And Clay, great work on Rhino! I loved the motion in and outside of the ball!

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September 3, 2009

eleonora duvivier

I would like to share two links to the presentation of “From Mars to Marceline” at the NFFC’s Silver Anniversary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nIDHd3hQsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fexScncdFb0

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February 4, 2010

:: smo ::

Hey Clay!

I just went back and started listening to these again while i was working and they help keep me motivated big time!

i’ve been working in animation in new york for about four years or so but i still feel like i’m “aspiring to be an animator.” i always wanted to be able to work traditionally but the majority of the work i’ve found has been in flash with only rare opportunities to draw, let alone work on paper or really experiment and learn.

these podcasts, especially the ones with eric goldberg and nick ranieri and their tales of working in commercial animation have been invaluable and helped push me to do better work even when a project is crummy!

i really appreciate the work you’ve put into these and i know a lot of other animators who listen to these over and over again because they’re so inspiring!

thanks so much!!!

-smo

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