Style, ala Dr. Seuss

Here are some wonky environment shapes from the Horton Hears a Who trailer. I'm going to look at some more Dr. Seuss, and try out some sketches based on the shapes he uses.

Character Inspiration and Development

Here are some inspiration images followed by some character development drawings.

Alpacas are such ridiculous looking creatures, they are quite photogenic. They tend not to have very large teeth in the top of the their jaw, but giant crooked teeth protruding from the bottom lip. I tried to play off of that.




Wall-e is a very cute robot. Unfortunately Pixar has already used some of the main design elements from Johnny 5 (short circuit), which I loved as a child. I'm trying to go a different direction to see what crops up.






These robots were created by an artist called Idiot Apathy on conceptart.org. He does mostly environments, but I found these as well and really liked them.




I played with the idea of spider-like legs, which would give us a lot of room for creative animation and differing postures with the same robot.

Style, ala Open Season

These images above are from The Art of Open Season SIGGRAPH course notes. In all of the images (even the sunset), notice how the atmospheric perspective drives the background to be almost fully desaturated.

The flat/jagged look of the rocks is also very visually interesting.


Awesome rim lighting contributes to the mood.

Bill Perkins

Here's some environment stuff from Bill Perkins, a concept artist who has worked for Disney and Dreamworks, among others. There is more cool stuff on his site: www.highstreetstudio.com.

This is a render, but I'm not sure from which movie.

Tinkerbell

Aladdin

Potluck Luncheon

Here are an assortment of research photos of inspiration and style.

Emperor Kuzco from the Emperor's New Groove. A great movie with a lot of style.

Another ENG pic with some sweet hills.




These are some pictures of Machu Picchu, the Incan ruins in Peru. Llamas live here...might make a nice backdrop.



This is a really nice piece of art by Nate Wragg, whose work we drew inspiration from for the Roman Centurion idea we were kicking around. His style is really unique, it's nice inspiration for a hilly countryside.


This is a quick sketch I did of a llama. Party.

More inspiration

Tower of Grantville

Peep this. A nice way to tell a story: poetically, with narration. The darkness of the scenes allows them to get away with more. Really nice use of 2D elements for storytelling and interesting typography. Short and sweet. The narrative element is similar to Boundin'.

More Storyboard/Layout

Layout Lessons from JohnK

Excerpts from John K:

emotional states change from moment to moment- draw it!

I can't stress enough how important it is to make every pose completely distinct and unambiguous. We should feel the state of mind of each character every step of the way as the story plays out. Cartoon characters should not be stylized graphic images.

They are living pulsating blogs of quivering protoplasm, stuffed to the membranes with engorged emotions of every degree of intensity and subtlety. Don't leave it up to the audience or the animator to figure out what the characters are doing and FEELING. Your pencil needs to show us.

That's why you need to know all your drawing principles first. They are your story telling tools. Without them you are very limited in what you can say visually!

Don't rely on stock expressions you've seen in Disney movies or Spumco cartoons. You need to feel the emotions as you go, and have the chops to be able to draw them as they happen.

Notice that Rip does not merely pinch Chunk. He has feelings about the pinching. Pinching is important to him in very specific Rip like ways.

The pinch itself to a writer would be the end of the gag, but to you the performer, it's not enough. The gag has to be intensified by how the characters feel about the action. These are things that can be drawn and acted.

Break down the actions into States Of Changing Feelings

First Rip aims his pincers at a clear piece of tender flesh, then his eyes and grin widen as he anticipates the sheer pleasure he will derive from Chunk's coming pain.

As Rip tightens the pinch, his face cinches up to show the effort. When lets go, he looks at Chunk so that he can enjoy the reaction.

His face registers not merely happiness, but a proud sort of smug satisfaction, the look of a man who has done his job well. You should have this look when you draw your layouts and present them to the ornery director. Show him how proud you are of your clever mischief. That's why you make cartoons in the first place, right?

The emotions quickly change as the gag is over. Chunk is out for revenge and Rip's face and body attitude portrays "Oh, yeah? What are you gonna do about it, Punk?"- all without having to resort to dialogue to tell us what he feels.

Layout Checklist

gorilla warfare

What better reference for gorilla warfare on city streets than the King of Kong? Watch the way he moves around and the dynamic camera moves/angles.

Adrenaline rush

Much more complicated than anything we'd tackle, but the testosterone charged adrenaline rush is sweeeet.

simple, yet effective

Efficient and well executed. The look/feel and animation all support the tone very cohesively.




This has a really cool & mysterious feeling, and a great punchline. Plus, you gotta love the scooter. It was done by 3 students from the Filmakademie's Animationsinstitut in Germany. Project web site.

inspire me with christmas

seasons greetings,

alex

inspiration from jim

Here are some links to inspirational videos to help lubricate the creative process.

Sigg Jones

Burning Safari

Fallen Art

Frigo

sincerely,

Jim

Welcome

Prodigal Robot Productions bids you welcome.