Gerry Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Worth reading, and some beautiful art from largely-forgotten illustrator William Lee Hankey. http://animationresources.org/?p=2044 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNGLAUBLICHUSA Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I liked the article and I think that any Animator is an Artist. But I think a better focus would be "Why the Animator should think like an Actor". I added my $0.02 to the comments section on this article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Good point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Edmondson Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Its a while since I read it but Ed Hooks ( I think ) wrote a book called "Acting for Animators" and he goes around the world giving presentations on the subject to various companies and academic institutiions. I read the article but I found it more of a motivational tract that an illuminating one. By which I mean, its intent is to urge people to greater work and one can't argue with that. However the examples of illustrators work that it used in the article seem ( to me at least ) to display all the stereotypical poses and typecasting that it bemoans in the text. Those type of compositions, poses and lighting are uses time and again in paintings and illustrations of that period. It was part of the ( pardon the phrase ) the visual language of the period that allowed the work to communicate with its public. The same applies to the work discussed in the article. Its that way because it works to the biggest proportion of the audience. (?) Is there a need to explore a wider variety of visual styles, techniques and methods ? Yes I think there is but my suggestions would be constrained by the narrowness of my own frames of reference. when I was an art student ( many, many ) many years ago there was a phrase in use that used to irritate the hell out of me. " Less is More". Now I find it particularly applicable. I'm not big fan of highly detailed work that tries to be photorealistic. It has a certain wow factor in the detail achieved but that is too often seen as an end in itself. The original series of the Pink Panther was often very minimal. The Panther is a stick figure with a tail an a more elaborate head and would often just be walking along a line with a plain background. It still communicated with a huge audience worldwide in memorable ways. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS-jLM75xuU Michael Dudok de Wit, did a fab animated short in 1994 that used minimal means to great effect and the film is often used to show to people dealing with grief now. The British animator BoB Godfrey developed a working process in the early 70's, that was done using marker pens direct onto paper rather than traditional cels. It was very succesful at the time. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...l1059l0.6.1l7l0 The first animation I can remember seeing was Captain Pugwash and it is still, to my limited knowledge, the only animated series that ever went out live ( ???). The stories are a bit twee now but I love the style of it still. It doesn't look like anything else and is instantly recognisable as the work of John Ryan. I agree with the thrust of the article but, what it was really saying was that you should keep your eyes open and take in as much as you can from what is available. Or did I get that wrong ? regards simon http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...l1266l0.8.1l9l0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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