End of a Golden Era

The great Disney animator and last of the Disney's "Nine Old men", Ollie Johnston passed away this week on 14th April at an age of 95. He is know for his work on many feature films from Pinocchio (1940) to The Rescuers (1977) . He is specially know for his amazing animation work for virtually bringing characters to life through amazing acting through animation. His characters show a lot of thought.
Here is a tribute to Ollie Johnston from Brad Bird, the director of Oscar Winning Ratatouille and Incredibles. link

Ollie Johnston along with his fellow animator Frank Thomas set out to do the most comprehensive book on the history of Disney animation which discussed all the animation techniques and brings to life the golden era of discovery of the "12 principles of animation". This book, "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation" is regarded as the bible for animation by the animators the world over!

Ollie Johnston (sitting) with Frank Thomas, the
writers of "The Illusion of Life" at Disney Studios.
image from: CartoonBrew

May Ollie Johnston rest in peace.I am very sure he'll be alive forever through the characters he has brought to life!

Wacom is here ! :)

At last I got my hands on the Wacom Graphics Tablet.. one word to describe it.. "Precise". Its a BIG 12x9 (A4 sized) Intuos3 with 1K levels of pressure sensitivity, so when you draw, it creates strokes like a brush. So, now I can draw in Photoshop with the Stylus just like pencil or a brush on paper. No mice now. I've read people say that though it takes time to get used to, the Wacom is a marvel and you eventually end up throwing away the mouse in the drawer :)
Here it the mighty Wacom :D ..

Sessions 103 and 102

Amazing two weeks gone!

This week we did our first animation. And what better assignment to start with than the famous bouncing ball. Oh boy! I had never thought that making a bouncing ball can be so simple (I am kidding ;) ) Its way TOUGHER than I had thought. I have previously tried a bouncing ball on paper, but all of those times it would come from the left of the page and leave from the right with just 2 bounces and never came to a standstill. Now here was the challange.. Make the ball bounce like a basketball / soccer ball does! That too in a restricted frame limit.
I started with all necessary planning on paper and then into Maya. I had a really exhausting time wrestling with Splines in the graph editor. But by the next day I got used to it and it became a lot easier. AM peerBuddies and peers are such a huge help. I kept on posting everyday on the Public Review (PR) and got amazing feedback and that too lightning fast. Lots of issues I had overlooked started staring at me in the face after those helpful crits. I cannot thank AM more for creating such a powerful community :)
The other assignment was to sketch poses of people in "excited" emotional state. Then, pose the AM rig(model) "Stu" according to one of your favorite poses. Just hit the upload button for the assignment.. now will wait for the Critique..




Last week we dint have much of work to do. We had to go out to public places like park, cafes.. to sketch people in different poses. Its always been fun to do it.. now we had to take one of the pose sketched and pose the AM Rig "Stu" accordingly in Maya. I got to play around with it for long. This is So Cool ! Its like going back to childhood days and playing with those Gi.Joe figurines. hehe. Last week was my first ever e-Critique from my mentor Jalil.. It was AMAZING! A Pro animator critiquing my work in so much detail ! Got to learn a lot from the crit about posing, weight and balance so much more than I did in last 6 months.
Here it is.. Session 102

So, bbye for now.. Catch up next week for more bounces.. :)

Session 102, 103

Amazing two weeks gone! This week we did our first animation. And what better assignment to start with than the famous bouncing ball. Oh boy! I had never thought that making a bouncing ball can be so simple (I am kidding ;) ) Its way tougher than I had thought. I have previously tried a bouncing ball on paper, but all of those times it would come from the left of the page and leave from the right with just 2 bounces and never came to a standstill. Now here was the challange.. Make the ball bounce like a basketball / soccer ball does! That too in a restricted frame limit.
I started with all necessary planning on paper and then into Maya. I had a really exhausting time wrestling with Splines in the graph editor. But by the next day I got used to it and it became a lot easier. AM peerBuddies and peers are such a huge help. I kept on posting everyday on the Public Review (PR) and got amazing feedback and that too lightning fast. Lots of issues I had overlooked started staring at me in the face after those helpful crits. I cannot thank AM more for creating such a powerful community :)
The other assignment was to sketch poses of people in "excited" emotional state. Then, pose the AM rig(model) "Stu" according to one of your favorite poses. Just hit the upload button for the assignment.. now will wait for the Critique..



Last week we dint have much of work to do. We had to go out to public places like park, cafes.. to sketch people in different poses. Its always been fun to do it.. now we had to take one of the pose sketched and pose the AM Rig "Stu" accordingly in Maya. I got to play around with it for long. This is So Cool ! Its like going back to childhood days and playing with those Gi.Joe figurines. hehe. Last week was my first ever e-Critique from my mentor Jalil.. It was AMAZING! A Pro animator critiquing my work in so much detail ! Got to learn a lot from the crit about posing, weight and balance so much more than I did in last 6 months.
Here it is.. Session 102

Here I come.. Session101 !

WooHoo ! :)
It was an amazing week, very busy though.. A week I was waiting for quite some time.
Finally it has started. I am in the Spring 2008 term for class1:Basic Foundations at AM!

The week was really packed with a lot of things to do. First thing to suprise me, the very first time I logged into AM, I had more than 10 welcome messages from AM students on my workspace ! The community is sooo cooperative. I took a lot of time to go around and check out the school. I watched the Lecture the next day which was amazingly inspiring and had a lot of working tips about animation.
Then I took all the basic Maya Training which was the best animation focused training I've seen. Man, this place can be soo overwhelming! This week we are supposed to go around and check out different things at AM. AM is a truly global school. My classmates come from Germany, Moscow, Israel, Italy, Dubai, UK, India, Nigeria and Lebanon ! Also I get a chance to talk to students from all over the world ,let it be someone near in Mumbai or say on the other side of the world in California !

Then came the first Q&A ! My mentor for the class is Jalil Sadool. He has worked as an animator on “Chronicles of Narnia”, “Garfield 2”, “Charlotte’s Web”, and “A Night at the Museum”. He is currently an animator at Weta Digital and is working on James Cameron's "Avatar" and A. Adamson’s “Prince Caspian”. The Q&A was great where we did the introduction. We could ask him anything about animation and about the industry. Jalil is amazingly energetic and inspiring. It was So amazing talking to a real animator face to face and we got to talk to him for two hours!


The best thing about the AM and its community is that they are so passionate about the art of animation. You can always go to other's workspaces and comment on their work. They will do the same for you. In animation, feedback and critiques are extremely crucial. AM fosters this sense of community. Everyone out there is always ready to help you out. This is the first time ever that I am completely around people who just love animation! Its great to be able to to talk to some person about animation and movies and comics and drawing without losing his/her interest within first five seconds :D . AM makes me feel at home! Just love AM!

Next week there will be more to come .. My first assignment and some great addition to my workstation I have been waiting for :) ! That was a looong post, next time will keep it short :D