Gesture Drawing Class

Hey guys,
We had an awesome gesture drawing class today. I don't remember the name of the instructor (shame on me!!!!!) but he's been animating in 2d for 15 years, and recently worked on Charlotte with Nik Raneri from Princess and the Frog. The focus of the class was on getting a nice sense of rhythm and flow into our drawings. I think I finally started to grasp the hang of it at the end of class, lol. I'm really looking forward to next week's session. Plus I was told I can stop by his office anytime to get feedback on my drawings. =D

5 min warm-up drawings


2 min gestures

Hands!

Hey guys,
Today I attended Glen Vilppu's class on drawing hands. I still find them difficult to draw, but I learned a LOT from his class. Now I feel like I have an idea of what to look for when drawing hands. With practice, I hope to go from having to draw what I see to being able to draw what I know. I'm excited though, the partially drawn hand in sienna was done by Glen himself in my sketchbook! He's so awesome!

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More Drawings

Hey guys,
Here are some gesture drawings that I did at work last week. Each of these are 5 minute poses.



Last night I felt like trying to draw a cartoon human and I came up with this drawing of Rachel Alucard from Blazblue. I like how this turned out for the most part, but I still feel like I struggle with drawing people much more than I should be.

More pics

Here are two more pictures from the wrap party. Dan, Mike and I got there just in time, as Princess Tiana had to leave right after our picture was taken.

Wrap Party Pics

Hey guys,
The Princess and the Frog wrap party was amazing! I feel so honored to be a part of Disney and to have been there. First off the film is awesome! It's a true Disney movie that's worthy of standing next to the classics. Watching it made me feel like a little kid again, excited about the next Disney movie. I highly recommend seeing it at least once when its released! Princess and the Frog looks like the start of something great at Disney. I've always loved Disney through the good times and bad. Disney films have made me who I am today and I am truly honored to be here.

Anyway, the party itself was beautiful! I've never been to a wrap party (or any real party for that matter) before so I had no idea what to expect. All of the food was New Orleans style. It ranged from gumbo and po' boys to hurricanes, blackened catfish and jerk chicken. There were tarot card readers and photo opportunities with some of the characters from the film. Not to mention the building itself was decked out like the bayou, a voodoo emporium, and a palace. I really cant wait until next year's wrap party for Rapunzel. That one will be even more special since my friends and I would have actually worked on it (I still cant believe it)! Unfortunately my camera died early on that evening so I had to take pictures with my phone. They really don't do the place justice.

New Trailer

Hey guys,

It looks like the trailer for Prep and Landing has been released! You can check it out here: http://abc.go.com/shows/prep-and-landing I didn't work on it but my first production assignment is directly related to the show. I'll post a link to it once its finished and online. We were send the rendered versions of our animation this morning and it looks really cool! This is my first time having my animation lit and rendered by the pros and it looks awesome! I cant wait to show you guys what we've done! =D

Arriving LA Style

Oh snap, check out how my fellow TDA's and I will be arriving to the Princess and the Frog wrap party this weekend! We'll be in the black Escalade EXT, complete with scissor doors!
http://lahopper.com/main.php#/vehicles

This Past Week's Drawings

Hey guys,

I have some drawings to show from the past week or so from work and my trip to the equestrian center. I really enjoyed drawing horses last week and would love to go to the zoo to draw the animals there. I just need to tear myself away from my new PS3 and BlazBlue long enough to do so, lol.

In other news, my fellow TDA's and I finished our first production assignment earlier this week! All of our mentors and the directors really liked everyone's animation which was awesome. It was great having my work reviewed and approved by a director. Lol, I felt like a "real animator" as everyone clapped upon the director's approval of our work. The project will be online within the next month or so and I will definitely post a link to where it can be "viewed" once it's been released. =D

30 sec to 1 min gestures from Disney's Improv Gesture Drawing sessions:

Horse Studies and Gestures from last Sunday's trip to the LA Equestrian Center:

Costumed Life Drawing

Hey guys,

I was able to go to life drawing today and was pleasantly surprised to find a costumed model. He was dressed like a renaissance clown of sorts although you cant really tell from my drawing. The front of his suit had the big fuzzy pom-poms that the clowns/harlequins of that era wore. Anyway, I really like how my portrait turned out and feel like todays session was pretty successful. I just wish my scanner was large enough to capture the whole drawing.

There's One In All Of Us

I will definitely be seeing this on Friday! =D

Princess and the Frog

Hey guys,

Disney's released the first five min of Princess and the Frog! You can check it out here if you haven't seen it already: http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/princess-and-the-frog/first-5-minutes I'm extremely excited for this film and cant wait to see it in the theaters! From what I saw as an intern last year, this is sure to be another Disney classic. I hope it does well though and that the audience will support the studios wonderful return to 2d. I know I'm going to see it at least twice!

Commission

I just finished a commission for someone on Deviantart that I thought I'd share since I like how it turned out. I'm still way too slow, but I think I'm getting better at cel shading. =D

Animation PodCast

Hey guys,

Check out this excellent Podcast sponsored by AnimationMentor:
http://www.animationmentor.com/landing/becomeanimator/podcast.html

It features previous Disney Talent Development artists who have now been at Disney for up to two years. This is a great way to find out more about Disney and to hear about the experiences of people who've been through the program and are now full time employees.

Drawings!

Hey guys,

My scanner has arrived and is now hooked up. Here are some of the drawings that I've done within the past few weeks...

From a Disney life drawing session:


Quick sketch before bed:


Stylized life drawing:



Gestures from the car wash:

A New Day

Hey guys,

I just wanted to happily announce that I've quit playing Wow. My account's been canceled for the past few weeks and I just deleted the game and all of its related files/folders from my computer. I didn't bring any of my consoles with me to Burbank and I'm not sure I trust the mail enough to have them shipped here, so tomorrow will be the first day of my video game free life.

Tomorrow's also important because I'll gt my first assignment at Disney. I wont be using any of the Rapunzel characters yet so I'll ask if I'll be allowed to post the progress of my tests here. If so, you guys can expect to see some poses and walk cycles in the not too distant future. If not, no worries either since I would really like to do some 2d animation in my free time and will post that here once I start. I want to have a decent amount of good 2d animation to show the guys at Disney in the hopes that they'll let me work on their next 2d film once Rapunzel's finished.

Besides, how can I be at Disney and not do some 2d?

Getting Settled

Hey guys,

Things are finally starting to settle down move-wise for me. I'm just waiting on my car to arrive and for my internet to be hooked up in my apartment. Then that'll pretty much be it.

I'm thoroughly enjoying being back at Disney! I met my mentor today, its Doug Bennett one of the supervising animators from Bolt. I'm really looking forward to working with Doug and cant wait to receive my first assignment! =D

In Transition

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of posts! I'm in the process of moving in/furnishing my new apartment in Burbank. My internet there wont be set up until the 18th (how will I survive?!?!?!?) so my access will be limited to only while I'm at work. I drove by the studio yesterday while running my errands. I'm really excited to be returning to Disney, it's great to be back!

Accepting Pre-orders

Hey guys,

I just found out the book I illustrated back in June/July is being printed and will ship on September 15th! If anyone's interested in picking up their copy, you can do so here: Weezer the Sneezer Finds A Home.