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"Tokyo Mater" on Disney Channel this Friday

If you've been reading this blog for a while you may recall that I co-directed some shorts called CarsToons back in 2008.  The first 3 of these aired on the Disney Channel, and the fourth Toon, "Tokyo Mater" premiered as a theatrical short in front of Bolt.  Now it's airing on the Disney Channel as well, in glorious HD (where available)!  It will be on just before 6pm and 9pm on Friday, March 12th.  If you do a search for "Mater's Tall Tales" on your Tivo, it should show up, along with some other CarsToons.

This was a really difficult short to make because of our extremely limited time and resources, but I'm proud of how it turned out, and I think it's pretty fun to watch.  I hope you'll agree!

Congratulations UP!

Another Oscar victory for Pixar!  I didn't have a lot to do with this film, but I'm sure proud of my people!

Speaking of Animation

I recently stumbled across a new (to me) blog called Speaking of Animation, which has some really good information and podcasts.  I particularly like these two articles about specificty in character, which I often preach to my students about:

Specificity in Character Part 1
Specificity in Character Part 2

I feel specificity is key to pushing your performances the next level.  Start by knowing your character's history and the context of your scene in a bigger story.  Then add costumes, props, and environments to your scenes to provide the audience with more details about your character, and provide yourself with more interesting and specific acting choices.

Elk Hair Caddis

Elk Hair Caddis from peter smith on Vimeo.
If you don't speak Danish either, then the title doesn't mean anything to you. But this animated graduate film from the Animation Workshop in Denmark is really entertaining and original, no matter what language you speak. I love the mix of CG and miniature backgrounds, as well as the super-stylized design and motion. Enjoy!

Gesture drawing with Mark McDonnell

I've found that practicing gesture drawing really helps me improve the design of poses in my animation, and is very useful for planning my scenes. That, and I still just love drawing! I stumbled across this tutorial video from Mark McDonnell about warming up for gesture drawing, and I think there's some really useful information in here for animators. I especially like how he takes the live model's poses and changes them to make them clearer, and how he talks about the importance of energy over draftsmanship. Mark has a whole YouTube channel here.

New Toy Story 3 Trailer!

I'm just sayin'...