So I'm sitting in my office on a Saturday night, waiting for some animations to render. Story of my life? Yes. But don't chastise me too much - I got a glass of some dam good whiskey in my hand. And that party goes with me everywhere.
Anyways, I just wanted to report that I went to a really great event at the Society of Illustrators this week - and found out that they have a Sketch Night with nude models twice a week. My joy is incomprehensible over this. The only access I've had to a 'model' over the past two years are the people sleeping / not looking at me on the trains. (I'm actually going to be putting those sketches on the site soon. But that's another post.)
The event was a casual open discussion about animation with Chris Wedge and Peter de Seve. They each spoke about their work on projects for Blue Sky Studios (for those of you unfamiliar with the name, this is the studio that brought you the Ice Age films.) It was a really quirky and inviting discussion - they had the typical slide projection of artwork and video clips - but were easily the most entertaining part of the experience.
Anyways, I just wanted to report that I went to a really great event at the Society of Illustrators this week - and found out that they have a Sketch Night with nude models twice a week. My joy is incomprehensible over this. The only access I've had to a 'model' over the past two years are the people sleeping / not looking at me on the trains. (I'm actually going to be putting those sketches on the site soon. But that's another post.)
The event was a casual open discussion about animation with Chris Wedge and Peter de Seve. They each spoke about their work on projects for Blue Sky Studios (for those of you unfamiliar with the name, this is the studio that brought you the Ice Age films.) It was a really quirky and inviting discussion - they had the typical slide projection of artwork and video clips - but were easily the most entertaining part of the experience.
Really funny. I laughed out loud, (probably too loud), multiple times.
An interesting reference from Peter was his talk of putting drawings through a "House of Mirrors" when trying to imbue the characters with 'character'. To "find" them. I thought that was such a solid analogy for what it's like to be traveling in the nebulous place that is one's brain when drawing from the imagination. He mentioned a need for 'problem-solving' in order to guide his creative discourse. I could relate to what he meant by that - the need for the "problem." I think a lot of graphic designers have a distinct need for that too.
Chris had a great thing to share about the importance of "the doodle" in a process that involves so many people and forms of technology. We see these polished, beautiful products that are the 3D animated films in theaters today - and I think many people forget that so much of this starts out with the pencil and paper. I find this consistency comforting. No matter how far away from the organic pencil-and-paper process our technology takes the finished product - all processes still rely on the doodle as Step 1. Chris had said that when he and his colleagues got lost in their search for and construction of a character in these programs, they would often scrap what they were doing and go back to the first doodle drawing. He had said that he found respect for the doodle.
An interesting reference from Peter was his talk of putting drawings through a "House of Mirrors" when trying to imbue the characters with 'character'. To "find" them. I thought that was such a solid analogy for what it's like to be traveling in the nebulous place that is one's brain when drawing from the imagination. He mentioned a need for 'problem-solving' in order to guide his creative discourse. I could relate to what he meant by that - the need for the "problem." I think a lot of graphic designers have a distinct need for that too.
Chris had a great thing to share about the importance of "the doodle" in a process that involves so many people and forms of technology. We see these polished, beautiful products that are the 3D animated films in theaters today - and I think many people forget that so much of this starts out with the pencil and paper. I find this consistency comforting. No matter how far away from the organic pencil-and-paper process our technology takes the finished product - all processes still rely on the doodle as Step 1. Chris had said that when he and his colleagues got lost in their search for and construction of a character in these programs, they would often scrap what they were doing and go back to the first doodle drawing. He had said that he found respect for the doodle.
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