IDEAS FOR A GOOD PORTFOLIO.......

Basic Portfolio Contents

* Several pages of current life drawing from live subjects.
* Copies of pages from sketchbooks with gesture-style drawings of people and   
   animals in motion.
* Head drawings-both quick sketch and long poses.
* Some samples reflecting color and design sense.
* Some figurative drawings reflecting knowledge of lighting.
* Some work based on imagination.
* A few samples that display cartooning skills. Do not include copies or   
   interpretations of Disney or other classic cartoon characters.
* No more than two or three samples of comic-strip, comic-book or fantasy 
  illustration.
* Do not include graphic, advertising, industrial, textile or 3-D design,  
   photography or jewelry.

Instructions for Specific Positions

In addition to the Basic Portfolio Contents, the following materials should also be included for specific positions.

* Visual Development artists should provide artwork that displays a sense of caricature imagination, color and design; a selection of color sketches (any media) that dramatizes a story; and extensive samples of character concepts drawn from your design and imagination. Include various types: humans and animals, personalities, anthropomorphic objects, model sheets, characters in environments, etc.

* Story Sketch artists should supply one or two sets of storyboards (animation or live action); character designs and/or model sheets; and quick sketches showing lighting, dramatic setting and staging sense.

* Layout artists should provide a selection of layout drawings demonstrating a strong sense of staging, design, lighting and perspective. Include character drawings for the layouts, if possible; a selection of comic strip and/or comic book samples, if possible; and indicate if this work is from your own roughs or clean-ups from another artist's work.

* Character Animation artists should include a video reel of scenes you've animated and two or three animation "flips", if available.

* Clean-up artists should supply at least two sets of rough keys, along with clean-up drawings of same and other clean-up samples (please note if drawings are assistant, breakdown, or in-between work).

* Effects artists should provide drawings showing a variety of work and approaches to design; a resume noting any optical or digital training you might have. A video reel is suggested but not required.

* Background artists should supply painting examples emphasizing attention to detail, lighting, atmosphere and painterly technique, along with a selection of color prints or transparencies of animation backgrounds.

Tangled : Behind the Scenes at Disney...

Disney’s 50th film sees “damsel in distress” Rapunzel break free from her tower and let down her hair.

While we’re all familiar with the classic fairytale, the Disney take gives it a modern twist, with fast-paced action and a heroine who can handle herself.

On set - splitting those hairs

A few months back we were flown over to Disney HQ in Los Angeles for an exclusive set visit, complete with a preview of the unfinished film, a studio tour and a sit down with the Tangled team. Delving into Disney’s 50th animation proved to be an eventful day, which gave us an insight into the studio and how Tangled’s free-flowing story came about.

After watching a 60 percent complete print of the film, comprised of storyboards, rough animation and post-production, we were shown around the animation studios to get a detailed understanding of the new technologies that Disney have employed. This may be their 50th film, but the team are determined to mix traditional Disney visuals, with cutting edge animation.

Directors Nathan Greno (Bolt) and Byron Howard(Bolt, Mulan), told us about how they wanted to shoot for the stars with Tangled, and revealed how new “hair technology” shaped Rapunzel’s locks.

“We wanted the scale of the movie to be huge. Especially with the hair technology, which has been in development for six or seven years, it’s brand new, very cutting edge, nobody else has it.

“The hair is such a real part of the story, so we said instead of just drawing all of it, let’s do 100,000 hairs that you can actually see flowing and moving.”

The directors continued to explain how the hair was also a big driving force behind the 3D. Trending alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters, visual experience is an absolute must for Disney:

“CG was definitely the way to go, it was the best way to tell the story. We wanted to use moving cameras, depth of field and lighting to make the world real.”

DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIO, LOS ANGELES

Another equally important aspect of the film is the fairytale. Written by the Brothers Grimm, the original story is a dark gothic fairytale, which meant getting the film off the ground wasn’t an easy sell for the producers.

The result is something very different to the Brothers Grimm version with an upbeat, family story alongside modern visuals and characters. With a feisty leading lady (Mandy Moore) and less-than heroic lead (Zach Levi), Disney has proved it can move with the times while still retaining its customary charm.

Producer Roy Conli was more than happy to answer additional questions about the film, including how they incorporated a more modern feel into the traditional tale:

“We wanted to tell a story for the 21st Century, we didn’t want someone sitting up in a tower waiting to be rescued, we wanted someone who is vulnerable but strong and naive but intelligent.”

HANGING OUT WITH RAPUNZEL & FLYNN RIDER 

Last but not least we ended the day by speaking to actors Mandy Moore and Zach Levi, who both revealed how awestruck they were at the chance of being immortalised as a Disney character.

Since starting her career as an all-American popstar, Moore has starred in several television shows such as Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy, while also sharing the big-screen with icons such asDiane Keaton.  Being a Disney fan, Moore was thrilled to breathe life into the character:

“I grew up watching The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast so the idea of playing a Disney princess was this lofty dream.”

Likewise Levi – who plays the lead in television series Chuck - proclaimed his excitement at being involved in the project:  “As a huge Disney nut I’ve dreamt of doing this ever since I was a little kid. I’ve watched all the Disney movies, all the musicals, all the songs, all the shorts that used to be on the Disney Channel.”

The hair is such a real part of the story, so we said instead of just drawing all of it, let’s do 100,000 hairs that you can actually see flowing and moving.

The duo were both given room to adlib scenes, and while Moore opted to stay with the script, Levichose to incorporate his own slant on the character of Flynn Rider. He also revealed how Flynn was almost a Brit:

“I think maybe I assumed that he was British because when you go to fantasy worlds, with castles and all of that stuff, everyone turns British don’t they?”

While, unfortunately for us, the British version of Flynn never made the cut, Levi brings comedy and conviction to the character – which is equally matched by Moore. With impressive visuals, entertaining characters and Disney magic, Tangled has something for everyone.

Celebrate Your Mistakes...........

Pamela Kleibrink Thompson talks about the fear of failure and overcoming it.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.”— Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle

Every October we celebrate a huge failure in America on Columbus Day.  The Spanish crown funded Columbus’s voyage hoping to gain advantage over others in the lucrative spice trade by finding an alternative route to the East Indies. Columbus was unsuccessful in his quest.  Instead, on October 12, he landed in the Bahamas archipelago and discovered a land that was rich in resources and already inhabited by people. After failing in his original mission, Columbus discovered America by accident.

Don’t be afraid to fail.  Failure can be eye-opening and life changing.

Here are two more mistakes that give us reason to celebrate.

In 1930, Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts, was mixing a batch of chocolate cookies and found out she was out of baker’s chocolate.  She substituted sweetened chocolate, expecting the small pieces would melt and the dough would absorb them, making chocolate cookies.  But when she took the pan from the oven, Wakefield was surprised that the chocolate had not melted into the dough and she had not baked chocolate cookies.   Instead, her mistake, not having baker’s chocolate on hand, led to the invention of Toll House Cookies, also known as chocolate chip cookies.

In 1970, Spencer Silver was working for 3M Company trying to find a strong adhesive.  Instead he failed–the new adhesive he invented was weaker than anything they already made.  It would stick but could be easily lifted off.  It wasn’t thrown out, but no one knew what to do with it.  Four years later Arthur Fry, another 3M scientist, used Silver’s weak glue on the markers in his hymnal to keep them in place.  The weak glue kept the markers in place and they could be lifted off and reused without ripping the hymnal pages.  Fry sang the praises to God in his church choir and lauded the weak glue to 3M.  Post-It Notes started selling nationwide in 1980, ten years after Silver invented the super weak adhesive–one super mistake.

Embrace your mistakes and forgive yourself if you are not successful in achieving the goal you had in mind.  The results from your mistakes could lead you into new directions, or, as in Columbus’ case, a whole new world.  Celebrate your mistakes this October and all year.  “There is glory in a great mistake,” wrote Nathalia Crane.  There may be glory in small ones too.

Pamela Kleibrink Thompson is a recruiter, career coach, speaker and writer.  She is learning not to dwell on her mistakes.  She contributed to the books Eclectic Collage 1 and Eclectic Collage 2: The Relationships of Life  which you can find on Freundshippress.com and Amazon.com.  You can reach Pamela at PamRecruit@q.com.

IK Solvers in Maya..........

In terms of solvers it numbered into three,

* Single Chain (SC)
* Rotate Plane (RP)
* IK SPLINE


The Single Chain is for connecting joints of 2 bones usually and it’s your basic IK Handle.

The Rotate Plane is fun, it’s the same as the SC but gives you a pole vector control. So for example you have a bent elbow, the pole vector would allow you to control the direction of the elbow points.

The IK Spline is for spine of characters (there are some rules you have to follow when creating IK Spine). This solver use the CV’s of a EP Curve to move bones in the backbone.

Last Minute Tips For Interview.....

• Arrive 5 to 10 minutes early.
•  Express a positive and enthusiastic attitude.
•  Pay attention to your body language.
• Show confidence without being arrogant.
• Speak positively about past and current employment experience.
• End the interview with a closing statement.
• Open up to the interviewer So that he or she gets a glimpse of who you are.
•  Be yourself.

MODEL SHEET IN ANIMATION...????

If you’re going to create a character to animate, it usually helps to have a model sheet, which is a series of poses of the character to refer to when you’re animating. The sheet could include poses of the character standing still, bouncing a ball, smiling, jumping, and running, for example.

The idea is to draw the emotions and actions that would be expected from the character. If

your animations are going to be much simpler than an animated person or animal, however, a

model sheet might not be necessary.

Some Examples for Model Sheets:

SOME ANIMATION EXCERSICES....

ANIMATION EXCERSICES

 Try to Display the Emotions of a Character Might Go through While Waiting for a Bus that’s Late. Pay Close Attention to Facial Expressions, Body Language and Detail.

 Have A Character Try To Open Something (Ie, A Present) That Refuses To Open. The Character Can Only Use Body Parts For The First Minute, But May Resort To Other Measures (I.e., Tools And Explosives) Thereafter. Note, The Character Will Be Affected by the Tools Used (Ie, Blast of an Explosion).After You Have Masters This Try to Do the Same Thing with a Normally Inanimate Object (I.e., Lamp) As Your Lead Character.

 Animate Someone Riding A Pogo Stick Or Some Other ‘Fun’ Object(I.e. Using A Hoola Hoop)

 Have Your Character Use A Weighted Objecct, Such As A Hammer Or A Shovel. Demonstrate How The Weight Of The Object Affects The Stance And Demeanor Of The Character Using It.

 Create A Walk Cycle Then Vary It To Accommodate Different Attitudes And Character. For Example: Angry, Happy, Sneaky, Drinked, Carrying A Heavy Object, Sleep Walking Etc.

 Animate Two Characters Swaing A Log.The First Character Is A Big Muscular Brute. Animate Him Pose-To-Pose First And Cycle His Animation. The Second Character Is A Scrawny Little Guy Who Gets Yanked Around Grabbing Onto The Saw For Dear Life.

 Have A Character Bend Down Pick Up Something Heavy And Trow It. This Excersise Can Help You With Timing Emphasizing Weight And Anticipation.

 Put A Short Character In A Tall Room With One Window One Door One Light And Switch And A Hanging Ceiling Fan With Hanged Switch. The Room Contains 3 Boxes A Ball And A Board. Imagine The Different Ways Your Character Could Figure Out How To Reach The Hanging Switch And Then Animate The Most Outrangeous. Next Subtract Two Boxes And Add A Skateboard And Try Again.

 Two Character Dialogue – Introduce More Staging And Interaction Standing Or Sitting Character Doing Nothing, Body Language Should Suggest Thought Process Without Any Interaction With An Object.

 A Bunch Of People Waiting For A Bus, All With Different Ages And Or Professions.

 A Character Walks To A Mailbox,Deposits An Envelope And Walks Away. Now How Is That Action Different If The Envelope Contains (1) A Heartleft Love Letter,Sent Without Knowing Whether The Recipient Feels The Same Way About The Sender. (2) This Year’s Tax Return, Which Includes A Big Fat Check Made Payable To Uncle Sam. (3) The Last Mortgage Payment On A House, Or The Last Alimony Check To An Ex? The Basic Goals Are The Same (Approach Mailbox, Etc), But The Motivation Behind Them And The Mood Expressed Will Be Dramatically Different For Each One.

 Character Goes To Pick Up An Object They Think Is Light But Its Heavy And Vice Versa.

 Character on the phone but not talking listening to a person on the other end talk about something : important,sad happy and or “fill in the blank” . Choose the subject matter to really express how the receiver of that information reacts. The exercise is designed to help people develop a character’s thinking through eye movement,subtle facial expression and pantomime with body language.

 Display the feelings a character would experience while waiting for something or someone.Gender specific reactions can be really revealing here.How a man would react vs a women? This is a good exercise because it demands pure acting outside of dialogue.

 Thinking Time : A Character ALWAYS thinks before it does anything.

 Primary & Secondary Actions : Easy examples in a walk – the legs are the primary action – then arms are the secondary action.

 Anticipation or Antic : In a grab, the hand comes up and backward before it goes forward.

 Compensation – If a character is running and stops – you have to compensate for the forward momentum (usually by driving the forces up or down and then up).

 Reversals : Try to work as many reversals into the spine as possible ( as long as it make sense to the action). The spine is curved forward – then curves back during an antic and then curves forward when the character picks up a stone.

 Cushion or Settle : Is where you move passes a key frame into an extreme/extreme and the cushion back into the original key frame.

 Moving Hold : Is a very very slow out of an action – to where the movement is coming to a creeping halt.

 Staging : How the action is composed within the frame.

 Character Design : The ability to caricature a person utilizing good design skills and have appeal

 Dialogue would be a plus.