New AAU Animation Dept. blog - "Animation School Daily"

Brand spanking new blog from the classical Animation Dept. at the Academy of Art University :

Animation School Daily Blog 


It's just started, so bookmark and keep checking back for more posts soon.

First two posts have some beautiful drawings by AAU instructors:

This beautiful figure study in charcoal by Associate Director of 2D Animation (Onsite) , Diana Coco-Russell -

   (click on the image to view it larger)



and this terrific illustration -- "Young Walt" --  by Full Time Faculty (2D Animation - Onsite) Nicolas Villarreal -

     (click on the image to view it larger)

Great stuff , eh ?   More to come soon .   Drawings, departmental news, inspirational art for classical animation.

Academy of Art - Current Online Traditional Animation Faculty

For my Academy of Art animation students I've been remiss in not officially noting that my friend and colleague Diana Coco-Russell has joined the Academy of Art University as the on-campus Associate Director of 2D Animation.   In addition to her work on-campus at AAU , Diana also teaches for 2D Animation Online (ANM 610.OL Figurative Concepts and ANM 611.OL Visual Elements of Story ) .


Diana Coco-Russell
Associate Director 2D ANM (onsite) ,  Online Faculty
2D Animation, Drawing for Animation, Character Design



Diana Coco-Russell IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1852703/


Currently teaches online:  ANM 610.OL Figurative Concepts,  ANM 611.OL Visual Elements of Story (also teaches ANM 364 Character Design & Drawing for Animation, and Drawing for Animation Workshop on campus )


Biography

Diana Coco-Russell has spent most of her artistic career in animation, with her longest run at Walt Disney Feature Animation as a clean-up animator. Beginning with Beauty and the Beast in 1992 and ending with Home on the Range in 2003 her credits appear on most films from that decade.

Known as Diana Coco in the industry, she began her career doing layout/story boards for Filmation on the Lone Ranger/Tarzan TV series, later moving into clean-up animation working on He-Man and Bravestarr.  Having graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena as an Illustration major, she found she preferred the camaraderie of the studio atmosphere to the life of a freelance illustrator. After Filmation folded she went back to UCLA and received a Master’s in Education. Teaching Biology and running the Yearbook class could not match the call of creativity found in feature animation and she returned to the entertainment industry by starting up with Disney Feature Animation in Burbank.

While at Disney she met Walt Stanchfield, who was conducting bi-monthly Gesture Drawing classes for the entire studio. Walt made a huge impact on Diana with his challenge to create and craft powerful drawings with life and simplicity. The call to draw the figure in poses so clear that they ‘spoke to the balcony’ was irresistible. She took Walt’s drawing philosophy ‘on the road’ teaching figure and gesture drawing classes at a variety of institutions including the local Hollywood animation union, Santa Monica City College and Laguna College of Art & Design. Diana continues to ‘coach’ drawing and animation in a variety of venues while pursuing her other interests - plein air painting, animal drawing and riding horses with her husband and friends.

You may view our other current online  "2D"/Traditional Animation faculty at this link:

AAU current Online Traditional Animation Faculty 

-David Nethery
Associate Director of 2D Animation Online
Academy of Art University



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AAU School of Animation Fall Animation Festival - December 4, 2009

AAU animation students, attend the annual AAU School of Animation Fall Animation Festival , held this year on December 4, 2009.

The special guest speaker will be Disney supervising animator Nik Ranieri.

Nik Ranieri is equally at home in CG Animation ("Chicken Little" "Meet the Robinsons" , "Bolt") as well as Traditional Hand Drawn Animation. He has been the Supervising Lead Animator on many Disney feature films. His latest role has been as the Supervising Animator on the character "Charlotte" in Disney's newest hand-drawn animated film "The Princess & the Frog" .

(see Nik Ranieri IMDB )

Event: School of Animation Fall 2009 Animation Festival

Date: 12/4/2009

Time: 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Location: Morgan Auditorium, 491 Post St., San Francisco, CA, 94108

Google Maps link showing this location

Phone for info. : 415- 618-3625

(*This event will be video recorded and posted online at a later date .)

(from the National Cartoonists Society web page)

Eric Goldberg talk- AAU Fall Animation Festival 2008

Each Fall the Academy of Art University Animation Department has a Fall Animation Festival. In 2008 the special guest speaker was master animator Eric Goldberg who regaled the assembled students with a recounting of his brilliant career in animation (ongoing) with film clips accompanying his many charming anecdotes about his adventures in animation.

Click on the link to view Eric's presentation.

AAU Industry on Campus videos

(once you get to the "Industry on Campus" site , click on the link to "Industry on Campus: Eric Goldberg") .

I hope you enjoy watching this presentation as much as I did.

If you're an animation student at Academy of Art University (or anywhere else) and you don't yet own a copy of Eric's wonderful book "Character Animation Crash Course" then GET IT . (I mean it : go order it right now. Hop to it !)

"Elemental Magic" hand-drawn effects by Joseph Gilland

See ? I said in my previous post that we're experiencing an embarrassment of riches in the amount of quality animation material being published these days : yet another great, must have book coming soon .

Elemental Magic: The Classical Art of Hand-Drawn Special Effects Animation by Joe Gilland

Michel Gagné (himself one of the top special effects animators in the world) gives the book a glowing review on his website:

Michel Gagné review of Joe Gilland's "Elemental Magic"

Create stunning animated effects such as fiery blazes, rippling water, and magical transformations either hand-drawn or digitally. Animation veteran Joseph Gilland breaks down the world of special effects animation with clear step-by-step diagrams and explanations on how to create the amazing and compelling images you see on the big screen. The author covers the tradtional hand-drawn technique while showing you how to apply the philosophy, theory, and techniques to your digital animation projects as well.


(image from Elemental Magic , Copyright © by Joseph Gilland)

Apply the theory behind effects animation to your traditional and digital animation projects.
Written by animated effects guru, Joseph Gilland, who has worked on such feature films as Lilo & Stitch,
Brother Bear, Pochahontas, Tarzan, and Mulan.

Publication Date: March 06, 2009


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By the way, this is a good time to mention again that The Academy of Art Online offers a fantastic course in traditional special effects animation, ANM 261 Introduction to Effects Animation, written and taught by Kathleen Quaife who is also one of the top traditional effects animators in the industry. (and I have it on good authority that Kathleen is also putting the finishing touches on her own book about Special Effects Animation ! The more the better ; in character animation we have both the Richard Williams book and Eric Goldberg's book , along with Frank & Ollie's "bible" The Illusion of Life, Tony White's books, and of course good old Preston Blair ... now after many years the effects animators are filling a much needed niche )

Mark Chong's TEN-MINUTE DRAWING TUTORIALS

One of the amazing artists I've met through the TVPaint User Forum is Toronto-based conceptual artist and teacher , Mark Chong. Mark has a real passion for teaching (specifically teaching Online , utilizing video tutorials) and I am very happy that he is now teaching for the Academy of Art Animation Dept. Online. (he's also going to be building a new course on visual development and concept art , ANM 475 - Inspirational Art for Animation . During the Spring '09 semester at AAU Mark will be teaching ANM 611 Visual Elements of Story and ANM 633 Character Design and Drawing for Animators online.

Mark has generously posted some wonderful FREE tutorials on his blog TEN-MINUTE DRAWING TECHNIQUES (but if you benefit from Mark's tutorials then drop a few dollars in his tip jar now and then, folks !)

Click on the link to go to view the tutorials.

Here's a sample of Mark's work (drawn in TVP Animation) :

Another Academy of Art animation blog - Spungella

My fellow teacher at The Academy of Art ,  Jean-Denis Haas, reminds me that he also has a blog for animation students at the Academy : 

Spungella - Soak Up the Animation

Head over there for more animation art and inspiration.

New online classes at Academy of Art

Have you checked the  Academy of Art Online Course Catalog lately ?

We have three new online traditional animation classes launching  for the Fall '08 semester. (not too late to sign up) 

ANM 380 Stop Motion Animation 1 - taught by stop-motion animator and author Ken Priebe. Ken is the author of the noted book The Art of Stop Motion Animation . This is a unique course in that is one of the few classes in traditional stop-motion puppet animation offered online by an accredited university. Ken will be following up this class with Stop Motion Animation 2 . (The Academy of Art also has several other Stop-Motion and Puppet Making classes in development for launch online in the near future.)

ANM 261 Introduction to Effects Animation - taught by Kathleen Quaife . Kathleen is a veteran effects animator having worked for Don Bluth, Disney, Warner Bros. Feature Animation , and many other places. She is one of the most skilled and knowledgeable effects animators in the business and has been very successful in applying her traditional effects skills to digital production using Flash and ToonBoom. See examples of Kathleen's work here: Kathleen Quaife reels


ANM 375 Maquette Sculpting - taught by former Disney artist and sculptor Jason Peltz. Examples of Jason's work may be seen on his website: Jason Peltz maquette examples

Welcome To this little Online Experiment

I'll be posting Notes and interesting Animation related links here .

This is a private blog for my Online animation students from Academy of Art. You are encouraged to discuss the links and notes with your fellow students. Invited guests here include Ruben Cruz from ILL2D 495 Character Development for Animation, Heather Shipman and Edwin Gomez from ILL2d 692 Traditional Animation 2, Kim Whitfield-Holt and Sunny Notimoh from ILL2D 346 Animation Assisting.

It's my intention that this blog and any discussion of the links posted here will supplement your online class discussion, not necessarily replace it . For whatever reasons, the enrollment in Online 2D animation classses at AAU this semester is low , so I thought this private blog format might be a good way to give you all some more dynamic participation with other online animation students since each of the classes I'm teaching this semester are smaller than usual. But I don't think our small numbers this semester mean small ambitions or small results ! I think you can all encourage one another through responding to what I'm posting here as well as the specific material I'm posting on each of your class discussion boards.

Participation on this blog isn't required by any means , and I know everyone's busy with other classes online this semester as well, but I thought I'd try this out as an experiment in Cross-Classroom discussion online. I'll be trying to post new and interesting links and articles every week , so check in here regularly and if you have any good links you have come across on your own email them to me so I can post them here.

Welcome !

-David Nethery
ILL2D 346, ILL2D 495
ILL2D 692, Spring '08 Semester