Sherm Cohen's Sponge Bob drawing tips

Hey , Kids !  What time is it ? 

Time to talk about more fundamentals.   (never get tired of those , because we all need to remember this stuff and use it in our work) .

Ace storyboard artist Sherm Cohen has posted some good stuff about Line-Of-Action,  Contrasting Shapes, Silhouette, and all that jazz on his blog Cartoon Snap 


Take a look .   Good examples of these foundational principles.

(click image to view it larger. More images on Sherm's blog.)


Bacher's Back !

Good news for all students of animation:

Hans Bacher is blogging again !   This is one to add to the bookmarks: 


Hans' book "Dreamworlds" on production design is a must-have.

Check out this great post where he analyzes the color palette in these beautiful background paintings from "Bambi"  --

(click the image to view it larger)

Eric Goldberg's 'Character Animation Crash Course'

Master animator Eric Goldberg's long-awaited book has finally been released.  



Character Animation Crash Course  is now available at your local bookstores (check Barnes & Noble or Borders , or online at Amazon.com) 

I have treasured my xeroxed copies of Eric's lecture notes from animation lectures he gave us at Disney several years back and now I am so glad to have all of this material , plus some new material that Eric has added to expand his notes, all bound together in neat little package , including a CD which has Quicktime movies of many of the animation examples he shows in the book. 

Eric is one of the best animators working today . This book will perfectly compliment the Richard Williams book . Some of the material will overlap , but Eric's approach to the material has a different flavor than Richard Williams' approach , so you'll get something new from Eric's book , even if you have the Williams book .

At Academy of Art we're not yet using this as a Required Textbook for any of our animation classes since it was just published over the summer,  but I can say without any hesitation to all of my students: This is a must-have book for any animator, student or pro.





The website Animated News and Views has a recent interview with Eric where he discusses the book:

Interview with Eric Goldberg on "Character Animation Crash Course"