Want to learn 2d hand drawn animation but not sure where to go?!

Hello fellow humans,

While i was at the CTN Expo this year, i ran into a number of people who were interested in learning and/or improving their 2d animation skills and their life drawing skills. Some of them were students trying to find a good school others were professionals like myself.

There are of course plenty of books and schools offering to teach animation these days and it may be difficult to choose. ( I'll happily recommend some of my favourite books. Just email me and ask). Another option you might consider however, especially if your time is at a premium, is taking a course online. A number of professional animators have taken to teaching online in their spare time at places like iAnimate, Animation Mentor and others. Many of these teach CG animation and VFX animation and do a mix of video tutorial and essentially teaching a class via skype ( or similar) and one on one critiques.

If you are like me though and are a fan of 2d animation there are fewer places to go. However, one online place i can recommend is Studio-Technique.

I'm not affiliated with the school at all, but i did have the chance to take a master class with Disney animator Andreas Deja  at their studio in Montreal a couple years ago.  I have also taken their online life drawing course this past year, taught by Samantha Youssef. I really enjoyed it and felt it was a good addition to my regular life drawing practice.

Most Studio-Technique classes are taught by Samantha Youssef, who is a Sheridan College grad and a former Disney animator. She also consults and teaches animation to larger companies ( especially video game companies) to help raise the level of their animation quality. So she knows of what she speaks.

 Personally i've found that while i do go to a lot of drop in life drawing and have a large collection of books on the subject, the drawing style is more geared to illustrators and fine artists. Which is fine but it's not quite what i'm after as an animator. Often the results are too stiff. At least for me.

What i liked about Ms. Youssef's teaching style is that she is coming at it from an animator's perspective    vs an illustrator's.  She also brings her knowledge and experience as a ballet dancer to the work as well. The result is you are focused more on creating drawings that flow, that have motion and character and energy. Drawings that relate closer to what we do as animators.  It also results in drawings that are considerably less stiff but no less solid. For me at least this is very helpful.

Anyway i'm always trying to get people interested in classical animation so if this interests you here's a
link to class registration.

I don't get a commission or anything to tell people about this course, I just like to share and spread the word when I find cool animation related things. That's partly why i have this blog. So hopefully this is useful info for you and if so then that makes me happy!



On a related note, if you are in the Toronto area, i will be doing a two part workshop in January or Feb 2014. It's an intro to animation workshop, sort of a crazy crash course in hand drawn animation where i'll throw way too many concepts at you and you'll get a taste of various classical animation techniques. And it's totally old school retro style of animating ( or classical if you will ). You get to draw on paper on animation discs and we shoot pencil tests which you can then keep and review for yourself ( bring your own usb key)

It's happening at TAIS ( The Toronto Animated Image Society) . Keep checking back here or at the TAIS website for confirmation of dates and other info.

Cheers!
-Bryce

Below are a couple of photos from the masterclass in Montreal in 2012.

photo of me learning things and stuff from Andreas Deja

photo of Andreas giving me a sketch. What a nice fellow.

CTN Expo 2013 in Burbank

Recently  returned from the Creative Talent Network Expo ( CTN EXPO) in Burbank California.

Lots of amazing talent there and great workshops. I particularly enjoyed BJ Crawford's talk (via Bluesky Animation) on  using 2d animation drawing techniques to explore character and animation for the film EPIC. Basically he showed how they used 2d hand drawn classical animation techniques to develop characters that will be modelled eventually in CG for the film. Great talk and inspiring to see. BJ has basically created a new type of job in the CG feature film pipeline. Maybe a potential avenue to look into for all you hand drawn animation fans out there looking to work in feature films?

I also really enjoyed Eric Goldberg interviewing Eric Goldberg and giving us a an over view of his life and career in animation. Really funny. I highly recommend his book Character Animation Crash Course for those of you interested in character animation.



this was some of the art promoting the MWP booth i created based on the artwork from "Animation Unleashed".


In previous years i spent part of my time working at the table for Michael Wiese Productions , the publisher of Animation Unleashed. This year I just went as a spectator. If you are a professional or a student of animation looking to network with studio artists and freelancers alike, it's a pretty excellent conference to attend. Everyone is very friendly and plenty of people to talk to and exchange cards with in line.

Perhaps i'll see some of you next year!
cheers
-Bryce

Check out TAAFI this weekend and "Kaj Pindal: Master Moves"!

If you're in the Toronto area, I highly recommend checking out TAAFI ( the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International). It's a great Animation festival with plenty of screenings and workshops including screenings of works by Ray Harrhausen, new works by world renowned animators and new animators alike. Talks with Simpsons creators, animation artists, parties...you know what just go check out their website ww.taafi.ca and you can see everything they have to offer.

If i may make a personal recommendation  though , check out "Kaj Pindal: Master Moves", an interview and retrospective of Kaj's work. Kaj will be interviewed by Ellen Besen (Author of Animation Unleashed) about his career and especially diving in to one of his most well known works "What on Earth" which will be screened there as well.



Definitely worth checking out.

Original Life Drawing Sketches on Display at Ben Navee Gallery!

I'm excited to be a part of this show. A number of very talented artists, plus myself, have gotten together to display some of our sketchbook drawings from the various life drawing sessions we have around Toronto.
There are 11 of us displaying works from our sketchbooks and the group has all levels of talent. From students to seasoned professionals. This is the first time many of us have displayed our work in public.
Our sketchbook works I mean. Obviously those of us who work in comics, tv, film animation etc etc have other works out there in public. Everyone is a smarty pants. geez. heh

Anyway i'm excited to be a part of it and if you are in the Toronto area come check it out.
the exhibit will be up until July 15 2013
cheers
-Bryce

The Walking ...er.. Driving Dead

Here's some character designs I created for the Zombie level of "Left Lane Looey".
Zombies are fun to draw. I've been enjoying the comics and tv  series " The Walking Dead" a lot lately so it was fun to draw a zombie themed level for the game. The idea of the "Driving Dead" just makes me laugh.

Hilarious hillbillies!

I had a lot of fun designing these silly Hillbillies for "Left Lane Looey". A game for ipad and Android that came out last fall. (it's free go check it out. I don't own an iPad or an Android device so you'll have to tell me what you think). Thought i'd share some of my favourite characters. One of the things that was fun for me was doing these really cartoony designs. They're pretty loose and quick but i think that ads to their charm.

cheers
-Bryce








Here's some animated gifs of them in action.
         

Left Lane Looey Trailer

Here's a trailer we recently created for the game LEFT LANE LOOEY (now available for iPads , iPhone5 and Android..shameless plug).
This was a fun project. I ended up doing a lot of character design for this game as well as backgrounds and other graphics.
The game also features animation by Bruce Simpson and music by Matthew Reid.



The game itself has just been released so if you have an iPad, iPhone5 or Android Device and 99 cents go and check it out ( i think there may also be a free version you can try) and let me know what you think.
cheers!
-B

Free Animation Screening! Oct 27th Toronto

In Toronto?

Check out the FREE ANIMATION SCREENING at the Ekran Polish film festival Sat, Oct 27th at 2:15pm, Runnymede Library ( 2178 BLoor st west) Co-presented by TAIS . I'll be there too on TAIS's behalf. They have subtitles!

Here's a link to the official EKRAN WEBSITE for more info.

Canadian Made.. Caricatures!

I created some caricatures back in the fall for a tv series called "Canadian Made" airing in Canada on History Television. The episodes are all about various Canadian inventions ( like Trivial Pursuit and the Wonder Bra for example) and the people behind them. They're very well done and a lot of fun to watch.

 Anyway I did a handful of caricatures for the episode "Brilliant Amenities" which recently aired so I thought i'd post them here. I wasn't sure how they'd be used in the episode so it was fun to see them in the opening segment bouncing around etc. The drawings had to be done quickly as it was a typical "we actually need these yesterday!" sort of deadline.  So considering they were drawn so quickly, I'm fairly pleased with how they turned out. I'm no Jack Davis, obviously, and some of these drawings I think are more successful than others, but they do the trick.

 Movie Star- Leslie Nielsen
 


 The Governor General of Canada - Michaelle Jean

 Pro golfer - Mike Weir
 

 Double Olympic Champion, speed skater - Catriona Le May Doan
I had fun drawing her and exaggerating the powerful legs of an Olympic athlete.

 Comedian - Russell Peters
This one i "George Lucased" a bit. His face is exactly as seen in the episode but i didn't like how i drew his body so i quickly made a new one here. Maybe i'll post a before and after so people can see the difference another time. If anyone is interested in that.

 Star Trek's "Scotty" - James Doohan
This is actual the second time i've done a caricature of Scotty for TV. The first time was for an episode of History Bites. I'll have to dig it up and see which one turned out better. I think the other one was the movie version of Scotty.
 

NHL Star - Sidney Crosby
 

 NBA star - Steve Nash
I think this was one of the first caricatures i did for this series. I'm happy with the likeness but i think i could have made a better pose for him.
 

Back from Savannah and animation goodness...

Ok I got back a couple of weeks ago technically, but it's been busy so i'm only getting around to updating now. Anyway I had a blast at the Savannah International Animation Festival this past April. Kudos to the event organizers and all their volunteers for such a great event.

There were some excellent panels and discussions and of course plenty of great animation to be seen.
And I managed pick up an Award for the FoodBanks PSA " Hunger Count  2011" that I animated for Flash Frame Digital Media and Food Banks Canada. So that was definitely a highlight and a pleasant surprise.





Also met a couple of interesting guys, Les Carpenter and Lavalle McGuirk who were there to do a couple of panels and show their animated show they are pitching, "Cracker Land". Lavalle also has a great website on traditional  animation, aptly named Traditional Animation .

Another highlight was meeting Ian Timothy who's "Beaver Creek" was in the same animation bloc as my PSA. He's only 17 and has created 7 or 8 episodes of Beaver Creek, using stop motion, so far.  Each one is close to 10 minutes and they're pretty fun. He and his family even built a studio in their basement to record sound. That's dedication to your craft. So hat's off to him for all his hard work and I hope he continues.

He also created this great little short explaining the Art and Science of Animation.


Currently i'm working on graphics and animation for a video game "Left Lane Looey" that will hopefully be released in the fall. I'll be posting more cartoons and illustrations in the weeks to come. This "sketchblog" has gotten fairly news heavy and not sketch heavy enough!

Cheers!
-Bryce Hallett
Toronto