NEw YEAR, New Skills!

Happy New Year Folks!
I hope 2014 has lots of creative things in store for you.

Speaking of creative things, there are a number of fun and exciting workshops happening at TAIS ( Toronto Animated Image Society) starting in January. If you are an animator or just an animation enthusiast who has has always wanted to try their hand, now's a great time to check it out.

These workshops are taught by some very talented and experienced animators (if i do say so myself) who are all in demand in their fields which means they don't' give these workshops very often. Be sure not to miss out on this opportunity!

info below!
Cheers!
-B

TAIS WINTER WORKSHOPS 


To register: tais.animation@gmail.com
Space will be limited to 8-10 participants per workshop.

Classical Animation on Paper: 101 with Bryce Hallett
2 days: Sunday January 12 & 19, 2014, 11 am – 5 pm
$160 members (2 days @ $80 per day), $210 non-members (2 days @ $105 per day)

This two-day crash course will cover the fundamental principles of animation, including timing, facial expressions, movement flow and simple walks, etc. This is ‘old school’ animating with pencils on paper for beginners or simply those who’ve never had the opportunity. Participants will be given some work to try out at home to be reviewed on the second day. Materials and peg bars will be provided for use.

Instructor Bryce Hallett is an independent animator with 14 years of experience working for clients in Canada and around the world but always in his pajamas. He is perhaps best known for the "Ranger Gord" animations on the Red Green Show, and as the illustrator of the book Animation Unleashed written by Ellen Besen. Some of his other works can been seen on his website www.frogfeetproductions.com

Simple Silhouette and Paper Puppets with Lynn Wilton
Sunday January 26, 2014, 11 am – 5 pm

$75 members, $90 non-members


This introductory course will cover an alternative method of construction using easily found materials for simple silhouette (under-lit) and top-lit paper puppets followed by an opportunity to get under camera and animate. Materials will be provided and everyone will get the opportunity to see their puppet come to life.  Please come prepared with a design idea for a character that could be found in a jungle environment.  We’ll be making our puppets to be roughly 5” on their longest side.

Instructor Lynn Dana Wilton is an animator/designer/artist and former board member of TAIS.  She took a diploma in Classical Animation at Sheridan but also holds a BAAID from Ryerson.  She trained classically but, commercially, has principally animated stop-motion for television series & specials including “Glenn Martin, DDS”, “Rick & Steve”, “A Miser Brothers’ Christmas”, “Lunar Jim”, “A Cape Breton Ghost Story”, and “Henry’s World".  She’s had her experimental short, “(Re)Cycle”, show in festivals internationally.  Find her at https://vimeo.com/lynnscrowbar.

Dragonframe Workshop with Evan DeRushie
Sunday February 2, 2014, 11 am – 5 pm
$75 members, $90 non-members


Dragonframe is the world's leading stop-motion capture software. It's used on feature films, commercials, and most importantly: at the Toronto Animated Images Society. Working with digital SLR cameras, the software is a swiss army knife of animation tools, and can be used to plan and capture your animation with precise control. In this workshop you'll learn the basics of the program, such as project management and camera control. You'll also learn some more advanced features, like sync sound, frame editing, and more. Whether you're shooting a stop-motion short film, or previewing your hand-drawn animation, Dragonframe has all the tools you never knew you needed.

Instructor Evan DeRushie is a professional stop-motion animator. He has animated for broadcast TV series, and commercials for Kraft, Tim Hortons, Indigo and Lays. His independent film "The Fox and the Chickadee" has played in film festivals around the world. More info at www.evanderushie.com

Puppet Building Workshop with Carla Veldman
Sunday February 16, 2014, 11 am - 5pm
$75 members, $90 non-members

This workshop is an introduction to different types of stop-motion puppets and their armatures, including wire, aluminum, paper, and ball-and-socket.  Topics covered will include puppet-planning, materials used, tie-down types, and mouth replacements. Participants will be able to fabricate their own wire armatures during the workshop (materials provided), and puppet examples will be available for reference.

Instructor Carla Veldman is an animation film-maker and stop-motion artist. A Sheridan graduate and lover of stories, she enjoys the tactile and textural world of puppet animation. http://carlaveldman.daportfolio.com/

Motion Control Workshop with Greg Boa
Sunday February 23, 2014
11 am – 5 pm
$90 members, $120 non-members

In this workshop we will go over the DitoGear motion control system for use with Dragonframe stop motion software, and how to use the equipment stand-alone with DitoGear hardware controllers. We'll cover what it is and what it can do; set-up and take down; previewing and adjusting camera movements in dragon; shooting animated, real-time and time lapse shots, and of course safety concerns along the way to protect the camera and the rig from damage. The equipment we will use will be TAIS' DitoGear OmniSlider, OmniHead, LensDrive and DragonBridge interface - a very fun and powerful motion control system for precise moving camera shots.

Instructor Greg Boa is a graduate of Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts and the former film tech for the Film, Video and Integrated Media program at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. For six years he years he worked as a Technical Coordinator at the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, and has worked on films by Bruce Elder, Isabella Pruska Oldenhof and Madi Piller, among others. Greg has a great deal of experience with camera systems, both film and digital, and extensive experience teaching workshops and classes. Currently Greg works for Niagara Custom Lab.  

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.

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.
         

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

Savannah International Animation Festival

...Is where i'll be April 13-14th. Our PSA for FoodBanks Canada " Hungercount2011", produced by Flash Frame Digital and designed/animated by Frog Feet Productions, will be screening there in the commercials category.

The Festival is brought to you by the Animation Hall of Fame in Savannah.  In addition to the workshops, panels and screenings there will be plenty of art on display from the various animated films screened at the fest. So if you are in the area in April come check out the Savannah International Animation Festival and say hello!
 Cheers!
 -Bryce

HungerCount 2011 PSA wins Pixie Award

I must say, working with Flash Frame Digital to create the Food Banks Canada PSA was one of the highlights of 2011. It was just a lot of fun doing the animation and design on their projects and collaborating with them. I guess the fun and effort we put into it all has paid off. Two of our animations, "FoodBanks Canada Holiday Greeting 2010" and "HungerCount 2011" PSA, have won Gold and Platinum 2012 Pixie Awards respectively, for Animation Commercial/ PSA category. Yaaaaay!

 HungerCount was also featured as an official selection at the California International Shorts Festival 2011 In December. I've already linked to these in previous posts so please feel free to scroll down if you wish to see them. 

 So 2011 ended on a pretty high note for Frog Feet Productions and here's hoping for more great things in 2012.

 cheers! 

-B

 

FoodBanks Canada HungerCount 2011 Animation

I need to come up with catchier titles that aren't merely literal descriptions.
ha ha
 Anyway, I'm very proud to have designed and animated this piece for Food Banks Canada. (Produced by the fine folks at FlashFrame Digital here in Toronto so i could just concentrate on the animation and final composite). Please feel free to pass this animation along and share it around the interwebs. It's not just pretty but also for a good cause!
Cheers!
-Bryce


 English Version
 

Version Français
 

Need a date? Here's an Animated Commercial!

Hey there folks. I wish i could come up with a better title or a witty pun but that's never been my strong suit. Animation is though!

Here's a commercial i designed and animated recently for a dating website.

It was a lot of fun to do some more classical cartoon style full colour animation.

This was a really fun project to work on, despite a really short turn around time, and the people who hired me were great to work with. I have to give credit to Marc Morgenstern, their creative director who did some additional editing on the final piece. I don't know who did the music or wrote the lyrics to the funny song or i'd give them a shout out as well.

There's lots i like about how this turned out and there are plenty of things i would have like to have added or altered had there been more time. That's always the case though. Really fun job.

Anyway. Enjoy!

-Bryce

BunnyJam Jury Award winner! TAIS Showcase 2011

Hurray us!
During the TAIS Animation Showcase 2011 we were awarded the BunnyJam Jury Award.

Every year as part of the TAIS Showcase they hold an "Anijam" where animators can submit a 10 sec animated piece, using any style or technique, based on that year's theme. This year it was "bunnies". Previous years have had monsters, robots, chickens..etc etc all the entries are then strung together into one big mega animation and shown in the theatre before the main Showcase begins.

The Jury, which selects the best film for the Showcase, also has an award for the BunnyJam and there is an Audience Award for both categories as well. ( Jamie Metzger 's film "Pasa Doble" won the Jury Award for best in Showcase, Aaron Long won the audience award for his film "Fester Goes Fishing" as well as an honourable mention from the Jury and Nick Cross won the Audience Award for his BunnyJam entry. So congrats to all of them and really to everyone who had animation screened at the showcase it was a very good year with some really great pieces.)

Here's the link to our little BunnyJam submission and as soon as their is a link for the complete TAIS entries we'll post it as well.



Emma Lander suggested we animate something using rice or beans so we went to the bulk foods store and got a few things to try out and rice worked the best. It's shot stop motion style under the camera on a piece of glass and a cardboard background using a Nikon D5000 slr and Dragon Stop Motion.

If anyone is interested i can give more specific details of what we did. In all it 6 or 7 hours from initial set up to shooting the final frame.

Emily Shapiro created the music for us on clarinet. Thanks Emily!

Where the BLEEP is my car?!

Here's a project we just finished for 4carfinder.com. A little mix of rough 2d animation, photos and stop motion. We got to be totally over the top and it was just way too much fun to do!



Credits where credits is due:

Client: Sharpshooter inc.
Exec Producer: Stan Olthuis
Director/Designer/Compositor: Bryce Hallett
Animators: Bryce Hallett and Jett Atwood
Music and Sound: Matt Reid
Cel Colouring: Anna Oster

Another good review and fun times at Kalamazoo.

I've been busy animating today. I'm all pumped and inspired after attending the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International this weekend. It was a lot of fun. I got to speak on a few panels, dust off my student film from years back to screen, and it was well received, and got to hang out and meet many fun and interesting animation types.
(Quick shout out to all the students who competed in the KAFI Cartoon Challenge 2009. They made some really good PSA's and were a lot of fun to meet and talk to. Cheers guys and gals and congrats on your hard work and well made films! It was fun! ).

It was a pretty decent drive from Toronto to Kalamazoo too. The 6 or 7 hours just flew by. Gotta thank Bruce Simpson for the ride!

At some point i'll have to start actually adding sketches to my skethblog again. heh
in the meantime here's a link to a nice review of "Animation Unleashed" i came across while procrastinating.

BC Blogcritics LINK. Thanks to BlogCritics.org and especially Tim Girard for writing this great little review! That made my day.

In lieu of some sketches here's screen shots from "Delica: Counting Stars". A little music video i've been working on whenever i could get the chance that i finally finished last week.
Look for it at the next Delica concert!
cheers!
-Frog Feet