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Sometimes I sit here and think, “man I wish I had been born earlier” and when I say earlier I mean a good few years before I was actually born. I’m no spring chicken, but I just wish I could have been old enough to be able to sit at the foot of some of the old animation masters in there last years. That time when they realized we gotta’ spread this knowledge around before it’s lost forever. I’m such a sponge and learning from those guys and hearing what they had to say would have just made my head explode I’m sure. I have my links to the past, one being my fabulous teacher
| Lee Crowe, who worked at Disney as well as other studios and has had the pleasure. Plus I have a wealth of newly acquired old video footage and interviews (god bless the internet and generous people). I also have Frank and Ollie’s good book of animation “ The Illusion of Life” I’ve been studying this book thoroughly, and those two old men really put all their heart into every bit of text. It’s so rich with information and detail, I feel like I am at the feet of the masters and they are passing down this information to me. (in a way they are, right?) I know many contemporary animation students turn up their noses at the mere name Disney, mostly because they’re all anime freaks (and I mean that in the best possible otaku way), and they think of the older animation works as doddering old fogies. But I see it as the foundation of animation greatness. Maybe it’s has something to do with the fact that I’m from a slightly older generation than the rest of the kids I attend school with. (I’m from that generation that got the best of both worlds, you know that time when kids still played out side, toys didn’t play by themselves, and your imagination was your greatest weapon against boredom. Plus, when we got into our teen years the electronic age was thumping away and we were able to assimilate it into our foundation.) I digress… Sure Disney eventually lost its way and became a factory which cranked out money movies instead of animated stories, but this book is not something that any animator should be caught without. I really envy (well not envy truly) those animators who were coming up through the ranks in the late 70’s and early to mid 80’s. Now granted they are the reason I’m where I am now (because of all the wonderful animation they gave me as a kid. ) but sometimes I do feel like listening to them tell a story about their experience with one or more of the masters is like a photo copy of a photo copy, you get the picture…but something has been lost. A bit of the sharpness that comes from getting it directly from the source, or maybe over time the story morphs a bit the more you hear it. Not like a first hand memory. I have to thank Frank and Ollie for leaving behind this great book, which is like my first hand account of their teachings, and experiences. Thanks guys, you’ll be missed.
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I suppose in retrospect I’m not in such a bad place after all. There are tons of great animators from contemporary times that I can meet and hear what they have to share. WHAT AM I THINKING!? Here I am boo hooing and all these great animators from the last two and a half decades who learned from the masters are just sitting by waiting for sponges like me to come along and soak up some of that info. Take it, shape it, and then project it outwards into something wonderful, just like they did (do). Look at The Iron Giant, directed by
| Brad Bird and animated by a whole slew of fantastic contemporary animators.
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This is one of those movies that I always go on and on about at school, but low and behold some nutty otaku kid who knows nothing about animation, or it’s history or how to “draw his ass” comes along and says “what’s the big deal?” It’s not just the otaku crowd you get some of these new “3D” kids who only watch CG animation and “poo poo” at anything that is hand drawn. I actually find that a good majority of them again “can’t draw their ass.” Seriously, many of them can rig their polygonic hearts out, but can’t use a pencil on paper to save their lives. (I’m no super hot talent…but c’mon guys!), and that bothers the hell out of me. It still takes artistic ability to be able to create in the computer. It’s just a tool, not a magic faerie…it won’t make you an artist. Which is why so many fail in the end. For those that do squeeze through… I I’ve been hearing about these type of kid’s misadventures in the industry. They have this crutch where everything is set on this rig and so, they don’t envision the animation the simply puppet the character through body part by body part, and all sorts of stuff that lacks heart.
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Again I digress… My problem with these CG animation snobs is… well… JUST THAT, they’re snobs. They come off as these spoiled kids who act as if CG is superior to 2D. It’s not it is simply a modern level for the medium to display itself. It’s been the same with the entire art world. We have Cubism, but those guys don’t go and shit on the master works of the Renaissance, now do they? Well, some of them might, then call it art if they’re into Daddaism…Somewhere around here I’ll get to a point. It seems from walking around the school (seeing three years worth of demo reels) and being forced to attend a few CG classes; that nearly anyone can learn to use a computer to animate. It’s just a matter of numbers, and hierarchies. (you know this to be true!) But everyone can’t just pick up a pencil and create a work of art in one semester. (no you can’t !) I guess on some level I’m bitter at how it appears that CG animation is cheapening a grand and noble medium. It was like an exclusive branch of the order of artists, that only the ones who truly understood and appreciated it could get into, and only after several trails and tests of honour, love and dedication to the medium. (their was no place for super star dreamers, only lovers of the art form) Shamefully, it’s been reduced to a carnival act…HELL a freaking sideshow attraction! It’s all about “hey let’s use the latest technology and creates some bastardized version of art for the sake of a buck or ’cause it “looks cool”.” Yeah well, Atlantis and Treasure Planet “looked cool” too, but they were 2-D films that sucked ass! You have to do better than that! STORY PEOPLE, C’MON! (but this is when the mouse-house was getting into that generic mode of putting out movies, with songs, and lots of merchandisable characters, for the sake of a whatever Eisner was up to behind that desk back then. (getting fat, rich, pink, and soft?)…suits, I tell ya. They just want to show off the pretty colours and super advanced graphics that they can produce now. (big deal.) IT’S THE COMPUTER, NOT YOU! show me an hour and a half’s results of you and several other humans scribbling on paper for hours on end, and tell me what animation is truly about. But these kids don’t care about the paper and pencil, not even the digital counterparts. No, they want their NURBS and their particle effects simulators (SHEEZ,it even sounds cold and inhuman). It’s funny how animation works. With each new generation of animators (which are always few and far between) they become detached from the previous generation and its work. And I try not to get upset and I try not to be angry…normally I’m all for progression. But they’re eyes just glaze over when they look at the Iron Giant, and it hits me… they don’t care about the essence of what makes good animation, they only care about shallow things like what looks cool. But Iron Giant DOES look cool, and it does have CG in it, a good marriage of the two, but it also has one very special and intrinsic part that so many films lack …STORY. “sigh” But they only see flat art done by hand, not cool technological juxtaposition. spoiled. Obviously not all CG is about spoiled kids, but then again; the stuff that these kids are coming up on is being created by animators with traditional backgrounds in everything from character design to storytelling. I suppose that’s what allows PIXAR to outshine its contemporaries. (well, I admittedly like Kung Fu Panda over Wall-E. I’m not sure what it was, but something was just off about that movie.) Still, what looks cool and what is cool are two totally different things… and a lot of young animation students are going to have to learn that (both 2-D and CG).
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On the lighter side, I have to say thank you to
| The Animation Podcast for being one of those contemporary methods of soaking up the knowledge of the masters, for a guy in my position who can’t afford to travel about meeting all the animators. (not to mention they probably don’t have the time to talk to every random fledgling animator, who wants to hear their stories.) But, Clay Katis has done something wonderful by putting these sessions (because they’re more than interviews), on his site. He even has “the Vault” where you can hear talks from passed masters like Milt Kahl (that was awesome, hearing him talk to a class that Brad Bird was attending during the recording). Thanks Clay, and thanks to L.D. for introducing me to the A.P. Another book that I’m reading is The Power of Myth, by Joseph Campbell. I’ve heard of J. Campbell before, but really only in the last five or so years. His analysis of the subconscious connection between humans and our sources of interwoven myths is great.
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I used to wonder about the stories I wrote as a kid, and why no matter where I turned I would always find someone else that was creating nearly the same thing. I couldn’t understand the connection we all have as humans, until I got into my 20’s and it had happened enough that I became so curious I spent most of my days in the library doing research on everything from Mythology to Psychology. Eventually I began to understand that connection between the likes of Jesus, Luke Skywalker and my own characters. I started to understand arc types and see patterns across time on Earth. I even started to write my own book about what I thought all of it meant. (I’m still working on that.) But, then I saw on PBS a few years ago that some man had done all of the same investigating and research. No, I didn’t think “oh, well he’s beaten me to the punch…I give up.” I saw his research as a stepping-stone into my own. It’s a very good source for understanding what makes a good character good, and what makes them relatable and essentially successful. I’m babbling now, but I will say this…. As a good animator and a good storyteller these are definitely two books you should not be without. This was a very long rant, but I’m glad I was able to get it off of my chest. Now, I’ll go animate.
