Fuddles by Frans Vischer

Animator Frans Vischer has written and illustrated a new book, "Fuddles" .     He animated this charming trailer to promote the book.




And check out Frans' other book "Jimmy Dabble" -

http://www.jimmydabble.net/animation.html

Tahsin Özgür - Pencil Tests

I'm grateful to  C. Siemens on the Don Bluth Animation Forum for directing my attention to this remarkable collection of pencil tests by animator Tahsin Özgür.

Here's a sampling:

"For a while my wife, Lale, had a company through which I did some of the best of my animation work. This "animated logo" was meant for that company, but by the time I was finished with the cleanup, she had already closed it down! The model is Lale, of course!"

Here is a short film prepared as part of an exhibition of animation at the Apel Gallery in Istanbul. The format is a "silent movie". Starting around the 00:35 mark it has an amusing "day in the life of an animator" sequence , in which you get a glimpse into Tahsin Özgür's animation work process (continuing my recent theme of posting videos of Master Animator's At Work) , with bits of his animation interspersed with scenes of him drawing at his animation table -

This was prepared for an exhibition at the Apel gallery in Istanbul in 2001. 

More pencil tests by Tahsin Özgür here:

http://vimeo.com/user3233558/videos

Tahsin Özgür's blog




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"L'Illusionniste" an animated film by Sylvain Chomet

Last year I made several posts about Sylvain Chomet's new animated feature , The Illlusionist  ("L'Illusionniste") .    
Time to mention it again. 


Now that the film has received an Academy Award nomination as "Best Animated Feature Film"  and is in a somewhat wider release pattern I wanted to post the release schedule from Sony Classics.   Here is where the film is currently playing or will be opening soon:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/dates.html

If the film is playing in your city or close-by I highly recommend you see this sumptuously animated film.  Especially if classical hand-drawn animation is something you are passionate about then you  owe it to yourself to see and support this beautiful, poignant film on the big screen.

Here is the North American Trailer -

(I suggest that you switch the video settings to HD , watch full-screen).  

 Here is some artwork from the film:

Production Drawings & Backgrounds from The Illusionist


Pencil Tests from The Illusionist

Excellent review of the film by Mark Mayerson:

"The Illusionist" a review by Mark Mayerson

Roger Ebert's review:

"The Illusionist"  reviewed by Roger Ebert

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The North American (Sony Classics) website for the film:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/

The French (Pathé) website for the film :

http://www.lillusionniste-lefilm.com/#/home

Sylvain Chomet at the animation table -

Inspiration: Master Animators at Work - GLEN KEANE

These have been shared on a lot of blogs ,  but for completeness sake in this series I'm re-posting them here.


A great lecture (in three parts) by Glen Keane on his approach to animating a scene.   You can learn so much by just "looking over the shoulder" of these great animators as they animate.   

Inspiration: Master Animators at Work - ERIC GOLDBERG

Master animator Eric Goldberg demonstrates how to animate.







A couple of Eric Goldberg animated commercials :










Here's a link to a presentation that Eric gave at the Academy of Art University's annual Fall Animation Festival in 2008 -


Industry On-Campus Videos - ERIC GOLDBERG


*NOTE:  Sorry, I can't embed the video here.  You'll have to go to the AAU Videos web page and scroll down through the list of videos to find "Eric Goldberg".  Click on Eric's name to launch the video.

Inspiration: Master Animators at Work - JOANNA QUINN

Master Animators at work. It's always interesting and educational to see how an animator approaches animating their scenes.


First up, the amazing Joanna Quinn .

More Joanna Quinn on YouTube :
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Joanna%20Quinn&search=tag

Facial Expressions Tutorial by Tracy J. Butler

Comics artist Tracy J. Butler  ("Lackadaisy") has posted a great tutorial on Facial Expressions:

NOTES ON EXPRESSIONS - Click Here -

Here are a couple of samples from the tutorial, including some things NOT to do : 

(oh, yes, let us all banish the chronic "C-Mouth" ,  "Smarm Brow" (aka  "'tude" ) and "Flounderface Disorder"  , all bad habits.)

(while there also check out her tutorials on "How to Paint in Photoshop"  ,  "How to Draw"   .)


(click images to see larger)