TEACH YOURSELF | How To Animate

(Source: artofglenkeane)

You learn from other artists. Mentors are essential. We all stand on the shoulders of somebody else. Nobody comes up with something totally themselves – 

Glen Keane 

As Glen Keane emphasizes here, finding good mentors is a great part of an artist’s growth. I love listening to other artist’s advice and wisdom. Unfortunately, it can be very expensive nowadays to find your mentors in school programs. Also, teachers often have so many students that they don’t get to devote as much time to each as they’d like to.

So for those of us who value having that personal mentor but feel like we might need additional education – there’s the internet.

So many mentors share so much good advice online. Besides, it can almost feel like their tips for growth are specifically geared toward you and you learn from them without having ever met them personally (although I’m sure many of us who use the internet for mentors would be thrilled to meet them and thank them for their help in person!).

In my last post, I shared the names of a few bloggers I’ve found helpful for story-boarding. For this post, I focus on animation.

The Art of Aaron Blaise 

Aaron Blaise was a hand-drawn animator at Disney during its Renaissance years, i.e. the 90s. He animated one of my favourite scenes from Beauty and the Beast (when Beast has saved Belle from the wolves and they argue by the fireplace). Since then, he has worked on the John Lewis Christmas Advert 2013, along with other projects. On his youtube channel, Blaise shares what he’s learned over the years. He also offers official classes on his website, creaturearteacher.com 

Animation Meat – Nine Old Men 

This site has uploaded some invaluable notes by Eric Larson and Ham Luske, among others, on animation.

Animators Resource 

A site that shares news and tips on animation!

My Sketchbook 

This tumblr site has notes on animation, as well as ‘appeal’ in characters and general advice about the animation industry

Walt Stanchfield – 28 Principles of Animation 

These notes are from Walt Stanchfield’s Drawn to Life and cover animation, specifically.

Frank and Ollie – Animation Tips

This site shares notes from two of the Nine Old Men, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

Glen Keane – A System for Planning and Timing Animation 

A PDF version of notes on animation by Glen Keane

Daniel Gonzales

Daniel Gonzales is an animator at Walt Disney Studios and also teaches 2D at CalArts. On his blog, Gonzales gives some tips on exercises you can do to practice animation.

Mike Nguyen

A CalArts alum, Mike Nguyen is a 2D supervising character animator known for his work on classics such as Beauty and the Beast and Iron Giant. On his tumblr, Rainplace, he shares advice on animation! 

Pixar in a Box

This site teaches you about some of the fundamentals that go into making Pixar movies. One of the first lessons is on animation, which I've linked to above. If you're new to computer animation or want to brush up on some of your knowledge of it, this site explains the fundamentals in an easy-to-understand manner. You get to make your own animation and there is even a quiz at the end! Check out this introductory video:

2D Traditional Animation 

On this tumblr, Xavier Ramonède shares original hand-drawn animation sheets from animated movies

Frame by Frame 

Another great tumblr for studying stills from animated movies

So those are the sites that I have found really helpful in learning about animation online.

When it comes to individual pieces of advice from different corners of the internet, I have unearthed a few tidbits here and there that I have shared below.

First off, I came across a CTN video recently about acting in animation and how important that is in making a character come to life. In the video, four different animators were given the same piece of dialogue to block out. Each animator then came up with their own interpretation of who that character was and what the subtext of the dialogue was. It's a very telling talk, and I love how different the final animation turned out, depending on the subtext of the character and the thought-process of each of the four animators. Here is a link to the video.

Also, here are two pages with advice from Glen Keane:

(Source: lindadornart)

(Source: thisismyplacetobe)

I also love watching lectures on animation by Glen Keane on Youtube.

As a final note, I’d like to thank not only the artists who share their advice online, but also those that have shared links to other artist’s advice. I wouldn’t have been able to find these sites were it not for them!

(Source: the-disney-elite)

-Christine-