New Animation Book From Eric Goldberg

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Many animation fans will recognize the name Eric Goldberg. He’s an accomplished animator and director with a long list of credits in advertising, television, and feature films. He is best known for animating the Genie in Disney’s Alladin and for directing Pocahontas, and is one of the “top-drawer” animators currently working in the biz.

Goldberg has just written a book on animation, Character Animation Crash Course!, that will be released at Comic-Con next month. To give you an idea of Goldberg’s revered status in the animation industry, the foreward is written by none other that Brad Bird (Oscar-winning director of The Incredibles).

While there have been many animation books published in recent years, few go beyond the dry basics of walk cycles, lip sync, etc. Judging by the title, I’m hoping this will give us more than just the nuts and bolts and take us into the realm of true character animation. It’s one thing to make a character move. It’s entirely another thing to make that character appear to think, feel, and act.

Here’s the details, courtesy of the Creative Talent Network:

Well, the animation book Eric has been writing for 25 years, based on his animation notes, has finally arrived! Character Animation Crash Course!, published by Silman-James Press, is available for pre-order at the CTN Artist’s Storefront. It’s 240 pages of cartoon goodness, all geared to getting great performances from your characters on the screen. It comes with an accompanying CD that has animation movie files of selected sequences in the book. You can watch them in real time, or frame-by-frame, and they all include X-sheets, inbetween charts, circled keys, and underlined breakdowns, so the tests can be analyzed while you read the book, revealing how the principles actually look in movement and why. Also, Eric will be premiering this book at the San Diego Comic-Con, signing copies at Stuart Ng Books #5012, Friday July 25th from 2 – 4, and Saturday July 26th from 11 -12.

This looks like it will be a must-have resource for any serious animator. As mentioned above, you can pre-order the book from the CTN storefront. If you prefer, you can also order a copy from Amazon.com.

Pixar Announces Upcoming Films

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In a recent New York Times article Pixar announced its upcoming slate of animated films. (You have to register to read the article). The list includes:

Wal-E (official site) — A film from writer/director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) that tells the story of a robot stranded on earth all-alone in distant future. Large chunks of the film will have no dialogue, just pantomime and sound effects. If anyone can pull that off and still engage the audience, it’s the masterful animators at Pixar. After all, as the author points out, the Road Runner and Cyote never talked either. Wall-E hits theaters on June 27.

Up — Described as “a comedy about a cranky, cane-wielding 78-year-old who transports his home to exotic locales by attaching hundreds of helium-filled balloons”

The Bear and the Bow — Pixar’s first fairy tale,

Cars 2 — Pixar’s second attempt at a sequel. Their first, Toy Story 2, was actually better than the original. Let’s hope the same for Cars 2.

Pixar has one of the best (if not THE best) track records in Hollywood: Every single one of their films has been a box office smash. They have yet to produce a flop. I can’t think of any other studio in Hollywood can make that claim. Including Disney. So I’m very excited to get hints at what they’ve got coming down the pipe.

Art Books For Sale

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Last week I mentioned that I was cleaning out my studio closets and selling a few misc. art and animation books on Amazon.com. I received some requests to know what I’m selling, so here’s the list. If anyone is interested, just click on the item to buy. There’s some good deals if you don’t mind books that are slightly used.

Animation Notes From Ollie Johnston and John Lasseter

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The passing of legendary Disney animator Ollie Johnston has stirred a lot of emotion, memories, and discussion among animators and animation fans. In that spirit fellow Minnesotan Robbie Halvorson sent me a link to some of Ollie’s notes on animation. The notes came from Disney animator G. Scott Owen Pixar’s John Lasseter, who writes:

When I was an animator at the Disney Studios, I had a xeroxed list of simple notes from one of the great Disney animators, Ollie Johnston, pinned to my drawing table. The list was originally written down by another great Disney animator, Glen Keane, after working as Ollie’s assistant for a few years.

Robbie also sent me a link to some more notes on animation, also attributed to Pixar’s John Lasseter:

Tricks To Animating Characters With A Computer

These notes are loaded with valuable information and highly worth reading. And they aren’t strictly for animators only. Much of the information can also apply to anyone (like myself) who works in humorous illustration or cartooning.

“3-2-1 Penguins” Character Designs

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This past Saturday morning NBC aired another episode of 3-2-1 Penguins! which I had the pleasure of working on. There were only two characters who needed to be designed, Admiral Sowmaster and his assistant, Cash. Both were to be pig-like aliens.

Here’s an early rough concept. The Admiral is on the left.

After turning in the first concept I received some very helpful feedback and sketches from episode director Tom Bancroft. He suggested that we switch the size of the characters and make the Admiral the short one. He also wanted to model the Admiral after actor Edward G. Robinson. The face on my sketch is really just a cleaned-up version of a sketch Tom did based on old photos of Robinson.

3-2-1 Penguins! airs Saturday mornings on NBC. Check your local listings.

Fun Animated Shorts

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Kelly McNutt, a talented Minneapolis animator whom I mentioned in yesterday’s post, has been working with Michael Jantze (creator of the comic strip The Norm) on some fun new animated shorts. The shorts are now viewable on the new Jantze Studios YouTube site:

At Your Service is a cartoon created for a client in the hotel/hospitality industry. If only every hotel experience was like this one!

The Norm Short is a quick little cartoon based on Jantze’s strip, The Norm.

Jeremy and Mom is a promo ‘toon featuring the characters from the comic strip Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman.

Also, a reminder that today is the last day to take a shot at the advertising product mascot contest. The winner will be announced on Monday.