Blog10: Glen Keane

Blog10: Glen Keane: Top Disney character animator

Demonstration and interview with Glen Keane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xus02QEJon0&list=TLzEvawLGUECc

            "My sketch books and the figure drawings are the source for everything I've ever            animated. It's all these observations. The little things that make a huge difference. You don't see it unless you are drawing it, and you have to draw it. In order to draw it, you have to have observed it. You can see it, or you can really see it."

                                                                                                                        -Glen Keane

            Glancing into the world of Disney I found yet another great animator Glen Keane, who worked on movies such as Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Tarzan, Pochahontas, and the most recent movie Tangled. As I was glancing at his character sketches of Rapunzel I realized that it takes a trained artist to make a believable character with only a few strokes of the pencil. There is no need for immense detail within his sketches because he delivers the point across to his audience. His talent lies within the facial expressions of his characters, such as Rapunzel's grin or raised eyebrow. When it comes to Disney, their focus remains within the expressions. In order for these artists to create these 3D animated movies, they must put forth a painstaking amount of artwork beginning with concept art, to storyboards, to animating and rendering one single frame. The ending result is very rewarding. One single scene will display every tree and character to a single blade of grass. Glen's interest in art dawned from the start of his existence since his dad had already had a career in cartooning. His father would instruct him to study human anatomy and eventually he had a greater understanding of it. Keane gained an immense amount of knowledge about animation when he mentored under Jules Engel, a famous animation teacher. After watching his demo on YouTube (linked above), it was a lot easier to understand how he draws and where he draws his inspiration from. He stated that drawing Caucasian women was a lot easier for him because it's what he had practice with. But when he had to draw anything else like Pocahontas, it was a lot more difficult because the facial proportions were a lot different being her cheekbones were pointier, serious facial expression, straight eyebrows, and jagged face. It was very interesting to watch him draw because even though he is an amazing artist, being put on the spot in front of many people can be uncomfortable even for him. Again, his knowledge of anatomy is evident in his demonstrations because he speed draws with ease on characters that many people would struggle with, such as the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Glen Keane gives me hope that with further knowledge of anatomy and a lot of practice, an artist can excel in that type of field.

Blog9: Andreas Deja

Blog9: Andreas Deja- Animator at Disney

            Another form of digital art lies within animated movies, venturing down memory lane brings me to talk about an animator who works at Disney known as Andreas Deja. Deja is well known for working on villains such as Jafar from Aladdin, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, and Scar from The Lion King. Deja was inspired to become an animator at the age of 11 after watching a Disney favorite The Jungle Book. He like many artists began studying graphic design in Germany. His lifelong fascination of Disney eventually led to his  lifelong dream. He was hired in 1980 to work on animating his first film The Black Cauldron. In order to become a great animator, Deja sought mentorship from what was known then to be the nine old men who were veterans at Disney. He gained an extensive amount of information from each one to the point where he stated that he was planning to write a book for each one of them. Once he became well established, Deja was eventually creating a variety of villains with different personalities. He said that the most evil character he worked with was Scar from The Lion King. Any character that is Disney related means that each character must be as close to being human as possible. This is because Disney has always aimed for their audience to become emotionally attached to these characters whether they be good or evil. If people aren't hooked on a character then they won't be interested in watching the movie. In order to create a truly evil character for The Lion King Andreas had to put an emphasis on the character's facial expressions. For example, Scar has edgy- looking eye brows that raise fairly high to indicate that he is thinking or exhibiting anger. He stated in an interview that his inspiration to making Scar was the voice actor Jeremy Irons who "had a way of playing with the words and twisting them so that they would come out very sarcastic and always a bit unexpected." He also clarified that his voice actor Jeremy has physical features such as dark circles under his own eyes that gave him inspiration to create the dark circles under Scar's eyes. Deja explained that after watching Jeremy perform his voice acting, he immediately ran back to his studio to work on his character through all his excitement and a head bursting with great ideas. It was very interesting and informative to read about Andreas Deja because it helps educate on how a great artist develops an idea and how he began as a fan who in the end evolved into the creator.

Blog8: Alan Lathwell

Blog8: Alan Lathwell-Illustrator

Full interview with Alan Lathwell: http://www.itsartmag.com/features/alanlathwell/

                Art is subjective, open to interpretation and forever changing. I don't claim to be able      to offer anything like a definition and I don't refer to my own creations as art. For me it's just something I love doing and if my images stand the test of time and are still being viewed and enjoyed by other people, then I will be satisfied with my achievements.

                                                                                                                        -Alan Lathwell

                As I continued my research I remembered that I had previously owned a character drawing book to help me with learning how to draw humans in action poses. Drawing people in action poses is actually a very difficult thing to do because this is the time when an artist has to know anatomy. Musculature of males and females appears to be very different because you don't want to make your male characters too feminine of vise versa. Alan Lathwell does a fantastic job of explaining the step by step process of creating an intricate character. He not only explains how to do these drawing step by step, but he has also done these sketches and paintings on the computer which also had me interested from the start. Alan is currently a freelance illustrator working in London, his artwork has also reached the United States (since I got a hold of his book "Warriors & Heroes"). I conducted some further research on him and found that he always enjoyed drawing fantasy art as a child but never dreamed of creating art as a living, so he started his life off in the work force as a life engineer. This also seems to be a reoccurring event with artists, where they start as something other than an artist or work for a company they have no interest in and eventually end up with a great art career. As soon as he landed a career with making children's book illustrations, he stated that his life only went in the upward direction. He not only has worked as an illustrator for children's books, but has illustrated comic books, fantasy novels, magazines, and even RPG's. Alan's passion has always belonged in the realm of dark fantasy such as Celtic and Norse mythology. Judging from many of the characters in his book, he specifically enjoys drawing heroic characters in armor. These striking images demonstrate his artistic style and knowledge of human anatomy. During his interview he had also stated that he enjoyed drawing skulls as a child till even today. His use of color is very limited because he doesn't wish to overcomplicate the piece. Instead, Alan uses a minimal color pallet with opposite colors to create contrast. He explains the process that it takes in order to create his successful works of art. He first begins with a rough outline of the figure, then blocks in the color with a one tone color, eventually leading to adding the small details that make the art appear to be more realistic. During his interview he even mentions the Italian painter Caravaggio, who was a master in the use of light. Alan also demonstrates knowledge in the use of light within his paintings, especially with metal objects such as his characters' armor. Alan is a great inspiration because he not only enjoys his job, teaches other to draw/paint well, and most importantly he just enjoys making art for his personal enjoyment. A true artist indeed.

Blog7: Chris Metzen

Blog7: Chris Metzen (concept artist, designer, animator, at Blizzard Entertainment)

Interview with Chris Metzen: http://about-creativity.com/2008/04/an-interview-with-chris-metzen-part-1.php

"I think we soak in content. We chew on it. We digest it. What are the bits of these themes or these characters or these places that strike the chords within us emotionally? And our job is to spew back into the world."

                                                                                                -Chris Metzen
            These words spoken by Metzen ring true through my ears. I can honestly feel his passion and emotion for his game because I feel that same passion for the creations that I conjure up in my head. Chris Metzen is now a veteran artist working for the well-known company responsible for the games Diablo, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and many more. His creativity coexisted well with the interests that he had as a kid following into adulthood which was his fascination with DND, also known as Dungeons and Dragons. He soaked himself within this fantasy world which fed his creative mind. Chris would pull ideas from this new game he came to love and tweak them to his own liking an image. This sort of pulling ideas from other successful games or ideas leads to the creation of other very successful games. In a sense, it is basically pulling the best ideas from one idea and then combining them into a larger mixing bowl of successful ideas. Artists have been doing this since the dawn of man. Even in the Renaissance, artists like Raphael and Rembrandt would look at Michelangelo's creations and borrow his ideas to create masterpieces of their own, even to the point where Raphael was working beside Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Artistic ideas spawn from the world around us, it is what we take in. If we take in these successful ideas that others have come up with in the past, they will have a positive effect on one's own work. Chris takes the world around him and the things he is passionate about and morphs them into something that is his own. Metzen started like many of us college students, again not knowing exactly what he wanted to do in life after college. When he was a young man fresh out of college he thought his career path would take him into the direction of a musician for a band. But then luck found him at a gig for his band. Chris drew up a dragon on a napkin where it was left to lay there and someone approached Chris who knew a company that would possibly want his artistic expertise. This company was known as "Chaos Studios" (also later known as Blizzard Entertainment. At the time Metzen had absolutely no clue what he was getting himself into. All he thought he knew was this was a graphic design company. Chris strolled into the studio and gave the boss his life drawings and the boss immediately stated "would you like a job here?" With little to no experience with animation, Chris was thrown into the world of animation and was short after creating/animating characters like Batman in games like Street Fighter. Later he began to work on Warcraft II because his boss again came across his so-called "fake story" of how the game should be told, and once again the boss loved the story and made Metzen a designer of Warcraft II. From then on Chris Metzen has been a part of the Blizzard artists earning himself the title as one of the founders of Blizzard Entertainment.

Blog6: Kate Moross

Blog6: Kate Moross (graphic designer and illustrator featured in several magazines and won the Creative Future Award in 2007).

Interview with Kate Moross: http://think-work-play.com/kate-moross-2/

            Kate is an inspiring designer because she exhibits her uniqueness through her personality, attire, and of course her artwork. She would definitely be placed into the modern artist category. Her style consists of very bright single tone colors because it would seem that she admires high contrast. Some of her work could also be considered "groovy" because the colors seem like they could have dawned from the 70s. There also seems to be theme going on with a lot of her pieces that demonstrates thick obvious lines that sway back and forth creating a large amount of movement. Her shapes appear to be evolving out of one another creating a different shape or subject out of it. For example, her design of a diamond consists of single tone colors that exhibit high contrast. Kate's overlapping shapes also add a sense of depth without variation in tones. Her example of a diamond appears to have large swirls flowing out of the top of it further transforming into small shapes and designs. I can see that she enjoys creating an eye flow for the audience which draws their attention to the largest shapes, leading to the smaller intricate ones. These types of art techniques are very successful when creating art because the viewer needs to appreciate the "big picture" or in other words the overall art piece from far away as well as appreciate the miniature details that actually act as rewards for the consumer's eye because it's those little details that really add to any type of visual art. Kate was interviewed about her work life as well as obtaining a sense of her personality. Kate is an easygoing and free spirited person who exhibits herself very visually through her appearance and through her creations. Even her shirt had bright colors that contrasted one another. She has a fascination of triangles, which are actually very popular in everyday life whether it be in construction or just plain appearance. Her entire room even screamed color and contrast with its white walls and splashes of bright color. Her room actually embodies what I would think a modern graphic design artist would have with all of the pieces of artwork pinned to the wall with color and art tools located everywhere around the room. It appears to be an artist's dream room which is comfy, colorful, and of course well designed. Instead of knocking out all of her projects at once, she stated that she spreads them out all at once and gives each one attention. This method of working on multiple art projects is actually successful in a lot of art situations because it allows the artists to take visual "breaks" which can allow them to see flaws in their work that they would not have seen before. Seeing this interview with Kate was very enjoyable because I got to experience the feeling of being a well-known graphic designer by venturing into the creation station of her art.

Blog5: John Henry Alvin

Blog5: Graphic Designer John Henry Alvin

Posters by John Alvin: http://www.posterguide.org/browseposter.php?browse=1&id=5

John Alvin's story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/movies/11alvin.html?_r=0

Switching over to more of a design outlook rather than animation, John Alvin was the creator of many famous movie posters such as the 1982 E.T. Extra Terrestrial, 1983 Twilight Zone: The movie, 1991 Hook, 1991 Beauty and the Beast, 1992 Aladdin, 1992 Batman Returns, 1992 Pinocchio, 1994 Alien, 1994 The Lion King, 1995 Balto, 1996 The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1997 The Little Mermaid, 1998 Quest for Camelot, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and finally the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter Trilogy (and many more poster designs are linked above). Unfortunately John Alvin passed away from a heart attack at the age of 59 in 2008, but his work will always live on. John painted images for over 135 films during his 35 years of working in the business. His daughter stated that "He captured the heart of whatever the assignment was" and her words to me ring true because if you look at his work it is obvious that he should be commended for his talents with visual art. During his college career Mr. Alvin was working freelance with a man named Anthony Goldschmidt who was an art director in Hollywood. This paved the road for John's success in the movie business because he was asked to paint a poster for Mel Brook's comic western "Blazing Saddles." This particular poster shows Mel Brooks wearing an Indian Headdress and Cleavon Little with sunglasses riding a horse.  In 1982 Steven Spielberg had Alvin create a poster for his E.T. the Extra Terrestrial film. Spielberg was inspired by the ceiling painting within the Sistine Chapel "The Creation of Adam" where God and Adam are about to touch fingertips. In Spielberg's version E.T. and the boy are touching fingertips with a glow in the center. John Alvin actually used his daughter, Farah Alvin as the human hand model for the poster.  John even worked for big names like Walt Disney Pictures where he created numerous paintings for posters such as "The Lion King" and "Hunch Back of Notre Dame". The executive vice president at Walt Disney Studios even admitted to the Los Angeles Times that John Alvin's paintings were the reason why these big name movies became big name movies. It is all about advertising, without it there is no way to persuade the audience to see these movies. Within this type of business the most effective way to "sell" a movie is to convey an extremely moving scene through visual art that will sway the people. This type of art is not only to create something beautiful for people to see, but it also must have the advertisement aspect to it as well. I myself realize that to work in this type of business one must know how to persuade the masses as well as create something beautiful and captivating to look at. People in general are drawn to beauty, it is embedded within our DNA. Without visual art, there is no real way to "explain" beauty. One has to see it for themselves. John Alvin was an amazingly talented man, and his work remains inspiring and beautiful to this day.

Blog4-Michael Maurino

Blog4-Michael Maurino (also known as IronStylus)

IronStylus Blog-http://ironstylus.blogspot.com/

Interview with Michael Maurino-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hxUlbnVkIA

Michael Maurino is currently a senior concept artist at RIOT Games, specifically League of Legends. I enjoy finding interviews with these particular artists because it makes it seem like they are not superhuman or machines who are extremely talented, but they are humans too who can relate to the community. This man in particular is a very inspiring person because he goes out of his way to talk to the League of Legends community to get their input on what they think about the characters he creates as well as gathering ideas for future characters he could make. Michael is very active in the Twitter and Forum community and also encourages his fellow artists at RIOT Games to participate in discussions with the public to foster that passion that they have for creating characters for the game. Michael is very passionate himself about making champions and connecting with people directly in person as well as through the internet. I admire this man because he works for a famous company that is continuously growing and he finds the time in his day to talk with the passionate fans. I also admire him because he states in his interview that he enjoys making female characters just as important as the males by making them equally as heroic and fully clothed, which is difficult to find now in entertainment nowadays. Another reason as to why I see him as a role-model is that he has this deep passion to make characters that appeal to not only him but the community. His sketches are proof that he had put in a lot of time and thought to each character he created (I linked his sketches in the website above). This gave me hope because I sometimes struggle with an idea to the point where I want to trash it, but in his case he kept working at it and came out with something beautiful and promising. It makes you think that nothing has to be perfect at first, everything takes time to develop within art, just like solving a math problem except a lot more enjoyable in my opinion. Michael is not alone in this development process though, he has his team to give input and critique his work (just like we do in class to make an art piece the best it can be). Sharing ideas is probably one of the most successful ways of gathering information about a particular art piece because two or more heads are always better than one. Whether it be critiquing a landscape by saying to add more shadow on the mountains or saying a character doesn't look like he/she should bend that way, all ideas are part of constructive criticism and everyone (even professionals) make these same mistakes because we are only human. Seeing his work in the game also inspires me because when I play the Champions he created it makes me feel even more appreciative of his work because I can see the passion he put into them.  I also had the privilege to see how he interacted with his fellow artists and even his boss/producer at Riot. It was clear that the relationships they share at Riot are very friendly and lax which is a great atmosphere to work in which causes less stress. A fun tidbit of information to add is that this company/game that Michael works for makes most if not all of its money off of the artwork. They make it an option to buy these so-called "skins" which are basically different versions of the character. For example, a costume change. Working as a concept artist for Riot is very important because the aesthetics of the game are its main driving force of development as a company.

Blog3:DIGIC Pictures

Blog3:DIGIC Pictures-Responsible for creation of video game intro trailers

DIGIC's website:http://www.digicpictures.com/about/digic-pictures/about-digic-pictures/

Detailed interview: http://www.artofvfx.com/?p=1378

Assassin's Creed Revelations game trailer by DIGIC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMsbMK9Odoc

            Digic Pictures is a Hungarian animation company that started in 2001 that created special effects on the blockbuster movie Terminator 3. They later decided to work on video game cinematic intros to games such as Assassin's Creed Revelations, Mass Effect 3, and Halo 4 (all of which I am obsessed with). They are now a growing team of 80 people who share a passion of detailed work along with determination to create a beautiful cinematic to entice its audience to play the game. I was very excited to come across a detailed interview with the company because they were able to share their thoughts and steps it took to create such a unbelievably realistic atmosphere by merely computer generated art. I chose this company to research rather than a specific person because the team of 80 work on different scenes and develop them as a team. I myself watch these game trailers and dream that one day I can also become somebody that is a part of something as spectacular as this. To me these types of things seem like they are too good to be true and out of reach to a newly graduated college student who desperately needs more experience in working with computer generated art with all of the programs that come along with it (but I do believe that it can be achieved through determination and time). It was inspiring to read this interview because it makes it easier to break down the steps and programs they used in order to create it as well as to make it known that this type of creativity and perfection can be created by humans. This interview also gave Digic a voice that made them more human and at the same time explained how these types of cinematics are created. Digic explained that to start off with a project they are given, they have to consult with the client in order to see their vision of how the trailer should be as well as obtain extended amounts of detailed information on the game itself. In this particular interview Digic spoke with the company that created Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft) and obtained their views on the game and how it should look. Digic explained that the rest of the creativity and vision was left up to them. They also explained that it took about 4 months to produce this particular cinematic which is incredibly short. At the same time it can be expected that it would take such a short amount of time because they have 80 talented people working on multiple movies throughout that allotted amount of time. Towards the end of the interview I read "What are your softwares and your pipeline at Digic Pictures?", and this is what really stuck out because this is the part where they break the animation down into a humanistic perspective.  In order to create a work of art on the computer one must extensively know the program they are using or else it becomes a burden that will frustrate and cause stress to the individual. In order to work for a well-known company one must not only have an artistic background but they must also become familiar with these meticulous programs in order to become successful  in this particular art field.  Digic Pictures explains "In asset creation we use Maya, 3DS Max, ZBrush, Bodypaint and Photoshop- the first two are supported by many in-house plugins. The scenes are assembled in Maya, the same software we use for animation. For rendering we use Arnold and the completed layers are "polished together" in Nuke. It is very useful that the features of Maya are adjustable, we can broaden the variety of functions by adding or replacing existing plug-ins with our own solutions, so we can say that Maya serves mainly to provide the technical framework in our pipeline. When we chose the software for rendering and compositing, the final decision was based upon the software's dependability and ability to perform robustly in a large-scale production environment". Basically, some of these programs are available to the household user which gives hope to aspiring graphic artists. This research gives me hope and inspiration as well. 

Blog2: David Feltham

Blog #2 David Feltham, Sr. Designer of Mass Effect

For full story-http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/18/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designer%E2%80%99s-origin-story-p1/

"Luck, Networking, and Determination." Words spoken by Sr. Designer of one of the top games created for the Xbox 360.  I myself believe that dreams can be achieved with hard work and determination even if it means starting at the very bottom where one would probably not find their job as exciting.  To me, life is all about making connections. Meaning that it will take some time and dedication to rise to the top.  Reading this article that David Feltham wrote himself was truly inspiring because he states in his own words his journey through life before he established himself at Bioware.  He began like many of us starting in college, having absolutely no idea what to major in, or in his case majoring in English Literature and then receiving a diploma in Computer Graphics.  His first job was acquired by luck because he went in on a slow day and happened to come across the owner who happily took his 3D Studio Max demo reel.  The owner was skilled in modeling and animating with a variety of programs which made it easier for David to learn the ropes by shadowing.  About one year later Feltham decided to try Freelance work and start his own business.  He stated that owning one's own business is a lot tougher than working for a company because he could barely get by with the money he made so he decided to find a larger company to work for.  He finally decided what he wanted to do in life, and that was create video games so he applied to a gaming company called Bioware and was turned down because they said that he needed more experience.  Instead of giving up, David actually gained more determination and began to work for a small company that could compete against well-known companies such as Sony, Sega, and Nintendo.  He was hired as a 3D artist and animator where he would work on a game called Cartoon Mayhem which later become Cel Damage. The game was a success and was later published by EA games for the Xbox and Gamecube.  Unfortunately the company has financial issues that had developed later on so Feltham was forced to find somewhere else to work.  With sheer luck his former boss had began to work for Bioware and offered David a job there which he immediately took.  His job was in Level-Design within Mass Effect, meaning that each level in a particular game whether it be the rewards from killing a boss, the experience gained, the amount of  "treasure chests", how many bosses, what will their moves be, etc. etc. it basically determines how fun the game-play will be within a game which is highly important.  With David Feltham's hard work and determination, he was able to help shape a 9 out of 10 star game.  This article is the perfect example of how someone can start out small and work their way through jobs they hate, jobs they like, jobs that open doors to a great opportunity and eventually establish connections that will help create a happier and better life.

Blog1: Samwise Didier

Blog1: Link to Blizzard art directer Samwise Didier:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0bIFEKmxsU
Written interview with Samwise Didier: http://gamingillustrated.com/samwise-didier-interview/

This was a great way of getting into the mind of a concept/3D modeling artist since this video shows the steps that the lead art directer at Blizzard Entertainment "Samwise" takes in order to come up with an idea for a character. It was really inspiring to see him draw a sketch onto paper and then hear his comments on it. Samewise is a very down-to-earth person who enjoys the company of people and has been a visual representative for Blizzard since 1991. In his interview he was asked who he planned to influence with his artwork and Samwise replied that he personally did drawings for himself for the fun of it because he enjoyed it so much. He said he wanted others out there to keep their passions of art with them and maybe eventually land a job doing what they love the most in life. Judging from his answers it is very clear that he cares about people in general and hopes that they can be happy in life, similar to the way he is. He also stated that artists shouldn't ever be concerned about how "perfect" or "realistic" their work is even if they think their perspective is off. He believes that Blizzard would not be what it is today if everything was made in the image of perfection of realism. In order to make something worth while it has to be unique and even unique to one's artistic style. He is basically saying that one should not give up on one's self, and instead embrace one's unique style and perception of a piece of art. The interviewer asked him another question that struck my fancy, and that was "who do you (or any game company) look for to hire?" Samwise replied that they look for the top three things which are, just has to be a great artist, play/have interesting in the games, and in his own words "just being an awesome person." He stated that these types of company don't care as much for amazing college backgrounds, but just being a talented passionate artist. Samwise also said that if someone was looking for a job in this particular field they should practice drawing what they love and what they are interested in, even if it's from a game. He explained that to make one's self better, one should even create characters that are similar to a certain game they love but they could tweak them into being their own creation with a background story to them that they find interesting. I myself am conspiring ideas for a video game I wish to make in the future, a dream you might say. Seeing videos like this helps me bring together my ideas on how to approach something like this as an artist by first designing the characters on paper and then transferring them into the digital world where they will come to life. I have ideas spinning in my head filled with characters that have similar characteristics of characters in games that I have come across, but these are my own and I only wish to take ideas and make them into something I can be proud of. I plan to post pictures of my character sketches and eventually a short video/cinematic of my ideas.