ANIMATION OF LIFE
When You NEED MORE Out of Your DRAWINGS
Here’s a challenge for you. Pick any 5-10 minutes of your favorite Pixar film and then immediately watch 5-10 minutes of something like Don Bluth’s THE SECRET OF NIMH and you’ll realize how cheated we all are. Hand-drawn animation is quite literally hands-down the most vibrant form of recreating life.
So why aren’t you studying it?
I had known about Don Bluth’s work for quite some time. I’d played the hell out of Dragon’s Lair at the hockey arena, and I’d seen several of his films. I was a fan. But I was a fan of Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Friz Freleng and a host of others, too. I grew up on the stuff, but it wasn’t until years later I realized there were humans making all that art. At some point I felt like my art was missing something and needed a good kick in the butt. I had been looking for books on animation and was lucky enough to stumble upon Don Bluth’s THE ART OF ANIMATION DRAWING as well as Don Bluth’s THE ART OF THE STORYBOARD. Both books were fantastic introductions and just what I needed to get started. It made me take a second look at exactly what I was doing to breathe life into 2D images--and to be honest, not much.
I had been acting for a few years up ‘til that point and was working on all the facets of character, voice, movement, etc. that I thought my hand-drawn characters needed more; hence the reason I picked up the books. Studying books on acting alone was great, but finding the economy of an expressive line was even greater!
But I worried about the downsides. I’d seen other artists influenced by animation and for whatever reason couldn’t shake it when it came to drawing from life. Or if they had to render a scene realistically, they couldn’t help but put a little more character where there wasn’t any. It was like it had taken over their brain and they couldn’t shut it off. Later I realized it’s like the person who goes to the gym and says, “Yeah, I’d like to work out, but I don’t want to be the size of the Hulk.” If it were that easy, walking in the gym like that...everyone would be doing it. No, this was something different. These people had been drawing that way for a very loooooong time. It’s hard shaking habits good and bad because your eyes see a thing a certain way, your brain responds and tells your hands to do it like you’ve always done it.
Luckily for me, I didn’t have that problem. I had other problems, and my hope was animation was going to fix it. Was going to inject life into every corner of my art. I picked up a few other books that were amazing as well. Walt Stanchfield’s 2 volume set DRAWN TO LIFE. Invaluable lessons on drawing, animation, life, timing, observation, etc. Very dense reads both of them and worth every penny. Observation is a huge takeaway, as it informs so much of what we process.
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Also, Disney’s THE ILLUSION OF LIFE by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, is the nuts and bolts of animation in its entirety or as near as I have found. And if you want to really roll up your sleeves and get down to the business animation timing, Richard Williams’ THE ANIMATOR’S SURVIVAL KIT is probably your next stop.
Sadly, Richard passed away on August 16th, 2019. His influence was legendary.
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