The Natural....Cleaners

I think this pic turned out way better than what I remember seeing in my digital camera screen. It's a dry cleaners that doesn't use harsh chemicals to clean your clothes. It's located somewhere on SM Blvd, I think close to Barrington St. I like the arrow signs, they really draw your attention.


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Astro Motel Full

Here's the full sign from The Astro Motel. Near the corner of Sepulveda Blvd and Venice Blvd. I had previously posted just a piece of it. Here it is in all it's glory. And yes, it is open for business as the sign would suggest.

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Cocktails

This was from a sushi restaurant on SM Blvd....near Federal St. The actual sushi sign looked pretty recent, but I thought these two lower signs looked a little older. I always like it when a restaurant advertises "cocktails".


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Rhythm

I wanted to talk a little bit about rhythm, today. I have absolutely no sense of rhythm.....well maybe I have a smidgeon but that's it. I can't dance and I can't play the drums worth anything. But as far as rhythm in animation, I think I am getting a better sense of it. I've noticed alot of times an animation will feel "even". The character will be doing everything at the same pace, no difference between one action as opposed ot the other. In fact, I just noticed that in one of my shots I'm currently working on at Blur. I'd play back the shot and it all seemed to be happening at the same rate. There were no differences in speed, no rhythm. It made for quite a bland animation. For me the animations that have a verying speed thoughout are the interesting ones. The ones that have peaks and valleys to the acting or action. I recently aquired a set of notes that Eric Goldberg had written, "Eric's Approach to Handy Dandy Animation". The number 1 slot?

"Listen to the track until you have it thoroughly memorized. Think of "musical" phrasing to the lines."

In other words, find the rhythm of the shot. Many times I'll just start blazing away at posing, when I'm handed a shot, without even thinking about the timing of the dialog or action. This is something that has always haunted me. I don't know if anyone else suffers from this but I REALLY have to hold myself back from jumping straight into a shot. I know it's wrong, I just cant help it. I think that's one reason why my shots seem even. I don't take the rhythm into consideration. I also have this weird tendency to lay all my initial keys on 5's. If I'm creating a pose I'll always key it on a fifth or tenth frame......dunno why, and I do go back after everything's in and scoot stuff around, but I do initially do that. Another problem I have is I'll put my break downs smack in the middle of my key poses...or as close to the middle as possible. I don't take into consideration what the action is...what the character is doing. If I were to simply favor one side or the other it would help to break up the evenness of the performance. I was reminded of this in a blog entry here and a follow up here. In these Matt talks about the spacing of keys in traditional animation, but it's just as good for computer aniamtion. I found this very helpful to remember. It's real easy to fix that even animation a few well placed break downs or a simple sliding of the keys to favor certain poses will help get rid of that mooshy feeling. Now all I have to do is remember that and a million other tips and I'll be good to go!


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Monthly Rotations

Peanut Butter Wolf's Jukebox 45's

Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rareties 1968-1974

The Funky 16 Corners

Donuts - J Dilla

Madvillainy Instrumentals - Madlib with MF Doom



It's been a heavy rotation of the StonesThrow label this month.


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Delores Restaurant

I shot this on sunday. I took a little bit of time and just walked a few blocks along Santa Monica Blvd., snapping photos. This sign has always stuck out as I've driven by, not because it's huge, but because it's got some great character. How long's it been there? What's it seen in that time? Old signs are like old people, over time they gain alot of character, and see alot that us younger people would miss.

I can't quite remember where this is on Santa Monica, but I know it's between Federal Ave and Sawtelle. I've never eaten here, either, I think I might have to check it out some day.

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Animation Observation #2

*Disclaimer*
I am NOT the authority on animation, nor do I think I am. What I'm trying to do with these "observations" is learn from them. Yeah, some of these might make you say, "well, duh...who doesn't know that?". Sometimes they make me say that, too. But being able to type them out and put them in a cohesive paragraph will help me to remember them and incorporate them into my own work more. Hopefully it will stimulate a discussion as well, maybe you think something different? Tell me! I'm always open to different theories. I'm here to learn and absorb as much of this medium as I can.
*Disclaimer*

These days everything I read on the internet is "pose to pose animation".
Pose to pose this and Pose to pose that. Always start your animation with posing,
posing, posing, posing, posing.....you get the point. And while I'm not arguing
that you need strong posing in your animation, I think alot of people stop there.
I know I've been guilty of it. I get done with a performance, but what I see is
this figure hitting poses at certain times.....there's no life to it. No train
of thought, it's like the character's hitting cues. And while
I've checked all my arcs and made sure I have moving holds and looked at everything
else there's still something that's missing. I think it's a piece of
the puzzle that I've been missing this whole time....no one "hits" poses in real
life. I was talking to a fellow animator about this. He had done an animation
and one of the comments he got was that he needed to offset his posing. I had
no idea what that was. I thought you had poses, you hit them and then moved on
to the next pose. But if you start to offset things...have one arm hit the pose later, have the pelvis lead a gesture, while the head stays behind a few frames,you start to get a little life into the animation. I think this helps communicatea thought process to the audience and keeps the character moving, even if he's standing still. Looking back at The Incredibles
I hardly see "poses", but I feel their performance. Now I know some shots are
full of poses, like when Mrs. Incredible drops on top of the monorail buggy,
she holds that pose, and it's a great shot. But in alot of the shots the poses weren't as
easy to pick out, and I think that's part of what puts Pixar's animation on top of others.
Another quality I've noticed in the Incredibles is how much the characters DON'T move....but
I'll get into that later.

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Artist

Updates galore, today!! Since I barely got to update this over the week...which seems to be the pattern for awhile, we're on a tight schedule at work, I'll be doing a few posts today.

Check out:

http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/

I'm always checking this site for really cool artists, but this newest one is one of my favorites. Sean Galloway. He does a great job with the Teen Titan covers and some issues, but they're also using his designs for the upcoming direct-to-dvd Hellboy movies. You can check them out here.
His posing and design just says so much about the action and movements of the characters. Even when they're standing still! Check him out!


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I was in Santa Barbara this weekend and saw this sign when I was walking down State St. I know it's not an LA sign, but I still liked it. It's the outside of the Granada Theater. From what I could see on the front, it's being refurbished to it's orignal splendor. Looked cool!

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Johnnie's French Dip

We went here for lunch on Tuesday.

Johnnie's

It's by the corner of Sepulveda Blvd and Washington Blvd. My friend snapped this shot with his camera phone, since I didn't have my camera handy. It's actually a really good place for pastrami sandwiches and burgers,a little old school, but I like that. And NOT healthy at all.



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Deanos Partial

This is a part of another motel sign from the same area as The Astro Motel....in fact, it's right next to it. Sepulveda and Venice. I have a pic of the full sign, but something about this cropping stood out to me, maybe it's the Color TV sign. I'll post the full sign later.


And if anyone's wondering.....I will start blogging about animation. I did set up this blog to talk about it, but I also set it up to encourage myself to create more artwork and find more inspiration, which will hopefully trickle down into my own animations.


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Music Blogs

Here are a couple blogs I just stumbled upon, today. I've really been diggin the vintage soul for almost a year now......ever since I tuned into KPOO that night in SF.

http://funky16corners.blogspot.com/

is a great blog featuring some great soul 45's, that you can listen to as mp3s. Really nice stuff there. Also there's a couple albums I just bought from Peanut Butter Wolf's label, Stones Throw and Now Again. "Funky 16 Corners" and "Cold Heat" have some great rarely heard soul. Check them out here:

http://www.stonesthrow.com

And just as I'm writing this I found a link off the Funky16Corners blog to find this great site:

http://www.somevelvetblog.blogspot.com/

this week was old school blunts week. Some very nice old school hiphop.



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Signs

I moved to LA from Manhattan...Brooklyn to be exact. And it's taken me a long time to adjust to this place. I'll never stop loving NYC, and probably never love LA, but I have found a few things around that I do like. One of those things would be Signs. Maybe it's because I grew up in a small town, or maybe I just didn't notice too much when I was younger, but LA seems to have a plethora of old Signs. I guess I like them so much because of their individuality.....they're from a time before large franchise chains had taken over the landscape of the US. Signs that were around before the neighborhoods started getting stripmalls that have a uniform stucco look, but a fedex next to a panda express. I think as time goes by these signs will be no more, but for the moment they're still sparsely spread throughout the greater Los Angeles area. I'm going to try and get around to shoot as many as I can.....So this will be the first post of many.

Here's a link to another site with more photos of LA signs:

http://www.publicartinla.com/neon_signs/

The first photo is from a hotel on Sepulveda Blvd. just south of Venice Blvd. It's part of about 5 motels that line that stretch, each has a pretty cool sign. I'll post the rest later.


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Monthly Rotations

What I'm listening to:

Bang for the Buck, Ugly Duckling

Secret Herbs and Spices, MF Doom

Cut Chemist vs. Shortkut, Live at the Future Primitive Sessions Vol.1

Livin' It Up!, Jimmy Smith

Live, Built To Spill

And as always, a generous amount of KPOO over the internet.




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First Observations

I guess I can get this blog off to a start by directing you to one of my friend's blogs. Here.
In her Jan 26th entry she puts up for discussion "What is entertainment and how can you achieve it in animation". Now I know there's probably an unlimited number of answers and alot of the people who left comments had some valid points, but one comment got me thinking about something I've just started noticing in animation. In movies, little acting tests on the internet and even my own animation. Now who knows how much credibility I have, I know I don't think my opinion's worth a grain of salt, but maybe this will stimulate some brains out there. One of the comments was about "artificial animation" that is, animation that's just put in a shot for no real reason. It doesn't push the story or "define" the character. VM (I assume it's a he...the doodle next to his name looks like a man) goes on to point out the tried and true butt scratch. I've seen it many times in all kinds of animations, heck, I've even thought of putting it into an animation or two. It's a nice gag, I guess, but it is "artificial". How many times a day do you scratch your butt when you're standing around? I try not to, myself. VM states that We as humans do alot of scratching, but usually in others places. And he's right, count how many times you go to scratch you eye, or neck, then how many times you go to scratch your butt. My guess is you'll never do the latter while people are around. So part of his comment was based on "boring, natural animation" and "interesting, artificial" animation. I'm sure both have their place, but it really made me think about the the second choice alot more. About how often I go straight to the obvious gag, or gesture in my own work......and how it's usually the not-so-obvious that grabs my and other people's attention. I know I say it to myself when I see co-workers shots, "gee, I never would have thought of having the character act like that" Those are the shots that stand out for me, and that's what I find entertaining. True sometimes I'll laugh at the "artificial" stuff, I can't help it I love to laugh, but I guess it takes all kinds. There's no one way to entertain in animation, and there's no one way to animate. Anyway, great discussion Rebecca, it's definitely going to effect how I go about my next shot.

Getting Started

I'm not quite sure what exactly will be going on with this page. I started it in the hopes that it would encourage me to do a little more work....outside of work. More sketching, more reading, more learning about animation. That's the beauty of animation, no matter how many years I work there's always something new to learn, and an infinite amount of inspiration to pull from. So hopefully this blog will help motivate me to do more and push myself as an animator and an artist .

Welcome to my new blog.