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By: Arbordale Publishing,
on 6/9/2015
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Have you ever wondered what sparks an idea for a book?
Author Jennifer Keats Curtis talks with us about the process of writing Primate School and how one idea lead her to a deep study in animal behavior, feelings and thinking.
When I learned that orangutans were using iPads, my first thought was, Oh good, there’s hope for my mother. Ok, I’m kidding. My real thought was that despite extraordinary study and learning, there is so much about animals that we still don’t know.
As I set off to learn about orangutans and other primates for the nonfiction Primate School, I thought about how much I 
love animals and want to understand them. I thought about my own connections with animals and my personal belief that animals have feelings and emotions. I believe that they feel joy and sadness, perhaps not in the same way that we do, but that they are conscious, sentient beings and I wish I could better relate and communicate with them. I think that we have missed a lot with animals in the past for fear of anthropomorphizing them.
I joyfully learned about how primates communicate with each other through verbal cues and behavior and how they express themselves, show happiness and love, and learn from each other and keepers. I loved learning about how primates connect to each other and to humans. I was fascinated to learn about aunting behavior among langurs and saddened to learn about the gibbons who had been raised as pets and had trouble relating to other gibbons.
I wrote Primate School ecstatic to use what I’d learned from cognitive ethologists. Ethologists study animals in their natural settings and cognitive ethologists get to focus on the thinking process, including communication, culture, and learning. I embrace this concept and cannot get enough of what these scientists have to say. Even though that book is complete, I never want to stop learning about what primates and other animals think and feel, how they learn from us, and how we can learn from them. That is one of the main reasons that I write about animals for children.
Award-winning nature author Jennifer Keats Curtis is frequently found among students and teachers, talking about literacy or conservation. In addition to Primate School, Salamander Season, the Animal Helpers series, Baby Owl’s Rescue, Kali’s Story, and Turtles In My Sandbox for Arbordale, some of her other recent titles include Osprey Adventure, Saving Squeak: A River Otter’s Tale, and Seahorses. Jennifer resides in Maryland, with her family and a wide variety of pets. Visit her website at www.jenniferkeatscurtis.com.
Learn more about Primate School and Jennifer’s other Arbordale books here!
By: Arbordale Publishing,
on 5/29/2015
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One amazingly interesting creature is the octopus; this cephalopod can twist and turn its body into many shapes, suction to all types of surfaces, and use a cloud of ink to distract predators. This week, researchers uncovered the California two-spot octopus’s ability to sense light through its skin.
When the scientist shone a beam of light on the skin of an octopus the chromatophores (pigmented structures in the skin) expanded and the skin changed color. When the light was turned off, the chromatophores contracted again and the octopus was back to its original color. Why does this happen? Scientists determined that the octopus’ skin has proteins called opsins that work with the chromatophores for this reaction to occur.
(Read more about the experiments here)
Changing colors is nothing new in the octopus species; they can become red with anger, or transparent in sunlight. The more tools the creature has to camouflage itself the better chance for survival in the wild depths of the ocean where predators are abundant.
To learn more about the octopus or how other animals use light in the depths of the ocean here is a short underwater reading list!
Octavia and her Purple Ink Cloud
Octavia Octopus and her sea-animal friends love playing camouflage games to practice how they would hide from a “big, hungry creature.” Octavia, however, just cannot seem to get her colors right when she tries to shoot her purple ink cloud. What happens when the big, hungry shark shows up looking for his dinner? This creative book introduces basic colors along with the camouflage techniques of various sea animals; a great introduction to marine biology!
A Day in the Deep
Travel deep into the ocean way below the surface and you’ll encounter some creatures you never knew existed! This book takes you on a journey through the dark depths of the sea towards the ocean floor. Most ecosystems need sunlight, but deep in the ocean where the sun doesn’t shine animals have adapted some very interesting ways to see, protect themselves, and eat. Discover the unique habitats, adaptations, and food chains of these deep -sea creatures.
Ocean Hide and Seek
The sea is a place of mystery, where animals big and small play hide and seek! Can you imagine a shark hiding in the light? What about a clownfish in plain sight? Don’t believe it? Then, sink into the deep blue sea with Jennifer Evans Kramer and Ocean Hide and Seek! Surround yourself with the vibrant ocean illustrations of Gary R. Phillips. The ocean is an old, old place, and the exotic animals in the depths have learned to adapt to their surroundings to survive. Can you find the creatures hidden on every page? Or will you, too, be fooled by an ancient, underwater disguise?
Join Blue Ocean Bob on his journey to protect all life in the Sea of KerchooBlue Ocean Bob loves the sea and wants to dedicate his life to protecting it. He begins a new job as assistant to Mary Marine, the Island of Roses's leading marine biologist, and with his hummingbird guardian, Xena, by his side, works hard to carry out his duties to the sea creatures both on and off the shore.
When the challenges mount, Bob seeks advice from Doc the turtle, Earl the clam, and Wallace the walrus, who each help him to develop the positive attitude he needs to succeed.
The Adventures of Blue Ocean Bob: A Challenging Job is the second installment in this colorful and inspiring early chapter book series that provides young readers with an introduction to timeless principles of achievement.
About the Author
A graduate of Stanford University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, Brooks Olbrys is the founder of Children's Success Unlimited and a managing director at investment bank Ion Partners. He lives with his wife and son in New York City.
From a young age, Kevin Keele has enjoyed creating artwork in many forms: drawing, oil painting, digital painting, even stained glass. His work has been featured in numerous picture books, magazines, board games, and video games. Though he lives far from any coastline, he has always been fascinated by the ocean and enjoys illustrating its various creatures. Kevin is currently an artist for Disney Interactive Studios. He lives in Utah with his wife and two sons. They are the caretakers of one cat, three chickens, and thousands of Italian honeybees.
Review:
This chapter picture book contains 5 different chapters. The first is Helping Hand where Bob must help a seal learn to feed in the deep. When he succeeds in his goal the short chapter is over and it flows into the next day where Bob must now help a pelican stuck in a net. In the third chapter Bob must warn the sea life that a storm is coming to the island. Chapter 4 is a Simple Reminder of why Bob wanted to become a marine assistant when he has a bad day and nothing goes right. Chapter 5 is Diving Deep, Bob must help a stingray thats stuck deep in the ocean.
The story is written in rhyme and runs smoothly throughout the story. Each chapter teaches a good lesson to the reader. The reader learns about confidence, responsibility, communication, gratitude, and success. The illustrations by Kevin Keele are amazing. He does a fabulous job that will immediately engage the reader. His illustrations are realistic, colorful, and true. Readers will feel like they are apart of the story along with the characters.
The characters are from the original book in the series. They carry over into book 2 to help Bob along with his journey. The characters are supportive and encouraging, except for one. Xena is Bob's guardian, and though guardians are meant to keep us safe and and be our reasoning, Xena is constantly negative. She is everyone's subconscious, the thing that holds us back from doing what we really want by showing us the reality, the dangers, and the difficulty of our dreams. Bob has to not only overcome his fears and doubts but overcome Xena's negativity. She tarnishes the lessons being learned. The stories are embedded with her negativity and existence so it would be hard for the author to leave her out as a character without rewriting the whole story, though she is really not needed. Bob has much to deal while solving the problems at hand, discovering what his true destiny and purpose is.
The great things about this story is that it teaches life lessons. Bob learns to overcome his fears while helping other animals overcome theirs. He listens to the wise animals and to Miss Marine and helps the animals on the island live happily. He follows his dreams. Overall, children who love animals and the ocean are going to love this 50 page picture book.
Who needs to build a campfire or tie a knot when you can learn to do squash and stretch instead?
Sony Pictures Animation presents a detailed unpacking of the artistry happening on Genndy Tartakovsky's upcoming feature.
A project aims to collect as many letters of encouragement as it can from animators.
The pet industry is a billion dollar business and many Americans share homes with four-legged friends, or aquatic creatures. Each day people are taking care of their animals and enriching their lives just like the people featured in the Animal Helpers series.
In a recent interview, Author Jennifer Keats Curtis shared with Arbordale how zookeepers and rehabilitators have influenced her interactions with her own dog. Just like animals in zoos, pets need enrichment. Even the smallest fish can be trained.
So, here are a few training experiments that you can do at home to enrich the lives of your pets.
Dogs
Your dog might have hi-five down or may love a game of fetch, but what about when you are away?
Play a game of find and seek with treats or even your dog’s food. When you dog is in another room place small treats or a little food in simple hiding spaces around a room. Have your dog use it’s nose to seek out the food. For the first few times you may have to help your dog out, but they will quickly get the hint.
Take learning one step further with puzzles. Many local pet stores carry treat puzzles where dogs must use their nose to get the reward. This enrichment will entertain and tire out your pooch!
Cats
Cats may be a little harder to please, but they are easily trainable too! A happy cat has many toys to bat around, or even a 
fishing pole with a furry ball at the end can entertain a cat for hours, but many people have trained their cat to do much more.
Start out small with treats or a piece of food and hold it just above the cat’s nose. Lift the treat until the cat sits down. Repeat this several times and give the cat a treat as soon as it sits. Soon the cat will be siting each time you lift the treat.
Many cats scare easily so be sure to reward your cat and not stress it out. Scaredy cats are very difficult to train.
Fish
You can train your pet fish to recognize when it’s dinnertime. Flash a light and then 
feed the fish. Do this over several days feeding the fish the same amount of food each time and see what happens. Some fish put their mouths out of the water; others may swim in a pattern. This is a fun experiment in animal behavior just like Pavlov’s Dogs.
Do you want to learn how zookeepers entertain and train big cats, sharks or even a gorilla, check out Jennifer Keats Curtis’ series Animal Helpers and coming soon Primate School!
By:
Donna J. Shepherd,
on 3/8/2015
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My newest picture book for children is here! "Miss Emma Ant" tells the story of talented, hard-working Emma, the architect for her colony's anthills. Ants in the colony, not recognizing their own special skills, grow jealous of Emma, and taunt her until she quits her job. Chaos ensues! Will pleas from apologetic ants convince Emma to return to work? Vibrant, expressive illustrations and fun
By: Jerry Beck,
on 2/17/2015
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What do long-lost sweatbox notes reveal about the creation of one of Disney's finest films?
Student Marc Hendry has put together an in-depth analysis of the use of design and animation principles in the 1941 Disney film "Dumbo."
All is not what it seems in this Maya walk cycle tutorial by Nathan Hibberd.
By:
Valerie,
on 11/2/2014
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The Blog Tour has begun!
Just this week our delight was compounded when Valarie announced that the physical version of the book had arrived, just in time for the upcoming launch and blog tour.
This book was a labor of love between two creative people (Valarie and Marilyn) who not only wanted to bring a classic children’s tale to life, but encourage families to step away from the computer and into the garden, craft room and kitchen.
Title: A Year in the Life of the Secret Garden | Author: Valarie Budayr | Illustrator: Marilyn Scott-Waters | Publication Date: November, 2014 | Publisher: Audrey Press | Pages: 144 | Recommended Ages: 5 to 99
Book Description: Award-winning authors Valarie Budayr and Marilyn Scott-Waters have co-created A Year in the Secret Garden to introduce the beloved children’s classic, The Secret Garden to a new generation of families. This guide uses over two hundred full color illustrations and photos to bring the magical story to life, with fascinating historical information, monthly gardening activities, easy-to-make recipes, and step-by-step crafts, designed to enchant readers of all ages. Each month your family will unlock the mysteries of a Secret Garden character, as well as have fun together creating the original crafts and activities based on the book.Over 140 pages, with 200 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. A Year In the Secret Garden is our opportunity to introduce new generations of families to the magic of this classic tale in a modern and innovative way that creates special learning and play times outside in nature. This book encourages families to step away from technology and into the kitchen, garden, reading nook and craft room.
“A Year in the Secret Garden provides the perfect companion to the original story. The book is divided into major sections by months of the year. For each month, a character from the book (e.g., Mary Lennox, Dickon, Colin) is introduced and their role in the story is described. Each month also features a number of activities including planting activities, crafts, recipes, children’s games, as well as snippets of information about some of the themes covered in the story (e.g., death in Victorian England, language spoken in Yorkshire), and so much more!’-Renee @Mother/Daughter Book Reviews
In honor of this exciting new release, there will be a special blog tour that will run from November 1 to 30, 2014. We encourage our readers to stop by and experience the magic of A Year in The Secret Garden through book reviews, author interviews, guest posts and excerpts from this activity-packed book. The blog tour will include a shared giveaway for a $100 Amazon gift card or PayPal cash prize, open worldwide.
To get a snapshot of A Year in the Secret Garden book month-by-month AND a sneak peek at the blog tour schedule, go HERE.
For a chance to enter to win our Amazon $100 Gift Card, Go HERE
A Year in the Secret Garden Blog Tour Schedule
EXPLORING SEPTEMBER
November 1
Mother Daughter Book Reviews (Launch)
Coffee Books & Art (Guest Post)
WS Momma Readers Nook (Book Review)
November 2
Cherry Mischievous (Excerpt)
Hope to Read (Excerpt)
November 3
Eloquent Articulation (Book Review)
Enter Here Canada (Excerpt)
EXPLORING OCTOBER
November 4
BeachBoundBooks (Excerpt)
Books, Babies and Bows (Book Review)
November 5
Monique’s Musings (Book Review)
November 6
SOS-Supply (Book Review)
EXPLORING NOVEMBER
November 7
Randomly Reading (Book Review)
November 8
Adalinc to Life (Book Review)
EXPLORING DECEMBER
November 9
100 Pages a Day (Book Review)
November 10
Edventures With Kids (Book Review)
EXPLORING JANUARY
November 11
Icefairy’s Treasure Chest (Book Review)
November 12
Girl of 1000 Wonders (Book Review)
EXPLORING FEBRUARY
November 13
Seraphina Reads (Guest Post)
November 14
Juggling Act Mama (Book Review)
EXPLORING MARCH
November 15
Pragmatic Mom (Author/Illustrator Interview)
Purple Monster Coupons (Book Review)
November 16
Stacking Books (Book Review)
EXPLORING APRIL
November 17
Oh My Bookness (Book Review)
November 18
Crystal’s Tiny Treasures (Book Review)
EXPLORING MAY
November 19
The Blended Blog (Book Review)
November 20
All Done Monkey (Book Review)
November 21
Geo Librarian (Book Review)
Grandbooking (Author/Illustrator Interview)
JUNE
November 22
My Tangled Skeins Book Reviews (Book Review)
November 23
Christy’s Cozy Corners (Book Review)
My Life, Loves and Passions (Book Review)
November 24
Bookaholic Chick (Excerpt)
Hide-N-(Sensory)-Seeking (Book Review)
JULY
November 25
Ninja Librarian (Guest Post)
November 26
Jane Ritz (Book Review)
Rockin’ Book Reviews (Book Review)
November 27
I’d Rather Be Reading At The Beach (Book Review)
EXPLORING AUGUST
November 28
Deal Sharing Aunt (Book Review)
November 29
Mommynificent (Book Review)
November 30
This Kid Reviews Books (Book Review)
Java John Z’s (Author/Illustrator Interview)
Visit our A Year in The Secret Garden page to learn more about this one-of-a-kind unique keepsake book for children and families.
The post Blog Tour Launch & $100 Giveaway: A Year in the Secret Garden by Valarie Budayr and Marilyn Scott-Waters appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
In this 1980 tribute to legendary animation director Tex Avery, fellow legendary director Chuck Jones shared six lessons that he learned about comedy from working with Avery in the 1930s. The advice remains essential to animation director working today.
In a nice bit of Halloween-themed marketing savvy, Sony has released a free character rig of a zombie bellhop from "Hotel Transylvania."
By: Jerry Beck,
on 8/6/2014
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To the average cartoon viewer, SpongeBob is SpongeBob and Bart Simpson is Bart Simpson, but cartoon connoisseurs recognize that characters evolve over the years, not just personality-wise but graphically.
In his four features and one TV series, the late anime director Satoshi Kon developed a unique style of cutting and editing, says Tony Zhou in a new video essay.
If you can draw a circle, we can teach you animated cartooning.
On a couple occasions throughout the years, people have asked me, Why do so many animated films have dead mothers in them?
WILD and WONDERFUL Series
7 Rhyming Picture Books about Animals from
the US and Australia.
FUN as well as educational!
About ten years ago I had this series published in eBook format by Writers Exchange. This was an Australian publisher. CEO Sandy Cummins was wonderful to work with - helpful, supportive and open to suggestions. However, at that time eBooks were a novelty, and the eReaders of today were still a glint in their designers' eyes. The series received terrific reviews, but sales were dismal.
Now, thanks to Sandy allowing me to offer the series to Guardian Angel Publishing, a publisher that specializes in child friendly and educational picture books, my Wild and Wonderful series is being published in soft cover, and will be available on Amazon and other sites: Guardian Angel Publishing, + my website. YEA!!!
I am absolutely THRILLED that my Wild and Wonderful series is finally being published in soft cover. It has been a long wait, but well worth the time and the effort.
Already in soft cover and on sale are:
Now at the printers and available soon:
Never Say BOO to a Frilly:
Includes - Never Say BOO - Rainbow Birds - Tasmanian Devil Dance
Coming Next:
Prairie Dog's Play Day:
Includes - Prairie Dogs - Bald Eagle Rules - The Stinker (skunk)
Last 3 Books - Coming SOON:
*Don's Eat Platypus Stew -3 individual stories
*Squirrels Can't Help Being Nuts - 3 individual stories
*Humdinger Hummers - 1 story
Link to illustrations and news about my DREAMTIME MAN picture book.
***************************
Books fpr Kids - Skype Author Visits
Manuscript Critiques
*****************************
Cartoon Brew-ED is our new educational initiative that is edited by veteran animator and teacher Colin Giles. This new forum offers helpful animation tips, links to learning resources, and original educational content.
Mark Mayerson, a TV show creator, animator, and teacher, has written what may be the single best thing I've ever read about the contemporary animation pitching process.
Robert Ryan Cory, a veteran character designer on "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Secret Mountain Fort Awesome," has posted a helpful set of notes from a character design lecture he presented recently to CalArts animation students.
By: sylvandellpublishing,
on 9/11/2013
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Officially launched to yesterday, A Butterfly Called Hope by Mary Alice Monroe with butterfly expert Linda Love and photography by Barbara Bergwerf is sure to inspire young entomologists out there.
Kick off the school year with this fun book about a young girl and her experience with the amazing journey of a Monarch Butterfly! This book not only shows the entire metamorphosis of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, but it also provides interesting facts for readers to learn more about these flying beauties. This is the fourteenth book by New York Times best-selling author Mary Alice Monroe, and features incredible photographs by Barbara Bergwerf that document Hope’s entire journey in raising a butterfly.
Curious for more? Here are some fun and interesting facts about Monarch Butterflies:
-Did you know that Monarchs go through four generations each year?
-Did you know that Monarchs are the only insects that can migrate up to 2,500 miles?
-Did you know that Monarchs are actually poisonous as a defense against predators, but are harmless to humans?
-Did you know that male Monarchs have black spots on their wings, and the females don’t?
-Did you know that Monarchs migrate during the winter to warmer climates like Mexico and Southern California?
-Did you know that the first 3 generations of Monarchs only live up to 8 weeks, but the fourth generation can live up to almost a year?
-Did you know that climate change is a threat to Monarchs? Wetter climates during the winter can cause Monarchs to freeze to death because they can only survive in dry winter climates.
Do you want to learn more fun facts about butterflies visit the webpage and download the free For Creative Minds section and Teaching Activities where you can even learn how to raise your own monarch butterfly! http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/bookpage.php?id=ButterflyHope
Send us your favorite butterfly fact and you will be entered to win a copy of A Butterfly Called Hope!
The Noble Approach: Maurice Noble and
The Zen of Animation Design
By Tod Polson, based on the notes of Maurice Noble
(Chronicle Books, 176 pages, $40, pre-order for $26.50 on Amazon
)
By the modest standards of celebrity in the animation world, Maurice Noble is already a rockstar. Few Golden Age layout artists and background designers, with the exception of Eyvind Earle, Mary Blair, and possibly Jules Engel, command Noble’s name recognition. Maurice’s fame is primarily attributable to his long-term association with Warner Bros. director Chuck Jones.
Noble’s collaborations with Jones include such classics as Robin Hood Daffy, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, What’s Opera, Doc?, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Dot and the Line and the long-running Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner series. Thanks to that beloved resume, Noble has been spared the ignoble anonymity of so many other classic animation artists.
With such standing in the animation world, and even an entire book-length biography already devoted to his life, one could reasonably expect that everything that could be said about Noble has already been said. Tod Polson’s The Noble Approach proves that that’s not the case. Polson has put together an irresistible package that fuses biography and art instruction, each of its page filled with invaluable insights and incredible artwork, much of it never-before-published.
Polson is one of the Noble Boys, the informal name given to a group of men (and women) whom Noble trained throughout the 1990s at studios like Chuck Jones Film Productions, Turner Feature Animation and his own company, Noble Tales. The Noble Boys have gone on to big things in the animation industry: Ricky Nierva was the production designer of Pixar’s Up and Monsters University; Don Hall directed Disney’s Winnie the Pooh and is writing and directing the upcoming Big Hero 6; Jorge Gutierrez co-created the Nick series El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera and is directing Reel FX’s 2014 feature Book of Life.
Some of the Noble Boys encouraged Maurice to write down his thoughts about design and layout for an eventual book. Polson has adeptly compiled and edited those notes for this book, and has combined them with the remembrances of the other Noble Boys about their interactions with Maurice and lessons learned from him, as well as archival interviews with Noble and original commentary from artists like Susan Goldberg and Michael Giaimo.
Polson devotes thirty-four pages of the book to providing a biography of Noble that follows his path which began professionally at Disney on films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. In spite of its brevity, this biographical section manages to be more revealing and historically well-rounded than the disappointing 2008 book Stepping into the Picture: Cartoon Designer Maurice Noble
by Robert J. McKinnon. That well-intentioned book missed the mark—badly. It was understandable that McKinnon’s layperson understanding of the animation process prevented him from providing the kind of process detail that is in Polson’s new book, but his sins of omission made it a letdown as personal biography, too.
Basic and vital details about Noble’s personal and professional relationships that were omitted in that earlier biography are thankfully included in Polson’s book. For example, we learn hat Mary Blair and Maurice Noble were not only classmates at Chouinard Art Institute, but also a romantic couple. That’s a revealing historical tidbit considering that Noble’s giddy use of color is second in animation only to Mary Blair. Polson clearly expresses Noble’s unflattering thoughts about Sleeping Beauty production designer Eyvind Earle, with whom he worked during the production of the industrial film Rhapsody of Steel, whereas the earlier biography only vaguely acknowledged that Noble “may have had some difficulty working with Earle.” Polson also discusses Noble’s more-important-than-acknowledged role on Chuck Jones’ Oscar-winning short The Dot and the Line, an issue that was left untouched in the earlier book.
For all its historical value, the real meat of the Noble Approach follows the biography. In these subsequent sections, we learn Noble’s artistic process step-by-step from the start of a film to its completion. Chapters are devoted to starting a film, story, breaking down the elements, research, design, color, layout, and an oddly ineffectual and anticlimatic two-page chapter devoted to the finished film.
The material covered in these chapters will undoubtedly be familiar to anyone with an art background—values, contrast, simplifying elements, visual hierarchy, compositional grids—but the examples of Maurice’s own work gives us a fresh entry point into these topics. The section on color is particularly fantastic. Color is one of the hardest elements to get right in animated film, and Maurice knew how to walk the thin line between playful and tacky. Polson does a superb job of explaining how Maurice managed to do this by doing a deep analysis of his color palettes.
The section on color, for all its strengths, also represents one of the parts of the book that I wish the author had expanded his scope. Polson makes clear from the outset that this is “Maurice’s book,” but I can’t help but think our appreciation for Noble would have been enhanced further by offering some discussion of his contemporaries at Warner Bros., like layout artist Hawley Pratt and background painter Paul Julian. Contrasting the color theories of Julian, who was the studio’s true master of color in my opinion, would have been an enlightening sidetrip.
A lot of the best information the book isn’t technical, but rather practical advice and the wisdom of experience. This is true of Noble’s thoughts on selling an idea:
To be a successful designer, being able to sell a good idea is just as important as coming up with the idea itself. It’s hard to sell something simply because you think it feels right. You have to be able to logically discuss why it feels right.
—and his thoughts on why the production methods of yesteryear produced better cartoons:
There is more talent working in the industry now than ever before, but sadly the vast majority won’t have the opportunity to work on really good creative stories. The problem isn’t always the type of stories being told; it’s more in the way these stories are being told and developed. There is no room for visual exploration. There is no time for thought and craftsmanship. There isn’t the chance for crews to build trust and synergy.
The production design tips that he offers are applicable to artists today, even if the tools of the trade have changed:
I suggest putting all your research materials away once you start designing and never refer to them again. This may prove difficult at first. But I’ve found that if you are tied too closely to your reference, your designs will tend to look stiff. You will miss out on many fun design opportunities.
or…
Starting rough and not getting specific too early will allow you to keep your design ideas flexible…The more ideas and work you have, the more design possibilities you will have to choose from.
The Noble Approach: Maurice Noble and the Zen of Animation Design ranks among the most unique and delightful animation books in recent memory. It goes without saying that the book’s mix of technical tips and advice makes it a must-buy title for professional artists and students, but it should also appeal to fans of classic of animation who will surely gain a renewed appreciation for the Chuck Jones canon. The book will be released on October 1st. For those who are still in need of convincing, the book’s official blog gives a nice sense of the book’s content.
I still haven’t seen Andrew Stanton’s John Carter, but that didn’t lessen (and perhaps enhanced) my enjoyment of this nifty character animation reel put together by Emanuele Pavarotti, who worked on the film at Double Negative. Pavarotti has organized the reel nicely to give a sense of how his scenes progressed from video reference to blocking to final animation, and finally, FX/cloth/compositing passes. He even drops in comments throughout the reel to explain how certain shots evolved. Emanuele has recently been working at Blue Sky Studios on Epic and the forthcoming Rio 2.
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Have you ever wondered what sparks an idea for a book?
