John Nevarez' awesome site recommendations

Every now and then I check out John Nevarez' site and as always you're given a ton of really inspiring sites to go through. Check out his site if you haven't already. Some of the blogs don't have the "older posts" options, so you have to go through their archives. Here are some of my favorites:

Leighton Hickman Art:








Jaclyn Favro Portfolio:



... on Mars:






Fablog:









Erik D. Martin:









Turley Sketch:









Ev's Place:









A Little Golden Blog:







Spudvision:




Palindrom:









Last Travel Art - The Artwork of Marco Hasmann:






Sushixav Blog:










Sara Pichelli:








alaykssblog:

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Eye Movements

Head over to synchrolux, specifically to the post Eye Movements 3 - Saccades and Fixations, for those interested in why and how eyes move. Don't stop there of course, make sure to check out the rest of the site (via categories)/ - pic source

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Oktapodi

Cartoon Brew had a post about "Oktapodi" a while back. It also points you to Quentin Marmier's blog, which has an awesome collection of production images.





But make sure to click on "older posts" in order to see all the other cool artwork.

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Orgesticulanismus

According to Shawn, watch from 1:30 to 6:00, so I did. And holy moly it's AWESOME! Go to this youtube page for "Orgesticulanismus" (embedding is disabled). It's a short movie by Mathieu Labaye. Here's what the youtube movie info says:

Great tribute to his father Benoît Labaye, suffered from a multiple sclerosis at 29 years old. Benoît Labaye had been confined to a wheelchair since age 40 and died at 55 years old the 04.22.2006, as a result of a pneumonia.

In the movie, you can hear Benoît Labaye speaking:

"I think it's by the movement you appropriate your own life. By the freedom to come and go, to have gestures of love, tenderness, anger, whatever. When you are deprived of movements, as I am and as a lot of other people are, I think if you want to survive, you must reinvent the movement differently. And so what happens inside my head isn't purely brain, purely intellectual. It's a way of recreating an inner space which is also my freedom."

"When you live a severe handicap, when you live absolutely still, dependent, you live, in fact, something that can't be shared, that can't be easily expressed, which you can't easily talk about. Because when two people talk, to be able to understand each other, they need to have a minimum of common experience between them, to speak of something they both know from some form of experience."

"Sure, the stillness, the handicap, brings you to the conclusion and to the gradual acceptance that there's a certain number of things that you can't do. But conversely I think it opens a whole bunch of new possibilities, notably with inner freedom, inner space, but also with the way you can come in contact, in relation with others.
I think there is in the handicap, in the disease, a lot of potentiality. The human being is inexhaustible at the level of desire, of energy, of inner strength. Ans it's something you discover with maybe more urge, more intensity, when you're deprived of movement."

Head over there for more info and links.

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Site Update: What would you like to change? What is missing?

Hey guys,

I've never gotten any email or comments about how I could improve this site. Since I want this to be a good resource for my students and anybody else who reads this, please let me know what you would like to change, add, remove, etc.

Please leave a comment to this post with any suggestions. Don't be shy, it's for your own good. :)

- image source

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Shapes and Lines

Head over to Carlos Baena's site to check out his post on Shapes and Lines. Awesome image of Medusa he posted, look at that pose! Make sure to check out all his tips & tricks and resources while you're at it.

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New Wall-E Featurette

slashfilm via Upcoming Pixar got a new Wall-E Featurette. A few new scenes, but nothing huge in terms of spoilers.

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Asymmetry

I'm not a big fan of posters nowadays, they seem to be more cut/paste photoshop works as opposed to creative and original ways of getting you excited about a movie. BUT. What I wanted to point out in this Hulk poster is the asymmetry in both Edward Norton's and the Hulk's body. Even though both just stand there, none of their arms have the same pose, same for the hand, fingers, shoulders and even the head favors one side.
In animation you want to avoid twinning, so says the common rule, although I think twinning can be effective if done right (with a slight offset so it's not completely mirrored). Someone had a great post about that, but I can't remember who, it was a clip with Simon Pegg in it, anybody remember?. [It can be found here, thanks Jeff!] But again, as a general rule you want to avoid it and Shawn Kelly has a great article about it @ Animation Mentor, check it out.

But let's get back to Asymmetry. Draw a line in the middle of this poster and look at how each side is slightly different. Hulk's screen left shoulder is up, which helps with the different position of his arm, the head is tilted screen right instead of just staying in the middle, etc.
It's a lot more subtle with Edward Norton, but each side is still a little bit different.

Let's look at the image if you'd mirror one side. Not that exciting to me and just like the title says, I would call it "Huuh???".

So keep that in mind when you get to a moment and pose which looks too mirrored or twinned. - poster found @ impawards

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R.I.P. Ollie Johnston

The last hero of the Nine Old Men died at 95. It's a sad day for sure.

If you're wondering who he is then please head over to Animated-News and get all the details, same with Cartoon Brew which has a ton of good material (as always).

And if you don't own "The Illusion of Life", you should get it, it's a must have.

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