Inspirational Animators

Paul Driessen, an amazing Dutch animator gave us a presentation at UCLA today. In the afternoon we had a personal discussion session with him and our animation department and then in the evening the official screening was presented with his fascinating films.

Finals are around and I wasnt able to attend the whole presentation. So unfortunately I don't have footage to upload on YouTube. But I took some notes!

Firstly, I think he's such a humble guy! He's got so much experience and his films are so clear and powerful. His animation style is so unique and the amount of work and care he puts into his work is so obviously more than most mortal animators these days. Anyway, you can see I was inspired. He said unfortunately theres not much money to be made as short film animators. Friends and I talked to him afterwards to suggest some ideas that maybe would work with his high quality work and relationship with the rest of the industry. He took our suggestions in stride and said we might have some good ideas there. Damn, did I mention he's humble?

Quick notes since I'm taking a lot of space here... I like that he does'nt get influenced by other animators; he gets inspired. As animators we should find our own way of storytelling. When asked about style, he pointed that not only do you show your visual style in your films, you also have sensibilities which show in your time and pacing and come from your personal feelings. For his unique sound effects, he often uses stale boiled macaroni...! Now thats ingenious!

Here are some stills I took from the Glen Keane presentation on March 4th. In the top photo Glen is showing samples of art from his portfolio. The bottom photo was when he was demonstrating straight lines and curves and how they look great when youre able to balance them together. Check out the videos I uploaded to hear a bit more about that. One of them got linked on a whole bunch of awesome sites including CartoonBrew, Seward Street and CookedArt !!!

So anyway, some quick notes of what struck me most from what Glen Keane talked about in his presentation... "Don't be afraid to shock. Learn the principles of animation, and then put them at the back of your head when you actually go in to animate - live it... don't formulise it. Don't do 'animation' things - do 'real' things. Find the 'golden poses' in your animation and build the animation around that. Animate the forces in the animation. Art is not age or color (or any other prejudice)".