Monday, August 29, 2005
New Blog
I'm moving this blog away from blogger. I've found that typepad has much better features available... plus, I like the layout better. The url is www.carrollhach.com/graticule.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
My latest project
Here, for the first time ever, are some stills from my current project Clench Needs a Dentist , a six-minute short I'm writing, producing, animating, sound-engineering, etc. You get the idea... I'm even getting my own coffee!
These are from various shots in the animatic and were created with Bauhaus Mirage, the coolest 2D tool I've ever used.
These are from various shots in the animatic and were created with Bauhaus Mirage, the coolest 2D tool I've ever used.
Slowing down
I've a sick 2-year-old on my hands this weekend, so I've had even more chance to lie about in bed and watch cartoons. My DVD library is getting pretty big: all the Miyazaki and most of the Ghibli stuff in either Japanese or English, a few manga-type animations such as Ghost in the Shell, Lain and Appleseed as well as a full collection of American cartoons that range from a pile of b/w Fleisher and Iwerks stuff to the latest Pixar and Dreamworks features. I've gotta say, animation has come a long way since the twenties. Today I was watching what I consider Disney's best all-around: Sleeping Beauty. It has some of the looseness and cool design of later Disney movies, but still has a strong story. (My favorite for just the plain animation is The Aristocats, but the story is pretty damned weak.)
Becuase of my co-watcher, I am often looking at the same cartoon over and over. This gives me a great opportunity to study just what it is that makes good animation good. I practiced watching even before I was serious about animation, back in the VCR days: slowing down the frame rate with the jog shuttle. Now, with DVD, it's sooo easy. And, I've found that after a while of slowing stuff down with the DVD, I am better able to do it in real time, too.
And not just with movies, either. Many is the time I've been stuck somewhere with nothing to read and nothing to write with. I now fill that time by watching the mundane things around me and trying to slow them down in my mind's eye so I can see what makes them look as they do. And, what I might do were I to try to animate them: how I would try to exaggerate certain movements and attitudes, etc.
It's becoming more and more difficult to be bored!
Becuase of my co-watcher, I am often looking at the same cartoon over and over. This gives me a great opportunity to study just what it is that makes good animation good. I practiced watching even before I was serious about animation, back in the VCR days: slowing down the frame rate with the jog shuttle. Now, with DVD, it's sooo easy. And, I've found that after a while of slowing stuff down with the DVD, I am better able to do it in real time, too.
And not just with movies, either. Many is the time I've been stuck somewhere with nothing to read and nothing to write with. I now fill that time by watching the mundane things around me and trying to slow them down in my mind's eye so I can see what makes them look as they do. And, what I might do were I to try to animate them: how I would try to exaggerate certain movements and attitudes, etc.
It's becoming more and more difficult to be bored!