leonardo

adventure and absurdity in making an animated short

Thursday, May 18, 2006

This is just the end of the beginning

Study of a Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John, and of Heads in Profile and other Figures (detail),c. 1478-1480; Windsor Castle, Royal Library (RL 12276r). © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II


Now with rough animation done you may ask - What is next?. Well plenty. I am currently sussing out each scene to see what they need. Some need inbetweens, some need fixes, some are very rough drawings and need to be, what is termed in the (drawn) animation biz - tied down, not necessarily cleaned up. I want to leave the rougher line on these drawings to evoke a sense of da Vinci's sketches and frankly to call attention to the audience that they are watching drawings move. Drawings out of the hand of the artist with all the imperfections and instinct there in. When you think about drawn animation, I mean really think about it, that a film is made up of 1000's of individual sequential drawings, each of which is insignificant on it's own, practically meaningless, but as a whole invoke sorrow and laughter, fear and happiness, thoughtfulness and joy. Man, that is amazing to me.

A drawing from scene 1/2 by Tim Allen. Yes it is just one drawing. But it is rough and I love it. This scene as you can see in the numbers at top is huuuge and Tim did a great job.

7 Comments:

Blogger J said...

Hey Jim,
I was just recently writing about something similar. Reading this brings up an interesting point. Animation, in that it is drawn performance, has its lineage in drawing, which ties it work like Da Vinci's, and performance, which ties it to guys like Chaplin. Which is pretty amazing a well. Its great to think that by doing hand drawn animation you're carrying on two disciplines.
Can't wait to see the short.

7:53 AM  
Blogger JmC said...

I couldn't agree more. animation is an evolutionary out growth from the great silent comedians. da Vinci was very much into preforming as well both music and telling stories, perhaps he preformed in theater as well. he definately designed sets and costumes and put on enormous specticles.

8:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jim! It's me, Donnie, your student! I recently discovered your Blog, and it's great! I'm really looking forward to your short, and think a Blog is a great way to keep yourself motivated, and keep us in anticipation. You're posting a lot of great insights here, and the 5minutes a day post was fantastic. ( Jim=artist/philosopher!) I think I'll be checking in here often! Good luck, you're setting a great example.

Take Care,

Donnie

11:16 PM  
Blogger TRAZPAZ said...

Beautiful design i like very much the cartooning characters, i hope your production continue and i´ll check latter more drawings.
Take care.

9:44 AM  
Blogger Patrick said...

I'm dying to see this. I hope it will be available in some fashion.

2:33 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I've been watching your progress ever since I saw the article about Leonardo on CartoonBrew. I think the project looks great and I can't wait to see the final!

12:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Still hanging with you. Anxiously awaiting more posts on a short that has so much promise.

..doug

11:53 AM  

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