Begin looking at Animators in preparation for Mondays class.
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| John Lasseter |
John was one of the three founders of Pixar Animation Studios.
In his early years he graduated from
California Institute of the Arts. After graduation he went on to work for Walt Disney as an animator. Seeing the potential with regards to computer animation, John wanted to produce a CGI short called 'The Brave Little Toaster'.
However, was later fired as he went behind the backs of the direct superiors at Disney in effort to get their project into motion.
Lasseter realised that computers could be used to make movies with three dimensional backgrounds where traditionally animated characters could interact to add new visually stunning depth that had never been done before. That is what he did, he went on to be a founding member of Pixar, where he oversees all of Pixar's films and associated projects as an executive producer. He has also directed Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2, Cars and Cars 2.
John is personally one of my favourite animators due to his innovative thinking when coming up with the idea to make animation more than motion drawings but giving them more dimension on the computer. Also, one of my favourite animated films is 'Toy Story' as I was a kid when this first came out and it was like nothing I or anyone else had seen before. Toy Story was the first feature length CGI animated film thanks to Jon Lasseter.
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| Chuck Jones |
After graduating from California Institute of the Arts Jones drew pencil portraits for a dollar a piece on Olvera Street. Then, in 1932, he got his first job in the fledgling animation industry as a cel washer for former Disney animator.
During the Golden Age of animation Jones helped bring to life many of Warner Bros. most famous characters—Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig.
The list of characters he created himself includes Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Pepe le Pew and many others. He also produced, directed and wrote the screenplays for “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” a television classic, as well as the feature-length film “The Phantom Tollbooth.” In addition, Jones was a prolific artist whose work has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide.
Growing up as a kid I would have been constantly glued to the TV when Looney Toons were on due to the amazingly witty characters and hilariously captivating plots. The fluidity throughout theses animations made the characters feel real as a child.
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| Travis Knight |
Since 2005, Knight has been one of the key members of the stop motion animation studio Laika, serving as Vice President of Animation, producer and Lead Animator, for both the stop-motion and CG animation staff, on Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls.
He is also on the Laika board of directors. Knight was nominated for Best Animated feature at the Academy Awards, for The Boxtrolls.
Knight is has made his director debut with Kubo and the Two Strings which was release in 2016
Personally, my favourite stop motion film Knight has produced has been Kubo and the Two Strings due to the amazing Stop Motion and story telling. I feel today stop motion is much more advanced due to the use of green screen for CGI special effects. Even the use of 3D printers
has made life easier on animators as you can create different facial expressions
with an instant. It also enables animators to lip sync better as you can
interchange each vowel or sounds being made by the mouth there and then -
meaning you don’t have to manually cut into the characters face each time as
there are a set of expressions ready to be used over and over again.
The 12 Basic Principals of Animation:
https://vimeo.com/93206523
