Academy's Joel Valdez meets Glen Keane

Every year at this time the CTN animation eXpo takes place in Burbank. The three day event has become a major industry attraction. This past weekend at CTNX 2012 one of our stand out students hooked up with legendary Disney animator Glen Keane. That's Joel Valdez on the right sharing his experience with The Academy's community.

   

Kristen Robertson's color studies

In a recent session of our Visual Development class Kristen Robertson did a nice job on an assignment she was given to create a variety of different moods for a background composition she created through the use of planned color schemes. Her medium  was color markers. Each study evokes a unique feeling. By applying basic color theory the single composition becomes differing versions that imply time of day and emotion as well as design abstractions. A very good exercise. See more of Kristen's work by following this link to her blog.

Emergence of Allan Ceccaldi

It's always an exciting experience for me to showcase an emerging artist from the students of the Academy. This is some of the work of Allan Ceccaldi. Allan started with us about a year ago, took some time off, then came back on a scholarship that was awarded to him upon graduation from an arts organization in California. A Burbank resident, he went through the Character Dersign aspect of our program and really started taking off once he got into Background Desiogn. These are some recent graphite pencil tonal studies he's created from his Visual Development class along with a blue pencil rendering from his BG Design class. A huge artistic leap forward as Allan is discovering his strengths.You can visit Allan Ceccaldi's blog at this link.

   

Charles Zembillas daily art blog

In late May this year I did something I've been meaning to do for a long while. I finally launched a personal blog for my art. Since then with the exception of a break for a few days earlier this month, I've been posting entries on a daily basis. Class demonstrations, old stuff, new stuff, vintage stuff, and lots of art dealing with the popular video game character Crash Bandicoot. My personal art blog is developing a good following and I'm happy for the opportunity to feature work in an educational environment which supplements what is posted here on the Academy's blog. Feel free to stop by and visit by clicking on the link below... 

Zembillas.blogspot.com  

Tyler Yu - Emerging Talent

A recently enrolled new student is making his mark at the Academy. Tyler Yu is a resident of Burbank in his last year of high school. He's with us to improve his skills and prepare a portfolio for submission to a degree granting college or university.

Take a look at the very first drawing he did on June 4 when he began with us. It shows imagination, talent and promise. It is also crude, lacking the fundamentals that are necessary in building a solid artistic foundation.

Compare the above drawing to what Tyler was doing just a few sessions later in Character Design 1. A full five pose rotation of a character he came up with as part of his class assignment. Clicking on the image will give you a better view.

Also compare the following assignment which involved rotating a character in three poses for modeling on a software program for computer generated imagery.

Quite an improvement in a short period of time. Tyler is typical of the talented and motivated artists who come to the Academy to get their basics down and greatly improve as a result. Our emphasis on developing core skills essential for confidence and professionalism in one's work makes all the difference. Students such as Tyler continue to contribute to the legacy that The Animation Academy enjoys. 

Art from a session of Visual Development

I thought I'd try something different on the Academy's blog by presenting an entry not of one particular student and their work but of several simultaneously. From a session of our Visual Development class this week I picked up some of the art that was being created by our students for the purpose of showing our productivity during a typical class. Clicking on the images will give you a better view.

From our most recent session of Vis Dev this past week here's the work of Kiana Mosser. 

This is what Cal Arts bound Justin Noel came up with as he broke down his images into shadow, tonal and color studies.

Kristen Robertson is designing a new character for development.

Izzy Alcala has recently joined our program and is creating some very impressive subjects.

Margo Akopov is a working on design and gray scale tonal relationships.

Marietta Semerdjyan is experimenting with fashion.

This is one evening at the Academy. Imagine what students are coming up with in our other classes and sessions Monday through Thursday. There's a lot of very positive developments happening at The Animation Academy in Burbank. Our new environment is working out great. We're growing and our program is expanding. I'll have some good news to share along those lines soon. In the meantime you know what we say when it comes to your art. Strive for excellence in everything you do and... Keep Creating!

Bridget McCarty's Miniature Success

When she was with us as a teenager Bridget McCarty created very charming characters and backgrounds through her art. Here's an example of her work when she was with us from a previous write up on the Academy's blog on September 15, 2007.

Now as an adult she's established herself as one of the leading figures in the world of miniatures. In fact, Bridget has the distinction of a Warner Bros license to create miniature art for the "Wizard of Oz" franchise. Take a look at what she does. Clicking on the images will give you a better view.

It's amazing to see how our students evolve creatively over time. They may start out in one area and show a special skill, style or interest in something special and grow into a leading talent in a field that you wouldn't necessarily expect. Such is the case with Bridget. To see more of her work follow this link to Bridget McCarty's blog. You can also visit her website here.

Ed Irizarry's BG Design work

A return student to the Academy, Ed Irizarry was previous with us years ago and wound up working at Walt Disney's Consumer Products division as a staff artist. Now he's back to take his formidable character designs skills to another level by studying Background Design. It's very beneficial for character centric artists to learn to create environments.

These are samples of Ed's first pass in the class. Exercises in composition and one point perspective. These were drawn freehand. No straight edges were used in Ed's sketches.

At the Academy attention on fundamentals are a key factor in building a solid artistic foundation that makes a big difference when producing work from the imagination. Your images become more convincing and before you know it you're creating new worlds.

Ed's gone beyond this already and is doing exceptional work but it's good to take a look at where he's starting. You can see more of the artwork of Ed Irizarry here.

Final Tally - The Animation Academy - Mission Small Business 2012

The final tally for Mission Small Business voting in the community of Burbank...

The Animation Academy came in at 420 votes !!!

We shot from 5th place to 3rd place in Burbank California on the last day of voting !!!

The Animation Academy comes in at the bronze medal for Burbank, a media center for the world and the international capital of the animation industry !!!

There were 85 local businesses registered! We're on the medal stand with the bronze !!! 

THANK YOU TO OUR FAMILY OF SUPPORTERS !!! You're as good as gold !!!

This is a far greater result than I would have imagined at the beginning of the campaign !

Grateful, appreciative and proud !

We're one of only two businesses in America with the word 'Animation' in our name that qualified and we came ahead by 150 votes !

It's up to the Chase Bank and the Mission Small Business review board from here on out. For what this was it was hugely successful and great fun !

Thank you to everyone who supported the effort !!! You really came through !!!

Here's to you !!! 

Hearts of champions !!!

KEEP CREATING !!!

Charles Zembillas

The Animation Academy

Burbank California

USA

The Academy qualifies for Mission Small Business !!!

A big THANK YOU going out to all of our students, friends, fans and everyone associated with The Animation Academy in Burbank. Thanks to your pro-active efforts, we reached 250 Facebook votes last Friday afternoon at 1:35 pm Pacific time. Eight full days ahead of the deadline!

We are now qualified to submit our application for the Mission Small Business Grant Program sponsored by Chase Bank!

I'm very appreciative of the outpouring of support we received. We not only reached 250 votes, we're currently at 323 votes, positioning us as one of the top vote getting small businesses of the 60 registered for the program here in Burbank, California. We're currently at number 5.

My goal for this week is to prepare our application for submission by the June 30, 2012 deadline. While I'm attending to this, you can still help out! You can help us rack up some more votes so that we can further impress the Chase Bank Review Board when they consider the Academy for one of the twelve $250,000 grants they'll be awarding by September 15.

If you have a Facebook account and have not voted for The Animation Academy yet, go to MissionSmallBusiness.com and login using Facebook. Search for The Animation Academy and then click VOTE. It's very easy! There's nothing to it!

If you've already voted please contact your Facebook network and help to get the word out. Encourage your friends to vote for The Animation Academy by forwarding this link - http://MissionSmallBusiness.com.

The Academy has accomplished many great things in our 14 1/2 year existence. Think of all the good we can do if we win this grant!

Thank you everyone for your continued support of this exceptional educational experience that's called The Animation Academy. You're the ones who've make it special!

Keep Creating and keep assisting the Academy with your Facebook vote in the MissionSmallBusiness Program!

Charles Zembillas
The Animation Academy
Burbank California
USA