Kristen Sych visits the Academy

Our final class of the year was completed last night, and this makes for a good opportunity to post an update about a recent guest we had at the school.

Kristen Sych hails from Canada and was personally committed at a young age to pursue a career as a character animator. He eventually wound up in Los Angeles and enrolled at the Academy early in our history. His strengths as an artist, an animator and as a communicator made him an ideal candidate for an animation instructor, so Kristen filled that role for us for a long time.

Here he is in the company of some of our students and staff. He's the fellow in the center in front of the dark band in the curtain.

Kristen related how his foundation in traditional hand drawn animation and the fundamentals therein made him a stronger computer animator when he made the jump to CGI. He also spoke about how the medium of computer animation has made him a better animator by freeing him from worrying about every nuance of his drawing and focusing instead on the action, activity and performance of the character he's animating. He's currently an animator at Activision.

Kristen doesn't maintain a website or blog. He's in solid demand and hasn't had the chance to develop his Web presence yet. When he does, I'll be sure to post a link.

Thanks for spending time with us Kristen. Your visit was educational, inspiring, informative and entertaining. We hope to see you again very soon.

Walt Disney's Grave

In honor of Walt Disney's birthday, I took it upon myself to visit his final resting place. It's discreetly hidden at Forest Lawn Cemetary in Glendale, California, the town next to Burbank. A friend of mine who used to work there knew where to find it, so we ventured forth this past Monday to pay our respects.

And here it is, a rare look at the garden area where Walt and his wife Lillian are intered. Click on the photo for a better view.

For more photos from my visit and info about Walt's gravesite, there's a topic in progress on the AnimationNation Forums.

Follow this link:

http://www.animationnation.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=013389

It's Walt Disney's Birthday!

Today is December 5, Walt Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois on this date in 1901. At the Academy, there's noboby in the art of animation whose memory we honor more than that of Walt Disney. Follow the link below to see a moving video tribute to this great man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td1jTaanU8k

Kelsey Mann from the archives

Some recent reorganization of the Academy's archives has uncovered a treasure trove of artwork from individuals who were once students here and have gone on to great success in the animation business. Among the discovered images are those created by Kelsey Mann.

Kelsey enrolled at the Academy as a new arrival to the LA area coming here from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He quickly made an impact with his art as he took right to the fundamentals we were teaching and incorporated these principles into his work. The samples below are from his time in our Background Design class, the first dated November 18, 2002 and the next dated November 19, 2002. The assignment was to come up with concept sketches for a cave exterior.

After some concepts were explored, Kelsey committed to a final design and created this composition the following day. Clicking on the art will give you a better view.

Kelsey went on to become an instructor with us and spent a few semesters in that capacity. It wasn't long before he was picked up by a major studio and his career went flying into the stratosphere.

For more info on Kelsey Mann and to see what he's been up to since his days at The Animation Academy, follow this link to his blog:

http://kmann.blogspot.com

Thomas Perkins from the archives

While organizing some archival artwork, these designs were rediscovered. Tom Perkins was a student at the Academy several years ago and distinguished himself as a powerful and unique character designer and as an artist with inimitable visions. The samples are from Visual Development. They were class assignments that Tom completed in Photoshop. Clicking on the image will enhance the view.

Tom went on to become an instructor with us and has since established himself as one of the industry's leading designers. His blog is high on the list of must sees. Follow the link below:

http://thomasperkins.blogspot.com/

Joshua Lam lights it up

This semester we're happy to have back with us Joshua Lam. He was a student at the Academy back in its earliest days. Since then he's had a successful career in the graphics department at Warner Bros Studios, has started his own company, got married and is raising a family.

His return has been notable for the exceptional work he's doing in class. Here's an example of his latest. In Visual Development, one of the things we strive to do is have our students explain form through the use of a light source. In Joshua's case he's taken his assignment to a masterful level by lighting the subject from three different angles. The first is from above, the second from above right, the third from below right. Click on the image for an enhanced view.

His approach in this light study along with his attention to the dimensionality of the design is very conducive to 3D modeling. His attention to form would translate very well into a computer generated image.

It's great to have Joshua Lam back, especially when he's creating studies as compelling as this. To see more of his work, visit his blog through the link below:

http://jlartanddesign.blogspot.com/

Carl Aspuria explores

A recent student to the Academy, Carl Aspuria is getting into his assignments for Visual Development. In this sample from class, he's taken a single design image and has used it to experiment with gray tones, color and form relative to a light source. Clicking on the image will enhance the view.

A healthy approach to developing basic skills, Carl's marker studies are an excellent example of how to efficiently utilize an image for maximizing one's creative experiences relative to one's artistic growth.

Visit Carl's DeviantArt page by following the link below:

http://frodohilton.deviantart.com/

Looking forward to many more impressive works coming from Carl.

Gary Clair stops by

A fixture at the Academy for many years, and one of the original founding students of the school, Gary Clair's professional responsibilities as of late have denied us the pleasure of his company until our last session this week, where he made a surprise visit. Here he is mobbed by his many fans.

Gary's visit prompted a reach into the archives to feature this design he created a few years ago which was published in our schedule. Clicking on the image will give you a better view.

Follow this link to enjoy Gary's blog:

http://garyclair.blogspot.com/

It was great seeing Gary again and we look forward to many more visits from him in days to come.

Recent guest speakers

Hello everyone, and thanks for your patience with updates to the Academy's blog. It's been a very active time the past couple of months, but things are settling down enough to share recent news.

Former Academy student Josh Leiberman has sold a series concept to Cartoon Network and is in production on the 7 minute pilot. He stopped by last week to say hello and everyone enjoyed an excellent presentation from him as our guest speaker for the evening. Definitely one of the best presentations we've ever had as far as insight and advice goes about pitching show concepts and studio internships.

Here's Josh with some of his fans.

To visit Josh Lieberman's blog and find out more of what he's up to, follow this link: http://kn8ian.blogspot.com/

Bridget McCarty started with us when she was in high school. She's since gone on to establish her own Internet business selling fine miniatures. She makes a good enough living from her business that she can support herself completely through her art.

In the next two shots, students get a closer look at Bridget's samples and write ups about her work while she explains her marketing techniques as well as sharing practicle business advice for artists.


Visit Bridget's site through this link: http://www.bridgetmccarty.com/

A big thanks to Bridget McCarty and Josh Lieberman. Everyone gained from their time with us. We hope to see Bridget and Josh again in the near future and we wish them continued success in all their endeavors.

"Controlling Illusion" is here!

Hello everyone, students, associates and friends of The Animation Academy. I'm very happy, excited and proud to present my first book, Controlling Illusion.

Controlling Illusion is a compilation of many of the class demonstrations I've done throughout my career as an art educator, with most of them originating from the sessions I've taught at the Academy. Much of the art stems from my Visual Development course, along with some work from Character Design. Here's the front cover, clicking on the image will give you a better view.

The art spans a 22 year period, and the book itself took two years to assemble and write. I decided at the outset that I would gear Controlling Illusion towards an educational experience by describing the lesson from each demonstration. The book is being used a reference text in class and so far, the results in our students' work really shows the difference that Controlling Illusion is making with their design and rendering skills.

You can purchase Controlling Illusion online through a special site I've created for that purpose. Follow the links below for info about the book, along with a view at some Sample Pages and also to see some of the early Reviews the book is getting.

To Purchase: http://controllingillusion.com/

Sample Pages: http://controllingillusionsamples.blogspot.com/

Reviews: http://controllingillusionreviews.blogspot.com/

Initial response to the book has been extremely positive acrosss the board. Controlling Illusion will help make a good artist better and a better artist great. Each page offers useful information and insights about each demo in a way that will walk you through the progressive stages of Vis Dev fundamentals. It's an educational anthology in art through an animation design and development venue that will inspire you to create. I'm very confident you'll enjoy it as a learning tool as much as you will its entertainment value.

Authoring is a lot of fun as I'm finding out, and I'm working on a second book as a result of my experience with this. Meantime, I hope you'll take a moment to take a look at the Controlling Illusion links and get a glimpse into this unique endeavour.

Controlling Illusion is a specialty art education book sold exclusively through The Animation Academy.

Thanks to all, and Keep Creating! That's the key.