the art of EPIC

The art of Epic is finally in print! There were a lot of hours put into the creation of the art for this film. I've been fortunate enough to work with these amazing artists over the past few years, and to even been asked to contribute some of my ideas to the making of this film. More to come on my contributions to the project, but first check out the book!

One of my drawings from the book: Ronin, head of the Leafmen.

Epic Trailer

After working on Ice 4, I was asked to contribute artwork and animation to this project. It was an incredible experience. Everyone involved with this film did outstanding work. It will be yet another leap forward for Blue Sky Studios. 

Fun and Unfinished

"A vision's just a vision
If it's only in your head.
If no one get's to see it,
It's as good as dead.
It has to come to light!"
George from "Sunday in the Park with George"

In the spirit of a vision halfway out of the shadows...  This one is from 2009, an unfinished idea.

Bite

Rough Animation

I've been drawing and animating more than I ever have in my entire career, but you wouldn't know it but following this blog.


I've been producing a lot of work, but since it's all work for projects that haven't been released yet, I officially have nothing to talk about.

But I did take the day to work on something entirely my own, which is a rare thing. Something simple and fun, which is harder than you'd think it would be.

This is a first pass at rough animation. In this video, you'll see me working off my thumbnails and getting everything out there to see. Some of the ideas I like, some I know I'm going to abandon. I'm looking for clarity and over all pacing, not so much the perfectly drawn pose, that will come in later tests.

So what you're seeing is pretty unvarnished stuff, there's a lot I dislike about this test, but I see a few parts that I like. Those few things are what will make me go forward with the test and hopefully finish it.

CellPhone from bj crawford on Vimeo.

Thumbnailing

Jamaal Bradley posted a couple of pages of his thinking and planning for a great shot he did in Tangled. I usually thumbnail before I do anything else. Video reference is helpful, but thumbnailing always comes first. Part of my workflow used to include an animated thumbnail pass before doing the animation at full size. It's all about thinking through your ideas and working towards a visualization of the scene before you commit to going in and doing the actual motion that the audience ends up seeing. These pages certainly fit the bill. They show thought and exploration. It's great to compare his initial thoughts with the final product (which you can see here). A lot can change from a first thumbnail pass to a final animation, but in my experience and as seen in Jamaal's sketches, there is always a strong connection between my final animation and the first burst of ideas and problem solving in a small series of doodles.






Here is a small sheet of thumbnails that I did. I never animated it, but I still see all the ideas I wanted to hit in the animation. Usually when I get into the weeds of planning all the movement, my thumbnails get a lot more scribbly and off model. But as long as it shows the ups and downs, and the rhythm of the motion, it provides a perfect road map for diving into the animation.





And here is a random sketch I did. Don't ask me what it has to do with this post.

The Illusionist and Mr. O

It's always interesting to me where fellow animators draw their inspiration from. After talking to a colleague of mine, I found out that he became interested in animation after being enthralled by the clay animation video game, 'The Neverhood Chronicles'. Another colleague saw "The Rescuers" at the age of six and wanted to do animation from that point on.

Cats Don't Dance had a pretty big impact on me. Seeing Sylvain Chomet's 'Triplets of Belleville' partly convince me to finish my film. 'The Monk and the Fish' and 'Father and Daughter' also shaped the way I think about animation. After seeing 'The Illusionist' today, I'm almost positive this will be added to the list as another landmark. I admit I loved the movie even before I saw it, but the leap in the sophistication of the character animation is palpable and is something to be experienced. Even when the trailers came out, a friend remarked that it looked like a film full of new Milt Kahl animation. I agree.



Here's some commercial work I did awhile back. I worked with the director Aaron Sorenson (he did the original layout drawings), to help complete this campaign for Honda. I learned a lot working with him on this animation. You can really grow a lot as an artist by animating and drawing in styles that aren't naturally your own.

I will swap out this pencil test with a non-commercial character animation when I carve out some free time to do it. After seeing the Illusionist, I can really say that I'm inspired to do just that.