Friday, January 03, 2014

Drawing with FORCE!

Late last year we had a guest drawing instructor come into Pixar- Mike Mattesi-who specializes in dynamic drawing and did a 10 week course.  I only caught the last 2 sessions but it was refreshing to pause the Walt Stanchfield 'story' driven gesture class and let loose with some more muscular sketches.  I haven't worked this big and bold in several years- dirty charcoal & thick markers on newsprint!






Around the same time Glen Keane visited the studio to deliver an inspirational lecture on tapping into creativity by thinking like a child and ensuring 'play' is present in the work environment.  His impassioned and sincere speech was extremely motivating, and seeing him animate 'live' is magical!
He flipped through a sketchbook he had kept while visiting France last summer and found a sketch of a young girl carrying a baby while walking across a playground.  Glen took this as his jumping off point and animated her across the page- straight ahead-dealing with the weight distribution as he went.  He said viewers won't SEE the weight changes but they'll FEEL it.  The point of focus will be in the eyes-we look for the connection between the girl and the baby and how their gaze meets at that close distance.





4 comments:

Unknown said...

Man!!!!! speechless wish i was there too, just so many talented people in place

Matt Jones said...

Cheers Jules, we were lucky that week- Dick Williams came in too!

David said...

Thanks for sharing ! This is one of the things I miss about working in a studio (I was at Disney Feature for 16 years) -- the collaboration and classes , constant exposure to the best of the best . A lot people tout the benefits of the "virtual studio" with the crew spread out all over geographically , but you don't get those sort of creative benefits of having everyone working in-house under one roof , if you're working at home as a freelancer sending in work over Dropbox or the home studio's FTP site.

Matt Jones said...

Yes, we're lucky Pixar support a programme of visiting guest lectureres and screenings. We've had Glen Keane in the same week as Richard Williams! Phil Tippet, Rick Baker, Rick Heinrichs, John Knoll and the Pacific Rim fx team. Rare cartoons from the Disney vault screened, screen writing seminars. Not to mention regular Gesture Drawing classes and Life Drawing.