A 9-year-old Oakdale Elementary School student hopes to get to Chicago to see the video taped in her classroom. “I was nervous,” said Joke’ (pronounced Jokay) Adanri of Normal, after repeating several lines that will be part of a video shown at the Museum of Science and Industry from Jan. 25 to March 1. A three-person crew from The Iona Group Inc. of Morton filmed several students and the entire class. The Green Revolution exhibit explores green technology and features black architects, scientists and innovators.

Learn More at The Pantagraph.com

The Princess and the Frog cocept art

Slashfilm has some very lovely concept art from The Princess and the Frog. I gotta say that I love the more traditional feel that this film brings to the increasingly tired genre of animated features. It’s very refreshing.

Be sure to check out their site for more images.

I Guest Host LAML Radio

James over at LAML Radio is attempting to bring us one interview with a LEGO builder each day for the month of August. To lend a hand, I am interviewing a few of my favorite builders this month. My first builder interview is now up at the LAML Radio website.

UPDATE: I also interviewed the legendary Chris Giddens and that interview is now available as well.

The sound quality is very bad at times and I was having a very difficult time talking because I was hearing my own voice on delay in my headset. (Oh well, I am learning as I go.) Never the less, the content is still what counts right? …Right?

If your interested in LEGO space, and trains, then please feel free to check it out!

Outside Hollywood has an interesting article concerning animation schools. They assert that school is a waste of time and that to become a truely great animator, all one needs is a good resource for tutorials and time.

The example they use to prove their argument is a popular student project known as “Colins Bear”. This film is Colin Sander’s final project in an animation class and stands as a special “Thanks for Nothing” to his professor.

According to an interview with the student:

The course is called Animation Arts. I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to assume that this course would then be about the art of animating…
…Unfortunately for the 55 of us in the class, our professor did not have an understanding (or at least he didn’t demonstrate an understanding) greater than an above average student. He seemed to be learning it along side of us. This video is actually my final assignment.

Alrighty, Here is the thing. I am not going to defend his professor. For purposes of this argument, lets assume that the professor was incompetent and brought no real value to the class. That still gives Colin no excuses for how his project turned out.

Because, as much as I disagree with much of what Outside-Hollywood says, they actually do have a point. You can learn how to animate on your own. After all, an animation class only meets for a few hours a week, and a teacher can only pack so many lectures into those few hours. How much technical knowledge can one really learn in a single semester from classroom instruction? Consider that there are plenty of blogs, forums, tutorials and manuals out there. Everything that one needs to know about the mechanics of 3D animation can be found on any number of websites.

So why didn’t Colin take advantage of these resources? If his teacher was so clearly unfit to teach it to him, and if Colin was as serious about wanting to learn as he seems to want people to believe, why didn’t he simply spend the time and effort to learn how to animate on his own?

The answer is simple. Colin just didn’t really care enough about the craft to bother himself with learning how to become a great animator. The proof is in his project. He had all basics down: A model, which was rigged and skinned. He knew how to move the skeleton and set his keyframes. He had everything he needed to produce a great animation. The only thing he didn’t have was a desire and the self motivation to spend the time and effort to refine and improve his skills to the point of professionalism. Or, at the very least, competency.

A truely great animation teacher brings more than a simple text book knowledge of the subject to his class. A great teacher brings an intimate knowledge of the theory and the art of animation to his class. A book can only teach you how to animate, but a teacher can give you the passion, the knowledge and the desire to become an fantastic animator.

As far as the quality of your work is concerned, here is a tip: If you are currently taking animation classes and are not please with the quality of the work you are producing, ask yourself “Am I spending enough time with my work? Am I working constantly both inside and outside of class to improve my skills? Or am I simply waiting for my teacher to get around to showing me how to press the various buttons on the screen.” The way you answer these questions should give you a very good idea of why your work is failing.

Video interview with Syd Mead

A while back, BoingBoingTV interviewed Syd Mead. Syd is a brilliant futurist artist with a long and distinguished career. He is probably best known for his work as the lead concept designer on the film Blade Runner. In this three part interview, Syd talks about the evolution of conceptual design, the creative process behind his work, and many of the secrets and untold stories concerning the production of Blade Runner.

The Princess and the Frog teaser bores me to tears.

After the flop that was the 2004 film: Home on the Range, Disney announced that it would be dropping 2-D animated films in favor of 3-D. The thinking internally was that Disney’s recent string of flops could be attributed to the audiences general dislike of the “old techniques”. Animation fans around the world gnashed their teeth in protest. To us, it was quite obvious that what the Disney films lacked wasn’t the glossy sheen of the third dimension, but the wonderful storytelling that Pixar had been spoiling us with for years.

Ironically, it was the acquisition of Pixar Animation studios in 2006 that would mark the triumphant return of 2-D animation at Disney with John Lasseter and Ed Catmull leading the charge.

The Princess and the Frog is the first traditional 2-D film since the original announcement and the animation community is watching nervously and hoping that this film is all we hope it will be… So far, things are not looking good for this film because frankly, the teaser bores me.

I don’t like putting my hater pants on this early in the game, but come on. What the heck is this thing Disney is giving us? I was confused and annoyed by this teaser the whole way through. I don’t know if it was the music, or what I feel is the lack of real genuine emotion in the performance, but this is supposed to get me excited about seeing this film? Bah! Let’s hope we see some better stuff soon or I fear that this film will not be the box office success that we are all hoping for.