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Mitch-el — Animation - Frog
Published: 2008-04-25 20:43:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 3394; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 56
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Description
A small piece of animation from Disney Feature Animation's film, Lilo and Stitch -- a piece of Chris Sanders' genius.-------
For my portfolio (which I shall soon send in to Disney Studios) I shall submit this animated one-second clip of animation... which is, coincidentally, from one of their films. It was actually my mom's idea to submit this; I was originally going to submit a bit of Stitch animation, I believe, if anything at all, but my mom did most of the animation on that one... whereas 98% of the stuff in this little reel was drawn by myself.
All of the drawings I did are labeled with my name on the bottom right-hand side of the page (which you may or may not be able to see in this demo). Basically, I did all of the in-betweens, since if I'm going to get a job at Disney Studios I'd much rather start on the bottom (as an in-betweener) and work my way up to the top. My mom having been in the animation business for over twenty years (mostly as an in-betweener), it was wonderful to have her around to show me le ropes. Speaking of mom, she did the two extremes (frames 1 and 19 out of 19 frames) and almost all of the eyes for each shot of the frog.
I will have to say right now that I absolutely LOVE doing in-betweens. Sure, the example you see above is probably one of the easiest in-between jobs in the universe, since I was basically going in-between the closest of lines, but I had a blast completing the project nonetheless.
As always, advanced critique is greatly encouraged.
Enjoy!
-- Mitch
P.S. By the way, the timing of this animated sequence is all off, but I have schoolwork to finish sooo... heck. (snigger)
Also, a non-photo blue pencil was used for three or four lines that separate the different body colors in the frog and the highlight in the eye, but the blue coloration itself "transformed" into a black tinge once I loaded and enhanced the images into Photoshop CS.
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Tools:
- HB/2B pencils (black)
- Non-photo blue pencil
- Erasers
- Lightbox
- Animation table
- Photoshop CS2 (used to darken image and cleanse background)
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The character of the frog in "Lilo and Stitch" is the property of Chris Sanders and Disney Studios.
"Lilo and Stitch" is copyright Chris Sanders/Disney Studios.
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Comments: 44
Cool. I am also an aspiring animator. But I'm going for computer animation. Are you more into the 2D side?
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Nice to meet a fellow artist! I wish you all the best in achieving your goal.
Yes, I am definitely in greater support of traditional art/animation over computer animation. In regards to animation in general, I never wish to be an animator. Storyboarding and lighting are what I'm going for. Only occasionally have I dabbled in animation.
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this truly is inspiring! Have you heard back from Disney yet? I do hope you meet your dream for I am an aspiring animator as well! Although, Im only a sophmore in high school(or should i say junior since i will be by the end of summer) and I was curiuos if you had any advice for a beginner? More so, are there any specific techniques you could share about in-betweens? Im going to practice my first animation soon but cannot figure out how to come across the transitions,if you know what I mean. Ill be using flash as well but i want all the frames to be hand drawn so i can scan them in to flash. I was wondering if there's almost a certain animators secret as to where each frame goes or if you just sort of guess and see what looks right from the previous sketch. If you could find any time in your busy schedule to maybe just give a quick tip it would be most helpful!! Thank you so much and please keep on animating!!
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My sincere apologies to replying to this so late!
Thank you very much for the kind comments! I never did send in any kind of a portfolio or reel to Disney, however. My skills are nowhere near up to par yet, especially in regards to animation. Still, I'm just as determined as ever to achieve my goal to work in the industry!
Taking into account your questions, guesswork only stretches out (and wastes) the amount of time you could use to animate something in a more organized fashion. What you should use is an "X-sheet" (short for Exposure Sheet), which is basically an animator's planner for when he/she animates a scene. Here is more information about X-sheets and what they look like: [link]
I would highly recommend referring to/picking up Eric Goldberg's book on animation entitled, Character Animation Crash Course!. It's a very insightful book into the field of animation... and it includes a whole section on X-sheets! Check it out: [link]
Again, my sincere apologies for not replying to your message earlier, but I hope that this information helped somewhat. If you have any additional questions, don't be afraid to ask.
Thank you very much, once again, and all the best to you in your artistic endeavors!
-- Mitch
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Thanks for the comment!
-- Mitch
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Woah! sweet! how do you contact teh disney studios???
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Thank you!
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To contact The Walt Disney Company directly (for employment opportunities), you can either send them a message via snail mail or email, or by phone. Feel free to click on the link below for more information on the subject....
The Walt Disney Company -- Contact Information: [link]
Another way to check for open positions at the company is to visit the Disney Careers website, which you may access here:
Disney Careers: [link]
Should you wish to secure a position there as an employee, be it an animator, businessman, engineer, or any other listed personnel, be advised that you will be required to submit a sound resume/porfolio and any other information/material that is asked of you by the company in question.
Walt Disney Studios is a very biased and unpredictable company, and whether or not you get in is anyone's guess. This does not, of course, mean that you should throw it off as a complete shot in the dark. It's up to you; don't give up if that's what you want to do!
There are several other animation studios out there besides Disney that will accept individuals with a decent portfolio, as well. True, most art-based industries these days have ventured towards the 3-D side of the island, but there is the occasional tradtionally animated feature/featurette that needs in-betweeners, animators, background painters, layout artists, and others, if you're strictly referring to an artistic/2D standpoint. If you know computers well then... great! That's even better.
But yeah. I'm not exactly sure what the main telephone number is for The Walt Disney Company. You would have to look around their main website for additional information.
-- Mitch
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Haha, the loop kinda makes it look like he's coughing... XD
Nice motion; it's very smooth. It's cool that you and your mom can work together so much. She was an in-betweener? Did she work at Disney?
The only problem I have with this is the frames seem to shift a lot. If that back leg was only anchored, it would look even smoother.
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Mmm. Yeah, I did mess up on that loop cycle. The shifiting frames were accidental, although I never realized how big of an impact it had on the final result until I uploaded it. *sweats*
Actually, my mom has never worked for Disney Studios as an in-betweener before, but her contributions to the animation industry include doing clean-up/in-between work for Don Bluth Studios (The Secret of NIMH), Warner Bros. (Space Jam), and Crest Animation Productions (The Swan Princess). It's great to have such a knowledgeable mom. 
Thanks for the comments and critique!
-- Mitch
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Hey, don't worry! Just something I thought I'd point out.
Oh, she worked on The Swam Princess? How cool! My sister and I were kind of hooked on that movie when we were younger. 
Ooh, I never saw The Secret of NIMH, but it looked pretty interesting... is it good?
You're most welcome, my friend!
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Ha-ha. Thanks. I'm always open for critique.
You and your sister were hooked on it, too? Ha! Awesome! And I thought my sister and I were the only ones.... (snigger)
Mmm, I believe she in-betweened that sequence where Speed (the turtle) hesitates jumping into the crocodile-infested moat, or... something like that. (heh)
The Secret of NIMH is actually pretty good! I'd classify it as one of Don Bluth's best, in my opinion. If you're a fan of his works than you'd probably like it, and even if you're not you might enjoy it.
Thanks, again!
-- Mitch
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You're welcome!
Oh no, you're not the only ones by any means! We would turn down all the lights like we were at the theater.
Ah - cool stuff!
Hmm, I may just have to check it out. I did a paper on Walt Disney this semester, and I came up with all these animated movies I've never seen that I need to watch over the summer. It's amazing; I was raised on Disney and there are still so many I don't know!
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Ha! Dude, my sister and I would do the same thing! We'd shut all the blinds and everything. 
I'm in the same boat. There are literally barrels of Disney films that I haven't seen yet. (Although, the Secret of NIMH isn't classified as a Disney film, as it's a creation of Don Bluth Studios. Heheh.)
-- Mitch
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Haha, us too! 
Yeah - I was planning on watching them this summer, but... I haven't seen any yet. 
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Dude, that's so awesome!
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It's freakin' fun, man! Animating is like a disease: Once you catch it it's hard to eradicate it.
Thank you very much!
-- Mitch
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Thank you very much!
-- Mitch
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Wow! This is so cool! Awesome work! Consider me your biggest fan!
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Aw, gee.... *blushes*
Thanks, dude! I appreciate it.
-- Mitch
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Very clean!
I'll be looking for you in the credits for Disney's next flick
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Ha-ha. I'm hoping I'll be in there myself....
Thanks, dude!
-- Mitch
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so what if its alittle off, the animation is very clean, and i really like it!
I <3 this frog
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Heheh. Thank you!
-- Mitch
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you are very welcome!
but, how did you do the animation so clean? its amasing!
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Puh-ha! Yeah, it took quite a while to get those drawings to actually look decent, I'll tell you that right now....
Well, what I basically did was this:
1. Compose original drawings on clean, white sheets of paper.
2. Scan all drawings into Photoshop CS and "touch them up". (Many a wrinkle and several a smudge had to be erased in the process of cleaning each image. I also darkened them with the "Levels..." and "Brightness/Contrast" features in Photoshop CS.)
3. Upload each image into Flash and animate them from there.
4. When the entire process of cleansing, uploading, and animating has been completed, I then upload the finished product into deviantArt.
It took about half an hour or more just to go through those four steps, and yet... I still ended up messing up the animation in the process. Ah well. It was worth it, I suppose. (snigger)
-- Mitch
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Woah, you're lucky to have parents who know about this stuff!
Little frog dude is super cool, I don't have much critique. I'd love to see some longer stuff though (even though it -is- time consuming...). Great job
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Thank you very much!
I would love to do some longer animation in the future, but, at the moment, I just haven't the time to do so. We might see something happening in the summer, though....
-- Mitch
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I look foward to it!
And I also forgot to add--Hope that Disney loves your portfolio!! All good wishes go to you!
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Thank you! I'm much obliged.
-- Mitch
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WOW I had no idea you did animation too!!!!!!! What are you the best person in the world? jk
Great work!!
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Eheheh. Thank you, dude. 'Tis but a small step forward in my career.
-- Mitch
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That is so so cool i always wanted a job that had to do with Disney!
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Cha, it would be pretty awesome.
Thanks for the comment!
-- Mitch
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