Author: James Chiang

Shot Analysis: Medusa

One of my favorite shots done by Milt Kahl from his work on Disney’s Rescuers. Here, Kahl exhibits creative motion, superb attitude and perfectly staged mechanics.

Today, without too much explanation or annotation I’d like to show how I might look at a scene for study. In this case, it’s a very rough and quick breakdown of an excellent but complex piece of animation to try to get a feel for how an artist/animator may have set up his/her work. Sometimes, in my sessions working with students I will roughly “work over” a shot going through what I feel might be the building blocks — the major animation keys — that dictate the attitude, tempo and overall mechanics involved. This gives the novice/apprentice animator the opportunity to see how a skilled, experienced professional “sees” and how he/she might envision the work as it’s being created. As I’ve always contended, learning art through words is very difficult; it can only be shown.

The loose markings I’ve made in the following screenshots represent the mindset I might take when analyzing a piece of animation — going through the forces, both internal and external. I take the approach as if I, myself, were animating the shot. Separating section by section, as well as visualizing the whole, what is complex is then simplified. I try to feel all the necessary physicality and emotions required. Enjoy!

Do Different

The magnificent artistry of Katsura Terada. With just a marker in hand, Terada delivers some of the most breathtaking illustrative art of our generation today.

“Knowledge is useful until it gets in the way.” — David Bohm, Quantum Physicist

Sometimes we can be overly obsessed with information. Seeking answers thru books, lectures, and gurus/teachers/experts we can get lost in the chase and forget about finding what’s most important — ourselves. At some point, each person has to stop and hold off on looking for things outside of oneself. For the artist, this is essential. Otherwise, he will always be just a follower, conditioned to think, like and do what’s already been done. We already know that algorithms of search engines guide us back to where we’ve already been leading to what is referred to as confirmation bias so we can never change or discover something new. This conformity is the greatest danger to the creative. It destroys living in the present with authenticity, meaning and real joy. It destroys the concept of wholeness and acceptance. Ultimately, conformity destroys what it is to be human.

A still from the animated short The Witness (part of Netflix’s Love, Death and Robots series) by the ever-amazing Alberto Mielgo. Known more popularly for his Emmy-Award winning work on Tron Uprising and Into the Spiderverse, Mielgo is an animator-concept artist-director-painter extraordinaire. It’s hard to believe he’s mostly self-taught. Perhaps this is why his work is so fresh (and very much needed) in the art world.

All of us (artists or not) need to develop skill, for without it, we won’t get very far. But we mustn’t let our passion — whose root derives from our deep suffering love for something — subside for the sake of psychological security. We all have to find our own voice, our own way of doing things. We may not be special, but we are all unique. And those who dare to let their uniqueness show have a better time of it.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Philosopher

It’s easy to be tricked to think “we know.” But we are so conditioned, from birth to adulthood, that we never mature having spent so little time finding out what’s inside and who we really are. We meander around in searching or worse, in avoidance — wasting our lives in the distraction of meek entertainment or consumption. Some of us switch from job to job, relationship to relationship, city to city and end up in the same place as we started — lost and confused. It’s all too easy to fall into this trap, the mindset that the answer or happiness is out there, somewhere. And because the truth is illusive, our minds get very good at forming illusions that give us temporary refuge from our disorientation. It’s why we form certain disabling beliefs or bad habits even when we know they hurt us.

Comic Art from Dino Battaglia, one of the most unique and extraordinary illustrators of the 20th century. His compositions opened up my eyes as to what is possible with pure arrangement of shape and line.

“All illusions have an extraordinary vitality.” — J. Krishnamurti, Philosopher

So what do we do? Well, we can look inside rather than outside. It’s still great to read and research. It’s also okay to be influenced but we must allow our subconscious, our intuitive bliss and taste for those things that really move us and separate us from others, to come about and to spring forth. And they will. We think of an artist’s voice or style when we speak of this. But for it to happen, there must first be trust and faith in the process. Hence it’s so important to engage in play (no, I don’t mean video games) because in play, our real knowledge, our real understanding and true passions surface. As they emerge, there will be a release. This is liberation. The results, at first, will not be pretty (how could they be?) but as we strengthen our resolve to be free, we get better. With time and persistence we get better. And we’ve witnessed this in history by those who are or have been faithful to their cause, creative or otherwise. Their work serves as both a reminder and an inspiration of what is possible.

From Robert Valley’s short film Massive Swerve. Artist Robert Valley is one of the most distinct voices in the industry. His work lies outside of the mainstream but he’s found his niche expressing cool and delight in way like no other.

“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” ― Allen Ginsberg, Writer

Our course, it’s frightening to do our own thing. Security, comfort and social approval help us alleviate our fears and anxiety, at least termporarily. Who doesn’t like to feel loved and respected? Who wouldn’t want more material comfort? But to live, dependent on the outside for inside happiness just doesn’t work.

“The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.” — Epictetus, Philosopher

Artists, among others, have always faced the most immediate resistance to being who they must become. If we’ve not faced financial struggle, rejection and outright mockery or insult, we’re probably not doing anything truly worth doing. To live honorably demands we take risks. The reward is not in the result — and whether it comes now, later or never is also irrelevant — but in the present process. The first step is what counts, not the last; it’s in the doing. The men and women who have lived boldly and truthfully in the past could always carry themselves with dignity, in sickness or in health, in poverty or in wealth. We can do the same.

Tex Avery is not mainstream. He never was. Avery may have spent his career at Warner Bros. but his work was boldly inventive and groundbreaking doing things no one had done before or thought could be done. He had explored and mastered the rules, then broke them.

“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.”― Rumi, Poet