Comments on: The Live-Action Go-to-Guy’s P.O.V. on Training

By: Karen J Lloyd

Karen J Lloyd — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:15:03 +0000

You’ll have to be a little more specific Jordana. If you have some questions, you can go to the Contact page and ask me and I’ll do my best to answer.

Thanks.
K

By: JoRDANA

JoRDANA — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:38:35 +0000

can you help me? I don’t know whay should i do
i dont noob!

By: Debi

Debi — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:26:51 +0000

Only as so much that I’ve seen their website. Why?

By: Adrien

Adrien — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:06:21 +0000

Deb,
Are you familiar with the Maryland film office?

By: KJL

KJL — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:09:03 +0000

Thanks for that Debi…you’re a doll. I’ll get a list up at some point…got a rough two weeks ahead.

Adrien will address some union stuff in his ‘Contacts in the Industry’ post…coming next week, I promise! Take a deep breath…let it out…ahhh

I also want to talk about the ‘working for free’ thing at some point. Lots of material ahead…love it.

Thanks again for that list!
-K

By: Debi

Debi — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:00:33 +0000

Great to hear talk about how to be a remote artist! That’s been one of my biggest hurdles.
I’ve even contacted a few agencies and they won’t even look at your stuff if a) your not in L.A. and/or b) you’re not union (is “How to Weasel Your Way into the Union” another post for the future?).
I’ll be waiting on pins and needles for that agencies post of yours Adrien!! Hurry up..the pins and needles really hurt!

Koni, if it gives you hope, I’m completely self-taught for both art and storyboards. It is possible. Reading as many books as you can and gaining experience on short films are key. Check out craigslist, film schools, and film forums for free jobs for experience. Stay away from doing free features..that’s just a rip off, IMO.
Since I’m gig-less now and have free time galore, here’s my reading library:

For the drawing:
Any Burne Hogarth books
Artist Complete Guide to Facial Expressions
Bridgeman’s Complete Guide to Drawing from Life
Atlas of Anatomy for Artists – Schider
Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes
Perspective! For the Comic Book Artist – Chelsea
Then any good book of nudes: Figure in Motions and The Nude Figure are two good ones.
I also love using a digital picture frame for any photo references I need. Saves paper and is very easy to use.

For the film:
From Word to Image – Begleiter
Film Directing Shot by Shot – Katz
Directing Television and Film – Armer
Film Art – Bordwell, Thompson
Visual Storytelling – Caputo
Setting Up Your Shots – Vineyard (great quick reference)
Storyboards – Simon (some good stuff)

Karen, feel free to snearch any of these for your list to save you time.

By: KJL

KJL — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:14:04 +0000

(These comments are turning into a post in itself! lol)

For the animation board artists out there, I would say stay away from markers and ink completely if you’re working for television.

Sometimes for a feature film it’s acceptable, but it’s rarely done for TV. As Adrie said, they need to photocopy clean and clear. They are mostly done with dark pencil (those col-erase I mentioned in another post are common) or on the computer. The digital boards will still be photocopied/printed too, so the same applies.

And you shouldn’t shade or crosshatch. If it’s a night/dark scene, I just use thin diagonal lines to represent it. That photocopies cleaner.

Note to self: We’ll have to do some posts about ‘technique’ in the future.

By: Adrien

Adrien — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:19:34 +0000

hmmmm. markers. careful with the markers, Koni. Sometimes very helpful, other time very bad, especially when working remotely. The don’t photocopy well. They tend to make the work look like mud when you do. It doesn’t matter what film you work on, they always photocopy the boards for distribution, and sometimes, not even from the originals. This means that you get multiple generation loss in the work. This is why I don’t work in anything but ink. If I work in pencil, I scan it in and punch the contrast waaaaay up to make the blacks as black as possible. Now, if you really want to do the marker thing, use a variety of blue marker at the lighter end of the scale. This way, the blue marker will either not photocopy at all, or it will photocopy a light gray, depending on the quality of the copier. Also, marker takes a lot of time in addition to the drawing, and time is something most board guys don’t have. If you look at the boards for the last Star Wars movies, or many of the other blockbuster movies, you’ll find that very few of them are markered.
I would suggest that a computer/scanner is more useful than markers. All my work is scanned in the computer for a variety of reasons: ‘green’ productions now use PDA’s for board distributions. You can ‘marker’ the boards in photoshop and maintain the inks or pencils in case the need to output separately. And you can email them if you’re working from home, which is about 50% of the time for me. Just something to think about.

By: Koni

Koni — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:46:44 +0000

From the bottom of my ’storyboard infatuated’ heart, I thank you Karen and Adrien most sincerely!! : )

(K, I got that other book too, plus all the markers, etc , guess there’s no turning back for me….full force aheaaaad)

By: KJL

KJL — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:21:47 +0000

Hey Koni! (And thanks for that great response Adrie.)

We’ll be touching on some of your questions when we write the post about Contacts in the Industry. It helps for advertising and film to know the right people. But I think even more so for animation.

It’s hard for studios to trust you if they haven’t met you or know someone who has recommended you. All of my work has come from ‘being in the loop’ or from word of mouth. It would have been very hard otherwise. I don’t like to say impossible, but it will be harder without those contacts. It’s a very ‘incestuous’ industry, so to speak.

I have worked from long distance as well..but again I was recommended, sent samples along and got the job. Then that job leads to another. So for animation, training is quite important and contacts in the industry are too. You have to know animation to work in it.

But keep going along your path and for now you should focus on getting the work up to speed and having strong samples to show. Because your ability is what will ultimately matter in the end.

There’s so much more I want to put on the site like book/DVD recommendations and a glossary but I’m just so strapped for time, it’s frustrating. All in due time I guess…when I’m an unemployed bum I’ll get to it! Another good live-action book is “From Word to Image” by Marcie Begleiter.

I’m really digging Adrie being here. More posts from him very soon!
-K