Amazing Background Art of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace

In the 1980's Don Bluth produced Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp. A series of laserdisc video games using hand-drawn animation. The animation from Bluth, and other animation greats such as Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy is irresistibly appealing, exciting and definitely fun.  Fans still dream of a Dragon's Lair (in my case Space Ace) hand-drawn feature film that recaptures the pacing and fun of the originals.  

A major part of what gave these projects an amazing sense of scope and a very clear universe were the background paintings.  They are are amazing and a must study in terms of color, design, and creative use of perspective. 

According to Gary Goldman the background painters who worked on these films were Don Moore, Ron Diaz, Dave Goetz and William Lorencz.  

The games are available as downloadable applications for mobile devices now.   Totally worth getting if anything for study and analysis. 

Below is an interview I found with Ron Diaz.  Obviously a tremendous talent and a fun individual with a great odyssey in the animation industry. 

MASTER DRAWING JAPAN - Aaron Blaise's SUMO Sized Tokyo Seminar - Summer 2017

Apologies to everyone for not posting this sooner. Those who follow Master Drawing Japan are well aware that this summer, its biggest and most ambitious seminar to date was held.

Aaron Blaise, veteran Disney animator of over 20 years,  film director, illustrator and wildlife artist was our guest in Tokyo for an amazing 13 days!

In partnership with CG World / +ONE Knowledge, Master Drawing Japan invited this animation heavyweight to share his priceless knowledge with the aspiring artists of Tokyo.  During that time Aaron held two seminars on animation, creature design and an additional two intensive masterclasses on character design and human/ animal comparative anatomy.

Well over a hundred students and professionals came in attendance for Aaron's first teaching seminars in Japan.

Aaron covered all the essentials of animation and design.  A very interactive instructor, Aaron designed the lion above with direct guidance from the audience.

And Aaron went on to animate the lion as seen below.

For his next trick...! The Creature Design segment of the seminar , Aaron designed and completely rendered this amazing dragon from start to finish right before everyone's eyes.

Aaron graciously greeted everyone and left a lot of happy faces behind..

But this is only half of the story....

With still two more masterclass seminars to go, Aaron generously offered everyone interested to join him at an open drawing day at Tama Zoo! 

Aaron hailed Tama Zoo as one of the BEST zoo experiences he has ever had.  Coming from an animal illustration master  like Aaron, that's a huge compliment!

The last two days of Aaron's teaching tour ended at the Sokei Academy of Fine Arts with two masterclass seminars on character design and comparative anatomy.  Sokei has been a very generous sponsor of previous seminars for Master Drawing Japan.  Notably with one of Aaron's previous drawing instructors, the venerable Glenn Vilppu. 

It was an amazing experience and unforgettable adventure in art, design and illustration. Thank you Aaron, it was a great honor having you.  (P.S. Have to give s shout to Nick Burch - thank you too Nick! You were the rock that made sure that everything was steady!  You're a great guy!)    Looking forward to seeing you again!  

If you want to see more about Aaron's experience in Tokyo go to his YouTube channel: The Art of Aaron Blaise or look at Master Drawing Japan's blog on the experience!

Glenn Vilppu's Tokyo Drawing Masterclass at Suidobata Fine Arts Academy

A second home-run thanks to master draftsman, painter and illustrator  Glenn Vilppu and the Suidobata Fine Arts Academy.    A four-day intensive drawing seminar in Tokyo on figure drawing, and drawing the human head, Glenn Vilppu, gave an amazing class to students, professionals and teachers from both Japan and abroad.  Some students came as far as from Kyoto in order to attend. 

This was Glenn Vilppu's second collaboration with Master Drawing Japan but his first (of hopefully many ) at the Suidobata Fine Arts Academy in Tokyo.

"The people who developed animation, were taught by people who never studied animation."  - Glenn Vilppu

Glenn Vilppu, who has taught drawing in the  animation industry for over 20 years (notably the Disney Animation Studio) made this note about the tools and terminologies that are used in animation which were carried over from classical painters and illustrators.  Essentially the aim the the same:  to create a sense that something is believable and living before an audience.  

As noted in an earlier blog, there is a new generation of artists coming up in Japan with a very hungry interest in the western approach towards art and animation.   Master Drawing Japan will provide for this need with more seminars with noteworthy professionals in the film and animation industry in the very, very  near future.

PIG BROTHER Is Watching You: Animal Farm (1954)

Funded by CIA, animated in the United Kingdom (Halas and Batchelor).  George Orwell's anthropomorphic allegory for the Russian Revolution and the birth of the Bolshevik (Communist) government was brought to life in this powerful and haunting animated film.  Part of the USA's cultural offensive during the Cold War.    Very much worth viewing at least once.  (Link below)

The Making of Frazetta's and Bakshi's Fire and Ice (1983)

Considering the buzz over the live action Robert Rodriguez Fire and Ice film in the works, and the resurrection of the Frank Frazetta museum, this was a nice find.  Enjoy and be inspired.

Persistence of Vision: Aaron Blaise

Apologies to Mr. Blaise for copping his title. How could someone not be inspired by this man?

Aaron Blaise is an accomplished and amazing artist, animator and filmmaker who has been extremely generous in sharing his work, insights and advice on his website The Art of Aaron Blaise (www.creatureartteacher.com)   Aaron Blaise has produced beautiful work on films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Mulan and Brother Bear which he directed. 

All artists are always trying to learn, grow, build up on what they have spent years mastering.  Whatever motivates the artist,  there are always stumbles and outright obstacles.   Every now and then, the artist finds an oasis of information or inspiration that can help keep him/ her going.  Aaron's online advice is certainly one. 

One of the most important things about the art process is that it's not so much "what you do" but "how you think" about your work.    This is one of the greatest areas of advice you will find on Aaron Blaise's website or Youtube channel. 

His advice is clear, accessible and most important, sincere.   

If you want to improve your knowledge of art, painting, composition, animation or filmmaking,  go to his website, you will not be disappointed. 

The clip above left a considerable impression on me as it was a testament to the amazing things you can do when you find it in yourself to persist and keep moving forward.   There are good things in the world, there is magic that you, yourself can make.  It's there if you can persist. 

"...persist.  Persist in your art, persist in life, persist in creating beauty for everyone else.  It's our job to make someone else's life better."   - Aaron Blaise

Thank you for your efforts and inspiration, Aaron. 

Anatomy of a Fight 1: Fight of the Year

This animation short entitled, "A Warrior's Dream" by animation director Li Jing has been floating around for the past week.  Given it has two of my greatest passions animation and martial arts, I had to say something. 

Donnie Yen is one of the leading popular martial arts actors today.  Son of another famous martial arts master, Bow Sim Mark, Donnie has a long history in the martial arts world.  Recently he has been noted for his portrayal of the Wing Chun Kung Fu grandmaster, Ip Man. (Sometimes written as Yip Man)  Grandmaster Yip Man is greatly renown as Bruce Lee's first formal martial arts teacher. 

Bruce Lee of course needs no introduction.  Founder of the Jeet Kune Do philosophy,  greatest influence on modern martial arts in the 20th Century.  Forever the king of martial arts motion pictures.  Period.  

The film does fall a bit short with some of the nuance that gives animation sparkle and true life.   Some performances copied rather than acted and a lack of "cushioning" or "easing out" that should be there no matter how fast or precise these martial arts legends are.  With a larger budget or more time, I'm very confident that would not be the case. 

All THAT said, this was amazing to watch and obviously there was a lot of love and hard work behind it.  Martial arts in films are basically special effects.  Without a story behind it becomes boring or meaningless quite quickly.   In this case, however, it's an exception. 

Animation Fusion: SHORT PEACE

Watched the animated anthology film, "Short Peace" featuring two short films by Katsuhiro Ootomo:  Hinoyoujin (火要鎮 / ひのようじん)  (not translated but entitled in the USA as "Combustible") and Bukiyosaraba (武器よさらば / ぶきよさらば).  (Translated as Farewell to Weapons)

4 short films in total, each story using a combination of handrawn animation and computer animation.  In the past, there were reservations about how these handrawn/ CG fusions were done as both mediums clashed against each other battling for attention.   

In most cases it worked, especially Tsukomo (九十九) which arguably stole the show. 

Ootomo's films were great and particularly thoughtful towards Japanese culture of the past and future. They didn't exactly have the the great acting animated performances that Ootomo's "Akira" had but it they still delivered compelling visuals.  The timing for Farewell To Weapons / Bukiyosaraba (武器よさらば / ぶきよさらば) is interesting as some political groups in Japan have recently been pushing for the formation of a Japanese army. (Japan's WWII peace treaty states Japan is not allowed to have military forces of any kind....save it's defense forces) 

People not acquainted with Japanese history (current or past) may find "Combustible" anti-climatic.   Even the correct title "Hinoyoujin" (火要鎮 / ひのようじん) will not make sense to anyone unless they know something about the severity and seriousness of fire prevention during Japan's Edo period.  Arson was amongst the highest of offenses in Japan, punishable only by death.  The story was likely based on the story of Yaoya Oshichi.  

For its art direction alone, Combustible is worth seeing as I've never seen a fully animated piece done in the style of a Ukiyo-e illustration.  

The Direction of Animation as of 2011

There is yet another (but insightful) article and debate about the future of animation, cartooning and filmmaking in general at Cartoon Brew.

Not going to get into that debate here but it did bring to mind that despite all the things CG animation is praised for what it can do, it's interesting how much little attention is given to what it's not doing. Or rather how the medium is not being maximized nor fully exploited.

"Realism"seems to be the mantra of CG animation. To that I answer, "so what"? The computer can do so much, literally anything. However, it seems more attention is put on "replicating" life, rather than reinterpreting it. I liked Kung Fu Panda 2, but seeing all down to the little taste-buds in Po's tongue while he's screaming in 3D fails to impress me. At least the way it was done.

I remember a similar shot from John Kricfalusi's Spumco, Inc.'s animation on the Ren and Stimpy show. In that case, artists exploited that shot by ruthlessly caricaturing the sores, mis-colorations, and critters found on the character's tongue.

My point is there seems to be more editorial done in the process of hand-drawn animation rather than in CG animation. Not that it can't be done, but (correct me if I'm wrong) it just isn't being done. It seems producers are so wrapped up in technology, dazzling audiences with photo-realistic cartoons, they are overlooking the simplest points in getting a reaction from audiences. Just creating a photo-realistic image is not enough.

Since cartoons have proven to be a multi-billion dollar business there is more financial pressure on studios to minimize risks and losses. In that kind of ginger-footed environment, could a Tex Avery of CG animation be born?

Chuck Jones' 1963 short film "Now Hear This" is a perfect example of the editorial that hand-drawn just tends to inherently do. "Now Hear This", simple as it is, was a lot more entertainingly experimental than a lot of things in CG recently. It's not that CG can't do these things, it's just that unfortunately as of December 31st 2011, we don't see it being done enough.