Character Design blog

Hey guys!

Just wanted to say that I created a blog specifically for character design. It's linked here if you would like to have a look:

http://vanderpaardtdesigns.blogspot.com/

I have a lot to update on which I will get to eventually. CTN was amazing, I've never seen so many of my idols under one roof. I'll be back with photos soon!

Henry Selick, Fat Cats, and Dragons

I can't believe October is already gone.

Anyways, updates! I have exciting news, about a week ago I met Henry Selick. Yes, THE Henry Selick. The guy that directed Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline. And I got to sit down and talk with him, even for only a few minutes.

Basically I attended the event at Arclight where Henry Selick talked about creating the movie Coraline. He answered technical questions, and explained the process of creating the visuals and such. He even answered the question of why Coraline's hair is blue!

So yeah. After the talk there was an after party where you could sit down with him for about 4 minutes and ask him questions or even just chat. I asked him about the process of creating a movie out of a book, how to know what elements to include in the plot, etc. He basically said figure out what makes you enjoy the book the most, and include those elements.











But yes, that was an amazing night.


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Next up, my film. I've landed on a good design for the fat cat. I'm still playing around with the plot, once I've ironed something out I'll make sure to post storyboards or something. For now here's his final design.



CalArts has kept me quite busy with assignments, so I haven't spent much time on my film. I'm hoping that'll change soon, I really need to storyboard this out. I think that once it's been storyboarded, a lot of issues will be cleared up or at least laid out and dealt with.

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Lastly,

Lately the trailer for "How to Train Your Dragon" was released. I watched it and am not really sure what to think.



I actually think I like it more than dislike it. It's a bit of a tricky reaction- I really love the dragon part of the trailer(I've also got a soft spot for dragons in general), and I love Hiccup. But there were things in this trailer that turned me off.

For example, the shot of the girl walking towards us in slow motion towards the beginning of the trailer. A completely overdone joke that's getting thrown at the audience once again. Dreamworks has that *sarcasm* fantastic *sarcasm* way of including jokes every 10-15 seconds. I also don't like her design very much, I'm not really sure why.

There are certain elements of the dragon's design that I enjoy, such as his color. His head design is basically a dragon version of Stitch though(go ahead and pause the frame where the dragon opens his mouth to eat the fish, and then google Stitch, you'll see it). I love Chris Sanders' style, but I don't know if I agree with the dragon's head being so, well, Stitch-like.

I enjoy Hiccup's design. He looks and acts like a normal human being, and I really liked the voice acting.

I dunno what to think. I guess I'll see in March.

Well that's all for now!

Vulpix!

Pokemon fanart! Woot!

Film concept ideas

Some concept art for my final film! I've got the story roughed out in my head, I need to really review it a few times and maybe do some sample boards before I have a clear definition of what's going to happen in my film. I've got the basic plot roughed out though, so I'm pleased. :)

Anyways, this guy is going through a bit of a makeover until I can find a design that works well for motion and animation. It should be fun animating him. :)

Go back to the source!

Figure it's time for an update.

Things have been going smoothly. I've gotten used to having a huge pile of work at any given moment, which is great because of the content of the assignments. Why else would I be going here? I really feel like I'm improving by being around so many different artists, all talented in different areas and passionate about the same thing, all under the same pressure. Pretty exciting. :)

Tonight, Shane Acker, the director of "9", and Joe Ksander, the animation director, are coming as visiting artists and giving a lecture. This should be awesome - I really enjoyed the visual look of "9", so it'll be cool to hear the process.

So far, the visiting artists at CalArts have been:

James Gurney, creator of Dinotopia
Birgitta Hosea, program director of Character Animation at Central St. Martin's
Mark Andrews, storyboard artist at Pixar
Tina Price, host of the 2009 Creative Talent Network Expo

Rumored visiting artists in the future:

Pete Sohn, director of Pixar's short "Partly Cloudy"
Glen Keane, director of the upcoming film "Rapunzel" and Disney animator


Speaking of the CTN expo, I got a free ticket for being one of the first 25 people to come to the Tina Price lecture. There are going to be some big names at the expo, some include David Colman and Don Bluth! I can't believe how many people I'm meeting, and am going to meet. This is a dream come true. :)

On another note, I've decided my final film and begun designing the main character. I'll make sure to post some sketches soon.

Thanks for reading!

Have I really already been here a month?

It's amazing how time flies when you're animating.

I plan on posting some animations soon, once I've figured out how to get them in the right format.

Anyways, thought I'd post some pictures of the cubes. This is where I spend my all-nighters at CalArts.











Sooo yeah. I'll finish up with a drawing for my story class.

An update from art school...

Yo.


So CalArts is awesome. A little quirky, but awesome. The workload is starting to pile up, but that's alright. It's what I came here for.

Classes have been good. There are some that I wish would pick up a bit, and others which I think are AMAZING(traditional animation = <3). I sat in on a character design class Wednesday and was awed by the amount of critique given. Basically, the teacher wasn't afraid to say which designs worked and which flat-out didn't. It's not a class I'm registered for, but I plan on sitting in anyways. There's so much to learn. :)

On a side note, as weird as this might sound, I never thought I'd enjoy animating so much. I mean, I know I'm going to CalArts for character animation, but before coming here I mainly wanted to be a character designer. Now that I enjoy animating so much perhaps I can do both. :)

Today I plan on seeing "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" with some of the other students. Should be fun, maybe I'll post a review here after. I'll take my camera with me because because I've been neglecting it ever since I got here. And maybe some art. :)

See ya!