Sunday, January 15, 2006

What a Hoot



I had to work on Saturday. Working on Saturday's sucks..but not so much when you work in animation. C'mon man it's animation...cartoons! As you can tell I've been happy with my shots lately. I've got some pretty decent acting shots with Verne (the turtle) in Over the Hedge. COMING TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU IN MAY! Just had to add a plug in there.

Allright, time for a rant. You know what bugs me? Open hand gestures in dialogue scenes. The one's where a character is talking and both hands come out and their palms are facing the sky. You know what I'm talking about...t.v. animation does it constantly ( because it's easy to do and cheap). And there's sure a lot of it in a feature film coming out soon....I won't say which...but I think you know which one. I'm not saying humans don't do it...and sometimes it's even necessary for the point of the scene. But not 2 or 3 times in one scene! And evenly timed too! Ugh! Feh! Gross! When I see it I just cringe. Bad acting!It just screams to me..LAZY! Coming up with a good gesture takes time and planning and patience. You need to listen to that dialogue about 1000 times,act it out, and become that character. I don't care if the deadline for the scene is tomorrow. I'm going to try and make that scene top notch! For God's sake! It's gonna be seen all over the world! Not to mention being translated into 50 different languages. There are millions of more interesting things a character can do with his hands: Nervous gestures, playing with props, touching or scratching their face, even NOT moving their hands is more interesting! I guess I should post some examples to prove my point. The open hand gesture is just too easy....there's just too many possibilities out there. I watched Rescuers this weekend. Remember that little disney film from the 1970's? Bernard's acting is beautiful to watch. Now that's good acting.

I drew these owls awhile back and then played with them in Photoshop today. They were drawn with blue col-erase.

Here's a close-up.




While in Park City, Utah, I met an owl on my birthday. He's a star and his name is Hoot. He stars in the Harry Potter movies. No I did not get his autograph. Yes, I guess I'm owl crazy...and yes the owner of the owl looks like David Crosby from Crosby Stills and Nash.





9 comments:

Josh Parpan said...

Wow, I'm loving those owl drawings!

samacleod said...

AAAWWWWWW!!! MAAAAAaaaaaAAnannnAnNNN!!!!!
That is super duper sweet. Man, what if it bit your lip off, and just flew away with your ARM!!!

That's very cool. I'm glad you got it on the internet.

Brittney Lee said...

Thanks for ranting about open palm gestures - i totally agree. And I also love your owl drawings.

David Suroviec said...

Thats so incredible. when I was watching the video I actually thought it was David Crosby teaching you about owls.

Matt Williames said...

Mannn, sweet drawings bud! Owls have such fun shapes huh? Birds freak me out, your brave! You spoke to my heart man about acting in animation. That mom in Treasure planet does the open handed gesture in every single friggin scene. ya know what's the worst, when your directors request something generic. Lord have mercy--

Jenny Lerew said...

Love your owls! I'm crazy for all owls, drawn and otherwise(we had a screech owl come down the chimney in our house in Mt. Washington not once but twice--they're tiny things)...but yours is a totally new take. Cool. : )

David Suroviec said...

what did you create those drawings with im really curious

Unknown said...

THese owl drawings are amazing!

Jeremy Bernstein said...

Thanks Josh! Love your work as well.
Steve, see ya Friday!
Brittney, glad you liked my rant..there will be more to come.

David, maybe it really is David Crosby! I never asked though. I drew the owl in blue colorase on some animation paper. That's all.

Matt, yes, lord have mercy when you have generic acting.
Jenny, thanks!

Alina, thanks again!