Drawing on Knowledge: Most Discussed Posts

Hitting a Moving Target: get a grip on your animation project schedule

dmaas — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 02:56:47 -0700

If you don't have a grip on how long you'll need to produce your animation, you don't have a grip on your animation. This first post on targets shows how easy it is to calculate an animation target, and how important...

Being Professional Means Cheap Sheets of Plastic

dmaas — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:30:58 -0800

What's professional? If you're an instructor, this is likely a tedious discussion. Recently, while renovating yet another apartment (don't ask) a possible discussion-ending metaphor occurred to me: Being professional means using cheap sheets of plastic.

Ryan Woodward; the Added Value of Animation

dmaas — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:30:19 -0800

Ryan Woodward's film "Thought of you" offers a great look at what hand animation has to offer, and what an animator and his audience can expect from the medium.

Walt Disney - How to Train your Animator

dmaas — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:33:36 -0700

Walt Disney lays out revealing thoughts about what up-and-coming animators should be taught, and how.

Ostrich Heads and Learning

dmaas — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:16:34 -0700

I have yet to properly introduce myself here, and I'm not sure what sort of impression I'm making with these somewhat impulsive posts. Today I introduce you to Veronica, the deceased ostrich, and Mike Taylor, the scientist who is getting to know her. Mike is a paleontologist, meaning he researches extinct animals. I introduce you to him here, because of a specific quote and a general energy that I feel is essential to learning

Every Budget has its Look, but not every Look has its Budget

dmaas — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:55:33 -0700

Occasionally I'm confronted with the following scenario: an independent or student film is already half-finished, but now the budget's used up and the initiators are running out of steam / taking on jobs / otherwise reducing their future engagement on the production in question. But the film is really looking good and - yeah, it's half-finished! Here's what I tell them...

Arte interviews David O'Reilly

dmaas — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:59:52 -0800

The German/French station Arte interviews David O'Reilly, who takes the opportunity to talk candidly about the materiality of 3D graphics, the idiocy of an unnamed American producer, the creative energies of Berlin and many of his films.

Tracking Time, Managing Your You

dmaas — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 08:44:02 -0700

Time-tracking is often viewed as the one most singularly evil impulse between you and your creative energies. For good reason? David Maas gives a first-hand impression.

Technology, Culture..... GOAL!!!

dmaas — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:01:00 -0700

Sports form a window to the soul of.... erm, okay. That's a bit thick. Football is only peripherally relevant to animation and yes - I'm stretching that relevance pretty thin here. But somebody has to - its the World Cup after all. And it's truly interesting how a sport can reveal a country's mentality - or perhaps form it.

Using the Animation Target to Assess Doability

dmaas — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:08:56 -0700

Now that we have an animation target we use it to get a feel for our project's doability.