Photo courtesy Janice Rosenthal

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the very first Don Bluth Animation Master Class! Now, if you are not familiar with Don Bluth, take a moment to consider his body of work. A top animator at Disney, he learned animation from the Nine Old Men themselves. While at Disney, he contributed to the films 101 Dalmations, The Fox and the Hound, Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, The Rescuers, Winnie the Pooh, and Pete’s Dragon. In 1979 he left Disney to form his own studio, where he created such classics as The Secret of Nimh, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Anastasia, among others. Gaming fans may also remember his work in the classic arcade games Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace. His style is unmistakable, and he breathes life into his characters like few others.

Photo courtesy Keith Osborn

I have been a fan since before I knew his name. I have had the Secret of Nimh comic book since I was 10 years old, and I’m pretty sure his films are what made me love animation. So when the opportunity to learn animation from the man himself arose, I couldn’t book my flight to Scottsdale fast enough. I’d never really gotten beyond doodles when it came to animation, so I was very nervous about this class. But Don made everyone feel at ease with his warm personality and conversational style. Everyone was given a choice of four scenes to animate, all involving a bird character named Jake. Two scenes involved flying, and two involved hopping. I ended up with a flying scene. It all looked very hard to begin with but as the week went on things slowly came into focus. He showed us how to start with a layout of the scene as a rough guide, and how to plan for a panning move with the camera. Most importantly, he explained the use of the X-sheet for planning. To my surprise this was new even to the CG animators in attendance. I guess it’s just as well that I didn’t know any better, because it all started making sense immediately (In flying, we do a flight plan on paper, plan for fuel, work out timing- it’s actually very similar).

Click to play the scene I animated!

By the end of the week we had all finished a 3-4 second animated scene- WOW! It was really amazing to see my drawings MOVE! Don was so encouraging, I have the confidence to try more of this animation thing! I really love drawing, so it’s natural that I would prefer traditional animation. But even the CG students admitted that they learned a ton at this workshop. In summary, I would highly recommend considering attending this class not only to meet a master of traditional animation, but to improve your own animation and maybe even learn some skills that are quickly becoming a lost art.

MDR

Link Roundup

My classmates have started blogging about their experience, too! I will add more as they become available.

Lavalle Lee

Nate Horsfall

Janice Rosenthal

More »