Monday, March 12, 2012

My Trip to LA - Day 2

Tuesday March 6
Tuesday was a very early morning.  We had to be up and ready to go by 7:45.  We went to the studio of Jeremy Lipking first.  It was a nice little studio and he had a ton of art books around.  The two key pieces of advice I took away from him was to not overwork yourself, and to get good at what you like to do.

Then we went to California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks to see Tony Pro who teaches there.  He had a lot to say and his paintings were pretty cool.  I took a lot away from his lecture.  He said to always be thinking about art.  That will help you improve even if you can't work on it.  So, always be thinking about how you would paint or draw something, even if you don't have the time or materials to do so.  You should also multitask.  When you go to do something kind of mindless, do something to help you with your art at the same time.  Draw while you're watching TV, read while you're in the bathroom.  It will help.  You need to have different creative outlets so you can take a break from your art when it's driving you crazy or you reach a block.  It can help you de-stress and find inspiration.  You need to know how light works and how color is mixed.  He also believes there are three levels of learning to art.  The first is learning how to do it, the second is learning your own style, and the third is learning what it is you want to say with your art.  Tony was super helpful.

The next visit was Disney Animation Studios!  Disney was a fun place to visit.  The studios were nice, and everyone seemed to have plenty of space to work.  We got to see a couple different steps that animated films have to go through and we learned about their trainee program.  Bill Perkins gave a little presentation.  He talked about how you need to do research.  In order to be creative and not tied down to your reference you should do your thumbnails first, then do your research, then make your final piece.  He talked about how he never gets a perfect piece made the first try, it takes many tries.  On the way out we ran into Randy Haycock and he took us to his office and talked to us about his work and his hopes for the future of 2D animation.  He showed us how sometimes pieces of 3D films are animated in 2D first to show the 3D artists what to do or aim for in a shot.  It was really cool to see.  Look him up on YouTube.


They had this big picture-thing up in the lobby from Tangled, and I realized that Rapunzel and I are the same height.  We have the same sized hands and feet, but she seems so much bigger!  It's the head.  It's definitely the head.  It's the only thing inside the building I could squeak a picture of since they had us sign NDAs.  It's the only thing up that was from an already released movie.

After that we took it easy, especially since we managed to stick around at Disney for an hour and a half longer than originally planned.  We went and ate dinner at Big Boy, they have really good burgers there.  Then we went back to the hotel.  It had been a very long day.  I took advantage of getting back earlier than we usually did the whole trip and slept.

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