Tuesday, January 6, 2009

One of many ruff inbetweens I did of the character Rutt from the film "Brother Bear"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

this was a gorgeous movie, where did his antlers go?:)

Leslie

Patrick Tuorto said...

Hi Leslie,

The antlers were CG and where traced over with pencil in the clean-up stage. A real pain in the but!

Patrick

Anonymous said...

Loving it! Lets see more!! Since Bro Bear was florida's last feature did you feel dis-motivated at all?? I would of felt miserable! The film turned out great, i think, and should of been BIGGER!!

Rachel

Patrick Tuorto said...

Thanks Rachel,
Didn't feel the least bit dis-motivated on Brother Bear. I was promoted twice on the show, as a ruff inbetweener and again as an animating assistant in Clean-Up.
I worked with a great crew on the main character of Kenei and the experience felt like it had when I started working for Disney seven years earlier.
After "Brother Bear", we found out that the Florida Studio was definitely going to shut down.
Most of us felt sadness for a little while, but animation studio's like Pixar, Dreamworks, BlueSky and number of smaller Flash studios around the country are the airs to Disney Animation. Many of us moved on in those directions including myself and I foresee an ever-evolving bright future for the art form.

Patrick :o)

Anonymous said...

Thanks Patrick, that makes sense. I just hope the traditional medium is able to return very strongly. I am a big fan of 3D, but there's a different sort of magic about 2d that I can't express. Nothing overrides pencil 2 paper!!

Technical question if I may -- line work quality I presume was important..how long did it take to become comfortable with it?? As trainees, did you undergo any specific training to hone your clean up skills? or is it simply practice?!

Thank you!

Rachel

Patrick Tuorto said...

Hi Rachel,

I agree with you about the "different sort of magic" of 2-D animation compared with 3-D. I to am a fan of 3-D. "The Incredibles" is one of the best films I've seen period.
As proven, there's a place for all mediums, 3-D, 2-D, Clay-Mation, ect. As long as the stories fit the project.
I think a story like "The Lion King" was tailor made for 2-D and a story like "Cars" was made with 3-D in mind. Not to say these stories wouldn't be successful the other way around.

Line quality is important, but I never thought it was the end all be all. Probably because my line quality would be considered below average if compared to my colleges, "in my opinion"
Some artists took line quality more seriously than others. To me it really didn't matter because the drawings you do are on the screen for a split second. But others would contend with that opinion and the debate continues to go on.

In training, it was both specific training and practice. Basically the twelve principles of animation, and other classes helpful in learning the art form. This was followed up with a kind of "thesis" project for a final grad. Than you crossed your fingers and hoped you made the cut!

But it's also good if your assigned a great mentor. A mentor works with you for the duration of your training. I was fortunate to have an great mentor, her name is Vur Rue, but she answered to Za.
Za was passionate about bringing out the best quality work that I could achieve at the time. She is a tremenduose animator and a masterful painter as well. I think she was better than any other of the mentors that were assigned. I have to credit her with allot of what I know today.

Patrick