CAN: Cincinnati Animation Network

Hey guys- as everyone is freaking out about the holidays and getting gifts together for family and friends I am taking a moment to think about goals for the new year- mine usually involve learning more, getting business stuff done that I need to do, Getting cooler jobs, trying to buy equipment that would make my life easier, and trying to do things to keep my life enriched because that stuff feeds the creativity. So for a moment screw others lets think about ourselves as artists shall we <3 Ok, or be a better person and also consider your friends for these too :P Groupon contacted me because they exist for people like us, so I went looking to see what they have that would be useful for animators. And omg I found about a thousand things from art supplies to cheap tickets to art museums to affordable website building (and coupons for toys, ahem- I mean collectibles). I narrowed it down a lot, it's easy to get sucked into their site. Here's what I found Resolution1: I...

He's probably trying to sell her an explainer video. Business Proposals and Marriage Proposals have similarities. They are both an offer that will hopefully lead to a leap of faith in the form of a "yes" on the proposee's part. The proposer puts thought into the presentation and tries to emphasize the positive in order to influence a "yes."   When saying yes to a marriage proposal, the target is trusting that you will be awesome to be married to and that you will not waste the life you are requesting. And in a project proposal, the target is trusting that you will be awesome at completing the project you are proposing and that you will not waste the money you're requesting.  Before any money changes hands or work starts there needs to be a proposal at least. The proposal is like a contract, only it's more informal. I tend to use proposals, but if I were dealing with larger projects where my risk is greater I would use a contract. Contrac...

So last night a bunch of animation folks squeezed into Flaming Medusa Studios to talk about art business stuff for 2 hours. I shall attempt to recap what was said for those who couldn't make it.  I expect after this is done it will be a pretty handy post for anyone who is starting freelancing. David Hartz (animator, fire sculptor, and professor of animation at UC Blue Ash) was also awesome enough to come and he was very helpful with providing his insight as well. And we begin. I have been hanging out with lawyers a little so let me also say that I am not a CPA or MBA or Lawyer so this is just based on my experience, but I'm no expert. I'm just telling you what I do. 1) INVOICES Invoices are important. If you are working as a freelancer or independent contractor (same thing) on a project you must give the client an invoice in order to get paid.  You don't get automatic paychecks if you're a freelancer like you would as an employee. I have had artists no...

Posemaniacs - I went to Christina Wald's class at NKU last week and had a nice time- we were talking about drawing and gesture drawing and one of the students mentioned this website- I checked it out and it looks pretty useful. There are timed poses that you can use to practice gesture drawing at home, and the figures are flayed so you can see their musculature. Also you are able to rotate the figure as needed to understand better why certain things look the way they do-  and enable or disable a grid overlaying the image. Very cool! Do you have any drawing reference sites that you like to use? www.posemaniacs.com PIXELovely - this site has a timed setting as well as the option to choose nude or clothed figures, and it also has a section on animals!  The site is also working on getting enough donated to start a section based on practicing hands and feet, which would be great as well. http://artists.pixelovely.com/ Figure Drawing Reference on Tumblr - ...

I came across this video from 1922 that was an early color film test done by Kodak on  Slate . " This clip is a very early, full-color Kodachrome film made by Kodak in 1922 to test new film stock and color processing. It is a lovely little four-and-a-half minutes of pretty actresses gesturing for the camera. The color and lighting are exquisite—all warm reds with flattering highlights—making it a purely enjoyable thing to watch." It's not only gesturing though, it is acting using expression and motion. Seeing it in color really brings it to life and, for me, highlights the difference between expression then and expression now as well as how much can be conveyed without words.  The article also has a link to a  DVD  that is an analysis of body language in film which looks pretty cool as well.