Wish I'd been there. I found this post at:
with Karl Cohen and Denise
http://cablecartoon.blogsome.com/Richard Williams’ two shows at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco were a big success as ASIFA-SF benefits, and were delightful, enlightening and inspiring to attendees. Here’s just a few goodies we gleaned from the animation legend’s appearance:
—According to "Disney Old Man" Milt Kahl, everything you need to know about lipsync can be learned from watching Kermit the Frog.
—Warner Bros. animator Ken Harris was a great dance animator (see A Bear for Punishment) because he could dance well himself.
—These days, Williams tries not to think about The Thief and The Cobbler, his great, unfinished feature. (He also doesn’t think much about motion capture, for very different reasons.)
—He’s an Artist, not a Businessman, so when his studio was poached for talent after Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, he was actually relieved by the downsizing. "The Rabbit saved my life!" he said.
—The secret to his creativity is relentless research. Before animating anything Williams swipes, studies, copies and cadges what he needs from relevant source material. Or, as he quoted actor Michael Caine, "If you see something you like, steal it!"
—His animated logo for The Animator’s Survival Kit: Animated is two minutes long and required nine months of production.
—The best time to be an animator, he says, "Is right now! You can actually make a living, raise a family and have a life, the technology is exploding (although he thinks CGI is more like hi-tech puppeteering than animation) and there are more opportunities than ever!"
The one thing that Richard Williams did not discuss, but alluded to throughout the evening, is his next project, a personal work that harkens back to his roots which has been gestating for 50 years. What is that project? When will it be released? He wasn’t telling. But he’s doing virtually all the work himself, with only an assistant and a compositor to polish his animation. "It’s far out, it’s shocking, and I don’t know if anyone will care about it. But I need to do it."
Well, we all need to see it, Mr. Williams, and we’re waiting anxiously for its completion. Best of luck and Godspeed!
POSTED BY CALIFORNIAKID ON 11.04.08 @ 6:13 PM | 0 COMMENTS
And some photos from Annecy ..
with John Canemaker
http://sprockets.animationblogspot.com/Photos from the 2D or Not 2D animation festival, courtesy of our friend Tony White.
http://www.plexipixel.com/2dornot2d/AND SO IT BEGINS!
The 2008 “2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival” kicked off to a fabulous start last night with its superlative ‘preview event’… the RICHARD WILLIAMS masterclass lecture at the DigiPen Institute of Technology main campus in Redmond, WA.
As Richard Williams' own assistant in the formative years of my career, I was both proud and delighted to share with the audience something of this great teacher's infectious knowledge and charisma.
Richard Williams is undoubtedly the world’s most knowledgeable animator alive today. He captivated the 100+ professional audience that filled the Plato lecture theater with stories of his life, his animation universe and his hilarious encounters with many of Disney’s legendary ‘Nine Old Men’. His seamless presentation of a number of the core principles of animation was inspirational too of course.
Dick explains his hilarious 'pitcher' action sequence from one of the DVD lectures.
The seemingly tireless 75 year old master of animation had already conducted two private sessions to DigiPen students on the art campus earlier that day and yet he rose to the occasion in the evening with a tireless presentation of his captivating material, easily exceeding the 90-minute time slot that had been originally anticipated. The audience was full of admiration and enthusiasm when Dick opened the floor to Q&A throughout his talk and shared his impromptu advice and amusing anecdotal story illustrations in response. He actually remarked to me afterwards how intelligent and well informed he thought the Redmond animators were.
Dick explains the principle of forward motion with anticipation.
Central to Richard Williams’ presentation was the launch of his fabulous and unprecedented 16-disk, boxed DVD series of lectures and demonstrations that has effectively brought his firmly established ‘bible’ of animation… “The Animator’s Survival Kit”… to animated life. Initially planned as a 3-month animation exercise with filmed lectures added, the project took several years to complete. The result of this selfless dedication to spreading the word of top-level animation techniques is a remarkable lecture series collection of just about everything anyone would ever want to know about animation at the very highest level of its expression.
(Boxed sets of “The Animator’s Survival Kit ~ ANIMATED” can be ordered at the “2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival” with a 20% discount from the listed price if a minimum of 20 orders can be generated at the event!)
A limited number of "The Animator's Survival Kit ~ ANIMATED" promo DVDs will be given-out as prizes during festival events.
Those privileged enough to hear Richard Williams speak last night clearly went away in awe of this animation master’s knowledge, as well as his undeniable skill in the art of animation. I am sure that every animator present also went away with a renewed determination to raise their game in terms of their own skills… but also with a greater appreciation of the fine artform that animation will forever be with inspirational masters like Richard Williams at its helm. The future looks very assured for the animation industry if this effect is felt wherever “The Animator’s Survival Kit ~ ANIMATED” DVD lecture series… or indeed the great man himself… are seen!
The maestro answers questions from an extremely well-informed audience, including several ex-Disney artists and animators who now teach at DigiPen.
No-doubt too, attendees at this event can now but only wonder what the other amazingly talented speakers appearing at the main festival event on November 14th/15th will have to offer. Richard Williams will be a hard act to follow but I have absolutely no doubts whatsoever there will be further wonders to dazzle and inspire us all when the time comes!
Tony. :^{)}=-
And from this blog:
http://www.imageswithin.com/blog/I attended the noon presentation of Richard Williams, author of The Animator’s Survival Kit and animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
He showed various clips from his new DVD set The Animator’s Survival Kit - Animated and answered a couple of questions. It was an informative presentation and entertaining. There were some animation techniques that had not occurred to me that made sense, specially after watching the clip.
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