January 4, 2009

Ryan Larkin Watches People "Walking"

In Oscar-nominated "Walking," Canadian animator Ryan Larkin uses a variety of drawing styles to capture the unique qualities of people in motion:

You can also watch "Walking" on the website for the National Film Board of Canada.

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January 2, 2009

Erica Russell's "Triangle" and "Feet of Song"

Animator Erica Russell created these hand-drawn dance animations which are among my favorites. I've tried contacting her but have not been successful. If you can help out, that would be great.

Triangle:

Also watch her "Feet Of Song."

Jeff Hasulo in a 2006 blog post wrote:

Movement, line, rhythm and dance all describe the beautiful work of Erica Russell. I first saw her work in an intro animation class and almost cried when seeing the pure abstractness of figural movement come alive. It was the same sort of feeling when I saw Ryan Larkin's, Walking, for the first time

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Ballet-Oop: A Dance Cartoon from 1954

Ballet-Oop is a 1954 animated dance cartoon from UPA (United Productions of America).

Miss Placement is forced by her ballet school owner to enter the class of young, inexperienced dancers into an upcoming ballet contest and there's practically no time to prepare. But Miss Placement does have her breaking point and she just might retaliate.

Click to watch Ballet-Oop:

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December 31, 2008

Hand-Drawn 2D Ballet Animation from Life Drawing Class

I've found a fascinating range of animation work from students in drawing, animation and design courses.

Here's "Ballet Dancer Warm-Ups" (2008) by Susan Chien. I've included her description of these two dance animations after the video.

The animations are hand-drawn and were compiled using stop-motion:

Her description from MyToons:

For my final project in my Life Drawing class, I thought that I'd do a short animation. This is two, combined animations that I did of a model that we had in class.

Tools Used: "Walnut" ink, watercolor brush, memo pad.

Styles: Mixed Media, 2D, Hand Drawn.

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