Stephen Silver
The first artist I've known. He was also the reason why I had a dream of becoming an animator by watching his video of sketching and designing Kim Possible.
Stephen Silver was the lead character designer of Kim Possible. As a big fan of Kim Possible's art and design, I was obsessed with his art and sketches. Stephen Silver had tons of character sheets with different character studies. He had sketches including Kim Possible's proportions, Ron Stoppable, Rufus, Drakken and Shego. He also designed some of the villains and henchmen in the series. He was unbelievably talented.
The idea of Kim's layered hair and her baggy pants was his idea. His way of communicating to other artists was another, he had podcasts and several interviews which mentions a lot of advices for young artists. Stephen Silver will always be the first artist that made me drive crazy over traditional drawings or 2D drawings and sketched.
His way of sketching and drawing with personality has caught my attention. He had this unique style of character designing which was easy to distinguish from other artists. When I was younger, I was absentmindedly influenced with his style of drawing. What makes him different among the other artists is that he has a good understanding of how young artists grow. He was willing to pass on his knowledge with art to some artists who wanted to be an animator or a professional artist someday. His podcast was always ready for listeners and audience. Despite of becoming a busy animator, he was always available for questions through his website or email. I remembered I was able to talk to him through email, he told me a lot of college issues when it comes to art. He said that it didn't matter if you have to study another course (not related to arts) as long you will always find time to draw for your own entertainment. And that if I wanted to attend any art school or animation studios, the courses aren't that essential. It was fortunate to have a talk with him.
He also animated the The Clerks: Animated Series.
Not only a Disney Animator, but he had his own studio named Silvertoons. Currently, he teaches students with figure drawings and character developments. I've seen several works of his students by doing the 'Before and After' images. He also did some lectures and discussion with the class. By the way, he had his app for artists out there named Posebook App. It's an app where you can see poses from models that you can draw and experiment out the shapes. Whether boy or girl, young or old; he designed it for every artists.
Stephen Silver was also involved with some of animations such as Phineas and Ferb. I saw some of his character design styles while I was watching some episodes of Phineas and Ferb. If you ever loved drawing, look up to him!
Mark Crilley
His popularity in Youtube was known in some artists. He was best known for his comic books such as Miki Falls and Brody's Ghost. Yes, he is not an animator but his manga and anime style of drawings are a hit! His time-lapsed and real time videos were very popular among Youtubers. We all know anime and manga was widely popular among teenagers and some artists, so - here, Mark Crilley does his own tutorials with drawing anime characters or whatnot. His videos in Youtube almost ranges to million views, thus breaking a record of million subscribers. According to his instagram post, he just received an award for hitting million subscribers. Wow, that's many.
He also wrote a book called Mastering Manga, and then the book 2, Mastering Manga 2. In those books, he wrote several notes and tutorials. The clothes, proportions, character designs, perspective angles, feet and many more. And, not only does he do tutorials with anime characters, he does drawings of realism. His video of drawing pieces of cards was the heck challenge! He also showed tutorials with drawing dragons and drawing realistic hands. Even animals. According to what he said in a particular video, he barely draws fan arts such as Naruto. Recently he drew Anna, Elsa, Sora and Link; which was a hit. Ultimately, he does Question and Answer videos, so ask anything in his Q&A videos and there might be possibilities of having a reply. Mark Crilley's talent was known among artists, his accuracy of drawing and shadings were impressive.
What makes Mark Crilley different from other artists is that he has a wide range of knowledge of proportions and angles. Not only does he do characters but also backgrounds. Another that makes him different is his sense of humor. During his tutorials, he'd randomly mimic a voice from someone else and whatnot.
Everybody knows why his style was more into manga and anime because he taught English and lived in Japan. Not to mention his wife is a Japanese.
According to him, he started doing tutorials when his son started taking a video of his baby sister. Shocked that they had a video cam, he took an advantage to film his drawings and post it online.
His viewers were also fond of his line every after his tutorials which was, "I'll be back with another one...real soon."
I first found Mark Crilley when I was searching for some videos with drawing manga hair since I had difficulties with drawing hair strands. And I was surprised that I managed to find a video that taught the exact thing that I wanted to learn. From then on, I started subscribing and then it goes on and on. I subscribed to Mark Crilley's channel after learning a lot from his videos. Yes, I'm one of the subscribers. I was also lucky to get to watch his interview with Evan Burse who owns the CartoonBlock channel which was by the way another cool tutorial channel.
It was also amazing that he managed to manipulate shadows and lines in his drawings. He draws neatly even with the guidelines. Even his guidelines are measured and are neatly drawn with a ruler! It was amazing how he planned all the guidelines in order to draw what he wanted.
There was also a video about "Comparing your artwork with another artwork.". It was actually a Question and answer videos that showed questions from several youtubers. And then he shows some of his background drawings in his sketchbook while he answers the questions. His sketchbook was amazing, I was the type of person who would fall in love with character designs or any drawings that involve people. But in his case, I eventually fell in love with landscapes and backgrounds. He drew backgrounds perfectly with his ballpen and just did some whish-whoosh-whish-whoosh. He captured the whole scene perfectly, I think I sat in front of the laptop, gaping.
I also heard that he attended some comic-cons and other conventions and does lectures. One of Mark Crilley's amazing videos is his video about comparing Anime or manga proportions with Disney proportions. It made it clear how big the difference was between Japan animation with American animation. But then, drawing would always be drawings and they're all considered art. Who cares if you draw anime or you draw Disney. Try searching Mark Crilley on Youtube and you'll see what I mean. He's unbelievably a talented artist.
Mark Henn
Here's another animator who has been a part of my childhood since he animated Jasmine, Belle, Tiana, Ariel, Anna, Aurora or Sleeping Beauty, Young Simba, Winnie the Pooh and more.
Mark Henn's style was very cool since he always focused with actions and how the character moves. There must be a reason behind why most of the time, he animated the Disney Princess who holds huge roles in some of the movies. Recently he just animated Anna from Disney's Frozen which was by the way addicting to watch him animate the characters in a traditional style along with Jin Kim. His character designs with the characters tells a lot about their personality and yes, you can tell that their face shapes and smiles are all the same, but the eyes, I guess they're not. Their eyes tell a lot from how they express their feelings and how they react to things.
His unique style of designing characters through personality was also fascinating. I guess he a lot like similar with Andreas Deja. Only Andreas animates the villains such as Jafar from Aladdin while Mark Henn animates the main characters. Mark Henn was always in team with Glen Keane with regards of the characters. They were the representatives of designing the toddler versions of the Disney Princesses for toys and doll designs. Not only with Glen Keane but as well with Andreas Deja. The three animators were together when they explored and surveyed the Disney park that was recently built. When these three animators collaborate, it's a fascinating era of animation.
Jin Kim
This animator, hands down, one of the best animators. His works are just tremendously amazing and his sketches are very astounding. Although graduating with a course of economics, he had a huge chance of becoming an animator in Disney. His works include Bolt, Wreck-it Ralph, Tangled, Frozen and more. His skill of being able to capture the exact expressions of the character is what makes him a very interesting guy. I haven't heard any lectures or whatever from him but I scanned and studied his drawings and character designs. It was indeed, by far, amazing. He's like one of the most inspiring artists!
His wide knowledge of expressions and reactions were unbelievable. He could play with expressions quite well where it'll look pretty and at the same time, meaningful. every expression he draws are very essential since it captures the character's personality. Example would be Flynn Rider or Eugene's expressions above. The details of his expressions tells a lot in his character and at the same time you can tell he has a very comical personality. You can distinguish his absentminded expressions and thinking expressions like they were real. Probably that's the whole meaning of animation, you draw things that instantly becomes real to the audience. Audience wouldn't even notice these expressions.
One of the most popular characters this year is Frozen's Elsa. Never forget that Jin Kim has been involved with Elsa's character development. The picture above depicts different emotions of the queen. Even if the movie hasn't shown Elsa being haughty, Jin Kim managed to play with his expressions and turned her into a haughty and plumpy woman. He took advantage with her fabulous hair and her attention catching eyes.
Not only Elsa, but Anna, Kristoff, Sven, Olaf and some of the characters are one of his works. his amazing talents with distinguishing different expressions were well displayed in some of his drawings. In the picture above, Jin Kim has showed range of expression of Anna. Almost all audience knew Anna was a funny type. It would be fun to play with her dorky expressions and emphasizing more of her personality. If Elsa was very sophisticated and has poise, Anna has a dorky personality which is a less value of a princess. Jin Kim took an advantage of emphasizing each of their attitudes. If you would compare Elsa's development with Anna's, Anna has much more weird and dorky expressions. There you could see their personalities.
Other than that, Jin Kim has also done Vanellope and Bolt. Try searching Jin Kim and believe me, you'll eventually gape at the screen.
Andreas Deja
Another animator who has been a part of my childhood. The animator of some Disney villains such as Queen Narissa, Jafar, Scar, Gaston, and more. Not only Disney villains, bu he also animated Hercules, Mama Oddie Trident, and Lilo.
He is a Polish-born German American Animator and had a dream when he was younger to be an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. According to him in an interview, he had a dream of becoming an animator at Walt Disney Studios but the only problem was his fluency in English. He didn't quite understood what Eric Larson talked about with regards of his work which is why he doubted his dream.
What makes him a cool animator is that he was able to shift personalities quickly. According to him, he needed a sudden shift of characters from villains to main characters. When animating villains, it was a bit difficult for him to start animating Lilo from Lilo and Stitch. Andreas Deja animated evil and haughty characters and then he swifts into animating a girl who is innocent and very childish-like. That was a tough issue for an animator since you were able to understand the whole villain concept and then animating a innocent character. He also animated Tigger from Winnie The Pooh. Tigger who has the hyper personality was another thing to study.
Andreas Deja also has a good understanding of some beginners or artists who wanted to pursue the dream of becoming an animator. He shares that everything will come as long as we wait and be persistent. He tells that previously, he had doubts with his dream. That he wasn't capable of becoming an animator at Walt Disney. But his persistence was the key. His works were well noticed by some professional animators at Walt Disney at that time, earning him a job at Walt Disney.
Try and search Andreas Deja. His works and quotes are very motivating.
Glen Keane
Glen Keane, HANDS DOWN, the best animator for me. Glen Keane was known for his animations of Ariel, Pocahontas, The
Beast, Tarzan, Aladdin, John Silver and Rapunzel. Not only is he part of
my childhood but part of my motivations as well; he continued to
inspire a lot of artists out there who wanted to pursue animation as
their career - I'm one of them.
Glen Keane has a wide
understanding of his fellow artists and he gives a lot of advices and
lectures to some schools and artists, which is why I love how he
connected with some other artists.
What makes him inspiring is that
he has this love for characters so deep. He doesn't see his characters
as mere drawings but instead, he thought of these characters as real.
Like they were breathing and had souls in them.
As he mentioned in
some of his interviews, he always loved characters which had this
burning desire in them. I always thought it was a better way of
understanding your character; thriugh feelings and emotions.
After
hearing Jodi Benson's Part Of Your World, he mentioned that he wanted
to animate Ariel at that point because Jodi's way of singing has brought
him to the point that,
what does it feel to be part of another world where you can breathe air, not water?
I guess that perspective of Glen's was another thing I loved the most, he's very intuitive and follows what he wants.
He
wanted to draw Ariel because she wants the impossible. Ariel has this
impossible dream to walk around the sand, breathe air and dance like
every other humans. Glen Keane said that he enjoyed animating Part Of
Your World because it was an emotional scene where she expresses her
feelings through a song.
That was an evidence that Glen was passionate towards his work which I really adore.
"When I was drawing Ariel, I was thinking about my wife. So, I understood this wasn't a job. it was a passion."
For
the Beast, he said that it was almost impossible to design a character
to which would make the audience convinced that Belle was able to fall
in love with an ugly beast. While in Paris, he designed Beast into
different parts - ears of a calf, brows of a gorilla, mane of a lion,
horns of a bull, goatee of a goat, the fangs of a wolf, and the eyes of a
human.
Having
Ollie Johnston as his mentor, who was known as an emotional animator
because he animates character with his heart and how he felt, managed to
nurture the value of drawing or animating characters with your heart.
According to some interview, Glen Keane wasn't influenced by Ollie's
emotional behavior towards animation but it was a thing he found for
himself and then started developing it as he animates more characters in
the future.
Glen Keane had also mentioned that he had a small
talk with Eric Larson with regards of seeing the scene in the head and
feeling what the scene is trying to portray.
Eric
explains that before you animate a scene, you have to plan the scene in
your head. Glen replies, "No, I don't see it.". Much confident with his
answer, this is where we explain how different Glen was than the other
animators. Eric told him that it is impossible to not see the scene in
your head. But Glen argued that he couldn't see the scene. Eric Larson
was known as an analytical animator and was much more into reasons than
feelings. I guess that's what divides the kinds of animators.
Either you are analytical or intuitive.
"All
you can do sometimes is just press harder on your pencil to try to make
the drawing express what you're feeling in your heart, and you hope
that the audience can feel it as they're looking at it."
Apart
from the Beast and Ariel, Tarzan was another emotional character.
Despite being a part of the gorilla family, Glen made an astounding work
with animating Tarzan during his emotional scene where he finds out he
had parents and was never a part of the gorilla family, also the scene
where he starts to fall in love with Jane. Glen said in some interviews
that he had to study more anatomy to understand Tarzan's movements since
he would move like an ape during the movie; how he walks, run, and
swing through the vines. He studied more into muscles and how an ape
would move.
"The scene where Tarzan meets Jane. It's a scene where he finds someone like him."
When
animating characters, he said that he used his family as inspirations.
Ariel was his wife because she resembles her way of biting her lips.
Tarzan resembles his son, Max because he was hyper and would go
whish-whoosh, Rapunzel resembles his daughter, Claire because she always
wanted to paint the walls and cielings which Glen points that her wife
refused to let a six yearld old child drawing on their walls, and the
Beast as himself which probably resembles him because of his different
sides similar to the Beast's.
"You have to believe in
your character, find out how much is really you on the screen. So, every
film I've worked on the first stage is to immerse myself so deeply into
the character that it becomes me."
Glen Keane
mentions that sincerity is the key to animating or drawing. Being true
to yourself and to your character makes it all believable and real. Glen
Keane always believed that it if he has to choose between pretty and
real; he'd choose real. It doesn't matter whether the character looks
ugly in a scene as long as the character's feelings are real.
He
had mentioned something about the scene where Rapunzel was shedding
tears when Eugene was about to die. That scene, according to Glen, was
the most difficult scene in Tangled. Rapunzel had to shed tears but
would still look attracting in that scene - but Glen Keane believed that
he needed to maintain the character's feelings towards the climax of
her love, dying. This is where Glen's abilities of being in touch with
his characters occur. His amazing skills of turning drawings to real was
widely known not only in the public but as well in the Walt Disney
Animation Studios, which is why he became a Disney Legend.
"I'd say this is your moment on Earth to be an artist."
Drawing
is his greatest joy, he says. He draws things that he knows. Things
that are real to him. This was also the reason why he was able to make
the audience believe that these characters are real and has this dream
inside of them.
"Animation
is never as good as when I'm sat at that desk drawing.Even when it's up
on the screen, it's never as wonderful as those moments when it was
drawn to me."
If we don't have something that comes
from inside the soul, we'll be tempted to accept something much easier,
he says. He also said something about not acting throughout the
character, it's about putting yourself into work which makes it more
believable than his characters are genuinely true.
"You
could have been born at the Renaissance and we'd have been talking
about sculpture. Today, we're talking about animation. But that doesn't
mean you aren't every bit the artist that those men back in the
Renaissance would have been.
"
Not only Glen Keane was a great actor or animator, he was an inspiration to every artists out there.
Thanks Glen Keane for being a part of my childhood and for being a motivation!
Currently,
he has resigned in Disney and is now working at the Motorola. He has
been planning for his small company which is named
Glen Keane Productions, but hasn't talked about yet nor broadcasted it publicly.
-MASTERPANDA17
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