Animation Reading List... Go Educate Yourself

In the interests of learning my craft I personally own a couple of books on the subject of animation,
Including

• The Animators Survival Kit 
• A Guide to Walt Disney from Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdom
  and
• Creativity Inc.

I hope to soon be increasing my meagre collection to include 

• The Illusion of Life 
• The Art of Pixar
• Cartoon Animation
• Drawn to Life (Volumes 1 and 2) 
• The Art of Animation 
• Character Animation Crash Course
• The Art of Spirited Away
• Layout and Background (The Disney Archive Series) 
• Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation
• The Art of Dreamworks Animation 
• The Art of the Disney Princess
• The Art of Blue Sky Studios
• Disney Dossiers: Files of Character from the Walt Disney Studios

The list is near on endless!

But that's a few to choose from to get a newbie started.

Unfortunately, Animation books all seem to be at the pricier end of the scale so, in the meantime, I make sure that I keep up to date on current animating events and news and partake in topical discussions by subscribing to and reading several animating blogs. 

My favourites include 

• The 11 Second Club
• The Animation Anomaly 
• Animation Scoop New Home
• Cartoon Brew
• The Disney Times
• The Pixar Times
• On Animation
  and
• Animation Physics 

I really think that I am going to get my book list done in the Hogwarts Acceptance Letter and Book List style one day :) 

It's the simple things in life that make you happiest. 

Tony DeRosa and the Essence of a Real Leading Lady

On my personal Facebook I follow a Disney Animators page and, every so often, on that page they have a Featured Artist instalment where they talk briefly about their career in animation and also have a quick snippet interview.
I really wanted to share the latest one, which was on Tony DeRosa.

Tony has worked on so many movies that we all know and love
(Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid, if I could be so coy as to name drop here) 
and whilst the likes of Glen Keane and Andreas Deja, who also worked on these pieces, went on to become household names (albeit in houses with aspiring animators or general Disney fanatics), Tony's name is one you hear far less often.

It's undeniable that the guy has done a lot of great work and been involved in a lot of great movies, but what, and who, I wanted to talk about more specifically today was Nakoma.

I feel that Nakoma has GOT to be one of the most underrated characters to ever be produced by a Disney movie.
Whilst I loved the premise of the Pocahontas story, and absolutely loved the amazing score, I found the two protagonists of the movie to be completely lack lustre and entirely unengaging.
In fact, for the majority of the movie John Smith and Pocahontas seem to be pulling pained faces at each other whilst running round the woods - Not entirely unlike a certain sparkly vampire movie's two wooden leads with limited facial expressions.
      ...psst. I meant Edward and Bella from Twilight, just encase you missed the dig!
       Which is odd, because I actually liked the books and films - damn peer pressure, mucking with acceptable ships! 

As a leading lady I found Pocahontas herself to be entirely lacking. 
Now Nakoma on the other hand, well, that girl is an entirely different story!
She's dynamic, engaging and appealing. She's got the sort of self assured confidence that every woman wants and every girl should aspire to have and, of course, let us not forget the damn sass that just oozes out of that woman. Nakoma has a wide and well executed range of believable emotions, something I don't think that you could ever accuse Pocahontas of and, for that, I think that she outshines the lead and steals the show and, vicariously through her, so does Tony DeRosa

And just before I go, here's a little bit of love for a real leading lady.

Where It All Begins And What It's All About

Hiya!
My name's Lol (Offical Title of The Lady Lauren of Glencairn - There's a story behind that, that I'll tell you another time) and I'm starting this blog to track my progress and development in the world of art and story telling and in my personal mission to STORM the Castle.
- Because, let's be honest, if you aren't aiming for the castle or the moon, then you clearly don't have high enough aspirations and you're not going to GET to either of these places. Anyway, more on this in another post.

A couple of months ago I got accepted onto the Animation Degree course at De Montfort University in Leicestershire.
Below are some scans of a few of the pieces that I submitted for my portfolio. A lot of it isn't my most polished work, but I chose pieces that I thought reflected my thought process in relation to creating stories through pictures and the range that I am capable of.
As part of the application process I also had to write a notoriously panic-attack-inducing, full-body-sweat-instigating, nail-bitter of a personal statement.

Now I don't mind telling you that I am extremely proud of the fact that I got on this course and I accredit a lot of my "Unconditional Offer", after a late application (to one of only 6 universities that do this course in the entirety of Good Ol' Blighty), without the usually mandatory interview,
to my Personal Statement.
Obviously I have no way to know for a fact what others have written for their personal statements, but here is a rough draft of what I expect the people reading through get.
       I have always loved ...{insert animated movie}... ever since I was little and knew that I wanted to make other kids as happy as this made me back in the day
Etc Etc, Yackedy Schmackedy.
So I figured, why not wake the person who's reading mine up a bit and I tried what I supposed might be a slightly less conventional route. 
    It went something along the lines of
           Exploration of strange and exotic locations, the beauty of which I can highlight to you, take you to all the best places to eat, show you the best spot to watch the sunrise from as the sun bleeds orange and pink in to the sky.
Dynamic and engaging characters to meet and introduce to others, that boy over there, with the down cast eyes and the unruly mass of curly blonde hair that glitters like gold when the sun catches it, kicking the pebbles so moodily across the road, holes at the knees of his jeans. You'd never think he'd be king one day, and I could tell you how that unlikely story happened.
Hidden depth within what would have previously been considered an everyday object with it's own rich and vibrant
history and a story just begging to be told.
I am very passionate about animation, and I find it easy to be so because I am a story teller,
a weaver of tales, and animation is one of the best formats to share my passions

(Daring Sword Fight's, A Prince In Disguise)

I decided to tell a story to hopefully capture their interest and, so far as I can tell, it worked.

Anyway, I digress (a bad habit of a life time that I don't quite think I'm ever going to be able to break).
For my first post I decided to highlight the absolute start of my journey into what I am going to be doing for the rest of my life.
Following this there'll be far more technical posts, plenty of sketches, pictures, photos and reviews (I actually saw Home the other day for my Birthday! - Again with the Digression here, see, I just can't help myself!)

But, Ideally, as well as a log for myself of my own progression, I hope that I might somehow be able to help and maybe inspire someone one day who wants to do what I am going to do and this is the start of that journey.

I hope, who ever you are Dear Reader, that you will enjoy this crazy ride with me.