Weekly Projects: One Page of Sketches for each of the 5 major art production houses.

Final project will be a tearsheet and a storyboard. See a sample here >> and here >>

This course will study the Artwork of Five Major Production Animation Houses:

Southern CA: Los Angeles:

1. Disney 1930 - 2005
   Dualistic characters (good vs evil)
   Male/Female heroes and heroines
   Humans and Animals
   Soft Humor - General Audience

   

2. Warner Bros - 1940-50 - 2005
   Looney Toons, DCComics, Scooby Doo, Harry Potter, The WB
   Looney Toons - Mostly animals - people are secondary
   Wackier than Disney - irreverent
   More humorous - slapstick

   The above, Disney Studios and Warner Brothers, are the "grandparents" of the following three tremendously successful production houses, and the great-grandparents of many others. Fortunately for us, the three most successful are all in the SF Bay Area...

Northern CA: San Francisco Bay Area

1. Pixar/Disney - 1980 - 2005
   Toy Story 1 & 2
   A Bugs Life
   Monster's Inc.
   Finding Nemo
   The Incredibles
   Cars

   

2. PDI Dreamworks - 1980 - 2005 (Spielburg)
   ANTZ
   Shrek 1 & 2
   Shark Tale
   Madagascar
   Over the Hedge
   Flushed Away

   

3. ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) - George Lucas - LucasFilms - 1980 - 2005
   STARWARS - Science Fiction
   Main characters are People
   Secondary characters are robots, aliens, critters

All of these production houses require the services of artists who are classically trained as all-around traditional artists and illustrators. The distillation of this expertise is reflected in the design of their animated cartoon characters and backgrounds, and it is measured by the success of their productions in the world marketplace. Their profound influence on American as well as global culture cannot be overstated.

Each one of these production houses is a world unto itself; we will only have time to scratch the surface of their hundreds of characters and films. But, the approach that we take will be a template for future study.

Project Assignment

The project assignment is to choose a character from each production house, one per week for the next five weeks. You are going to focus on one character, and become expert on that one character. In the real world, production artists and illustrators do not generally have to draw every character in a film or game - they are assigned a character, and have the responsibility of becoming familiar enough with that particular character to draw him in every angle and position. For this reason, every production is a team effort! Remember that for every character that makes it to the silver screen, many hundreds of ideas and concepts fall by the wayside. We are only looking at the very few that survived.

At the end of five weeks, you will have enough drawings done to create a sample page or "tearsheet" - a self-promotional brochure, a mini-portfolio, of your work to show or mail to art directors and hiring managers.
See a sample here >> and here >>

HOW TO DRAW - DRAWING FUNDAMENTALS