Lightbox Notes

Also please let me know if you’d like your notes taken down. Or anything you’d like to contribute! This is
for personal use only:)

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Contact Artist Spreadsheets

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16WKAK_J7oDl_XkdaLV6n6rMqgc05T_8g5D
WwwSIeKPQ/edit#gid=0

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1niRPUaY49N01I75AAWgTAUXcv-BzTvSDHB
HmyMCJT3E/edit#gid=0

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J4e4GRWrlY1k4HRPJVv9lvet1Xafh8RAqkXX
dauNtKg/edit#gid=0

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17ODQ8XRsc3CrDTKHuz_Q7pwA936vEt5j3L
ebLYFewbo/edit#gid=0

Other Amazing People’s Notes

Michelle#0553​ ​33 Tips on Character Design Slides​ and ​Story Skills 5 Key Tips Notes
Alaura02#6052 ​33 Tips Character Design Notes​ (15/33)
Tashmon (ToyNerd#8706) ​33 Character Design Tips Notes
Tuna Bora ( tunamunaluna tml#9701) ​Lightbox Resources
Nessie (nessie#9269) ​Shop Talk 1 Notes
Perspective Pathways(#8311) ​Session Notes Post​ and ​Notes
Kami#9531 ​DTVA Notes
Persephinnie#1005 ​DTVA Notes​ and ​Pitch Jam Notes
Insta @garnetdraws ​Creating the Illustrated Novel Notes
Sofia Mallo#1884 ​Disney Portfolio Notes​ and ​John Burton Notes​ and ​Disney VisDev Notes
danielle_lyra#5018 ​Biodegradable Supply Links
Donavonmadethat#3936 ​Sam Neilson Notes
Cypress Frankenfeld (discord username pending...) ​Art Transition from Engineer Notes
MariGolt #4192 ​Victoria Ying Notes​ and D
​ isney Directing Notes​ and ​Disney TVA Vis-Dev Notes
and​ Djamila Knopf Portfolio Notes
Zzun#6827 ​Portfolio Notes​ and ​Illustrating a Picture Book Notes
menuli#0599 ​Djamila Knopf Portfolio Checklist
Kiana Khansmith (Insta @kianamai) ​Growing Your Following
Sandino Sanchez ​Google Drive Lightbox Notes
mattwattsart#3869 ​Pushing Character Poses Notes
starbiit#6117 ​Lightbox Notes Compilation Notion

In Lightbox Website
Outdoor Gouache PDF
Develop Style Slideshow

Streams
AngieTheCat#0274 ​Lightbox Playlist
Creating the Illustrated Novel
Making a Living Off Personal Art
Boost Your Story Skills with These 5 Key Tips
Lighting for Stylized Characters
Pitch Jam Live
Portrait Shading ErgoJosh
Advice for Artists Armand Baltazar
Netflix(RSVP to get recording via e-mail)
Story
Art
CG
Production Management
Everything You Wanted to Know About Feature Animation
Artist to Art Director
Creating Cinematic Mood, Storytelling, and Composition
Draftsmen Podcast Q+A
Pushing Character Poses
 Day 1

Nick Hiatt (Star Wars) and Patrick O’Keefe (Spiderverse)

- Networking, you need people to trust to navigate the industry
- O’Keefe: Games and Ads → Animation Industry
- Spiderverse, enjoy everything in the making, have fun
- Keep pushing, keep exploring
- Hiatt uses screen pages to make work
- Working under pressure is a great skill set to have
- O’Keefe’s Course
- Hiatt’s Course
- KitBash3D Summer Bundle Sale
- Contest (Can’t find the link rn)

Blue Sky Storyboarding Steph Waldo and Esteban Bravo

- Esteban​: Tech de Monterrey general Animation program, but then wanted to study story
(liked playing w/ concept more → story artist), then studied at ​Ringling
- Esteban Bravo did the short film ​“In a Heartbeat”

- Steph: ​Illustrator + Graphic Design, teacher noticed she thumbnail a lot so became
interested in storyboards
- Took CGMA class, CTN rejected her(?) then went to CalArts
- Also studied in ​Rad Sechrist ​and got a mentorship program

Steph’s Portfolio
- 3 short film storyboards
- Life drawings
- Gesture drawings

Working at Studio
- Blue Sky has a nurturing culture
- It’s normal to not feel like you’re prepared (imposter syndrome)
- Ability to grow is better than perfection
- ALWAYS apply, you can try next year if you get rejected:)
- Story artists each have their own strengths + weaknesses, that’s why teamwork (acting,
staging, composition, etc.)

Spies in Disguise Animatics

- Some were directed as no dialogue scenes (pantomime), thinking visually first
 - Program used: Flix
- Work for director’s vision (understand them and help them w/ their vision)
- You’re part of the pipeline (no ego)

Advice
- Know your fundamentals
- Get real life experiences for your stories (just go live life!!!)
- Practice character turnarounds
- Know characters’ emotions from point A to point B
- Mold project’s style into the boards but also the studio will assign you scenes according
to your strengths
- Look at portfolios online from artists you admire
- Hustle in order to be worthy of a mentor, and look for a way to help them too (win-win)

Aaron Blaise Animal Character Design

(didn’t finish this one oops)
- Research A LOT!!!
- Struggled w/ combining anatomy and style (example w/ Raja from Aladdin)
- Al Hirschfeld has an extremely fluid style (whole Genie character from Aladdin inspo)
- To keep consistent w/ style of the project, animators draw each other’s characters when
designing their own (Drew Jasmine next to Raja)
- Important to communicate constantly
- Difference between cats vs. lion cubs (cubs are made of solid muscle)
- Personal note: do drawing studies FOR YOU, not meant to be pretty or perfect, just for
you to understand your subject (ex. He only drew hips on one)
- He takes a lot of pictures of his subjects, almost like frame by frame movement
- Uses those refs

- For designing youthful-looking characters like young Nala from Lion King, play w/
proportions (adult’s heads vs. baby’s are more round and have bigger eyes)
- Also, study real lion cubs and their proportions compared to adult

Mark Andrews Storyboarding

(add youtube link later? They recorded it I think)
First, he played an hour long video to show he worked on a sequence based on a painting, then
he answered questions in Zoom.
- ID all elements:
- Protagonist
 - Antagonist
- Architecture/Location
- What’s going?
- POV

- Step out of comfort zone. Do the hard drawings to tell the story the best way.
- Don’t shy away from difficult perspective shots

- Composition- where each element is

- Details- Establish context in environment
- Size- relation of subject to camera lens
- Use screen direction as a tool, not a rule
- Get the drawing right, correcting as you work
- Hanging on the line- perspective without using drawn out guides
- Know horizon line!
- Reveal info w/ camera movement
- Draw beginning and end, then figure out in between
- No thumbnailing! Work directly in the size of the film
- Thumbnails could also make you too perfectionistic
- Work in context (16:9 ratio)
- Adjust camera movement to new subject you want to focus on
- Act it out
- Cylinders for heads, boxes for torso makes him see perspective better
- Work the drawings over (layering) to really nail the shots
- Use the transform tool in Photoshop to correct
- Use visual anchors to orient audience
- Drawing Economy- if you can use 1 drawing to tell what is happening in the shot, then
only use 1 drawing
- Ex. Character hears something, turns around. Just show them already looking over
- Backgrounds are just as important as characters + acting!
- Timeline (pacing) comes last, once you’re happy w/ the sequence

Q+A
- Works at about 10 min./panel
- Adjusts drawing poses/ timing after all the rough sketching
- Took him 5 hours to do that sequence (sped up to 1 hour for live stream)
- Storyboarding is an iterative process, be decisive
- OK to show boards that are rough
- SHOW loose/rough! Better to get the info on the scene, good on portfolio
- Visual language ​Bruce Block’s Book
- Started studying w/ copying comic pages, then got more refined training
- Don’t have to have full sequences in portfolio, as long as you show you can do different
types of work
 - Breakdown 4 films (your absolute favorite films you wish you’d worked on)
- Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Terminator
- Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
- Man Who Would Be King
- Study any Coen Brothers film (Miller’s Crossing, Buster Scruggs, etc.) they know visual
economy
- Steven Spielberg

Use of refs while boarding?

- Depends on project
- Refs are usually locations, real places

How to practice perspective?

- Focus on finding the horizon line
- And relationships of subjects w/ the horizon line
- Get comfortable drawing locations from real life (your room, streets)
- Can’t just blur out BGs in boards

Time it takes to board a sequence?

- About 1 week
- Everything is fast paced, so be decisive and economical

Scripts?
- Read scripts all the time
- Seeing camera shots in head
- Breaking down films w/ Brad Bird

How to break rules?

- Broke 180 rule in boarding session
- The rule comes from live action because of lighting and camera issues
- Know the rules first, and then break them w/ purpose

Common problems in artists you mentor?

- Too comfortable w/ certain poses
- You should exaggerate, convey emotion, keep pushing for better poses
- DO THE HARD DRAWING!
- Don’t do thumbnails
- Usually draw everybody too close, remember size
- Also study staging and cinematography
- Learn to use Google SketchUp to know camera angles

Advice
 - Draw from life
- Emulate what you love
- Focus on simplicity
- Be mindful of improv (drawing is improv)
- “Edit after you barfed it up” so draw, get it on the page
- Think about the overall sequence, then just draw a lot!
- Actually do what you’re learning, put it to practice
- Do what you love

TV and Feature Difference?

- Both are demanding
- Most feature boards get thrown out

What makes a good story artist?

1. Clarity (posing, staging, shot)
2. Editing (tell a story efficiently)

To be a director?
- You don’t have to draw, just know the visual language
- Film, film, film, OR draw, draw, draw
- Whatever you choose, just DO IT!

Films that inspire him?

- Looper
- Trollhunters (Live Action)
- 13 Assassins

What’s next after so much success?

- Just can’t stop creating
- Wants to share knowledge too
- Art is a lifelong vocation

Screenwriting for story artists?

- Different beast to tame, but it’s up to you
- Big gap between writers and artists, story artist is a sort of bridge

Storyboard from movies!!!

Struggle?
- If it’s a struggle, you need to relax, take a break from your work until ideas start trickling
in, then just do the work.

Study Acting and Staging?

 - Pause movies, videos, look at pictures, take pictures, and study them
- Acting out helps a lot, doesn’t matter if you look goofy
- Learn sketchup

Action?
- Just like comedy, tension + release
- James Cameron
- John Wick

Understand what you’re drawing, draw, draw, draw!

Learn perspective?
- Just practice drawing it

Screen direction is for audience, sort of intuitive

Pitch
- Same timing as it happens in movie
- Act it out
- Make character voices

Life drawings should be of equal good quality as boards

Visual language is worth more than cool shots

Clarity in Shots
- Lots of trial + error
- Build drawing up (rough), then clarify

His Career?
- Calarts study all (characters, bg, storyboard, animation)
- Disney intern must decide specialty, didn’t get in
- Chose story artist (likes it best)
- Started in TV

Clients who don’t know what they want?

- Do it, and if they don’t like it, ask why
- Ask lots of questions

In portfolio,
- Drawing ability, eh
- Thinking story, knowing story, HIRED!
Study bad movies too! See how you can fix them!

Good Habits
- Draw it 3 times:
- 1) from real life
- 2) from what you just drew
- 3) from memory
- Like the example, get a good painting that tells a story, use it as a shot and build the
next 5 shots
- Draw a scene from a headline

Stylized show like Samurai Jack?

- Hard to capture style
- Knew action, so had fun

Book? Artists Influence?

- Comics, manga, Hellboy, Akira
- Painters of past (they were like movies back then)

Portfolio
- 8-10 pages at most
- Add mostly boards

Study?
- Live action films
- Animation is emulation of real life
- Tentpole moments in the movie

Creating Tales of Colluossus w/ Day Job at Pixar?

- Pure will and no sleep for 10 months

Develop Instinct? Be Decisive?

- “F” it approach, just do it before the deadline
- Play to your strengths + what you like
- Connect w/ others to develop confidence

Do it, to see it, so others can critique it!

Working w/ Directors?
- Communicate!!!
- Grow a thick skin
- Talk differences out and fix them
Animatics?
- Timing/pace is at the very end of boards process

Add lighting when it affects the tone, when it’s necessary for the scene

It’s a job about doing things over and over. Your client might be rude, their tasts may be
different + you’ll just have to do the work. Reputation is everything in the industry.

Camera movement can also be influenced by character (exploring, pan; running, shake)

Fresh action ideas?

- Mislead the audience
- Guide them to something they know, then surprise them!

Practice boards EVERYDAY, cannot practice enough!

Camera assistant to board artist?

- Already have the knowledge, now practice visual language
- Practice littler by little then move to bigger projects

Story will remain the same bc it has for a long time (beginning, middle, end)

Creation Notes
Borja Montoro’s Career Overview
- Began in madrid
- Started on tv series
- Made own demo reel
- Moved to ireland to work ‘95, big explosion in the industry
- Got hired by disney paris, spent 7 years there
- Work first on hercules, then tarzan
- 2d was going down, 3d was cool, paris studio shutdown
- Move to LA, invited to work back in Madrid in friend’s original idea (visual
development on a show that was not greenlit)
- Loved moving and living abroad, doing remote freelance a lot,
- Never liked 3d animation, mouse is not for him
- Quit animation, did couple of drawings/cartoons for newspapers
- Loved it, and had opportunity to study again
- Life was good but then newspaper industry shut down as well
- Felt like had no room in industries anymore
 - Got connected through linkedin with former art friends, got into a meeting, (jim
Kim) was hired to work on Zootopia
- Work part time with netflix right now, work remotely in madrid
- Leaving for madrid again
- Looking forward to keeping contact with friends
- head character designer

Lynton
- Started in 2007, graduated from local animation school in cape town, lucky
enough to go directly to animation studio (o’hare? Line of judah?)
- Then worked on oversees stuff
- Then Sunrise Studios
- Then short film Stick Man
- Worked video game staff trigger fish
- Monkey and trunk in Sunrise Studios
- Art Directing in Sunrise since then
- Worked in Jungle Beat movie

Borja, draw everyday, do quick warm up gesture sketches everyday

Armand Serrano not in meeting but showed his work

Juan Pablo Lopez

- Borja met him in Madrid
- Great character designer who borja contacted
- Humble with good disposition to work for you
- Not only good artist, very challenging (pushes you to do better everyday)

Q+A

John Burton
Imposter Syndrome
- lives it everyday
- In fine art. business, film business
- Always a whisper, but it’s all about fighting it
- you’re good enough
- Every industry, every studio needs YOU, be the best YOU, not imitating
someone else
- Then you would be an imposter (pretending to be Borja)
Lynton
What is a good way to get started in vis dev for film?
- work on your things, your own passions
- Start with your own work, you’re the employer and you deliver
- Just important to be visible, keep work up to date
- Create interesting work for yourself
- your love will come across in your work
- Being your best version of yourself through your artwork can only be achieved by
working on what you love
- Not what the industry wants from you, what do you want
Borja
What was your biggest challenge as a character designer?
- always trying to reach the expectations of the movie and the directors
- Trying to connect to your employer, trying to see if. You can give any piece of
advice to improve the quality of the product
- Honesty is the best way to work, in every area, not just animation industry
- If something feels wrong, call it out
- Communication problems
- Characters don’t exist but they have to reflect real life
- Having worked in tv and movies, he adapts to the style quickly from working so
much
- Feel he doesn’t have a style
- Adapting to the style of the project
- Understanding what characters are, who they are
- Must feel who the person is in your brain and the director’s brain
- Asking proper questions about the character to understand them
- Go deeper into the character even if that stuff doesn’t happen in the script,
making the character alive
- Even the way a character stands, tells a lot about the person
- Don’t be ashamed of asking questions, it’s always good to be informed and
knowing your character

Lynton
- The better the draftsman that you are, the better chance you have in art.
- Vance Kovacs is one of the most courageous concept artists, an amazing
draftsman, but he will bring an idea in all different stages.
- Good understanding of concepts. Better to nail concepts with good art than
having good art without concept.
- Joe from Sunrise production, send things his way:)
Moving into film business as an international artist?
- youtube
- Connecting online
- Or moving to bigger cities in your area
What to look for in a portfolio?
- depends on the project
- You never know that what you’re drawing is exactly what the studio is looking for
- Draw what you’re passionate about
- Get yourself out, be on instagram, be on artstation
- You have no idea what will get you hired, but put yourself out there!

You’re hired because what is in your portfolio indicates that you’re still growing
regardless of whether you get rejected. Play to your strengths. Show that you’re eager
to learn.

Look at age when hiring?

● Show skills, don’t worry about your age

Unplug yourself, start looking at people, at life for inspiration

Borja’s Demo
- Use a bad pencil at the beginning to get loose and focus on the essential. Get
something on the page then find yourself.

- Put lines on the paper. (“the paper is very generous”)

- Just put lines. Lines are lines. You do create the meaning and find images in
your brain.
- Find an idea, and just draw it on with other colors. Keep those loose lines.
- Drawing is about communication, so consider composition of the drawing. Where
is the attention focused on?
- Tweak anything that can make the idea clear
- Find the center of focus (he calls it “diva?”) and detail that first.

- Biggest enemy is blank paper, so slay it right away. Just add lines or whatever
image comes to you.
 - Get far from design and appeal (draw shelfs instead of ladders), meaning
prioritize variety not equal distance between elements (like a ladder)
- Treat your characters like their proportions are shelfs distanced at different
lengths.
- Ask yourself why your drawing is so boring. Doesn’t help to add color or texture,
the gesture at the beginning is what’s important.
- Also ask why not to your designs. Explore different ideas.
- You move from Concept to Development. Concept is where you explore, where
you find the essential. Development is where you explore THAT concept,
keeping consistent.
- Study objects as well.
- Draw poses, explore poses.
- Draw, draw, draw!

UTAD​ Borja teaches there.

Borja has a blog and instagram @montoroborja

@lyntonlevengood
Michael sparber
Johnburton art insta and artstation

Last note: Try different studios!

Concept Art For The Film Industry

I didn’t get to catch the Q&A so feel free to add more stuff!

Concept Art
- Art is used as a medium to solve problems and communicate a story
- Receive information, a problem to solve, or broad ideas and we are asked to turn those
ideas into solid engaging visuals
- Concept artists job is to solve explicit or implicit problems
Personal Visual Art - what tells your story

concept art
- someone else's vision
When creating your portfolio, ask the questions:
Who is your client?
What is the problem?
What is the story?

- problem solving is the job - art is your medium

- can you adapt to someone else's vision?

types of concept art for film

-pitch work
-pre-production
-production and post-production

pitch work
- beginning of the film's inception. the goal of this phase is to sell a project. green light it!
- goal is to show the vision
- that scene that can encapsulate the whole movie
- will inspire the rest of the work

pre-production
- establish visual languages hat will carry the movie's story and goals
- creating blueprints for things to be built
- get into details
- visual problem solving
- think beyond the aesthetics

post-production
- design in connection with the post prod teams to make sure that the original art direction is
carried along all the way until the end

Portfolio tip: ask yourself what stage are you designing for?

designing for pitch

- mood and story
- big shapes
- silhouettes
- cinematography
- color palette
- story moment
- piece should make us feel like the movie already exists/would love if it exists

pre-prod
- design
- diversity of ideas
- how does the piece enhance the story
- how does the piece fit in the story
- what particular element from the story is it being solved? creature? environment? character?
costume? prop?
- schematics/blueprints
- when you pass your work along to the people building it, could they understand it?

post prod
- design effects
- animated powers
- options on what the laser gun is shooting?
- how does the power move
- set extension on top of a photo
- enhance an existing image
- help vfx teams with small details

(Kami#9531)
 
DTVA Notes

- The idea is that its working out concepts, starting with what form a show will take.
- Advantage of DTVA is that you work early and work closely in a tight knit family.
- It creates questions to be answered and then answers them as well

- Download - Starting at download, its touching base with directors equipping them with art
for pitching a show
- Research - Researching whats out there, the styles, the way to show where the pitch is
going and what you want from your show
- Ideation - Important to generate ideas, what do your mind see based off the ideas,
themes, moods, reference gathering for the ideation phase.

Main thing missing from portfolios [Not understanding how a camera/eye works when
developing ideas]

STORYTELLING IS IMPORTANT - and if you can make people feel something when viewing
the work
 
 
 
 33 Tips Character Design
 Djamila Knopf Portfolio Checklist
 Biodegradable Supply Links

https://www.ecoenclose.com/
https://www.noissue.co/about-us/
https://woodstickers.com/collections/custom-wood-stickers/products/custom-logo-art-sti
cker

 
Sam Neilson
- Keep edges/contrast in your focal point
- On when to use hard or soft edges.
- General rule is sharp edges and high contrast exist where there is a lot of light.
- Rules are Cruches.
- They're only useful when you're limping along.
- Once you're ready to run you'll need to break them.
- If you break the silhouette make sure means something
- On Contrast and Character Silhouette.
- In a film or television show you have less time to recognize the character in tv
work the budget is also in play.
- (Look at Marvel characters in film vs comic books. They're more streamlined and
simplified in Film.)
- In games you have a lot more time with the characters so you can explore more
in breaking them.
- You also have to make them visible from a distance.
 Day 2

Light! Pencils! Action! Live-Action Storyboards with The

Illustrators of IATSE Local #800
Presented by concept art association (upload on youtube channel of same name)

Ricardo Delgado

- storyboard, writer, concept artist

- Teach at art center
- Rough doing roughs lets you plan out scenes
- When shots are static vs. camera move
- Got out of art center in 99, worked in tv animation design work, but wanted to work in
Live Action
- Joined Guild and met friends who worked in live action there, got advice to transition
- If a superstar artist didn’t want to board back then, that was they’re way to break in
accepting the rejected jobs
-
-

Benton Jew
- story boards since 1998
- Sometimes commercials, films
- Lots of comic book related movies
- All comes from a love of drawing and comics
-

Tim Burgard
- comic books, then animation (considers animation first career), then live action
- Worked on Wolverine w/ Ricardo
- Sometimes like working
- Jurassic World and Rampage

Dave lowery
- takes pencil milage to accumulate style and professionalism
- Worked under Spielberg
- Art school, weren’t any storyboard classes at the time, so had to make his own
curriculum
- Work w/ clients and practice there
- NBC, Hannah-Barbera cartoons, lots of films, learning mostly as he was working on
projects
-

Amy umezu
- storyboard artist for live action for about 10 years
- Cleaner boards, what her ideal drawings would be
- Agree w/ ricardo about planning and having thumbnails
- Panels shown, When you have time to clean up
- But you don’t always have beautiful drawings in your boards
- Sometimes you draw a different way than you imagined
- Went to UC Davis bachelors in communications, and learned about boards in a
general art class
- Made a portfolio and people told her her art was not mainstream enough, but kept
applying to many jobs (indie films, spec commercials, music videos)

QA
Advice for story artist who wants to transition from animation storyboards to live-action?
- scan trades for upcoming movies and cold call studios
Main difference between live action vs animation?
- animation is gag oriented
- Everything is boarded in animation, some stuff on feature films
- Flat vs. perspective

Jobs are project to project, not so much full time at studio

VFX show TVs are

With Directors
- when you pitch it, you gotta pitch with confidence
- You must like your work, pitch with interest
- Not an industry for the weak-minded
- If they change it, you must be cool with it though
- They sometimes don’t even have and idea of what shots they want
- Could also not get along with directors
- Some give thumbnails, but usually very primal sketches
Adg.org

Process in Storyboarding
- sometimes just a concept art or a notion and you take that task on
- Thumbnails are starting point for Amy
- Just have to be really flexible
- Remember that you’re part of the process, so you’re not doing this for you, the scene
you’re working on is not your work

More than having good eyes, hands, you must have good ears! Listen to the director!

Portfolio
- complete sequences
- Complex acting
- Differing
- Camera heights
- Important and varied ideas

Hard to get to Director’s guild, so start w/ getting lots of jobs as ANIMATION storyboard
artist (which is also hard to do)

Start in Indie film or commercials, they might not be well-paid but you get the
experience for studio-level

Don’t be nervous. Confidence is important.

Can do storyboards anytime (before costume/character designs or after or even in

shooting or during editing w/ VFX)
See all phases
Can use boars on set

Don’t give up, don’t ever give up!

Do your best in every job, your reputation is at stake! (work and attitude)
Keep studying art, watch movies and TV!
Notes From Streams
(tuning in for a bit, or something that stuck)

Claire Hummel and Nicholas Kole

- Art & Fear Book
- Don’t ID yourself too much as an artist bc when you make a bad drawing you
could think there’s something wrong w/ you
- Have other hobbies

Everything You Wanted to Know about Animation

- Practice blind contour, you get better at observational skills
- It’s okay to not have big goals in animation, just do it if you want to do it
- Go to therapy if you feel really down!!! Talk about feelings
- Separate your life from art (family, friends, other hobbies)
- Do those things now!
- Don’t compare yourself to geniuses, you gotta just love art

Artist to Art Director

Art Directors: ​Patrick O’Keefe​, ​Dave Bleich​, ​Nick Hiatt​, ​John Bell
Moderated by Brian Holidae

First Paid Gig (Not Pro)

- John: Pencil drawing in grade school
- Patrick: Graffiti kids’ names in paper during 7th grade
- Dave: Painting in jackets for friends, trying to be cool
- Nick: Sandals Hotel Resort photoshop work $15/hour

First Pro Gig

- Pat: 16, sister was working at PR agency, zine-type of work
- Gave him lots of confidence to dive in to industry later
- Dave: ‘95 hitting every VFX company, got into Animotion w/ illustration on game
- John: General Motors as car designing coming out of Art Center

Big Break as Artist

- Nick: In film, Chronicles. Drove from Miami to CA for a 3 day gig and it stretched
into a 3 year gig
- John has also driven cross country for a gig
- Pat: Just graduating and got gig for EA.
 - Have a good portfolio so that when the opportunity comes, you’re prepared
- All relationships should be win-win, and don’t expect to be hired right away when
you talk with an art director or someone in the industry

Portfolio
- Individual voice
- Quality artwork (draftsmanship)
- Range of styles (different genres) and abilities (take the effort to make your art
good)
- Lighting and atmosphere
- See what you offer
- Different compositions (study favorite cinematographers, filmmakers)

Habits
- Practice, day time painting and night time painting, understand cameras (practice
photography)
- Observe the world around you
- Research deep into your life and other subjects
- All the projects you work on, you’ll retain some knowledge from them if you
researched well, it’ll pay off later
- Real life experiences
- Research with FRIENDS:) that way you can both learn from each other or with
each other! And it’ll be fun!
- You can’t be alone, art is teamwork

Art Becomes Daunting When You Transition from Beginner

- Have the hunger to learn
- You’ll hit roadblocks, but keep going
- Very discouraging when your tastes and knowledge exceeds your skills, but don’t
stop!!!
- Don’t be afraid to fail, failing is learning
- The more you fail, the better you’re getting

Influences
- John: Car designers, Kenny Youngblood, Neil o rodis (?)
- Dave: Matt Mahurin
- Peers and people he works with
Art Directors
- takes a while to develop trust and a team
- Not a job of 9-5
- Learn time management
- Deal with a lot of different personalities, leadership
- Channel and communicate ideas with others
- John just happened into being an art director in Jurassic Park haha
- You’re going to make less art as a director, being the composer, not playing
every instrument
- Provide inspiration
- Some artists you work with you must call everyday and others are more
isolationist (getting an assignment and being alone for a few days)

Feedback
- the artwork is only to serve a purpose, so when you hear that the art is not
working, the artist could be hurt depending on their sensibilities
- Critique in the industry is not personal, just frank
- You must have thick skin
- Also, talk with other artists when you’re stuck or didn’t understand the
assignment, don’t waste time being stuck
- Better if you know the person well and you know that they’ll give you honest
feedback and still be your friend

Storyboard Artists: Feature Roundtable

Presenters: Andy Cung, Maggie Kang, Rob Porter, Clio Chiang, Donna Lee, David
Vantuyle, Tim Heitz

Clio Chiang
- Disney

Maggie
- 15 years
- Dreamworks, Blue Sky, DW again, Ninjago, Illumination, DW again,
- Now Sony directing movie

Donna Lee
- disney animation
- Disney toons stayed for 2 years, then paramount, then dreamworks, then Disney

Tim
- Dreamworks since graduating school
- Story trainee madagascar 2, then Megamind, peabody and sherman, little bit monsters
vs. aliens, trolls (1 and 2 and holiday special)
- Directing unannounced project in Dreamworks

Trainee Program
- Maggie: Started around same time w/ Tim, recruited out of school (Sheridan), hired
based on short film she did and portfolio. Her w/ other artists who are still working on
the industry
- Like school but more intense and fun (taught how to pitch by Kelly Asbury, study films,
getting advice from directors, trained by heads of story like Jeff Snow)
- Drawing all on paper then transitioned to cintiq
- Tim: Northern location, only 2 story artists when he was there taught by them
- Got tests to be story artists, and got hired
- Clio: disney similar to dreamworks programs, 6 month program w/ lots of assignments
and silent storyboards (no dialogue), then got put on different productions, one of the
assignments was musicals, after 6 months get hired
- Robert: Mostly self-taught, studied anthropology at UCLA (don’t do it, he thinks it’s
worthless hahaha) got into nickelodeon.
- Was broke, got jobs here and there, Thumbelina as cleaning, before it was
nickelodeon it was Games and Animation. Worked on Rocko, show was very open to
pitching ideas, and he thought he wanted to be a character designer, didn’t know
storyboards. Rocko was storyboard driven so he got to build skills there. Went to
live-action disney project, then jimmy neutron, then got into dreamworks
- Donna: Knew she wanted to be in animation, particularly an animator, went to RISD
(more indie feel), so she learned of Concept Design Academy taught by Brad (Maggie’s
husband), and found that loves storyboarding
- Storyboarding was the perfect combo for writing and drawing, so went back to RISD
and learned that they don’t teach SB to animation students, only illustration students, so
she moved to LA for Concept Design Academy
- Applied to CalArts and got rejected, then applied to many trainee programs and jobs
and got rejected a lot, and she thought that she didn’t have what it takes BUT Shawn
Bishop director at disney toons reviewed portfolio at CTN and kept in touch.
- She showed another updated portfolio and got her hired!
- (Shawn Bishop wrote a live action movie)
- David: Not many resources in midwest, wanted to be an animator, went to general art
school, junior year got internship in disney world parks games. Animating in iPad
games, little games in Michigan, then moved to NYC, then knew that storyboarding was
the goal. Moved to LA, got job in Nickelodeon. Goal was always feature, got class in
CDA

Difference Between TV and Feature

- Feature: really emotional
- Don’t do a lot of moving cameras as much in TV compared to feature
- More people jumping back and forth now than before
- TV is now getting more cinematic as well
- Train to learn their speed, economic linework, shorthands down in TV
- You can rework more in Features
- Getting into that character’s head in each episode is fun

Quicker Pipeline in Films

- Clarity in visual story telling
- Hard to anchor emotional moments quickly w/out having to use cliches
- Have to still show real emotion in the drawings, acting on point
- This is to convey what’s in the character’s head
- Want to bring up and train a story artist but so many deadlines
- Expectations of boards looking more like keyframe animations in short time
- The more specific the acting is, the more relatable it feels
- Help build vocabulary for that character so that other artists can add layers

Acting Advice
- Literally get into the character’s mind
- Sit there and doing the faces as you’re drawing
- Emotion seeps into the drawing as well as POV
- Where they are? What are they seeing?
- Acknowledge causality, and the environment. Show them reacting
- Seeing specific things for the character (Mulan playing w/ her hair like the voice
actress)
- A lot of characters based off of friends (one quirk)
- When actors start recording, boards can also be affected in fun ways
- When you’re voicing your own boards, you might even change them bc of your own
performance (Scratch recording)
Be a supportive person and soak in all the knowledge like a sponge! You job positions
will change in the industry, so be grateful of your experience and everybody else’s hard
work!!

 Day 3

Creating Cinematic Mood, Storytelling, and Composition

With Alexander Mandradjiev

The Beginnings
- from eastern Europe Bulgaria, he spaced out a lot as a child
- Played with little sculptures with play-doh
- 2nd grade, wanted to watch Terminator but too little to watch it, so asked father to
paint a picture of the poster
- Was in love with the painting trying to replicate it (Half Arnold and robot face)
- Wanted to make art bc he saw that his father could make art
- Had a classmate who could draw very well (could draw a “perfect circle” for a 2nd
grade
- Moved to Germany, attended school
- Vivid fantastical dreams that he wanted to replicate w/ play doh
- Mother taught him music, didn’t like replicating even though he was good at it
- Deciphering notes led him to draw
- Wanted to be good at something
- Around time Berlin Wall fell down, came to Germany, so as a foreigner had hard time
in school, so made friends w/ other foreign kids
- They would play pretend that they were in a different world

United States
- parents then knew he wanted to do art, so looked for schools that had good art
programs
- 4th grade, signed up for an art competition, very friendly
- Started art classes w/ Monica Huggins
- Learned of loose lines, drawing lines going out of the paper
- Studied at Art Center, knew
- Kevin Chen owner of CDA, and met figure drawing teacher Paul
- Used to rush replicating w/out knowing what he was doing
- Always speeding up and then learned to slow down, but it took him a long time
- People were wowed w/ fast drawings
- Cared about opinions and not his own growth, which
- Regrets not listening to people who told him how to grow, but oh well:)
- Started working applying after Art Center
-

Painting Process (Balloons)

- visual memory of middle school in America, being driven back home
- Very tired man walking with a bunch of balloons
- In traffic jam and the man kept on walking
- Juxtaposition of something happy and plastic (balloons) against a tired dusty world
- Have 2 ref images from pinterest that replicate that world
- Picked colors that way, replicating the ambient of his memory
- Pen sketch in sticky note into Photoshop
- Painting on top of it in another layer
- Still following the authentic sketch
- Don’t waste your beautiful gesture sketch
- Keep it loose, not perfect, trying not to undo much
- Trying to balance the color and the shapes
- Uses round brush for most of the painting esp. beginning, then square, then flat at the
end
- Not zooms out, just pulls back in chair to view drawing
- Based on drawing in pen and painting with gouache over it
- Changes the curve balance after painting
- Then corrects very little
- Loose painting (not fast) contains energy and readable bc in slide show the painting
may just appear fast
- Learned from Sergeant and Craig Mullens

Use perspective or observation?

- Likes to get some solidity with perspective in the early sketch
- Just the gist of it, then in digital, can change it a little

Tips of Gathering Reference

- always prepare before painting
- Google or Pinterest
- Love pinterest because of practical boards
- Stick to the tone trying to establish
- Almost like location scouting for film
- Take own photo ref as well but it is time-consuming, especially if you’re on a deadline
- Photography can also be too fun and distracting, so painting could be put aside

Color Palettes
- emotional tone
- To make coherent, using harmony (Overall a grey painting w/ desaturated colors)
- Color picking from ref image

Emotion in Paint
- be bold and if you mess up, with digital you can just save another version of it before

How to draw from imagination?

- draw it anyway even if you don’t know how it is like
- Lots of repetition: messing up and trying again
- The entire journey is you teaching yourself, your growth
- Your paintings grow themselves
- Just start, face the blank canvas
- Follow your gut feeling

Gesture Drawing (Richard Williams quote)

- capturing life
- Refs do not
- There’s a rhythm to organizing shapes that show gesture
- Just putting it down
- Freedom of not caring of how perfect it is, gives it organic life
-
CDA
- Taught there
- Might teach again, will keep update

Key Frame
- watched a lot of movies
- Made movies with friends
- Gives you idea of what happens in the process of filmmaking
- Learned this in an after school class in high school
- Broke down scripts, learned of storyboards
- When working in key frame, pretends to be the whole crew
- Landscape painting helps (Mike Hernandez teacher)
Paint 3 paintings, we vote which one to bring to full render and he’ll show

Painting Process (Waiting)

- about ambiguity, having clarity but with ambiguity
- Abstracting shapes, finding something clear in a busy state
- Carving values of shapes with white and grey
- Not about memory, more a though, trying to capture chaos and clarity
-
-
Films
- michael mann, stanley kubrick
- Lots of influence from watching movies
- Not trying to re-invent cinematic composition, just using intuition to capture feelings

Messing Up a Painting
- Find out what’s not working and fix it if you’re too far into the work

Personal Work and Critique

- Want people’s reactions whether they like it or not
- In these stream he talks about it but otherwise doesn’t say in other works
- These days the audience demands a certain narrative from the studios which removes
the
- If you feel bad about the feedback, just accept the reaction they have even negative
reactions
- It’s worse not having any reactions
- You learn from anything

Don’t imitate photographs, make your work feel real

Francis Bacon and other Artists

- amazing also david lynch
- Vicence
- Richard erger?
- Degas
- Matisse
- Classic painters
- Alberto miolgo
- Jeremy lipkin
Portfolio
- Focus on what you really want to do
- Just do that work, and keep updating

Narrative in Painting
- Finding a story in compositions
- Remember people in the streets that you can’t hear their convo but you can make it
out their emotions
- Story can be complex or simple
- Practice composition (Study Hitchcock and Kubrick)

Draftsmen Q+A
Abandoned drawings out of frustration
- Art and Fear book episode coming out
- Get emotional distance from the piece and come back when you’re not as
connected to it

Recs on Lightbox
- Anything by Nathan Fowkes

Rendering Form
- Practice figure drawing
- Simplify shadow masses
- Render lighter halftones
- Dorian Iten’s Light on Form

Beginner Fundamentals?
- Gesture
- Form
- Shading
- Composition

Digital and Perfectionism

- Cover the z button hehe
- Do know how to make art traditionally
- Learn line quality with pen or pencil, brushes in photoshop is cutting corners
 - Do traditional and digital simultaneously
- Can even get way better line quality w/ digital

Getting a Style
- Study what you love and why you love it
- Marshall loves Bridgman and saw his figures similarly to rocks, so instead of
rendering his figures glossy, it’s more rough

Write and Illustrate a Story

- Love the subject
- Get analytical of why you like these stories
- Study those illustrators
- Feel the story enough to want to illustrate it
- Don’t just illustrate what’s already written
- Study both disciplines and join both communities (writing and illustrating)

Teachers who want to teach you a different way

- If you really don’t like it, question it
- Will it help you, if your answer is no, then what would help you
- Maybe years later you’ll realize they were right or not, you did the right decision
- Trust your gut, but also acknowledge the teacher’s experience
- If you don’t want to studying something in the moment, then don’t. There are so
many other subjects to study, you’ll eventually want to study what you said no to

Studying 2 Disciplines
- Prioritize and focus more on one
- But do cross train
- Some days you’ll be tired of one thing, so move to your other discipline
- Don’t do both equally, probably result to burn out

Ready for Jobs w/out Instructor Feedback

- Apply to jobs and find out if you get in
- Little jobs for experience
- Galleries is easy to test out bc of immediate response

Brainstorming Ideas
- Don’t edit yourself
- Dump out all things you love
- Fishing for Elephants by Larry Moore
Big Projects
- Don’t have your life depend on it
- Keep a journal of where you start to lose interest
- Jump on it OR gradually go bigger
- Break it up into smaller projects
- Only think of little bits
- If you fail, eventually you’ll learn from mistakes and you’ll finish one big project
later
- Just keep trying
- Start failing early

Roam Research note-taking app (paid app)

Storyboarding Q+A Nate Stanton

Coco
- Rough drawings for concept
- Pen and ink on paper
- Crazy uncle inspired by Grapes of Wrath

Finding Dory Animatic

- Really rough boards

Newly graduated to story artist

- hard with pandemic
- Keep applying
- Keep studying
- Do best you can

Boards Advice
- keep rough drawing
- Use grey stone
- Don’t get too detailed
- Just deliver what’s necessary

Energy in Sketchbook vs. Boards

- practice to get used to it
- Still does first pass in paper, and scans it to pitch
- Find a nice brush

Tropes or Gags Overused

- if it works then use it too
- Boards need to readable
- The whole scene should be change if it’s too similar to other work
- If story is strong,

Portfolio
- both rough and clean
- Feature want to see rough pass
- Show that you can work fast
- Staging, composition, and editing
- Some clients prefer clean boards

Practice Art when Hand Injury

- Stretch
- Ice or hot compress
- Get a set up that’s comfortable
- Stand, sit
- Work standing if you want
- Exercise
- Take breaks
- See a physical therapist
- Be patient

Creativity Ink Book, Culture in Pixar

- amazing
- If you want to make movies, pixar or sony, dreamworks, netflix
- Be yourself if you want to stand out to get to pixar
- Watch as many movies as you can

Working in Indie Studios, Feel Stagnant

- keep improving yourself, and applying elsewhere
- Expand yourself as an artist with other art forms

Director Script Reading, Pitch Ideas?

- ask good questions
- Do little sketches in the moment
- Once you move on, that’s it they move on too
- Depends on director too

Many Ideas About Shots, Overthinking

- Thumb nailing fast
- And small
- Think of the whole sequence together
- You can throw ideas out then
- Happens to everybody, but remember that one shot is part of a whole
- Keep moving, set it aside

Exercises
- storyboard scripts from movies and compare with movie shots
- Go through scenes shot by shot
- Look at behind the scene storyboards
- Editing
- Camera angles
- Visual language

Movie Analysis
- just look at shot structure
- If something stands out, rewatch the scene
- Staging and composition
- Visual storytelling w/out dialogue
- Spielberg

Moving to CA
- Covid makes it different now, work remotely
- LA is where the industry is at
- Depends of course

Hardest Production
- cars 2
- Coco
- Loved the director, but didn’t like making beautiful boards
- Monsters Inc

Networking
- e-mail, forums, social media
- Instagram, LinkedIn
- Don’t be scared
- How much is too much? New to social media so he doesn’t know

Live Action to Study

- poltergeist
- Empire of the sun
- Indiana Jones
- AFI 100 list

Better Draftsmanship
- life drawing
- Figure drawing
- Draw big

Out of College Jobs

- small studios
- Good boards
- Acting in boards
- Depends on what you want to do

CalArts Rec
- Show work to friends
- Getting feedback
- Try to stay connected
- Do different things (photography, filming, etc)

Beginner Advice
- Make mistakes, that’s how you learn
- Made all the bad versions of a movie quickly to get it out

Comics vs. Film Boards

- Storyboarding is a tool for many mediums
- Depends on projects, some directors like the whole movie boarded but not make an
animatic

Story Pacing
- digital can time boards
- Count how many cuts in scenes