Here’s a couple great production photos of Glen Keane from The Little Mermaid and Tarzan. Click to see larger versions. I love the beautiful drawings on the wall in the first.

I have every Canemaker book and I love them all. His latest one hits stores in a few days. Here’s a promo:

Source: Didier Ghez

Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald are teaming up for a social film making experiment designed to edit a documentary that encapsulates a day in the life of thousands of people all around the world. It’s got my attention, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting the results. It’s a great idea, and worth a plug here. Stop by YouTube to check it out. This historic event takes place in two days. Will you be contributing anything?

This must be what I sound like when I talk about animation to people, just rambling on and on, and so passionate.

I came across two blog posts today that made me laugh, but only as they relate to one another…

This morning I found this post on Letters of Note. It’s an 8-page memo written by Walt Disney in 1935. Disney wrote to Don Graham on how he expected Don to teach his animators. It’s an inspiring read no matter how many times you’ve read it. I had previously downloaded it from Michael Sporn’s blog, but hadn’t read it in quite some time, so I refreshed my memory.

This afternoon I came across this post from Matt Williames. Matt’s a former Princess and the Frog animator, and his post highlights his displeasure with the studio politics and choice in projects. Quite a big difference. Now Disney not being what it once was isn’t breaking news or anything, but it’s rare to see artists speak out against a top studio in such a mild-mannered way. It comes across as a well thought out critique rather than a knee jerk bash (which it could easily be misconstrued as seeing as it’s on the internet). I wish more artists that feel the same way would shed some more light on the situation for those of us that have aspired to work there since child hood. I love reading about Disney whether it’s good or bad. And it wouldn’t affect my decision of working at the house that Walt built should I ever be fortunate enough to get that chance. I personally prefer to make my own mind up about things.

Anyway, interesting reads for sure, and I thought I’d share.

Here’s a few of videos on the great voice talent in animation. The first two are from the Disney Album, and the last is for The Simpsons:

This design / concept artist has a very inspiration gallery online at boyrobot.com. I suggest you treat your eyes to a visit.

While I’m posting progression reels, here’s another one. If you watch Ben Fiquet’s excellent show reel, there’s a lot of progression stuff from Pyrats, a super awesome hand drawn short he was a part of at Gobelins.

I honestly prefer to see the really rough stuff, but there’s an art to clean up that isn’t often talked about online that you can see in Richard Smitheman’s work.

11 Second Club has a great interview with BJ Crawford with lots of progression stuff from one of his winning entries.

Animator Pres Romanillos has suffered a relapse of leukemia, and is in the hospital awaiting a repeat bone marrow transplant. His friends are putting together a charity art auction for his benefit. The Talbert Family Foundation has set up a charitable fund for Pres. 100% of these donations will go to Pres and Jeannine, to pay medical and day-to-day expenses. These donations are tax deductible. Thank you!

For more information, check out www.pres-aid.com.