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There Are Easier Ways To Become A Professional Artist: Live Q&A With Noah Bradley :: ArtCast #60

It’s never been easy to become a professional artist, but most young artists make it way more difficult on themselves than it has to be. Yesterday, I was a guest on Noah Bradley‘s Livestream and we covered what seemed like every hot topic that professional and pre-professional artists are facing today. Is a traditional, brick-and-mortar [...]

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When Jobs In The Animation Industry Disappear…

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Anyone who has worked in the animation industry knows that layoffs and studio closures are just standard occupational hazards. …but times are especially tough right now. 350 employees at Dreamworks Animation were recently recently laid-off and the creature effects powerhouse, Rhythm & Hues just filed for bankruptcy. …and let’s not forget that Digital Domain’s brand new feature animation studio in Florida was shut down [...]

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‘ImagineFX’ Features Oatley Academy + New Digital Painting Course!

This morning, my friends at ImagineFX Magazine got me all choked up. As many of you have now seen and read, ImagineFX interviewed me about The Oatley Academy for Issue #94 (March/April 2013). The article is really encouraging. …and humbling. The issue has already hit shelves in the UK and will be available in the [...]

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The Making Of ‘Paperman’ and The Future Of Disney Animation

Last week, Disney released Paperman, the new CG/2D hybrid short film, on YouTube and it already has about 14 million views. Shortly after it went viral, the industry honored Paperman with the Annie Award for best short film. The response at the Annecy Animation Festival was also inspiringly positive. The director recently confirmed that Disney is pursuing the Paperman process further. Could the Paperman process be a picture of the [...]

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Disney’s ‘Pixie Hollow Games’ Visual Development Painting: Rumble

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This was the first Visual Development painting that I did for ‘Pixie Hollow Games’ (line art by Ritsuko Notani; art direction by Fred Warter). This is an early piece of “Rumble” concept art. Rumble is Glimmer‘s partner on the storm team and the antagonist of the story. He’s not really a villain but it was [...]

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Disney’s ‘Pixie Hollow Games’ Visual Development Painting: Glimmer

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In May of 2010, I was promoted to Character Visual Development Artist as I joined the crew of ‘Pixie Hollow Games.’ Suddenly, I went from designing props and tertiary background characters to designing brand new principal characters. …a rare and precious opportunity. My favorite of all the new characters we created for ‘Pixie Hollow Games’ [...]

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Disney Portfolio Reviews & Character Design Panel at CTN-X

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CTN-X 2011 is almost here! Character Design Round Table: I will be joining three incredible artists for a Character Design round table discussion on Saturday morning from 10am-12pm in Parlor 131. Here’s the description from the CTN: The top 5 portfolios have been pre-selected to be critiqued live by the best character design eyes in [...]

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How To Create A TV Show Pitch Bible for Animation From CTN-X 2010

Click to play the Video!

People are always asking me how to pitch their ideas for animated TV shows. I usually refer them to my ArtCast episodes about pitching (find those here, here, here and here) and the book recommendations contained therein. Pitching – as a concept is both complex and vague and my own opinions about pitching have dramatically [...]

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Tinker Bell & The Great Fairy Rescue Props Visual Development

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I had to paint a lot of real-world, turn of the century props for Tinker Bell And The Great Fairy Rescue and these are some of my favorites. Below are the designs for the biggest glue bottle in the world. That is because this glue bottle was made real and huge and was installed at Tink’s [...]

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Tinker Bell & The Great Fairy Rescue: ‘Fairy Transportation’ Prop Visual Development

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In our most recent installment of the Disney Fairies series, the Fairies of Pixie Hollow travel to the mainland (rural England) and set up a Fairy Camp. The seasonal ritual comes with the logistical challenge of transporting large stores of Pixie Dust (which fuels fairy flight) as well as Tinker Bell’s mount, a mouse [...]

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Tinker Bell & The Great Fairy Rescue: Set Visual Development

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To a human, it is a revolutionary convenience, but to a fairy it is a hostile environment. Here are some of the set designs that I painted for the antique car that is featured prominently in the girl-power finale of Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue which is now available on DVD & Blu [...]

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Disney Fairies Short :: “Say Cheese”

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I did the title card painting for a new Disney Fairies short called Say Cheese. We were attempting to blend the classic art deco look of the title cards for many classic cartoons (Disney, WB, UPA, MGM etc…) with our Fairies style and I am very pleased with the result. You can watch the short [...]

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Storybook Steve Album Art

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One of my best friends on planet earth, Storybook Steve has just released his second solo album Post Haste and I did the cover art! (shown above) Those of you that are long-time readers of this blog will recognize the second track on the album. It’s a deluxe version of the song that came from [...]

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No Croakin’ Around

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I did the title card painting for a new Disney Fairies short called No Croakin’ Around. We were attempting to blend the classic art deco look of the title cards for many classic cartoons (Disney, WB, UPA, MGM etc…) with our Fairies style and I am very pleased with the result. You can watch the [...]

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Disney Fairies Prop Visual Development: Porcelain Fairy Statue

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Disney has released three exciting Fairies-related videos as a promotion for our upcoming release: Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue (available on DVD and BluRay September 21st). You can now watch 8 minutes of the film, a new trailer (newer than the one that was released on the Alice In Wonderland DVD/ BluRay). In [...]

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Full Length Interview From ImagineFX Magazine :: The History Of Chris Oatley’s ArtCast

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This post is from March 15, 2010. If you are looking for content related to the Oatley Academy feature in the April 2013 issue of ImagineFX, click here. Imagine FX Interview January 2010: Chris Oatley :: Issue #54 of ImagineFX magazine is hitting shelves in the U.S. THIS WEEK. As many of you know, I was interviewed in [...]

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