Man vs. Art

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Ever notice that whenever you begin an new artistic project like a new book, painting, portfolio, short film, etc that the darned Fear of Failure Demon always seems to drop in to petrify you? You spend sleepless gut wrenching nights where all you can imagine is doom. You toss and turn with dark visions of both yourself and your art as objects of scorn, ridicule, or even worse objects of pity. So you put off trying for the thousandth time, and ditch your dreams. Ask the top painters, cartoonists, designers, illustrators, comic creators, animators, poets, writers, directors, and they will all claim that they are no different! They too have had to deal with the Fear of Failure Demon and have had their shares of crushing disappointment.

I’d like to give a shout out to Krishna Sadashivam The creator of the killer web comic PC Weenies! He called in and left a voice mail question on the Man vs. Art Minion Hotline! He asks what animation studios are looking for in terms of Storyboard Artist Portfolios. Check out the podcast if you want to know what I had to say on that.

Born in 1920 Isaac Asimov was a writer of some of the greatest classic Science Fiction stories of the last hundred years. Of his works The Foundation Series… The Galactic Empire series and his Robot series were major contributions to the world of sci-fi literature. And These are just a few among the 500 books that he wrote or edited in his lifetime.

In particular Asimov’s Robot series generated 2 lasting concepts in science fiction including the invention of a robot’s ‘Positronic’ brain and the 3 laws of Robotics. Both concepts were featured in the movies ‘The Bicentennial Man’ and ‘I Robot’ which were loosely based on his characters.

Lastly I’d like to present you with some samples of the 2D Traditional and some 3D digital Animation my students did from my History and Principles of Animation and Timing for Animation Classes at the Gnomon School of Visual effects in Hollywood California.

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Jerry Beck Cartoon Animation Super Curator on the Man vs. Art Podcast! Jerry Beck is an animation historian, cartoon producer and is the L.A Editor of the mind bogglingly cool animation blog http://www.cartoonbrew.com! He joined me for a little cartoon talk on Man vs. Art today and it’s my pleasure to share it with you.

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Minions! I present you Mike White, the creator of the hysterically charming comic Amity Blamity! Born and raised in Canada, Mike has always dreamed about writing & drawing stories about his characters. After 5years working in TV and making award winning music videos, he moved to California enamored by the promise of opportunity. He is now back to his first love & childhood dream: creating memorable stories and characters in the spirit Bone, Calvin & Hobbes, Bloom County, and the many influences/inspirations of his youth.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:20 — 46.1MB) | Embed Today I want to talk about setting goals and finishing your projects, both client work and personal projects. Sometimes life gets in the way of our art and that’s just the way the charcoal crumbles kids. The last couple of months have [..see full post.]

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My guest today is the exceptionally talented Artist, Animator, Director, Professor, and Writer Nancy Beiman.
Nancy Beiman hails from New Jersey, likes to travel and owns a cat named Gizmo! She wasn’t the first woman to work at the Disney Studio. There were many women before her who worked on Disney films. But Nancy has earned the distinction of being the second woman to be credited on a Disney film. She has taught animation at Savannah College of Art and Design, and taught at Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Film & Animation until 2008. She now teaches at Sheridan Institute’s Animation department in Canada.

Nancy was offered a scholarship to be part of the inaugural class of the Character Animation program at CalArts straight out high school. Her classmates included John Lasseter, Jerry Rees, John Musker, Tim Burton, and Brad Bird. Nancy was the first woman to graduate from the CalArts Character Animation Program. After CalArts, She went to work at Jack Zander’s Animation Parlour in New York. She has animated Bugs and Donald, Snoopy and Goofy, friends of Fievel Mouse and Mickey Mouse, and Don Martin cartoons! She worked with Chuck Jones, Bill Melendez, Gerhard Hahn, Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney Feature Animation, the Disney Channel, Disney television movies, and Warner Bros.

Nancy Beiman entered an industry that was pretty much a boy’s club. Her raw talent and hard work, combined with an appreciation of tradition, tenacity and courage in the face of adversity served her well.