September 2017 - The Needy Animator

“I Moved to LA to work in Animation” Comic Review

I usually don’t write book reviews or have much time to write animation related resources review as much lately but today when I happened across Cartoon Brew’s article on “If You Are Thinking Of Starting An Animation Career in L.A., You NEED to read this comic”  It talked about a must read comic by Natalie Nourigat called “I Moved to LA to work in Animation”. for others that plan to move to LA for  animation career. It seemed interesting but I wasn’t thinking of moving to LA anytime soon but as the executive director of ASIFA-SOUTH animation society (South US chapter), I put the resource up on our community page and didn’t think much of it. Then tonight during our monthly creative mixer, one student artist brought up that she was interested but didn’t want to spend $10 on it. I raised an eyebrow and thought to myself $10 isn’t a lot of money for intellectual property but then I had to remind myself that I was working and we’re talking about students that have student loans to worry about on top of working part time to support themselves. Therefore, I came back home tonight and bought the book to see if it was worth recommending. I also happened to receive an email tonight a little later as well from my mentor who works at Sony Broadcasting (a veteran TD who has numerous feature film credits and an amazing mentor I look up to and respect) and he sent me a link to the book as well saying “really fun – I lived in LA to work in animation comic”...
Inktober Feature: Is Traditional Inking Dead? pt 1

Inktober Feature: Is Traditional Inking Dead? pt 1

Needy Animator’s Notes: With the coming of Inktober, a tradition where artist gather online to post one inked image a day for the whole of October, we are releasing a 3 part article focused on Inking.  The other day I read through an artist friend’s facebook post to find a very interesting post on how another artist commented that those that were inking digitally was “missing out” on the whole learning process only traditional inking could provide. This is particularly interesting as there has always been a divide not only in this issue but with the rise of technology between those that embrace the digital process and others that are more purist with the belief that traditional methods without CTRL+X means the restriction will force you to really master your skills. Is it really one or the other? A medium versus its own development and transformation over time? Personally I am not a purist nor do I have an opinion on which is better but I do want to address how new technological advances such as a particular dynamic fluid painting app EXPRESII that has the ability to imitate fluid and paint flow, whether it be in the way ink is blended together or how you can twist your tablet around and have the paint flow down the screen to close the gap of what is part of the argument for the use of traditional equipment. (Full disclosure: I asked Nelson Chu, the creator of EXPRESII for some app sponsorship discount codes for our ASIFA SOUTH Animation Conference and Festival last month as I was intrigued by the creations...