I’ve been binge watching Aaron Blaise’s videos while working on my own animations. It’s been a huge source of inspiration lately. He manages to simplify animation that looks so complex to the ‘average’ eye, I’m such a big fan of his.
Aaron Blaise is an animator and filmmaker and he’s worked in films such as Brother Bear (2003) which he also directed, Aladdin (1992) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
The animator’s videos usually consist of livestreams of him animating short scenes to demonstrate the process of animation, from concept to completion. What I find most interesting about his work is how confident he is about every single stroke he draws (well, obviously since he has 30+ years of industry experience). His art feels not realistic, but 100% believable. The way he makes even a 2 drawing sequence come to life is out of this world. His lines are fast and loose but the final result is clean and very easy to interpret.
Although he is undoubtedly talented, he has said in his videos that it’s nothing but constant practice. Guess that it’s like going to the gym, the more you go the stronger you get. I aim to be disciplined enough to make myself practice animation at least daily. Even if its just a silly little animation.
The video below was very useful for my facial acting exercise. I used it as a reference to draw my characters’ facial expressions. Even the smaller details such as having your lip pout when you’re frowning can make the biggest difference.
My classmate Polina has bought his character animation classes pack and was kind enough to share a few bits with the class. It’s around 50$ and the more I watch his videos, the more I’m convinced to buy it. The guy really knows his animation.
Besides animation, Aaron Blaise also does… pretty much everything art related! But I had a look on his website and he does a variety of concept art, character designs, background art, environmental art, character studies, etc etc.
I really appreciate the energy in his work!! I strive to translate such energy in my work.
https://creatureartteacher.com
Look at how beautiful this illustration is. The contrasts and the lighting are chef’s kiss.
https://creatureartteacher.com
As someone who is very much into character designing, this funny little character warms my heart. And you can clearly observe that Aaron used only a few intuitive lines to draw this character.
https://creatureartteacher.com
He also does more realistically painted pieces. Absolutely beautiful as well.