Filmmaking Tips From the Disney Masters!

"Last year, Samantha Youssef of Studio Technique hosted a Master Class given by Disney animating legend Andreas Deja. We did some publicity for the class and, in return, Samantha chose her favourite animated film from submissions to last year's festival (Sweet Tooth), giving the filmmaker of Sweet Tooth, Audrey Meubus, a free seat in the class. 

Audrey was supposed to send us a report of the class, but she's been a little busy. Which was why we were so happy when Jonathan Cooper wrote up his report on the class for his blog. This was a Master Class for animators, but many of the general lessons that Andreas Deja gave during that class are applicable to filmmakers from any genre or discipline. With Jonathan's permission, we have adapted his notes for this article. 

#1. Find a Hook for Your Character - Andreas Deja

- Use your life experience when making artistic choices

- Draw on your memories to add depth to characters

- Always ask: what is this character thinking and why is he thinking that way?

#2. Don’t Animate Drawings, Animate Feelings - Ollie Johnson

- Crawl into your character's head and animate from the inside

- Lighting and camera placement should match your character's emotional state

- Easier to add technique to something emotionally true than to add emotion to sterile technique

#3. Animate the More Aggressive Character First - Andreas Deja

- For a doc, interview your most aggressive character first

- For narrative, light and block your most aggressive character first

- Use less aggressive characters to add shading to your piece

#4. Observation, Observation, Observation! - Eric Larson

- True whether you are capturing reality with a pencil, a camera or a computer

- Go out and just watch. Then draw. (Or film.)

- Learn your subject so well that you don't need the reference anymore"

Read the full article