RAW Endeavors

Glimpse into how we made Zootopia:

When I was in college there was this ongoing competitive mindset from the teachers /students that: “If you’re not drawing all night / getting 1 - 2 hours of sleep, you’re going to fall behind.” If you’re an artist you’ve probably met this kind of thinking… I’ve heard it from so many pros / tutorials.

One of my professors said that line all the time. I loved this dude. he worked at Disney on many of my favorite movies, and my young self became absorbed in this mindset. About 3 years into my degree that professor had a stroke, and when he went to the doctor they said he actually previously had something like 10+ strokes without even knowing, brought on by stress, and that he needed to slow down. 

Since then I’ve heard tons of other accounts of sickness and divorce brought on from addiction to work.

A few years later I was listening to an Animation podcast interviewing Glen Keane. He brought up that there were other animators who would live and breathe their work, never going home, barely sleeping, etc. 

What shocked me was that Glen Keane said something like “I ignored this idea, and decided to go home every night to spend time with my family, because I could learn just as much from my life experiences with them.” 

Anyway I just wanted to take a second after hearing a statement like this again recently and let any young artists out there know that:

The cartoon short that Caitlin Rose Boyle and I have been working on with Nickelodeon Animation Studio is ONLINE! Over the past year and a half Caitlin and I pitched, wrote, boarded, designed characters, and then saw through the production of the short. This opportunity has changed my life in many ways and I want to thank all of you who are still here rooting for us. Your love and support mean everything!

A master post of Thomas Romain’s art tutorials.

There’s not enough space to post all of them, SO here’s links to everything he has posted (on twitter) so far : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. 

Artistic burnout is a problem many artists experience at some point in their career. If you’ve never experienced it, then consider yourself lucky. But if you have, I wanted to talk a little bit about it as someone who has been there.

Let’s be honest, art is a pretty awesome career. We’re extremely fortunate to get paid to do something we really love. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to turn a hobby into a career, and something I am truly grateful for. But like any career, sometimes it’s stressful and difficult, and it requires a lot of effort. It can be frustrating when that thing you used to do for fun in your free time becomes the thing that is causing you stress. It’s the one unfortunate side effect of turning your hobby into your job. Sometimes you’re just not going to enjoy it.

hey guys!! i’m finally uploading my senior film, trash cat! i hope you guys like it because it was seriously a blast to work on and such a great learning experience :3 some awesome people who helped me (and whose tumblrs i know) are zbogucki, cameronbutlerart, dawnmbennett, jingleschram, and inkohit!

also be sure to check it out on vimeo so you can watch it in hd~

I interrupt a long-term hiatus to help raise awareness towards the new Copyright Laws that might come into effect starting next week unless we join efforts to stop it. 

A friend and fellow artist, Will Terry, has joined forces with Brad Holland to help us understand what this Copyright Law is all about, here is their message:

“Orphan Works in a Nutshell:

- Congress is drafting a new US Copyright Act. If passed, it would replace current US Copyright law. There isn’t any bill yet, but the Copyright Office has issued its recommendations for one. Their Report is 234 pages long and is very complicated, so it’s risky to try reducing it to a few words. But here’s a summary of its basic features:

It would void your Constitutional right to the EXCLUSIVE CONTROL of YOUR work.

It would effectively reverse the default premise of copyright law; which means…

It would make the public’s right to use your work its defining goal; which means…

You would have to make your work available to the public.

You would have to do this by registering every picture you want to retain the rights to with for-profit registries.

Unregistered work would be considered legally “orphaned.”

Orphaned work would be available for commercial infringement by “good faith” infringers.

Good faith infringers would be anyone who believed they had made a “reasonably diligent,” but unsuccessful effort to find you.

Infringers could also ALTER your work and copyright the “derivative works” in their own names.

This would affect all visual art: drawings, paintings, sketches, photos, etc.; past, present and future; published and unpublished; domestic and foreign.

It would include family snapshots and any picture or work you ever put on the Internet.

The Copyright Office acknowledges that this would pose special “challenges” for visual artists…

But they conclude that it’s in the public interest for your work to be available for anyone to use.

The Copyright Office has also recommended the following:

Mass Digitization of the world’s intellectual property by corporate interests.

Extended Collective Licensing, a form of socialized corporate licensing that would replace voluntary agreements between artists and clients.

A Copyright Small Claims Court to handle the expected flood of orphan works lawsuits.

         —> The deadline is This Thursday, July 23, 2015″ <—

– WHAT CAN WE DO? –

Write a letter —> HERE <— Let them know why this isn’t a good idea!

Don’t know what to write? Here are Letter samples 

SHARE this information as much as you can! 

– LEARN MORE –  

Watch/Listen to Will Terry and Brad Holland discuss this Law on “ Everything You Know About Copyright Is About To Change”

Read all about it.

IPA Artists Alert

Join Illustrator’s Partnership

This Copyright Act could affect all kinds of creators!!