Nick Bruno - Character Animator

RIO!!!

2011-04-15T17:29:00.001-07:00

RIO's in theaters. GO SEE IT!!!

I know, I know, it's been a while....

Jake "the snake" is Back!!!

2009-09-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

Hey All you wrestling fans!!!

Early Thursday morning (9-10-09) at about 4:59am Ally gave birth to the newest member of the Bruno family.

Name - Jake "the snake" Anthony Bruno
Weight - 7lbs 1oz
Length - 19 inches (this time i payed attention, with Taryn i had no idea this was important...To most of you it still probably isn't).
Occupation - Baby wrestler (not to be confused with adults who wrestle babies, This is an actual baby who wrestles babies).

Everything went really well. Ally beat her all time baby pushin' record comin' in under 9 minutes. What a pro!

Jake's first scheduled wrestling match was with his happy big sister Taryn "Taryn-o-saurus Rex" Bruno. It went really well. In fact they've combined forces become the unstoppable tag-team duo known as The Bruisin' Bruno's.

I bet Jake can't wait to meet all of you!!!

Be sure to check out my dog Cooper's blog for updates on him and the rest of the fam.

How I Approach My shot

2009-02-17T17:12:00.000-08:00

When I get my assignment and kick off from the director, I usually spend a whole day away from the computer planning my shot. I refuse to lay down one key until I can see the whole animation in my head. Now I know not everything in my head may work during my execution, and I know some other things may evolve, but it's important to have a clear plan before messing around in the computer.

Here is my own personal checklist put into a rough sequential order. I say rough order, because different shots call for different things.

• Know the character(s) you are animating. Look at their model sheets for expressions. Read their character packet to know their arc (storyline) in the movie, and understand their personality traits and their limitations.
o Also understand the type of animal they are and how they move.

• Study the sequence - what is the pacing throughout the sequence. Think of the sequence as a roller coaster. What part of the ride does your shot fall on? Is it building to something else? Is it the peak before the fall?

• What kind of moment is it and what is the point of my shot? Happy, sad, calm, crazy, is it a reaction shot, or a bridge to another shot. In my opinion, this is the most often forgotten thing. There are many ways to nail a point, but there are even more ways to miss it, or overdo it. As animators, it’s in our nature that we want to do something awesome, fresh and new, and sometimes we tend to overdo some of those simple moments.

• Look at the storyboard panels. Amazing artists work long and hard on capturing each beat of a sequence. What I always find amazing, is that the artist manages to capture some of the most complex actions and feeling in just a few drawings. It’s that simplicity and clarity that we need to study.
o Keep in mind these guys and gals are really good at drawing, so we can also learn a lot from their drawing skills in how they design the character and capture the essence of that particular feeling they are going for.

• Toggle around the set. When you get your assignment, you usually get your camera and set along with it. I always find it very useful to toggle around in it to get a sense of the characters scale and what limitations they have within camera. For instance, you may find a tree is in the way, or that you only have enough room to move their head around. Whatever you find will help in planning your shot.

• Listen to audio. Listen over and over again. Try to listen for just the lyrical rhythm, then try to listen to the words and the accents, and what importance those accents have over those words.

• Draw from personal experience. Nothing paints a more vivid picture than picturing your own personal experiences. So if you’ve gone through a similar moment, draw from that.

• Thumbnails. Do lots of thumbnails. A lot of people tend to do only one thumbnail per beat in the shot. NEVER settle for your first thumbnail, no matter how in love you are with it. Explore several different variations of one pose. Its not just the pose you are looking for but what the pose looks and feels like amongst the other poses.
o After Milt Kahl would thumbnail out the full character, sometimes he would go in and do thumbnails of individual parts like hands and legs, trying to see if within those he can find a pose that gives the feeling he’s going for.

• Acting it out before a camera is really good too. It may help you see the performance a little clearer. For me, I use reference to see little happenings that I may not have thought of.

• Using movies as reference. If you can remember a scene in a movie that you thought captured the moment you are going for, study it. Find why it was successful.

• The 12 principles of animation laid out by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson.

• Some additional principles learned along the way:
- Pantomime: How would you get the point across if no dialogue available
- Texture to timing
- Rhythm of the dialogue: Use the rhythm to see how you lyrically move the character around.
- Show characters thought process
- Visualize patterns of movement within the 2D frame
- Reversals: Getting reverse curves in the body.
- Shot context: Achieving the purpose of the shot. Don’t overdo it!
- Contrast
- What is motivating the movement
- Silhouette and shapes in front of shapes. Think about color and patterns as well.
- Avoid tangents
- Develop a method of approaching your shot. How are you going to tackle the problem?
- Know what you want the audience to see and what not to see
- Direct viewers eye
- Control the head and eyes. The viewer focuses mainly on the eyes, catches the rest of the performance in their peripheral.
- Choreograph between characters
- Avoid twinning
- Don’t let the action overpower important dialogue.

• After my first pass of blocking I always analyze it using all of the principles.

Then you’re done! It’s just that easy! Hehehe.

VOTE GABOR!!!

2009-01-14T04:55:00.001-08:00

Jeff Gabor - Annie Nominee

With all the important elections taking place over the last couple of monts I wanted to remind everyone to go out and vote in one more. Vote for the Annies that is!!!

This year, my co-worker and good friend Jeff Gabor has been nominated for an Annie in the category of best Character Animation in a Feature Production. For those that don't know, the Annie Awards are animations highest honor.

"Why vote for Jeff?" you ask. I'll tell you why. Well I think his reel will speak for itself, but more importantly he's a great guy, humble, an educator (remember that cool comparison reel you all joygasmed over), a contributor to our industry (a modern day June Foray), a leader, and more importantly not a racist. I'm not saying the other guys are, but you can never be too sure. Hehehehe jk.

Either way all the nominees deserve a big congrats for their work, their sacrifice and dedication to the craft. The carreer of Animation is a hard carreer just to keep a-float in, let alone be considered one of the best. So CONGRATS to all the nominees!!!

VOTE JEFF GABOR!!! A true American Hero.

We're all proud of ya Jeff!

HORTON DVD!!!!

2008-12-09T09:32:00.001-08:00

Horton Hears a Who! is out today on DVD!!! Let the frame f*#@ing BEGIN!!!

EPISODE 5 - The Legend of Pimpcane is up!!!

2008-12-08T08:45:00.001-08:00

At Blue Sky, Scott Carroll lovingly goes by the nickname "Pimpcane." A name that is by no means fitting. So naturally, a lot of students and newcomers ask why.

Here is our answer.

P.S. A special congrats goes out to Scott, Wendy, and Hannah Carroll for their new baby Lilah. And also to Paul and Jen Downs for their new baby Eric!!!

Don't get too close to B.S. unless you plan on gettin' preggers!

CRUNCH TIME!!!

2008-11-15T06:42:00.001-08:00

Crunch time has begun at Blue Sky for the animation team. We only saw it fitting to do this next episode.

Brian Henson Visits Blue Sky!!!

2008-11-13T05:00:00.001-08:00

Me, Petey-P, Brian Henson, and Pimp-o-potamus Cane

Today was an awesome day!!! Brian Henson acoompanied by a his little Armadillo puppet friend came and gave Blue Sky a 3 hour presentation on the how to's, the history, and the behind the scenes of Puppetry. It was amazingly entertaining to say the least. And given our rescent hobby (treehouse studios), the presentation was super edcuational as well.

Watching him in action was amazing. It was so funny to see how a puppet could instantly transform a bunch of adults and jaded computer geeks into kids again. Animation has so much to learn from the magic of puppetry.

In short, If I had a time machine and I went back in time to tell my 10 year old self that I met Brian Henson, my 10 year old self would flip out and excitedly say
"When I grow up I get to meet Brian Henson!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!"

And then that 10 year old self would ask if I got to kiss any girls too. But I'll save that for a different guest speaker I guess.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO BLUE SKY FOR MAKING A LITTLE DREAM COME TRUE TODAY!!!!

EPISODE 1

2008-11-03T14:47:00.001-08:00

Head on over to http://treehousestudios.wordpress.com/ to view episode 1!!!

We created this blog to make light of all that goes into making an animated feature. Since each event effects people differently, we thought we would tell our stories through the eyes of 4 contrasting animation stereotypes. Since each one of us closely resembles one of these personalities, we couldn’t help but make fun of ourselves.

DISCLAMER:
This blog is meant to be fun, and possibly educational. The events depicted in these movies are fictitious. Similarity to any person or studio, living or dead, is merely coincidental. Especially if it’s you we are making fun of!!!

P.S. By no means do we think we’re any good at this puppet stuff, we’re just having fun.

COMING SOON!!!

2008-10-28T17:32:00.001-07:00

The first movie is up!!!! Click on the pick above to watch the intro to the show. The whole show will be shot gorilla style. No high-def. No good lighting. Only done in one or two takes. Just keep it spontaneous!

Thanks,
Nick

HANDS!!!

2008-10-23T03:57:00.001-07:00

Here are some Hand-outs!!! Some of them I've gathered through some time and others I stole them from my good buddy Leif Jeffers' Blog.

Hands are Super-DUPER important. So much acting and emotion can be conveyed with them. Not just in gesture, but simply in how they are posed.

So I hope they help! Or dare I say....Lend a hand.

I know! I suck!

DUDE CHALLENGE 2008!

2008-10-23T03:38:00.000-07:00

Ready set GROW!!! I'll be participating in Blue Skies Animation/Story Department 5 week Dude Challenge. The challenge will pit 43 (un)lucky contestants against each other in a battle of the beards competition.

We each had to pick a style out of a hat. Whatever we pick, we have to stick with. I drew "Captain Morgan!"

We'll see how good it comes out, since I only have to shave every other year or so.

click here!

AM Summer Showcase!!!

2008-08-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

To put it simply...

Fun, and inspirational animation and storytelling! I definitely laughed out loud more than once.

You all should be proud!

Click here for the showcase!

11 second club

2008-08-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't know about 11 second club, it is a monthly character animation competition that is open to everyone.

Each month the winner is rewarded with a critique given by a professional animator.

This month Leow Chan Ghee has won with a really cool test. So you should go check it out.

The 11 second club website

This month's critique

p.s. I did the critique. Too bad for him huh?

Thank You Cooper!!!

2008-05-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

On a near daily basis, my dog Cooper writes in his Blog about us Bruno's. It always puts a smile on my face, and can get me through the toughest of days. Inspiration comes in many forms, and mine is my family.

While I feel privileged to be a Blue Sky animator, I feel even more privileged to have a family. So I just wanted to Thank Cooper for his hard work.

I know its not easy for him to type with his paws.

THANKS COOPER!!!

GO SEE HORTON!!!!

2008-03-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

If you don't see it this weekend you may make Taryn sad. You don't want to make little Taryn sad do you?

Check out the reviews so far.

WATCH OPRAH THIS MONDAY!!!

2008-02-15T07:26:00.001-08:00

So yesterday I got a call from my good friend Mike Walling who had the day off. He told me that while watching Oprah, he saw an ad for a future Oprah-sode that was dedicated to our movie and the beloved Dr. Seuss book "Horton Hears a Who!"

It airs this Monday, Feb 18th. Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Carol Burnett all appear to chat with Oprah about the characters they voiced and their experience working on the film. I'm sure they'll show a clip or two as well.

Apparantly Oprah's personal review was beyond glowing, highlighting to all the film's "good for you" message.

We also heard that her designer was so inspired, that they Who-ified the set.

So tune in!!! It should be fun.

And if you get a chance stop by Wallings blog and make fun of him for watching Oprah.

WE HAD A BABY GIRL!!!!

2008-02-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

Her name is Taryn Kathleen Bruno
Her nicknames are: Piglet, Tarynosaurus Rex, Taryn the Red Baron, Tarylamadingdong.
She was born on 1-15-08!

She weighed in at 6lbs 8 oz
and she stands about 20inches tall.
Ok she doesn't stand yet.

All is well and we couldn't be happier.

check out my Dog Cooper's blog for updates on her.

HORTON TEASER - as promised

2007-07-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

CLICK ME!!!!

Horton Hears a Who - TEASER!!!!

2007-07-27T03:22:00.000-07:00

Horton teaser is hittin' theaters today!!!! You can see it before the Simpson's movie. So go check that out. Or if you don't feel like spendin' any dough, I hear you can catch it on AOL today. Or find it on the tube...or somethin'.

I'll try not to be lazy and post a link as soon as I can find one.

Word to ya motha!

Some Face Stuff

2007-07-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Here are a few handouts that I feel have helped when it comes to posing the face.

More updates soon!

This last one was stolen from The Temple of the Seven Golden Camels. Its a blog that every animator should check out. So click the link to see what this picture means!

Animation Mentor Rocks!

2007-03-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've updated this thingy, so I thought I should give a shout out to everyone at Animation Mentor.

My first term Mentoring there was a blast. I had a great time and had a super talented class. I'm sure we'll be hearing more from a lot of them in the near future. I only wish they could know how much I learned from them.

Anyhoo, their stuff really rocks, and I highly encourage you to click on the picture above and check out some of AM's showcased work.

Lookin' forward to another semester.

NO TIME FOR NUTS wins the Annie!

2007-02-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

No Time for Nuts wins an Annie Award for Best Animated Short! For those of you that don't know the Annie Awards are like the Oscars for animation.

Congrats to Mike Thurmeier, Chris Renaud (directors) and the rest of the team!

My Thumbnails

2007-01-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

Now that I have a bunch of students, I will occasionally try to post something animation related that I can point them to. I just want to everyone to keep in mind that any tips and ideas are just things that work for me and that I've heard in my travels. In no way am I saying that any of the tips/ideas are the "right way" to do things. I personally learn something everyday and sometimes that "something" changes the way I have thought before. So just keep all that in mind. So with that said, here are some of my thumbnails.

Before I thumbnail, I try to write down a title for my shot. The title is essentially the gist of the shot, sometimes the title is just an emotion or a feeling. For this assignment the class was to come up with a situation that would create an emotional shift. I tried to keep the thumbnails relevant to the assignment, so my idea was to have the class "know it all" realize that she does not actually know it all. So my title is "The know it all gets a bad grade." The characters shift is to go from poise to flustered.

After I get the overall gist of the shot, I will write down a few things that summarize the character, such as who they are, what they're feeling, and any other things that may help me. If I'm working on a shot in the movie I may write down where they are in the movie, how they were feeling in the shots before, and where they are headed in the shots after. After I get my little notes down I may make a little time-line for the shot that includes all the beats of the character. First I jot down the main beats like what the character is doing in the beginning middle then end. When I feel confident that I have thought through everything I begin to thumbnail.

Thumb-nailing is the fun part. For me thumb-nailing is in no way a story board, it is an exploration of the poses I may want to use. They are meant to be rough and quick. In no way am I trying to make perfect little drawings. They are for me and me only.

First I try to figure out that one pose (one frame) that may summarize the feeling for the entire shot (match my title). Not only do I think about the pose, the the pose in relation to the framing and layout of the camera. This was a tip I got from Stephen Gregory at Spline Doctors. Once I get that I begin to thumb-nail any of the other key poses (beats) of the shot. From here on out I thumbnail anything and everything I can think of. I always to explore all the different ways I can approach a pose with a bunch of different thumbnails. Don't ever settle with your first idea. Sometimes I will even thumbnail out individual parts of the body if I feel like they are important to the shot. All along the way I will also add any little notes that will help me or remind me of ideas that are tough to thumbnail.

Ultimately, the more searching I do on paper, the less searching I have to do on the computer, and that saves me a LOT of time.

I'm sure there are tons of things I'm forgetting, so if you got anything please comment.

Animation Mentor Starts Today

2007-01-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

Today is my first day as a mentor for Animation Mentor! I'm super excited as you can tell from my self portrait.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-18T13:17:00.000-08:00

Tis the Season. Hope you all get lots of fun presents and spend some quality time with the loved ones.

The Incredible Close Talking Carl

2006-11-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

Not much of a superhero, but he gets the bad guys to give in.

Happy Turkey Day!!

2006-11-20T13:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just for the record, this is a joke and it in no way reflects my life.

Missed A Week!

2006-11-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

Ok so i missed a week.
This weeks challenge was do pay homage to your favorite comic strip.

My IATM reel

2006-11-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here she is!!! The good, the bad and the ugly. These are almost all of my shots (except BG) for Ice Age: The Meltdown. As a Junior animator I felt SUPER priveledged to work on all of them. Thanks again to the AWESOME team at Blue Sky for teaching me so much throughout the film.

22.1mb- 1 min 45 sec / QT

To view the reel click here.

The Wizard of OZ

2006-10-31T11:15:00.000-08:00

This weeks challenge was to draw your favorite character from The Wizard of OZ.
If you haven't already seen the blog you should head on over, some really great stuff.

http://bsschallenge.blogspot.com/

Halloween Is Coming!!!

2006-10-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Blob

2006-10-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

This weeks bss_challenge post was classic movie monsters. I did the adorable blob.

Spongebob Hammer Pants!

2006-10-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

All Caught Up

2006-10-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse

I finally caught up. I officially posted to all the categories. Now back to normal.

Newest Challenge Posts

2006-10-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

BOBZILLA (Godzilla's less popular brother)

Bear-A-Cuda

Because Saville said So

2006-10-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

Boo

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Cooki Monster

Saville said i should post my pics from now on... So here they are.

Blue Sky Studios Challenge

2006-10-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

by Tony Maki

This blog is awesome!

It was started by some of the super talented artists here at Blue Sky. I could go on about how inspiring it is, but you should just go see for yourself.

http://bsschallenge.blogspot.com/

Vlad Vlad-i-koff

2006-10-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

They snatched Horton's clover! They carried it off
To a black-bottomed eagle named Vlad Vlad-i-koff,
A mighty strong eagle, of very swift wing,
And they said, "Will you kindly get rid of this thing?"
And, before the poor elephant even could speak,
That eagle flew off with the flower in his beak.
-Horton Hears a Who! by, Dr. Seuss

The image comes from Jim Hill Media I believe it was taken during a sneak peek floor show.

This macquette was created by one of Blue Sky's unbelievable artists Mike Defeo, and it is of Vlad Vlad-i-koff one of the villains in Horton Hears A Who!

Grammy Flab

2006-09-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

Grey Skies over Blue Sky

2006-09-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

Today's forecast at Blue Sky....Partly Cloudy with a slight chance of pain.

The thing that makes a good job a great one, is the people you work with. For me, two of those people were Aaron and Reagan Halifax. I can talk forever about who they are and what makes them great, but i think this photo of Aaron says a thousand words.

Thats good ole Aaron with my wife.... That's another story.

Anyhoo, I know I can speak for everyone when I say that we will really miss the two of them and wish them the best of luck in Seattle.

See ya soon.

p.s. I will return Gandalf's hat to you when the time is right.

Take me to Tomsa Ville

2006-09-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a little comic by Tom Saville.

For those of you who don't know Tom, it's probably because you're not cool enough.

Tom is the single most dreamy animator out there and he loves the laaaadaaaays.
Anyhoo, here is a picture that I was lucky enough to get at one of his Rap concerts.

Be sure to join Tom and his fight agains the zombies.

100 Bad Guys with Swords

2006-09-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

Who is DJ Tanner?

2006-09-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

The image you see here is of the one and only Melvin Tan (created by the one and only Tom Saville).

So who is Melvin Tan?

Melvin Tan is one of my fellow animators here at Blue Sky and he is not known for his talents. He is known for his terrible singing, his arrogant attitude, and his racist remarks. But I love him just the same.

To show how arrogant he is he handed me this picture of an elephant he drew and told me I had to post it.

As Jeff Gabor (another shout out) would say "I'm just joshin'." Melvin is a good guy and one of my favorite people here at BS.

Oh and he did this super cool pic of me...And i will forever hate him for it.

Lefties

2006-09-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

Ok so...you're gonna see a lot of these crappy little drawings. They are done by Robin Luera and myself. We draw them for each other all the time at work, just to amuse ourselves. Most of the time they act as a kind of crappy drawn diary, depicting the day and lifes events. They are not supposed to be hilarious, they are just supposed to be dumb. As if a dumb 4 year old drew them.

After a long day of challenging yourself artisticly, its fun to do somethin' crappy.

I just hope you like em' as much as we do.

Edumacation

2006-09-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Today Leif Jeffers and myself become Professors of Animation at NYU. We've really been lookin' forward to teachin' for some time now. There is a lot to teach, and there is a lot to learn. Hopefully we are all better animators at the end of the course...

And hopefully we dont screw em' up too much.

2006-09-18T22:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Kids! I just wanted to share some exciting stuff from our new project Horton Hears a Who.

So here are some early production stills. On top is Horton of course, voiced by Jim Carrey. And on the bottom, is the Mayor of Who-ville voiced by Steve Carrell.

The movie itself wont come out till about March 2008, but working on it so far has been nothing short of amazing. Can't wait to see it on the big screen.

My First Post

2006-08-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

Is about absolutely nothing...