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APW Celebrates 20 years with a Scholarship!

On Friday, September 27th at Hashtag Gallery in Toronto the Animation Portfolio Workshop community was out in full force to celebrate 20 years with a bash and an art show.  Drawings and artwork by past and present instructors and TA’s who have taught at APW over the years were on display.  APW grads who have moved on to animation and art related careers, APW instructors and TA’s, friends and fellow animation educators all reconnected and caught up.  An absolutely fantastic event.

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Drawing is Back.

Actually, it never really went anywhere. We know because at Animation Portfolio Workshop drawing is all we do. Artists and animators have never stopped learning and using the immense heft and power of visual language that is revealed in drawing.  Ask any animator.  Drawing has been the chosen method for developing ideas, building worlds, telling stories, designing and animating characters and creating/investigating visual styles for a long, long long time.

#SpiderVerse – Animating Miles

#SpiderVerse is now available on Blu-ray, DVD & 4K Ultra HD!

Posted by Sony Pictures Imageworks on Tuesday, March 19, 2019

In recent times drawing has takena back-seat to computers. The wide-spread popularity of the 3D look in movies has meant

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Charlie Bonafacio and APW’s animation industry guest-judges

Animation Portfolio Workshop has been privileged to enjoy the involvement of a number of experienced (and very generous) animation artists over the years who have taken time from their busy lives to take on the role of a special guest judge in our APW Character Design Contest.  Back in 2014 Animation Portfolio Workshop had the pleasure of working with Charlie Bonafacio.  It’s not everyday that a chance comes along for a beginner to have their drawings looked at by a former Disney animator

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APW grad – stop-motion storyteller – Dani Elizondo

Originally from Monterey Mexico, Dani Elizondo is pursuing her animation dream.  At the time of this post, Dani is working toward getting her BAA in animation at Sheridan College. Adding a thorough knowlege of traditional animation to her own love of stop-motion animation, puppet building, characters, stories and comic writing/illustration.  Dani’s refreshing and personal sense of design and story stand out against the pervading styles that seem to reappear over and over again in mainstream animation.

 

“I came to Canada to learn how to draw so I could pursue my dream to get into animation school and become part of the animation industry.”

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APW grad Patrick O’Keefe – Academy Award winner

APW grad Patrick O'Keefe - Academy Award winner 1

The entire Animation Portfolio Workshop team is over-the-moon excited for the 2019 Best Animated Feature film Oscar success of APW grad Patrick O’Keefe and his wonderful Art Direction on Sony Pictures Animation’s ground-breaking Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.  Sony’s take on the Marvel Spider-Man story is creative twist signalling a very clear break from the current 3-d obsession in animation feature film fare.  O’Keefe and fellow art director Dean Gordon creatively brought together

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APW grad Graham Finley up for Incredibles 2 Oscar

APW grad Graham Finley up for Incredibles 2 Oscar 3

We’re proud of the work done by APW grads.  After learning drawing fundamentals at APW, these young artists go on to hone their abilities in other schools and programs and then on to the animation biz here in Toronto and internationally.  The 2019 Oscars are an opportunity for Animation Portfolio Workshop to salute Graham Finley and recognize his outstanding work.

 

“Learning how to draw was the most important thing that I’ve taken from APW”

Graham Finley – Animator Pixar

Graham has worked at Pixar on a number of Pixar films: Inside Out, Brave, Monsters University, Piper, and most recently, Incredibles 2.  A successful animator, devoted to his craft and producing top-notch work. 

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Animation Portfolio Workshop featured grad Chang Dai

Chang Dai’s extensive animation experience covers character design, storyboards, art direction, hand drawn animation, game design and production design in Toronto (Yowza Animation, Arc Animation, Industrial Brothers, Jam Filled Entertainment, House of Cool), , Minneapolis, and in San Francisco (Play Studios).  Chang’s professional animation experience shows a highly developed ability to draw well. 

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Spider-Verse an antidote to boredom with current animated feature-film fare

Spider-Verse an antidote to boredom with current animated feature-film fare 4

Is it possible that the look and feel of current animation feature films has hit a wall?  Is creativity still alive in feature film animation?

Consider the current response to the Sony Pictures block-buster, Oscar nominated “Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse” in this article from Animation World Network entitled “Art Triumphs Over Everything.  Animation geeks and mainstream film-goers alike are finding a virtual treasure trove of inspiration and visual interest in Spider-Verse’s artful direction by the art direction team of Patrick O’Keefe (Animation Portfolio Workshop grad)

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Animation Portfolio Workshop Character Rotations

 

Animation Portfolio Workshop Character Rotations 5
Character rotation by Autumn DeOliviera (Atlanta GA)

Once you design a character for your animation portfolio, you need to draw a turnaround that shows your character in four different views.  The idea here is to demonstrate a knowledge of character construction and an ability to visualize and draw the character from different angles.  Easier said than done.  No youtube “how-to-draw” video can come anywhere near being a substitute for going and getting this knowledge for yourself through lots of drawing and helpful guidance from someone who has been where you are and knows what you need to know.  Drawing.  It’s awesome.  

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