New Facial Animation lecture on Gnomon Workshop site

Hi All, I hope you're weathering the pandemic well!  I recently completed a new 3-hour video lecture and demo on facial animation for the Gnomon Workshop. Check it out!

Still spots left in my Intro to Acting class

There are still a few spots left in my ”Intro to Acting” class at the Animation Collaborative.  Classes run every Tuesday night starting September 24.  More info here.

Summer Epic Intensive in Vancouver!

I'm proud to be a part of this teaching event coming up in August!  Get your tickets now.

Class alert: "Acting for Visual Artists" with Tracy Burns

Kitbull!

Pixar just released another of their SparkShorts, "Kitbull":


This film was directed by Rosie Sullivan, one of our talented story artists.  I had the pleasure of working with her for about 6 weeks.  It was my first experience with 2D, hand-drawn animation, and I absolutely loved it!  The animators did all their own roughs, cleanup, and even coloring in TV Paint.  The background paintings and compositing were handled by other artists.  We had a very short and intense schedule and a shoestring budget, but honestly it was the most fun I've had animating in years.  I hope I have the chance to do more 2D animation soon!

Class alert: "Acting for Visual Artists" with Tracy Burns

My friend Tracy Burns is teaching a limited-series acting class tailored specifically for visual artists working in animation, gaming and VFX. The classes will be held on four Saturdays, 10:30am-1:30pm, March 23 – April 13.

For those of you who don’t know Tracy, she is a performance consultant and acting teacher with more than 25 years of experience. She is the Acting for Animators teacher at California College of the Arts and teaches a variety of acting and visual storytelling classes at Pixar, DreamWorks, Blue Sky Animation, Cinesite, The Third Floor, The Animation Collaborative, Chapman University and other animation studios and production houses.   I have had the pleasure of studying with her and teaching with her!

Below is more information on the class and how to sign up.

Acting for Visual Artists with Tracy Burns

Saturdays, 10:30am – 1:30pm

March 23 – April 13

Animation Collaborative

1185 Park Ave., Emeryville

$350 - Special introductory price! 

*For additional discounts, see below

In this class, Tracy provides directly applicable acting techniques that are immediately usable whether you’re in Story, Layout, Animation or any other department; nothing precious, nothing arcane.

Participants will learn how to:

• Analyze scripts
• Define the characters' Objective, Obstacles & Actions
• Play the subtext
• Craft emotionally rich performances
• Shoot reference more effectively
• Avoid clichés
• Shake things up when the process bogs down 
• And more!

No prior acting experience is required, just come ready to experiment and have fun! Space is limited, so register now! *Register with a friend, and you both get $25 off! 

To sign up, email Tracy: TracyBurnsCreative [at] gmail [dot] com 

Here’s what people say about Tracy’s classes:

“Tracy brings an amazing and inspiring energy to her workshops and, as an animator, it has allowed me to dive deeper into my characters and really understand the nature of the choices I make for them.”  

Alli Sadegiani, Animator - Pixar 

“I am a production designer in animation at DreamWorks and have been working in the industry for over thirty years. One of Tracy's superpowers is her ability to show her students how to work from the deepest source of their creativity, immediately and powerfully. She is a master instructor and will certainly grow the talent in remarkable ways wherever she works.” 

Kathy Altieri, Production Designer - DreamWorks 

“Tracy’s teaching has been an invaluable resource for me and many other Pixar animators. She presents the information in a fun, relevant, and interactive way, and the lessons are immediately applicable to our performances. She brings a deep understanding of acting, improv, filmmaking, and animation that is sure to enrich her students.” 

Victor Navone, Supervising Animator - Pixar

 

“This class should be required for all artists at the studio.”

Guillermo Careaga, Animator - DreamWorks

Epic Intensive!

The Animation Collaborative will be putting on a week-long seminar this January. Sound epically intense?  It will be! Come learn the craft from myself and other professional actors and animators at this unique event.

First Bloom

First Bloom from Wintersweet Animation Studio on Vimeo.

Here's a lovely personal short about first love by Tingting Liu, former Pixar intern and animator at Laika. Check it out before it disappears!

Acting for Visual Artists workshop

Hi All,
I want to let you know about a great opportunity in the SF Bay Area: my friend and teacher Tracy Burns will be conducting a limited 4-class acting workshop, specifically aimed at animators and visual artists.  I've learned a ton from her and the classes are always fun and very interactive.  No prior acting experience necessary, though.  See flyer for more info:

 If you're in Southern California, her partner Alan will also be teaching a similar class.  He can be reached at allensimpsonacting [at] gmail [dot] com.

End scene!

TEDx Chula Vista

Hi Y'all, here (finally) is my TEDx talk from this spring in my home town of Chula Vista!

See you at IAMAG '18 in Paris!

I'll be teaching a master class on "Authentic Acting for Animation" next week at the IAMAG conference in beautiful Paris!  Come see me and many, many other artists at this extraordinary event.



IAMAC 18 Teaser from IAMAG on Vimeo.

New reels and thumbnails posted

I'm finally catching up on posting my animation reels for the last few films I worked on.  You can find them on my Vimeo page or just see embedded here:




"Cars 3" reel from Victor Navone on Vimeo.


"Lou" reel from Victor Navone on Vimeo.


"Coco" Reel from Victor Navone on Vimeo.

New thumbnail galleries on my Flickr page.

Good luck to Coco and Lou at tonight's Academy Awards!

Animation & Story Masterclass in San Jose

The weekend of November 4 I'll be joining a bunch of my talented peers to teach about story and animation at San Jose State.  Plenty of tickets still available!

I love this

The Story of Martin Luther from Tumblehead on Vimeo.

So appealing and fun to watch!  Oh yeah, educational too.

Upcoming animation events

Hi All, I will be speaking at a couple of Bay Area events in the next few weeks. 

First off, the Animation Collaborative's Bay Area Creative Connection (BACC), hosted at the fabulous Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.  The event is this Saturday, March 11, and is open to the public.  There will be many talented animators there giving lectures and workshops, and reviewing demo reels.  I'll be giving a talk on "Sincerity - the importance of truthful acting in animation"

The following weekend (March 18 & 19) I will be at the AOD Animation Festival in Santa Clara.  I'll be giving the same "Sincerity" talk from BACC on Saturday, and I'll be in a Q&A on Sunday.

Hope to see you there!

Scott Eaton's "Bodies In Motion" web site

This Monday the 16th will see the unveiling of the new Bodies In Motion, a web site providing human anatomy reference for artists, animators, and modelers.  The content has been created and curated by Scott Eaton, renowned artist and teacher of anatomy.  I've had the pleasure of beta-testing the site for a month or two now, and I can tell you that it's fun to explore and contains a wealth of reference material.  Check it out!

On a side note, I haven't been posting much to this blog, but I have been focusing more on my 2d artwork, and I'm posting to Instagram pretty regularly.  If you're interested, you can find me at @victornavone

Spots still open for Animation Collaborative Winter 2017 classes

The next session of Animation Collaborative starts in 3 weeks, and there are still some spots available in my Advanced Animation course.

There is also a new Animation Mini Film course, taught by my buddy Matt Majers, that has plenty of open spots.  It should be a fun curriculum, and will make a great addition to your reel!

You can register for classes here.

Happy New Year!

CTN Expo

Hello Readers, if you still exist!   I'll be in Burbank for the annual CTN Animation Expo this weekend.  I will be spending some time at the Pixar recruiting booth, and I plan to pop in on Michal Makarewicz's "What are you afraid of?" workshop on Friday night.  Hope to see you there!

Animation Collaborative Fall Session

There are still open spots for classes in the Fall session at The Animation Collaborative!  I'll be teaching Advanced Animation Critique, and there are other classes at all levels.  Sign up while you can!


Register here

Class overviews here

Hope you had a rad summer!
-v

Interview with me on Animated Views

Here is a new interview I gave about my experiences on "Inside Out" by Jeremie Noyer, proprietor of the web site Animated Views