DeepSummary
The podcast episode features an interview with former Disney animator Aaron Blaise, who shares his journey from being hired as an animator at Disney at age 21 after training at the Ringling College of Art and Design. He discusses his early mentors like Glen Keane, the traditional animation process at Disney, and animating famous characters like the Beast from Beauty and the Beast.
Blaise also talks about losing his wife to cancer, which led him to leave Disney, and his subsequent passion for art education and passing on knowledge he gained from mentors. This inspired him and his business partner Nick Burch to start the CreatureArtTeacher.com website to provide affordable online art instruction.
Looking ahead, Blaise discusses his plans for animation projects like the short film 'Snow Bear', expanding CreatureArtTeacher with more artist contributors, and a desire to create location-based art tutorials while traveling the world.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Aaron Blaise went from being an obsessive young artist to a Disney animator at age 21 thanks to relentless practice and the right mentors.
- The traditional Disney animation process involved many specialized roles like storyboard, layout, rough animation, cleanup, and more.
- Losing his wife to cancer caused Blaise to lose his passion for animation at Disney and prompted him to leave.
- Blaise was inspired by his mentor Glen Keane's generosity to start CreatureArtTeacher.com to make art education affordable and accessible.
- Blaise plans to expand CreatureArtTeacher with more contributors, personal animation projects like 'Snow Bear', and location-based tutorials while traveling.
- Drawing from life and keeping sketchbooks allows artists to revisit powerful emotional memories tied to their artwork.
- Blaise prefers doing longer, more rendered drawings over quick sketches from his years of obsessive daily practice as a young artist.
- New digital tools like VR drawing spark Blaise's creativity, though he struggles with the lack of tactile feeling compared to traditional media.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I grew up out in the everglades in a little trailer, and I would go out and draw the animals on the swamps.“ by Aaron Blaise
- “Ten years ago, my wife passed away from cancer. That was kind of the thing that sent me out of Disney. I lost my wife and I lost my mojo for animation in that time.“ by Aaron Blaise
- “I hate, hate, hate how expensive colleges have gotten to me. It's criminal.“ by Aaron Blaise
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Episode Information
Draftsmen
Stan Prokopenko and Marshall Vandruff
9/19/23