Check out a Video Interview with James:
http://sewardstreet.com/2007/11/22/james-baxter-interview-on-enchanted/
Read a 2006 Interview by Erik Fountain and Mario Furmanczyk
May 2006 - The James Baxter interview! -
Interview by Erik Fountain and Mario Furmanczyk
So one might be wondering how the hell did this random Mario guy arrange an interview with the one and only James Baxter? Well, thanks to my good friend Erik Fountain, who’s a good friend of James‘, I tagged along for an interview which was meant to help Erik pass one of his critical studies classes! I ran into Erik that night and he asked if I’d like to go with him and obviously I did. It was an interesting interview because it started out very planned (Erik had a list of questions to ask him) and then it ended up as a sort of improvisational, casual conversation! It was almost as if I was talking to one of my Calarts buddies about animation. (But this buddy happened to know a lot more about animation.)
So one might also be asking....why didn't you post this interview in last year's journal? I'll be honest. At the time I was kind of avoiding anything and everything that had to do with my website because I was just at a low point artistically and didnt' want to confront it. I was also looking for the best opportunity to do this golden nugget of animation wisdom some justice! So here it is! My new journal will start off with a bang this year!
I'd like to thank James Baxter for this interview. I think it'll be a great resource for you all!
Ok so first of all, here is some background info on James before his animation career.
- Before Art School, James Baxter attended the Cambridge Tech College for graphic design. He took classes in ceramics, industrial design, and graphic design. That’s where James first managed to get his hands on film equipment. He started animating with cut out animation under the camera and was intrigued with animation ever since!
James later attended West Surry College of Art and Design, which was the only school for animation in London. The program was more experimental in nature.
After about a year at Surry, he was offered a summer job on Roger Rabbit where a handful of his friends were also working. James said that Roger Rabbit was a big deal since it was so rare to have such a huge production done in London. So James initially expected this Roger Rabbit gig to last for the summer but they hired him full time. That ended his career as a student and marked the beginning of an amazing career in the world of animation!
- Q: What’s the best thing that has ever happen to character animation?
JB: Walt Disney - no brainer!
- What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to character animation?
JB: WWII
-Erik asked an interesting question which seemed to spark a bit of excitement in James. Who was the best out of the Nine Old Men and what would make the ultimate animator?
James came up with the “Nine Old Men triangle”. A combination of Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas and Ward Kimball.
-Milt Kahl - Insane draftsmanship, staging
-Frank is acting from the gut, unique for every character. Doesn’t have the best draftsmanship but approaches acting in a unique, spontaneous, honest performance
-Ward Kimball - for his comedy and zaniness and limitless animation.
- Q: What’s your opinion on the combo of 2d and 3d?
JB. It all depends on who’s wielding the tools. It’s a matter of taste. What kind of look do you want to achieve? With enough work you can almost achieve any look these days. I don’t think it’s been done extremely well. It sticks out like a sore thumb a lot of times. Iron Giant is one instance where it was done well.
Q: If you were in a position to use both would you?
JB: If it’s best for what you’re trying to do as far as the demands of the story
Q: What are your feelings on where hand drawn is right now?
JB: Something’s definitely brewing. The regime change at Disney was very exciting. Disney’s doing shorts again so that’s great.
Q: Based on things that are being done now, where would you like to see things go now?
JB I’d like to see hand drawn start pushing some boundaries. Stylistically it was in a rut, looking back on itself a lot, even though I’m working on a project (Enchanted) that’s supposed to look back on the past. We’re trying to get a nostalgic feel to it.
I’d like to see things done in a different style. Since there’s so much digital help, there’s a lot of digital possibilities for the future. We’re trying to do things that won’t limit us to line and flat color. But just be careful that you’re not just doing things just to be doing things. Just don’t distract the audience. (Freckles on faces, textures, etc.)
Q: What’s your favorite CG film so far?
JB: Incredibles because they tackled humans for the first time and they were very careful to pick the style so they wouldn’t be to literal and not too abstract. It’s very easy to add a lot of distractions. It takes a lot of discipline to hold back on going overboard with details.
Q: What is your opinion of CG as opposed to hand drawn?
JB - you have to get more subtly in CG because of the nature of the design. It’ll go dead without more subtlety. CG takes a lot more layering. Powerpuff Girls for example lends itself to more simple acting. Subtleties just wouldn’t fit with the design.
What James doesn’t’ like about CG is that it just mimics live action a bit too much.
-On comparing and contrasting Spirit and the Donkey in Shrek:
JB: Spirit was supposed to move realistically. Donkey is visually more realistic but his acting wasn’t necessarily very realistic to what a donkey would do. (example) donkey doing the running man. I was glad that I did Spirit first because I learned what to do and what I could leave out going into Shrek.
Starting Spirit was daunting because I didn’t know enough about horses. But once you seriously invest yourself into learning one four legged animal the rest aren’t so hard. Didn’t know how to change gate properly. All the specifics to horses were unknown. ….what they do with their heads when they gallop.
-With animation being so young, as Ollie being the last representatives of the 9 Old Men, they contributed to the animation industry with the books they wrote. Do you plan on dong anything like that?
JB: Best things that Ollie and Frank did were write those books. I love teaching maybe on DVDs because animation moves. Trying to explain animation in book form is limiting because animation is all about movement. I’d love to do something on DVD.
-What film did you learn the most on?
JB: Roger Rabbit followed by Spirit. Up until Roger I was on my own, just drifting with my friends. Just trying to learn by watching movies. Self teaching ourselves. It was a steep learning curve in getting into a studio and assisting pro animators. The stuff you can get from watching and reading are the basic stuff (through analyzing). What you don’t get until you actually sit down with a professional is the process. How do you start? How do you structure the scene? You can do it on your own with time but it’s much easier to learn from someone.
One of the things that I learned from Andreas. All my animation is in graphite and the inbetweens/rough inbetweens in blue pencil so the clean up artist knows on which drawings he/she has liberties in changing. (This process originates from Milt.)
Q: What were your influences, what made you want to pursue a career in animation?
JB: saw star wars when I was 10 and loved it. Wanted to blow up spaceships. Was initially into special effects. Really into special effects! Fan of Harryhausen. But all the while drew since 6. Saw Robin Hood and mother remembers him coming home trying to draw the Robin Hood characters. He copied a lot of stuff. Phase where he would copy Frank Frazetta pictures. I remember sitting in art class and copying the “Death Dealer”. My future brother in law was in the next door print shop and saw his drawing and said it was a Molly Hatchet cover!
Can’t remember exactly how I first heard of Dick Williams but I grew up watching a lot of his commercials but grew up watching the “South Bank Show” with Melvin Brag and they did a show about Dick when I was about 14. They showed footage from the Thief and the Cobbler which was inspiring. It was just so nice to look at. It was always destined to be the ultimate animated cult movie if it happened. Maybe THAT was one of the worst things that happened to animation. It’s pretty impossible to find the work reel.
Q: In the industry, who’s work do you most admire?
JB: There’s Eric Goldberg and Sergios Pablos. Those are the first two that come to mind. Sergio is a great draftsman and great acting. Great actor. Eric is a master of the more cartoony Warner Brothers style. I’d like to do some more of the cartoony stuff myself.
Q: What do u make of Sergio’s film?
JB: Seen the trailor, thinks it’s really cool.
James Baxter on the most recent batch of Calarts films (05-06)
Jules Soto’s film is the only thing that gets James’ boy to clean his room! His son LOVES Jules’ film! Margaret Baxter (James’ daughter) says Jules Soto makes the best films ever!
Bert Youn’s film made James laugh out loud and James also said that my little dragon (my third year film) was the cutest dragon ever done! That was an awesome compliment considering how crappy I felt about my film at the time!
-James Baxter on the “Process”
- the more you get to the place where you have a pretty good idea of what it looks like without testing it, the better.
Process wise- the ability to project ahead. When you time out your keys in the lunchbox, determine which drawing is really gonna be there. You got to commit and write the number down on the piece of paper. If it works, then you’ve learn something. You get a better idea of what it’s going to look like in the end.
It’s all about analyzing what you’re doing. Trying to break down the little things in what you’re doing. He structures his scenes not only around the extremes of what’s happening but also structuring in terms of what’s happening in the torso.
Structuring a scene - deciding which drawings are going to be on which frames and committing to them. “Tent poles” - where everything comes together to a solid structure.
On perspective runs - just plan out the perspective on one sheet of paper by drawing indictors for where the heads are.
On a woman running with dress - draw what’s going on underneath the legs first and then overlay the dress.
Animating tension/acting in a scene. - takes some acting chops, actor’s ability. To come up with the right acting choices to sell the idea. Da Vinci’s quote, “Drawings should be done in such a way so that there is no confusion as to what’s going on.” Honesty. *
Q: What do you think about video reference?
JB: Could be good and bad. Just realize the pitfall. The character will be doing what you’re doing. The character might not be you. Just keep that in the back of the mind. He never acts in the mirror because it assures that the character will end up looking like him too much. It’ll be his mouth shape, not the character.
Q: How do you work out expressions without any kind of reference?
Just by memory. There’s a commonality to how the face works in general but how one character’s face moves as opposed to another should be explored.
Subconsciously connects a person in memory to character or study reference. Rafiki is just the silly side of James Baxter!
Big Jack Lemon - some like it hot, Mr. Roberts, apartment
Clarity in the acting seems like over acting but it’s not. Just extremely clear.
Animatability in character design -
JB: needs to have limited graphic cheats. Daffy duck snaps into poses (so that gives room for the cheats)
Sculptural. Designs which are sculptural. Recommends sculpting
