The Land Before Time
August 24th, 2013

Saw this on YouTube. This is a clip from The Land Before Time directed by Don Bluth. I animated the first minute and a half of character animation in this video (all the way to the cross-disolve). Linda Miller was my directing animator at the time and her prints are all over this as well.

All the animation was done on the musical beat of a temp track. Unfortunately, James Horner's lyrical score didn't sync with the beats. I still think that James did a great job on the overall score, though.

Here's a picture of Don Bluth, myself and James Horner at the American Tail wrap party. Good memories!

I started as an assistant animator on An American Tail (uncredited) and was promoted to character animator on The Land Before Time. So in essence, the animation above is some of my first professional work as a feature animator. I animated several other scenes but this, if I remember well, was the longest uninterupted sequence of animation I got (one and a half minute). Ducky peeling the egg is my favorite of the scenes I worked on in that film. Glad to have a look at it again after all these years.

It's also interesting to note that the film was actually done at the 1:33 aspect ratio. If you saw it in a theater, the top and bottom were actually cropped out.


The Saga of Rex Pencil Test
August 16th, 2013

I thought some of you might enjoy a small peek behind the scene. Here's a pencil test (missing a few inbetween drawings) for The Saga of Rex. The eye blinks are added later at the color stage. Missing from the scene are the ground shadow, special effects and animated background elements.

Crazy Tattoos
August 12th, 2013

Here are two more pictures to add to my "Tattoos Inspired by Michel's Art" gallery.