PPP2: Fraser Maclean: Insight Into the World of Animation

I firmly believe that this talk was the most invigorating one so far hence Fraser Maclean turned out to be quite a facetiously witty animator that not only knew his practice but the parameters that orbit around it from a commercial point of view. I was flabbergasted at the rhetorical analysis he gave of the art of painting and how it synthesizes with the storytelling aspect of animation. Furthermore, he uncovered the commercial reality behind animation by giving examples of practitioners that survive off doing advertisements and such, not necessarily sustaining themselves through the whole-hearted preference of work. Nonetheless, the main points he drew were three such points revolving around animation - what we shall be working between: art and creativity, technology, and money, with the latter being divided into "dirty and clean money". I perceived this as the broken model of the visual industry where the actual practitioners work solely according to a temporary contract. Fraser Maclean belabored the point of openness to collaboration since the whole industry is such a practice no matter how much one tries to avoid this. With examples of the processes of how traditional animation was made where people were divided into very specific departments (with Maclean doing just the cartoon character shadows of Space Jam, for example) he was able to portray the intricate, well-oiled machine that is the animation industry. Furthermore, character animators are only a small puzzle piece in the assemblage as the same importance lies behind concept artists, background artists, layouters, although the mass perception places emphasis on only character animators. With a bit of personal insight, Maclean showed us how animation and the demand for different media of animation has evolved throughout the years. Finally, out of the plentiful points of advice he brought up, I reveled at the notion of "what does not benefit the flow of the story is redundant" no matter how much it makes the scene look better - unnecessary bits need not be considered. Through his life story and progression of profession the concept that Responsive brought upon us - an animator does not have to do just animation - was fortified. For example, Fraser Maclean worked for Sands Films as a sound organizer through the initial wish of being a filmmaker, whereas he then spread to animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam. I found his entire life endeavor very exuberant as it showed the flexible path of not an animator, but a creative practitioner that is amenable to work with a team and cooperate fully to make a vision a reality all through the concluding piece of wisdom he shared - be nice!

Book Maclean suggested for young aspiring animators