The Lucknow Sentinel, 2014-01-22, Page 22 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Lucknow-born artist making a career
of animation on big and small screens
Troy Patterson
QM! Agency
Daryl Graham has made a living of
bringing to life the animated charac-
ters of Disney, Warner Bros. and
major commercial houses - and he
showed Lucknow Central Public
School (LCPS) staff and students a
glance at his career on Friday.
A guest of student Tyler McDougall,
Graham has the honour of being
called his "uncle" and was pleased to
do his "first" public speaking engage-
ment ever with LCPS. He's also the
animation director for the new com-
puter -animated cartoon "The Nut
Job," which opened Friday, Jan. 17 in
theatres across North America.
He first wanted to illustrate chil-
dren's books, but opportunities to
work on Space Jam and others
appeared after his graduation from
Sheridan's animation program, with
both bigger and smaller freelance jobs
giving him a range of experience.
"I was lucky enough on job offers
and was able to stay in Canada for my
family, parents and grandparents," he
said. His mother Deirdre Graham
owns DL Farms Alpaca's between
Lucknow and Wingham and was also
his art teacher in school.
Daryl, 39, spent time at LCPS in lcin-
dergarten, but transferred to Brooke -
side where his mother taught.
Deirdre said Daryl showed promise
in art from age two. She's also hugely
proud of his achievements.
"He always had a really good eye for
proportion and actually seeing what's
in front of you," she said.
Daryl said his mom even failed him
in an art class one year, but that he'd
had it coming for "goofing off" he
laughed.
His ability to translate those early
images has evolved into creating
24 -frame -per -second animation
projects over the years, as well as the
skills he picked up on the job to learn
to produce computer animated fea-
tures. Graham said the computer
world now dominates the present-day
animation scene.
"Hand -drawn animation is almost
defunct, sol was lucky I was able to
leam on the job," he said.
Lucknow-raised animator Daryl Graham smiled after drawing up a
version of Bugs Bunny and Benny from Gnomeo and Juliet (2011) at
Lucknow Central Public School on Jan. 17, 2013.
He showed off many photos and
videos from his personal portfolio
and answered questions from chil-
dren curious to know how long it
takes to animate a cartoon, to his
schooling and what kinds of anima-
tion he enjoys.
He said to be an animator, you
have to first have a "strong grasp of
hand -drawn animation or life draw-
ing. The challenge between tradi-
tional animation and on the compu-
ter is also drastically different as well,
with varied skill sets.
"You don't have to be good at
drawing to be a computer animator,"
he said. "Computer animation is kind
of like playing with action figures, you
can just move them however you
like
The animated Rice Krispies com-
mercial he worked on took about six
to seven weeks to complete, while
other larger film productions can take
one or two years. The challenge of the
career, he said is often working with
groups that have different expecta-
tions and may not understand his job.
Graham said creating fresh ideas
based on the outline from the com-
pany can also be a bit stressful. The
productions often start with an idea to
create the characters, followed by
audio tracks to weave dialogue into
the cartoons as they're created.
"You do all of these drawings and
sent them back to clients," never
knowing will be picked the favourite
to be used, said Graham. "Think of it
as every page of dialogue is a minute
of movie time," he said. "The more
realistic the character, the longer it
takes," adding some new movies like
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
double the framerate to 48 frames per
second to increase visual fluidity even
further. "That's a lot of work"
Students oohed, ahhed and
laughed at the wide variety of styles,
concepts, storyboards he projected
onto the stage, which is also the
means to support his family in
Oakville. Graham spent about two
hours patiently answering questions,
showing brief video animations and
examples of his work since his career
took off with an opportunity to work
on Michael Jordan's 'Space Jam' ani-
mated -live action film in 1996.
He showed off a variety of black
and white penciled rough drafts, how
they're blended with visual story -
boards and their transition to full -col-
our visual effects.
The most important lesson first
taught to animators is to draw a realis-
tic 'bouncing ball: Graham said leam-
ing how to draw movement is key.
"Basically everything works from
that;' he said. "The more drawings, the
slower it goes. The less drawings, the
Troy Patterson QM' Agency
Tyler MacDougall, son of Shane and Lana McDougall, and student council
member Jacob Cuillerier were happy to have their photo taken with Lucknow
Central Public School guest and animator Daryl Graham on Jan. 17, 2013.
faster it goes:'
He credited mentors like Chuck
Gammage's Animation, whom he
worked with for years on a variety of
projects. He also worked for Passion
Pictures, one of the United Kingdom's
premier commercial houses, working
on items like Superb owl Ads and
high-end advertising campaigns.
Graham earned the opportunity to
take charge of recreating the modem
look of Frosted Flake's Tony the Tiger
in Canada, and with commercials fea-
turing Cheeto's Chester Cheetah and
the Rice Krispie elves. He took on the
Beatles in a massive animated open-
ing sequence for the Beatles: Rock
Band video game, which he showed
to the crowd from a Youtube video.
"The Beatles are... kind of famous,
sol had to study their moments, and
made sure I got it right:' said Daryl.
His credits also include more
recentlywhere he was animation con-
sultant in the computer -animated
series TRON: Uprising, supervising
animator for blockbusters like
Gnomeo and Juliet (2011) and the sci-
fi animated film '9' in 2009. He was
also animator in Curious George
(2006), Surley Squirrel (Character
designer - 2005), Osmosis Jones
(2001) and a Daffy Duck live-action
animated feature in the Drew Carey
Show (1998). Graham said he worked
on Disney's Beauty and the Beast
spin-off, Belle's Christmas, on Sir
David Attenborough's Planet Earth
and animating a 'Planet Snack; com-
mercial with astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
He also worked with the creator of
Ren & Stimpy during a Dunkin'
Donuts commercial.
"In a lot of these places I got to work
with some crazy people with really
great ideas," he said.
Daryl said he's most partial to "high
class" Disney and Warner Brothers,
with films like Sleeping Beauty and
Sword in the Stone and Bugs Bunny
airing as his favourites.
"But I still do really appreciate mod-
em studios," like ToonBox Entertain-
ment, where he currently acts as ani-
mation director. The biggest difference
in his more senior roles is his respon-
sibility to oversee the work of others
and help improve on it, rather than
smaller animator jobs where he
would be creating.
Graham drew up versions of both
Bugs Bunny in under two minutes for
students, as well as the star character
of '9' and Surly from 'The Nut Job'.
For young artists lookingto fry their
hand at animation, Daryl said many
books provide outlines on skills tech-
niques, but finding a mentor is key to
"learn from someone who's better
than you." As he had learned in
school, copying animated characters
is a start, but an artist's originality is
what is required in the business.
"I'd just say look at reference, in
everything," he said, adding that
reviewing frames in slow motion, or
draw flipbooks to experiment with
and build on are all ways to learn ani-
mation. "Once you get into anima-
tion, it's hard to want to get out °fie'
Teacher Dave Browne thanked
Daryl for his time, as student filed past
a number of drawings, backdrops and
sketches he created over the years. He
was sent off with a thank you card, an
Armstrong Bakery gift certificate and
a stuffed Lucknow Lynx in apprecia-
tion for his time spent at Lucknow
Central.
For a look at The Nut Job trailer, visit
www.youtube.com/
watch?v=iXFOEItiry8
SEE MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE 8