Sami
This month we look at Sami, an accomplished artist in the grand
animation-art tradition that inspires so many of the artists who are
attracted to this site, and which has further driven many such artists to
careers in the traditional animation industry. With the balance of innate
skill and natural humor evident in her art, we can be sure that Sami is
another budding animator whose career will be one to watch.
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In the Artist's Own Words:
| “ | ....Wow. Just... wow. Um- thank you? Really, seriously, honestly thank you
all? I don't know what else to say, this is kind of a weired feeling. I
dunno, just being here for a few years and watching all of the fantastic
and deserving artists get to this point, you get used to cheering other
people on and forgetting that you're actually eligable to win too.
Really, I'm not one for speeches, because I tend to ramble, so I'll try to be brief. I would like to thank the community as a WHOLE (Brian especially for making this site and being so awesome about maintaining it), because this whole place is one of the main reasons I've stuck with cartooning and animation as my life-goal. No lie. I've been here for a fair few years, and through it all- the ups and downs, it's this community that has kept me at it (some artists more than others, you know who you are). Sure- I may have wondered off and focused on other fandoms at times, but you guys- the PEOPLE of this community are really it- and that's something I'll never forget. Thank you. Man- I really don't have anything else to say. I always thought that I'd have a big speach all set up and ready for this, but.... there's just an extreme loss for words here. Just, thank you all again- really, profoundly, thank you. |
” |
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Though Sami's gallery is not as extensive as some, every bit of it is gold—whether it's a gag drawing like the cast of The Lion King as Watership Down-style rabbits, or a richly illustrated scene from a piece of fiction, it's a showcase of well-understood technique being used to its full potential. You can quickly tell that Sami is serious about animation as a career because of the effective "squash and stretch" that's evident in the more character-centric pieces, particularly the scene second from the bottom at left, where the expertly handled facial shapes immediately tell you not just who's talking and what they're feeling, but what part of the sentence each character is saying and what the next frame of animation will look like—it suggests its own reaction shots. That's how an animator thinks: in motion. When you're animating, it's a real challenge combing through all the motion in a scene and picking a single freeze-frame to turn into a piece of still art. But the result will inevitably look like it's moving even when it's standing still.
The nice thing about still frames, though, is that they enable the artist to fully flesh out beautifully colored and shaded characters against rich, lush backgrounds, and Sami is great at that aspect of her art too. Whether it's grass and cloudy skies (as in the aforementioned picture) or rain and rocks (as in the bottom left scene), you'll find expertly rendered landscapes as well befitting a matte painter as a character animator. Sami has clearly focused her artistic development on a number of areas at once, which will only further ensure that her future career will be successful—many great animation artists started out in disciplines like layout or storyboarding, and so someone who excels at all these fields will always be in demand.
Sami is one of those artists we ought to consider ourselves lucky to have here at the Archive, and whose presence enriches and legitimizes the whole site. Give her gallery a look, and wish her luck in her endeavors!