Pixar’s Daniel Arriaga’s Amazing Character Design Course

“Quality is the best business plan, period”

Disney/Pixar’s John Lasseter has famously said, “Quality is the best business plan, period” and we could not agree more.

At Timbuktoons, we’re always trying to get better at our craft and increase the level of quality available to our customers.

To that end, we have adopted a posture of permanent beta and lifetime learning.

At Timbuktoons we have posture of permanent beta and lifetime learning.

Permanent beta, means we take risks and try new things and adjust as needed to meet the needs of our clients.

Lifetime learning means that we never “arrive” and must continually learn more about our craft and how to increase the quality of what we produce.

One thing all artists need is continuing education. It doesn’t matter if you have an established career and have been working for years.

Artists (and leaders) must continue growing in their craft and in other ways that stretch them.

I recently completed a Schoolism character design course from Pixar’s Daniel Arriaga and loved it. Arriaga has worked on such films as Monsters Inc, Monsters University, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, and Toy Story 3. He also worked on projects at Disney including Wreck-It-Ralph and (as art director) on Prep and Landing: Naughty vs. Nice.

The course covered topics like: shape language, silhouette, rhythm, design and composition, gesture and mood, exaggeration, character moments, and expressions and I really enjoyed his perspective on each of the topics.

Most lessons started with a famous artist highlight featuring the work of various illustrators, comic strip artists, character designers, or visual development artists who displayed mastery of the specific area Arriaga was going to cover in that particular lesson.

Next, he would show how that principle was applied in character design for feature film by showing specific behind the scenes examples from Pixar. I really enjoyed this aspect. Many of the examples he showed I had never seen (and I have just about every “Art of” Pixar book ever published).

Finally, Arriaga would demonstrate the principle and talk about the process. Watching an experienced master character designer draw characters while talking about his thinking process is invaluable.

I won’t give away much more than that (so as to not step on Schoolism’s proprietary toes) but I highly recommend this class to any serious character designer. This was an amazing class and is available as a “go at your own pace” course, or as a specific date range course (check dates/availability) where Arriaga actually critiques your work after each lesson. The second version is obviously limited and only offered a couple of times per year (and more expensive, but justifiably so).

I should also mention, that I am not affiliated with Schoolism in anyway. I don’t get any affiliate commission to recommend them. I simply took the course, really enjoyed it, and want to recommend it to any serious character designer. I’m definitely going to take more courses there myself.

Reposted from ToddHampson.com a blog dedicated to helping creatives thrive through info and resources to find your creative core.