Learn from Veteran Disney Animator Aaron Blaise
Veteran Disney animator and Brother Bear co-director Aaron Blaise is now offering annual premium memberships to his online animation and digital painting training website Creature Art Teacher.
Launched three years ago, Creature Art Teacher has been the artist’s home for sharing tutorials and lessons on animation and digital painting, taking advantage of his 20-plus years of experience as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation.
During that time, Blaise worked as an animator or supervising animator on The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, and more. In 2003 he was co-director of Brother Bear for which he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.
Blaise’s experience at Disney was incredibly diverse, stretching over 21 years. He was involved in character design and storyboarding and also worked as an animator, supervising animator, and of course, director. Post-Disney, he has continued working on top-shelf projects today, including a recent stint as 2D animation supervisor and character designer for the popular John Lewis “The Bear and the Hare” advertisement.
Now, Blaise is teaching the many skills he learned at Disney by offering a range of courses, ‘how to draw’ lessons, downloads, custom brush and texture sets, and other digital painting and animation materials via CreatureArtTeacher.com.
Much of these materials focus on capturing the essence of beautiful animals, but they also cover bipeds and other characters, as well as environments and digital paint effects.
Until recently, most of these materials were available for separate purchase, but can now be accessed either through an annual flat price subscription membership or a la carte.
The veteran animator suggests that while there is a lot to be gained from a formal art education, “the fact of the matter is that with the extremely high and continually rising costs of art school most people simply cannot afford an art education from a traditional college environment.”
Blaise says that Creature Art Teacher is designed to make art education affordable to the masses. “As time goes on, our library of courses will grow. We are looking to add much more traditional art training such as drawing and painting courses along with courses on storyboarding, editing, layout, modeling and much more.”
It can be rare these days to find artists with so many years of experience behind them who are willing to pass on the tricks of their trade, especially from the beloved 2D and classic animation area. But Aaron Blaise is able to impart that knowledge, and provide some pro insights on digital painting and illustration techniques to push your career forward.
A premium subscription membership is currently available for $199/year and provides access to all of the courses, brushes, lessons, and tips and tricks on the site, plus several subscriber-only benefits including discounts on partner products and physical items purchased on the site like t-shirts and prints.
Of course, all of this animation-rich content can still be purchased individually or in tailored bundles from CreatureArtTeacher.com.
And the best part of all—Cartoon Brew readers can get a 25% discount off any order simply by using the promo code “CARTOONBREW” at checkout.