Mysty Forest Becomes an Animation Studio

Posted on by Thor

Travis Blaise, a former Disney Animator offered a class at Misty Forest (N Hyer Ave, Orlando, FL) which had the students working towards completing an animated short. The story was called “Rosalie and the Bottle Tree“. A bottle tree is simply empty bottles put on the end of tree limbs and a bottle tree can bring good fortune. The narration was complete and the children’s drawings were used as the story boards.

What Misty Forest lacked in terms of cameras and light tables, it made up in the children’s enthusiasm. I don’t believe the film was ever completed, but the kids had a great time getting to collaborate on  what might one day become an inspired little film. All it takes is on determined soul to reignite the spark and take on the Herculean task of finishing the animation.

Travis Blaise Works on His Cintique

Posted on by Thor

Travis Blaise worked with students at Misty Forest to help create storyboards for a short animated film titled “Rosalie and the Bottle Tree.” As I sketched Travis, he told me about the equipment he was using, and I decided to purchase the same scanner and printer he was using. The Epson has been serving me well. Misty Forest is a small private school that offers kids creative courses after regular school hours. A bottle tree consists of bottles stuck onto branches and they are created to bring good luck. Travis had the kids create all the storyboards and he was using the Cintique to edit together the images along with the sound track.

Travis is an amazing animator that worked at Disney Feature Animation when hand drawn animation was in it’s hay day. He is a master at working straight ahead, letting the scene develop organically.  He showed me how he uses the Cintique to animate using Flash. I was amazed that the program could be used to create organically drawn animation. I always assumed that Flash created flat, cut out type characters that were then moved like puppets.

Travis ended up leaving Orlando to work at Digital Domain, a computer animation studio. Digital Domain then closed down and I’m not sure where Travis went after that. Working in the animation industry is like tap dancing on quick sand.