Week 2_Research_Will_Everett

   Greetings to everyone else in this class! 

    For my first blog post, I have conducted my initial research on Robert Valley. Now, that name may vaguely remind you of something, but it is perfectly understandable to not know who he is.

    Robert Valley is a Canadian Animator/Graphic Artist. His art style is bold lined and angular, which makes sense considering that he worked with both Peter Chung (Æon Flux) and Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz) on animated projects. While his influences were dominant in the 90's and 2000's periods, Valley has been slowly building up his name in recent years.

    His first true accolade came with his 2017 Academy Award Nomination for "Pear Cider and Cigarettes". One clever production method Valley utilized on this short was streamlining the visuals with the graphic novel made beforehand. Because the graphic novel already had Valley's visual style built in, he used the animation tool on Photoshop to create animated movement for the short without jeopardizing the vision of what came before.

    Since then, Robert Valley has worked on a bunch of assorted projects, including animation/directing for "Apex Legends" and "Invincible", but my favorite work I've seen from him is one of the shorts he contributed to "Love, Death, and Robots". The Season One episode, "Zima Blue"(see image), is the perfect crash course for his style, tone, and directing choices.

    Hopefully that suffices. Have a good one. 

    Sincerely, Will Everett