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The Tex Avery Documentary that Inspired me to Get into the Animation Industry

April 11, 2013 in SOME THOUGHTS, VIDEOS

VIDEOS – The Tex Avery Documentary that Inspired me to Get into the Animation Industry

$The Tex Avery Documentary that Inspired me to Get into the Animation Industry$ Simpsons Quote:

“I could pull a better cartoon outta my aaayyyy, kids!” – Krusty

There were a lot of things in my life that pushed me into animation industry. Tex Avery was one of them.

Today I’m going to talk a very tiny bit on how I became aware of Tex Avery and what that awareness did to me. But really, it’s just my long winded introduction to the documentary that educated me about the man.

You can either watch the video or read the text below it. Either way you’ll get the same information. Don’t forget to scroll down further to see the videos I posted up of the documentary itself:

Influential Documentary

Okay so how did Tex Avery help me get into animation industry? Well, it really was the Tex Avery documentary I saw when I saw in high school, which I embedded below.

Tex Avery, what I can I say about Tex Avery. Besides the documentary, you might what to seek out the this book with his work:

I really didn’t know anything about him at all until I watched the documentary on tv and I later recorded. I watched that thing over and over again. I had been broadcast on PBS.

It really opened my eyes to a different style of humor and the way it can be pushed in animation. I was really into the comedic side of animation.

Why I Got Into the Animation Industry

THE reason I got into animation was to do exactly the kind of cartoons that Tex Avery did. I wanted to write and direct, animated shorts, just like Tex Avery. I thought that I was going to be the next Tex Avery. I thought I was going to do what he did.

That’s the only reason I got into the animation industry.

I’ve changed a lot since then. I know what I want now. I know how to go about doing it. I don’t really want to be Tex Avery anymore, but initially that’s why I got into the animation industry.

Once I saw the documentary, I started seeking out his cartoons and when I saw them, they blew my mind. His cartoons did stuff that I found to be very very different.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Okay, so enough about me, here’s the documentary that changed the way I saw animation. I’m afraid it isn’t all of it and I don’t know where you can find it complete. Still, there’s enough here so that you can get something out of it. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm_FDD0e7g0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJwv6bkP91E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzQNtbKIRho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFy_deLjxEw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHncLisvzZg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6KOJA5dhk4

What do you think? Did you know who Tex Avery was before you watched this documentary. Has his cartoons influenced you in anyway. I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Who Inspired You?

Who are your heroes. How have they driven you. Have you moved on from them as I have? I still love Tex Avery but I’m not driven by wanting to be him anymore. My heroes are different now.

SOME THOUGHTS – A Question for you About 2D Animated Features

This Tuesday after figure drawing, I got into a conversation with Richie Chavez and Paul Wee, about the animation industry. Specifically, 2d animation. I’m still hopeful about 2d. I think audiences want to see 2d animated movies.

Richie, had a different opinion. He doesn’t think audiences care. He doesn’t even think audiences know the difference.

The reality is that the last two 2d movies Disney came out with didn’t do well. Never mind the fact that one wasn’t all that well written and the other didn’t really appeal to most people.

The conversation lasted an hour and a half. We went into a lot of depth about the business of making animated movies and the way things are changing behind the scenes.

I can’t really reproduce the whole conversation here.

Chris Oatley had something to say about 2d animation in his blog a while back, but I’m wondering if the reason he’s so optimistic is because he’s surrounded by a group of people who appreciate the art form.

How about the “average” person who never thinks about animation at all? Do they feel the same way about 2d animated movies?

We discussed what “average” person meant and narrowed it down to: “parents/families.” Someone looking for something with good values they can trust.

But this begged the question:

Is that the ONLY market for animated movies. Why not target other markets like anime does? The answer from the discussion was this:

Anime which is released in theaters that target those other markets, don’t really make all that much money. Even Studio Ghibli movies.
Raise of the Guardians, was more teen centric and it didn’t do all that well (and it was CG!).

The discussion left me wondering.

What do you think? Would you like to see 2d features? Why do you think that the last ones failed? What would you like to see?

Is your opinion the same as the “average” person?

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How Artists can Better Learn to Teach Themselves

March 14, 2013 in ART, COMIC BOOKS, VIDEOS

ART – How Artists can Better Learn to Teach Themselves

The Simpsons Quotes:

So when I took the test, the answers were stuck in my head. It was like a whole different kind of cheating!
– Bart Simpson

When you haven’t got a mentor around, or when you’re the only person you know who draws. When the figure drawing teacher in your class is awful or if there isn’t even a teacher at all, how can you learn?

How do you improve your art when there’s no one who can help?

Today I’m going to write about some possible solutions to this problem, and it really begins with self motivation.

You can watch the video below or read the information on the post below. It’s really the same info either way:

Teaching Yourself, the Skill of Meta-Learning

I’ve become very interested in the last couple of Months over the idea of Meta-Learning. I became aware of it, by reading the book, The 4-Hour Chef by Tim Ferris. The subtitle of the book is, The Simple P ath to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life.

There’s a section in the book called “Meta-Learning” where he brakes down the concept and teaches you how to teach yourself anything. I found this really fascinating.

Why is it important for us as artists to learn this sort of thing?

Well, the things you do when you’re meta-learning are very similar to the things you do when you want to teach somebody to draw.

It teaches you how to break things down, how to study it so you can do so. It helps you break a subject matter down to it’s building blocks. Then find what you really need from those building block and learn from them.

Bite Sized Chunks of Info

If you’re an artist and you don’t have access to anyone that will do that for you and if your going to have to do it yourself, it would be a good idea to learn to do it well. It’s one of the reasons why some art teachers tend to learn more about the subject that they’re teaching, than the students.

They have to break down a subject in such a way, that they can explain it to their students in a way that it can be internalize. Break it down into small size bites so that the students can learn it.

The very process of doing that is a learning experience, and it help you internalize stuff. Once that’s done, you can practice what you’ve broken down over and over.

I recommend you get The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life, just so you can take the first steps into this mindset. This way you can also teach yourself, a better way to draw if you don’t have access to friends that can give you tips, in case you don’t have access to a mentor or to classes.

Above all, Make it Fun

But that’s not the only book I recommend. I also recommend a book by the name of Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success by Aaron Dignan. The reason I bring this one up is because it puts forth the proposition that games are fun because we are learning something. We’re learning to control a character, or a rules or something.

Part of the fun of playing games is the slow learning process you get when you play the game itself. The best games have this thing called “flow” where they’re teaching you a skill that you don’t know, in such a way that it’s challenging but not frustrating.

If it’s too frustrating you’re not having fun, if it’s too easy you’re not having fun. When you get the right balance, between too frustrating and too easy, that’s when you’re actually learning. That’s when you’re having fun.

Gamify the Process

That’s one of propositions in the book. The book itself is about adding a game layer to life. Trying to find a way to “gamify” your life. That way you can find ways to make things that are dull a game. If you can make things like that fun, then they are motivating.

Motivating yourself is really the tricky part we have to deal with most. Even in the The 4-Hour Chef there was a part about finding incentives for yourself. He called it, setting stakes. Have something be at stake if you don’t complete what you’ve set out to do.

In a game, the stakes are, you don’t want to lose, you’re in a state of flow, you don’t want to stop playing. Like if you play a game of Civilizations you want “one more turn”. Games are really good at doing that. Getting you into that flow.

Melding Ideas

If you want to learn to grab that idea from the book Game Frame and you read The 4-Hour Chef, you can combine the ideas in both books. You might find a way to become a better artist. And you might be motivated to learn a lot of other things too.

And it’s fun. Learning is actually fun.

I just thought I’d bring those up.

I’m gonna be reading another book soon on habits and few other game design books and I might talk about those too. I’m really into this kind of meta-learning thing and I’ve been trying it out in my life.

Comment

How about you? What have you found that helps you learn that can make you better at drawing?

Pulp Simpsons Continues

The Simpsons and Pulp Fiction mash up that us layout artist drew for fun is still being sent off in my newsletter. If you want to see this art, sign up to my newsletter and you’ll get to see the art.

COMIC BOOKS/VIDEOS – Mark Waid on Digital comics

This was posted on Mark Waid’s blog a while ago but I recently became aware of it. I thought I’d share:

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A Good Inexpensive Resource for Artists to Learn About Marketing

January 10, 2013 in BOOKS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

BOOKS – A Good Inexpensive Resource for Artists to Learn About Marketing

The Simpsons quote:

“OLD SPRINGFIELD LIBRARY WE HAVE BOOKS ABOUT TV” ~Banner at the library

How do you learn to market yourself as an artist? Being a marketer is such a different skill set than being an artist.

Even though this is true, it’s a learn-able skill. Plenty of non artist have learned it, why can’t we?

The problem is, where to begin? There are so many options.

Well, I have a suggestion. I have a low cost entry point to start learning this stuff in the form of a marketing book which I will share with you in this post.

So you can either watch the video or read the post.

(All links to the book below are affiliate links. I appreciate your support if you decide to buy the book and use the links to do so. Thank you.):

What We Do as Artist Online is Not Enough

I’ve been investing a lot of money learning marketing recently. One of the best resources that I’ve gotten for my money happens to be a book called, The Ultimate Marketing Plan: Target Your Audience! Get Out Your Message! Build Your Brand! by Dan Kennedy.

This is a really good book that helps you start wrapping your head around marketing. It’s $15.00 but you can probably go the library and see if you can borrow it there. This is really a low cost entry point to learning about this stuff.

There’s really a couple of thousand dollars of information in the book for $15.00 (or for free if you borrow it from the library). You really let a lot of info.

As artists we’re always putting our stuff online. We’re on Twitter, we’re on Facebook, DeviantArt, and we’ve got our own websites. All these things are really good, BUT there’s a reason why we’re not getting more hits to our work. Why we’re often, not really making money off this stuff. There’s a reason why it’s not enough.

What’s In the Book

It’s because there’s a little bit more to it than that. A few things we’re not doing well.

The core of this book is this triangle:

Which defines marketing as:

Getting the right message to the right people via the right media and methods–effectively, efficiently, and profitably.

This is the core theme of the book. The beginning of every chapter emphasizes one of the sides of the triangle.

What We Tend to Neglect

For example, we’re pretty much obsessed with the “media” part: websites, social me

dia and the other thing I mentioned above. That’s fine but we often neglect the other things.

We might not be targeting the right Market (Who). We really should do some homework on that and the book shows you how to do it, what to think about. It gives you things to brainstorm and examples of what has worked. It’s really good about doing that sort of thing.

We often neglect what message we’re putting out there. What are we trying to say? What’s the best way to say it? The book gives you a marketing plan. It helps you think about how to plan this stuff so you can get the most out of what you do and how you do it.

I can’t recommend this book enough. I’ve spent more money on marketing material that has been less useful than the information in this book.

Now, a Warning.

The Ultimate Marketing Plan is a marketing tool for Dan Kennedy. As good as the info in the book is, it’s not absolutely complete. There isn’t such a thing anyway.

There’s still gaps in the information. Those gaps in the info require their own books. Well, what do you know, Dan Kennedy also wrote a book about the thing that he didn’t write about in this one.

The book itself is a platform he uses to market for something else.

Dan Kennedy is a business man who got wealthy helping to market products for other business and got really good at it. Now he teaches marketing so you can do it too. So he has a website where he does it from and it’s really great. His book does everything it can to get you to go to that site.

On the one hand, the information in the book is really great. On the other hand, you have to be aware of the “meta-learning” factor of the book, which is that, the book itself is a marketing tool. As you read the book, you can see where he markets himself and his products.

The book is a low entry item that he uses, to get you hooked so that he can then get you into the system and try to, up sell you into higher and higher tier items in his business. This is not a bad thing. It’s in fact showing you HOW he does what he does by example.

Just be warned that the book is a marketing tool. It’s not only going to teach you how to market yourself, but it’s also going to market TOO you.

But I really do recommend this book. Give it a read whether you buy it or get it from the library.

If you Read This Book

I hope you liked my review. If you liked it, let me know. If you read the book, tell me what you think. I’d love to hear from you.

This Week’s Opt In Surprise

This week I sent off a special drawing full of art that was done by the Simpsons Crew around the time I started on the show. They sat around and made fun of Jurassic Park, Simpsons style.

If you’d like like to see that art, opt in below before Thursday of next week and I’ll send you a copy of the e-mail just for you (yes, I’m totally marketing my e-mail opt in right now. Is it working?).

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Why You Should Still Be Watching The Simpsons

Saw this article on Wired.com defending The Simpsons.

There are so many people online always bashing and attacking the show, it’s very nice and encouraging to see a positive view of it.

Go give it a read:

Defend Your Show: Why You Should Still Be Watching The Simpsons

VIDEOS – Star Wars: Hard of Hearing Vader

And now for something completely different….

When I first saw this, it made me laugh so hard I started crying:

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The Missing Pieces in an Artist’s Knowledge.

January 3, 2013 in BLOGS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – The Missing Pieces in an Artist’s Knowledge

Simpsons Quote:

Homer: [grumbling about Smithers] He thinks he’s so big.
Karl: You don’t belong here.
Homer: Huh?
Karl: [pointing emphatically at Homer] You. Don’t. Belong. Here. You’re a fraud and a phony and it’s only a matter of time ’till they find you out!
Homer: [gasping] Who told you?
Karl: You did. You told me with the way you slump your shoulders. The way you talk into your chest. The way you smother yourself in bargain-basement lime-green polyester! I want you to say to yourself, “I deserve this. I love it. I am nature’s greatest miracle!” Go ahead, say it.
Homer: [after a few bumbling attempts] I deserve this! I AM NATURE’S GREATEST MIRACLE!
Karl: I’ll need three weeks’ vacation and moving expenses.
Homer: You got it, buddy!
Karl: Let’s go shopping!

Today I’ve got some videos for you and a link that will help and inspire you to invest in yourself.

I know you’ve already done this. As artists we’re always learning more and more about art. This is great, but just as important as learning our craft is investing in understanding on how to leverage it so we can live off it.

I was hoping to do a much shorter video this week. It mostly is, I just ended up asking a long winded favor at the end of this video.

Below is a video where I introduce the videos and link I’m going to be referring you to and why. You can watch it or you can go ahead and just start watching the videos. Below I’ve also transcribed what I say in the video anyway.

But please, make sure you read the favor I ask at the bottom of this post. It will influence my next blog topics from this point on. Thanks:

The Gap in our Artistic Knowledge

As artists, our education tends to be about drawing or our art. It’s usually not about money management, entrepreneurship, learning to make a living with the assets we’ve got.

There are to video below that I think are very useful in this regard. I’ve also got a link to a blog post that has recommendations on reading material.

Jim Rohn Videos

The first two videos are from a man by the name of Jim Rohn. He’s an old timey entrepreneur, marketer, and most importantly, motivational speaker. In the video he talks about things that, as artist we don’t really talk about or think about.

The first talk is called “Living an Exceptional Life,” which I like a lot. It’s in fact geared for kids. It tries to get THEM to think about this kind of thing at an early age. It even talks a bit about money management. I highly recommend it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdEZD4nrmds

This next video is called, “Three Keys to Greatness.” This video compliments the first video above. There’s a little bit of information overlap with the video above, but it mostly adds other interesting things that are not said in the first video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUn1VPRgzoE

Dan Kennedy Blog Post

This third link is to a blog post written by Dan Kennedy. Dan Kennedy is a marketer that teaches marketing. It provides a list of some of his favorite books that he recommends if you want to learn marketing and other skills. Skills that we need to learn, especially because we’re not taught these skills as artist. We’re too busy learning to draw and do art.

The title of the post is:

Read This is You Want More for Your Life

I keep recommending these videos and this link to friends of mine because I think they’re very good to watch and read. Now I’m sharing them with you. I hope you get as much out of them as I did. I’ve watched the videos twice and have not yet written down notes from the Jim Rohn videos. I really should. They’re fantastic.

A Favor

Besides leaving a comment if you like what I’ve shared here, let me know if you have any questions about his kind of thing. I’ve really been studying it lately and I’m kinda eager to share what I’ve learned so far.

It would be nice to know if this is something you want me to elaborate on so we can keep the conversation going.

I’ve also like to know if there’s something else you’d like me to talk about. Is there any question that you might be wondering about or might want to know about that you think I might be able to answer?

The last series of posts on this blog where inspired by a reader of my blog who asked me to talk about increasing your value as an artist. So you can definitely influence the direction of the conversation of the next few posts.

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Confessions of a Simpsons Assassin, Part 1

October 18, 2012 in BOOKS, introvert, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Confessions of a Simpsons Assassin, Part 1

Simpsons Quote:

“I don’t judge Homer or Marge. That’s for a vengeful God to do.” – Maude Flanders

I’m not exactly sure why but Director Jim Reardon had me kill people. By people, I mean, Simpson characters.

I killed two Simpsons characters for Jim. One of them was Maude Flanders.

The Job

It wasn’t an assignment that was particularly different from any other I’d been given. He just handed me the scenes, gave me some direction as to what he wanted to see me do in them, and then I went to my desk and worked got to work.

Of course there where pretty girls in the sequence, but I spent most of my time making Homer’s belly fat, extra wobbly. Overall, that was the biggest challenge in working on those scenes aside from drawing a ton of crowds.

That said, I DO have a little anecdote to tell about the scene that isn’t known at all.

The Rewrite

There was a rewrite in that particular scene. A revision from what was originally there.

In the original version Homer does his little stomach wobble asking for the t-shirt. Just as the shirt is going to be launched at him, he looks down,

“Ooh, a gumball,” he reaches down to get it and Maude gets hit and goes over the rail.

After the animatic, Homer looks down,

“Ooh a bobby pin,” he reaches down to get it and Maude gets hit and goes over the rail.

http://youtu.be/OpV9ZSjNSZk

It was a fun little assignment. I didn’t really think it would end up being such a big moment in Simpsons history.

E- mail Give Away

Anyone who is signed up to my e-mail list will get a free “thing”.

In this week’s e-mail, I sent out a sneak peek of what that thing is.

As soon as it’s ready, it’s going to be given to everyone on the list. Anyone who wants it can have it if you opt in, but the current group will get it before anyone else, once it’s ready.

If you want to be among the first to get it, sign up now. I’ll send you the e-mail revealing the “thing” if you sign up before next Thursday.

PODCASTS/WEBSITE – The Rotoscopers

How much into animation are you?

If your any kind of an animation nerd at all or WISH to be, your doing yourself a great disservice by not checking out The Rotoscopers’ podcast and website.

You want to know what’s going on in the animation world from a VERY well informed fan’s point a view? Follow:

Morgan Stradling,

Chealsea Robson,

and Mason Smith as they geek out about anything and everything animation related.

You’ll learn A LOT about animation.

I’ve listen to almost all of their shows and it’s really reminded me of how great the animation industry can be.

Believe me when I say that, when you’re sitting on this side of the fence, you can forget why you got in this industry to begin with. Listening to the passion The Rotoscopers have for animation, is a breath of fresh air.

I seriously can’t recommend them enough. Go check them out.

VIDEOS – Introvert video

I’ve made no secret in this blog that I’m an introvert.

I like it when there are things out on the net that educate extroverts on what it actually means to be an introvert.

I also like thing on the internet that help introverts have an easier time living AS an introvert in a world run by extroverts.

The video below does both and I love it. It’s also really well done. Check it out:

BOOKS – Dark Rift

I’m currently reading through the manuscript for DARK RIFT, the sequel to my wife‘s book THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST. I’m half way through the book and it’s really an exciting read.

That said, I’m REALLY being picky about it and I’ve written tons of notes. I want her book to not just be a good read, but a read you can’t put down.

To that end I’m reading the book, looking for ways to really punch up what my wife has already put there.

Sometimes we discuss the book and the story over dinner. We talk about ways she can play things up in the story and make things clearer. It’s really fun.

Especially since I get to come up with ideas without having to actually execute them (which is the hard part).

I made sure my wife told me nothing about the story, so when I read it, I could read it as an audience member. That way, I could gauge whether or not the story was really working well.

The DARK RIFT manuscript has some gut wrenching intense parts in it.

I’m happy to say it is. I just read a part where something really crazy happens to some characters I really liked and I’m like,

“Nooo, that didn’t just happen!” Which I think is AWESOME. That’s the reaction I WANT to have reading the book.

My wife wants to have the book published by the end of October but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Even if I manage to finish reading the manuscript in a week or so, I still need to draw the cover and write the back of the book description.

Once that’s done, we have to plan a proper launch for the book so we can get as many eyeballs on it as possible.

All this stuff takes time do.

That said, keep an eye out for the book. Hopefully, I’ll be ready by next Month.

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Began my rough boards for my personal project. Drawing eyes.

May 31, 2012 in ART, Storyboarding, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

We had the day off Monday because it was Memorial day. This left me with four days to do the work I have to do this week. I enjoyed having a day off, I just don’t like how I seem to get punished for having it.

I did manage to finish Act 3 on Tuesday which gives me the rest of the week to finish Act 1.

The reasons I haven’t gotten done with Act 1 was because it had a really problematic opening that the director really wanted to work out himself. It was really tough but he solved it. Now I just have to make it presentable for the layout staff.

VIDEO

An excellent video on drawing eyes:

ART

This is the fun part of storyboarding for me. This is the part I enjoy the most. The first pass at building the visual pace and narrative of a film or show. After all this time, (two years) I finally get to see what my story will look like. Once I’m done with this pass, I’m going to time it and make a rough animatic. But first, I need to get the shots down as fast as I can. All that work thumbnailing is finally paying off. I don’t really have to think as hard as I did as when I thumbnailed the shots. I just have to make rough clear drawings that tell the story. If it works at this stage, it will work once it’s cleaned up. I’m not laboring over anything too much at this stage. It just has to be clear.

Once I finished this pass and get ready to time it out as an animatic, I’m probably going to need more acting poses to flesh out the action.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve done so far. The program I’m using is TOON BOOM STORYBOARD PRO
2:

The first panel above is in yellow because I just imported my original Post-it and stuck it in the panel to save me time. I’ll replace the first panel during the rough animatic process, I just wanted to have something there in the mean time. I didn’t want to re-rough the drawing.

I’m drawing the rough pass in red because, well, if feels more comfortable for me to do so. The red line makes it feel less final to me. It’s just a working habit I’ve acquired.

The drawing of the raven above and below is really clean only because I used an old development drawing I had done during the treatment process. It was pretty much the shot I had thumbnailed so just went ahead an used it.

The page count gets screwy here because I had to “re-print” the last two pages. I had forgotten to put in the dialogue and descriptions in the last four pages:

29 scenes down, 400 left to go.

What do you think?

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Back at work this week. Finally finished thumbnailing my project. Neil Gaiman on art.

May 24, 2012 in ART, Storyboarding, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

First week back at work. I miss the kids. Though Ambrose seems to be waking up around the same time I do and hangs around as I get ready for work.

I’m revising Act 1 of show 1.

OH! And I found out about the new programs we’ll be using this season, which I wrote about last week. Last week I was under the impression that we where going to start using a program from a different company. Not so. We just upgraded out Toon Boom programs, so now the Layout Crew is using Scene Machine, and the board artist are using Storyboard Pro 2.

Last week I went to a class that taught us to use Scene Machine, but I had no experience with Storyboard Pro 2. Turns out that Scene Machine had so many similarities to Storyboard Pro 2 that it was pretty easy to pick up. I like the new program. It fixes some issues that I had with the previous one.

ART

I’m FINALLY done thumbnailing the shots for my film. It only took TWO YEARS to get to this point. It should NOT have taken this long:

I feel like there should be a parade or something to mark the occasion. I’m so glad I didn’t pushed through and finished it. 429 shots! That’s crazy. The Simpsons boards have this many shots.

Well, now the that the hardest part of the boarding is done, I finally get to execute the project. I begin the process of making it come to life. This is the fun part. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.

So excited.

VIDEOS

I saw this video posted in different Social Media sites but never bothered to click on it until much later in the week. Turns out it’s fantastic. It’s Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite writers) giving a commencement speech at a college. I highly recommend you watch it if you’re into art or interested in it in anyway.

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Comments Off on Back at work this week. Finally finished thumbnailing my project. Neil Gaiman on art.

My hiatus began this week. Finally finished page 7 thumbnails. Good storyboarding tips by Sherm Cohen.

May 3, 2012 in ART, Storyboarding, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

So I finished my work and within the hour I was getting booted right out the studio door. Well…not really, but it sure felt that way. I worked as hard and as fast as I could on the boards I needed to do. I started the clean up process late Thursday and it took me Friday, Monday and Tuesday to finish it all. Wednesday night and most of Thursday I spent creating a rough Quicktime Animatic of my board in order to find out how long the short would be.

I stayed late Wednesday working on the first rough pass of the animatic. I showed it to the director and he had the same problems I had with it. Namely, it was too fast in parts. It was difficult to tell what was going on. We went over, about a third of the shots and retimed them before we got too tired and decided to call it a night. I told him I’d come in nice and early Thursday to tighten up some timing before he got in. I usually come into work around 7am.

Imagine my shock, as I was ready to go bed that night, when I passed by my Jury Duty notice and realized I had to call in that night to see if I had jury duty the next day. Turns out I did. Everyone was counting on me being in Thursday and it turns out I had to go in for jury duty the next day. Panic time.

Well, at the court house the next day, I had to make all the phone calls to all the director and production staff, about my situation. They were less than happy about it.

Lucky for me, about an hour after I had done that, I was dismissed and on my way to work. Not a moment too soon, since one of the production coordinators had called me to ask about the location of my boards in my computer. They were releaved when I told them I was on my way.

I got to work at noon and worked on getting the animatic finished ASAP. The director and I managed to finish it on time and we showed it to the Head Director of the show, who really liked it. He gave us a suggestion or two and it was time to finish cleaning up the boards.

As I wrote above, I got done by Tuesday. No sooner had the head of production received a copy of my board, when she was having me turn in my last time card so I could go on my hiatus. It was pretty crazy. But it was necessary. They needed to process my as soon as they could so I could sign the right paper work. Otherwise I would have to come in the next day for no good reason.

I was originally suppose to have 4 weeks off, but because of how long this project went, I now only have 2 1/2 weeks. That’s not so bad.

ART

FINALLY! I’m done with page 7 of my script:

That was by far the toughest part to get through. The worst is over. It should be down hill from this point on. Yes, I have to thumbnail the climax of the story, but compared to having to rewrite an whole new fight scene as I went, it will be much easier to do. Especially since the final conflict is much more internal the external.

I’m so glad I was able to get through this. I was really ready to quit. It was just so much work and I was suppose to be doing this for fun. Now that it’s over, I can get back to having fun with the rest of the thumbnailing. It’s still work, but it’s much easier to handle.

VIDEOS/storyboarding

The video below is an incredible resource for anyone who’s interested in doing boards or comics. It’s a video by Sherm Cohen on THE 7 SEVEN HIDDEN PATTERNS OF SUCCESSFUL STORYBOARDS.

This is a great tool veterans and newbies to get acquainted or reacquainted with some basic shot fundamentals. For those who are new at composing shots, it should open your eyes to things to watch out for as you watch movies. It helps you get an eye toward figuring out why some shots are used at certain times. I highly recommend watching it.

It’s also helpful to watch as a comics creator because much of the thinking behind what shots to use can be easily translated into comic book form. It will help clarify you visual storytelling. I’m tired of reading comics with that are very well drawn whose panels are confusing to read.

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Working hard on special project. Played Sorry! Sliders with my kids. 100 Simpsons episode, all at once.

April 5, 2012 in BOARD GAMES, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I’ve been working on the “special project” most of the week. It was killing me. I was handed some of THE most complicated scenes in the project. They were technical nightmares. To make matters worse, I had to make Quicktime movies of the scenes to show to the director, but the scenes where so complicated that I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the program to put all the pieces of the scene together to be able to make movies out of them. On top of that, BECAUSE I couldn’t put all the elements together to test out my scenes, I didn’t even know if the pieces of the scenes where working together as intended. So even after I turned the scenes in, I wasn’t sure how good a job I did. It was nerve racking.

I was stressed and worried most of the week, including the weekend. I haven’t worked so hard on the show since I boarded show 500. I’m a bit wiped out, and a bit brain dead.

BOARD GAMES/FAMILY

My kids like playing board games. I don’t know why…OKAY maybe I do. Anyway, they often ask to play a board game. Sometimes they ask me to play, and I do, but most of the time I don’t. If I don’t, it’s because I’ve got some other thing I need to do at the time they ask.

I enjoy spending time with my kids playing a board game, but I’ve found that I don’t have FUN playing board games with my kids. I enjoy being with them but the playing is often unsatisfying. The reason for this, is because I usually can’t be very competitive playing board games with my kids. I can’t “do my best” in the games we play. I can’t “play to win”. I can only, “play for the sake of playing”. I always have to hold back and help the kids learn and generally, try to help them have fun. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s really not the reason I like playing board games. I like the challenge, the thinking, the back and forth between everyone at the table. None of which I get when playing with my kids. I mean, they’re little kids, what do you expect?

Well, this weekend Elizabeth (5 years old) and Dante (4 years old) asked me to play a board game with them. Since I had the time, I did. We played Sorry! Sliders.

Here’s the official description of the game:

Slide, COLLIDE and SCORE TO WIN!

Grab your roller pawn and take aim – then skillfully slide it down your track onto the target board! A good slide could score big points, but watch out! An opponent’s pawn may slam your pawn onto a Sorry! space – and out of the game!

This is a new twist on the Sorry! franchise with 4 different ways to play:

Race For Home
Instant Home
Instant Sorry!
Danger Dots

I’ve played this game with them before. The first two times I played the game with them, I read the rules and tried to get the kids to play the game by them. It didn’t work out. The kids where too young. Almost two years younger than they are now. Ever since then, when I play this game with them, we just ignore the rules and slide the pawns around the board for no good reason other than to do it. It’s simply an activity.

Well, THIS time, if the kids wanted to play the game, I wanted to actually play the game by the rules. SO I told them I would read the rules and we would follow them. I read them, and explained the rules to the kids. They understood what I was telling them and we began to play. WE HAD A BLAST. The kids followed the rules and it was great. Not only that but I didn’t hold back (much). I was truly trying to win the game. The game is of such a chaotic nature though, that it could be anyone’s game.

The final tally after playing three games was:

Elizabeth won 2 games

Dante won 1 game

I won, no games.

I lost every game. That was awesome. I lost and I was trying to win. I had so much fun. The kids had so much fun. It was great. We cheered and laughed and just had a good time. And the kids understood the rules and played by them. That was great. I hope this is a taste of things to come. I hope we can find another game in the collection that we can do the same with.

VIDEOS

Wanna watch 100 episodes of THE SIMPSONS all at once?

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THE HUNGER GAMES or BATTLE ROYALE 2. Simpsons special project moves forward. Chris Oatley on pitching you story. Thumbnailing more of script page 7.

March 29, 2012 in ART, BLOGS, Storyboarding, VIDEOS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Well, it seems that the “special project” I worked on a few weeks back has gotten the green light, so it’s moving forward. I’m currently doing Character Layout work on it. I’m not sure how this is going to effect my revision work next week. I haven’t done Layout in a while and it’s a LOT of work in a very different way than doing boards. I hope I can get my work done by the end of the week, just in case.

In the meantime, at least it seems this thing I’m working on will get seen at some point.

VIDEO/WRITING/BLOGS

Disney artist Chris Oatley from at the Paper Wings podcast has posted a blog post called: How To Lose A Fan In Ten Seconds: The Common Flaws Of A Comic-Con Pitch. It’s a post on how to best pitch your story ideas and the pitfall you should avoid. It also contains this video:

Go to the article to download the pdf of the tips as well as a more organized written version of the info in the video. Also, leave a comment for them if you found his information useful.

MOVIES

My wife Alesha and I got to do something we don’t often get to do now a days, namely, go to the movies. Alesha REALLY wanted to go see THE HUNGER GAMES, which we both enjoyed quite a bit. I wasn’t as gung ho as she was but I went along because she was really excited about it. Neither one of us had read the books but we both thought the premise was interesting. This isn’t to say that the premise was original, especially since there was a Japanese movies, years ago, called BATTLE ROYALE, with a similar premise. But THE HUNGER GAMES was a lot less twisted.

In my mind, what really set THE HUNGER GAMES apart from BATTLE ROYALE was that it wasn’t ABOUT the actual games. It almost felt as if the games themselves where secondary to the set up. This isn’t to say that the games weren’t interesting. It’s just that without taking all the time the movie did in setting up the characters and the universe before showing the games, I don’t think it would have been as good of a movie. In fact, it’s the lack of set up that makes BATTLE ROYALE much less interesting. Also, BATTLE ROYALE was much more gruesome, while HUNGER GAMES, which also dealt with a similar subject matter, didn’t relish in any gore.

I found myself thinking of stories like 1984 and BRAVE NEW WORLD while watching THE HUNGER GAMES. When watching BATTLE ROYALE, I wondered why I was watching it at all. Because of this, I concluded THE HUNGER GAMES was BATTLE ROYALE done right.

I will note one observation that came to me as I watched HUNGER GAMES. Much has been said about the commentary this story makes on society when it comes to materialism, media, and the devaluing of human life. I mean, part of the story is about how a desensitized culture gets together to watch young people kill each other for entertainment. This works very well in book form, since it’s written words on a page, without the reader partaking in the entertainment in the same way the people in the story are. The thing is, I couldn’t help but notice the irony of sitting in a movie theater and paying to see exactly the same entertainment that the these “bad people” where tuning in to watch. As movie goers, we participate in and condone the entertainment put forth by the story as wrong and bad, when we’re entertained by the games ourselves. Because of this, I think the movie adds a extra element of reflection, that the story in book format didn’t.

What do you think? Am I off on this point?

ART

Don’t know what to say here except that I’m slowly narrowing the gap and getting closer to finishing page 7 on my script. I think next week I’ll be “off script”. What I’ll have to board will be something new that I have no script or treatment to work off of. It will be completely off the cuff.

I’m actually excited about it. For now though, here are my latest thumbnails.

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VIDEOS – The Tex Avery Documentary that Inspired me to Get into the Animation Industry

Influential Documentary

Why I Got Into the Animation Industry

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Who Inspired You?

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SOME THOUGHTS – A Question for you About 2D Animated Features

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ART – How Artists can Better Learn to Teach Themselves

Teaching Yourself, the Skill of Meta-Learning

Bite Sized Chunks of Info

Above all, Make it Fun

Gamify the Process

Melding Ideas

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Pulp Simpsons Continues

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COMIC BOOKS/VIDEOS – Mark Waid on Digital comics

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BOOKS – A Good Inexpensive Resource for Artists to Learn About Marketing

What We Do as Artist Online is Not Enough

What’s In the Book

What We Tend to Neglect

Now, a Warning.

If you Read This Book

This Week’s Opt In Surprise

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Why You Should Still Be Watching The Simpsons

VIDEOS – Star Wars: Hard of Hearing Vader

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS – The Missing Pieces in an Artist’s Knowledge

The Gap in our Artistic Knowledge

Jim Rohn Videos

Dan Kennedy Blog Post

A Favor

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Confessions of a Simpsons Assassin, Part 1

The Job

The Rewrite

E- mail Give Away

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PODCASTS/WEBSITE – The Rotoscopers

VIDEOS – Introvert video

BOOKS – Dark Rift

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