back home after a hellish week long gig in NYC. Had no CN or Nick in the hotel room. Don’t these hotels ever get families? Obviously the trip was hellish for other reasons, but I’m back in Atlanta and can hopefullly decompress some.

I’ve been reading Maltin’s Of Mice and Magic about the history of the early animation studios. I’m really enjoying it. It’s definitely a cool history lesson putting the cartoons I grew up with in perspective. Just in time there’s a resurgence of these old cartoons on the web via podcasts. Both Vintage Tooncast and ReFrederator have been broadcasting new cartoons each week from the 20s-40s. So as I read about Ub Iwerks Humpty Dumpty I can actually watch the friggin’ cartoon. Now that’s truly too cool.

Hopefully both podcasts can continue. I support Vintage since ReFrederator is an obvious rip-off of Vintage who was there first with no funding or corporate sponsorship. Just a one man shop. There’s no reason they both can’t continue to broadcast in parallel, but maybe Fred can pop a couple of coins over in Vintage’s direction. Or at least give them some credit.

Since I have no progress to report today on MUDH, here’s some info I want to keep in one place on storyboarding. Maybe it will help someone else too. Live action film makers write scripts. Animators storyboard. Here are some loosely strung together storyboard concepts:

Here’s a pdf I created to use as a template for my storyboards. Some animators just storyboard on index cards, but just I kept losing them. So here you go. Use it at will and in good health.

Every shot in your film should be storyboarded. A shot is a single sequence from one camera angle, although the camera and action can move during the shot. Multiple shots strung together can be grouped as a scene. The end result looks like comic book of your film.

Elements to be included in the storyboard:

* The significant moment of the shot and illustrated camera action
* Camera action (pans, zooms, etc.)
* Verbal description
* Transition to the next shot
* Sound (Effects, Music, Dialogue)
* Duration for each shot (therefore how many frames each shot will take)

Here’s how I break out each shot. This is from my pdf linked above:

The storyboard, like a script, can start out rough and then be fine tuned as you move forward. Some animators will storyboard everything so that every single frame is represented ahead of time, while others will use it as just a guide and lock things down as they actually animate. If you’re going to try to lock everything down on the storyboard it will eventually translate to an exposure sheet. Unless you work for some big animation department you probably don’t need to go down that road.

An added benefit is that drawing small on a story board can help you simplify your shots. As a great Disney artist showed so elegantly:

Your storyboard can also become a rough animatic of your film. Just shoot each storyboard picture and string them together as if they were animated. You can even include sound effects, dialogue and some rough animation. I created the following animatic for “My Uncle’s Dental Health”.

A storyboard organizes your ideas and helps you fine tune them. It allows you to think ahead before the tedious frame by frame. It keeps you motivated by giving you an idea of how your finished film might turn out.

Storyboard links:

http://www.missouri.edu/~yoons/EDN323/class_W102.htm
http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/storybd/
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/gramtv.html

THE storyboard book:
Film Directing: Shot by Shot – Steven D. Katz

Been working on the cut-out pieces of the Tooth Queen. Photoshop mainly. Here’s an idea of where she’s at.

Been a long week at the day job, but I finally got back to Uncle today. Put some “bones” on the armature. I use bamboo skewers. I tried pieces of coat hangers in the past, but they were too heavy and hard to keep in place. The bamboo works great because it’s light, sturdy and the wire bites into it to hold it.

Here’s a close up of the right arm in progress and the finished wiring job.

Stupid anecdote… literally. When I was in the grocery store looking for skewers my conversation with an employee there went something like this:

“Excuse me, can you tell me where you keep bamboo skewers?”

“Bamboo….? Is that some kinda seasoning?”

“Um, no. Like for shiskabob or barbecue?”

“uh.”

“They’re kinda like giant toothpicks.” (I’m really trying hard not to talk down to the guy, but..)

“Ummm… If we have any, there’s chinese and other foriegn foods down aisle 3.”

“uh, great. …thanks.” I eventually found them with the light beer. I’m not sure what’s weirder about the experience.

This seems to be a theme among stopmo animators here in the US. A lot of us got our introduction to stop motion through the incredible work of Ray Harryhausen or the Christmas specials by Rankin and Bass. As we did more research into this art a lot of us stumbled on the Brothers Quay and from there Jan Svankmajer. From there the wealth of the Eastern European masters opened up. From Jiri Trnka to Ladislas Starewitch, this is the best animation, stop motion or not, available anywhere. I used to point people to the Animation World Network’s page of Animation of Heaven and Hell which has gotten quite old over the years.

Now the only link worth hitting is on my fellow animator Mike Brent’s website DarkStrider. He has put together the best research I’ve seen in one place on these animators with movie clips. Rightfully called the Masters, it has even introduced me to some new animators like Aurel Klimt and Jiri Barta, whose work I now HAVE to pick up. This is o.k., because Mike has even provided a filmography for each animator and where you can pick up their works when no results show up on Amazon. If you want to know where I’m coming from this page is a must. Thanks Mike!

Been following the amazing blog of Mark Kennedy. He’s a 16 year veteran as an animator and storyboard artist for Disney. Beyond the typical “news” or “rant” blogs most animators seem to post this contains an absolute WEALTH of information. Great information on scene compostion, lighting, you name it, with tons of scene shots and documents. His recent post on Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” is a lesson everyone should read. Even simple things like his post titled “30 Second Life Drawing Class”:

“Here is an amportant fact to keep in mind always: NO BONE IS ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT. The arms and legs drawn with perfectly straight bones would appear stiff looking and rigid. The curvature of the bones has a great deal to do with the movement and action of the figure and helps to make the figure look alive.”

or on “Film and Dialogue”:

“I once read that everything in a movie should either:

A) Reveal Character or
B) Advance the Plot

That’s it. That’s for visuals or dialogue or events. Anything that happens, is seen or heard in a movie has to fulfill one of those two objectives. In my book anyway.”

Like I said. Sheer Gold.

I have to agree that there is a new “golden age” of animation, but it’s not about numbers and CGI is only a small part of it. Most of the films mentioned in this New York Daily News article are crap.

Outside of the great feature animation and adult animation here are some kid’s shows that rock:

Dexter’s Lab (a modern classic)
Cow and Chicken (did I say a modern classic?)
2 Stupid Dogs (see the previous post)
Naruto (believe it!)
Juniper Lee (Chinese Buffy rip off that’s still fun)
Foster’s (Eduardo, Coco, Wilt? c’mon!)
Avatar (Four elements, bending and a new mythology.)
SpongeBob (classic, even if stands on the shoulders of giants)
Ed, Edd, and Eddy (a formula that is somehow always surprising in ways)
Teen Titans (rawk)
Fairly Odd Parents (go Butch go. But what happened with that Doogal shit?)
Grim Adv. of Billy and Mandy (hilarious)
Invader Zim (wow)
Powerpuff Girls (getting older, but Mojo Jojo!)