Craft and Draughtmanship in Mickey Mouse

 the  Fantagraphics' reprints of the "Mickey Mouse" comic strips by Floyd Gottfredson,  are beautifully drawn: wonderfully constructed pieces of innocent whimsy that...

 

...  Okay, so it's Post-Depression audiences that we're talking about:  rough. After all, these strips were of the same generation of Dick Tracy. But unlike Chester Gould's violent cop, you'd never Mickey Mouse firing a gu--

 

 Um, never mind. Maybe I'm just picking out an isolated occurrence of

  

And here Clarabel Cow's gonna bust some ass. But hey, she has a rolling pin, so Comedy, Right?

 

And Goofy empties about two boxes of ammo in a blind killing rage. This is pretty sobering when I think that these are the comic strips my Grandmother grew up reading.

  

Dear God! Walt Disney's signature is even on this one! These are the comic strips my Grandmother grew up reading? 

Out of context, this panel makes it seem like Mickey's ultimate triumph is through a combination of arms escalation and damnright sadism...well that's exactly what it is.

Inspiration and stuff.

So how does one "stay inspired"?

Recently, super awesome character animator Andreas Deja posted some of his "embarrasing early work" on his blog.

This is his early portfolio work from the seventies, and is a joy to look at, certainly, beyond what I'm putting out right now.

Sure, the nobler side of me would be "WHAT INSPIRATION! I MUST NOW WORK HARDER TO REACH SUCH HEIGHTS AS HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED BY THIS LEADER IN THE ART FORM". But mostly, the me-who-wants-to-get-a-job-in-animation-right-now says "aww shoot, wutza use?"

Conventional art-wisdom tells us to quit comparing ourselves against other artists, just our own performance because

a.) You'l never draw 'just like Michelangelo' and
b.) Even the great artists are highly critical of their work, it's how they get to be better and how they get to be "great" artists, by never being satisfied.

So let's say the conventional wisdom doesn't work and one still moans "I'll never draw that good!" And you still need encouragement, inspiration and something to motivate you right now!

Well...

"Annoying Orange" just got a TV deal with Cartoon Network. As far as technique goes, everyone remotely familiar with after effects has thought the same thing.



"Shoot, I could do that."

Color redux.

This is what happens when you just can't stop noodling around. You'll notice changes from last post. I've tried to approximate flesh tones within the given palettes, cut the variation within the restaurant location (there are definite changes in mood, but I've decided to give more focus to separating the scenes by location)

If you're into color theory and all that cool stuff, you'll notice these are all analogous schemes. No compliments, tetrads, or triads here. Since the scenes of the film are very direct and to the point, I felt the color design should reflect that. Also, since the final product won't time out to more than one minute, I figure dynamic opposition(visually) between the scenes should press a sense of scope the movie wouldn't otherwise have from the time slot.

So comic con San Diego came and went with thunderous noise and many blistered feet. But like always, It was a blast. A mighty blast, complete with....

COSPLAY

MOVIE PEOPLE IN GREAT BIG HALLS!

Rick Baker


Kevin Altieri, staring into your very soul.

AND COMICS PEOPLE IN VERY SMALL HALLS

The Hernandez Brothers, creators of Love and Rockets.

The Nicole Brothers, Ethan (art) and Malachai (story), creators of Axe Cop.

Extra Bonus: the panel was moderated by Kevin Murphy.

Extra-Extra Bonus: Malachai Nicole showed Baby Man how to do the Baby Man Dance!

Extra-Extra- Extra Bonus: somebody asked to take my picture, complimenting me on my "Hunter S. Thomson" Costume.

... The Hell?

Look who's (not) talking.

Here's a trick. Watch a movie or TV show or whatever. Look for a two-shot or group shot.
Somebody will usually be talking. The fun part is... look at who isn't talking. (mind blowing, isn't it?).

In this scene from Back to the Future, it's Doc Brown's line. But Michael J. Fox doesn't stop acting because he's not speaking, he's still present in the scene: reacting to what the other players say and to what's going on.

I find this a pretty good litmus test for character animation.

Can you still see what's going on in the character's head when another player is speaking? What would you think is Santa Claus's inner monologue right here?

How About Daffy, or Elmer Fudd?

I find looking at the nonspeaking characters, and gauging their reactions and acting in those moments, in a two-shot or group shot is a good way to determine between what's good animation...

...and what I would consider otherwise.

OMG Ponies!!!

Recently, I've started loving "My Little Pony :Frienship is Magic" (Hereafter referred to as "MLP:FIM" because that's a damn long title) developed by Lauren Faust.

A lot of people have praised the show, and drawn some terribly, terribly disturbing fan art but MLP:FIM's real strength isn't so much the witty exchanges, the slapstick humor , better than average flash animation or even the phenomenon of male adult viewers shucking their masculinity to watch a horsie show

Not that I'm insecure, of course

...But it's the same thing that animation gurus Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston claimed made (their) Disney feature cartoons so wonderful...

and honestly, how can you not trust these guys?

Which is a focus on Character Personalities, first off, that they have different personalities.

Compared with earlier pony shows, certainly

...and those personalities motivated the plot, like in Die Hard!

not like I'm compensating or anything...

In movies like North By Northwest and Raiders of the Lost Arc, stuff just kinda happens to the hero for no real reason; cropdusters from nowhere, posion darts from the wall. The absurdity of it all is part of the entertainment value of those films. But Die Hard's slightly different.

What would otherwise be walking plot devices: antagonism, exposition, a plot twist , are made interesting and believable through characters with compelling personalities and clearly distinguished motives. The villain, exposition guy and the second-act end plot twist become Hans Gruber, Officer Powell and Dick Thornburg, the effect is the scenarios on the screen are not arbitrary, but created by the actions of the characters.

MLP:FIS's best episodes focus on the naturally occurring friction between the members of the "mane" cast.

In "Sonic Rainboom", Rarity's massive vanity both heightens the conflict and provides a catalyst for the resolution. Kinda like Shakespeare, actually.

...Specifically A Midsummer Night's Dream. Absent of bewitching prophesies, vengeful ghosts or other external means to kick-start the plot, stuff happens because a group of people happen to be in the same place at the same time. From serious crush issues to a really bitter marriage between supernatural monarchs and Puck's love for trolling, it's like what did you expect when these guys are all thrown into the mix?

Here's a link to Hasbro's official site: a clip from the MLP:FIS episode Applebuck Season. Note that in a show where time and budget demands a lot of work done from templates...

and sometimes it shows

...That every character is unmistakably distinct. Not only do the leads has a different speaking voice and attitude, but different ways of approaching the podium. Twilight shuffles index cards, Rainbow Dash simply barges in, Fluttershy slouches and Pinkie Pie jumps up from nowhere.

The reason why the entire internet (or maybe just 4Chan) has gone ballistic for this show over the past few months is because, like good fiction and great drama, from the Looney Tunes to Moby Dick, everything in it is grounded in and motivated by the characters' personalities. Which I think is worth getting excited over.




























.... BTW my favoritest pony ever is Fluttershy

CCI bound!

Just got my 4 day pass for Comic Con International in San Diego, held the same week as my birthday.

Whooo!

Also, I saw this cool thing just now.



And I recently saw this less cool thing almost just now.




And I have absolutely no explanation for this

Hey, there's a Ralph Bakshi Thingy

There's a neat interview with animation legend Ralph Bakshi here .

For readers not in the loop, Bakshi is probably one of the most underrated filmmakers of the 20th century.

If you ask me, without Ralph Bakshi's feature films, we would not have the Simpsons, South Park, Robert Zemekis'es creepy mo-cap flicks or even the Don Bluth film catalog .

Periodically, there's a push to formally recognize animation as an artistically legitimate film venue, usually though handling themes unexplored in the medium or through "adult content. But inevitably, public perception seems to swing back to the "children's entertainment" profiling, animation listed as a "genre" on IMDB and so forth.

But if anyone came closest to breaking that glass ceiling it was Bakshi.

Bakshi's profile, career info and influence can be summed up better at his official website or even just his wikipedia entry so I won't burn up more page space here, just check out the interview.

Oh yeah, and he directed that really weird Lord of the Rings movie every one mentions, no not that one.

Improv

Improvisation, at least in a theatrical sense refers to a collaborative form of on stage play that others somehow find amusing. Like you suppose, I't kind of hard and involves making stuff up as you go along. Also, it's totally a learnable skill, and requires a large amount of discipline and structure to create "off the cuff".

Obligatory "Whose Line is it Anyway?" Photo

I'm an avid Improv hobbyist. Once a week, I go make an ass of myself with a bunch of folks at a local community center, playing theater games. There I develop my skills of reincorporation, acceptance, scene building and playing nice with others.

There's awesome books about it, like "Truth in Comedy" by Charna Halper, "Impro"by Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin's "Improvisation for the Theater" or you can learn for free.

Granted, Improv may not look like it has a lot to do with cartooning but it so totally does.

Did you know Frank Thomas played the Piano? If you know who Frank Thomas is, you probably know that he played the piano, but the late Mr. Thomas, as well as most of Disney's classic animators, played a musical instrument, and even insisted that it was beneficial to their craft.

One of these men is not Frank Thomas.

Jeez, that's like, the zillionth Disney reference I've made! Maybe I'm dangerously obsessed or something. Ollie Johnston looks scary there, doesn't he?

Where was I? Oh, Improv and cartooning, which is sort of like pianos, except they aren't.

So take for example Jean "Moebius" Giraud

Moebius has very little to do with Disney, I think.

Basically one of the most influential Sci-Fi artist/writers in the freaking world. When he started his Sci-Fi themed work which included "The Airtight Garage" and "Arzak", he did the whole damn thing one panel at a time. Seriously. Moebius was all about exploring the unconscious, and as most Sci-Fi is an allegory for stuff, Moebius' realms were an allegory for modes of perception (or so he claims, I dunno, he's French).

Here's another one of my favorite cartoonists, Jill Thompson.

She kinda looks like this. She also drew Sandman
which means Goths everywhere should start doing Improv.

At a comics forum in 2008. Ms. Thompson spoke of the value of Improv training as a writing aid, particularly in developing scenarios and concepts for stories, like for her creations "Scary Godmother" and "Magic Trixie".

Oh yeah, and there's also Scott McCloud.

He actually looks like this: he has no eyes, and it's scary.

Among other things, McCloud's a big proponent of improvised comics. He also has invented the 24 hour comic, which is an excersise that it a lot of fun, whether or not you finish it.

The value of improvisation is that even the creator/performer doesn't know where it's gonna go or how it's gonna end. As a form unto itself or as a tool in early drafts or rehearsal, improvisation provides an invaluable resource to the cartoonist/performer. It's also fun.

My Thoughts on Tangeld

In the noblest tradtions of the internet, here's my unsolicited opinion of a recent major motion picture: I liked it. (I think the U.S. title and marketing effort is completely stupid, though.)

The movie is a completely unabashed princess musical, but it's well done, emotionally compelling, and the plot makes more sense than the Disney Studio's "Frog" effort.

Some of it's recycled: the stepmother-witch looks like Bernadette Peters' creation of the witch from the stage musical "Into the woods", the characters are very familiar looking Disney fairy-tale "types" (right down to "funny horse #2) and the lead girl is a trapped princess who dreams of the outside world.

But it works. (possible spoilers ahead)
Rapunzel's hair as a magic McGuffin adds a great co-dependency subtext to her relationship with her possessive mother who comes off more as a deeply creepy child-star mom, than simply "Witch type #2".

The sorrowful King and Queen are silent, which is possibly the best decision made on the movie.
They are sincere characters, but really not important to the main story except as plot devices. By having all their scenes in pantomime they're treated as "too important to talk", giving them gravitas and status at the same time saving the audience the trouble of sitting through unnecessary speaking roles.

To me this proves that genre doesn't denote quality. As I see it: genre(as far as marketing goes) is little more than a list of settings and situations. Castles mean "fairy tale". Six shooters mean "western". But the requirements of genre say nothing about the stuff that really matters in a story like compelling characters, a well-written scenario or if the audience cares.