Just a Tad

Character Design Follow Up

 

I get comments:

Thanks, Tad! I'm always curious to hear how the preproduction folk get found for projects like this - most everyone I know who does character design and contract works for the studio doing the project in question, or has in the past. Is it common for TV animation to bring people in like this?

Posted by: Chris Schweizer

 

First off, make sure you click on Chris's name for the link to his website.  ONI PRESS, the same folks who brought you such diverse entertainments as WHITEOUT and SCOTT PILGRIM, publish Chris's tales of the Crogan family.  It's historical fiction centered around the family tree of a fictitious family.  Chris does an amazing amount of research to give the adventures a sense of reality.  Highly recommended.

Chris also has a great behind the scenes blog about the way he does his comics, often using examples from the stories he's currently working on.  Plenty of sketches too.  You can also get a newsletter about his projects that's sent to you through the actual, stick a stamp on it, avoid the rabid dog, stick it in the mailbox, mail!

 He's also a full professor of Sequential Art at SCAD-Atlanta.  But now to answer his question:

 

The challenge of doing a fully animated pilot (usually around 10 minutes) is that you can't promise a crew an ongoing job.  So even if an artist is coming to the end of a series, he has to weigh helping out with a pilot that may turn into a show against the knowledge that even if the pilot comes out well, it may be a long time before a decision is made to go into production... or not.  If he does the pilot will it keep him from taking a "real" job?  So where does someone with an approved script go for designer, storyboard artists and the like?

The nice thing about being an artist is that 90% of the reason you're hired is because of the quality of your work, not your age, your experience, who you know or your personal hygiene.  That's the other 10%.  So that means I can look at portfolios, comics and websites to find an artist.  Then it's a matter of artist availability and the size of the assignment.  

A storyboard artist only needs strong front and back character roughs to get  started but eventually the project will need cleaned up, full turn arounds to animate the pilot.  If I like the style of a designer new to the industry or not even in the animation business, I would probably use him for conceptual designs then hire a more experienced artist to do the final package.  

It's not uncommon for a network, even one that has it's own studio, to hire an outside studio to produce the pilot.  These studios put together a teams to produce a pilot subject to direction from the network and the creative lead.  If the network's studio did the same thing it would cost more because of their overhead and they can't take people of exiting shows.

(The rest of this post will be done through gritted teeth because I finished it, brilliantly of course, and didn't save it as I wrote and lost it.  Gnash, gnash.  Therefore I'm adding a new image by Chris to put me in a better mood)  

    

 

 Of course, I also call friends to describe my project and get their recommendations.  Yes, it's that old thing called networking.   This is less about character designs than searching for storyboard artists.  You need to know, not just their work but how they are to work with.  Suddenly, that 10% I mentioned earlier looms up as a much larger figure.  These artists are in a position to submarine your project.  Are they flaky?  Will they leave me in the lurch?  Can they add gags?  Can I stop them from adding gags?  There's nothing like hearing the opinion of someone who's worked with your candidate.

Back to design.   Given the choice I'd rather work with an artist with experience in animation.  After that, I guy with real experience in illustration, comic books, web strips, whatever shows that they hit deadlines and have worked professionally.  But at the same time, you want art that makes your show stand out from the pack.   I don't want to give Cartoon Network that looks like the shows they were doing 20 years ago.  As much as I love that stuff, the network as moved on and is looking for fresh visions.

Okay, I hope I've answered your question, Chris.

If you have questions, just leave them in the comments.   Happy Holidays! -- Tad

Next Step: What Do They Look Like?

So here's the update on my Cartoon Network pilot that I can't tell you anything about.  We're moving onto storyboard!

But before we get there, we have to get these characters of mine designed.  I've done a series of drawings, of course.  They were part of the pitch.  I've also done new versions as the story and personalities spread in new directions.

Some of those sketches show a little spark.  For example, I actually like my version of a key antagonist.  Even a couple of my main characters could feasibly be a jumping off point but there's no overall sense of design and that's what it needs.  The joy of being a producer of animated shows is to cast people better than you.

In the past I've worked with artists on staff to zero in on what I want.  Greg Guler was my go to guy on most of my shows, especially those that were spin offs of existing features.  Greg is an artistic chameleon.

But this time I was searching for something different than anything I had worked with before.  All I can say is, "Thank God for the Internet."  If you're a professional artist and don't at least have a blog that showcases your work, you are losing jobs.  Every studio has people looking at portfolios but that's been augmented by their own internet searches.

The artwork above is my John Hoffman who would definitely be a candidate for my show.  He has a couple of sites that showcase his talent and incredible range.  Sadly, for me happily for them, PIXAR got him first.  He'll be starting there at the start of the new year.  Still, he got me thinking of my characters in a different way.

It's not like anything on his pages was the exact image that I wanted, but his overall sensibility seemed to fit my ideas.  And that's the trick: searching for something that isn't there yet.  You can't walk into a comic shop and find it on the rack, it's not in the movie theatre, it's not even out there on the net.

You look at how an artist uses shapes or his sense of caricature.  You look for distinctive characters that feel like a specific individual instead of a type.  You look at how the art communicates attitude and emotion. 

But the same characters can be portrayed in drastically different ways. The stories will be the same, the dialogue will be the same but the "feel" will be different.

A Kirby/Lee Spider-man would lead to an entirely different end result than the Ditko/Lee version that became a sensation.

 So it's important not to zero in on a particular style too quickly.  A writer should consider a variety of styles if he's lucky enough to be part of the casting process.   It's certainly smart to include him because he's been imagining action and gags for months.  He's one of the best people to judge if the gags will still work if the style is retro, realistic or hallucinogenic.

As for my pilot, I've collected samples and of course the Cartoon Network execs are doing the same.  I'll be curious to see if there's any crossover of styles or actual artists.  

It's like waiting for baby to be born.  Will it have the mother's eyes or the father's nose?  Will the child be tall, short, curly-haired or straight?

The difference is that in this case, I'm hoping for funny looking.

 

--Tad

Let It Breathe Then Cut It's Head Off

My early work at Disney TV Animation has been on my mind lately because people insist on putting it there.  The Darkwing Duck comic book has been a big success for BOOM! Studios and they're hoping for another winner with Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers.  See previous post.  I've helped them out with some public appearances, interviews, story discussions and I'll even be writing an eight page story for the Darkwing Duck Annual due out in early spring.

It's great talking to fans of those shows and especially the ones now sharing it with their children.  I consider Darkwing to be one of my career highlights.

And it should have been better.

The show was good and I had a great crew and a staff of great writers.  It's just that I was VERY production oriented (although my various production managers might not have thought so).  My shows generally run well because I pay attention to the production calendar.  I consider it a mark of a professional to not make the lives of others hell just so he can make things just right.  It's always a balancing act.

You try to do the best job you can in the time allowed.  Truth be told, most show creators will look at a episode after it's been on the air and still want to call changes.  There comes a time when you have to send it out and move onto the next one.  

But there's a huge grey area there.  How late in the schedule can you make a difference?  Karl Guers was the producer of Disney TV's Winnie the Pooh.  I credit his attention to detail and willingness to go over budget with the huge success of that show.   He and story editor, Mark Zaslove, held themselves to an incredibly high standard.   

The then president of TV Animation said to me, "It's a good thing it was such a success or I'd probably have to fire them."  I can see that.   I can also see that it was that show that kick started Winnie the Pooh into the merchandising juggernaut that even toppled Mickey (or at least threatened to).

There were gags in Darkwing Duck that fell flat because they weren't staged or timed as well as they could have been.  His arms tended to stretch too much.  I'd write a gag where he'd reach offscreen to bring in a mallet or whatnot but the artist used too wide a field.  Instead of casual arm move, he ended up looking like Plastic Man because the edge of the frame was too far away.  But I let it go because there's nothing inherently wrong with that in a cartoon, it just wasn't to my taste.

Ginny McSwain did a brilliant job of casting the series but every so often and actor would make choices that took him away from what I wanted.  We didn't get to audition actors for every episode.  That only happens with the main cast at the beginning of the show not in individual episodes.   With an eye on the clock, I'd think, "It's not what I wanted but it still works."  

If I was smart enough to recognize WHY the actor wasn't working for me I could direct Ginny to direct the actor in a different direction.  Michael Bell has a lot of fans for his portrayal of Quackerjack, the clown villain in the Darkwing series.  But I lost interest.  I realized that I had wanted a darker edge to him, a Joker to Darkwing's Batman.  Maybe I should have rerecorded the part.   But would it have resulted in a better character or just a different one.  Luckily one of my editors, Duane Capezzi knew exactly what to do with the character.

Woulda, shoulda.   It can't haunt you forever.  I'm currently involved in two different shows where major work is done to improve the product, long after it was considered "final."

The first is BOB'S BURGERS. I've only boarded on the show.  In fact, my end date is coming in a week or so.   There are several scenes in this promo that I storyboarded and the day it went up, I was redrawing them with new gags and new dialogue.

The writers write.   The actors improvise which inspires the writer's to rewrite and build on what was done.  The network gives notes which calls for rewrites.   Those rewrites inspire the actors again.  Keep in mind that the crew starts boarding on the original version of the script.  It's pretty crazy but not atypical for prime time animated shows.

Often we look at the original script and know it's long.  That means we dive into it knowing that a bunch of what we're working on isn't going to make it on the air.  But they have us do it because visuals make a difference.  Suddenly, when you're watching the animatic, a sequence with a talking cow is much funnier or unexpectedly touching.  It becomes a set piece to be protected.  Is this process unprofessional?  Not if it's planned into the production.  Perhaps the most valued professional is the one who brings the most entertainment to the screen.

The staff loves the show and wishes it well even as we disperse to the four winds in search of employment at other studios.  Here's to a second season!

The second show that all but threw out the baby with the bathwater is not actually a show.  It's a pilot.  My pilot for Cartoon Network.  I had a meeting on the second draft of my script.  Instead of giving specific notes, the development execs talked about what they'd like to see in the show.  It was a very creative meeting.  I agreed with the ideas of how far to push the humor.... and I was pretty much convinced my show was headed for the crapper.

Why?  They had read two drafts.  Ideally, I want to hear, "I love what you did here!"  When the talk turns general it means the show isn't living up to the promise that they originally saw in it.  I had to surprise them again.  Not just parrot the material back to them but create new set pieces that would showcase my characters.

So toward the end of the meeting, I said I'd need to make major changes in the script, outline type changes.  They weren't necessarily asking for that.  They thought the story beats were still solid.  But I knew I needed to take serious action.

I rewrote a good two thirds of the script without any additional money because it was MY show.  I show I wanted to SELL.  It wasn't easy for two reasons:  I knew it was much too long which made me second guess myself and I had to struggle to make the new stuff veer back into the existing script to save the stuff I thought was working great.   That slows you down.   I ended up turning the script in late and long but I didn't worry about it.

I had to let the thing breathe so I could show them my new version of the characters and the different type of gag situations I wanted to inject into the show.  Did it work?

Don't know, my meeting is tomorrow.  Hopefully there'll be a little, "love what you did here" and some serious talk about what to cut and what to keep.  But I did trade emails with one of the execs who felt I had created some genuine laugh out loud moments.   He also pointed out it was waaaay long.

But that's okay.  I've never been afraid of cutting my own stuff.  And if they ask for another episode, it will be filled with fresher, funnier material than I ever imagined when I first pitched the show.  The rewrite got me excited about the show all over again.  I'm hoping it did the same for them.

Whew.  Been awhile since I've posted.  Glad I could come back with a long one.

--Tad