Still Learning

Awaiting notes.  I have time.  I have a computer.  I have nothing really to say.

But that hasn't stopped me before.

I haven't posted anything in like... forever because I storyboard all day for Bento Box Entertainment then make a too long commute home where I storyboard my pilot for Cartoon Network.  If I could manage on less sleep I would because the going is slow.   

But this schedule has pushed me waaaaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone which is a good thing.  The animation community is filthy with incredible artists and I've been spoiled over the years by having budgets that allow me hire them to make me look good.  At this point the pilot is squarely on me so I've had to design not only characters but props and backgrounds.  Eventually they'll be redesigned by some of those talent filthy art types but for now I can't just scribble something and move on.  Whether or not my pilot moves to the next stage will be determined by the reaction to my board.  So just as I build up a little steam I have to stop and design the next locale.

But  all this drawing has made me improve and the fact that I'm sorta working in the style of my character designer is allowing me to look at my work in a fresh way.  I'm even liking my drawings!

My dad had the Famous Artist Cartooning Course.  I've posted pages from it in the past.  Their mantra was "You Learn To Draw By Drawing."  It's true.   When I started work at Disney, it was the sheer volume of drawing that turned talent into a sort of muscle memory.  But when I moved to Imagineering then back to features and TV, I drew less and less.  Sure I sketched and drew presentation artwork from time to time, but most of my day was filled with meetings and writing.

But this latest immersion in drawing is different for me because it's not my default style, whatever that may have been.   By day I'm working on Allen Gregory, a new prime time show for this Fall on Fox.  

The style of the show is about as far away from my natural design sense as you could have.  But making it work, getting the hang of it, and the daily routine of bashing my head against the wall until I can draw the characters the same in any two panels has exercised different lobes in my brain.  (To be clear, the head bashing is self inflicted in search of excellence.)  In a few weeks, I'll be back on BOB'S BURGERS for the second season, also nothing like my drawing style.  (That requires bashing a different part of my brain or at least a different wall.)  But it's all like doing the equivalent of doing a full exercise routine instead of just working on your biceps.  

So my work at home is a huge artistic release.  I'm proud of the work I'm doing during daylight hours but every show has its own rules about moving the camera, type of gags allowed, pacing, etc. but I get to set all that on my pilot so I'm supercharged when I sit down to work.

That lasts a good ten minutes or so before, "Why isn't this going faster?!!"  I can be a bastard to work for.  I'm way behind from where I wanted to be but Cartoon Network has been very  understanding.  They've seen most of what I've done so far, set to a temp track of my voice.  I put in way more poses than I should have at this stage.  Since the opening is a sort of self-contained "end of the last adventure" sequence I decided to go all out to communicate the tone of the rest of the episode.

I also put extra work into the introduction of the antagonist... which unfortunately involved practically animating twenty or so cats.  But the payoff is that the sequence is so funny that my wife thinks the show should be about the cats.   Wait, does that mean she doesn't like the other stuff?  Damn!

When writing the script, actually in the rewriting, things get refined to the point of feeling stale-- at least to me who's doing all those revisions.  Thankfully, as chronicled earlier in this blog, I listened to the spirit of the development notes instead of the particulars and wrote brand new sequences into what technically should have been just a polish pass.   That freshened things up.

Then when I went to storyboard and had to immediately cut five pages out of the script.  Those pages weren't wasted.  They were valuable in helping find the tone of the show, feeling out the characters, creating sequences that may pop up in other episodes and generally making us all feel comfortable enough to move onto the next stage.  But there's no way I was going to board an extra five minutes or so of material that would have to be cut.  Who does that writer think he is?

But I had to cut a LOT of funny stuff.  An entire character was excised who I thought would be in every episode.  But in an eleven minute cartoon every new character drastically takes away from the time with the leads.  Those are the ones the show depends on.  Those are the characters I'm selling.

Having watched the writers on BOB'S throw out gold to weave platinum, I'm taking the liberty to rewrite dialogue as I go to allow for new gags or increase story clarity.  I can do that because I have the permission of the producer ...who is also me.

At this point I'm surprisingly pleased with the quality of the work.  I'm afraid I'm going to have to lean on my artist to do fewer panels and poses at this stage.   They'll be needed for the animatic but for now I need the board roughed out to the end!  Jeez, the guy is such a prima donna!  

Glad to have had a little time to type to you.  Thank you for the kind comments about this blog while I was away.  Someday I hope to actually share what I'm drawing. --Tad

 

Comments

[Tad]

My apologies for hitting the "Publish" button so many times. It's been so long that I forgot all the seconday things like setting keywords and publishing on Facebook. Hope you enjoyed it.

[jerrocks2day]

Nice to hear how things are going, Tad. Good luck on the new TV show.

BTW, I can totally relate about harnessing your own drawing style. I've been practicing for more than a year now, and while I tremendously improved, I still feel like my style is too 'organic' (if you know what I mean). The only thing that I can do is constantly practice.

[jerrocks2day]

Hey Tad! As promised, I'm gonna ask you another old Disney TV show related question-- this time, involving Talespin. I know you didn't work on the show (though I do remember Talespin being parodied in Aladdin), but I thought you could shed some perspective on the licensing for the show. As you know, Boom! Studios made it clear that they won't be able to publish Talespin comics because of the special license it has, that Darkwing Duck, Ducktales, etc. don't have (it's not considered a Disney property anymore because they lost license to Jungle Book). While I'm disappointed that there won't be a comeback for Talespin, I understand why they wouldn't be able to get the license for the show. But do you know what doesn't make sense? If Disney doesn't have the license to Jungle Book/Talespin anymore, how did they manage to release Vinylmation Talespin merchandise, around the same time it was announced they couldn't publish TS comics? It kinda puzzles me...

[[email protected]]

I'm guessing you have facts confused. First of all, Kipling's JUNGLE BOOK is in the public domain. There's no one to say whether Disney can or can't use it. If there are different rights for TaleSpin it may be because it uses characters from the feature. Disney features are in a different category.

Disney controls the image of Baloo, both as bear and pilot. They can license it however they want. So TaleSpin may indeed be in a different category internally or they've decided not to license out any more shows for comics because they bought a comic company.

[[email protected]]

Addendum to the above: I have no actual knowledge of neither Disney's or Boom! Studios plans for comics. I make guesses like everyone else.

[moncler doudoune]

So fun article is! I know more from it.