Just a Tad

Charity artwork

I rarely update this blog. I continue to pay for it so the hellboy animated blog can be accessed since it's a log of the creation of two animated videos. But meanwhile, I continue to appear at conventions and, at this time of year, hold art auctions for charity.  If by some weird chance you follow me here and nowhere else. The first auction is almost over. I'll do a few other pieces soon.  Info on how to bid is on my Facebook page and Twitter account. Just search for my name.  -- Tad

I'm Still Paying For This. Why Don't I Use It?

I pay, a quite reasonable, yearly fee for this TypePad account. However, although I constantly post art on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I never think to update this page at the same time. It's stupid. I keep it to keep my HellboyAnimated Page available. I think it's a valuable look behind the scenes of an animated production that didn't have millions of Disney or Dreamworks dollars behind it. Just a love of the material and a belief that it was the start of a long series.

This page, the one about my creative process, floundered when I couldn't post about my current projects. Where the HellboyAnimated page was part of the marketing plan, every other studio greedily hoards information about current projects so they can release it at the appropriate time in measured increments to rouse a new fan base. Yeah. In a big, already anticipated movie you sometimes see that happen. Animated videos and series are often released to deafening silence to then vaporize to become future ashfall into the bargain bins at Walmart.

I could hype my own work and I have but any time alloted to that is better off working on the project. And even then, if it's a studio pitch, I have to worry about their internet phobias. This should change soon because I don't think I'll be pitching any original shows. Ever. What I WILL be doing is adapting other people's material into animation and that can be plenty rewarding. In fact, I have a lunch meeting today to discuss just such a thing. The idea is cool, has a small following and has plenty of room for me to make it my own.

But I've been churning out plenty of art these days in anticipation of selling it at MomoCon in Atlanta, Georgia at the end of May 2016. I should post that. My guess is any of you who stumble onto this site probably have found it already but here it is again. Some of it.

 

-Tad

Dusting Things Off

I haven't posted in a very long time. The usual reasons. The development material that I'm most interested in sharing is, by it's nature, legally unsharable since I'm using the characters of someone else. When I'm not in development I using my writing time, trying to come up with something to pitch.

    I'm currently directing three, now it looks like a possible six, 66minute action adventure videos based on a series of middle grade books. Again, can't talk about things in production because marketing a production is hard enough without staff posting random art.

    And of course, I'm lazy I'm constantly thinking I have nothing worth posting. But I realize that I post creative links to my Facebook page all the time. Links recommended by other artists. So I've decided to put that stuff here, not only as a source of cool information but as reminder that I should post here more often or just shut the place down. So here's a link that John Hoffman posted. John is a story artist up at PIXAR but just before he left he did design work for me on a possible Cartoon Network show.

http://www.aotg.com/index.php?page=murchrules

Animation often lags behind live action film techniques by several decades. Not so much the case with CG fims but when I started at Disney Features in the mid-seventies the film style was no different than what was done in Snow White. Actually, Snow's terrified run through the woods was more avant garde than anything from Jungle Book through Fox and the Hound. 

    In TV animation, the choice of camera angle slavishly follows Rules #5 and #6. Usually. There are times you WANT to confuse the audience momentarily as to where characters are in relation to each other and then reveal it a few shots later. Audiences like the mini-surprises that happen along the way, even the ones they barely notice.

   I remember that in the early days of Disney TV Animation, there was a standing rule that there could be no signage on buildings because the cartoons would be sold around the world. So you couldn't label a shoe store. This led to an establishing shot of shops with giant shoes out front because "You have to have an establishing shot so the audience knows where you are!" Maybe. But why can't that establishing shot be inside, you know - where the character is sitting in a chair surround by shoe displays? Less work for the layout and background department too.

That reminds me of a book I've recommended before. If you have any interest in storyboards, directing, comic books, illustration, in short, any creative art that uses visuals to communicate a mood or story, own this book. FRAMED INK is a beautiful book that is packed with dynamic compositions to use in your own work. Buy it in the usual places.

Jake Parker is another artist that I used in the development of a science fiction series that never sold. Oh, to have that Disney money to throw at cool artists again. Ah well. Anyway, I posted a link to Jake drawing a robot recently. I enjoy watching and listening to artists draw and Jake is a natural teacher.  But instead of reposting his recent robot sketch I'm ending with an older YouTube video that shows him drawing a lava monster.

 

So there you have it. My first post of 2015 about exploring the creative process. I'll try to make this happen more often and come up with some original content of my own.

                                                                                                                                --Tad