Sunday, October 15, 2006
ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CARTOONS I'VE EVER SEEN!
I can't be too specific because I don't have a copy of the cartoon to study. Nobody does but don't worry. It'll be all over the net soon to promote Jack Black's new film,"Tenacious D."
The film is full of interesting techniques including frequent use of multiple background changes within the same scene; rich, saturated colors using what may be a "glaze" technique contrasted with flat pastels with the effect heightened by skillfully timed cuts; simulated multiplane effects; a new way of using FLASH; and most importantly, a deep understanding of how the right kind of line, shape, movement and cutting enhances color. And did I mention the hilarious gags and way-cool animation? What a colossal achievement!
Saturday, October 14, 2006
HIPPIE CARD GAME
He dumped out the cards and I swear they were just random pictures of things just like the pictures you see on this page. No numbers, no suites, no duplicates, just pictures. I spent two excruciating hours trying to "play" this game. My friend was happy as a bug playing with his glass of milk and chocolate chip cookies beside him. Me? I'm wondering if we should petition the fascists to re-involve themselves with the card game industry.
Friday, October 13, 2006
EXAMINING TEETH
The teeth on the bottom row are OK except the snooty teeth in the back seem to have elevated themselves above their friends.
The teeth above are all over the place. Some face outwards, some inwards. The chisel teeth aren't even on the same level but seem to be an incline. It's hard to imagine why nature would produce teeth like this. I suppose this man is specialized to eat the tapered end of corn. The two front teeth curve down and inward like spider teeth. The noble bottom teeth join together to resist the goofy onslaught from above. If I had to guess this man's occupation I'd say...mmmm...professional corn-husker adept at picking out weevils with his teeth.
Aaaagghh!!!! Blogger's dropped the rest of my teeth pictures! I guess I'm only allowed two photos tonight! I'll pick this up again later.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
SOME UNCLE EDDIE PHOTOS
Monday, October 09, 2006
THE REMARKABLE MIKE FONTANELLI
Mike grew up in Brooklyn and went to the School of Visual Arts where he studied with Will Eisner. After SVA Mike got a job in a New York book store while he tried to figure out what to do next. While there he did some free drawings for a small-circulation fan magazine which somehow made its way to Los Angeles where Bruce Timm saw it and showed it to John K. John immediately called him and offered him a job. He even offered to pay his plane fare out to LA. The rest is history. Boy, it pays to get published, even in small venues! You never know who might be watching!
This drawing of Buster Bunny (above) is an interesting one for a couple of reasons. Look how happy and energetic it is! It just oozes charisma and appeal! And take a look at the clean-up line. The thick-and-thin is exquisite! Then there's the bear with human feet below. Now all these years later Mike is a rich, ascoted bachleor living with his cheetah and fine art collection high atop a penthouse in Beverly Hills. Really, Mike is carried around everywhere by an army of naked butlerettes. We still eat pizza together but his tasters have to have the first bite. OK, I'm exagerrating just a bit.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
WHY ANIME SUCCEEDS
Of course the biggest advantage of animatic films like anime isn't the low cost or even the potential for better drawings. The biggest advantage is that having no animation forces the filmmaker to look for other ways to make the film interesting. Even the least imaginative animatic makers are likely to consider drawings with drastic angles and stories with a Sergio Leone sensibility. Animatic producers tend to be more aggressive in their search for new ideas and audience-pleasing techniques. With no animation they have to be! You've gotta hand it to them, the animatic people made an asset out of a liability and generated a whole industry (anime) centered around animated films without much animation.
So how does the rest of the animation industry compete with this? It seems to me that the natural way to compete with innovative still drawings is to create innovative moving drawings. That's what John did with "Naked Beach Frenzy," possibly the funniest cartoon made in the last half century. Funny moving drawings require a new way of writing stories. The stories actually have to be funny and they have to lend themselves to the type of humor that funny artists like to draw. Good plots may be less important than good opportunities for funny drawings. Well, it's a big subject and there's no space to cover it here.
Following the lead of anime, it would be nice if cartoons containg funny movement would be cheaper to make. Sometimes I toy with the idea of making cheap, pencil test cartoon shorts. I don't know how often I've heard studio people say things like, "Well it was a lot funnier in the pencil test" or "You should have seen the pencil test!" The fact is that pencil tests are almost always far, far more funny and gutsy than the finished film they're subordinated to. The only problem comes with trying to color them. How do you put color on lines that are all over the place?
Saturday, October 07, 2006
SOME ROCK & ROLL FACES
THOUGHTS ABOUT ANIME
Me, I'm not an anime fan. I know there's been some good stuff done in that medium but there's also an awful, awful lot of kitch. I mean big, hulking mountains of it! All the cute girls with gigantic, cute Bambi eyes, cute and oh so precious hairstyles, and cute little outfits with cute little boots... Cute! Cute! Cute! Even the guys are cute! Man, I'm getting a sugar overdose here!
And how do you like anime plots ? "Ganzu, the cute princess of cutania must get the power ring back that was stolen by Power lad and his Power Pals. A fight ensues with Power Lad shooting power beams at the cute girls and their cute, fuzzy little animal friends. Eventually Power Lad and his Power Pals realize the've been manipulated by the evil Ganzuni. Another power beam fight ensues with the cute forces in beautiful outfits joining with the powerful Power Pals (also in cute outfits and hairstyles) against Ganzuni. The good guys win. " Aaaaarggghh!!!!!
BTW, I didn't draw the picture of power Lad and his Powerful Beams of Power above.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
WHAT I'M READING NOW
Here's an example (above) of the kind of narrative prose Welles liked to write. I knew I'd seen the style before but I couldn't place it until now: it's from Psalm 23 in the King James Bible. In that Psalm each line is split in two: " The Lord is my shepherd / I shall not want. " It's the only poetry in the English language that might surpass Shakespeare, in fact some say that Shakespeare wrote it. Almost every line is two or three simple thoughts jammed together with a natural pause between each thought...it's a very powerfull type of prose. Very noble, very musical.
Shakespeare used it in the beginning of "Romeo and Juliette:" "Two houses / both alike in dignity /in fair Verona /where we lay our scene (maybe I've quoted wrong, I don't have it infront of me)." That's the way Welles wrote about the little boy and his bull: "The boy's name was Chico / and the bull's name was Bonito." Joe Fante, a heavyweight writer himself, is credited with writing the narration but you know that Welles wrote it. All his narratives sound like that. It's a beautiful way to write.
I've only read a dozen pages or so. When I put it down Callow was relating the story of how Welles rehearsed the actors in "Magnificent Ambersons." He recorded the rehearsel on records then played the best parts back when it was time to film it. Welles thought actors always spoke their lines too slow infront of the camera and he wanted to remind them how good it sounded when they spoke fast in rehearsel. Callow thought it had the unexpected effect of making the scenes feel awkward because the actors couldn't find the natural rythym of the present, infront of the camera.
Welles put a lot of emphasis on the reading that was done in rehearsel. I'm proud of myself because I deduced this before I ever read it, in fact I did a blog entry about it. You can hear it in the way he delivered his lines in " Jane Eyre." The lines sound like they're being read! You might think that would be a liability but it wasn't. It sounded great that way! I read ahead in the Jane Eyre sequence and discovered that he walked on the set and started directing from a podium just like a conducter, even though he was only hired to act.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
REFRESHED AT THE FOUNTAIN OF MILT GROSS
Gross really was a genius. The shoulders on this guy (above) are completely detached from the rib cage and yet it works. The head seems to come out of the sternum. How did Gross think of that?
How fearless Gross is! The guy (above) doesn't fall, though he's leaning and is painfully top-heavy. He doesn't fall for the perfectly logical reason that it's funnier if he doesn't.
I love Gross' walks. Strides like this (above) just beg to be animated funny.
This ball-throwing pose (above) probably worked better in print than it would in animation. Even so, the way the forms squash into each other certainly is interesting. Animators shouldn't be put off by the flat, print bias of the pictures. Even the flatest ones are terrific conceptual blockbusters.
Monday, October 02, 2006
MY FAVORITE NAPOLEON STORY
It seems that Napoleon had a brilliant way of dealing with armies larger than his own. Really big armies usually had two or more commanders. Napoleon would use spies to locate the border that seperated the two commands. He reasoned that this was the area where commanders had the most difficulty in command and control and would offer the least resistance. He would create a breach with artillary then pour a fourth of his force into it. Once in they would quickly dig trenches, effectively splitting the enemy in two.
As soon as the French were dug in they directed all their fire against one of the enemy's halves. Since Napoleon's troops were protected by the ground they could shoot at others without being shot themselves, at least for a while. Sooner or later the enemy's superior numbers would prevail but that's OK. The Frenchmen in the trenches only needed to hold out long enough to pin the enemy down so they couldn't reinforce their friends.
Remember that I said only a fourth of Napoleon's army rushed into the breach and dug trenches? Now the other 3/4 comes into play. They attack the other enemy half. Since Napoleon is directing 3/4 of his troops against an enemy that's only at half strength, he's probably going to win. When he defeats this half he turns his full force on the other half of the enemy that'd been pinned down. Once again he usually prevails because he has his whole force intact and the other side has to make due with half. A nifty tactic, huh?
Sunday, October 01, 2006
A WORD ABOUT JOHN K AND CLAMPETT
Before I dive deep into the well of theories again I want to comment on a critical internet article about John K and Clampett which appeared a couple of days ago, and which was linked to without comment from Cartoon Brew. The article made me pretty upset but I'll try to respond with restraint since the author seems to be a nice guy and tried to be fair in his own way.
First off, I was disappointed to see Clampett's work described as crazy, crude and exagerrated. He certainly was all these things (I'm assuming "crazy" was used affectionately) but it seems stingy not to add that he was also crucially inventive and highly entertaining. Sergio Leone, Fellini, Mick Jagger and Elvis were also crude and exagerrated at times. So what?
Clampett's style was summarized as having to do with bulging eyes and rubber-hose limbs. That's OK so far as it goes but where's the rest of the list? I didn't see any mention of Clampett's innovations in comedy, acting, pacing, animation, cartooning, dialogue, editing, and musical application. It's so strange to see the man's whole ground-breaking effort reduced to a couple of insults.
John K got the same harsh treatment. John's work was characterized by naked boobs and farts. Poor John gets no credit for the uptillion drawing, story, dialogue, editing, pacing, acting and musical innovations. The author casually reduces this bulging warehouse of gifts to the animation industry down to...boobs and farts. At the end of the piece he condescendingly pats John on the head by conceding that the pathetic purveyer of farts at least stimulates discussion about animation. Unbelievable.
Now I'm willing to concede that everyone isn't tempramentally suited for outrageous humor. If you don't like that sort of thing, or can only take it in small doses, then it's natural to resist people like Clampett and John, regardless of their innovations. Maybe it's even natural to nitpick about whatever faults they have. That's OK, I understand that. Just be respectfull when criticizing people who are giants in their field. We need these people and they're getting frightningly scarce.