coming soon

happy new year!

before and after

here are some rough thesis backgrounds with their (99.9%) finished counterparts:

interview with wes archer

i recently had the opportunity to speak with wes archer, supervising director for king of the hill, the upcoming the goode family, and some of the best episodes of the simpsons, as well as a multitude of other things i owe my love for animation to. the interview was part of an assignment for class, but i'd like to think of the assignment part as more of a kick in the butt to get me to chat with some bigwigs i'd otherwise feel too small to approach.

anyway here's the interview!

Me: I get most of my inspiration from the big "adult" cartoons that everyone is familiar with - 90's Simpsons, King of the Hill, Futurama, South Park... etc. Where did you and the people you've worked with get theirs? The thing these shows have in common is the emphasis on great, solid comedy and storytelling, but it's the limited animation that pulls the show together and really gives it its identity. Have there been shows similar to these in the past, or do you feel like you played a part in pioneering something completely new to the animation scene?

Wes Archer: During the Tracey Ullman shorts and the first two years of the Simpson series we spent a considerable amount of time and thought into developing a new style of limited animation for television. Much of what we didn’t want to replicate was seen on kid shows such as Scooby Doo. Matt Groening’s designs had a twisted influence from Hanna Barbara and suggested concise movement that had some peculiar pop to it. We experimented a little bit, adding squash and stretch to held pose animation, and it grew from there. Most people do not know what limited or full animation means, but only if they are entertained or not. More complicated stories required better staging and storyboarding to keep it fresh and convincing.


Me: Just watched Jac Mac & Rad Boy[Archer's student thesis film] - holy crap! What kind of opportunities did you get because of the film? Did it make post-graduation life a little less uncertain?

WA: Student work helped me to learn how to entertain an audience. My film animation reel helped me to land some jobs which led to a director spot on the Simpsons, but the first few years out of school were bleak.


Me: What was the transition from animator to director like? Have you found yourself at the lightbox/cintiq/holographic animutizer more than you expected?

WA: My personal interest in animation revolves around the textural, visual medium of actually making a world move in tandem with a story. I have never liked a comic storyline if it had lifeless animation. Basically, I want to capture lightning in a bottle. In the professional world the same holds true, but the productions are created by teams of people with a limited amount of time. I had to learn about communication and delegation, about when to stay late and do something hands-on by myself, about tailoring artwork for an established format, and about drawing and writing good notes for others. The huge difference between animating and directing is the working out of the staging and storyboard from the script. A good script and storyboard enables the animation to be finished economically.


Me: Do you visit former studios you've worked at, and if so, have you noticed an environment change? The tone of The Simpsons is completely different than it was ten(+) years ago, but it would be interesting to find out if the development process was still the same.

WA: I have noticed that the environments change as the shows change, but for different reasons.


Me: King of the Hill is a fantastic show that many feel is underrated because nobody's dropping anvils or hitting each other with mallets. When animating a series that could very well take place in the real world, how do you take advantage of the medium?

WA: King of the Hill has achieved an extremely high level of definition for an animated world, a sometimes a surreal world, that I think is amazing. Great amounts of work go into that. It’s very lucid… and the people do not age.


Me: I'm gonna go total nerd on you here for a second but I promise I have a reason for it. It's about the episode "Ms. Wakefield". There is a scene where she is getting hauled away by a police car. The movement of the car literally looks like it had been left in animatic mode - it shrinks off screen in a very computer-ish, unlike-the-show's-style way.
Anyway my point is, have you ever been so pressed for a deadline that you find yourself cutting more corners than you'd like to get the finished product in? Does it happen often?

WA: For every scene, four corners cut.


Me: I'm way excited about The Goode Family. Are there a lot of the same people working on this show that did King of the Hill? Was it frustrating constantly learning that the show would be pre-empted for yet another week? Do you think it's hilarious that even though KotH wasn't renewed for next year there are still enough backlogged episodes to fill up a season anyway?

WA: We are still hoping for more KOTHill episodes. No, we can’t steal from that show to staff Goode (unless it gets permanently cancelled). If you or anyone you know is a good artist and wants to take the storyboard test to get hired out here, then let me know and I will pass the info on to the production (but if KOTHill is cancelled then we will not be hiring many for Goode, see how that works?). Goode Season One is wrapping up and the crew is being laid off now. We still don’t have any word on a season two. The Goode show is going to be good, though. The color looks great.


Me: As an animation director, what is your relationship with the writers? Do you ever make suggestions about the script, or work with what is given to you?

WA: The writers lash out at me and keep me locked away… please call someone before they discover… too… late… (ouch)!

TV is writer fueled and driven. That’s where it begins and ends, really. I really respect the work they do and it has been a crazy pleasure to have read so many great scripts and to have worked on them all. I think I was lucky to have left the shows I did when the writing got out of control, when too many rewrites or odd show-runner-producers were in control (ones who repeatedly asked for big re-animations that did not really make the show better). I always seemed to miss out on the troubled years of a show. Occasionally I can make a good suggestion to the writers, about a line that we need or about a gag. The directors, and the supervising director, are two of the links between everything that is thought and everything that the audience eventually sees.


Me: This incoming generation of animators grew up on the groundbreaking, ridiculously crazy stuff of the 80s/90s. It'll be hard to find new ground when the generation before us went all over the map. What advice would you give to an animation student just getting out of school?

WA: As far as new design or animation, I think that the Cintiq (which is what we use for the Goodes) and paperless tech like that is great. It can allow for rougher, more textural drawings that don’t look anything like sterile Flash animation. The Cintiq is revolutionary and new writers and animators are going to benefit from that. I do not think that hand drawn stuff will disappear. It might even become easier to produce one day.

here's his site.

excess ain't rebellion

as of right now, i am background-happy. i want to completely finish every single one of my backgrounds by the time the spring semester starts. it'll be pretty easy once this godforsaken semester is over!

i have a problem with overdoing things, though. i'm also not skillful enough to "break the rules" of a medium i am far from mastering. i'm trying to be as careful and accurate as i can in terms of layout.

so here's a very basic background. just the line work and color:

then i got blur/dodge happy and came up with this as a final result:

we'll see. if i can crank a couple of these out in a day, i should meet my goals. that would leave the whole spring semester for just animation. all right!