KEYNOTE: Kick it up a Notch! Flash Animation with After Effects

In Hollywood, the demand for quality animation on a budget inspired Stanton Cruse to incorporate After Effects into his production process. In our next motion+connect, join Stanton Cruse as he shares quick and effective techniques for compositing, animating cameras, and adding subtle to stunning visual effects to bring out the best in your film making.

Stanton Cruse has used Flash for television broadcast animation for over 8 years. He co-founded LA based Six Point Harness studios in 2003. There he trained artists new to Flash, directed animation and animated numerous pilots and shows for Disney, Fox, ABC, Warner Brothers, Film Roman, Klasky Csupo, and Cartoon Network. He supervised Flash productions at Film Roman in 2008 including ABC Family’s A Cranberry Christmas.

Stanton is a graduate of the CalArts School of Film and Television where he studied character animation under the industries finest. He split his time between traditional hand-drawn animation and 3D production. Now working in Flash, Stanton brings the sensibility of a traditional animator to his characters, and the problem solving of a 3D technician to maximize efficiency. Stanton currently lives in Burbank and teaches Flash and Illustrator at Studio Arts.

Join Stanton for a full-day training this year at motion{u}: Full-Throttle Flash: Creating an Animated Film in a Day read more »

Jamie became a household name in the world of animation for his work on the title sequence Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events. Most known for his artistically creative stop motion animation pieces, Jamie recently directed this amazing piece, Jubilee and Her Doll Beat Cancer for the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.

This piece was based on a true story about a little girl named Jubilee. About a year old, Jubilee stopped eating. Doctors at Children’s Medical Center diagnosed Jubliee with Neuroblastoma – a cancer that starts in the nerve tissue. After therapy and two bone marrow transplants, Jubilee’s true personality blossomed. According to her mom, she’s now quite the comedian.

Check out the Jubliee’s full story… read more »

Jamie Caliri is a director at DUCK Studios.

Animators, motion graphic artists, visual effects artists, screen designers, title designers – here’s your chance to show the world your work. Each month we select two reels from the motion community to screen during the reels@motion segment on our monthly motion+connect broadcast.

It’s easy to enter:

1. Upload your 3-minute or less reel to Vimeo
2. Add the tag: reels@motion to your reel on Vimeo
3. Tweet the Vimeo link to your reel with the hashtag: #motiontv

…and then stay tuned. Winners will be notified. Good luck!

At motion, we are always inspired by the talented work we see coming from the future of our industry – students! This year we provided two unique opportunities for students to have their work seen at motion09:
– the reels@motion competition and
– our interstitials competition

Post-secondary students studying motion graphics, animation, and vfx were asked to submit their reels – 5 minutes or less. The top three winners in two categories – motion graphics and vfx, were announced at this year’s motion conference.

In the category of motion graphics, the winners were:

1st place: Tommy Strickland (Ex’pression College for Digital Arts)
2nd place: Cassandra Chisom (Ex’pression College for Digital Arts)
3rd place: Matt Aubuchon (Ex’pression College for Digital Arts)

view winning reels:

In the category of vfx, the winners were:

1st place: Anna Tonrungroj (Vancouver Film School)
2nd place: Corey Coates (Vancouver Film School)
3rd place: Peter Choi (Vancouver Film School)

view winning reels:

Congratulations to the winners of the motion09 future@motion reels competition!

A graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Barbara has performed, created and directed numerous theatre works and films. Barbara has had a varied performance career, careening through Mud Shows, mask performances, indie films and Shakespeare. Her directing credits include the acclaimed contemporary commedias Love Potion # Mine and 3 Dottories 3. She has extensive experience as a mask maker and visual artist, exhibiting her ceramic sculpture around the country.

In 2000, she developed the graduate course Physical Expression For Animators at the Rochester Institute of Technology and has brought that work to animators around the country.

How did you come up with the concept of acting for animation?

In the spring of 1998 I was asked to devise a course in non-verbal communication designed to broaden the creative vocabulary of Graduate Students in Animation at the Rochester Institute of Technology. At the time, I had decades of experience and training as a physical actor behind me and some experience in working for animators doing registration and film editing so I set about to distill the elements of my training and experience that would be useful for an animator.

Does acting help improve a character animators skills?

A common belief about acting is that it’s simply about becoming someone else and for the most part, that’s what’s apparent to the audience. But that process requires an understanding of the way we inhabit our bodies. Without it, we can’t play with and mold our physicality in a way that translates as a believable transformation into the “other”. And a character without a real physicality is just a talking head.

Any specifics?

Breath, gait, gaze, status. We take these things for granted in ourselves, but if we can isolate their specific qualities, understand and work with them in a variety of combinations, we are building a great foundation on which to create a character that is alive as a real individual for the audience.

- Breath pattern is a great indicator of a personal rhythm and emotional state.

- Gait or how a character walks can express a tremendous amount about a characters’ physical state and what they do as an occupation.

- Gaze brings us into the character’s thought process and inner life.

- Status as it is expressed physically, gives us an almost unconscious understanding of a character’s place in their immediate social circle and in the wider world.

You get into other aspects as well?

Yes. When you begin to mix variations in rhythm, pace, levels, and movement qualities with these basic elements you’ve established, it’s possible to explore and embody a full range of physical possibilities for your character.

Not all of them will be useful in a given project, but your underlying understanding will bring depth to your creation. An understanding of these elements are useful to animators as they develop a character just as they are to the actor creating a character in performance. If you can inhabit the physical aspects of the characters you create, to get inside their skins, it is so much easier to translate that into your animation because you know what it feels like for them to move in this or that way, to twist like that, how their breath changes when they’re scared or embarrassed or in love.

It’s a great way to improve you observation skills

Definitely. You will also find yourself much sharper in your observations of living things. Tapping into your instinctive understanding of what to look for, you’ll find all the inspiration you need for character in the nearest coffee shop or a walk down the street.

Add these skills to your toolbox and you’ll find yourself going back to them again and again.

speaking at motion09
Barbara Geary will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Elaine Montoya
motion.tv
………………………………..
copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

the art of expressiveness

When I first saw Dan’s work, what caught my eye the most was the expressiveness of his animation. It made me realize – I hadn’t seen this in years. What happened to expressiveness in animation? Did we loose it when everything transitioned from traditional animation to computer animation? Is it possible to animate ‘expressively’ with digital tools? Have deadlines become such a factor in animation, that we no longer have time to ‘go the extra mile’ in adding the details and characteristics of expressiveness? Or is it just that, somewhere along the way, we’ve lost the art. Fortunately, because of animators like Dan Haskett, more and more young animators are being given the opportunity to explore this lost art – and hopefully carry on the tradition for years to come.

a brief history

With many credits to his name, Haskett is well-known for creating the characters of “Belle” for Beauty and the Beast and “Ariel” for The Little Mermaid. He began his career setting up an animation department for a New York company that did commercials and corporate films. A co-worker told him about a man named Richard Williams, who would later go on to make Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Because of Williams, Haskett got an audience with Frank Thomas, one of Walt Disney’s famed “Nine Old Men” group of directing animators. Haskett was offered a job as a junior animator under Thomas on The Fox and the Hound.

Freelancing for Disney, Warner Bros. and many others since then, Haskett’s credits include Toy Story, The Prince of Egypt, Sesame Street, Scooby Doo. He won an Emmy for his work on The Simpsons and has done commercial work for Kellogg’s and Nestle. Haskett helped pioneer a resurgence of classic Disney qualities and “organic” animation.

a role model

When it comes to animation, it’s easy to say Dan is a role model. Everyone wants to be able to animate like Dan. It’s a given. But beyond this, he plays a very special role in the African-American community. As an African American animator, he serves as a role model. In a 2005 article by Esther Iverem, on the portal seeingblack.com, there is an excellent interview with Dan about what it means to be a Black animator. I was intrigued by this article, and soon realized Dan’s role and how it will be written in the history of Black America.

But what amazed me even more, was the first time I received a phone call from a young African American who learned that Dan lived in Albuquerque, speaks at motion, and is involved in our community. He wanted to get in touch with Dan – his lifelong idol. And, this wasn’t a one time occurrence. Since then, I have had calls from other young African Americans to see if I could help them get animation cells signed by Dan, and even met a young man who travel to ABQ from Atlanta to meet him in person. Dan is definitely a ‘rock-star’ in the industry and a ‘rock-star’ in the African American community.

sharing the tradition

Back for his second year, Dan is a favorite at motion. This year, he will be on a special panel of Disney (and former Disney) animators, titled The Art of Animation: Now and Then. Additionally, with hopes of carrying on the traditions of the art of animation, Dan will be presenting a 3-hour interactive session at motion09, in the promotion series.

“I’ve been able to influence a lot of young talent,” said Haskett. “A lot of people like what I do and they like how I do it and they want to learn. And it’s very important to me to create characters that have a life of their own—and apparently I’ve been successful at that.”

Dan’s an amazing man, with extraordinary talent. motion09 is honored to welcome him to the stage!

speaking at motion09
Dan Haskett will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Elaine Montoya
motion.tv
………………………………..
copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

what are the advantages of using Flash for character animation?

Anything you can design, as an artist, you can animate in Flash – and you can do it pretty quickly. In a couple of days, you can have a fully animated scene that’s in full color, 24 frames per second, that’s broadcast quality and ready to show the world.

what are the challenges of using Flash for character animation?

Early versions of Flash (I started in version 5) had some definite limitations. But as developers were given the ability to create third-party extensions, animators began developing tools to solve specific problems. I’ll give you an example: Say you have a 500-frame scene and want to lay some keyframes down at frame 300; when you click into your character, no matter where you are in your timeline, the playhead jumps back to frame 1. This can be very frustrating if you have a long, complicated scene with a lot of layers and nested parts, and every time you click into a part you have to scroll back through the timeline. Dave Wolfe, an animator at Cartoon Network, has written an extension called Frame Edit that lets you stay at the same frame you were at when you clicked into a symbol. This saves a tremendous amount of time and brainpower.

what are the challenges of producing a broadcast quality show in Flash?

There’s a tendency for things to get rushed into animation without taking a good look at the overall strategy of how to do a Flash show. Elements that aren’t in place initially have to be introduced into the production at some point, causing a lot of back up down the line. There’s a lot of confusion about what a proper set up of a Flash show is, because it’s all so new and we’re still finding our way. But it’s important to figure out how to do it right, and I have some good ideas about that.

how do you see Flash being used, and what do you think, ultimately, its role will be?

Right now it’s mainly being used in television, and it seems to be gaining a pretty strong foothold there. At Six Point Harness, the studio I helped form, we created dozens of pilots. Studios were willing to outsource the pilots to us because we could get them done relatively quickly and cheaply.

As a natural progression of that, larger studios like Film Roman and Nickelodeon – which has its Flash show El Tigre, as Cartoon Network has Fosters – are considering Flash a more valuable tool for doing broadcast production. At Film Roman, there are dozens of shows being produced in Flash. While I think big studios will do more and more shows in Flash, I don’t see them phasing out traditional all together, that’s a well-established pipeline. But this is a transitional time and I feel like the studios are really giving Flash a chance – though nobody has decided yet if the best model is going to be in-house, out-sourced, or a combination of the two. That’s a conversation we’re still having.

how would you compare working in 3D vs. Flash?

Flash can be more challenging than working in 3D. In 3D you have a technical director who controls the models and does very elaborate, well designed set ups. When a character animator hits the rig, it’s like a driving a well-engineered car. Things are logical, they’re where they’re supposed to be and it’s actually pretty easy. When I got to Flash, there were no standards or best practices. The challenge was, how do I use what I know to create models that are well engineered and “easy to drive”?

When I began 3D animation, I approached it the same way I approached traditional. I would spend a lot of time working with the character and creating strong poses until I’d get the scene completely posed out. Then I would do pass after pass of computer interpolation to get some nice overlapping action and flesh out my scene.

When I came to Flash, I did it the same way. On my first day working on Jake’s Booty Call, a 2002 movie produced by National Lampoon, I spent a lot of time creating keyframes and poses of the character. The guys were getting frustrated with me, saying, “Okay, apply some motion tweens already, let’s see this guy go!” But I had to make sure the poses were right first. Ever since then, that’s been my approach. Any time I’ve gone away from it, it takes me a lot longer to get through the scene. I end up getting lost in motion tweens and what the computer is doing, trying to force it to do things it’s not wanting to do. Which means I’m no longer in control of what I’m creating, and the tool is controlling me.

Beyond animation, in running a production, it’s important to control what’s going on there too, and not let it get away from me – which I can achieve by spending the necessary time up front thinking about the end of the production.

you recently completed ape escape. what was that project like?

After Slacker Cats I went to Hawaii to supervise Ape Escape, which was 38 two-minute short films for Nicktoons, produced by Frederator.

The cartoon is based on Sony PlayStation’s popular 1999 video game of the same name. If you’re familiar with the game can look forward to seeing many of the same characters, including Specter, Jimmy, The Professor and others. However, the similarities end there. The episodes were written for an audience of 6 to 13-year-olds who have never played the game. The humor is very slapstick.

I was super excited to do this project, because it was a test of my skills and what I’ve learned thus far. While I’ve run some small shows in the past, I had to scale it up to a larger production like Ape Escape. It was a lot of work – but overall, a great experience.

you’ve made a commercial in 2.5D – what was that process like?

We created the characters using Illustrator as our design platform, and Flash as our animation timeline. We used After Effects to create the environments, and as the camera would move through, perspective would change, giving a sense of dimensionality – but nothing is actually 3D here. The commercial was a promotion for Max Lucado’s book Every Day Deserves a Chance. You can view it on You Tube.

I can imagine doing a project someday with 2D characters animated in Flash, that live inside of 3D vehicles created in Maya, joined together seamlessly in animation. It’s a look I haven’t seen yet. We’ve seen 2D and 3D together, I’ve just not seen 2D Flash and 3D brought together. That’s what I’m ultimately pushing for and hoping I’ll get a chance to do.

when did you know you wanted to do animation?

The first character I ever drew was Cap’n Crunch. I was a Saturday morning junkie, and I used to love Cap’n Crunch commercials – I have no idea why. When I was six years old we moved to the Azores, where there were no cartoons, only The Muppet Show in Spanish. By the time we came back to the states, Disney was doing some incredible work. In particular, I remember the opening sequence of Rescuers Down Under – a little boy runs into the wilderness to play with his friend, a golden majestic bird; the bird tosses him around in the air and pushes him along on the water as he’s water-skiing. There was a lot of unspoken drama – it was very moving, and it amazed me that I could be moved by an animated cartoon.

That experience made me want to create art that moves people and creates an emotional response. With cartoons, comedy has always been and will always be popular, but there was something about those films – the big epic scenes, the scope and scale of what they were doing – that just blew me away. It still does. I love that stuff.

would you like to do something of that scale and scope in Flash? could you use Flash for an entire movie?

I would love to be afforded the opportunity to try. I really feel it can be done. My first experience in Flash was on that movie in 2002, and we’ve come so far since then – although studios had insisted it was preposterous to think Flash could ever be used for broadcast television. Now we’re doing it and they’re asking, “how can we do it better?” Today, people scoff at the idea of doing feature films in Flash, insisting it’ll never happen. Which makes me think it will eventually happen.

in an interview at studiodaily.com, you advised novice users to approach their scene as an artist, not a technician.  “Think in terms of thumbnails, posing, and timing….compose solid drawings and endeavor to create quality animation art.” you stress the fundamentals of art over technology.

The pioneers of our industry spent the best years of their lives innovating and creating our industry. Everything they did is relevant to everything we do. We can’t forget where we came from, and we need to learn traditional approaches-our wheel may be shiny, new and fast, but these guys invented the wheel a long time ago. I’m not sure how impressed they would be with our technology, and I don’t think they’d be impressed at all if we forget what they discovered and learned. We need to retain that knowledge as we push forward into new mediums.

speaking at motion09
Stanton Cruse will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Lilian Dregalla
Working Story Creative

copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

Brad currently works as the lead animator and technical director of the Motion and Graphics Department at Boeing-SVS where he leads a team of animators to create fully 3D scenario based animations as well as still rendered product visualizations.

Was there anything in particular that sparked your imagination as a kid?

Most of my creative spark came from the normal influences on a late 20th century male child; cartoons, movies and video games. I used to love squiggles and art lessons in grade school because I was able to draw, color and actually make something artistic. I can remember sitting down with a friend to come up with our own Mega Man game villain designs and drawing sports logos, power rangers and ninja turtles to no end. It was a lot of fun.

For a lot of kids, they obsessively draw a particular thing over and over – from horses to robots…and everything in between. Was this true for you?

I don’t know if there was any one thing I obsessively drew like characters or environments or anything. I mostly just drew something when I felt inspired or when there was a contest among friends or classmates. I did seem to have a weird obsession for a season with football helmets. I remember drawing every team’s helmet and their logo a few times. Might have been a bit of a young graphic designer in me there.

What was your impetus for getting into 3D and motion graphics?

As a child I always loved movies and animated cartoon shows. Even more then watching them I always thought it would be the best possible job in the world to become an animator for Disney or work in visual effects for a living. I can remember defiantly staying up far to late at night to catch re-runs of Movie Magic on the Discovery Channel completely glued to the TV as they described things that happen behind the scenes. Even now I am often more excited to see the “Making of” features of a movie then the actual movie itself. The shear amount of times I have watched every appendix disc of the extended Lord of the Rings Trilogy DVD’s is embarrassing really. It was only natural that I end up finding a love for 3D and motion graphics and am lucky enough to actually be doing it for a living.

Did you have any formal training?

My first foray into the world of 3D graphics was with Bryce 3D when I was in 9th grade. A delightfully painful program that allowed me to create landscapes and reflective spheres to wet my appetite for graphics. While being a limiting program for animation and modeling it gave me a brief but exciting introduction to 3D. As a freshmen at UNM I stumbled across the CGI and Animation course they offered. At the time I did not know there were any classes like that available. I was so excited about it I instantly switched my major to computer science and enrolled in the class the next semester because I heard it was an upper division computer science course. It was in that class that I was introduced to Maya and began my 5 semesters of that course utilizing the machines and software to learn and explore the vast world of 3D. It turned out that I didn’t have to be a CS student to do the class so I switched to Studio Art in my sophomore year and finally found my grounding as an art student. I owe a lot of my training to my internship with Boeing while I was an undergrad. At the time I worked under the supervision of Jim Van Allen who currently works for Industrial Light and Magic. He is really one of the most innovative, creative and driven CG artists I know. Working with him on projects and learning the nuances of CG production whether it is 2D or 3D really propelled me beyond where I could bring myself at the time. Lastly I cannot forget the wonderful community of CG artists across the world that are so eager to share their knowledge and assistance to even the most introductory students. The amount of knowledge I have gained through online articles, forums, tutorials and critique sessions has been a priceless entity to my education. Thanks everyone! You rock!

Do you find that your training as a studio artist influences your work?

I have to admit, there were times I was frustrated taking studio art and art history courses during my undergrad because all I wanted to do was play in Maya. However, my drive to earn a degree and understanding that even though I didn’t see a direct connection between courses like “Early 20th Century African American Art” and visual effects, it’s influence on me and my experiences would be an overall benefit to my career. Looking back on my education now I am really thankful for all of the courses I took in traditional art creation and art history. They have helped me to see more possibilities of depth and meaning in art today and have elevated the quality of my work more than anything else could. There is so much more to film making, animation, motion graphics and graphic design than simply hitting the record button on the camera or slapping some shaders on a model and rendering it. I consider myself a life-long learner and find that I have more of an interest in learning traditional methods and history even now that I am working in the industry.

Are there any individuals or companies that influence your work?

That is a very hard question to answer in too specific a manner as I consider everything I see and hear as something that influences my work. I have always been inspired by the genius storytellers and production teams at Pixar. The way they meticulously dissect every minute detail in order to ensure that nothing is done without purpose really inspires me to do the same for myself. In terms of visual effects I love to see the innovation that comes out of ILM, Weta, Sony, Digital Domain, Framestore, etc. I am always fascinated to see how they do the things they do. Some of my favorite commercial spots have been created or assisted by The MILL and the Digital Kitchen. I am also highly inspired by great film directors and DPs like Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, M. Knight Shyamalan. As you can see I find inspiration in a lot of places which I think is the way to do it because there is so much creativity to be found all over the place. You simply have to look and listen to find it.

You do both 3D and motion graphics. Do you prefer one over the other?

I have a bit of ADD going on when it comes to graphics. I definitely have a strong tendency toward 3D, but I find a lot of enjoyment and passion from extending myself to the motion graphics, graphic design and web design arenas. I find if I spend too much time on one specific thing I have a strong pull to learn something new, or work on something completely different. My interest in motion graphics really stems as an extension of my 3D knowledge rather than it as something different. It started as I became more comfortable with the concept of compositing using After Effects. The more I learned After Effects, the more I saw it as an extension of 3D. Some of the most inspiring 3D pieces I have seen involve a great amount of motion graphics and almost all of the motion graphics I enjoy involves 3D or at least 2.5D. I find that my knowledge in all of these fields in computer graphics expands my envelope in the others. This includes computer programming and computer networking.

You currently work for Boeing. What’s it like working on military scenario work?

Much of the work I do on the scenario based animations is not that different than any other 3D production. It still involves a planning of the story and mood as well as the usual modeling, animation, lighting rendering, editing processes. One of the interesting things about some of the work I do for Boeing is that at times a piece of hardware or an engineer’s design becomes the “star” of the show rather than a character. I have found it really extends my understanding of cinematography, timing and framing to create shots that are interesting even though there is no character mood or development to back it. Another thing that is interesting is that I often work with and for people that are more technically minded then artistically. While this creates some problems and challenges I have found that it makes me really understand exactly what it is that I am doing in order to explain it very clearly and concisely. Throughout that process I not only learn far more about what’s going on, but I have a much greater understanding of how to control what I do in order to get the exact look and effect I am going for.

Do you find that you are able to push yourself creatively in that environment?

Most of the direction of how to tell the story we are trying to tell is given to me. While this seems like the biggest blank canvas one could be offered, the projects tend to have some repetitive limitations. Since each project’s story can be told much like the others it is a creative challenge to present similar ideas in completely different ways. Much like a painter will depict the same person in different poses, environments and lighting to change the result of the piece. An interesting affect of working in aerospace is that my customers and audience often do not have a clue as to what or how I do what I do. As such the only thing they have to compare the work I do to is the productions they see on TV and at the movies. As you can imagine this puts some pressure on our small group to produce work that is on par with the top studios in the world within budgets and timelines that are even less realistic for us. A lot of the creativity for our productions is in creating processes, workflows and solutions that are fast and quick to implement, but still produce results that are competitive.

What kind of creative projects do you work on outside of work?

When it comes to 3D, a lot of my personal work usually involves R&D tests for things I would like to learn to enhance my work or some effect that will be needed for the next project. I like to create mock scenarios where I would need to produce some effect or look and then work to solve that problem so that when it becomes required it will be a lot easier to implement. Through my company, Swardson Studios, I also do a number of contract based projects. Whether they are in graphic design, web design, motion graphics or 3D animation really just depends on what comes up. I enjoy working in all of these fields and find that the knowledge and time I put into one will often push my abilities in the others just the same. Could be called the DaVinci effect I guess.

You also teach 3D animation at the University of New Mexico. What is the number one thing you teach your students to prepare for the ‘real world’?

If I could instill one thing in my students to prepare them for the real world is to NEVER STOP LEARNING. In this industry constant learning is something that is not only advantageous but is required to stay competitive and employable. Faster computers are constantly being developed and software is being designed to utilize those computers to the limit almost as fast. With this new software and their processes and abilities comes an ever increasing learning curve that fresh young minds are picking up faster and earlier than ever. If I were to be able to instill two things, the second would be to NEVER SETTLE. You may not get to where you want to be immediately but persistence and drive is the key to get there. Always push yourself farther than you think is possible, faster than you think is needed and more than you think is required.

Do you have plans for where you want to take your creative skills in the future?

I have been working a lot more with traditional filming techniques recently and think it would be great to try and push my abilities within this medium to produce some live action short films. There is a simple beauty to shooting something in real life and not having to worry about the technical hurdles of 3D animation. Working in both production and education simultaneously has given me the unique insight into the inseparable link between the two. Finding new and innovative ways to bring education to production artists and production experience to students is something I hope to explore and implement over the coming years.

speaking at motion09
Brad Swardson will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Elaine Montoya
motion.tv
………………………………..
copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

You used Flash for character animation on Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. Why was it the best fit for the project?

When you do an animated film all by yourself, you’ve got to streamline the process and create a system that has fewer steps than a regular production process, which has the benefit of a huge team of people. Obviously, keeping it all digital and getting rid of paper has to be one of those steps. Also, I didn’t do storyboards, I just went straight from a script to animation because I was the writer, director, producer and animator. I didn’t have to impart a vision, so I didn’t need the tools people use to communicate with each other, like layouts, storyboards and workbooks. And then getting to color digitally, it was just faster and simpler to draw directly. Because it’s vector based, Flash allowed me to work with very small file sizes yet still have the high resolution imagery I needed for film. If I worked in, say, Photoshop, I would be stuck with these giant files, and that would slow down the whole process.

When did you start using digital tools?

The Amiga was the first computer that had animation capabilities, it was very animation and video friendly. It’s gone now, defunct. But it had a fantastic program on it called Deluxe Paint. I first started going crazy with Deluxe Paint at the end of Fievel Goes West, we used it for special effects like snow and crowd scenes. That was around the mid ’80s.

It dawned on me very quickly that you could make an entire feature, certainly at video resolution, with Deluxe Paint. In fact, my first two films, Puss in Boots and Leif Erickson were done with Deluxe Paint. But for Romeo and Juliet, I had to switch to Flash to get those giant 2K files that I needed to output.

Flash is scalable, you can go up or down. Everyone always thinks about how it can be scaled down for use on the Internet. But no one ever, at least when I started, had ever gone really, really huge. Film recorders are not chewap and when I bought one, it was a real leap of faith that Flash would be able to project up on a huge screen and still look jaggy-free, no pixels. I was greatly relieved, and in fact, delighted when I saw the results. I was doing these acid tests where I would do a single pixel line and I’d have it rotate slowly. The anti-alias algorithm in Flash is so beautifully done that those pixels just rotate ever so slowly. It was perfect imagery.

It took you five years and 112,000 drawings to do this. That takes some stamina. How did you do it?

It was a labor of love. And it’s my passion. Animation, for me, has always been a great love. I’m happiest when I’m animating and drawing. I was cleaning out my old closet at my folks’ house the other day, and there was a tower of sketch books—they nearly fell down on me. I have sketch books going back to, you know, before Jesus. I’ve been drawing and cartooning my whole life. And that led to flip books, which led to, hey, wouldn’t it be great if I could make a movie of these flip books? I bought a Super 8 camera when I was 13. There was no turning back after that.

Now, five years doing Romeo and Juliet sounds like a long time, but when I think about other long form projects I’ve worked on, it’s not. I worked on Black Cauldron for six years, and Cats for six years. Historically, the timeline of an animated film has always been long.

When you were adapting Romeo and Juliet, how faithful were you to the story?

Well first off, I have four small children, so I couldn’t have a double suicide. I had to make a G-rated version. I also condensed characters. The play runs about three hours and I only had enough money for about eighty minutes (laughs). So I simplified it a lot. I’m sure William Shakespeare is rolling in his grave.

When you create a film on your own, the glory is all yours but the struggle is all yours as well. How much did you miss having things like tech support?

A lot. You do have to solve technical problems yourself because it’s just too expensive to have someone do it for you. So, I just had to wear more hats and learn a lot of things I really didn’t want to learn—like how to deal with film and sound issues. And then when we finished the film, all the printing issues. And all the legal issues. People don’t realize how much happens after a film is done. Everything from copywriting to licensing and merchandising and publicity.

Fortunately, I have a distributor for foreign distribution and another handling domestic, and they’re very helpful—but I ended up cutting the trailers and doing the posters and comic books. Ultimately, Romeo and Juliet has been a six-year project for me. The animation took four years, post took another year, and publicity and promotion took another year on top of that. It’s a never ending story.

What films did you work on when you were at Spielberg’s animation studio?

I co-directed Fievel Goes West, and I was a directing animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I also started on a film called Balto, but got taken off that to work on Cats. I developed Cats for six years but it ultimately got shelved. That can drive you crazy—to work on a film for six years, and then have it go on a shelf.

Was the Cats experience the reason you left London and came back to the US?

No, the whole company got moved. That was at the time when DreamWorks was being formed and Jeffrey Katzenberg had joined Spielberg. They wanted to create a large animation facility in Glendale, CA. So they brought the entire London unit over, and I was part of that big move. Cats got passed from DreamWorks to Universal and ultimately Universal passed on it. That’s when I started my own company.

What have you been working on since you finished Romeo and Juliet?

I’m working on a graphic novel Ultima-Thula, done in Flash, with a view towards selling it to the movies. In Hollywood, more and more movies are originating in graphic novels. As a 200- to 300-page full blown story, a graphic novel translates well into a feature.

If you were to step back and view the evolution of your art, what would it look like, and are you happy with it?

I guess any artist feels that he’s a work in progress—and hopefully evolving towards something better. Never satisfied with yourself and always hoping to, praying to do better work. As I look back, I get frustrated with my own incompetence. I wish that I could be better, and hopefully, each project is a little bit better.

Are you surprised at the direction your career has taken, and are there skills you have now because of it?

Working all alone has forced me to learn everything. I have to buy books on film distribution and film recorder repair and color balancing 35 millimeter motion picture film. For me, learning is really exciting and keeps me going.

Now, there are certainly different ways to measure a person’s life. I had one lawyer say to me, “But think of all the potential income you’ve lost over the years.” So, okay, he’s using income as the sole yardstick—and I probably could be a lot richer. But I’m marching to a different drummer. Fortunately, I have a wife who’s extremely supportive. I don’t think I could have done it if my wife hadn’t been behind me.

And your kids?

They’re my test audience. When I was writing Romeo and Juliet, I would pitch them concepts and if they didn’t like it, I’d come back the next night with a different take on it. I kept pitching it to them until it flowed and made sense and they were listening with their eyes and mouths wide open. And then as I was making it, every day they would come home from school and go, “Daddy, daddy, daddy!” and charge into my studio to see the day’s work. And every day I’d have another four seconds of animation done. I’d run it for them and they’d go, “Ohhh!” The film is definitely kid tested. On a four-second-by-four-second basis.

For more information, visit Phil’s website.
Phil at imdb

Filmography:
Ultima Thula – co-written, illustrated
Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss – director, writer, animator
Leif Ericson – director, writer, animator
Puss in Boots – director, writer, animator
Boogie Woogie Whale Sing-a-Long – director, writer, animator
Casper – animation director
We’re Back: A Dinosaur Story – director
American Tail: Fievel Goes West – director
Who Framed Roger Rabbit – directing animator
The Magic Voyage – directing animator
Oliver and Company – story
Basil the Great Mouse Detective – animator
The Black Cauldron – animator, character design
The Fox and the Hound – animator
Cats – story
Wind Catcher – director, writer

speaking at motion09
Phil Nibbelink will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Lilian Dregalla
Working Story Creative
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copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

As a freelance illustrator Hohnstadt work on a variety of projects. Periodically he get calls from ad agencies, design firms, and business owners wishing to hire him to design a mascot to help promote their product or service.

‘Mascots’ are a part of our everyday lives. From the Pillsbury® Doughboy™, to the GEICO Gecko – mascots are a valuable part of marketing.

the advantages of having a mascot

Having a character or mascot to represent you in front of the public can have several advantages.

“Mascots get attention,” said Hohnstadt. “People are constantly bombarded with messages so you need to go the extra mile to stand out. Mascots get noticed. When people see a mascot they are more likely to stop and listen to what he/she/it has to say.”

“A good mascot is memorable. If an appealing character can work its way into the public consciousness it will become an instantly recognizable symbol for a product. When you look at the GEICO Gecko you immediately think of GEICO. You see the Pillsbury® Doughboy™ and think of gooey chocolate chip cookies. The company logo is barely an afterthought. The mascot says it all.”

Beyond branding, there’s more that mascots represent. As a friendly image, mascots are fun!

“They are entertaining to watch and send a positive message,” said Hohnstadt. “A likable character can instantly create a positive connection with your potential customers. It’s much harder to do that with only a logo.”

And there’s a lot of truth to that. While there are many memorable logos, such as the Nike swash, or Apple’s logo, there’s something about the mascot that adds a whole new element to the company. The mascot creates a relationship with the customer. It provides mass appeal.

“A good mascot can appeal to a wide demographic, across many age groups and backgrounds,” said Hohnstadt. “Mascots appeal to children as well as adults, extending your brand message to a wider audience. A mascot can even transcend languages and cultures.”

beyond the obvious…

Finally, there’s yet another reason to consider a mascot. Money.

“If a mascot becomes popular it opens the door for all sorts of profitable merchandise (clothing, toys, etc.) that can make you money while at the same time raising awareness of your product. Mars Inc., the makers of M&M’s, has opened several M&M’s retail stores, thanks in large part to the popularity of their cartoon mascots,” explained Hohnstadt.

To date Hohnstadt has worked on over 250 client projects, including projects whose end clients have included Disney, DreamWorks, Walmart, General Mills, Hasbro, Scholastic, Verizon, Hewlett-Packard, and Crayola.

speaking at motion09
Cedric Hohnstadt will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Elaine Montoya
motion.tv
………………………………..
copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv