Old Man Animation

Been playing around with 2D animation more.  I really enjoy it and am looking forward to trying to make some more substantial shots in that style.  I especially like the animation functionality in Photoshop, which allows for real-time compiling of sketches, inks, and backgrounds.  I don't think it would work for any camera movements, but I'm just doing still shots right now.

Here's a very rough pencil test I did yesterday of an old man walking down a street.

22 Rules of Pixar Storytelling, What's the deal with rules, Joe Ranft, and Rule #23

A few months ago, the animation world was abuzz over former Pixar story artist Emma Coats' 22 tweets about storytelling. Many dubbed them as "Pixar's 22 Rules", as if following these, and only these 22 tips, is the way that the studio comes up with all its ideas. Some of them are definitely used by Pixar. I had the opportunity to attend a Pixar Masterclass in Chicago last year, with the first section taught by Matthew Luhn, story artist extraordinaire.  Probably fifteen of the 22 'rules' were discussed there.  Why?  Because they are excellent things to keep in mind when developing your characters because they keep the story from going stale.  For example:

#6 - What is your character good at, comfortable with?  Throw the polar opposite at them.  Challenge them. How do they deal? (think Marlin/Dory, Carl/Russell, Remy/Skinner)

#13 - Give your characters opinions.  Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience. (think about some of the greatest stories ever told: The Iliad ("Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles"), Romeo & Juliet, Pride & Prejudice, Moby Dick...all have driven characters who cause the story to happen.  Opinions give your characters places to go and things to learn).

#19 - Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating. (this is simply anti-Deus ex Machina, which is when at the end of a story, when there's no possible hope for the character, something miraculous and unlikely rescues them.  Toy Story 3 parodied this idea in the garbage dump scene, where the characters were literally saved from the maw and fires of toy hell by a machine.)

However, they are still simply tips, not outright rules, as Mike Bonifer at gamechangers.com recently pointed out.  He ties it all in to the late Joe Ranft, the true master of the Pixar story process, who died in 2005.

Joe, he says, would've added a Rule #23 to the list, which would've been something off the wall.

When I reflect on Joe’s approach to things, and Emma’s 22 Rules, I imagine him (and others, there were always others, everybody got caught up in his infectious energy) coming up with a game called Rule #23.  The Game would need only one Guideline: There is always another Rule. The Objective of the game would be to come up with a new Rule #23. This is where Joe would shine. All a person had to do is suggest something like this to Joe and he’d run with it. Sometimes for days. Here are some Rule #23s I imagine when I think about Joe–

- Rule #23: To see if your story is working, tell it backwards, from end to beginning.
- Rule #23: Every character should be performed as if it’s a Best Supporting Actor role.
- Rule #23: Present your scenes in gibberish and pantomime to see if the emotional content of the scene gets clearly conveyed.
- Rule #23: Begin an original story with the conclusion of another story.

And I can’t imagine that Joe would have missed Rule #23s like–

- Rule #23: Ask WWWWD (What Would Willy Wonka Do? Or What Would Walter White Do? Or call random people in the phone book whose initials are “WW” and ask them what would they do.)
- Rule #23: To see how a character would walk up a flight of stairs, stage a Walking Up a Flight of Stairs contest. Everyone has to walk the winning walk for the rest of the day.
- Rule #23: CSI: Criminal Story Investigation: What have you done, you sick bastard?!!! Confess your story!

And finally–

- Rule #23: There are no Rules except Rule #23.

This is all really important to keep in mind as you create your stories; rules are often accumulated wisdom from generations of people learning what works and what doesn't.  But in a creative field, sticking only to the rules is staid and boring.

I was lucky enough recently to have lunch with Andy Crouch whose excellent book Culture Making is worth reading by anyone.  We began discussing stories and frameworks.  He had mentioned that before making any good creative endeavor, a creator must know what came before.  A filmmaker must have a knowledge of film language, a musician must have an understanding of music that has come before, etc.  Only by knowing the rules that have been developed can an artist truly break them in a new and innovative way. Take Picasso, for example.  The entire Cubism movement was born out of Picasso's deep knowledge of his predecessors and the principles of painting.  He learned to break the rules in an purposeful way.  But he learned how to sketch and paint in the classical manner first.  Did you know that the following were done by Picasso?

In a similar way, anyone telling a story should have an idea of what classic story structure entails.  Why do we have three acts?  Why are there character archetypes?  Now, how do you meld, edit, and transform them?  That's what has truly made so much of Pixar so excellent (Andy Crouch, in fact, mentioned how in Ratatouille, Anton Ego is not defeated, as a typical story would require.  Instead, he's made an ally and a patron, not only defeated, but redeemed by Remy.  Knowledgeable rule-breaking!)

So use Emma's 22 "Rules".  Use the classic structures.  Watch movies, read books.  All that.  And be like Joe Ranft!

P.S. Here's a beautiful tribute to Joe that's been around for years but I recently found.

Best Friends

A dog named Bella and an elephant named Bubbles are best friends.  This just seemed like important news to post.  I hope one doesn't squish the other on accident.

Poseidon (or Neptune?)

I just finished reading one of the Percy Jackson books (Mark of Athena) in preparation for the next one coming out.  Then, I was doing some reading in the Odyssey, because it's an awesome story.  It made me think of how unpleasant it would be to have a god pitted against you, especially if it were the sea god and you were, you know, on the sea, like Odysseus and his men.

So I came up with a character design for Poseidon.  He's got some barnacles, a kelp beard, and a trident that's made of pieces of an old dock.  He also has tattoos which are based on designs found in Minoan paintings.  This is not a guy you want to have mad at you.

sketch

colors

scene and color adjustment

Hey, It's Been a Long Time!

Well, howdy, folks!  It's been a long time since I last blogged...I didn't realize it's been since June!  Life is crazy like that.  Before you know it, it's suddenly autumn.  We've already made a pie, watched a football game, and been all over the world since I last wrote!  From France to England to Sweden to Disney World, it's been a whirlwind two months.  Highlights include:

• eating croissants in the Luxembourg Gardens
• wandering random Parisian streets
• happening upon a Mass at Notre Dame
• driving through Devon and Somerset
• discovering the graves of Emily's great-great-great-grandmother/father in a little churchyard in southwest England
• enjoying the history of Bath
• hiking in Dartmoor National Park
• having lots of fikas with friends in Stockholm
• eating Swedish meatballs and reindeer
• Skansen!
• quality time with family throughout Disney World, including a wonderful lunch with my grandma and grandpa at the Coral Reef restaurant in Epcot
• seeing the new Be Our Guest restaurant and Fantasyland expansion

I'm happy to be back, but incredibly grateful for family, friends, and the ability to see and experience so many incredible things!

Here's the clan at Disney...what a good looking group!

And here's me, happy to be at Disney.  I love that place so much.

Smoky Mountains

I just returned from a delightful trip to the Smoky Mountains with my mom's family.  The mountains are gorgeous this time of year, and we had some fun experiences, including a five mile hike in the middle of a deluge where we lost the trail and a bear encounter in Cades Cove.  The bear we saw was in the middle of a meadow and crossed in front of my uncle's van, just a few yards away.  It got me thinking...what would happen if you were all alone on one of those trails and happened upon a bear?

Remembering D-Day

Taken from the internet:

You know what I did this morning? Maybe it would be better if I told you what I didn't do this morning.

I didn't have to spend over 12 hours on a transport ship in choppy water, then clamber down a cargo net into a plywood landing craft, all while carrying up to 100 pounds of gear on my back. Then, I didn't ride through the rough surf in that little plywood target, only to have the steel ramp (the only part of the little plywood boat that was even remotely bullet-resistant) flop down and drop me into the cold ocean water in front of a beach filled with steel obstacles, mines, flying bullets & exploding artillery rounds.

I didn't fly over enemy occupied territory at 1000 feet in a C47 cargo plane and then jump out of the plane into the teeth of enemy anti-aircraft fire. I didn't have to worry about my bright white silk parachute making me a good target for troops on the ground who wanted to use me for target practice, and after I landed, I didn't have to worry about engaging a vastly superior force with only the gear I carried with me (providing that said gear wasn't ripped off by the turbulence I encountered exiting the plane) with whoever I could gather together from the other troops dropped behind enemy lines the same as I was.
I didn't march into a plywood glider (PLYWOOD, as we've already established, is NOT very resistant to gunfire and explosions) and sit quietly while I was towed into anti-aircraft fire, only to be released and experience a controlled crash into trees, buildings or apparently open fields that were booby trapped with wooden poles and steel cables by the enemy. 

I wasn't asked to take my place in a McGyvered together amphibious tank, where I would most likely be swamped by the waves and sink to the bottom of the English Channel like....well, like a tank rigged for amphibious operations with lumber and canvas. And if I DID happen to get to the beach, I would have been the prime target of every enemy artillery piece for miles around. 

I wasn't asked to sit in a command bunker deep beneath London looking at casualty projections that predicted that we would lose 60% of the airborne troops committed to this battle and a good chunk of the troops storming the beaches, and I also didn't prepare a letter taking full blame for the possible disaster in order to protect my political leaders. 

You know what? Now that I've told you what I DIDN'T do this morning, what I actually DID seems pretty freakin' trivial. Veterans of the Normandy landing are becoming scarce now that we're sixty-five years down the road from that horrible day, but if you know one of them, make sure to thank them on this day. And don't limit yourself to D-Day vets - whether it was Normandy, Okinawa, the Chosin Reservoir, the Tet Offensive, Grenada, Panama, Mogadishu, Fallujah, or just some godforsaken mountain road at the ass-end of Afghanistan, EVERYONE who served this country in uniform deserves a hearty handshake and our everlasting gratitude on this day.

Many of them were 18 or 19 years old...barely even adults.

And here's Reagan's speech for the 40th anniversary.  Whether you love, despise, or are indifferent to Reagan, this is an unbelievable speech.

Some Singin' Ladies

Last weekend, a group of ladies from a sister congregation came and sang at our church.  They had great character and came in such different shapes and sizes, so I decided to draw them up.

A Color/Composition Study

It's a killer whale attacking an otter, all dramatically and stuff.  Kind of a followup to this one.

On a totally different note, apparently Alabama is the last state in the union where homebrewing is illegal.  I had no idea!  The legislature just passed a bill to legalize it, and I think the governor is expected to probably sign it (he hasn't committed though).  I was planning on brewing up a batch this weekend anyway, but now I'll do it in solidarity with the new Dixie brewers.

Cactuses

Arizona inspired me to draw a bunch of cactuses.  There were so many cool and weird ones out there!