Vacation Leftovers

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Just a couple of doodley-doos documenting my last trip to the beach.

Fat Guy surfing.


Old guy surfing.


Mick was right. What a drag it is.

Sniff.

T

The Old Navy of animation

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I was reminded recently of something I recently told a fellow – a particularly penny-pinching pinhead who grilled me for over an hour trying to get a sack of gold for a sack of nickels.

At the limit of my patience, I said this: “We’re not Wal Mart – we’re more like Old Navy.”

Now, we work cheap, there’s no doubt about that. But we don’t have the resources, the cunning or the utter lack of ethics required to manipulate hard work out of desperate, hungry animators for a few coins and some lint – so we’re probably not the cheapest Studio. But we do aspire to making cartoons that aren’t revolting to watch… “great” would be nice, but we’ll take not revolting.

Much in the same way Old Navy clothes aren’t utterly revolting to look at.

Now you may have some kind of “fashion sense” or “style” that far exceeds mine (like that’s hard – I invented the Mullet) but in general, it seems Old Navy duds hold their own, as long as you’re not hanging out at Country Clubs or.. well any clubs.

And if you can’t afford to shop at uber-casual outlets like Banana Republic, or Tommy Hilfiger or Needless Markup (I’m looking at you, career animators), but you’re not willing to contribute to the slow painful death of America (by shopping at Wal Mart), Old Navy is much appreciated.

I like to think of Flinch as the Old Navy of animation. Mock me if you must, but have you seen their commercials? Not the old ones with the silly songs and the 80’s has-beens, the new, sexy ones with the pretty girls! And people talk about how sex sells… I don’t know if sex sells to me, but it makes me stop fast-forwarding for a few seconds.

And that’s exactly what we try to do, get you to stop fast forwarding for a few seconds – just apply that to whatever metaphor comes to mind. That’s our goal for now – to do that and get paid.

When we get some traction, we’ll be going for the JC Penny crown!

Character Cleanup

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Character Cleanup takes so damn long! I've been slaving away on these suckers for weeks! Here's a few of the Inspector McCloud characters in their presentable state:

Agent John Q. Public


E.S.D. Worker

Willie makes a guest appearance

As does McConaughey (not his first time appearing in this Blawg)

It's not just the initial poses and turns (turns - yeah right!), it's all the damn assets too. Eyes, mouths, arms, hands... kill me soon, please.

Here's the next batch I gotta do:


Next it's on to it's Hugh Grant, Jesssica Simpson, Sandy Cheeks... when does it end??

T

Air Travel

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Prolly not too legible, but...

Typical Air travel moment.

T

"Work-cation"

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Hi folks,

I'm writing from my vacation, or "work-cation" as I have so cleverly redubbed it (yeah, I'm not expecting an emmy nod for that one).

I'm holing up in this nice little time share with the rest of America's SOV crowd (Seniors on Vacation). Guess which unit is mine?



Got a visit from my good friend Kim. Here she is after one of our signature low-key surf sessions:


Working on vacation is obviously a bit limiting... it feels so primitive without my Cintiq, my scanner, my light table, my blasting music.... but one adapts. I'm doing all my character cleanup on my bulky laptop (I call it the lap-crusher) with a mini optical mouse. If I need something more hand-drawn, I'll draw it in my sketch pad, snap a photo, dump the image onto the laptop through the USB cable, then clean it up via mouse in Flash. Oh, and I have i-tunes for the blazing rock!


It's a little more difficult when you want to work outdoors. The first two nights here featured a spectacular full moon, so I was out on the grass patio in a deck chair cleaning up Chuck Norris' head. Though my moon-tan might suggest otherwise, there wasn't enough light to see the keyboard very well, so there will probably be a lot of mis-named assets.

I'm also using this trip to meet with a friend here who is gearing up to produce an autobiographical animated series taking place in Melbourne. We'll be snapping lots of photos today of this guy's world to take back to our icy caves and turn into pure entertainment gold. More on that later - hopefully.

Amid the sunshine and surfing are tons of little nuggets of inspiration. Here's one that had me tickled:

Didn't catch that? Let me zoom in for ya:


You see those damn birds? What a poop-storm that must be! I can't wait to work that into a cartoon.

While I'm gone, the Family back at Flinch is keeping the artistic vibe flowing:

Charlie has a morning rendezvous with a dishy Waffle Lady!

More to come -

T

I Got Bugs!

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Follow-up to my Bugs Bunny Post: After lodging a serious complaint to the deaf-o-shpere about the dearth of Bugs Bunny on Cartoon Network, They go and run a Looney Tunes Marathon on New Years Day, which was quickly rushed out the back door of my TIVO by a flood of Daily Show reruns.

But not to worry, because my good buddy Sean sent me - I mean sent my son - a fully loaded collection of Looney Tunes on DVD. My boy went crazy!

I don't know what made me more excited, the gift or the fact that he's reading my blog.

Thanks Buddy!

T

Wall E - The E is for Muy Exellente!

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Like most animation geeks and/or Pixar Fans, I saw Wall E when it came to theaters last summer. I enjoyed it (as much as someone can while in full parent mode ), but I can't say I truly appreciated it for the stellar piece of filmmaking it is!

I'm not just talking about the much publicized message - that Convenience will one day destroy everything we love and force us to grow fat & plug into the matrix - it's just a damn well made film!


As soon as it was released, it was almost completely overshadowed by paranoid accusations from the right wing that is was a bunch of liberal preaching wrapped up in a cute kids movie (how preserving our quality of life became partisan I do not know). They even tried to make roaches cute, those bleeding hearts!!


Not the first Pixar film to have a political agenda hung around its neck - The Incredibles was perceived by many to be a statement that government bureaucracy was impeding on exceptional peoples' ability to do their best. 3D Socialism!

Oh, and Spongebob is Patrick's gay lover.


Pixar just plain makes awesome movies (though they pushed their luck with Cars). The technology and the inconceivably tight attention to detail & quality has made them so much fun just to look at that you could turn down the sound and enjoy them! And that's just what I had to do the other day, pretending to do adult stuff during a dinner party while the Wall E DVD was playing in my line of site from the next room - I was enthralled.


Even without the message, the amazing imagery, or the big budget thrills - in terms of just pure storytelling - this movie rocks my bones! The characters are so rich and expressive, the plot evolves effortlessly but with palatable twists and turns, and the imagination that moves the story forward - none of these things rely on giant budgets (respectable ones, yes).



In the end, Wall E is a really great love story with robots... robots that play out some pretty interesting gender role twists. There's also a lot of action, visual gags, and liquified food. Best of all, they worked the Haliburton Logo into the branding for Big & Large, the offending corporate giant behind the species' sedation.


Okay, maybe it's a little political ;)



T

Inspector McCloud Part 3: Script & Recording

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One of the most thrilling aspects to the Inspector McCloud project (for me) is the way it was written.

David Knoell as Burnt Ciggy and Agent John Q Public

Though I had developed a basic story outline to work from, Inspector McCloud’s script was Quasi-Improvised by the voice talent. Incorporating improvisation into the voice mix is nothing new, but we actually wrote most of the dialogue on the spot, as a group, and over-packed the tiny recording booth to lay it down in groups - which explains the less-than-stellar audio quality (something I do not usually allow, but the results are worth it in this case).

Daniel Cohen Plays Dirty Diaper Dan

The McCloud cast consists of a handful of scalawags from the Central Florida area who work in one part of this industry or another. Many of these guys were SAK improv folks who had been working with me since Popped Culture Theater back in 2005.

Chrissy Keihl as Lucy Litter

For several years, we had been discussing the idea of doing an improvised animation piece – just a handful of people in a room knocking out funny ideas and then running into the booth to serve them up while they’re warm. Problem is, once the recording is done, I get to slave over the animation for weeks while everyone goes on with their lives. Inspector McCloud gave me the opportunity to get paid to do it.

Steve Grogan as Tommy Treadless Tire

Because of their enormous contribution to the development of the characters and scenes, the voice artists (David Knoell, Jim Acamondo, Autumn Alexander, Steve Grogan, Daniel Cohen and Chrissy Keihl) have also earned writing credits.The show truly would not be been the same without them.

Jim Acamondo plays Oil Slick Willie

Along with my brothers Jerry and Stephen Grillo, the cast helped to shape the characters and the sequences as they will ultimately play out. Again, you may see this sort of thing going on a lot within certain creative circles, but for a small, work-for-hire studio like ours, it was a special treat to have a client remain open to this process.

And John is an awesome client. He understands the limitations of our budget, and has given me enough rope – er, I mean room to build it the way I want to. One of the best decisions I made was to bring this group of very talented people on board to help shape the script. Not only did they remain focused on the elements that would bring the characters forward and tell the story, but they brought some amazing voices to the piece.

Autumn Alexander in Yellow-face...

...and fish face.

As improv artists and live interactive show professionals, most of these guys were able to give me several options to work with. I myself prefer to write my lines out so I know what I'm going to say - but when you're in the room with folks like Chriss, Autumn, Daniel, David & Steve, the ideas just bubble up like bad gas! Hopefully, the final product smells just as sweet!

Stay Tooned,

Me

A Holiday Cartoon

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I drew this single-panel cartoon to celebrate the holiday and the new year. It was written mostly by my 6-year-old son, who just cracks me up sometimes.


The problem is, nobody got it. Not my son's fault, he was a hoot saying that line "Egg Here, Egg Nog, a play on McCain's "Drill Here, Drill Now" mantra that earned he and Alaska Barbie so many donations from Big Oil.

It was my execution and, primarily, my assumption that everyone was as immersed in the McCain campaign as I was (what with making cartoons about the man all summer) that killed the joke.

If you haven't heard him say it, here's one example:




Single panel is hard, but that is no excuse. Being tired and drunk when I did it - that is a fine excuse. Still, I think the concept of a "Big Nog" is hilarious (that was my wife's... come to think of it, what the hell do I do around here?).

T

Inspector McCloud Part 2: Travel & Research

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To kick off the Inspector McCloud Gig, I arranged a trip to the city where it all takes place: Laredo Texas.

Research is a major part of project development, and most of the time you can get away with what Google has to offer… but Laredo is practically a main character in this story, and I knew I wasn’t going to get the same results from a series of crappy photos of the main tourist attractions.

I love travel, I just hate the traveling part. But seeing other parts of the country (and world) is awesome, even when it’s for business.

I really don’t care about driving a sweet car. This is not a lie. I like comfort, pep, and a sweet CD player if I can get them, but I’m just happy if it doesn’t break down between the airport and the first taco stand I see. Sexy body design means nothing. Cars should not be chick magnets.

That said, check out the sweet car they rented to me when I was in Laredo!

It’s some kind of mustang, I believe.

I don’t know what mistake led to this free upgrade from a Ford Fiesta, but I was apparently the first customer to drive it, and didn’t have to pay for it (unless you count the bruises I got on my knees every time I got out of the cramped cockpit).

Coming to Laredo was a fun and educational experience, and not even remotely a waste of time. I derive much of my story inspiration from locations for some reason, so it helps to have been there and know the zone I’m writing about, whether on not I am representing it successfully.

My client, John, was kind enough to take time off to show me around town, to all of the battle fronts where the Stormwater war is being waged. He also gave me a pretty thick history lesson on Laredo. I don’t want to get too deep into Laredo trivia – there’s too much history and info to do it any justice. Suffice to say that Laredo and Nuevo Laredo are international sister cities, and it’s hard to spend time in Laredo without being tempted across that border to see how the wild half lives.

One of my goals for this trip was to get a couple of voice references for Inspector McCloud. Because I wanted to nail the border-town Mexican accent, I had planned to get the appropriate people to speak to my camera somehow… but I am unfortunately shy about asking strangers for such performances.

In my last few hours however, I walked into a local history museum and found that he curator had exactly the voice I imagined for Inspector McCloud. I managed to coax him into giving me the rundown on some key local historical figures (a couple of the Zapata boys among them) while I videotaped him. Under the pretext of consuming a history lesson, I got the voice reference I was looking for.

Another goal was to snap tons of photos. I knew that our story would evolve, and I wanted to make sure I was covering every angle. Here are some images that help contribute to our look and our story:

When you’re afflicted with whatever condition causes me to be a scatterbrain, you have to come to terms with the fact that, no matter how many checklists you make, you will forget something important. When the time came to depict the Environmental Services Department building, the HQ of Inspector McCloud, I realized I had not taken a single photo of the place, despite having been there 3 times. Not really a serious problem as long as you don’t plan on using establishing shots. Which would be stupid.

Thank God for Google Street view, and the army of camera-laden vehicles they must have been sending out over the last year. This is one of the photos I was able to download from Google Maps:

And here’s the rough BG rough that came from it.

Now it's on to production! Next time around, I’ll talk a little bit about the writing & Voice recording process.

T

The Spongebob Channel

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It's official: Nickelodeon has become the Spongebob channel. Have you seen the lineup? It's the Spongebob Christmas special followed by 2 Spongebobs, followed by a Spongebob Marathon.

And rightfully so, I suppose. Has there been a kids TV show more A-A-A-A-Awesome in the last 10 years than Spongebob?

You can argue otherwise, I won’t engage you sir, but it’s no wonder Spongebob is now to Nickelodeon what Homer Simpson has been to Fox for 18 years and counting: the flagship show. Upon the realization, I was inspired to create this abomination:

Still, it’s a little unnerving. What's really sick is that I'm almost always tempted to watch it. Damn little sponge is just so much fun to watch, and it's not like my kid would ever steer me away to something more... substantial. Thank god for the wife.

You may remember this particular by-product of my obsession.

The question is this: how many more episodes of Spongebob will need to be produced before Nick can realistically fill their programming schedule with nonstop Spongebob? And would we need to give Sandy her own spin-off to help fill the slate? And would that show any good?

You don't have to think about it if you don't want to. I will be focusing on it intently enough for us all.

T