Holy Popcorn Batman!!!

So it's Tuesday and Popcorn is back after a short break with more corny nonsense - enjoy...

John K Talk

So, last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Bristol Animated Encounters Festival. I was on a panel at the wonderful DepicT! competition and presented this year's Audience award. Good times! I also got a chance to see a talk by animation legend John K.

He talked a lot about his influences - particularly early animation, 1940s classics and 1940s live action acting. He also screened several shorts including Tex Avery's "Bad Luck Blackie" which I've included below. He here's a few o the notes I took away from that lecture...

On Cartoons

Animation works best when it does what live action cannot do

Cartoon vs Animation
Animation = to bring things to life
Cartoons = FUNNY drawings/animation

On His Influences

Tex Avery created contolled choas - there was always a well structed story underneath the cartoony mayhem - eg. Bad Luck Blackie (1949)



Bob Clampett had the cartoony craziness, but more importantly had characters with strong, identifiable personalities

Live action influences
- 1940s film noir acting had intensity eg Peter Lorre & Kirk Douglas
- 1950s - 1970s American sitcom acting for strong perosnalities eg All in the Family

1940s cartoon mayhem + 1940s intense acting + 1950s sitcom personalites = Ren & Stimpy!

More flippin' notebook doodles?

Yep, sorry about that. Still got lots of things going on with work and variuos projects, nothing I can blog I'm afraid, so it'll have to be some of my patented notebook doodles ...

Redecorating the studio....continued

Stale Popcorn

So this one is a bit late...and it's halloween themed....after halloween - so doubley late - I should be ashamed of myself...

Notebook Doodles

Apologies for the lack of Popcorn this week - I've been busy with work, writing scripts and preparing a 'guest lecture' for the Irish School of Animation tomorrow, so I'm afraid it's just a couple of sketchbook doodles this week. Tune in next week for another corny comic strip though...

Surprise Friday Post (its)

Brightening up the studio walls....

American popcorn

Fresh Tuesday Popcorn

Metal Popcorn

Tuesday pop corny goodness....

Introducing "Popcorn"....

So, as of today, the Tuesday Doodle will come in the form of "Popcorn" - a single panel cartoon featuring hopefully funny, but probably corny pop culture based gags.

Here's the first of what will hopefully be many!

Cheers,

Aidan

PS If you enjoy it please feel free to pass it on!

Tues-zilla

More Godzilla type poses from some upcoming nonsense...

More Notebook Nonsense

Here's a few more doodles that stalk the notebook corners.
PS Yes, I know it's Wednesday - I'm off to right 100 lines now - "I will not update the Tuesday Doodle on Wednesday"

Tales From Notebook Corners

An early morning Tuesday doodle this week with a few very doodly doodles from the far flung corners of my work notebooks. Usually filled with to do lists, retakes notes and scribbly "instructive" drawings for the animators, every so often a cartoon head will pop up....

More-zilla

A few more Godzilla type concepty doodles...

Tews Day Du Dle

More Tuesday nonsense of the slack jawed cowboy variety....

Godizillarrr!!

A couple of deisgns for a very short somethin somethin I'm working on at the moment. (Yes I'm also aware that it's Wednesday, but we still haven't got internet connected in the new place). Cheers

Late Tuesday Doodle

So it's Wednesday morning, not technically Tuesday, but I finished moving house yesterday, so that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it. I've also been pretty busy over the weekend, so now for your viewing pleasure I present a "classic" doddle I did a while back for a project about a kid who wants to be Elvis....

Toosday Doodlay

Nosferatu-y evilly doodle....

Doodleday....

No fancy wordy nonsense this week - ust scribbley doodly nonsense - normal service has been resumed...

The Tuesday... notes?

Last night I had the opportunity to see the new Pixar movie (Cars 2) and a Q&A with the wonderful John Lasseter, thanks to IFTA. So no doodle this week, instead here are a few notes I took on what Mr Pixar said.... Enjoy


John Lasseter Q & A Notes

On Storytelling

3 things for a great film
1) A compelling & unpredictable story
2) with memorable characters
3) in their own believable world

Trust the original idea & trust the process
- when boarding a sequence again and again – think of it like live action
“coverage” (shooting different angles)
- it's the only way to find out what works

Everything we do at Pixar serves the story

What is the 'emotion core' of the story

In sequels, never just tell the same story – always make it different

“Every Pixar film, at one point, looked like the worst movie ever made”


On the Business of Animation

Quality is the best business plan

A studio/company makes withdrawals and deposits with your audience – good movies
are deposits; bad movies are withdrawals – always have money in the bank


On Animation

What is the character thinking?
- 'Aiming' – character always anticipates by looking first then doing

In computer animation, you must respect the integrity of the material – you can
get away with more squash and stretch in 2D animation.

Photo copyright IFTA 2011