Friday, October 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Do me a favor.
OK I'm going to ask everyone to not bring up the political aspect of the Ren and Stimpy show from now on. I made the mistake of voicing my opinion. If I want to know what John thinks about things I will check out his blog. I'm really happy to discuss the art of cartooning and all that goes along with that.
Thanks.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Short cartoon writing tips!
OK, here are my ideas about writing a funny 11 minute TV cartoon.
Most important!
Know your characters and how they relate to one other. Take any great comedy team and you'll find that the humor is based on the personality of each character and the dynamics with the other characters.
When writing cartoons, do not exclude cartoonists from the process! Writers are great and all but they cannot draw a funny expression or work out the poses and timing necessary to make a funny cartoon. Believe it or not there are lots of really funny cartoonists that write funny too!
Imagine if writers wrote the great Termite Terrace 40's and 50's era Warners cartoons and Bob, Chuck and the boys were excluded from the process and forced to work from scripts.
Now I'm not dissing writers here. They are a huge important part of the industry and deserve as much credit and support as anybody on the crew. Unless they suck.
Use outlines and not scripts. This leaves the storyboard artist (who in my mind is really directing the artistic vision of the cartoon) room for his or her mind to work out the funniest gags for the cartoon and write dialogue that fits the gag not the other way around.
If you must use scripts then NEVER write more than 11 pages for an 11 minute cartoon.
A PAGE A MINUTE!
A PAGE A FUCKING MINUTE! OK?!
Do your self a favor and watch the funniest 7 or 11minute cartoons you can think of.
Watch each one over and over with a notepad and a stop watch. Note each sequence paying attention to it's purpose (like setup, gag, payoff etc.). Note the type of gags and how the comedy pays off. Is the reveal funny? How does timing make the joke work, or not.
You will begin to see patterns that are typical to an individual studio, director, story artist and animator. Watch old 2 reel shorts like Laurel and Hardy, the Stooges too. It's what I grew up watching and I learned so much about comedy from them,
When writing an 11 minute cartoon, don't get all wound up in plots, secondary plots and too many characters. This is no way to make a funny cartoon. Keep it simple! Avoid stereotypes and tired old ideas.
Come up with a funny idea. If the initial idea isn't funny then don't bother going forward with it.
Write down about 20 one line ideas.
Stimpy's invention- Stimpy is an inventor. His latest invention makes Ren really mad. Stimpy must invent a helmet that makes Ren happy against his nature.
Stimpy's Chicken- Stimpy falls in love with the chicken that he was preparing for Ren's dinner. He elopes with the chicken and Ren is tortured with Hunger and jealousy.
Now you get the four or five funniest bastards (who all have lists of one line ideas) into the same room and go at it coming up with gags and making quick sketches and laughing their asses off. We used to rent a suite at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood for a week and write the whole season. That was fun!
You have your idea for the cartoon. Now you go through all of the gags and lay them out eliminating the least funny. Start with the setup, put the best gags in order building to the funniest and ending in a ironic funny ending.
Set-up, series of gags, ironic pay-off.
Don't be satisfied with something that is only amusing keep bouncing ideas around until you are actually laughing outloud.
Type it up into about 3 or 4 pages and let the storyboard artist do his job.
Afterward it's good to pin up the board so the director can work on fine-tuning the gags with the other board artists helping out. Always be open to upping the comedy at every level. A funny board can be made ten times funnier by pushing character layoutout and animation. The acting and adlibs that the voice actor came up pushed the comedy again!
I hope these ideas help!
Most important!
Know your characters and how they relate to one other. Take any great comedy team and you'll find that the humor is based on the personality of each character and the dynamics with the other characters.
When writing cartoons, do not exclude cartoonists from the process! Writers are great and all but they cannot draw a funny expression or work out the poses and timing necessary to make a funny cartoon. Believe it or not there are lots of really funny cartoonists that write funny too!
Imagine if writers wrote the great Termite Terrace 40's and 50's era Warners cartoons and Bob, Chuck and the boys were excluded from the process and forced to work from scripts.
Now I'm not dissing writers here. They are a huge important part of the industry and deserve as much credit and support as anybody on the crew. Unless they suck.
Use outlines and not scripts. This leaves the storyboard artist (who in my mind is really directing the artistic vision of the cartoon) room for his or her mind to work out the funniest gags for the cartoon and write dialogue that fits the gag not the other way around.
If you must use scripts then NEVER write more than 11 pages for an 11 minute cartoon.
A PAGE A MINUTE!
A PAGE A FUCKING MINUTE! OK?!
Do your self a favor and watch the funniest 7 or 11minute cartoons you can think of.
Watch each one over and over with a notepad and a stop watch. Note each sequence paying attention to it's purpose (like setup, gag, payoff etc.). Note the type of gags and how the comedy pays off. Is the reveal funny? How does timing make the joke work, or not.
You will begin to see patterns that are typical to an individual studio, director, story artist and animator. Watch old 2 reel shorts like Laurel and Hardy, the Stooges too. It's what I grew up watching and I learned so much about comedy from them,
When writing an 11 minute cartoon, don't get all wound up in plots, secondary plots and too many characters. This is no way to make a funny cartoon. Keep it simple! Avoid stereotypes and tired old ideas.
Come up with a funny idea. If the initial idea isn't funny then don't bother going forward with it.
Write down about 20 one line ideas.
Stimpy's invention- Stimpy is an inventor. His latest invention makes Ren really mad. Stimpy must invent a helmet that makes Ren happy against his nature.
Stimpy's Chicken- Stimpy falls in love with the chicken that he was preparing for Ren's dinner. He elopes with the chicken and Ren is tortured with Hunger and jealousy.
Now you get the four or five funniest bastards (who all have lists of one line ideas) into the same room and go at it coming up with gags and making quick sketches and laughing their asses off. We used to rent a suite at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood for a week and write the whole season. That was fun!
You have your idea for the cartoon. Now you go through all of the gags and lay them out eliminating the least funny. Start with the setup, put the best gags in order building to the funniest and ending in a ironic funny ending.
Set-up, series of gags, ironic pay-off.
Don't be satisfied with something that is only amusing keep bouncing ideas around until you are actually laughing outloud.
Type it up into about 3 or 4 pages and let the storyboard artist do his job.
Afterward it's good to pin up the board so the director can work on fine-tuning the gags with the other board artists helping out. Always be open to upping the comedy at every level. A funny board can be made ten times funnier by pushing character layoutout and animation. The acting and adlibs that the voice actor came up pushed the comedy again!
I hope these ideas help!
Monday, August 3, 2009
The Real Ghost Busters
This group includes Michael Gross who was the producer on the show. He had been really sick with cancer so I did this get well card for him. I guess it worked because he fully recovered.
Notice me and Bruce Timm on the right of this crowd shot.
Here are some drawings I did as a designer on Ghost Busters for DIC.
I had a lot of fun on this job, working closly with
Bruce Timm, drawing monsters all day.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Rand Rawlins Robot Repairman
Here is a painting I did for My friend, director Jerry Rees, for a film project that sadly, never got made.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The wonderful world of Cobb!
You know, one of my favorite characters on Ren and Stimpy was Wilbur Cobb. He was voiced by the legendary Jack Carter. His name was based on the head writer at Nick, Will McRob. Nick didn't like Cobb but we squeezed him whenever we could and he always stole the show. Jim Gomez, Bill Wray and I were in love with Cobb. Even after the show was done Jim and I were dreaming up new adventures for the crusty old coot!
This was an anthology concept with Cobb as host. We wanted to build a full size puppet like this that would host and set up different stupid horror an suspence shorts about life in the wilds!
I will be digging through my old sketches and posting more Wilbur!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Conan detail
Here is a small detail of a splash page I just posted on my Comic Book Blog.
Go and check it out!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Grinch Movie Designs
Here are a couple of color concept sketches I did for the Grinch movie. I always wanted to build this taxi cab and drive it around in NYC
to see if I could get some fares.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Lucky Lydia
In answer to a query on my previous posting, here is something from Lucky Lydia a pilot I did with the amazing animator and director Arthur Filloy who was also a director on Ren and Stimpy.
Go to his blog to see more art and view a clip of the cartoon:
http://arthurfilloy.blogspot.com/
And check out his website:
http://www.hellyeahdesign.com/
If you like his stuff please let him know!
Enjoy!
Monday, May 4, 2009
To my friends..
Thanks for all of the kind comments from everybody on my art. I won't be able to post anything for a while as my G5 just went tits up. Until I get it fixed I'll be happy to answer questions about cartooning or whatever.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ren and Stimpy title cards
These are a few of the title cards for R&ST. I designed (drew)
most of the cards for the series including the fonts.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Gregon and Evo
Ex-KGB agents Gregon and Evo now work for the FCC.
With the aid of their obsolete Soviet surplus equiptment, these fearless
morons help keep America free from the evils of entertainment.
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