nothing makes me happier than seeing people make whatever niche art they want to make, ignoring the demands/pressures of algorithms and just doing their stuff on their own terms as if it were still 2005 on the internet
there's so much Masaaki Yuasa-animated gold buried in the Shin-chan TV series. sorry for doing a thread of gifs but I gotta share this stuff. (all from special 20)
Crayon Shin-Chan developed a unique filmmaking style to solve the issue of framing adults with tiny children in the same shot: lots of extreme high and low angles, and pushing characters way into the foreground or distance.
It didn't even occur to me that Akira Toriyama could die, it literally never occured to me. He just seemed like some kind of omnipotent universal manga god. He redefined my understanding of storytelling, character and cartooning. RIP. Really sad.
Netflix did to animation what Uber did to taxis. they pumped in absurd amounts of money to disrupt everything & pretend to be successful. once everyone pivoted to follow their lead, they revealed it never worked & they were losing money all along, leaving everything in shambles.
Oops I'm late on this but I did a tiny bit of rough animation for Smiling Friends! This bit where Charlie is drunk in s2e4. Such an honour to contribute to one of the funniest most creatively exciting shows on TV! Thanks so much
@psychicpebble
for bringing me in!
look I'd take Ghibli over Pixar any day, but people are clowning on this as if Docter's question is ridiculous. the idea of considering the viewer while you're making a film isn't some shameful sign of a hack, it's a pretty reasonable concern for two filmmakers to discuss.
Pixar CCO Pete Docter asked Hayao Miyazaki, “When do you make changes for you and when do you make changes for the audience?” during the INSIDE OUT 2 press tour.
Miyazaki replied, “I never think about the audience.”
😭😭😭
#D23
small piece of good news: Tuca & Bertie season 2 is finally on HBO Max. I was the supervising director this season and thought it would be fun to share some of the notes I made for the storyboarders
can you imagine thinking this kind of shit is the only way to tell a joke without the visuals getting in the way of the writing?
congratulations you are now ready to showrun 75% of adult animation
The quote doesn't surprise me, but it's still an incredibly dim view of what artists do. To see the visual side as interchangeable mush to slather under your precious verbal jokes is to not at all comprehend the strengths or potential of the medium you work in.
Studio worship is weird to me because they're literally just collections of whoever's currently there. There's no inherent magic or legacy beyond the people on the payroll. The place that made your favourite show years ago could be totally different now because of staff turnover.
the filmbro who likes weird artsy movies but when asked about animation "oh yeah I'm into some pretty weird obscure cartoons too. ever heard of Spirited Away?"
god, it boggles my mind how much money gets wasted in the animation industry on bad decisions by people in charge who don't know what they want, how to achieve it or how to communicate it
Depending on your country, here's another chance to see the best movie ever (MIND GAME) for free! It changed my whole approach to animation and film. Also very smart of 4C to just give the movie away for a while in places where it doesn't currently have a licensing deal.
"Mind Game" animated movie by Masaaki Yuasa is back again on Youtube for free in 191 countries (and with 20 languages/subs) until June 17, thanks to
@STUDIO4C
.
>>
(except in North/South America, UK, Japan, Spain, Australia...).
Still sad about losing Tuca and Bertie. We really had a lot of fun on that show (at every stage of production, which is rare!) I hope this isn't the end of it.
people on the fence about dall-e and AI art don't seem to understand that it's not even like there could *maybe* be unfortunate side effects for art industries-- it is explicitly designed with an anti-artist ethos
Elon Musk is one of the founders of OpenAI, creators of DALL·E. They poured a billion dollars into pushing us towards a future of automated art built off the backs of countless artists who will never benefit from it.
It's rare for adult cartoons to have a cohesive visual style designed by an actual artist without excessive meddling. Here are some that I think look pretty good, where the art complements and elevates the writing (as it should).
Sublo and Tangy Mustard season 3 episode 3 NIGHTCLUB is officially out! here's a scene from it, you can find the whole episode in the follow-up tweet below!
Here's a shot from the new Sublo and Tangy Mustard episode. I faked a 3D effect in Flash using flat planes skewing & pinching as they scale. I know After-Effects/ Maya can do this easier but I don't know them as well & I want it to all feel cohesive. I also made the lines boil.
holy shit, it's hard to believe TV animation this good was happening while at the same time on the other side of the planet, Hanna-Barbera acted like the only thing you could possibly do with TV budgets was heads bobbing smoothly up and down while nothing else moved
arthur & the square knights of the round table (1966)
animator(s): unknown
australian show directed by zoran janjic, former zagreb animator and later head of hanna-barbera's australian division. and what wild animation! did zoran bring that style? more research is clearly needed
smh at people telling the crews whose shows got killed "just go indie!" as if they can just flip a switch & keep doing the same project (that WB owns)
very few people can make it work independently, I've been trying for 6 years & still gotta do industry jobs most of the time
Watch the trailer of "Esther", the first animated series project by
@RudoCompany
(Argentina). Created and directed by Ezequiel Torres
@eze_torr3s
.
Full video >>
Just to clarify since there's misinformation flying around online-- it was already decided (by who I don't know) that Bojack season 6 would be the end long before the crew joined the union. Also emphasis on JOINED the union that every other US Netflix cartoon was already in.
Enjoy "Mind Game" animated movie / masterpiece by Masaaki Yuasa for free on Youtube (with english subs) in 191 countries until December 11th, thanks to
@STUDIO4C
.
>>
(not available in North/South America, UK, Japan, Spain, Australia...).
hey here's a little promo for Tuca and Bertie season 2, animated by yours truly! it's REAL! it's happening! get hyped! it's so nice animating these characters again LET'S GOOOOOOO
trailer for the next episode of my indie cartoon Sublo and Tangy Mustard "Nightclub”! gonna do a youtube premiere Saturday April 22 at 12pm (noon) EST/ 9am PST if you want to come watch it live!
check it out, one of the most pivotal moments in anime history at the screening it was created for, with the original audience "WHOOOAAAA"s every ten seconds
I no longer feel anything about reboots/revivals. oh, of course they brought it back. of course it'll be kind of similar but missing key people who made the original good. of course everybody will look, sound & act a little off.
if you see an interview with a writer-creator of an animated show and their big insight about animation is some shit like "the exciting part about animation is you can do anything, you can even put your characters on the moon hahaha" turn and RUN
This is a big pet peeve. If you're working in animation, don't design for illustration! Simpler designs result in better animation-- fact, not opinion! This is a hill I'll die on! Does a shirt need 20 stripes? 5 stripes still reads as "a striped shirt," if that's so important.
I think so many revivals fail because audiences smell the insincerity (consciously or not) - the original show is treated as a contemptible flawed work to be remedied, when the whole point is ostensibly that people still love it and want more of it
one of the big early selling points of streaming was the 'long tail'-- you can have a bunch of niche stuff that may not get tons of views, but if you have some for everyone it's ok. somehow it went from that to "not only will we not make niche stuff, we'll actively delete it."
so many times I've been told a TV episode is great because it approaches some complex issue in a nuanced way and then the dialogue is literally just stuff like "this issue is complex and we have to approach it in a nuanced way"
man people are really still obsessed with the whole on-model/off-model thing huh, I thought the internet collectively learned ages ago that distortion is part of animation and can be used deliberately for effect
I don't talk much about my day job here, but the
@BoJackHorseman
crew has been trying to unionize for a while. We're one of the only non-union
@netflix
cartoons, maybe since it was seen as a risky show back in 2013 (of course the writers & VOs were always union!)
#unionizebojack
hey
#IndieAnimationDay
check out my show Sublo and Tangy Mustard! it's 2 dumb friends who work as costumed mascots in Toronto along with their coworker, boss, roommate etc. I animate it all myself. been going for years. lots of episodes, all on youtube/ newgrounds, link in bio.
LRT: I see a growing aversion to criticism of any kind online. "Why would you review something you don't like" is an insane attitude. Also "don't say anything bad about it, people worked hard on it." How can you engage with anything if they can only speak in absolute positivity?
Can't count how many times I've said I'm not interested in A I art, but people keep showing it to me going "ok but what about THIS one?!" I'm sure it can replicate basically any look, I just don't care. A drawing that was drawn by nobody means nothing to me.
Uggh this is cool but it's not storyboarding, this is pre-vis or even just key animation. Everything before "final picture lock" isn't fucking storyboarding.
A battle between costumed performers goes off-script -- classic animation from China
From: Scatterbrain and Crosspatch (1962), dir. Zhang Songlin, Shanghai Film Academy
It's great to see animation twitter people talking about how the pandemic is making them rethink their relationship with the industry. It's a series of short-term day jobs, not your whole life or identity! Expecting it to fill that role will usually leads to disappointment.
seriously I love On-Gaku, it's easily one of my favourite animated films! so unique in its pacing, art style, and sound design. also genuinely hilarious.
a big lesson I've learned in animation is that directing/ leading a team is a whole separate set of skills from the creative side. that managerial aspect is crucial to a good work environment and I feel like nobody tells you that until you're actually doing it.
Typically in western cartoons these shots are reserved for intense dramatic moments. Casual isometric angles are more common in anime anyway, but right from the start Shin-chan pushed it to extremes out of necessity. Great use of the 4:3 frame.
this promo was the first thing I did when the show was re-greenlit back in 2020! it was a really short turnaround so I had a lot of freedom animating it. I miss working on this show!
Chris Rose, VP of production and development for kids and family at Paramount International, on launching original IPs vs. launching new content based on existing IP (such as
#SpongeBob
).
#Nickelodeon
Also the spicy chips walk in episode 2 is not a reference to anything, except Bertie's hunger for spicy chips. (I just like animating weird walks and dances)
tons of "lol lazy animators" replies but this would've required careful planning in 1985. NOT an easy way to fill time. brilliantly crafted and the fact that 26k+ people like it decades later (despite Family Guy running this kind of joke into the ground) means they succeeded.
People on reddit are debating which cartoon the weird walks in my
@tucaandbertie
intro were a reference to... Hey Arnold? Ghostbusters? Spongebob? turns out the answer is NONE of those! Characters walking down the street isn't specific to any show!
I make a show called Sublo and Tangy Mustard about two friends who work as mascots and have to wear their suits 24/7. The show also follows their co-worker Katy, Sublo's roommate Tito & their boss Dick Wubhamer. currently on season 3. patreon+show link in bio!
#IndieAnimationDay
New trailer for Tuca & Bertie season 2! I'm supervising director this season & you can see some little wiggly bits I animated here. It's been a lot of fun working with this amazing crew. We're currently scrambling to get it all finished... or as close as possible before it airs!
This is so wrong it makes my head spin. You hear this stuff all the time from animation showrunners who have never drawn a stick figure. They love to assert how easy it is to infinitely redo things in animation, it's so great how nothing ever has to be "locked" etc.
Digital animation allows perfectionist tendencies to run rampant compared to traditional, which can obviously be revised too but less easily. I think at every level it's important not to miss the forest for the trees and be caught up in endless iteration & nitpicking.
@aalong64
Bojack Horseman is one of the greatest adult animated shows of all time and Raphael Bob-Waksberg had never worked on any tv shows before creating it.
This movement isn't technically perfect but what it's aiming for is much more interesting to me. The head tilt back is exactly what I love about Yuasa's animation (and directing), he's willing to risk being awkward/ 'unappealing' to break out of cliche and get something more real