Donald Duck is funny

Donald always has bad stuff happen to him. He's picked on, taunted...his tail's always getting smacked or mistreated...and yet we laugh at him. He's one of the few Disney characters that we route against in a fun way, and yet he's likable. Ask most people who their favorite Disney character is (fighting off the Disney conditioning that wants them to say MICKEY), I bet most of them would say Donald. Is it easier to laugh at his misfortunes because he's so angry all the time? Sometimes he shows a softer side, but we all like him when he's waving his fist ready to give it to'em.

Anyway, think on that, and watch these classic Donald Duck cartoons :)

Donald Applecore (1952)


I always wondered about the "Applecore" joke in this. Wikipedia says it was a schoolyard game...how sweet!

This one won't allow embedding for some reason:
--> Bee at the Beach (1950)

Note that these are a full 15 years later than the cartoons I posted yesterday. It's interesting to see Donald's design morph over the years.

When Cartoons were Funny to Watch

Cartoons have always been good for a laugh, and still are. But there was a time when they were also funny to watch. I've been watching a lot of old Disney cartoons from the 30s as of late, mainly to admire the drawing and animation that went into all these great films. Man, some GREAT drawing. But seriously, you could watch these with the sound turned down, and still be just as amused. WHAT HAPPENED? Sure, a lot of the humor is in visual gags, but dialogue and writing have definitely stolen the attention in most contemporary animation. Where scripts trump storyboards. My guess is that funny writing is cheaper to create than funny animation. But if enough people demand it, the studios would bring it back. We've been lulled into talking heads delivering the goods (if there are any goods at all).

Anyway, here are 3 Disney Cartoons featuring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. It's weird that we have to be reminded that Disney actually made really funny cartoons at one time. Even funnier to see a Mickey with a bit of a temper. If you click on the arrow in the corner of the YouTube window, you can select HQ and watch them in higher quality (a new feature I recently discovered).

The Band Concert (1935)


Moving Day (1936)


Mickey's Circus (1936)

Craig McCracken on deviantArt

Look what I found!

--> Craig's deviantArt page

Tons of goodies and sketches to look at. It appears to be mostly drawn in Flash.


A Foster's Home comic:


Here's also a great interview with Craig about the Powerpuff Girls on ColdHardFlash.

FlashTip #1: Drawing with a Brush

Greetings Creative Juicers! Over the next couple weeks I'll be doing Flash tips and tutorials over at my blog, Drip!. The first post is a walkthrough on how to unlock the power of the Brush tool in Flash.

-->View here

Secretary of the Arts?

I was looking through 'causes' on facebook- and noted a petition to send (soon to be) president Barack. It was for a "secretary of the Arts" position.
I was wondering what other folks thought was on this.
My initial reaction was "oh hey cool! maybe we'd definetly ensure arts in public schools that way!" But with a little more thought I became skeptical. There is a lot at stake when talking about individuals intellectual properties. Who's to say that whomever that secretary would be wouldn't wake up one morning deciding that any art created in the us, belongs to the government and not the artist themselves. I know that is a bit of a stretch since that would cause quite an uproar, but it is a feasibility. It would be almost like there was an official art director of the US, and what if you don't agree with them. At least if you don't agree with the other officials you can express that in your art. I'd fear whomever that secretary was would be rating each artist- and that's not the point of art. I'd rather be able to express myself without worrying it wasn't good enough (goodness knows artists do that anyways!)
I do see how my fears could be slightly irrational, but at the same time I think they're ones to give serious consideration to. What if there were a board judging arts the same way teachers and doctors are judged. Granted I think the later is needed because of the affects a bad teacher and doctor can have on a person, yet I worry about art being censored completley.
What do you guys think?

Lorelay Bove

Once in awhile we like to feature standout artists at Creative Juices. Today I'd like to call your attention to Lorelay Bove, an amazing character animator/background artist from Cal Arts, now working for Pixar. Here is her blog ("must-subscribe" material!).


Her style evokes Mary Blair (that's a compliment), and she's definitely on to something very unique and provocative. I admire her approach to color more than anything else. It goes back to something I've said before: don't be limited to naturalistic color. Her backgrounds perfectly frame the characters within them. Her staging and composition--outstanding! Both playful, and clever in their design.

Here is a Degas inspired piece I really like of hers:


And here is her student film from Cal Arts. Pay special attention to how seamless the interaction and play is between character and background. They were conceived as one visual statement, which dances along with the music.

Siren's Song (2007)



There is so much to admire in her work. I can't wait to see more!

Antic/Settle Abuses in Flash Animation

I'm gonna share a bit of wisdom/humor from "Bitter Animator" via a post reassembled on Flooby Nooby.

Here goes:

The Antic/Settle Abuse System

a) Antic. Take Pose 1. Stretch or squash slightly for anticipation (just move away from Pose 2 like it has the plague).

b) Sweep. Create sweep image that is somewhere roughly between Pose 1 and Pose 2. It doesn't matter if pieces are all over the place, you're only going to show this for one frame and nobody will ever see it.

c) Overshoot. Squash or stretch Pose 2 to overshoot the animation (just move your animation away from Pose 1 this time).

d) Hit Pose 2. Bounce up into Pose 2 proper. This is the settle.

e) Wobble. Move random piece. Hair perhaps. Doesn't really matter - just move something and let's say it's secondary action.

Use this system no matter what the mood is, action is, expression is.

-----

A further statement on "cheap" Flash animation:

-----

"You have one goal when animating in Flash for broadcast. To tell the story? No, that's what the writer is for. To convey emotion? What are you, some kind of poncy method actor?! No, the one true goal of broadcast Flash animation is to hide the symbol changes. That's it...This is the top way to animate in Flash."

-----

Anyway...good for a laugh, but definitely a ton of truth to it. Lets make sure as we continue to use Flash that we don't fall into any of these mindless traps and shortcuts! :)

For more rants, go directly to the source: the Bitter Animator's My Medicated Cartoon Life blog.

Special thanks to Ron at Flooby Nooby for calling our attention to it.

Painting on the iPhone

I just saw this on Drawn! and had to pass it along to anyone who might have missed it.

"Disney artist, Stef Kardos, is posting iPhone sketches to his Flickr page. The miniature digital paintings were done on-site using the Brushes iPhone app."

The real kicker is this video. Who would've thought you could legitimately paint on a phone?? Quite impressive.



Oh...and HAPPY NEW YEAR from all of us at Creative Juices!

Backgrounds from Paul Bunyan (1958)

via Animation Backgrounds

As some of you might already know internally, Allie and I have been pushing the boundaries on background stylings in some of the short animations we're working on. I was taken by a bunch of backgrounds Rob Richards posted over at Animation Backgrounds yesterday, from Disney's Paul Bunyan. Be sure to hop over to his blog to see all of them. They are credited to Walt Peregoy, who was likely influenced by the more modern approach used in Sleeping Beauty.




The two biggest things to note for me: color and space. Color shifts in hue throughout the film...blues, greens, purples, neutrals. They are not monochromatic, each image is composed of related hues using a limited palette. But the design approach from background to background is consistent. Also, even though the application of paint and patterning is flat, there is a vast sense of space.


I'm most taken by the above background, how he used these polygon ponds and lakes in receding scale to truly map out the topography of the land. Vertical arrow-shaped trees sprout up in varying scales across the landscape as well. All of these visual devices are working perfectly to create the overall effect.


The river is skewed in a similar way in this background. The blue is completely flat, but recedes back in perspective. He sprinkles in beaver dams to a similar effect here. Plus, check out the shape of the river (I mean, COME ON...how cool is that?). It's straight out of something Stuart Davis would do.

Finally, here's the cartoon, in two parts:
(note the colors are washed out a bit)

The Way We'll Watch

via WSJ.com

An article by Sarah McBride of the Wall Street Journal. Things to consider, as we continue to think about how we deliver media and storytelling. Get the FableVision holography pilot program started...

--> The Way We'll Watch

"Get ready for a lot more ways to catch a movie.

Hollywood studios and tech companies are rolling out a host of innovations that will change the way we experience films at home and in theaters. They've already begun to serve up DVDs that let you chat with other people who are watching the same movie. They're also sprucing up theaters with crystal-clear screens and amenities like cozier seats and restaurant-quality food.

Coming soon: kiosks that can burn a copy of a movie while you wait, from a library of thousands of titles. The industry is also working on ways to easily send movies from gadget to gadget -- so you might download a movie on your iPhone and stream it onto your TV.

Down the road, expect new ways to easily store digital movies online, so you can access them from any computer, anytime. We might also get theaters filled with dozens of speakers for super-sharp sound, as well as much more lifelike animated characters."

"TWINS"

We've been posting a bunch of videos at Creative Juices, lately. Back to drawing. Just moments ago I had a chance to hop on over to John K's blog, where he's talking about a term I'd never heard used before: how to avoid twins in your poses. See Mickey, above.

As quoted in "The Illusion of Life": (I think we have it kicking around the studio)

"Another sign admonished us to watch out for 'twins' in our drawings. This is the unfortunate situation where both arms or both legs are not only parallel but doing exactly the same thing."

Drawings like this should remind you of how you probably started drawing when you were a kid. I drew countless Ninja Turtles that looked just like this. John talks further about how this ties in to avoiding symmetry in your drawings, period. Symmetry has the effect of sucking the life out your character. He posts tons of great model sheets of Mickey to show what an alive character should look like.

I'm mentioning this as a reminder to all you Flash animators (that means you, Fablefolk!). It is INCREDIBLY easy to be tempted to copy, paste, and flip arms and legs to save time. Especially when you have a character facing forward. Every shortcut has a consequence. If you can spare the minute or two that it takes to rid your drawings of symmetry, they will appear all the more lifelike...less mechanical.

World of Goo design tour

via Worldfire Blog:



David Rosen has taken the time to do a video walkthrough of World of Goo. He pays special attention to all the little details that put the game over the top:

"Whenever I play a game, I look for design lessons that I can learn and apply to my own games. Recently, I decided to show these lessons in the form of a video tour of games that make interesting design decisions."

We should do the same at FableVision. And World of Goo is exactly the kind of game we should be studying to make our games better.

Thanks for passing it along, Matt!

previously: Word of Goo