Raketu - Bobby Bigloaf

2 main pencil drawings:

This cartoon was to be very limited indeed. Only 2 keys.





Lip Sync:


...and some mouth positions


..and a ton of recorded dialogue.

I had to figure out a way to keep the cartoon moving and interesting while drawing attention to the important verbal points in the message.

This is not my favorite way to do things, but it was all that the time and budget allowed for. I Haaaate having to rely solely on words to get a message across, but here I was stuck with the problem.



inked by Brian Romero, colored by John:

Then I remembered one of my favorite cartoons from my childhood-Roger Ramjet!

Roger Ramjet was an extremely limited animation show. Almost no animation and no inbetweens.

But it had hilarious dialogue and acting by Gary Owens and other radio personalities of the time. The stories were funny and fast paced.

And on top of that, Fred Crippen and Bob Kurtz figured out a way to make the visuals funny without actually animating anything!

First, they designed and posed the characters funny.

Then they devised a style of cutting that made the show even funnier and drew your attention to the jokes and vocal acting.


Roger Ramjet - cutting theories:





Roger Ramjet is the funniest TV cartoon ever. It has clever writing, acting, drawing and cutting. It is very low budget but that didn't stop every creative talent on the team from making the most of every creative opportunity! No one said "Only the words can be funny!"

Roger Ramjet clip:





Roger Ramjet is sort of Jay Ward done right.

Now, the words in the Bobby Bigloaf Raketu ad aren't as funny as Roger Ramjet, because after all, it's meant to be a commercial not a story, but I tried to use the cutting technique to make it funnier and make the meanings clearer.

















Also, Eddie does the voice of Bobby!

Immature Uncle Mike Finds The Simple Things Funny

Mike Fontanelli, being a cartoonist, is of course quite immature.
He collects all kinds of kiddie toys and silly cartoon books and old tv shows. Shame.
He is so proud of his wrong color Hanna Barbera toys - as he should be.

Uncle Mike invited Uncle Eddie and his new baby and some other immature buddies over to his cartoon museum one night and proceeded to amuse us with his childish antics.
He served us baby food.
Kali fell instantly in love with Eddie Junior.
Look at this innocent tyke. Don't you just want to cuddle him? Not Mike.

Mike sees a newborn and starts right in on putting it in funny positions to amuse his friends."Here's Eddie driving to work every day! CHNEEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE!"
"This is Kali's POV of Uncle Eddie" guffaws Mike.This went on all night.

Well, soon I couldn't resist any longer and I offered Mike my own baby to play with.


This is what he came up with.
Mike giggled non-stop for hours as he put his insatiable creativity to work.


Uncle Mike may be immature, but he's not so childish as to imagine that The Lord Of The Rings would make a good animated movie.

Raketu - Sody Pop is Coming

My theory on advertising is simple. Put sexy girls in your ads. Everyone pays attention to hot chicks, even other hot chicks.

pencil layouts:











On this one, I drew all the mouth positions on paper. I hadn't figured out idea of drawing the mouths in Flash yet. Jessy Borutski told me she draws her keys on paper, then does her breakdowns and inks in Flash-so then I tried it for the George cartoon.

Lip sync:









After I draw my keys, Marc puts them in Flash and I give them to Kristen who does a rough animation. Then she and I go over her pencil tests and make some notes and tweaks.

pencil test by Kristen McCormick:

(Download Quicktime 7 here)


Model Sheet inked by Chad Coyle: (He says the Velvet Underground is better than the Beatles-but I give him work anyway 'cause he is a talented little #@*$%X!!!)



Color keyed by John: I tried some fancy ass crap where not all the borders had outlines and it drove them nuts at Copernicus.





I send the flash files with the pencil tests to my pals at Copernicus, who then ink, paint and animate them. Andrew animated it.

Copernicus clean-ups:









Copernicus animation:

(Download Quicktime 7 here)

Katie Rice is the voice of Sody and Kali is the voice of Raketeena. They are a couple of real live wires.


Wait'll you see the fancy animation Kristen did of the instant message windows. You're gonna wish that all Instant messages worked like that!

IM box:



All the new cartoons should debut on Wednesday the 28 of February at Raketu's site.
I'll let you know when it's for sure up and running.

Raketu has been constantly adding new features too, so download it and start using it! George and his friends will explain some of the coolest features to you!

Not only is it fun and cheap, but maybe you'll be getting more cartoons once it's a big hit!

Let me know if you think we should give Sody her own starring series of cartoons.


BTW,

Kali asked me to sketch a drawing of Sody for her so she could paint it. I dashed one out and she painted it up and is now selling it on ebay to pay for her class in terrorism at Otis Art Institute!

So if you want a nice hand painted cartoon picture to hang in your boudoir, you better get over there now and start bidding!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130084208464

Spotlight On Criminal Defense Executive P Girl

Riddle: Who is most qualified to "give notes" to a cartoonist:
A plumber? A nuclear physicist? An animation director? A public defender? Or a duck?

I sat down the other morning to do my business and grabbed a magazine to thumb through. It was "Animation Magazine", the magazine about executives.

It made me think to myself, "I wonder what makes an executive tick? How do you go about being an expert on things you can't do yourself?

What background, experience and study qualifies you to tell cartoonists how to cartoon?

Well, lo and behold the answer was in the magazine. There was a whole page devoted to answering all these mysteries! Let me share it with you.




If you thought about it for a minute what would you think would qualify someone to tell cartoonists how to make cartoons?

Having made some popular cartoons? Of course not. Having drawn a cartoon picture once? Nah...Having told a funny story to somebody and they actually laughed? Don't be silly.

Of course!
If you can defend burglars, murderers and wife beaters, I guess you can defend just about anything, even not having any logical qualifications to boss cartoonists around!

But then, surely you'd have to have some talent.... at least in a distantly related field, right? There has to be some way you can relate to creative people.

"I can't act and I can't sing." I'll have to put that on my resume when I go out trying to get a job in entertainment!

What would I have to do to trick you into buying a show from me?I'm gonna go back and rework all my characters so that they have transcendent adjectives! That's what the kids want in their cartoons!

"Reaaaaallly think about them"......after all, I've never created a world of characters, but I sure have some theories about it."

Poor old Tex Avery would fail under this criteria (Believing in his world of characters).

Do cartoonists ever make you roll your eyes patronizingly?

Can I say, "It's gonna be breakout like Sponge Bob?"

So basically to sell a show, you don't really have to have a good show or any experience. You have to know how to trick an executive with your enthusiastic and pretend sincere pitch.

If you can jump up and down and wear a retro outfit and make wacky faces, and listen sincerely to his "I can't act, write, draw or sing" comments, then you're in.

Tell him you "Believe in yourself." They eat that shit up!



A funny anecdote:

I actually did all these exact things in front of this very public defender and surprisingly, he didn't have any comments about the stories or the worlds of characters.

He was however intensely interested in my pants. "Where did you get those awesome jeans?"

Unfortunately, the pants weren't quite good enough to sell a world that day. Later, I burned the pants and sent them down the Ganges River to a better world.

(BTW, he isn't the only exec to focus on the pants during my pitches; it seems to be a common occurence)


What's your greatest preposterous fantasy?

Another mystery to solve!

Which part of the cartoon does an executive "make"? The drawings? The story? The voices? The colors? Can anyone help me out here? Have you seen one make something? Is there a photo of it happening?

I think I will make a hit song by telling a musician to write one and play it for me. But I'll make sure he plays it off key by giving him arbitrary notes.



The amazing thing about all this is that someone who went to law school - to learn about the logic of argument, in order to subvert logic to win court cases would willingly present his completely illogical qualifications, boldly in public -where all his little zany cartoonist worker bees could read it! That's even wackier than Sponge Bob!

Here, check out this rap sheet.


EpiLOG:


Is there an executive bolder than this? Share your stories.

BGs and Style 10 -use reference, get ideas and inspiration from different styles

There is nothing more creatively stultifying than having a "style". Your style should be constantly growing. When you get used to one style, get mad at yourself and discard it for some new ideas. This isn't easy, but it's more fun than stagnation.
There is no greater evil in cartoons today, than that a show show should have a style. Look at old cartoons and take inspiration. In the 1930s to the 1950s the cartoonists constantly experimented with the looks of their cartoons-especially with the background styles.
A lot of background artists didn't even come from animation. Many of them were illustrators that didn't have pre set notions of what cartoon BGs should look like. Of course they couldn't completely dictate what they would draw and paint. That was the director's job.
The directors of the past would work with them to guide the artists to compose their BGs functionally to help make the characters and stories more effective. But the directors were very open to the BG artists creating their own looks.
A lot of people think that Ren and Stimpy had a style. It didn't. Go back and look at a couple episodes back to back. You will see many different Background styles and character styles too. We constantly experimented and tried to outdo each other and ourselves.



Background styles can and should vary wildly. It's fun to experiment. Just make sure the BGs serve their functions-they compose around the characters, give mood to the stories and tickle the eyeballs.

Don't let the executives tell you that kids crave a consistent look. They don't. Smash the exec in the face and tattoo this post on him, tie him to a chair and make him watch 5 Bugs Bunny cartoons in a row so that he can see that the only consistency there is in a good cartoon series is a consistent desire of the artists to change and get better.

Avoid "wonkiness" and chaotic uncontrolled messy backgrounds, because these will distract from the characters.




Controlled variety is the goal. And fun!

Raketu - George Liquor - Lip Synch Can Be Fun

I guess you all know I am trying to revolutionize both entertainment and advertising at the same time with these Raketu things I've been working on, huh?

Well here's some stuff I was doing with George. I keep trying new ways to combine traditional cartooning with Flash.

I did my pencil layouts of all George's key poses on paper.

pencil layouts:

I already knew in my head how George was feeling about this new-fangled commie technology.


George is suspicious and afraid of anything new - as all decent Americans should be, but the one factor that might sway him is an opportunity to save a buck.

That always speaks to him as a good middle-American trying to live the American dream.
Since Raketu practically eliminates long distance and pesky charges for extra minutes, I knew I could convince George to give it a try.

So I knew all his basic emotions and changes and I drew them the old way with these pencil sketches.

Then I went over to the great Mike Pataki's house. By the way, Mike has been very sick and has had a horrible year. He's recovering and should be fine but still has a knee operation coming up.

He's a tough sonovabitch but he has a heart just like cowboys and you and I.

I bet he'd really appreciate some kind wishes from all you George Liquor fans out there. George wouldn't be the man he is, if not for Michael's great acting and pure unspoiled soul.



Tell him how much you love him in the comments, ok?

Here's the soundtrack of Mike reading George's lines:

After we recorded him, we brought the voice track into Flash, and I decided I would try to animate all the mouth positions on the Cyntiq with a stylus. It would save paper and scanning and importing.

pencil layouts without mouths:





Marc went into Flash and cut out the one mouth position from each pose and plopped them onto another layer where I would animate the rest of the mouths.

mouths drawn in flash:

Animating lip synch in Flash is a great improvement over the old way. I can actually scroll through the voice track on the timeline and see every frame of every phonetic sound.

This way I could draw each mouth the way it sounded it to me. This is a new and very fun experiment for me.

The sounds in my ears projected images of funny mouth shapes into my brain and then I copied them straight into the computer right on each frame that was making the sound.






Now this cartoon, being Flash and a webtoon and not a huge budget, has to be what they call "limited animation" - a somewhat derisive term to many folks-like Eddie.

But that's because so few cartoon studios ever used limited animation in a fun way.

My theory is: Just because you don't have as many drawings in limited animation as you do in full animation, doesn't mean that those few drawings can't be funny.

Almost all cartoon animation has lip synch-mouth positions, but the mouth positions are usually stock preplanned and boring drawings. Even in "full-animation".

WHY?????

Here's a real dandy!
(That mouth looks like it's only good for one thing)

Drawing funny (or specific) mouth shapes doesn't take any longer than drawing boring mouth shapes.

I can't stand the idea of "stock" anything! Every time you sit down to do a new drawing you oughta make it NEW! Isn't what we do called "creativity"? Create something every single time you sit down to make something in a cartoon. Or give your paycheck back!

I'd go nuts if I had to just do the same poses over and over again for years. How do comic strip artists and Disney animators do it?



Oh, and these mouth shapes weren't made up arbitrarily just to be funny. (although that'd be better than pure boring too) I wanted them to match the inflections in Mike's voice.

Like I've said many times, the creative opportunities in every cartoon should never be finished until the whole cartoon is finished. Everything you touch should have entertainment value.

Well, that's my wacky theory anyway. I like to have fun all through the process of making a cartoon, not just at the story stage like the execs and those dopes that call themselves "writers" want.

Raketu is great. Greg, Martina and Oliver encourage me to make their spots fun-as long as they sell the product!

That's a logical trade off to me. I want to do a thousand of these, so when I give you a heads-up, then go to the Raketu site and see all the cartoon ads I did for them.

I'll let you know when they go up!

I'll keep posting more behind the scenes crap like this in the next few days. Thanks for giving a hoot!


SAY HI TO MIKE PATAKI AND TELL HIM YOU LOVE HIM AND HIS BITCH! (T)

Dudley says hi too:

Appeal 1-starting with cuteness as the 1st element

Scribner

Blair

LET'S GET AWAY FROM THE SHEER UGLINESS OF CARTOON WRITERS TO SOMETHING INFINITELY MORE PLEASANT....CUTENESS!

Disney

HERE'S WHAT FRANK AND OLLIE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT:
From The Illusion Of Life

#12 APPEAL
A live performer has charisma. An animated character has appeal. Appealing animation does not mean just being cute and cuddly. All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic, villainous, comic or cute. Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design, clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the audience's interest. Early cartoons were basically a series of gags strung together on a main theme. Over the years, the artists have learned that to produce a feature there was a need for story continuity, character development and a higher quality of artwork throughout the entire production. Like all forms of story telling, the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as to the eye.

Hess

I agree with all the 12 principles of animation that Frank and Ollie present in The Illusion Of Life. I believe them even more than they do. Their number 12 principle is "Appeal". I might put that as number 1.

Benedict

The main element that separates a cartoon from other forms of art is its simple appeal. It is all the tastiest parts of visuals paired down to the essential elements that bring instant pleasure.

Natwick

Bowsky?

Without appeal to draw you into the cartoon, you might not find out what else the cartoon has to offer. (I know the philosophy is different now, but that was what cartoons meant when they were invented-visual fun. The fun parts without the boring and ugly details of life.)

Ruth

But what exactly is appeal? It's a hard concept to define. It starts with cuteness as its basic atom. Cuteness in a simplistic definition is usually "attributes of children and young animals". Big heads, big eyes. Smooth soft finish. The attraction to those proportions is genetically programmed in us. We have to learn more about ugly old men before we decide to like them, but most of us automatically like puppies, kittens and kids....and once upon a time....REAL cartoons.

Clampett

Not everyone can draw cute or appealing though, even if they know the basic technical formula. Some people just have a knack for it. These cartoonists make the best designers.

Rice

Curmudgeon

I like to add a pinch of retardation to my cute drawings sometimes to make fun of appeal.

Mickey Mouse is sort of the standard for simple cuteness, although not every animator draws him cute. Freddie Moore sure does.

LITTLE WHIRLWIND

Disney made cartoons for Moms and infants.

Buy the color Mickey DVD if you have little kids or cartoon historians running around the house and you want to calm them down!



Here's a cartoon from 1947 that stars Mickey, yet Mickey is not very cute in it. The differences between cute and nasty Mickey are very subtle. Mickey is actually a really hard character to draw. If you get any feature off just a couple micro increments, the cuteness disappears.

MICKEY DOWN UNDER

Pluto's Party

In the 50s Freddie Moore came back to Mickey and gave him an updated more modern angular design. He also restored his cute appeal.





Strangely, they didn't bother to update Pluto. They left him as bland and unappealing as ever.

PLUTO'S CHRISTMAS

Moore took the fifties design a little further. I love the way Mickey looks in this cartoon. Note how the backgrounds don't match the updated modernistic style of Mickey. Someone was not paying attention.





WACKY CAN BE CUTE AND APPEALING TOO
Of all the Warners directors Clampett had the cutest most eye catching appealing style.

It's ironic since you don't usually equate crazy edgy stuff with being cute, but that's what made Clampett's edginess so engaging. It's like a bunch of cute innocent looking characters getting away with the nasty stuff we all think about. A great combination!

Clampett aimed his cartoons at the general public. Little kids love them because they are cute and funny and really energetic.

Older kids like 'em 'cause they are twisted, edgy and surreal.




Clampett inspired Virgil Ross to draw in a cartoony and appealing style.

Scribner had the cutest most natural, unaffected style of all the animators at Warners-while at the same time being the most exaggerated animator. My biggest drawing inspiration!
Clampett got McKimson to do the most appealing drawings of his career.Adults like them because they address their most important concerns.


A cartoon drawing should have appeal, but appeal sure isn't an easy ingredient to describe or define.

It starts with 'cuteness". But the word "cute" has lost its meaning.

McKimson not cute or "appealing"

Mckimson was a great animator and really good director, but his cartoons had a less innocent, not at all "cute" style to them. It was more of a cynical middle aged man cartoon style. He drew everyone kinda dumpy and pissed off, like most of my (male) friends!All his characters had tiny pig-like eyes and big fat jowls.Here's Jordan arguing with Ralph. McKimson made cartoons for Dads. They love this stuff! Me too.

Funny as Hell but not cute...

Sometimes Scribner could get away with doing cute stuff for McKimson. Scribner was the king of combining cute with sick.
Look at the giant pupils! An instant cute symbol.

Chuck Jones Faux Cute Style

Jones purposely cultivated a cute style. He developed a caricature of cuteness.

His early cartoons aimed at little kids and Moms.

His "middle period" was a lot funnier as he aimed at more general audiences. His style got less cute, more handsome I guess-a grown up cartoon style. It's still great drawing, though.


At the end of his Warners career he reverted to very cute, only this time aimed at critics, rather than kids.

Eventually he turned even the stock WB characters all into cutesy characters.

Friz not very appealing

Not Appealing

In the next installment of Appeal, I'll talk about how to draw gross and "pretend-ugly" stuff in an appealing way! Don Martin and Basil Wolverton will assist.

Walt Disney VS Ted: on Who Should Write Cartoon Stories

Well, here's how it all started.

I made this offhand remark in my post about Pie Pirates the other day:

"I firmly believed that cartoonists should write cartoons and had convinced Nickelodeon of it. Not every cartoonist can write of course, but only cartoonists should write cartoons - just as only dancers can "write" (choreograph) dances, musicians can write music and sculptors can "write" sculptures."

I had hoped I could sneak this axiom under everyone's noses, but alas Ted caught me.

Outraged that I thought cartoonists should make cartoons and musicians should make music, he decided to teach me a lesson and refute me in the comments. When I saw the comment I was paralyzed with fear. Caught!

I thought to myself, ""Wait! Ha hah! I have comment moderation on! I just won't publish the comment and no one will see how weak my theory was."

But then came this ominous threat:

At 7:11 AM, Ted said...




....
Attempt 2:
You don't really explain why you think only cartoonists should write cartoons. You just say you are convinced of it (and that you convinced Nickelodeon of it; are you going to say if someone can convince Nick something is the case, then it must be the case?)and make analogies that are not so clear cut (the church, government and private clients generally wrote what classical and renaissance sculpture or paintings would be, often to the point of saying "make it like this other Madonna" or similar, and dance is often written storywise by non-dance sources; see, for example, The Lion King, or Cats). The artists executed the final product through their own artistic lens, and added incalculably to the work, but it's wrong to say they were the sole writers.