Ain’t nothing like a lazy summer vaction at the beach. A getaway with some good friends and good times. Nothing dramatic to get in the way, except for an earthquake and then a manditory hurricane evacuation. In between all of that I got to doodle a couple of comics on the beach.
This one has a little Matt Sutter thing bookended by two of mine:
Here are a couple of full pagers:
Working at an animation studio, Matt Sutter and I found ourselves with pockets of downtime. We were freelancing and that never meant steady employment, only working project to project (granted that was still months at a time). To keep ourselves productive we dabbled in putting together a pitch package for an Adult Swim style series based on an early short Sutter had made. It was a goofy inside joke, and frankly not terribly good. But it was dear to us and we expanded on the idea and did a lot of the ground work. The closest we ever got to animating anything was the title montage, but before we ever got to sink our teeth into it, both of us found steady work and the ambition died. Every once and a while I would brush the dust off and chip away at finishing it. Recently, Matt helped out with the final push and, well, a couple of years later… here we are. The title sequence is done.
I thought it would be interesting to give a little bit of insight into how the process works. First things start out with a moving storyboard called an “animatic”. It’s mainly a crude animation using stick figures and scribbled background art. Then that file is the framework that you work within and expand upon to make the finished animation.
Here’s both the animatic and animation laid out for you to compare. Often times the animatic has more spirit and energy because it’s made more spontaneously. I think that was definitely true here.
For the sake of keeping things fresh and experimenting I asked one of our Birthday Street readers to pen a comic. Paul did a great job here’s the script he sent me:
The structure of this strip is a television commercial with a voice over.
Voice over in quotes, description of images not in quotes.
¨Since the dawn of time, man has sat.¨
Caveman chiseling a chair out of rock.
¨Throughout the ages, new and better seating technology has made sitting more sedentary¨
1920´s era guys w/ bowler hat and mustache building a chair.
“The tireless efforts of seating innovators consistently change the that way we don’t stand”
Laboratory researches with clipboards gathered around and studying a man’s butt. Perhaps one of them looking very closely with a magnifying glass.
“But..”
Close up of a butt
“never before has a development in ‘taking a load off’ so thoroughly blown away all previous methods of lounging.”
Image of the Maxell guy sitting in a chair being blown away.
“Introducing the Privates Collection from Broyhill. Voted “Best Couch in the Pull Out Class” by JD Power & Associates.”
Image of the couch with a boner.
Q; Where do hilarious comics live?
A: On Birthday Street, of course.
Birthday Street is a collaboration comic site with my good friends Matt Sutter and Kevin Cornell. The site will be updating every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with a new comic inspired by/related to its predecessor. Kind of how different skits transitioned on Mr. Show. It’s something we’ve been doing for years in each others sketchbooks and we finally decided to share it with the rest of the world.
Check it out. Have some pizza. Eat some cake. Wear a pointy hat. Have a good time. I hear it looks pretty bitchin’ on an iPhone.
Posted: November 4th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Comics, Friends | Comments OffI just finished a little animated commercial for my friends’ band Everyone Everywhere. They just released their first full length album and it’s really good. This little animated ditty was also made (in part) for the Rentcheck series of movies. Without further ado… (don’t blink or you’ll miss it)
New Everyone Everywhere Album from Philly Rentcheck on Vimeo.
Sutter also made an animated movie for that month and it’s pretty great. Check it out…
Where There’s A Will from Philly Rentcheck on Vimeo.
Posted: June 1st, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Animation, Friends, Movies, Music, Uncategorized | Comments Off