Animation

That's a very good question. In an ideal world I would outsource everything. By ideal, I mean very good people, excellent communication.

Many years ago we were working on the VFX for Romeo and Juliet. The director was at skywalker ranch, we were Australia. We developed a system to send shots and then have two way control of the images and communication. Obviously, the tech has improved vastly since then. It should be possible to set it up like a in house team. Access to each computer, easy communication with individuals and the team. Easy briefing and followup. Access to the team for problems with my workflow and setup. A properly structured file system accessible to all. Transparent billing. etc.

Chris Schwarze, interesting, is this similar to Shotgun/ShotGrid/Flow/... and ftrack?

I haven't used any of those, we always used custom spreadsheets in house. My sense is that while you may adapt them depending on the project, a more immediate easy to adopt system would be the starting point (and finishing) for a lot of projects. (Maybe they are easier to use than my initial impression.)

But please make sure you have a structured file system. Losing elements, not using the latest revision, overwriting files being used elsewhere...

My studio is using Shotgun (the name changes every year since the Autodesk acquisition), which has a bit of a learning threshold, but is customizable to do whatever you want, and has a decent Python API. ftrack is very easy and intuitive to use, but not quite as flexible.

We always had to adapt to the production if we were a contract VFX house, so for a large project they sometimes determined the workflow.

We worked on our own project development with our in-house editors, VFX animation, colour grading, sound design. As it was all in-house we were able to use the workflow I mentioned above. On a few occasions since I didn't have my team, I used unknown to me outside people, with very average results. A studio in India, a 3D modeller in Morrocco. I found both via Freelancer if memory serves. Both recommended by the host. I was unable to readily track process and was at the mercy of the website service and reassurances by the remote team. Not a viable way to work. On the other hand, I have used people I knew and trusted remotely and that worked fine.

Thanks Laurie Ashbourne this was very helpful.

Kevin Jackson great question, this is all new to me. What exactly do you mean by animation markets? Never heard of this before.

What is Kidscreen, MIP Jr, Annecy? Learning something new here.

Cyrus Sales an animation market is similar to a film market like American Film Market, MIPCOM, Durban Filmmart, Berlinale etc. It's a convention where buyers and seller meet. So, picture filmmakers, sales agents, distributors etc. are all in one space, looking to negotiate.

Kevin Jackson thanks for clarifying. Learn something new literally every day in this industry.

That's great, Kevin Jackson! I heard of Mighty Mouse and Friends growing up. I'm looking forward to seeing Inspector Gadget, Baby Looney Tunes, Casper and Company, The Tom and Jerry Show, The Woody Woodpecker Show, and Popeye and Pals again!

the thunder cats and heman love the classics popeye so many to write down

I’m really excited to hear the classics are coming back! This has been a big topic of discussion within the animation community, especially since so many older cartoons haven’t been easily accessible on streaming platforms. I’m especially excited to be a kid again and rewatch some of the classics on Sunday mornings with a bowl of cereal. It’s great to see these beloved shows getting a chance to reach both longtime fans and a whole new generation of viewers.

I don't think I've seen that show, Kevin Jackson, but I'm looking forward to watching the new special!

Maurice Vaughan If you ever get a chance, check it out. Classic Jim Henson animatronics. Sparked the childhood imagination back in the 80's.

Kevin Jackson it's too early in the week to be getting emotional about my childhood lol. Thanks for sharing! Always nice to take a walk down memory lane.

You're welcome, G.R. Barnett.

Maurice Vaughan is the ghost an actual roach? The animation is a short, micro? animation. Something to go on social media, nothing too complex or crazy. We are focusing on more short form content for social media.

G.R. Barnett congrats on finishing the pilot for your animation series. Funding is always an interesting ride, I've been doing research this year into funding, pitching, etc. Sorry to hear about the hotel internet. Hopefully it all gets resolved. What is your series about?

Yeah, the ghost is an actual roach, Cyrus Sales. Ghost Roach is a micro-budget live-action short script right now. I was gonna turn it into an adult animated series, but I might keep pitching it as a short script or turn it into a feature script (live-action or animated).

Looking forward to seeing the Thanksgiving animation!

Maurice Vaughan a lot of different options to choose from, I look forward to future update on how things go with your animation. Absolutely, once it goes live on social I'm going to share it here as well.

Jackie Tarascio Actually, yes. I am planning to add previows scenes to add more important context, with that people should unerstand better the character of Kevin and how and why he interacts that way with the world. Thank you for the comment by the way, I really appreciate these kind of observations since it helps me to know and choose better what scenes do next.

Kevin Jackson Thank you, more than a finished job it's more of a concept test. I'm not a director at all, all I know is from the movies I've watched, despite that I wanted to test emotion, rithm and show how certain moments should feel. I have very limited resources, nithing more than free to use stock sounds and music borrowed from other movies, so I tried to do my literal best to convey the point of the film.

In the future I'll add more scene to keep testing and obtaining more material for a pitch bible, since I want to present this to someone who can help me take it to a real project. The script is fully finished too, so I'm just trying to breath a little more life to it.

Looks like a lot of work, are you at all inspired by the Iron Giant? Who is the boy, who would play him if you could cast someone or find a voice for the character? Who would play the robot?

Terence Daniels It was actually a lot of work, I haven't thought of acting jet, since the point of this is to just test how the events I wrote on the script actually work. I used music borrowed from other movies and I used free stock sound effects. I did what I could with the few materials I had at hand.

And funnily enough I was inspired by Terminator 2, when I was a child I loved the relation between Jhon Conor and the T-800 and I imagine the robot having a deep voice like the T-800 too.

Thanks for watching by the way.

Sylvia Melanson Thank you really. I did my best with the drawing. I'm not very good at drawing I had to teach myself to draw propperly to do this. But I'm glad you liked it.

Thanks Bob Harper Yeah I've never done anything like this before so wasn't sure what to do. I didn't want to give too much away either but the twists, and the worlds lore have all been written out. It's exciting to see it all come together, I just need a load of help getting it off the ground

Marc Jaytin I wouldn't worry about giving too much away when you are getting feedback on sites like this. Expand what you have already shown into a sequence of shots, similar to a comic book, or find some online samples of storyboards to see how they visually portray a story. Keep at it.

As always Bob Harper thank you

Marc Jaytin - I wanted to pop in real quick and express how much I rock with the character design. Also, interesting title, my first introduction to the concept 'Memento Mori,' was through an artist name Mac Miller. Excited to see what you end up creating with this.

Thanks Cyrus Sales I'm currently sketching out the world that Lucas now finds himself in. It's throwing up a lot of opportunity for humor but also a lot of philosophical questions around death, the afterlife and 'the rules' which I wasn't expecting, but is very welcome.

Appreciate that, Langley! You’re right — every turkey needs a dragon. Let’s just say this one’s about to find his in the kitchen… and it’s wearing an apron.

Charmane Wedderburn Every turkey does need a dragon XD!~ Sounds like you've got it figured out. Can I suggest then that you work on your logline? Opinions vary, but I'm of the firm opinion that a logline should tell the "whole" story. The audience never sees them, loglines are just for filmmakers to communicate to each other and to other business in shorthand - just bc we have to talk about sooo many stories all the time. I think loglines need to clearly spell out the A to B journey your character is going to go on, that way another filmmaker knows if they want to come along.

Appreciate that, Langley — great point about clarity in loglines. I wanted to keep this one tight since it’s a short concept, but I see what you mean about charting that A-to-B journey more clearly. I’ll experiment with that in the expanded version — maybe “every turkey needs a dragon,” right? Thanks again for the insight!

G'day, Charmane Wedderburn - your concept sounds like a ton of fun!!! I'm taking my animation through 2D. Since it's drawn that way, I can't imagine it in 3D... but anything's possible with passion at the wheel.

“Thanks so much, Marina! I love that — 2D really does have a certain heartbeat, doesn’t it? There’s something about the hand-drawn energy that gives comedy extra charm. I’ll take a look at your project too — sounds like we’re both cooking up something animated with passion at the wheel!”

That's pretty cool, Ashley Renee Smith! I'm looking forward to seeing The Quinta’s Ghost! I haven't used VR technology, but I've written VR scripts mixed with traditional scripts and 1st-person POV/regular POV scripts that could work as VR movies.

Thanks for sharing Ashley Renee Smith. Our goal as a company is to eventually get into the VR space. I did my first VR game and interaction this year and I can definitely see how it's the future. For us though, we are currently focused on other aspect of business but look forward to entering into the VR realm at some point.

Anything Rebecca Sugar touches turns to gold! It's so cool to see her in working the AR space

I'm looking forward to seeing Ne Zha 2, Pat Alexander! I don't know a lot about the story, but the film looks incredible! I don't think I've seen that kind of animation style, which makes me want to see the movie even more.

I started to watch this animation but haven't had a chance to release. I look forward to seeing what insight Michelle has to share. Thanks for sharing Pat Alexander .

I'm looking forward to the new Simpsons Movie too, Bob Harper!

Bob Harper Simpsons Movie 2. I thought that was just internet rumours and all that. I stand corrected haha. Aside from Memento mori, Lucas (which I think you've seen in the animation lounge) but I also have a few more ideas that I'm kind of piecing together including a story around a group of disgruntled animals in Hollywood who have lost work because of the rise of CGI created animals. And then there is the story of a young highwayman named Stan who has adventures with his trusty sidekick, an anthropomorphic liver. It's called Stan and his Liver. (Puntastic!)

I still consider "Allegro non troppo" the best of adult films.

Josephine Yar. Great choice!

Zee Risek " It's like adult animation means juvenile animation," I couldn't agree more. In small doses it's fine however when every adult show does the same thing then I'm over it. I haven't seen all the adult animation you've mentioned but I'm willing to give them a watch.