SynchroLux

Just when I thought I’d have some time to do some blogging, life intervened.  For the last few weeks I’ve been spending most of my free time putting together a benefit art auction for my friend, animator Pres Romanillos, who has leukemia.  The Pres-Aid website will give you all the information you need, so I won’t repeat much of it here.  If you have an interest in collecting animation/illustration art, or know people who do, please spread the word.  It’s for a good cause.

The on-line character animation school, AnimationMentor.com, celebrates its fifth birthday tomorrow.  How the years have flown by!  I’ve been a mentor for 70% of that time, and I’m certain I’ve learned and grown at least as much as my students have.  It’s been a privilege to be part of the school, and to see so many students take their animation to the next level.  I really don’t think there is a system or school that gets as high quality results as consistently.

For any of my former students reading this, congratulations on what you’ve accomplished.  And congratulations to Bobby, Sean, Carlos, Cathleen, and everyone else at AM for doing it right.

For any of you curious about the backbone of the AM system, the fabled eCritique, I’ve just done one for the winner of the March 11-Second Club.  And guess who the winner was — one of my former students, Bordeaux’s own Nedy Acet! Great to see you again, Nedy.

In honor of all of the above, I raise a glass of Bordeaux to toast AM and its students. Cheers!

Pete Emslie made an interesting point in the comments section on a recent post:

“I particularly believe that films set in exotic locales like South America have a great deal of appeal . . .”

This is consistent with what most of us believe — Variety is the spice of life.  We consciously crave variety — at least we think we do.  Most of us long to visit exotic places when we’re daydreaming, but when vacation time comes, we’re usually happier to just chill out in our back yards, or travel an hour away to the beach or a favorite resort community.  The relatively new field of Happiness Research bears this out.  Research shows that more variety doesn’t make us happy, and that we’re actually happiest with what is familiar.

This is about as exotic as most successful animated film settings get.

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I should have posted this earlier, but each Tuesday this month Turner Classic Movies is showing a huge selection of Akira Kurosawa’s films, all uncut and commercial free.  I’m a huge fan of TCM and Kurosawa (and the great Toshiro Mifune) so this is pure gold.  I pretty much filled up my DVR last Tuesday, and here’s what’s on tap for the 23rd (all times are Eastern Standard):

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We’ve established that I don’t think story is the end all and be all for successful animated films, and that it might not even be crucial.  And I’ve written that I think storytelling is one factor that is absolutely crucial.  But is there more?  Yeah, I think so, and I think both of these things are separable from story and storytelling.

My answer to the question, ‘What are the three most important things for a successful animated film?’ is,  Storytelling, great characters, appeal. When you’ve have these three things going on, you have a chance unleash a Lion King or a Toy Story or an Ice Age.

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So last week we watched that new CG feature, Kung Fu Wormy, and were disappointed.  Why didn’t we love it as much as Kung Fu Panda?  They had virtually identical stories, and that fat, funny lead worm, Pi, was expertly voiced by the very best Jack Black imitator in all of Iceland.  How could it miss?  It missed because it didn’t have the same storytelling.   Storytelling, not story, makes all the difference.

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As I’ve discussed before, there’s a common joke-slash-truism in the animation community: What are the three most important things in a great animated movie?   It’s a variation on the old real-estate saw: What are the three most important things in selling a house? Location, location, location. In the world of animation, the axiomatic answer is usually story, story, story.  Animation, character design, art direction, directorial style, medium, staging, voice work, editing, lighting, effects, and so on are never part of that short list.

A variation on this idea is the commonly stated, “Great animation can’t save a bad story, and bad animation can’t hurt a great story.”  In my years in the industry I’ve heard this refrain every time there is a discussion about why a film succeeded or failed.  “Of course that movie bombed — the animation and production values were fine, but the story wasn’t strong enough.“  So not only does the conventional wisdom hold that story is superordinate to everything in an animated film, but also that character animation (and everything else) is almost irrelevant.

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One of my favorite places in town is the beautifully restored Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, run by the wonderful American Cinematheque.   It’s generally a great place to see rare, obscure, and underrated live action films, but this weekend the Cinematheque is hosting a program by AniMazing Spotlight, an excellent two-day program on animated short film creation.

AniMazing Spotlight is a “Festival and Feedback” program launched a year ago and exclusively dedicated to supporting and promoting animated shorts.  I haven’t seen this program advertised anywhere, and wouldn’t have know about it if I hadn’t gone to the Egyptian last Friday for the Cinematheque’s 50th anniversary program on The Twilight Zone.

Here’s the program for Saturday, Nov. 7:

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. . . and it is this:

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I recently saw an animation student’s summary of the Principles of Animation from The Illusion of Life.   Here’s the one for secondary action:

Secondary actions are almost like follow through and overlapping actions.

This is a common misconception that a lot of people make.  But it’s incorrect. Take a look back at The Illusion of Life.  Follow Through and Overlapping Action are principle number 5, and Thomas and Johnston fittingly give five distinct types of follow through and overlapping action.  It’s pretty detailed, with lots of written and drawn examples.

Secondary Action is principle number 8.  If Frank and Ollie were so clear about what follow-through and overlapping action are, then why would they create a principle called secondary action that means pretty much the same thing?  Were they so desperate to come up with 12 principles of animation that they decided to do the same one twice?  Is that really a common belief?

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