On Story 1103: A Conversation with Brenda Chapman

                                                    

Interview with Brenda Chapman, director and writer on hits such as The Lion King, The Prince of Egypt, and Brave. Chapman brings her views on strong female characters, story and flawed characters. Brought to you by Austin Film Festival's On Story.

 

http://www.austinfilmfestival.com/ 

Innovations in Animation - Part 2 - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

 It's been a hard year. As we start to dig out from under the horrors of 2020 and the Covid pandemic, let's take a moment to get back to my topic of Innovations in Animation. After my first entry from the 1980's, ("Twice Upon A Time") I want to jump forward to the 21st Century. Through the years, Sony Pictures was not my top pick as far as animation or superhero film studios go. But Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature for the studio. I finally saw it on Blu-Ray, and it definitely caught my attention.

(copyright Sony/Marvel/Disney?) 

Comic book style! Other attempts have been made, with dubious success.

Hand drawn effects over 3D, far advanced from old cell shaders.

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633694/

https://www.imageworks.com/our-craft/feature-animation/movies/spider-man-spider-verse

 https://www.foundry.com/insights/film-tv/into-spiderverse 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEXUG_vN540

https://characterdesignreferences.com/art-of-animation-7/art-of-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-part-1?fbclid=IwAR1iIrNQ4S-zKVtUY0NEt36ya6HTwBJd1dfF6s8C4k-8EGVT5UupxSUXr4E

 Art Direction by Dean Gordon, Patrick O'Keefe

Production Design -  Justin K. Thompson

Danny Dimian - Visual Effects Supervisor

Directed by
Bob Persichetti     
Peter Ramsey     
Rodney Rothman

Writing Credits  
Phil Lord     ...     Screenplay
Rodney Rothman     ...     Screenplay
 
Phil Lord     ...    Story

Paul Watling - Head of Story

 

While it's not a direct part of the MCU, Kevin Feige's hand still seemed to be felt.

RIP Stan Lee

Here's to one of the greatest parts of my childhood, and development as a cartoonist, and as an artist.

Along with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and John Buscema, along with an almost endless list of other editors, writers and artists most comics fans will know by heart, Stan Lee created the most beloved and enduring comic book characters to date. Granted, all the Marvel Bullpen artists did their share of the heavy lifting in creating the Marvel Universe, which finally led to a financial empire of toys, knick-knacks, action figures, books, animated TV shows, and finally feature films so prosperous that an unlikely rival media conglomerate, (Disney) could not pass it up.

(original copyright Simon and Schuster)

Stan also served in the U.S. Army.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/marvel-comics-legend-stan-lee-dies-at-95/ar-BBPCSj8?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/obituaries/stan-lee-dead.html 

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/stan-lee-marvel-comics-legend-721450

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Lee

In a Joseph Campbell way, Stan was a modern shaman to me, weaving tales about the Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and Spiderman, to name a few. Not to mention the X-Men, Thor, Dr. Strange and Iron Man. I plunked down many a quarter, then 35¢, and then well over a dollar to travel off to other worlds of mutants, monsters, madmen and gods. Stan Lee also helped me expand my vocabulary. Where else would a kid in grade school read about a "tumultuous exodus"? It helped drive my teachers crazy. Thank God for such pandemonious puffery! Spellcheckers be damned.

It's tempting to call Stan Lee a modern Shakespeare, with his stories of arrogant men falling, being humbled, and then rising again as heroes. But Lee's heroes also kept all of their quirks, faults and weaknesses, whereas most of the DC Comics universe had heroes who were almost always squeaky clean. How dull. No, in the Marvel Universe, Peter Parker struggled with paying the rent, looking after an aunt who always seemed to be at death's door, and an impossible boss who had a personal vendetta against Peter Parker's alter-ego Spiderman. Soap opera writers must have been jealous.

Tony Stark, Stephen Strange, Ben Grimm and an entire legion of characters were humbled, stumbled and still rose to the occasion when the Marvel villains, most of whom also had their own stories and issues, threatened New York City, the Earth, or even the entire universe. Victories were won, but often at a price, and revelations of the depth of the characters emerged on both sides of the conflict. I seem to be gushing with Stan's "purple prose" here. And maybe some Jules Feiffer.

Got to wrap this up now, but I still treasure these mementos from my childhood. Being able to learn storytelling, draftsmanship, graphic design and even literacy from the humble, much maligned comic book leaves many geeks in Stan Lee's debt. R.I.P Mr. Lee.

Excelsior!

More Inktober iterations...

More weirdness with pen and ink. I've been using Kuretake Bimoji Brush Pens for the last couple of years, they seem to do the trick. Although they're starting to dry out. I'm also using a yellow marker to get a midtone, and to help me work out the forms from my rough sketches. Not to mention a gallon of white-out where I'm not sure.

Herman Bear and Athena contemplate an alien necklace
while exploring further on the planet Solstice.

It may be more trouble than it's worth!

CGI Dreamworks Animation Studio Pipeline

Hello group, 2018 has been off to a rough start for me, and I'm behind as far as re-purposing this blog for education, and updates on animation technology in general. DreamWorks has been kind enough to put together a presentation on the CG pipeline for us. Enjoy!

R.I.P. Adam West

Well, whether it be comics, TV or animation, Batman always held my attention. I didn't get the campy attitude of the 1960's TV show, especially when the cliffhanger endings meant to me that the danger was REAL. My parent's chuckling, and rolling their eyes was lost on me. But here's to Adam West who kept a six year old in suspense every Wednesday night on ABC. To me, the Bat-Signal will never go out.

(Batman's symbol done in Maya. copyright DC comics)

Legend Quest - Netflix

Stumbled on Legend Quest on the Animation Scoop website. Netflix is putting out this new series from Anima Estudios. Looks like fun so far. The style and characters look like they took some inspiration from Gravity Falls and Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

(copyright Anima Estudios & Netflix)

The plot revolves around Leo, and his new friends as they challenge the evil schemes of Quetzalcóatl.

The story takes place in 18th century Mexico where Leo has encountered ghosts and demons as a child, and now must do so again with his new friends: Don Andrés, who is the ghost of an old conquistador, Teodora, who is a actually a hologram of a girl somehow transported from the 21st century, and Alebrije, a magical creature based on Mexican folk art.

Looks like it has a lot of fun and action, I hope it does well.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1381414425/

http://www.animationscoop.com/netflix-legend-quest-full-opening-titles/

https://mic.com/articles/166148/netflix-s-legend-quest-is-enjoyable-for-adults-and-reminds-latino-kids-that-they-matter#.V6O5uCxbl

Watchcat xmas 2016

http://watchcatfiles.blogspot.com/

Watchcat teams up with Ol' Saint Nick to foil some last minute Holiday crimes. Looks like Santa has learned to handle himself over the years!

(copyright Jim Richardson)

2016 What a year!

What a year. And 2016 isn't done with us yet-

(copyright Lucasfilm/Disney)

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/dec/23/carrie-fisher-heart-attack-london-la-flight

Hang in there Carrie!

Commander Kitty is back!

http://www.commanderkitty.com/2016/02/05/communication-error/

One of my favorite webcomics is back online.

Hope it makes to the climax of this story...

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus - CXC

Managed to stumble on this while channel surfing in Ohio before Christmas.

Very good discussion.

Will have to get back down to Columbus someday soon.

Matthew Luhn from Pixar at Woodbury University

All day session at Woodbury today with storyboard supervisor Matthew Luhn from Pixar. Some great stuff on storyboarding, especially when he shows how vital it is to hammer out a story before you commit to millions of dollars in animation. Matthew covered things from not crossing the line of action to "stacking" a shot. I'll try to update this post with more details asap. Glad I made it:)

(copyright Matthew Luhn/VanArts)

http://matthewluhnstory.com/cartoons/

http://www.vanarts.com/

Wander over Yonder - the Gift

I guess I'm projecting too much of my own ideas onto Wander over Yonder. They could have had a real cliff hanger with Sylvia seriously considering getting back together with Ryder.
Spoiler Alert!

Disney might have added more depth if Ryder did have some redeeming values, instead of being a selfish jerk. The "B" story could have been Wander's comical attempts at being the tough guy to win Sylvia back. Wander could have teamed up with the giant space slug that was sneaking up behind him to eat him.

(art copyright Disney)

But we have learned more about Sylvia, after seeing "The Rider" episode. She was turning into quite an outlaw after leaving her relatively happy world of Marshfalaffle Apple Meadow. But being with Wander let's her share in his magic, and so she can tolerate most of his goofy antics. For instance, being decorated with jingle bells as they deliver gifts throughout the galaxy.

Wander is still a mystery, and maybe he should be left that way.

It leaves some things to the viewers imagination, and makes the show more fun.

Happy Holidays folks, I'm still trying to get into the spirit out here.

http://youtu.be/1Ji0f869QlU