To all the Pratt animators

of 2008 that is....


It is late, and I have just come back from the studio here at Pratt. It’s one of those nights where I have lost all objectivity of my own work. I am at a point in my film where I am going through a lot of these episodes. I can't judge my own work, I can't seem to figure out if something is working, or if it will function to an audience (you have to be your own audience in these situations). When this happens, I run the risk of making animation that is unclear and compositions/shots that have too much or too little.

These episodes wear off, but I still need to talk about them. I hate losing objectivity in my own work. It causes me to lose motivation. We usually have critiques every Monday morning. Even though we can e-mail stuff to other people, we are not always motivated to do so. For me, my schedule is so tight, I am afraid to re-work a scene, I worry about losing time on the rest of the film (which I feel like I am). Everything has to be finished by May 1: eight months of work in a short film

I know schedules work differently for different independent animators. Some work fast enough to get at least one film done every year. Others pace themselves out for one or two years or more. But most of these animators, unlike most students, have employees/interns working for them. Even if it is only four or five people, it still provides plenty of objectivity for the directors.

I need more than one person to look at my work. At this point, until something evolves, I need some more objectives than what I usually get every week. Andy London, my thesis adviser, always spells out the challenges of making a film. His point are very clear, but I wish to hear ways to get around them, or accept them. How do we accept these challenges if we want to spend the rest of our lives working in film and/or animation?

I end this by spreading the blogs of some of my fellow animators.

Maya Edelman
Javan Ivey
Christopher Ko
Jen Lee
David (Dav-odd) Meehan
Dan Mountain
Isam Prado

I apologize for leaving anyone out. If they wish to be added, just let me know, and I will add you to the list.

Is it alright to like Hanna Barbera?

Still working away on Parasite's Delight. I am trying to get myself used to the production schedule I have set.

My recent discovery of Top Cat has, as usual, led me to looking up other Hanna Barbera cartoons, as well as their history. I find that I gyrate more towards the TV characters from the late 1950's and early 1960's. Those characters include such charmers as Top Cat, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quickdraw McGraw, Wally Gator, and of course, the Flintstones. However, I have also found that Hanna Barbera is blamed for the decline in the quality of commercial animation. This is particularly true in their 1970's stuff, which I have never been enthusiastic about (the Smurfs, Scooby Doo spin-offs).






I wish I knew where this came from. I want a larger version.

I love animation that has a lot of posing and acting (or what many call classical animation). I feel like I might be criticized for liking HB cartoons. But if there's anything I go for, its characters. No matter how they are drawn or animated, I like fully formed personalities. I see no reason not to like all different forms of animation. I even like stuff that hasn't lasted very long, and even some considerably unsuccessful stuff.



I am excited about the early stuff, because I find the characters to be quite appealing. I love charming characters, possibly because they have qualities I don't have. These same characters were reused in gang of 1980's Saturday Morning cartoons. Those shows, unfortunately, are too humiliating to watch, have terrible coloring (fast food coloring) and have infantile humor. But considering the financial trouble HB was going through at the time, I guess it shouldn't be too surprising. I believe those bad cartoons could have been great with the same characters, but just with better coloring and more inventive plots. I don't mind seeing these great characters over again.



I have been working on my technique lately, although they are less a priority than my film. Here I jotted down some expressions for practice. I just thought I'd share it. I am hoping to get more of my thesis up here, although not everything is as complete as the last clip I posted.

Excuse me, is my autism showing?

Anyone who knows me knows there is something up with my head. The answer? I have Asperger’s Syndrome, albeit a mild form. I was first diagnosed with it at age 9.

Recently, I have been commenting quite a bit on animator Eddie Fitzgerald’s blog. Though mostly a blog about theories applied to animation, he recently had a couple of entries that mentioned Aspergers. He identified Aspergers and autism as chronic nerdness. I couldn’t help but comment on the entries. Since then, I have been thinking about how my autism works its way into my art and animation.


Aspergers come in different forms. My form is rather mild, meaning that while my social skills are still quite shaky, I am aware of them and can occasionally bring myself to communicate with others. Wanting to be a filmmaker, I feel very lucky, as communication is a big part of the directing process. I have always drawn as far back as I can remember, and I could write, so I already had a couple of outlets. Animation feels like a great outlet for me.

Only recently, I have started to think about how my autism affects my ideas in animation. I know that all animators have their own way of thinking (some call that their style, or trademark). However in my case, autism has given me a different way of perceiving the world in general. And that perception works its way into my animation.

I have always thought of the world as being rather cynical. Henceforth, I have always thought of characters that have a very cynical nature.

My learning process in animation is also quite slow, as I can’t always commit new lessons to memory. I tend to think of new ideas very simply, and don’t put a lot of emphasis upon them until I am confident with how much knowledge I have.

My perception of animation itself is different, but that maybe personal taste. Some animators (mainly those who comment of John Kricfalusi’s blog) have immediate knowledge of what good animation is and how it should be done. I have always trusted my immediate natural reaction to animation. If I really like something naturally, then I don’t immediately see if there is something wrong with it. I felt that when I was watching an old Friz Freleng Bugs Bunny cartoon with a couple of friends. I thought it was very funny, but my friends didn’t, and had very lucid answers to why it wasn’t funny.


I have always trusted my natural reaction. And if I am distracted by poor art direction or something, then my immediate reaction is quite sour.



I hope to talk more about this later on.

Insecurtiy ~ Animation Blogs

The other day, after I finished posting my personal review of Ratatouille, I started looking up other reviews of the movie. Not film critic reviews, but reviews from other animation blogs. Particularly those of Eddie Fitzgerald, Michael Sporn, and Mark Kausler. Though the reviews of Ratatouille have been generally positive, there were things common amongst the reviews that I didn’t pick up on when viewing the movie. I loved the movie the way it was, and yet things that I thought were unique and original in it, were considerable burdens to other animators.

Because I don’t consider myself a well versed animator, I have never commented on any of these blogs. The only blogs I have commented on thus far are Jerry Beck’s Cartoon Brew, and those of animators I know personally. For the most part, I am afraid to comment on animator blogs, because they speak a language that I don’t fully understand. I would like to understand it, because most of the animators I know personally understand it, and I am quite fond of their work. But other blogs (John Kricfalusi’s blog for example) I am too afraid to comment on, because I don’t always understand the point they are trying to make, and yet their commentors pick up on them right away,

For those who know me, its no surprise that I tend to be self-effacing at times, particularly when it comes to my own artwork. Although I love to draw, I have never fully grasped most drawing principles. As hard as I try, I have never been the best at life drawing. And since great animation requires dedicated drawing, I still feel like I am at stage one of the learning process. This is probably a little much, because I am 21, and have only been learning animation for the last two years.

For those who are reading this (I don’t expect too many to be reading this), this is NOT a cry for help or anything. I just felt a sense of insecurity the other day, and I need to let it out. I am going to keep learning animation. I intend to talk more about this later on.