4/18/2013 – UPDATE: progress on “Frank-N-Nazi”

My series “Star Voyages” has been a real learning experience, and coupled with all the tutorials, books and video lessons I’ve absorbed over the past couple of years, helped prepare me for “Frank-N-Nazi.”  Two years ago I never would have expected to make such a neat “true” cartoon.  “Star Voyages,” although animated, is supposed to be grounded in the “real” world, meaning that classic cartoon techniques can only be used so far.  A human arm or leg can only “stretch” so far, the human head can only “squash” so much, and still remain within the realm of the particular cartoon “reality” you’ve established for yourself in the format.  Within the confines of the “look” of “Star Voyages,” I was limiting myself to what could be done.

In “Frank-N-Nazi,” I used tools like skew, stretch and rotate to make the crazy squirrel and stupid dog more elastic.  It was fun figuring out how to make a character pick up a big mallet off screen, but also knowing I had the freedom within this cartoon world to have the squirrel’s arms extend and flatten to more than twice their original length to reach his weapon.

(On a side note, I spent an entire evening’s thought on just WHERE cartoon characters produce all of these items FROM, even resorting to examining some old cartoons frame-by-frame.  Usually they reach behind them, the club or mallet popping into existence between one frame and the next, producing items much too big to have been there all along.  I used this gag in one scene by having the items come from off screen out of nowhere as the character reached for it.  Of course you can “hide” and oversized item by making it smaller when it first appears, then grow to full size over a handful of frames.)

“Frank-N-Nazi” is 90% finished, and I can’t wait to expose the world to it.  The various shots have been assembled in my video editing program, music has been edited and added, title cards, etc.  My voice artist, Steve Cassals,  is working to try and reproduce that unique, stuffy, squeaky voice of the squirrel.  Once he provides me with the voice tracks, I should have them in place and synced up to the animation in about a week.

I’ve been thinking about my next project as the production of “Frank-N-Nazi” comes to a finish.  I’m so pleased with it that I’m thinking about doing another “Crazy Squirrel” cartoon almost immediately, this time giving the squirrel the Chuck Jones “Duck Amuck” treatment.  My idea to give this a new, 21st century twist by having the character interact with the Flash environment, as well as the unseen protagonist.

My favorite “Screwy Squirrel” cartoon is below. When I was a kid, I got frustrated with TBS because the would only show the same handful of “Screwy” cartoons over and over. I didn’t realize that there were only five ever made…

UPDATE: Ah, the ever-changing nature of the internet!  Seems my favorite “Screwy Squirrel” cartoon has been removed.  Here’s someone’s inferior compilation that will just have to substitute.

4/1/2013 – Art for art’s sake

I had a online conversation with one of my closest friends yesterday. He is one of three people I showed the footage from “Frank-N-Nazi.” I remarked that I wasn’t sure why I was compelled to make these little toons, but that it was like therapy to me. His reply was : “I think it’s what you are here for, or at least a good part of it.”

I have to agree. I think I am finally “in my element.” I’ve tried every art medium over the years, but I’ve never focused in on any one with such good results as this one. I’ve always loved cartoons, especially the classic theater shorts from the 1930s and 40s. Since the advent of home dvd, I’ve amassed a huge collection and been able to have all my old favorites, and some newly discovered ones, at my fingertips. I can admire their craftsmanship even more since I know exactly how painstaking it was to make them in the old days: Drawing 24 frames of minute movement for every second of film, tracing them onto cels, painting the cels, layering them, and photographing up to 10,080 cels for a seven-minute cartoon. Animation was a real craft back then, and I’m proud to be able to understand and respect the process, and produce my own cartoons with modern technology.

I try to make my little cartoons a tribute to everything I love and admire about creative media. Certainly, everything I’ve been exposed to filters out of my brain and down my arm to the pencil, or brush, or stylus, to be realized as artistic tribute to masters of their craft. That’s why I paint like Bob Ross, draw like Preston Blair, animate like Richard Williams, storyboard like Chuck Jones, etc. These are the masters at whose feet I learned, and to try and mirror their techniques, look, and style as a way of paying tribute to them.

With “Frank-N-Nazi,” in a lot of ways, all that I have learned over he past four years is reflected in the footage. Flash was a helluva program to master, but perseverance paid off, and each toon I made with it was a little better, a little more sophisticated. I’ve managed to incorporate so much that I have learned about the program into what you will see in my latest little film. Tricks like tinting, gradients, alpha, glow, etc. add so much to the more professional look I am aiming for.

“Frank-N-Nazi” is also a departure for me: My other toons were little drama pieces where humor was not the focus or goal. I’ve discovered that classic cartoon humor and animation is both easier and harder at the same time. I’m grateful to the old-school animators for perfecting the basics long before I came along. Classic cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse or Screwy Squirrel are designed to be easier to draw. Broader squash and stretch, on the other hand, while not as precise as “realistic” character animation, has to be used with restraint, or else you loose things that should be maintained, like a character’s volume and weight. If you go too far with exaggeration you risk loosing how well the scene “reads.” It’s always a balance.

Also, story wise, this cartoon is all about me doing whatever the hell I want to do. I’ve put some gags in that I’ve always wanted to see in cartoons. I may have mentioned before that I plotted out “Frank_N-Nazi” the way I imagine Tex Avery would have done it if he were alive, in his prime, and still making cartoons. There’s caricature, stereotype, and satire also. I did it this way partly in homage, partly because it makes the humor easier with certain visual cues. In fact, I’m re-thinking one of the gags because it could be seen as racist. I’m hesitant to do it and looking for an alternative, not because of what other people might think, but because I don’t want to violate the “harmless” spirit of an old-style cartoon.

So, getting back to what my friend said, I guess I’ve said all that to say this:

I don’t know if my art, and my cartoons, are what I was born to do. It feels like it is, but then, in the grand scheme of time and space and the relevance of the universe, it doesn’t seem to amount to much. This bugged me all night last night. But I woke up this morning and started my day with the very funny “Duck Twacy” cartoon. I realized what I was watching was someone’s legacy, their hard work, the resulting craft of which makes me chuckle, long after the animator, or director, or writer has passed on,…it’s not so bad if you can make one person laugh, chuckle, smile or ooh and aah over your work. I’ve read many times about the animators of the 30s and 40s saying that they made the cartoons for themselves. And I make them for me, as an expression of the sum total of all that I am, and I show my work to others, hopefully, to elicit a positive emotional reaction. That’s what art IS. A lot of people never achieve even that much in their lifetime.

3/30/2013 – My Current Project: “Frank-N-Nazi”

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on a tribute_parody to one of my favorite Golden Age cartoon directors, Tex Avery.  The cartoon short is called “Frank-N-Nazi,” set during WWII, and features a Avery-like squirrel and a dumb dog.  The dog chases the squirrel all over the globe, and they end up in Germany.  Soon, they are being snatched up by Hatian zombies under the control of a mad Nazi scientis, Dr. Verimi Going.  It seems Dr. Going needs a brain doner for the monster he has built in his lab, and isn’t very particular about where the brain comes from, or whom….

The cartoon is built in Flash, and I’ve tried very hard to reproduce the look of MGM and Warner cartoons of the 1940s.  The castle interior backgrounds are based on the Warner classic “Hair-Raising Hare,”  While the exteriors are based on classic MGM chase cartoons, like “Screwy Truant.”

I started the project in early February by first creating some Flash symbols of the main characters. I then did some research online and in my personal cartoon collection for inspiration and some sort of style to carry through.  Once I was comfortable with the fact that I could produce a reasonable cartoon of this scale and scope, I hashed out a storyboard.  I wrote the gags in the spirit of Tex Avery, but tried to do it like he would do it if he were alive, in his prime, and producing cartoons today.  My results have a lot in common to the tone of “Ren and Stimpy”, “Courage The Cowardly Dog,” “South Park” and “Happy Tree Friends.”  The humor and violence is more adult than what could have been gotten away with in the 1940s.

I’ve tried to work on the cartoon faithfully and produce at least one scene a day.  Yesterday I assembled all of the scenes produced so far, and cobbled them together with a temp music and sound fx track, and so far I’m really pleased with theresults.  I esimate I’m about 3/4th of the way finished with the scenes, and the footage comes in just under five minutes.

For the music, I went to several public domain sources.  I lifted music and sound effects from the classic MGM cartoons themselves, plus one bit of music from a Fleischer short that was perfect as my zombi theme music.  I also used classic music by Wagner and Beethoven, and the spooky Voo Doo chant from the old Bela Lugosi clunker “White Zombie.”

In the vien of the 1940s cartoons, I also deliberately tried to use caricature and stereotypes to make the story topical to the times it is suposed to be set in.  There’s a chance some might find something in the short that is offensive.  That’s partially on purpose.  I think one of the problems with cartoons today is that they are so bland because they’ve been homaginized.  Humor, which is based on characature, exageration, and yes, even stereotype, has been stripped of its power to make us laugh in a over-zealous effert to not offend ANYONE.  That’s a philosophy I don’t agree with.  Humor needs certain visual cues so we can recognize ourselves and others and have a laugh.  The zombies happen to be Hatian because that is the only kind that existed in movies in the 30s and 40s.  The German happens to be a Nazi because, well, it’s World War 2.  The revelation of the monster at the end of the story is sort of a comment on the horrors of war, particularly WW2…

Some trimming will be needed once a voice track is made, and some general tightening-up to pick up the pace, but I’ve had good reactions from some very close friends I’ve shown the rough cut to.  So I’m stoked!

Here’s an eclusive image from the toon:

1/8/2013 – Cartoon Of The Day: “Cap’n Cub Scraps The Japs” (1945)

Another rare find – this involves a obscure “cutesy” cartoon character. After a rather flat bit of plane aerobatics and lot of silliness about War production, the cartoon ends with a bang as Cub is involved in a air battle against a “evil” monkey representing…guess who?

UPDATE: Ah, the ever-changing nature of the internet!  Seems Youtube has removed.the original post of this cartoon.  So, I found another one!  Sorry the link was busted for so long.  A message says that playback on other websites has been disabled, so just click through or follow this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yFxZLQQZuE

1/2/2013 – Cartoon Of The Day: “Ruka” (1965)

I came across this powerful film while browsing Youtube for propaganda animation. Its message will haunt me for the rest of my life. “Ruka” (1965) is a very powerful subversive film made by Czech animator Jiri Trnka.. From Wiki: “…it is about a sculptor visited by a huge hand, which seeks the completion of a sculpture of itself. By rejecting the imposition, the artist is constantly pursued by the hand, ending with induced suicide and the hand officiating at his funeral. Ruka is considered a protest against the conditions imposed by the Czechoslovak communist state to artistic creation, and even some have seen in it an anticipation of the so-called Prague Spring. Although the film initially had no problems with censorship (which Trnka blamed on carelessness or simple ignorance), after his death copies were confiscated and banned from public display in Czechoslovakia for two decades.”

12/28/2012 – About time for some “About Me”…

I’ve had this blog for several months now. I’ve neglected it, but plan to make more entries for 2013. It’s one of my New Year resolution. I thought it was time for a little more detail about me and my interests. My name is Lee, and I’m a 47-year-old animation enthusiast. I attended South University in Montgomery Alabama where I earned an Associate in Paralegal Studies., and I studied Animation and Visual Effects online at the Academy of Art University for a year and a half.

Projects:

“Mystics” pilot 2010 (This was my first animated cartoon, inspired by Golden Age comics and their wacky style.  It was rough, but I was proud of it.  Completed, but lost. 😦  I’m trying to turn the concept, about a team of supernatural superheroes organizing a team called “Mystics” during WWII, into a web comic series.)

“Star Voyages” episode 1: “Flytrap” 2012 (Completed)

Star Voyages” Episode 2: “Perfect Organism” Episode Two, Segment One 2013 (On hiatus.)

“Oliver Stone’s Rocky & Bullwinkle” 2013 (Complete)

“Tales of Camelot – Merlin” 2013 (Project abandoned, but a cool title card remains. Neat, huh?)

“Tales of Camelot – Merlin” 2013 (Project abandoned, but a cool pic of the opening scene remains. Neat, huh?)

A Certainly Incomplete List of My Creative Influences and Inspirations:

“Underdog”
“Astro Boy”
“Batman The Animated Series”
“Private Snafu”
“Rocky and Bullwinkle”
Warner’s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies
MGM cartoon shorts of the 30s and 40s
Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies
Max Fleischer’s Superman and Popeye shorts
Ren & Stimpy
Colonel Bleep
Jot the Dot
The Ripping Friends
Filmation’s “Flash Gordon”
Tex Avery

I Also Enjoy:

Oil and water color painting, Golden Age comics, and classic newspaper adventure strips of the 20s, 30s and 40s.. I’m a movie fan, and my favorite classic films are “Metropolis,” “Wizard Of Oz,” and “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.” On television, I enjoy “Doctor Who” and the original “Star Trek.”

What I Like:

Classic full animation is a beauty to behold. it’s an ideal. I like to discover animation I wasn’t aware of, and I love researching and learning the skills and techniques used by the pioneers, and applying them to my modern animation projects. Thanks to computers, most of the expensive ink, paper and celluloid has been eliminated, allowing frustrated artists like me to finally be able to put their ideas onscreen.

What I Don’t Like:

I think the biggest problem in animation today is the influence of Japanese television anime. It has robbed Western cartoons of their varied style and individual look, as everyone tries to duplicate the big, moist-eyed, slit-mouthed , spiky haired look of that mechanically cold, formalistic drivel being imported to fill television air time.

12/27/2012 Cartoon of the Day: Curious Nazi Cartoon (1944)

I stumbled across this oddity while looking for propaganda animation produced during WW2. I don’t imagine these “cameos” were authorized…well, maybe in Mickey’s case….

10/28/2012 Clampett’s “John Carter of Mars”

Oh, what could have been…This little clip contains some test and promotional footage done in the late 1930’s, before even Fleischer’s “Superman.”

9/12/2012 Cartoon of the Day: “Toonerville Trolly” 1936

Beautiful Van Buren cartoon, the first of three Toonerville Trolly cartoons produced, and the best.

6/28/2012 A “Disney That Never Was.”

My favorite “Disney That Never Was”: This segment was dropped from 1940’s Fantasia before it went past the storyboard stage. Here, the pre-production drawings are set to the musical score to approximate what it might have been like. My favorite

UPDATE: Once again, Youtube has removed the video I originally linked to – it was a compilation of the original storyboards and art presented as close to the original segment as possible to reconstruct, set to the music composed for it, “Ride of the Valkyries.”  This new link is to a page with some of that surviving artwork on it.  best I could do…

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Unused_Fantasia_Segments