grizandnorm

"The Art of Griz and Norm" is a tumblr that I follow with very helpful tips for animators, especially when it comes to character animation. Griz works at DreamWorks as a Visual Development artist, and Norm is a storyboard artist at Disney.

Even without context, their art is so full of life that you know it works. It is good to see things shown in the simplest style as well, making it a lot easier to apply to other styles.

These are just tips that they post on their tumblr, but I think that collected as a book it could be extremely useful. Of course there are other books that talk about similar things, but some of them are so stylised that it is hard to apply them to other styles, and they can often rabbit on for pages before getting to the actual points needed. Context is obviously a good thing to have, but it is always possibly to have too much of it.

These are tips that I am going to try to incorporate into my work as much as I can.

Transmedia Storytelling

Transmedia storytelling (alternatively called transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is telling one story through multiple formats/platforms - games, books, tv shows, comics, etc. It is not the same as 'cross-platform media franchises' adaptations or sequels that use different formats for different stories within one universe.



One example of this (tough it doesn't contain animation) is the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. They are  series of Youtube Vlogs telling a modern day version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. What makes it transmedia is that each of the characters have social media accounts (Twitters, Tumblrs) that are linked into the Vlogs; the other characters' sides of stories are told there, all tying in with the main show, allowing you to see more of the Lizzie Bennet universe from different points of view. I think that this is a particularly good idea because not only is there more content for viewers to see (and so more ways and opportunities for them to find the series) but it also means more frequent updates in one way or another, so excitement levels are kept high and viewers will be thinking of the series more often, as different social media platforms they check will involve different things to do with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.




Defiance took a risk releasing a game and TV show at the same time that ties in together. A the show follows Nolan and Irisa in the town of Defiance, the game provides you with an RPG where you have your own character doing quests in missions in that town and surrounding areas, and in certain missions you will bump into and interact with both main characters from the show, as they follow the TV series' plot. The game even had some weekly events tying directly into that same week's episode meaning that you can interact directly with what you have just watched.
Although a good idea, the show/game hasn't done as well as hoped, but it must have been extremely expensive to produce the two at the time, so I think that with maybe better writing/directing and more experimenting with consoles' capabilities could have produced something better. I think that is a well written show with an already established fanbase did something similar to this, it would go down a lot better.



Assassins Creed has also experiment with transmedia storytelling. With the amount of characters and plots and time periods all tied together, there is a lot of stories that go untold, and at first it was only a case of reading between the lines and listening to the events in game. Later on, they began to release comics that ran alongside the games, shedding some light on other parts of the plot and other characters' sides of the stories. In some comics they vary slightly from the game (possibly because it would have given spoilers to later games) but on the whole they tell the same story. A 3 part film was also released on to Youtube, setting up the events of Assassins Creed 2. The film was live action acting mixed with backgrounds and locations from the game's environment. Transmedia is a great way to include all characters and tell all of their stories parallel to each other rather than just concentrating on the main protagonist, and it brings much more depth to the characters, which is vital for such a large franchise.

Motion Comics

Motion Comics combine animation and comic books to make a hybid of the two, using manning, voice acting and animation to enhance the art work already there. In some cases, text boxes, speech bubbles and thought bubbles (not that they are particularly used in comics anymore) are removed or moved, if hey are unnecessary because of the voice acting or get in the way of the art. Some motion comics create comics that work well with this medium, whereas some adapt already existing comcs.

Broken Saints was one of the earliest examples of this in 2001, and is pretty much what I expected when hearing the words 'motion comic'. There is panning, the character moves without being animated frame by frame, and text is still there while it is being narrated. This is an easy way to get the story, having both sound and visuals to concentrate on, although a downside is that you can't just read it at your own pace like with normal comics. On the other hand, you can see scenes in the comic as the writer/artist intended, with sounds effects and time to build up suspense.

Watchmen is adapted straight from some of the earlier comics, and while there are interesting effects, I feel like it is too animated. Almost like someone couldn't be bothered animating a full cartoon, so they left it half way. It doesn't feel like enough of a comic to me, using only the style and speech bubbles from the original medium, so it doesn't work quite as well.




Godkiller used original illustrations, making it easier to animate, but also taking a step further away from comics (in the opposite direction as Watchmen). If you could combine the two videos with this level of animation and the style of the Watchmen video, I think it would be a much more effective combination of comics and animation, and be much more interested.



Madefire Teaser Film from Madefire on Vimeo.

Though this is only a teaser film, the idea is very interesting, If the app works as well as the film suggests, it could give an extra dimension to the comics and move the images in a way that fits with the comic rather than just animating on top of a static comic background. It actually reminds me of some video games, specifically for DS. Things like The World Ends With You, Devil Survivor and Phoenix Wright all use a 2D approach for the narrative, moving the characters as the above does, although with a little bit less animation. I think that keeping the panels is especially effective, making it more comic book like, and this is how I would like to watch motion comics.

The Internet Animation Database

The Internet Animation Database provides an alternative to IMDB that involves only animated films/shows/shorts to make it easier to find accurate information for any of the above. It is still smaller than the site in was inspired by, but serves its function well.

You can search by character, year, studios, artists, title etc which makes it very convenient for finding what you are looking for, or even for discovering new animations.

The pages themselves are very plain, but provide the information needed, along with comments and reviews. It isn't the most indepth of websites, but it works if you just want to find new things or look up very specific animations. If it becomes larger and more popular in the future then it could be a very useful site, especially if it starts to over on from older 'classic' animations and into newer ones, especially ones that may not be published and are contributions from viewers (in a different way than Youtube and Newgrounds - although what would be the grounds on which an animation would be accepted? Length, method, style, audience?)

This is a site I will use for research in the future, even if it helps me to find animations more than actual facts about them.

Rebecca Sugar

Rebecca sugar (disseminate) from annapicariello

For my Disseminate project, I decided to talk about Rebecca Sugar, a director, writer and storyboard artist for Cartoon Network shows.

Her thesis animation, showed some very good design and interesting angles, but she is best known for her writing/storyboarding on Adventure Time, and for being the creator of Steven Universe.

Steven Universe is a cartoon based on Rebecca's younger brother (who also works alongside her on backgrounds). The show features characters of all colours, shapes and sizes as they fight to save the universe with Steven, a kid with powers who isn't exactly the sharpest crayon in the box. The show concentrates on acceptance and seeing the good in people, making it a happy lighthearted show even when things do well.

A surprising fact about this is that Rebecca Sugar is actually the first solo female creator to have a show on Cartoon Network which, in 2014, is crazy. There have been some co creators in the past, but none on their own. It can't be for lack of trying - there are plenty of female animators out there, and the number of female viewers on a lot of Cartoon Network shows is increasing, so maybe CN are stepping in and trying to make a change, or maybe Sugar's work blew them away so much that they couldn't say no. Either way she in an inspiration, and I look forwards to seeing more of her work, and the impact that her work will have on the Animation industry, at least where children's cartoons are involved.