BDM125, storyboarding, audio for animatic, 30 June

There is no need to cut between the two "twangy" music pieces underscoring the first scene with the Teenager, so I took out all of the little bits under the Museum.  I took out me saying "Monkey Saves the Daypaint!"  It's around if I change my mind.  The "Blue Danube" playing underneath the interior museum scenes is awful!  I found another quartet playing classical music.  I chopped that long piece up into bits that I could put under scenes to score the emotional moments.
From the Fresh Music royalty library, I used selections from "Classical One and Only 1, 3, 22, and 29" and "Classical String Quarter 2 and 8".

BDM125: audio for animatic, 25 and 26 June

Yesterday, I loaded the three usable takes of me making noises and doing voices for "Monkey Saves the Daypaint!" onto audio tracks on my animatic.  If I can figure out how to tweak the pitch, I'll have plenty of noises for my monkey.  Everybody else seems to be covered.  I cut the tracks into little pieces that I can now shift around and sift through for the best stuff.  Listening to it today, I'm thinking about what sort of extra noises I need from the soundfx library.  I have a folder of general stuff already, but now I'm focusing on things that are missing that will make a difference to telling my story.

Stuff to look for:
Me going "yay!" that I cut out because I thought I wouldn't need it.  I'll put it over the credits.
Ominous "intense silence" ambience for when the museum is "watching" Teenager spray paint.
Noises that a paintbrush or roller would make.  Some sort of "swooshing" noise?
Scratching, skittering noise for Monkey as he "draws" his way across the street.

Painterly things to do to my animatic:
There need to be gold frames, slightly fancier than the one around Graffiti Girl at the end of the short, around ALL of the museum paintings.  Plus brass markers to make the connection that people think it's "real" art when it has a frame around it. (Done 11:14pm)

Monkey needs a colour scheme.  He can't go to the end in black and white lines. (done 1:29pm)
Monkey MUST change colours/styles as he leaps from painting to painting! (Done 3pm)

I have four and a half hours with the Cintiq tablet today, and may not get any tomorrow.  I can listen/adjust audio on any machine.  I will fix the look and then do audio tomorrow.  More later on if this was a good decision on my part.

Monkey Saves the Daypaint! animatic with audio

This is what I got after working from 9 to 3.45 on Friday with No toilet breaks! No food! No candy!  Water only.  It took 45 minutes for the computer to convert to a video.  In that time, I couldn't make any adjustments, but I thought about it and made some changes after conversion.

BDM 125, BDM126 Animation reviews 21 June

Pixar's Up



I saw Inside Out on Friday, which made me want to revist Pixar's Up, another movie that never fails to make me cry.  In this case, it was only 5-8 minutes long.  Once Ellie's gone, the emotion goes, too.  It's a fun adventure for the now Elderly Carl, helpful Kenny the Wilderness Explorer, and the animals they meet on their way to Paradise Falls.  The animal characters, Dug and Kevin the rare bird, were well animated.  Kevin just squawks, but they get a lot of acting out of her, nonetheless, and Dug is a great dog.  It just isn't consistently gripping like Inside Out, but that felt like a more personally relevant story to me, the viewer.  I wondered what my dad thinks about Up.  He has a lifetime of experience behind him and 3 active grandchildren always grabbing at him.  He might find Inside Out ok but Up speaking to him.  That's the beauty of Pixar's body of work: something for everyone.  And as they keep going, they'll keep fleshing it out in a way that Disney never has, and probably never will.  Disney makes princess stories and Pixar makes everybody's story as worthy of telling as a princess'.

Psycho-Pass, episode 1
exciting shots, changed frequently so excitement level was kept up, standard high pitched girl/woman character who goes weak at the knees.  poker faced men.  Halfway through, I thought, "If this was really Japan, we'd have a mascot." And boom!  We've got mascots interacting with the public on the behalf of the police department.  Classic!  What's also classic, but not in a fun way, is  Inspector Akane Tsunemori's constant meltdowns.  She actually fires a gun from a knock-kneed position.  Get a hold of yourself, Inspector!  You went through the Academy, right?  You were trained for this, right?  I don't think I'll go back to find out. I guess every culture has trouble showing strong, realistic female characters who don't give in to cultural gender stereotypes.      


Sometimes I feel bad because everybody around me is drawing manga and cool-looking sword fighting stuff and I'm drawing cute little people.  Then I think, stick it!  Because Japan is also home to My Neighbour Totoro and more cute Kawaii mascots than you handle.  Yin and Yang, living side by side.  There's a place for everybody.

Puss in Boots
Very inspiring in terms of shots, camera angles and putting together an exciting sequence.  The Tuesday night Dance Fight that Puss gets into with Kitty Soft Paws is worth watching again and again.  The Shrek movies, of which this is a spin-off, have really "ugly" humans.  They're getting better and better, but I've never liked the look of them as much as Pixar's people.  I give them credit, though, Dreamworks has really improved the movement of the people characters.  They can be subtle and show thought in slight movements and facial expressions.  This is really evident anytime Jack and Jill are on screen discussing Jack's plans for starting a family.  Funny stuff.








Watching this gave me an idea:  Puss sweeps his hat off to the camera, we cut to black and then the next scene.  It made me think about doing some hat work in Monkey Saves the Daypaint.  Can my Monkey be as cool as Puss in Boots?

BDM125: Monkey Saves the Daypaint audio work, 23 June

I've spent 5 hours over two days listening to audio clips of sound effects, film scores and recording myself making noises for Monkey, Graffiti Girl, Madame Le Snob and Museum Director.  I'm having a little bit of trouble staying awake now... so I should find a few more key noises and just start plugging stuff into my animatic.  SIT's production office gave us the opportunity to record on their equipment downstairs.  It took the whole class for my movie to export, a lesson in itself about timing things, but they were still going at 4 and I was able to get in then.  I did two takes of just watching the short play out and making a series of sounds as the ideas or the scenes came up.  The "scratch track" can be cut and pasted, so it wasn't important that I get it "right" as much as get it "done".  The final take focused on me doing Madame Le Snob's cackling laugh.  Jamie the engineer said it needed to be recorded on a lower level.  Hopefully I've recorded something in there for all the characters.  Once the pitch is taken up or down, the noises will work for Monkey and the Museum Director and it won't sound like me grunting and cackling to myself for 3 minutes.  Fingers crossed! 

BDM125: Monkey Saves the Daypaint! animatic, no audio, 22 June

Monkey Saves the DayPaint! animatic

Selected scenes from Monkey Saves the Daypaint.  If I want to complete this as a short next semester, I will have to peel out the scenes that don't matter that much so it's a minute and a half.  I've spent the last two weeks trying to get it over the 3 minute mark, so haha! can I do the reverse?  Looking through these shots, yes.  I've chosen my favourite framed shots, but also ones that tell the story most economically.  This shows me that the scenes of the Teenager creating Graffiti Girl can go, as can the other paintings in the museum.  I'll give some thought as to how I can trim down the fire in the cafe scene which establishes the use of the fire hydrant and introduces Madame Le Snob.

BDM125, BDM126 Animation Reviews 3 June

Requiem for Romance

We watched this in class.  It was a really interesting short.  The action male ninja v. female ninja, fighting across rooftops. But the audio is an Asian Canadian woman trying to break up with her Asian Canadian boyfriend.  (I say Canadian based on the funding from sources in Quebec)  And this "disjointed" pairing of audio and visual really works.  The timing was expertly matched up so as the boyfriend goes on the verbal attack, so does his animated counterpart, and vice versa until the two end up quietly sitting at the end of a dock, just talking to each other.  Will they be able to get past parental prejudices and stay together?

The backgrounds look like watercolor being dripped onto the camera.  I wondered if this was stop motion, or live with black figures animated in a new layer.  It's making me think about the stop motion project next semester.

Mood is driven by pacing but also by the change of colour as the argument heats up, then cools down, and the changing weapons as the breakup conversation grows more pleading in tone.  

Then we watched Road Runner cartoons.  Meep meep!  I grew up with these and I've never seen them spliced together with 10 minutes of Wil E. Coyote getting his head knocked in when his  harebrained schemes went wrong.  Pacing, matching audio to mood and timing are to be observed and borrowed from.  There's that all-important pause as Wil E. considers what is just about to happen to him...

Road Runner cartoon

BDM125, BDM126, Animation Review: Pixar's Inside Out, 19 June

Inside Out trailer
What a beautiful film!  I went to see it this afternoon when I was feeling low on inspiration or the desire to go on with my projects.  Nobody will be in the computer lab after 6, so why waste the afternoon trying to work on a lap tablet?

Pixar blew me away when they covered Sully with fur  in Monsters Inc.  The Emotions (Joy, Disgust, Sadness, Anger and Fear) are all covered in soft peach fuzz and this gorgeous glistening hair/fur/feather hybrid and they look just as incredible.  It'll be interesting to see if the tie-in toys can live up to the beauty of their animated counterparts.  I also watched the fabric work on the costumes with great interest.  Sadness' sweater has teensy weensy little fibers sticking off in all directions, so you know what she's wearing is soft, maybe cashmere.  And how great is THAT attention to detail?

Two distinct, but equally interesting worlds have been created in the film.  The inside of 11-year-old Riley's mind is filled with the Emotions, their control rooms, the labyrinthine memory centers, the dump where faded memories go, Imagination Land (complete with a Dream Productions studio), memories... Outside in the real world, the locations and people were so REAL.  I kept being surprised by how lifelike the human's looked and moved.  And they're just as interesting as the interior workings of her mind.  There was never a drag when the movie showed what was happening in Riley's life that made me wish they'd hurry up and get back to the real story.  Inside and Out worked together.

Because I'm working on an animatic, I tried to pay attention to how long each shot lasted, how much movement there was, but I couldn't keep it up.  I think the lesson is 3 seconds, no more, then move on.  I watched for chase scenes and I think that mine will need more movement and changes in camera angle before I'm done.

There were two children under 5 in the audience, and I wonder if they enjoyed the movie.  This may be the first kid's movie that should be handed out to pre-teens and teens.  Or to adults.  I CRIED and CRIED and CRIED, the whole way through.  It was an incredibly moving script.  Good for you, Pixar.  Let's see more animation that tackles hard topics.  

BDM125: adding sound to an animatic

Free music is available on the Y drive in the Fresh Music Library or at freeplaymusic.com
Only music that has been prepaid or with written permission from the band/composer can be used.
any formats that won't take in storyboard pro can be changed.  don't change straight from y drive.  copy over to personal sound library.  the aiff format is generally used on Macs and not by PCS.  OPen the file up in Audition CC program (which can also slow, speed or otherwise manipulate sounds), then export it straight out as an MP3 file or wav file which should both work in ToonBoom.
Don't fiddle with sample type or format settings.  Those will be explained next semester.

Import sound files, set up where sound files are so they'll go to the same spot.  current sound track, first frame.  go to special sound folder in storyboard pro environment.

to make sound work, turn sound button on at top of toon boom screen (near play button)  in sound menu, hit sound scrubbing button so you can play with sound.

alt and left click creates keyframe on blue line, additional alt and left mouses? will create new keyframe points to bring sound up and down so voices aren't obscured.

make audio layers so music, dialogue, and foley/sound effects are on separate levels that can be manipulated.  import new things to new soundtrack layers.
cut into tracks by hovering at the begining to pull in and out. split at current frame makes two soundtracks and the one I don't want can then be deleted.

BDM125, BDM126, Animation Reviews, 17 May

I'm well behind on my animation reviews.  This week, 2D, stop motion and 3D shorts. 


Korgoth of Barbaria 2006
Directors: Aaron Springer, Genndy Tartakovsky, Production Companies: Cartoon Network Studios, William Street

If I liked Conan the Barbarian movies, I'd probably love this more.  As it is, Genndy Tartakovsky worked on the Powerpuff Girls, so this was definitely worth my time.  The jokes are funny and if I'm looking for a variety of ways to strip flesh off the human body, I'll be back.

 Moving On: A Stop-motion Music Video for ‘James’ Made with Yarn by Ainslie Henderson



This was very moving.  The death, or unraveling of the child in the bed and it's subsequent "rebirth" is really touching.  The full range of emotions were on display here without any facial expressions.  I loved the limited colour palette and the use of yarn to create the bodies and sets.  More than just a material, the yarn also acts symbolically to depict death through unraveling and connection through the cords that attach the characters to each other.

 5 Mètres 80: An Absurd Animation Depicting a Herd of Giraffes Leaping Off a High Dive by Nicolas Deveaux

This was gorgeous!  The complementary colours of burnt orange and browns against the aqua blues and greys of the swimming pool.  The line of giraffes patiently waiting for their turn to dive and their inventive acrobatics.  A 2D version of this would be an amusing fantasy, but making it 3D created a world where it could really happen and makes the idea of diving giraffes charming and exciting.

BDM125 Storyboarding: how to hand in the storyboard, 25 May

Save in pdf form, but do not print, export pdf. Choose 3 panels vertical or horizontal option. 

Delete all slugging notes

 Make sure each panel is annotated in extra notes so everything that is happening is referenced.  Dialogue, camera moves, sound notes, etc.

Editing profile means you can add concept art to cover.  Resize concept art in photoshop so it isn’t too big for the page and the title still comes through.  Turn off title if it interferes with the art.  

due May 29th, copy and paste folder with coversheet, storyboards into dropbox BDM125 assignment 2 folder.  

BDM125 Storyboarding, Graffiti Girl character development, 13 May

icon graffiti


Bottle caps

Girl in red

strawberry jam

BDM125 Storyboarding notes, week 8, 20 April

Storyboard Pro software, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 4.1
foreshortening: brandish the brush like a sword, towards the camera.
put the monkey in boots, then pan up his body.  the reveal of his face will be a surprise
no straight lines, always use an arc to show interest in a scene
use grid lines to show that the figure is standing on something.
When moving from two person shot to one person, the figure on left should stay slightly left in subsequent shots.  The figure on the right in the two shot should be offset to the right when it goes into a shot by himself.

storyboard resources on the web:
storyboardsecrets.com/blog/

•http://www.floobynooby.com

BDM125 Storyboarding: museum ideas

pop culture cubism


Jackson Pollock's The Blue Poles

Monkey changes to match the style or interact with the paintings he swings through.  What works of art are public domain and can be used as is, and which can only be referred to through style?


Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe

Roy Lichtenstein and pop art

BDM125, BDM126, Animation Reviews: Shadow puppets and stop motion animation, 4 April

Ha!  I actually laughed out loud at a 90 year old joke.  Stuffing the Ugly Stepsisters shirt front with everything but the kitchen sink is a joke that still lands.  The birds Cinderella dress her with the leaves of the trees.
Beautiful shadow puppets filmed on glass.   A sense of gravity- the birds and leaves float through the air, the cellar trapdoor is heavy and takes effort to pull open.

Lotte Reiniger's stop-motion animation work is still beautiful and inspiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvU55CUw5Ck  The Art of Lotte Reiniger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25SP4ftxklg  The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reiniger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kku75vGDD_0  Cinderella (Aschenputtel) by Lotte Reiniger (1922) by Primrose Productions, British Film Institute

Shadow puppetry in 3D animation can be seen in The Tale of the Three Brothers from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
contemporary work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN1_h_eGitE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-fmsVDFpTE  Richard Bradshaw- Jim Henson's World

BDM125 Storyboarding homework 14 April

Back to work after two weeks off.  The first week was spent interning and goofing off for Easter and the second week was spent making a male muscle suit for a female burlesque dancer to strip off.  Huzzah!

I'm catching up with Storyboarding:  Our assignment while I was gone was to go back and revise on shot types (not sure what this means)
Thumbnail out the first two scenes of the script, paying careful attention to the topics covered in the powerpoint presentations.  (I've gone through the powerpoints and now I'm watching youtube videos on storyboarding.  Very helpful.)
upload them onto blog for feedback and critique.  (I'm aiming for Thursday so I can keep to the spirit of the original timeline my classmates worked under.)

Very lengthy and informative you tube tutorial on storyboarding that I stumbled upon.  SpongeBob SquarePants features.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpmkV5b5qM


The tutorials and powerpoints on perspective have reminded me that most of my story involves buildings, so here is some preliminary research.   The Arkell Museum has the kind of facade that I want: it's imposing, modern, and mostly glass.  The metal struts look like the bars of a prison cell which is a great bonus.  And the big sign up top!  Love it.  It would be flanked by 19th century buildings that would flow on to a mish mash of oldy-timey european buildings surrounding a small garden square.  I'm going to look through my photos of Europe to select buildings that I can put together to create and everywhere and nowhere on earth kind of place.  

Stuff to get done during Easter recess

Finish second Frida Kahlo-doscope (finished 1 June.  Ha, ha!  Better late than never.)
sketch characters for "Monkey Saves the DayPaint!" (week of May 20th.  Again, better late than never)
Finish second travel Poster for "Get Out!" (I may not get around to that one...)
3 views of a building for drawing class (done by deadline)
Watch 2 episodes of film history documentary I missed last week (there was some light napping, but I did get this done and it turns out that they didn't watch it until I got back to class, anyway)
colour turning Mad Mozart (halfway through that as of 20/4)
read up on what I missed in class folders at SIT (finished 14 April)

BDM125 Storyboarding: Final Draft

revised 26 March, 2015

Glen, Ryan, Madilyn and Megan from class read over my second draft and suggested some revisions.  Mainly, clarifying what and who are involved when the words "painting", "painter", or "pictures" are used.  

MONKEY SAVES THE DAYPAINT!

by Traci Meek

EXT. PARK SQUARE-EVENING

A small, European park square.  An old brick building covered in graffiti and an art museum covered in windows face each other across the grass.

A TEENAGER works tirelessly with a bag of spray paints to create a mural of a GRAFFITI GIRL holding a canvas and paints on the side of the brick building. 

THE FOLLOWING MORNING

The square comes to life, people are passing by in a hurry, and children are playing in the park. 

Smoke billows out of a small café.  As the local fire department tends the fire, a crowd of latte drinker’s watch on. 

The TEENAGER puts the final touch on his mural of GRAFFITI GIRL and a wealthy museum patron, MADAME LE SNOB, shoos him off. 

GRAFFITI GIRL opens her eyes, looks around and excitedly begins to paint her canvas with what she sees going on around her.

INT. MUSEUM HALLWAY-MORNING

A row of large imposing famous paintings adorn the main gallery.  They stir to life.

A MILITARY HERO polishes the buttons of his coat with his horse’s tail and a TRIO OF LADIES warm up energetically. 

At the end, a small picture sits off to the side, small and forgotten.

ARTIST MONKEY sits in his painting working on a canvas of his own.  With his tail, he swipes a banana from a painted bowl of fruit and paints a moustache and eyes on the horse’s butt; he’s bored. 

EXT. PARK SQUARE- MORNING

GRAFFITI GIRL sees the paintings through the museum windows and waves at them.  They are polite, but too busy posing for the patrons of the museum. 

She makes eye contact with ARTIST MONKEY. 

SERIES OF SHOTS:  GRAFFITI GIRL and ARTIST MONKEY show their paintings and make silly cartoons of MILITARY HERO, TRIO OF LADIES and the patrons of the café.

The ARTIST MONKEY beams and feels a swell of creativity that he hasn’t felt in a long time.

INT. MUSEUM FOYER-AFTERNOON

MADAME LE SNOB marches up to the MUSEUM DIRECTOR.  She gestures through the windows at GRAFFITI GIRL outside.

MADAME LE SNOB

                   UGH!!

    

                   MUSEUM DIRECTOR

                   Ehhhh?

He shrugs apologetically.            

She opens her purse and throws money at him.

MUSEUM DIRECTOR smiles and gestures for the PAINTER to leave the wall he is painting and to follow him. 

EXT. PARK SQUARE-AFTERNOON

The PAINTER begins to whitewash the building with a very small brush.  MADAME LE SNOB taps her foot impatiently. 

GRAFFITI GIRL and ARTIST MONKEY laugh.  GRAFFITI GIRL uses her paints to undo PAINTER’s work. 

MADAME LE SNOB

Faster!

PAINTER reluctantly brings out a roller and brush.  The paint begins to cover GRAFFITI GIRL’s legs and she waves her arms to signal for help.

INT. MUSEUM, CLASSICAL HALLWAY-AFTERNOON.

MILITARY HERO sees her! But, the public is here to take his picture and he can’t do anything right now.  The TRIO OF LADIES shrug apologetically.  ARTIST MONKEY can’t believe it; they’re letting her disappear!  He pulls himself up straight and energetically swings out of his frame.

SERIES OF SHOTS:

ARTIST MONKEY flings himself from painting to painting, changing to fit the style of the paintings he’s traveling across. 

He stops in the foyer.  The exit is ahead of him but there is no more paint for him to use as a stepping stone to the outside.  ARTIST MONKEY looks worried; can he do it?  Can he really go OUTSIDE?

ARTIST MONKEY sees a patron wearing a colourful graphic t-shirt.  He leaps “into” the shirt and rides the patron out the doors.

EXT. PARK SQUARE-AFTERNOON

MADAME LE SNOB has had enough of this and brings out a super spray gun powered by a generator.  She directs the spray gun at the wall and squeezes the trigger with determination.  

The spray of white paint comes out thick and fast.  GRAFFITI GIRL is now literally up to her neck in paint.

CAFÉ SIDE OF SQUARE

ARTIST MONKEY leaps off the shirt to a truck to a window to the yellow painted curb, just across from the park square and GRAFFITI GIRL.

ARTIST MONKEY is stuck! He doesn’t have his brushes and paint.   A LITTLE GIRL sits at the café colouring in her book. 

They lock eyes and she holds up a fistful of crayons for his inspection. 

He grabs a crayon with each paw, and his tail, and busily colours himself across the street.

BRICK BUILDING SIDE OF SQUARE

GRAFFITI GIRL’S last eye has just been covered with paint.  ARTIST MONKEY has worn the crayons down to nothing and can go no further.  He slumps in defeat. 

He re-opens his eyes and sees the hydrant.  He remembers the fire fighters using it that morning.  He grabs the plug and sets off a torrent of water. 

MADAME LE SNOB is blown away, then the PAINTER.  The water washes off most of the paint, freeing GRAFFITI GIRL.  ARTIST MONKEY raises his arms in victory! 

MILITARY HERO and TRIO OF LADIES cheer as GRAFFITI GIRL smiles down at him.  MADAME LE SNOB, drenched in water and white paint, shakes her fist at the wall and the PAINTER.  ARTIST MONKEY and GRAFFITI GIRL lock eyes: is it over?

EXT. PARK SQUARE- THE NEXT MORNING   

PAINTER and MADAME LE SNOB return to find a crowd gathered in front of the mural and more people coming from inside the museum.  A big gold frame encloses GRAFFITI GIRL and a bunch of brass plates adorn the bottom of the frame.  The TEENAGER poses for pictures in front of the mural and GRAFFITI GIRL and ARTIST MONKEY beam down on the crowd. 

BDM125 Storyboarding- Step Outline Corrections

 The Step outline needs to be one page long and indicative of action and where dialogue happens.  Description shows up in later drafts.  These are the changes I made:  

EXT. PARK SQUARE-MORNING

A small, European park square separates an old brick building covered in graffiti and a gleaming art museum.  A teenager paints a mural of a painter Graffiti Girl.  Inside the museum, Artist Monkey resides on a canvas and paints.  A snobby museum patron stops to disapprove of the mural and chases off the teenager.  The Graffiti Girl opens her eyes and paints what she sees.

EXT. PARK SQUARE- MORNING

The Graffiti Girl and the Artist Monkey compare paintings through the window. 

INT. MUSEUM FOYER-AFTERNOON

The snobby museum patron demands that a painter be sent out to whitewash Graffiti Girl.

EXT. PARK SQUARE-AFTERNOON

The paint rises around Graffiti Girl’s legs and she calls for help.

INT. MUSEUM, CLASSICAL HALLWAY-AFTERNOON.

Artist Monkey resolves himself to do something and busts out of his frame.

INT. MUSEUM, HALLWAY-AFTERNOON

Artist Monkey flings himself from painting to painting, changing to fit in with the style of the paintings he’s traveling across. 

INT. MUSEUM, FOYER- AFTERNOON

There is no more paint to use to get outside. Artist Monkey leaps “into” the graphic t-shirt of a patron and rides out the doors.

EXT. STREET CAFÉ- AFTERNOON

Artist Monkey moves from the t-shirt to truck to window to yellow painted curb across the Graffiti Girl.

EXT. PARK SQUARE-AFTERNOON

The snobby museum patron brings out a super spray gun and Graffiti Girl is covered to her neck in paint.

EXT. STREET CAFÉ- AFTERNOON

Artist Monkey grabs crayons from a little girl at the café and colours himself across the street, looking like a kid’s drawing as he goes.

EXT. PARK SQUARE-LATE AFTERNOON

Graffiti Girl is covered in paint. Artist Monkey grabs the hydrant plug and sets off the water.  The snobby museum patron, painter and white paint are blown away and Graffiti Girl is free. 

EXT. PARK SQUARE- THE NEXT MORNING   

The painter and the snobby museum patron return to find a big gold frame around the Graffiti Girl and Artist Monkey and a crowd taking pictures of them.

BDM 125, BDM126, Animation Reviews, Week of 15 March

 Weekend binge knit/watch: Archer
(TV series 2009-)  "At ISIS, an international spy agency, global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other."   Now, there's a Logline!  Production companies:  FX Productions, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis, Trinity Summit.
Showrunner/writer Adam Reed.

I like the lush paintings in the background and attention to detail.  I like how the characters have dark lines around them and strong highlight, midtones, and stylish shadows.  They never get lost on the screen and the two styles totally mesh.  (I can see using this balance of set and character design in "Monkey Saves the DayPaint!")  There are great costume, hair and set choices.  And it's funny.

The writers write to the show's animation limitations.  How Archer Gets Made has an excellent storyboard showing a sequence of talking heads (cheap and easy to make) followed by a jeep rolling through a jungle (expensive to make and where the most bang for the buck comes from in the scene). 

Floyd County Productions art director Neal Holman and animation director Bryan Fordney in Animating 'Archer' 
How do they make the sets?
NH: The way we get a design going is Chad Hurd and I will work on something that we think best suits the needs of the scripts and the aesthetic that Adam is going for in his scene.  We’ll get his thoughts on it and once a design is locked, we give it to our 3D team and they build that environment.  Once it’s built, we can put our camera anywhere inside it and kick out a render and then pass it on to our background team, our painters, who paint over that render.  So, it’s not just an out-of-the-box render that goes straight to television.  It goes through our painters first so it looks more like a painting than it does a stale 3D render.

What program do they use to make the characters move?
BF:  We use Adobe After Effects for the character acting, which is almost more similar to 3D animation than it is to traditional animation because we are essentially creating rigs, like 3D character puppets, but we are doing it in 2D.
NH:  Adobe Illustrator is where we’re building all of the elements for the character rigs.  We’ll draw Archer standing in a tuxedo, but that one illustration of Archer in his tuxedo is split up into several different layers, so that his hand is on a layer, his forearm is on a layer, his bicep is on a layer, etc.  In After Effects, we’ll link those three layers together, so that when I move the bicep, the forearm and the hand move with it.  It becomes like a puppet rig.

More research articles:  
 Adam Reed on writing for 'Archer'
Adam Reed talks Archer: intereview on AWN
The Twisted Genius Behind Sterling Archer

BDM125 Storyboarding: Step Outline "Monkey Saves the DayPaint!"

Step Outline

“Monkey Saves the DayPaint!”

By Traci Meek

EXT. PARK SQUARE-EVENING

A small, European park square separates an old brick building covered in graffiti and a gleaming art museum.  A teenager works tirelessly through the night to create a mural of a woman with a palette of spray paint and a canvas.

EXT. PARK SQUARE-MORNING

The park square comes to life as businesses open, people go on their errands and kids play in the park.  The little café has burnt someone’s toast and the fire department has just finished putting out the little fire with the fire hydrant in the park.  The slightly smoky coffee lovers continue on with their lattes and newspapers.  A snobby museum patron pauses to note the new addition to the side of the building and clearly disapproves of the mural.  The Graffiti Girl opens her eyes, looks around and excitedly begins to paint what she sees going on around her.

INT. MUSEUM, CLASICAL HALLWAY-MORNING

The residents of the paintings in the museum, all worth millions of dollars, begin their day.  The Hero painting polishes the buttons of his military coat with the tail of his horse.  A Trio of barely dressed ladies begin their warm up and the other paintings generally stir to life.  Amongst all of these Very Worthy Paintings we spy, small and off to the side, a small canvas of a monkey in a red coat and a tricorn painting a picture of his own.  With his tail, he swipes a banana from a painted bowl of fruit and paints a moustache and eyes on the horse’s butt.  He’s been doing this for hundreds of years and he’s just going through the motions:  he’s bored. 

EXT. PARK SQUARE- MORNING

The Graffiti Girl sees the Artist Monkey and the other paintings and tries to communicate with them.  They are polite, but too busy posing for the patrons of the museum.  She makes eye contact with the Artist Monkey and they compare paintings.  The Artist Monkey feels a swell of creativity that he hasn’t felt in a long time.

INT. MUSEUM FOYER-AFTERNOON

The snobby museum patron tells the director of the museum she doesn’t like this “garbage art” that’s dominating the view out of the windows.  She throws some money at him and demands that a painter be sent out to whitewash the side of the building across the park.

MONTAGE  Graffiti Girl and Art Monkey show each other the new paintings that they’re working on and do silly cartoons of Hero painting and his horse and the patrons of the café.

EXT. PARK SQUARE-AFTERNOON

The painter begins to white wash the building but is getting paid by the hour, so he starts with a small brush.  The Graffiti Girl is able to hold him off for a while with her spray paints, and it’s a funny joke between her and Artist Monkey until the snobby museum patron intervenes.  She insists that the painter “hurry up” and he reluctantly brings out a roller and brush.  As the paint beings to rise around Graffiti Girl’s legs, she reaches out to the paintings across the square for help.

INT. MUSEUM, CLASSICAL HALLWAY-AFTERNOON.

The handsome Hero painting sees her! But, his public is here to take his picture, admire his pants and the shiny buttons on his coat, so he can’t do anything right now.  The paintings notice her predicament, but agree that there’s nothing they can do either.  The Artist Monkey can’t believe what he’s seeing; they’re going to let her disappear!  He resolves himself to do something and busts out of his frame.

INT. MUSEUM, IMPRESSIONIST HALLWAY-AFTERNOON

Artist Monkey flings himself from painting to painting, changing to fit in with the style of the painting he’s traveling across. 

INT. MUSEUM, POP ART HALLWAY- AFTERNOON

Artist Monkey works his way through the Warhol and Lichtenstein and stops short.  The foyer and the exit are ahead of him but there is no more paint for him to use as a stepping stone to the outside.  He’s never been outside, either!  Can he do it?  Can he really go OUTSIDE?

INT. MUSEUM, FOYER- AFTERNOON

Artist Monkey sees a patron coming down the hall who has a colourful graphic t-shirt on.  He leaps “into” the shirt and rides the patron out the doors.

EXT. STREET CAFÉ- AFTERNOON

Artist Monkey leaps off the shirt and onto a passing truck with a colourful logo painted on the side.  He then leaps onto the back of the horse logo on the local bank window and from there to the side of the street, just across from the park square and the Graffiti Girl.

EXT. PARK SQUARE-AFTERNOON

The snobby museum patron has had enough of this and brings out a super spray gun powered by a generator.  The spray of white paint comes out thick and fast.  Graffiti Girl is now literally up to her neck in paint.

EXT. STREET CAFÉ- AFTERNOON

Too late, Artist Monkey realizes that he should have brought his paints and brushes with him because he is now stuck at the yellow painted curb next to the café with no more paint for him to use to get to the Graffiti Girl.  He sees a little girl sitting at an outside table colour in her book while her parents chat.  They lock eyes and she holds up a fistful of crayons for his inspection.  He grabs a crayon with each paw, and his tail and busily colours himself across the street, looking like a kid’s drawing as he goes.

EXT. PARK SQUARE-LATE AFTERNOON

He’s too late!  Graffiti Girl’s last eye has just been covered by the triumphant snobby museum patron’s super spray gun.  She victoriously hands the gun off to the painter so he can finish off the last bits and clean up.  Artist Monkey has worn the crayons down to nothing and can go no further.  Dejected, he slumps against the fire hydrant.  With his head bowed, he re-opens his eyes and sees a little painting at the base of the hydrant.  He remembers seeing it being used that morning to put out the fire in the café.  He grabs the plug and sets off a torrent of water.  The snobby museum patron is blown away, then the painter.  The water washes off most of the paint, freeing Graffiti Girl from her white tomb.  Artist Monkey raises his arms in victory!  The museum paintings have been watching the whole time and begin to cheer as Graffiti Girl smiles down at him.  The snobby museum patron shakes her fist and berates the painter.  They’ll just have to come back tomorrow!  Artist Monkey and Graffiti Girl lock eyes:  it’s not over, is it?  How can she be saved?
 

EXT. PARK SQUARE- THE NEXT MORNING   

The painter and the snobby museum patron return to find a crowd gathered in front of the mural and more people coming from inside the museum.  During the night, someone has painted a big gold frame around the Graffiti Girl and fixed a bunch of brass plates to the bottom.  The teenage graffiti artist poses for pictures in front of the mural, a huge sensation in the street art scene, as Graffiti Girl and Artist Monkey beam down on the crowd.