Norman and the Love Triangle

It's been over a month now since I've last written anything, and I have been extremely busy with working on an animation project for the SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society animation competition. I've been a member of the club since September of 2009, but this was the first competition that I've ever participated in although I had wanted to participate in the competition during the Spring of 2010. In that competition we had to make a business card, a portfolio, and a website, and although everybody who participated in that competition would be a winner each participate would learn what they needed to improve upon. Unfortunately I was so busy with my Animation I and Materials and Techniques classes that I was never able to participate. Well, this time I didn't have a class in my way, and that allowed me to go absolutely crazy with my animation, I'm good at that.


There were two competitions this quarter: the animation competition and the character design competition. I had thought back in October of 2009 when I saw the first competition that I would enter the character design competition whenever I got the chance, but no, I entered the animation competition. The animation competition was split into two parts: 2D and 3D. 2D animation is the traditional way to animate a cartoon such as the old Disney style, and 3D animation is computer animated such as Toy Story. A friend of my mine during my first year at SCAD-Atlanta would often say that 2D animation was a dying art form, and I used to agree with her, but not anymore. It only appears to be dying because the public tends to flock to 3D animated films, but actually the public would go to a 2D film if it had a good, strong story behind it. Most of the 2D films that have been released as of late haven't been that great. So if 2D films had talented artists and a strong writer or writers behind it then 2D animation will make a huge comeback, but unfortunately not many studios have realized that. Anyway enough of my venting about 2D and 3D, I need to get back to what I was discussing, which was the competition. The participates who worked in 2D animation were given a character named Norman and the 3D participates were given Moom. We were each given an emotion for our character to display and a sound of dialogue, but the dialogue was just a bunch of blahs with a sound that no one could figure out what it was. The real point of the animation, however, was the acting. Could we successfully demonstrate our character's emotion through his eyes and body language?


I am a 2D animator...plus I don't know how to animate in 3D yet, and so my character was Norman. The emotion that I was given was anger, and that seems extremely appropriate given the title of this blog. I did not approach this animation competition like anyone else did because everybody who participated animated their character just displaying the emotion that they were given, but there was no substance behind it, no reason for the emotion. I knew early on that I wanted to give Norman a reason to get angry, and so I wrote a story about him discovering that his girlfriend, Victoria was cheating on him with a guy named Barney. Interesting fact about how I came up with the names of Barney and Victoria, I couldn't figure out what Barney should look like except I didn't want him to be confused with Norman, and so he had to be designed differently. I was watching either Season 2 or 3 of the Flintstones while I was animating, and I decided to give Barney a long, thin nose similar to Barney Rubble's, which is how he got his name. Although Victoria's nose came from Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble, her bow came from Daisy Duck, and her dress came from Minnie Mouse I gave her the name Victoria mainly because I absolutely love that name. There was a thought to naming each of them after a friend of mine, but given what happens to the characters to the animated short I didn't have the heart to do that to any friend.

We had four weeks to work on our animation, and I took up all four weeks. I know that I went way beyond the requirement, but that's just what I do. It wouldn't exactly be the Wright Animation if I didn't do that, and pretty soon everyone will probably expect me to go crazy with whatever project it is.

Norman and the Love Triangle premiered on Wednesday, March 2, 2011, and it was a pretty big hit. What was great about this animation was that it was a rather sad story if you really paid attention to it since the overall theme of it is betrayal. Strangely, that's a theme that isn't that uncommon in any of my stories. I write about betrayal a lot, and I suppose that probably says something about me. It's a sad story, but if you look at just the animation it is downright hilarious. So I guess it's a tragic comedy. There's actually a second part to this story, which wraps up Barney and Victoria's storyline. Victoria goes to see how Barney is, and he is still upset over learning that she was cheating on Norman with him. He breaks up with her and walks away, leaving her on her knees weeping. The story ends with her crying all alone. It ends unhappily like most of my stories. I considered adding this second part to the animation after the premiere, but I decided not to, and instead I decided to just let the viewers use their own imagination on what happens next.

If you look very closely at the movie posters in the background each movie is actually based on animated shorts that I've done. The majority of them were animations from my Animation I class, only the Vampire Mouse was not. So it was fun watching the other members of the Animation Society notice the posters, and they knew right away what they were based on since they've all gone through Animation I.

As of right now, the winner of the competition has not been announced for either the Animation or Character Design, and so I'll have to get back to you on that one.

The Return to SCAD

I have not taken any classes at SCAD-Atlanta for two quarters due to financial reasons, but in the Spring of 2011 I will finally be returning. It was made official when I paid the tuition as well as the commuter meal plan on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. I'll be taking two classes and both are on Tuesdays and Thursdays: Survey of Sequential Art and 20th Century Art. They're at peculiar times of the day with Survey being at 8 AM and 20th Century being at 5 PM. Not only do I have a lot of time in between the two classes, but it puts me in a slight pickle when it comes to commuting. Originally I was thinking about taking the Gwinnett bus downtown like I used to do during my Freshmen year, but the bus stops running after 6:15 PM, and I will still be in class at that time. One could say maybe I should switch class times, but there is only one Survey of Sequential offered, and the other 20th Century is an 8 PM class. So I'm kind of stuck. I suppose I could get up at 4 AM and drive in with my dad and just be at school super early or I could get up at 5 AM along with my mom, and she could drop me off at the bus stop to pick up my dad's car to drive in to school. Another possibility is if my mom doesn't mind not having her car on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Decisions, decisions, decisions, decisions. Whatever I decide it will be great to be back.

Final Thoughts

After I finished Norman and the Love Triangle, it was back to work on the panoramic drawing of the Cartoon Universe, namely inking it. I finished inking it last night, and I hope to have it posted for the next blog entry. It looks great so far. The next stage is getting it onto the computer, and originally I was hoping to use my camera's panoramic feature for that, but that is out of the question now. I'll go into more details about why I tossed it out in the next entry. In the end, my decision to do that will benefit the drawing.

I hope that all is going well with you all in whatever you are doing. Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a goodnight. So long, everybody.