Half an Animatic

This was an animatic that I did for the ANIJAM project, and actually it was the first animatic that I've ever done. It's a funny story how it's creation came about. I was planning on taking my storyboards and animating them in Flash including the voice track, and it would be like the deleted scenes on a DVD of a Disney animated feature. I felt that that would be a long time down the road, but then Prof. Keith Ingham told me that if I wanted to include dialogue in my animation that I needed to create an animatic first. Well, I had no idea what an animatic was. Prof. Schweizer briefly mentioned it in the Character Design and Storyboarding class. So I knew enough that it had something to do with the storyboards. So of course, I did the only logical thing to do when one doesn't know something...I Googled it. It turned out that an animatic was what I was planning on doing in the first place. Taking each frame and animating it, and it includes both the voice track and the sound effects. Actually I haven't decided how I want the explosion to sound like yet, and so I didn't include the effects. I guess, this is actually a half an animatic instead.


I provided the voice of the dog, and I based his voice off of the legendary voice of Astro and Scooby-Doo, Don Messick. Although right now anyone who knows me probably can tell that it's me doing the voice I can assure you no one will when the animation premieres. I plan to take the voice track and tweak it to sound totally different. If I can make Alan Reed/Fred Flintstone sound like an elf, I can make myself sound like someone else. I just want a gruffier voice for the character.


The great thing about doing this animatic was that it forced me to figure out the in-betweens while creating it. Each animation in the ANIJAM has to be at least 15 seconds, and I wasn't able to time the action like I had done in the original version that Prof. Ingham wanted me to change. The action was just too crazy to time. So I thought that I would have to cut or shorten some parts of it. However, once I figured out how many in-betweens I needed I learned that it would be just 11 seconds. I could go shorter too because there were some sequences where I gave it an extra in-between to be on the safe side, and it might turn out that those aren't needed at all.


I have finished doing the Key Frames for the animation although I will need to revise it a little. Mainly the box will need to be revised based on where the last animator left it, and I certainly hope that they didn't leave it somewhere strange, forcing me to change the character's positioning. I haven't checked my emails to see if I got the last frame of the animator before me, but if I didn't get it today then I will tomorrow.


Heroes Con 2012


Last month I went to Heroes Con, and it was my third one. I would have to say that Heroes is the best of the conventions that I've been to. I know that I've only been to Heroes Con and Dragon Con, but the latter is so crazy, not to mention that it is divided into several locations. At least Heroes is just in the Charlotte Convention Center. This year's Heroes was huge. They had a bunch of big names in the comic industry there including Stan Lee (not that I saw him), Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy), and Paul Levitz (the former president of DC Comics). I did get to meet Mike Mignola, and frankly, the impression wasn't very good. I did get his autograph, but I suppose I decided to get it more based off of my regret with Dick Giordano. I will always cherish that handshake and the talk I had with Giordano on my first trip to Heroes in 2009, and sadly, it was his last as he would pass away the next year. My only regret was that I never got his autograph. That's why I was willing to shell out $60 to meet Stan Lee last year at Dragon Con and why I got Mike Mignola's autograph this year. Although Mignola is younger than both Giordano and Lee we don't really know when the last time we will ever meet or see anyone.


Okay, let's move on from this depressing topic and discuss something more upbeat. I really didn't do much on the first day of Heroes except take a look around at some art and buy a couple of graphic novels done by some SCAD alumni (I've got to support them). During one of my trips walking around I glanced over at this science fiction comic that was being sold at a booth in Artist's Alley, and it was just a glance, but it was enough for the woman there to call out to me. So I stopped by the booth, and she started talking about Zyo Comics' Ultimate 7. They were selling four issues as well as prints and a graphic novel that was basically all four issues put together into one. I wound up buying the first issue, and I admit that I had a bizarre reason for doing so. When she was flipping through the pages I immediately saw what appeared to be a photograph of the earth within the artwork, and both Nolan Woodard and The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics say using actual photographs in a comic is an effect that colorists should avoid no matter how cool of an idea it may seem. That's why I got the comic to get a closer look and because I had never seen it done in a comic. Though just before I left the booth she told me that if I get the time to read it before the convention is over to come back and tell them what I thought. Oh, dear.


Well, I read it, and overall, I liked it. However, I found that the photographic earth was a distraction, just as Nolan and the guide book had said it would be. It was all right for the first panel on the first page because there wasn't any other artwork in that panel, but it becomes a distraction later in the issue when it's done again except this time there are drawings in the panel. The focus should be on the space ships, not the earth. That was my main criticism about it, but I really didn't have the heart to go back and tell them. I didn't want to burn any bridges when someday I may have to use that bridge. So on the second day of the convention I would head over there twice, but then turn right back around. It wasn't until I met my friend and fellow SCAD sequential student, Liz Enright (another name that you all need to remember someday), and I told her my problem. What she said gave me the courage to go over to the booth. Let the bridge fall where it may. I know that I am right, and I have two colorists who would agree.


So of course, the worse case scenario that I always imagine never happens...correction, rarely happens. I spoke with the same woman as before, and it would turn out that she was the letterer. She understood where I was coming from in regards to the photograph. I also met her husband, who was the writer and creator. So I talked to him for quite a while, and I started out as a regular comic buyer but I felt that things really changed when I told him that I really loved the color holds. He was the one who did the color holds (he also does the flats), and he was glad to meet someone who actually knew what a color hold was. After studying colorist, Alex Sinclair and taking digital coloring I have grown to love color holds, but I use them only sparingly. He uses them a lot, but at least he does so in the right places. Interesting though he told me that he goes over the ink lines very carefully, not to ruin the other colors. I found that there are several ways to color hold, but Nolan's way is the easiest and most efficient.


I would speak with them again on the final day of the convention to mainly say goodbye, and they told me to befriend them on Facebook and to let them know if I ever need a job. Wow! These are the exact reasons an up and coming comic artist goes to conventions, but it certainly is a surprise when it happens.


Final Thoughts


I started penciling The Captains of Heroism just before the Charlotte trip, but I haven't finished it yet. I still need to draw Captain America, and I am not too certain about the poses of Captain Atom and Captain Planet. I may go back to the drawing board for them. They look fine in the thumbnail stage, but they kind of lose that in the penciling. Aw, well, these little things can't be helped sometimes.


Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody.