Designing the Look

Ben Balistreri is an amazing character designer (his work is pictured above) and has worked on countless TV animated shows such as Danny Phantom, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder, etc. He's also worked on a few Disney movies such as Brother Bear 2. Character designers like him have a lot of talent for creating characters. I'm hoping to gain some kind of character designing skills while here at school, but for now I'll be focusing on finals (pray for me). Character designers bring a lot to the table in animation.
Their designs is what most of the crew refers to for whatever they're working on. Storyboard artists are shown these designs and insert these characters into their panels. Layout artists add in these characters as well. Most importantly, the animators are able to animate them after seeing all angles of the character. This position is pretty self explanatory, but it really is an important feature for the production of a movie/TV show.
When they're not designing their own original characters, they're using the direction from those who wrote the movie/TV show. They'll describe the character in detail (or maybe leave the detail to the character designers) before giving them the responsibility to design the character. Of course, the first designs they come up with aren't always the ones they go with but they're given freedom to share and later revise. Many character designs are gone through before picking a satisfying look. Sometimes they'll add or take away some details of the character later on.
A lot of illustrators will use different methods to designing characters. Some are influenced by real life people they know that maybe relate to the character. They'll use outside figures as a guide when developing the look. Some actually will maybe take original characters they've designed in the past and make them look similar. Mainly, though, a lot of it has to do with the influence from the writers describing the character. Symbols are used and obvious traits from previous characters. If the character is written as shy and reserved, they may make this person look small and curled in on itself all the time. It honestly depends on the character designer.
They're awesome at what they do and I'm hoping to start creating characters of my own that will maybe end up somewhere where people can enjoy it. Next topic is what I'll hopefully be going into so get ready for me to start gushing over this: Storyboarding!

Coming to Life

It's easy to draw cartoon characters as they are seen. It's harder to draw the character AS that character. What I mean is that there is more than just the physical look of the characters. There's their mannerisms, personality traits, and a personal story about them. Animators focus on who their characters are and what makes them special. Life drawing helps with becoming familiar of the human anatomy and how each body part functions. Life drawing is one thing, but adding animation into that is something completely different.
Life drawing was very hard for me. I've gotten a lot better, but making one part look exactly as I see it was challenging and made me want to chew my fingers off. When I was finally became comfortable enough drawing models and duplicate what I see, I had it all flushed down the toilet once I entered my current Life Drawing for Animation class. I had to stop thinking about drawing nouns and instead begin drawing verbs (Walt Stanchfield's book really opened my eyes to this). Each drawing had to look as if it were still in movement, which was a whole another challenge to overcome. Still, I really enjoyed loosely sketching figures and adding a story to them by having them bend and twist to a more cartoonish style.
These angular bends and twists really separate life drawing from animation. Knowing the anatomy of a figure is very important for knowing how your character is going to move and express itself. These movements are then exaggerated to where it becomes a more cartoony feel. Animators want their characters to have a living quality to them and not like a stiff cardboard. The drawing has to feel real or else the audience won't connect with either the characters or the story. I'm really interested in character development and animation so getting to learn all of this really makes me excited.
You can't animate without knowing what you're animating. Figure and gesture drawing really helps with placing down different personalities for each figure. Getting the movements down for a character that explains the specific type of person that character is will make animating it a success and worth it in the long run.
The next topic will link with this in more ways than one: Character Designing!

Fade In...

There is some serious skill that goes into writing a screenplay. I could barely manage writing a dialogue script for a class I was taking and that was only a few pages long. In this sense, voice actors and actresses are practically skipping through a field of meadows compared to the people who write scripts for a TV show or a film. They actually have to provide the story. Scripts aren't something that takes a second to write. No, no. Years are put into this. And, of course, stories are constantly being revised or rewritten to their taste. I can't think of any movie where there weren't multiple screenwriters collaborating and helping one another out.  There may be some out there, but in animation I can't recall anyone working solo on the script.
Animated movies are always working on the premise of their next movie during the production of another. It's a cycle where the writers will come up with more movie ideas to work on in the future as one of their movies is being made. I would have never thought of it like this, but there's no way they would just work on a movie for a few years without writing new ideas for another. As far as the scriptwriters are concerned, they simply take that premise and write out a hundred page script with the help of each other. Movies that are based off of novels are probably easier to write considering it's based off of a script that has already been written and elongated into three books. Still, there's the matter of what parts to put in, what to take out, and which to rewrite.
TV shows are constantly writing scripts. General ideas for the next episode are placed and then are written up. Depending on how long each episode is (11 minute or 22 minute), there can be a lot of script taken out and revised if it turns out to be too long. A challenge for screenwriters is that they must figure out a way to scrunch down the entire script into something that is more time manageable. With TV, not every cartoon show is script driven (but that's another story to tell for later), but I've seen interviews where they have complained from taking a thirty page script and shrinking it down half that size. I mean, wow! Can you imagine how many scenes were cut out from those episodes? At least we're able to know about deleted scenes.
Writing a screenplay is really only the beginning phase to a lot of hard work that follows. Visual storyboards can be just as challenging as writing a script. Next up: Life Drawing in Animation!

The Voices We Love

I'm very excited to be discussing this next topic with you. Why? A few years ago I had a strong interest with voice actors and what they do. Hardly anyone stops to think and wonder about the effort put into voice acting. It may seem like an easy job (and I'm sure in some ways it is), but it does take a lot of hard work. This man pictured above is someone that every single professional voice actor or actress would know. He is the epitome of voice acting and also known as the Man Of 1,000 Voices. He makes up ninety percent (if not a hundred) of all the voices you've ever heard in a Loony Tunes cartoon. This man is Mel Blanc. This guy seriously made voice acting a thing. For real, watch him in an interview and you'll see why. He is the idol for a lot of voice actors and actresses out there and an inspiration for cartoon figures.
Mel isn't with us anymore unfortunately, but more talented voice artists have made their way in and are now becoming more recognizable. There's a documentary on Netflix titled I Know That Voice. If you love the idea of these guys then this film is something you should see. Very entertaining and fascinating by how many voices can come out of a pair of vocal chords. I know more than a dozen voice actors because I have a habit of looking up the voices behind the characters and knowing what other characters they've done.
In the world of animation, the characters are often drawn up first before a voice is added. Auditions are set up and several are gone through before one is selected for that character. There are other times in movies or TV shows where there is already a voice actor/actress in mind and they are asked to voice the character. I think it's always interesting when they model the character to look like the said voice actor/actress. For example, in the movie Monsters vs. Aliens, the President of the U.S. was designed to look like Stephen Colbert who voiced him.
Before I knew anything about this profession, I thought that the script was read in order from start to finish. This is not the case at all. Different scenes are recorded variously and it really is up to the director for which scenes to work on first. There are multiple ways these voices are recorded. Some have the voice actors/actresses voice alone in a booth with only the director and producers to feed them lines. Other studios prefer to have multiple voice artists read lines together in a room so as to feed off of one another. Either way is successful and their voices do the job wonderfully.  
I can honestly go on and on about this subject, but the main thing to know is that these guys are really important to the industry. I mean, these guys are so great at what they do. They have to portray their emotions through their voice. A lot of them act out while recording their voice since it helps, but it's still a difficult process. I'm really hoping to voice my own character one day.
Shout out to Billy West, Roger Bumpass, Dee Bradley Baker, Tara Strong, Grey Delisle, Tom Kenny, Jim Cummings, John DiMaggio, Rob Paulsen, Nancy Cartwright, Mel Blanc, and all of those amazing voice actors and actresses out there. You guys are awesome.  
Next topic: Screenwriting!

Deadlines

This mainly applies to TV cartoon shows due to how many episodes they have to make, but movies also have to meet deadlines. On average, animated films take about five years to make depending on the film. When it comes to the different industries such as DreamWorks and Blue Sky, I have no idea what their methods are for setting deadlines during production. Nevertheless, deadlines are set (even if they are general) and every crew member must meet it one way or another. Managing time in animation is another important key factor to take account of when it comes to reaching a goal. This is also the thing I fear the most since I'm one of the biggest procrastinators I know.
I know more about TV deadlines than I do for movies. Not that I've personally worked for an animated TV show, but I do have the knowledge given to me through interviews and tours. Every show is different with their deadlines. For some shows, each episode premiers weekly because they are able to have the episode done for that time. Most of the episodes for the season is done during the time given between seasons. On average, a year is given between each season, but some move faster than that. Again, it really all depends on what kind of episodes they are creating. I will discuss more on this when it comes to the actual animating part of it.
Animated movies take a lot longer to make than live action, that's for sure. It also makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Let me get back to the actual management part of it all. Different members of that team have a specific job they must handle and the director will give them deadlines of when they need to complete it. Sometimes animators may request a couple of days more to work on their scene, but they still are expected to manage their time in a way to where they meet that deadline. It's all about creating goals and motivation; something I REALLY need to work on.
Procrastination has to be able to pay off in the end so it's a bit risky to do it in the first place. But a lot of artists work better under pressure so some do this on purpose.
I'm working on managing my time more so that hopefully I don't completely botch it in the near future. Coming up will be the topic: Voice Actors and Recording!

Tasting the Music

I don't care what anyone says, animation without music is like cereal without milk. (Get used to these food analogies, I'm really hungry right now). It's tasteless. It doesn't have that spark to it that draws in the audience. If I wasn't majoring in animation, I would have probably majored in music (or theater). It doesn't even have to be music that fits with what's going on, it still gives it some spice. Movies often have orchestras that play music written for the film, which is pretty much every single animated film out there. (Though there may be a few I can't think of right now in which the music isn't original). As for TV shows... I assume they also have some sort of orchestra (or band) that plays their type of background music. I can't say for sure yet.
Most Disney movies have musical numbers where characters sing and Pixar movies stick with orchestrated pieces to play in the background. A little something about myself for a moment, my favorite all time Pixar soundtrack is from Finding Nemo. I could honestly listen to that all day. Pixar is amazing at creating emotional depth through their music. Not a lot of animated industries out there do what Disney does in terms of writing songs for their characters to sing, but they're still able to portray what they want for their characters.
Though I love music in animation, I don't have much more to tell you guys other than to gush about certain pieces of music I adore and all that good stuff. I just want to mention it because it's something that some people overlook and don't think too much into it. One of my favorite composers is Danny Elfman. Man, can that guy write music like butter on toast. Mm... toast...
You guys have any favorite soundtracks or composers? Next topic: Time Management.

Humor Me If You Will...

I am a sucker for comedies; especially animated comedies. If I watch a movie or television show that makes me laugh to no end or cry like a little school girl, then it's a movie I will never regret watching. I added crying in there because I also enjoy movies that make me experience sadness since it doesn't make me feel like I'm an emotionless droid. While we're on the topic of sorrow, the saddest animated movie I have ever seen in my entire life is a Japanese anime film called Grave of the Fireflies. I've never cried so hard in a movie before; beautiful work of art and worth seeing. Anyway, back to the funny stuff!
Animation and humor go hand in hand like milk and cookies. The milk is animation and the cookie is humor. Animation absorbs humor and molds it in any way shape or form. (I bet you're loving this analogy right now. It's making me hungry, too). Humor is expressed in a lot of ways depending on the film or show. Physical comedy has always been a favorite of mine, especially from watching Loony Tunes. Why did I choose an image of DreamWorks for this topic? This is solely my opinion, but out of every animated industry out there, this is my go to for comedy. DreamWorks freaking nails it with their humor, this is the primary emotion I feel whenever I watch their movies.
There's a thin line between a kids show and an adult cartoon. I say thin because there have been kid shows where subtle contents of adult humor are seeped into it and completely go over the heads of kids. Movies, too. I have no problem with this. I actually fully admire it because it's great to get the jokes later on. I love every type of humor except maybe extremely cheesy one liners.
Humor isn't the only thing animators go for, but it's actually really important to have some sort of humor when going into the animation business because it's such a loose and free environment to work in. Funny ideas adds that extra layer of cake (or onion in Shrek's case) that everyone looks for.
Too many pastry references. I'm gunna go eat grapes.
Thanks for reading! Next topic will be on a personal favorite of mine: Music in animation!

It Starts With An Idea

First, let me just point out that ideas come to people in every way shape or form. I honestly don't know anyone who comes up with ideas in the same way that someone else does, but that's the beauty of it. Every single person out there has ideas even if they don't peg you as the creative type. I've known technicians and medical doctors who have bested me with amazingly creative ideas. I will say this, coming up with ideas is not an easy feat. I actually have to sit down and gather every ounce of my creative juices to come up with something. Much like Calvin up above, stress and full blown panic to a deadline will usually do the trick.
What's so wonderful about the animation industry is that every worker involved has input to add to the story even if they didn't write the script. (They could be a background artist for crying out loud). These ideas may be small changes here and there, but nevertheless these changes add some spice to the movie or episode. Of course, not all ideas are put into effect, but what's awesome is that you can save that idea for later or perhaps enhance it with help from someone else. COLLABORATION IS EVERYTHING IN ANIMATION. Oh man, I can't even stress how important that is. I mean, I'm not even in the business yet and even I know that you'd be screwed if you worked by yourself in the industry.
To put simply, the animation process first starts with an idea and expands from there into either a 90 minute award winning animated film or a multiple seasoned TV show with ten to twenty episodes a season. Some stories are specific and complex (Wreck-It Ralph) and some are simple with a general premise to it (The Simpsons), but all stories are wonderful and everyone gets a connection with these stories.
Let your ideas out! Collaborate! Create something amazing, guys! That's your homework for tonight... due midnight. Yeesh, talk about pressure. Okay, my next topic will be on something that I obviously lack at the moment: Humor.