Here's an article about what tools I use to make cartoons.
The Setup / John Kricfalusi

John K Stuff: Storyboard To LayoutThese were inked by Mitch Leeuwe (did I spell that right?)

The layout and animation stages are starting to become blurred because it is so much easier to do all this in one program now.

The whole production system is changing and evolving as technology becomes easier to use and eliminates old time-consuming non creative tasks- like xeroxing, painting cels, shipping artwork etc...

There still doesn't seem to be a way to make digital backgrounds look as good as real ones and that's a shame because all the BG artists have pretty much switched over to digital now.

AMID: 1.) First things first, what's the backstory here? How did you end up animating a Simpsons opening?

Matt Groening and Al Jean asked me to do it. They showed me an opening that Banksy did that satirized the animation production assembly line system in Korea and told me it was really popular, so they wanted to do something similar with me.

Storyboard
At first they just wanted me to do a storyboard and have their regular crew animate it. If we had done it that way, then no one would even have known that I had anything to do with it because it would have ended up on model and all pose to pose. I showed them the Adult Swim shorts I had been doing and pointed out that the way things happened was even more important than what was happening in my work. You can’t write visual performance. You have to actually draw it.














to be continued...

I use the classic method of writing for cartoons. My "scripts" are actually much more detailed than any modern animated script. They include, not only the dialogue and plot-but also all the staging and cuts and some of the acting. Cartoon scripts are called "storyboards". They are far more suited to telling a story than scripts are, because they use all the advantages that drawing has over live-action.

WALT DISNEY EXPLAINS THE METHOD OF WRITING FOR ANIMATION

1 ) Story Premise

Someone comes up with a short basic idea for a cartoon and writes up a paragraph or 2 describing it. We send that to the network or I pitch it on the phone. Once it is approved, I assign the story to a writer to write the outline. The writers are artists who can write. Many times, the writer of the outline will also storyboard the cartoon. That's the ideal situation.

A HANDWRITTEN PREMISE: BEANY AND CECIL

SAMPLE PREMISES:JETSONS


2) Story Outline

AN OUTLINE WORKS OUT THE STORY STRUCTURE

STIMPY'S INVENTION - WRITTEN OUTLINE

AN ILLUSTRATED OUTLINE

More often than not, as I have meetings with the story team, I draw lots of sketches of the gags and scenes. The outline writer collects the sketches, puts them in order and adds them to the written outline.


3) Storyboard

The storyboard artist is an artist who can tell a story in words and pictures. He takes the outline and fills out the details of all the gags and action, working with the director. He also adds dialogue.

He draws rough and reviews the material every couple days with the director. The director suggest changes, adds his own drawings and they build up the story bit by bit, sculpting it into a filmic story.

Once the board artist hands in his story, I usually finalize the dialogue and make changes to get all the characters in character.

PLANNING REUSE AND SETUPS FOR STORYBOARDING

STORYBOARDING

STORYBOARD ARTISTS DRAW ROUGH-NOT ON MODEL OR CLEAN

SAMPLE STORYBOARD PAGES: GEORGE LIQUOR



Transcribe Dialogue from storyboard into a dialogue script.

I direct and record the dialogue with the actors. There is no separate "voice director".

Storyboard Assembly-

Generally I have been making the animatics once the cartoon is finished storyboarding, but I think it's better to make the animatic as the story progresses.

This should avoid writing and drawing a story that is too long.

Music-Timing

I choose the music for each sequence as the animatic is being worked on the animatic person times the cuts and actions to the music with the director reviewing every couple days.

SFX Cut

We also overlap the cutting of the sfx with the cutting of the music. This can either be done by the sake person assembling the animatic, or by a separate sfx person who has an ear for sound.

sample animatic: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE





WHY LAYOUT?

Main Setups Designed - Supervising Layout Artist/Designer

These are designed by a supervising layout artist/designer. He takes the main sequences and draws a setup showing where everyone and everything is in relationship to each other.
(I'll have to find samples of these)

Director Layout Handout

The director hands out a sequence to a layout artist. He gives him the main setup. He explains the scenes and story and draws quick sketches of the actions and acting.
The layout artist then takes the director's sketches and draws the scenes.

Layout Artist- Plan Setups - Make Scene/reuse list

http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/2009/12/setups-for-layout-and-storyboards.html

Before he starts doing the actual drawing, he plans his section for reuse. He separates the scenes in the storyboard into long shots, close ups, special angles etc. He makes a list of what scenes use the same setups as earlier scenes.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/12/scene-planning-for-tv-setups-for.html


LAYOUT ARTIST DRAWS SCENES

Once the L.O. artist has his scenes planned he draws them. He should be able to complete between 5 and 10 scenes per week if the section is difficult. If there is a lot of re-use, he can do more.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/10/maintain-guts-from-sb-to-layout-pt-2.html

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/03/bastard.html

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/11/1985-jetsons-layouts.html

Layout Artist Adds Poses That Aren't In The Storyboard:

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/07/layout-breakdowns.html

Inking / Clean up

If the production is to be finished digitally, it makes sense to have an artist ink all the layout poses on the computer.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/07/some-good-inks.html




Character Design:

Main Series characters are designed in pre production - but are constantly supplemented by the best layout poses as the series gets underway.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/03/slab-n-ernie-models-made-from-layouts.html

Main guest characters are rough designed before storyboard and layout.

Main guest model sheets are made from poses in the layouts.


Prop Design:

Only important props are designed before layout:
Like if a certain vehicle is used all through a cartoon, or a certain device.

Incidental props designed by Layout artist - and then P.A. collects layouts, finds props, has them inked and made into models.


Nothing drives me more crazy than seeing the production department compile 10 inch high stacks of model packs to send overseas or to each department. In general the layouts are the models for my cartoons. It's a waste of time and money to make giant stacks of model sheets.

Incidental characters per episode:

Main incidental characters designed before layout starts.

Some characters designed in Layout and then use layout poses for a model pack if we really need a model pack.

BG Design:

A BG designer designs key BGs in stages:

1) Roughs working with director
2) Finals- actual layouts to be used in the film. If there are characters in the scenes, he draws the BGs so that there is room for action.


BG Color Key

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2010/08/marker-color-keys.html

BG Painting

http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/2008/01/bg-painting.html



Animation:

The biggest creative problem in animation today is that we don't do it. It's all done overseas (or in Flash) and both systems lead inevitably to cartoons that don't use animation as part of the entertainment. It's made the whole TV industry devolve into a visual art form that isn't visual.

Historically, when animation is done overseas it causes more problems and expense than it is worth.
90% of the studios throw out the drawings we send them and don't use the timing. Even when they use the drawings, they time them so badly that the action floats from pose to pose and you never see the poses.

All this causes endless delays for retakes and wastes the director's time and energy.

I would much rather use less animation and do it all here. All they really do in most service studios is inbetween the layouts anyway. There are a couple of exceptional studios but they are not always available.

Assistant Animation:

Same problems as above.

Flash style animation:

It stinks. No matter how you try to hide it, the animation looks like cut outs floating across the screen.




Final Edit

Mix

Composite


PRE-PRODUCTION - NOT COVERED IN THIS POST...

Title Sequence
design
music
sound effects-foley
training
learning curves
reference/research/library
etc.

Here's Percy Pimplepuss from a presentation I drew for TMS thousands of years ago.
Percy has a condition. He tends to swell and fill with viscous fluids.
But then comes release.

And relaxation.THE 80S WAS A BIZARRE TIME
I worked in just about every animation department in the 1980s but the job I liked best (before I ever sold my own ideas) was being a "development artist". This job is kind of a lie because you are doing drawings mainly to impress someone into buying a show. You don't have to do the drudgery of drawing every pose in a storyboard or layout on a boring show - or have to waste hours unscrambling some sloppy writer's ill-thought out script before you even start drawing.

Anyway, as development artists, we didn't have to worry about practical realities. We were just supposed to trick someone into thinking a show might look good if they paid for it. We did a lot less drawings than production artists, but spent more time on each one and actually got to be somewhat creative- although we knew not to expect the shows to have anything to do with what we drew. That was baffling to me, but at least it wasn't so stressful as working in a studio on what should be a real job and knowing it's all going to end up awful anyway.
These were from a presentation for a cartoon show based on "The Garbage Pail Kids". I knew from the beginning that even after somewhat toning down all the gross stuff that the show would never sell, but CBS really wanted to develop it - because the bubble gum cards were a huge hit with kids.

In the 80s, networks would only buy new cartoon shows that were based on already-successful characters in other mediums. They wouldn't buy brand-new creations from cartoonists. - That was considered "too-risky". This was before Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats and "Doug" established the trendy "Creator-Driven" fad of the 90s and put Saturday morning cartoons practically out of business.

When the kids in the 80s went nuts for Garbage Pail Kids cards, the networks had just discovered that kids liked gross stuff. Amazing.

But they couldn't really bring themselves to take the money by doing the show. They paid for the development and then rejected the show and the potentially huge ratings that were sure to come.
These look so mild to me now, but were considered really radical in the 80s.

POSTSCRIPT:

The SM execs of the 80s never understood why the finished shows had nothing to do with the presentation that tricked them into buying it. They were at least smart enough to see the difference. But they were ignorant of the actual production process at an animation studio, so had no idea that every step of the assembly line was designed to tone down and blanderize the idea.

I knew what was happening because I saw it ever day. I realized that it didn't matter what you started with on a cartoon. It only matters what you end with.

Most people think a show is good or bad based on how good or bad the "idea" is-whatever an "idea" is. Ideas are only good if there is a production system that not only allows them to end up on the screen, but encourages them to improve and evolve along the production line. That didn't exist then, existed for a short time here and there in the 90s and has since disappeared.

Well that's a subject for another day.

Here is a factory production system guaranteed to produce crap. Note at what point the "director" comes in and what his duties are limited to.

You could have the greatest cartoonists and animators in history working at this studio, and the cartoons would still smell.

Tiny Toons began with a blasphemous premise but some lofty ideals that I agree with. The crew - as Jorge pointed out, was put together mostly from the Mighty Mouse and Beany and Cecil crews. It was quite a star list of talent they had.

The cartooniest and most enthusiastic artist was Eddie of course. Here are some of his sketches of the Looney Tunes babies.This Bugs character looks pretty conservative for Eddie. They are really good, but I'm surprised he had to write "acceptable off-model". I wonder who needed to be convinced it was acceptable? I bet the model department wasn't!
I really like Eddie's Porkys. These show a special love for the character.
You gotta be a real cartoonist to realize the creative beauty and humorous potential of Warner Bros.' seemingly most conservative character.
These are some great poses below. It's weird to see Porky wearing pants, but somehow Eddie manages to draw him as if what's under them is aching to come out. He knows what people like about Porky.

You know somebody can really draw if they like to do back poses - and can make them funny! Many artists are afraid of drawing characters from the back - not Eddie. He embraces the backside. This Porky below is really appealing. Damn those pants!
Here is definite proof that Eddie can draw cute!
I love how he can get perfectly clear poses, construction and attitudes in just a few lines on a tiny thumbnail drawing. Eddie's storyboards are super fun to lay out, because he's done the hard part for you. I don't know how you can go wrong with storyboard drawings like this.
Story Artists No Longer Are Allowed To Tell Stories

Nowadays, they make the storyboard artists not tell stories anymore and do something totally irrelevant to the job instead. Guys who should be staging and writing the gags are too busy cleaning up their tiny drawings and drawing complete detailed backgrounds to have time to think about story. No job category does what it was invented for anymore, it seems.

Here's the Daffy character looking much better than I ever saw him on the screen
He had a really bizarre design in the cartoons. - a giant brain with a tiny little vestigial beak. (I did a bunch of giant brain tiny Toons drawings making fun of it)
Eddie was one of the first directors during the idealistic days of Tiny Toons' birth. (Or reincarnation) He was the perfect choice. He had a unique "voice", a strong individual drawing style and a really funny way of seeing the world - as you all know from his genius theory blog. Plus, he knew all the cartoons that they were basing the baby version on.

Tiny Toons (not the characters) came out of the Mighty Mouse and Beany and Cecil experiments. It was originally supposed to be a continuation of their ideals - the ideals I had been fighting for all through the 80s - which were to give cartoonists back the industry that had been stolen from us and let the cartoonists create the whole thing from beginning to end. They even started by packing the studio with MM and B&C artists and "writers" - who were actually artists in disguise. Mainly Tom Minton and Jim Reardon who wrote so many funny MM episodes.

Tom Ruegger told me he loved Mighty Mouse and had already imitated it in "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" for Hanna Barbera. Being once an artist himself and having some sympathy for us, he said he believed in the same things as I did, and he set up the studio for WB and Spielberg. Steven himself is a big cartoon fan and wanted cartoons done the way they used to be done at WB's original studio, not some crappy Saturday morning thing that was just like everything else.

Tom started with my adapted-to-TV unit system and doing layouts in-house (which everyone else was doing overseas) and having artists write the cartoons. I think they still used scripts like we were forced to on Mighty Mouse and that may have been the parasitic worm that eventually devoured the system.

This was all happening at the same time Spumco was starting production on Ren and Stimpy, and once we got into heavy production I began stealing many of my artists back from Tiny Toons and installing a more advanced artist/unit system. There was a lot of overlap between the 2 studios.

I'll show you some more takes on the same characters Eddie drew by other well known cartoonists.

...and tell more stories. Eddie, you can correct me if I get anything wrong. Or Tom or anyone else that worked on that first season in paradise.

Ren and Stimpy" height="265" width="400">Ren and Stimpy" height="265" width="400">


Somewhere in between the storyboard poses and the animation we do layout poses as I showed in the Dave Feiss post. There are usually more layout poses than storyboard poses, because I get in there and fiddle with them.


In this case, Kelly Armstrong worked from the basic layout poses but added a lot of her own - without straying from the context of the scene at all. All her poses only strengthened the scene and made it more individual and more real.Here's the basic layout pose above which only tells you that Ren is having a romantic dream and that he thinks Stimpy is a beautiful human woman.

Kelly, again listened really closely to the soundtrack and drew expressions to match every inflection in my voice. She also exaggerated far beyond what anyone was used to seeing at the time. Even me.

These are pretty close to the layouts.
Kelly added the lips and all the specific mouths.



Holy Cow! Any other studio would fire you for drawings like this!

Back to layouts.





Unfortunately this beautiful scene got cut when the cartoon first aired. It was deemed too "homosexual". Even though I think there were gay people working on both sides of the production.

It actually isn't remotely homosexual. If anything it's "homophobic". Once Ren wakes up and realizes he's kissing Stimpy and not a girl, he freaks out. It's also species-o-phobic, when you think about it.

If you wanna still frame through -it, you'll see a lot of amazingly crazy Kelly drawings.
I want to point out again that they aren't randomly crazy; not merely for their own sake. They all drive the point of the scene home, right down to its minutest details. This is entirely different than say a Jim Tyer, who can sometimes just be crazy for crazy sake, without regard to character or to what the scene is about. That's still more entertaining than blandness, but it's much harder to be creative and stay within context.

http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/spumco/RenStimpy/1BHB/KellyCucaracha.mov