2010 Jebs

[jebxz]

Ok so, I've been using flash since 2003-2004 (holy shit i jsut realized thats like 6-7 years) and I've been kind of out of the game for soemetime now in terms of animation.
I still draw though, and I'm gonna upload all my new shit to this thread when I get home get da filez.

But I've been seriously considering making a new cartoon with an actual storyline and shit. I'm even considering actually PLANNING OUT the entire cartoon before i start working on it ! Wow !!!! I'm not sure what the storyline will consist of for this new project, but since I've been developing him for so long, I think i'll use Jeb ( the hunter s. thompson/ fritz the cat-esque dog based on snoopy in joe cool form that i'm sure you've all seen by now) as the protagonist for it. I'm posting this now, hoping that you guys have some advice on storylines for a 3-4 minute animated film. I'm not really experienced in writing these kinds of things, so any suggestions or ideas would be really appreciated.  I'm working on model sheets for some of the characters in this film before i do anything else, because if there's one thing i've learned in the past from animating shit, it's that my main flaw is keeping the characters consistent visually. Once i have the characters fleshed out , i'll work on the story/script and storyboard for the cartoon before starting the actual animation and production of it.

So, yeah. Input would be great from anyone who has experience with screenplays/scripting for films.

[emanhattan]

while i dont know a lot about writing/scripting do know a thing or two about animation, and I totally engourage you to make the animatic or storyboard of your cartoon once you have a script you like. The storyboard is CRUCIAL and it took me a lot of time and a nearly failed cartoon to learn that. Having a storyboard is like having a "toon map" where you can actually tell if some takes are going to make sense/look interesting instead of proceeding with nicer work that is wasted because in the end "you didnt like how it came out"

just sayin and good luck!

[Philip K Dick]

just avoid cliche and have naturally flowing dialogue. two most important things imo.

[lenko]

i can't really offer much writing/scripting advice except its usually best to work out both your beginning and ending before you get to the juicy middle bit

map out absolutely everything before you do it, even things like colour schemes

for example you might be working on a night scene and then halfway through getting everything coloured, you discover a much better pallete for it. i've done this before and it's frustrating as fuck - so working out the individual palletes instead of just 'going with the flow' is just as important as doing model sheets or storyboarding imo

also, experiment a bit with each scene before you actually animate them. when doing animatics, try making two or more seperate ones with different angles for each shot and see which one works out best with your audio

other than that just take your time and have fun with it

[ZekeySpaceyLizard]

[Casey Pixmintro]

Yeah this shit is tough, I've felt the same way a lot recently. I've either immediately hated any idea I've come up with, or hated it after working on it for a while (Jim Wood). The only worthwhile cartoon I'm working on right now is my animation final and I know the only reason I won't give up on it at some point is because it's actually due for something. And I have no fucking idea how I actually came up with the idea for my final!

[Hnilmik]

I'm a screenwriting major, but I'm not sure if there're differences between writing for animation and writing for almost everything else. It's very obvious that you guys use storyboards. Like, for features it's pretty much the same, but the shortest shorts I wrote for my screenwriting class was a 2-minute short and a 3-minute short... And one page is like a minute. Small action scenes. If you want to use them and change the characters, I'll find a way to upload them (right now, .pdf isn't an uploadable format).

"Janet" has absolutely no dialogue and features a chick (duh).
"Paying the Piper" has 2 dudes fighting things out.

Otherwise, in terms of coming up with a story, people use all kind of techniques and I wouldn't know where to start, but I would personally expand on the protagonist more in some way. Write a character sheet and not with fill-in-the-blank questions and answers ("What school did he go to? What car does he drive?"), but with questions that would reveal character ("How would your character react to a mugging happening right in front of him? What is his worst fear and what would he do if he encountered that fear? What is his goal in life?"). There're character-driven stories (mainly on character interactions/relationships) and plot-driven stories (story is driven on pursuing a goal), but it's possible to get a good blend of both if you know what your character wants and how your character will try to get it.

[CVG]

The way I brainstorm a story is to make something I'd personally want to watch. Like instead of trying to think up or make something entertaining for others, I will make up a story I'd like to see my character take on. Most of the time I will invest into the character a lot and try to channel the actions of the being with myself so that it comes off genuine. In a sense, the story maker is an actor who is playing many different roles (but in their head and putting it down on paper). The story should be roughed out and brainstormed real loose and with branches to where it leads, but in the end you should be able to describe the beginning, middle and end of it in about a paragraph. Draw storyboards and pace the amount of time it will run from one scene to the next on the timeline. Sometimes by doing this you will realize its all waaaay longer then you expected and parts can be trimmed that are not as crucial to the story. In terms of timing I always use my music to pace out what's going on in the film rather than just using it as background sound but that's just my way of doing it). And then once you have that animatic done it feels like you can work on the cartoon in little chunks, and it doesn't feel like a huge project....it's a mental thing that makes you feel like you accomplished a "whole" when that little chunk gets resolved and then you move on to the next chunk with a new background etc etc.

Btw I have no idea how helpful this is or not since like I basiscaly just described how I work on stuff and it may not agree with your own work habits ^^;

[emanhattan]

i work in a similar way as cvg described and I think its paying off

that is when im not being worthless and lazy enough not to work on my cartoons

like right now!

[jebxz]

OK HERES STUFF




more later

[DrRumack]

that old man is awesome

[retrosmash]

sailor + old man are top notch budday