Eeeee!!!
I couldn't believe it, I got to meet John K. Wow.
He drew this super fast and gave me some good advice about my own drawings ("Learn to draw with construction"). I was rather nervous (perhaps understandable- he's a hero!!) but I just *loved* listening to him talk all about old cartoons and whatnot (did you know that Clampett was so intuitive he couldn't really articulate how he did what he did?).
I took lots of notes during both events (the meet and greet at the Cartoon History Museum and the screening at the Castro) and plan to post them here assuming I can still decipher them, hahaha.
So much to say about the event. I made three friends immediately and they were all really nice and cool. One of them, Leigh, draws beautifully and might draw for John someday, who knows!
I also got up the courage to leave John a copy of Chickenheads! I see about a zillion things about it I want to make better (it's really flat, it's got twins, there's almost no full body motion), but it's before I started really looking at the Preston Blair book and it was the best I could do at the time.
Anyway it was incredible to meet him: thanks for all the laughs and inspiration, John :)
9 comments:
I just watched "Chicken Heads", funny stuff. Thanks for sharing, got any more?
Chicken Heads was great man. Good acting and lip sync. Good pacing too. Real good flow from scene to scene. You have a crazy imagination bro.. later Ryan
Three cheers for Chicken Heads!
Seriously, it looks like you put a lot of thought and hard work into that. Good job, sir! I'm envious!
"I just watched "Chicken Heads", funny stuff. Thanks for sharing, got any more?"
Thanks so much Kevin!! :) I really appreciate that you took the time to have a look!
I've got one other film, called "Fluidtoons", which was made a year before Chickenheads. It's me doodling around learning Flash, haha, and drawn all with a mouse, but people seem to like it :) It's on fluidtoons.com but I've been meaning to post it to Google Video since fluidtoons.com is super slow.
Unfortunately I haven't completed anything else, but it means a lot to me that you ask, thank you :)
I'm working on a 15 second opening credit animation which will hopefully be done in about two weeks! :)
"Chicken Heads was great man. Good acting and lip sync. Good pacing too. Real good flow from scene to scene. You have a crazy imagination bro.. later Ryan"
This kind of encouragement is like gold to me, thanks so much, Ryan :) (and you know I love your drawings!!)
The lip sync was so hard, haha! I had seriously *no* clue how to do it at first... you can see it get a little better towards the end as I begin to get the hang of it :)
So glad you liked the pacing, too, hah :) I didn't plan it out very well- parts of it I didn't even storyboard, which seems really dumb, huh? :)
The very last part, which is really my favorite, I did in one 12 hour binge of animation before the thing was due for its first festival :)
Anyway, thanks again!! :)
"Three cheers for Chicken Heads!
Seriously, it looks like you put a lot of thought and hard work into that. Good job, sir! I'm envious!"
Awww, thank you a bunch, Dennis!! :) :)
It was a bunch of work, but it was fun, and it's easier than you think: you should give it a try, seriously!! :)
It did take me a long time, four months, but I was in school full time and also didn't really know what I was doing, haha :)
And there's like a million things wrong with it, which is why I was a bit afraid to give it to John! It's flat, the bodies don't move, the characters are not well constructed, etc etc...
But I appreciate your encouragement so much :)
Hey, and I really think you could do some really cool animation too: I just had a look at your comics, and seems like they'd translate well :) April 20th for instance is delightful! :)
Three good books: Preston Blair's book, "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams (John K doesn't like this one but it made some things a lot clearer for me personally), and "Animation: From Script to Screen" by Shamus Culhane.
Finally (man, maybe I write too much!), if you (this goes for you too, Kevin and Ryan!) want me to send you a DVD, just email me your address :) Chickenheads looks WAY better on DVD.
Hey Brett! Id love to have a copy on dvd. Ill make a copy of my final project from my fund. of animation class for ya too. Your email link isnt working..Ill try later..
Hey.. got it from your profile page. give me your address too bro.. later
Awesome, I got your email, Ryan!! :) So glad you want a DVD, and I can't wait to see your stuff too! :D
So sorry that email link didn't work, hm. brett.w.thompson@gmail.com is my address :)
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