Furpy

Furpy has just been weaned and then left astray. He is Cigarettes the Cat's little obedient buddy and will do anything for him. He is the cute relief of Stinky Time Theater.

Like most cats, He doesn't like baths. His tears mix with the drips and suds.

 Here is part of a story from Stinky Time Theater that features Furpy in the beginning.

 

 

Sody Pop Loves Furpy

Furpy is a stray kitten and Sody Pop can't resist strays. She finds him stuck in the drainpipe and pulls him out. She feeds him, pets him and cleans the grease out of his fur. After blowdrying him he is so fluffy and cute that she suffers an attack of cute aggression.

A Storyboard Audition From Paul Badilla - Acting Continuity

Here's a submission from Paul. I like that he is instantly wanting to get into the characters. His continuity here is focused on their feelings about what's happening.

I would have aded a bit more context though - by drawing WHAT it is they are reacting to. They are watching the SUPERFRIENDS and the gags in the story depend upon knowing some things about the animation in the SUPERFRIENDS - like the fact that they have flesh colored eyes, or that the xerox pencil lines look really itchy. You'd want to SHOW that on the TV screen first and make it obvious to the audience.

I also would suggest punching up their feelings with staging and acting.

For example, you could:

open the scene on a close up of Slab N Ernie's face as they listen to the exciting soundtrack coming from the TV.

Light from the TV plays across their mesmerized faces.

V.O. "OK, Zarkon! You've committed your last atrocity on Earth 3! Now all 73 SuperFriends will stab or thumbs into your evil flesh colored eyes!"

Zarkon: No No! Not that!!

Then maybe cut to a shot to show the TV set. End credits of a hundred Korean names are racing by at 6 times the speed of light as triumphant synthesizer music blares.

Then cut back to the kids all excited and impressed by the fantastic 70s Hanna Barbera animation they just witnessed.

(There are other ideas that can be inserted into the opening too - maybe showing the crappy Superfriends style staging with stiffly drawn characters not moving while their lips barely open and close like wobbly shutters -
this would all be quickly sketched out and the order of the sketches would be moved around until we get the best possible flow of the ideas and story -which is what we'll do at the story workshop next week.)
It might be funny to contrast the lively acting in the Slab N Ernie cartoon

with the mannequin-like 70s posing-although I'm not sure where to fit it in.


John K Stuff: STORYBOARD WORKSHOP AUDITION - SLAB N ERNIE
The gag at the end here - or the setup to it is that Ernie is about to color Slab's eyes "Flesh Color" like in the Superfriends. I would go in close to focus on the crayon and Slab's eyes so you can see what happens.

Now, it's too bad Paul doesn't live anywhere near Toronto where he could participate in my Story workshop at TAAFI, because this is just the kind of submission I would like to have.

He, likes me wants to focus on the characters and has taken the time to learn to draw the characters well enough for a storyboard. -and he seems to have a feel for continuity. Some submissions I have seen seem to have disconnected storyboard panels where one even just jumps to another event without and connections between the panels and it makes it hard for me to be able to follow what is happening.

Over the years I've seen that "continuity" is not a skill every artist has. The ones that do have the instinct for it are generally more suited to storytelling and can be taught more story skills to help their natural abilities. Of course being able to draw well enough to convey a story is essential too.

John K Stuff: Story/Gag Workshop at TAAFI (TORONTO) on Sunday July 8 2012

Story/Gag Workshop at TAAFI (TORONTO) on Sunday July 8 2012

STORY WORKSHOP 1:30 PM

HOW TO DRAW STORIES FOR CARTOONS

The folks at the Toronto animation festival came up with a unique workshop idea and asked me to demonstrate the way I write the stories for my cartoons.


As most people who've read the blog know, I don't use scripts; I use the classic cartoon method of writing the details of the story with drawings on storyboards. My writers are all cartoonists and animators. Of course, not all cartoonists have story ability but the ones who do write the best cartoons because they understand what works when you have to draw every frame of the story.

Mike Kerr, one of my funniest story partners will be joining me on stage to conduct a "gag session".

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

We'll want to involve some of the artists in the audience and have you suggest gags and draw them out on storyboards which we will pin up and review and add to.

Their may be around 80 people in the audience, so I wouldn't be able to personally spend time withe every artist, so I'm trying to figure out a way in advance to maybe see some of your work and select a few funny cartoonists.

I will do another post with some links to storyboards I've done and character designs and descriptions.

CAN YOU DRAW FUNNY? APPLY NOW

In the meantime if you'd like to participate in the event, you might get used to drawing some of my characters. (They don't have to be perfectly on model, but the drawings should feel like the characters and express their personalities).

The characters I am thinking of using are Slab N Ernie, Bobby Bigloaf, maybe George Liquor, Sody Pop and The Heartaches.

Maybe we can get 2 or 3 cartoonist units together and each unit can storyboard a section of a different story.


If you wanna do some sketches and upload them to a blog or web site to show, put an (active) link in the comments to this post. If I think you have story potential, I may select you and give you a heads up on a rough story idea to start sketching up. Or if you already are familiar with my characters, you can suggest your own story or gag idea. - REMEMBER - DO IT WITH DRAWINGS, NOT JUST TEXT.

CLICK THE LABELS BELOW

TO FIND POSTS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS AND THE PROCESS

The Story Process Step by Step

KNOW THE CHARACTERS

This is very important. Know their personalities and how to draw them.
The stories and gags you come up with should take advantage of their specific personalities and quirks. Not every gag works for every character.

COME UP WITH A FUNNY SITUATION

This is the starting point for a story; just come up with an idea. If it sparks many more gags it's worth developing further.

WRITE A PREMISE

This is just to keep track of the idea. If we were doing the show for TV, we would usually send the premise to the network execs so they could gleefully reject it or "give notes". Do they go to college to get a degree in "giving notes"? I've always wondered where this talent comes from.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/03/writing-for-cartoons-4-ideas-origin-of.html

HAVE A GAG SESSION

Get a couple more funny artists together and toss ideas around based on the situation you've come up with. Everyone will draw quick sketches to show the visual potential of the gags.

It helps to eat bacon or Montreal smoked meat.

Someone should keep track of all the gags and furiously write them down so you don't forget the good stuff.

WRITE AN OUTLINE WITH DRAWINGS INCLUDED

Then one story person should collect all the gags from the session and type them up in a list -with no particular order.

I use Microsoft Word because they have an "Outline Mode" which makes it easy to rearrange the ideas in a better order.
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/05/writing-for-cartoons-stimpys-invention.html

You want the gags to build in a logical progressive story order so after you have made the list of all the gags, now rearrange them according to the best order to tell a story.

I usually group them into 3 sections:

1) Setup -

this should be short but should clearly establish what the story is about and titillate the audience's curiosity. It should be entertaining and make the audience really want to see what happens next.

2) Middle

This is the longest part of the story

You develop the situation further and build the gags in a progressive order. Each gag should develop the original premise and situation. Avid going off on a tangent with another storyline that has nothing to do with the original idea. When this starts to happen, just save the gags for another story and get back to developing THIS ONE.

Build the gags and situation to a climax - don't start the middle with your best craziest gag and wind down.

3) Conclusion

This is usually short and sweet too.

Think of the ending to Stimpy's Invention. I had so many gags and so much intense emotional conflict going on in the middle that I was running out of time to have an easy wind-down. Because the cartoon had to fit into the 11 minute TV slot, I would have had to cut gags out of the exciting part (the middle) to make room for a comfortable easy wind-down. So instead I just ended immediately after the climax and rolled over and had a cigarette.

Here's another sample outline - with pictures:

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/03/comic-book-day-outline-pt-1.html

DRAW THE STORYBOARD

and fill out the details.

The outline is basically your map so that you can keep track of the structure and flow of the story.

It lists all the major plot points, situations and gags and presents them in a logical order.

With this guide you can now concentrate on drawing the details. Since it often takes more than one storyboard artist to draw out the story, then the guide becomes even more important.

I don't know exactly how to teach storyboarding except to say:

Draw funny.

Draw in character.

Act everything out.

People make fun of me when I draw because I hunch over into weird positions and make odd faces. I don't do it on purpose. I am getting into the story and characters. I don't want to draw by formula or by storyboard theories - I just want to get in and draw a story as close to real time as I can hastily draw.

When I draw rough and fast I tend to get a lot more life into the drawings.

My poses and expressions are more custom (less reliant on model sheets) and a lot of lucky accidents occur.

In fact, I would not have any model sheets around while storyboarding. If you have to keep stopping the flow of drawing a story by turning and analyzing model sheets, then you are going to have a jerky unnatural cold story.

The process at this point should be mostly feeling and emotions. Get all sensitive like a 70s pop singer. Get into the harts and souls of the characters. You are performing with a pencil.

The hardest thing for me to convey to artists who have spent too much time in studios that have a zillion rules and are model sheet crazy is how to connect your pencil to your feelings

instead of having your pencil just obey a bunch or predesigned expressions and poses.

I see a ton of modern cartoons where all the characters make the same expressions, hold the same poses and move the same way as each other. I've seen really funny cartoonists who in real life have their own unique expressions, gestures and quirky movements - who when having to draw a story, immediately resort to standard stock "animation expressions" and "animation gestures".

They aren't letting their pencils reflect their own personalities and world views.

The best storyboard artists have pencils that are connected directly to the artists' unique personalities and outlooks - without being filtered by trends and stock style formula.

In fact I would say the same thing about layout artists, animators and every other creative person.


more to come...

Writing For Character, rather than plugging characters into a generic plot

Write For Character

_{I’ve always found that it’s much easier to write for characters that have strong distinct personalities – iconic characters.}

_{Some cartoon writers like to begin with a high concept, (“Let’s start the picture by shooting the protagonist’s mother and then the son goes on a magical adventure to search for a replacement mother figure, but then finds out through trials that he himself is an individual and thus important to the uncaring universe and can solve his own problems with the help of a nagging assertive female.”) “Who IS the protagonist?, some junior executive asks. Everyone in the room agrees that that will come later and isn't. The story is what’s important, not who it’s about.}

_{The writers then plug in stock animation character types, and randomly choose what species the characters are. These types of stories typically use generic plots and stock animated personality types. The last 25 years of animated features have largely been about finding and loving yourself. They are peopled by a wimpy ineffectual lead, the strong assertive liberated female, the wacky fast talking irritating sidekick, the evil hook nosed villain, etc. The creators just change the “arena” and the classes of animalia, but the characters remain essentially the same simple stereotypes, all out to find themselves and be OK with who they are.}

The message seems to be: it's OK to be an individual, just not if you work in our unfeeling corporate-owned monster of a studio.

Plots

The easiest (and I think most successful) stories I’ve written or worked on were the ones that directly evolved out of the characters’ personalities, rather than just taking the characters and plugging them into a plot or situation.

Stimpy’s Invention was originally pitched as a typical “Character A makes crazy inventions that backfire on character B. Hilarity ensues”
It was rejected on that basis and I reexamined it and thought that it needed something that took advantage of Ren and Stimpy’s personalities.

Ren is a psychotic highly strung nervous wreck and Stimpy is a trusting, dumb but empathetic guy who loves Ren despite Ren’s meanness.

When Stimpy realizes that his inventions are driving Ren nuts, he doesn’t blame his screwy inventions, he instead thinks Ren just needs a cure for his unhappiness. Inspired with a new mission, he decides to invent something to make Ren happy. He gets the idea for a Happy Helmet.

Once we came up with that, the story wrote itself. (Well Bob Camp and I did, but it came much easier once it wasn't about wacky inventions) Now the gags were all about the characters, not about the props.


In Ralph Bakshi’s Mighty Mouse, the best stories were the ones about the villains. MM himself didn’t have much personality, so I found it more rewarding to write about the bad guys or quirky new superhero characters we created.

Tom Minton wrote “The Littlest Tramp” which, on the surface was a satire of “The Little Match Girl” and other sappy 1930s cartoons. The satiric elements were funny, but what made the cartoon exciting for me to work on was the character dynamics between Mighty Mouse, the Polly Pineblossom (the poor flower girl) and the villainous Big Murray, whose sole motive in life was to make Polly’s life all the more miserable.

The drawings of the acting of the well defined personalities was really what sold the story.
We had other stories that kind of went nowhere, demonstrations of how weird we could be, but the episodes which most developed the personalities were the most fun stories to tell – and to draw.

STRONG CHARACTER INSPIRES PLOTS

Once you have solidly defined interesting and fun characters, you can “write” endless stories about them. Conversely, the types of characters created for “Arena” cartoons or what I call “Mom-killer cartoons” rarely outlive their first appearances.

There is also the modern vogue of random cartoon writing where everything is supposed to be a rebellious non-sequitur. No plot, no character, no structure. I don't what can be said for that. You can't teach random because everyone can do it. It's a lack of purpose or plan.



Sorry I have no pictures today, but click any of the labels below and there will be other articles with illustrations.

Next: a bit about how to write strong character dialogue.

Stories Written On Storyboards By Artists