Diary of a Beer Snob part 2

This weekend, Nat and I took a short hop up to Lake Geneva to spend some time together and eat as much food as humanly possible over the Thanksgiving holiday. Now, I know, I've mentioned my love for beer in the past. I have a special kind of love for microbrews. What better way is there to showcase the purity of the American spirit than by saying, "No, Miller! No, Budweiser, we will not be tied to your brand of swill." I think the only thing which embodies the American spirit more is moonshining.

I was surprised to find that Wisconsin has many microbreweries. I bought some choice beers and will be sampling them in the days to come.

However... I also came across another beer that piqued my interest. If you read the last post, you remember my delight in finding God's own brand. While in Wisconsin, I managed to run across a Belgian made brew that proves to be the exact opposite:




Satan Gold.

Wow.




Personally I would have thought Beelzebub would have been better suited to hawking an IPA or something more red. But-- I suppose the Belgians know best. Perhaps the Gold part has to do with Lucifer and all that rot about him being the most beautiful of all angels until he decided he could do better for himself. Who knows?

It seemed to be an inoffensive beer, but unfortunately, it didn't leave it's mark of the beast on me today. Perhaps its most interesting feature is making you doubt you even drank it. That's evil, my friends.

Though I seem rather unaffected by the brew, I have been listening to all of my albums backwards today. Which is quite a chore since they're all mp3s.

Diary of a Beer Snob

It's no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am a beer lover. Those of you who have gone out with me on occasion have noticed my willingness and fearlessness with new and unusual malted beverages. Today, while at the grocery store, I happened upon a 6-pack that I just had to put to the test.

Finally, someone has answered that age old question:

If god drank beer, what would be his brand of choice?

Now we all know that some lesser beers claim to be god's gift to beer. In fact Budweiser claims to be the King of Beers. While that may be good enough for the King of Kings, it's not what the big kahuna would like. Thank the maker the good people of the Schmaltz Brewing Company of Saratoga Springs, NY have answered that question.

He'Brew!

I think it might even be kosher. Check it out. Even the King of Rock likes it.
Thank you lord.

STORYBOARDS!!!!!!!

But first, a quick sketch of my hirsute pursuit.

Now on to the good stuff. Yes, I know, I've been promising these Kuma storyboards for awhile now.

Well...

They're finished. After really thinking about what was most important to the commercial aspect of this animation, Micah and I came up with a rather delectable direction.

So here are the boards with explanations. Don't worry if they don't make sense to you right now. They don't have to. I'm really just posting them for my own benefit and so that some of you can get a kick out of the process.

Here goes:

1. This is the opening tracking shot. It should be read from right to left. It's a very serene morning somewhere in the dew covered glens of toonland.






2. From here on all boards can be read from left to right. Check out the anger on this bear! Kuma's single blow to the ground creates a change in scenery. He rushes toward the camera creating a transition to the next shot. Next shot is of two awesome cooks grilling and flipping the burger off screen.












3. The buger flies onto the waiting bun held by the waiting waitress. She saunters off screen. Cut to the band responsible for the mind altering metal in the soundtrack. Our waitress begins her pass of the band here.















4. Our waitress walks by the band to the beat in a silly/sexy walk which I hope will seem to be the love child of of John Cleese and Jessica Rabbit.













5. The singer of the band pops his head up. Cut to our waitress still en route with the burger. Now she's walking toward the camera (notice Kaijo dancing in the BG). Her foot comes down on the camera creating a transition to the next shot which is a continuation of her walk away from the camera toward the waiting Kuma.












6. The camera pans left as our waitress makes her wide strides over to Kuma. Close up shot of Kuma as the waitress lowers the tray to show him the delicious burger. Kuma takes a bite, and ketchup sprays the camera. The End.












So that's that. Short and sweet. I had a blast drawing these. Hope you enjoy looking at them. A bit of work ahead. Next stop audio temp track and animatic. Hopefully comin' atcha in few weeks.

Stay tuned.

Enjoy.

Harryhausen

The face only a character designer could love?


Perhaps.

Still on my stop-motion kick.

Heard this great interview with legendary special effects stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen.

Harryhausen Interview


In other news, just bought my ticket to Bill Plympton's test screening for his new movie Angels and Idiots. So I'll be dorking out something fierce this Wednesday night at the Music Box Theatre.

Oh yeh...

Kuma storyboards almost complete, kiddos. Stay tuned.

Enjoy.

Ones or Twos?

So...
I just wrapped up my Halloween 2007 with a viewing of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit.

In my opinion, the folks at Aardman never cease to knock it out of the park. Everything down to the last detail was stunningly designed. Perhaps it's unbecoming of a grown man to giggle with delight at the sight of little rabbity antics, but uh... well... I did. So there.

Hm...
I think I need to watch Predator or something manly like that to get the old beard growing again.

Another thing that always impresses me about Aardman's (or specifically Nick Park's) work is that they exercise serious restraint and shoot everything on twos. For the couple of non-animators out there who are checking this (you know who you are), twos refers to the number of frames exposed for every one movement. In other words, if I move Wallace's arm once, I would shoot two frames of film. This was a labor saving device developed in the early studio days of animation. In 2D animation, it doesn't show as easily. However, in stop-motion, it is a bit more noticeable. Many stop-motion animators shoot on ones. Shooting on ones, in my opinion, is fine for quick movements or for animation to be merged with live action. But it's a dangerous habit to get into.

I myself have fallen for the lure of the Siren of Ones. When shooting animation, it's natural to experiment with different frame rates. Oh sure, you do twos at first, then you start messing around with threes just for laughs. Then, before you know it, you see this kid in your animation class who's unshowered, unshaven and hasn't slept in ages. In fact, you don't know if she's even in your class.

"She's on the ones, man," someone whispers. At first you think, there's no way I'm gonna turn out like her, but then you catch a glimpse of her pencil tests.

So fluid.
So energetic.
So full of-- life.

You think, I mean, isn't that what animators are supposed to do? Give life to objects? The next thing you know, you're up all night together doing twice the work you were originally doing! And all for what? So that a character's scarf can flap in real-time? Pah!

Then one night she tells you that she's been in school for 8 years, and she's only halfway through her final animation project!!! Student loans are growing, grades in other classes are slipping and all you have to show for it is a very realistic yawn. But it's okay. Just admit you have a problem by saying, "My name is (state your name) and I'm addicted to ONES. I understand now that movement should be believable, but it doesn't have to be realistic. No amount of exclamation points can truly drive home my warning to you, but here goes:
Stay away from ONES!!!

Just kidding. The real lesson is:

Moderation is the key. Always animate responsibly.

Enjoy.

Happy Dia de los Muertos!