Goodbye Roy Scheider

I can't imagine it will be all that much that I post about actors but I just read this morning that Roy Scheider has died.

That sucks.

A fantastic actor, probably known best for Jaws and maybe that underwater show with the talking dolphin but has done so much more. I don't think it's all that popular a film but I loved him in 2010 (along with acting genius John Lithgow).

Whatever it is that dead people do, I hope you do it well, Roy. You'll be missed here.

"Something's going to happen... something wonderful"

I know I said I was done...

I mentioned this in a comment to Ron and thought I should share it.

In the studio I'm in right now, the producer is always talking to people, companies, whoever, about new projects. So, on a regular basis, he comes to us with some visual reference (usually painted children's books, or beautiful illustrations) and shows them to us to find out what we think.

Without fail, the words that come out of his mouth are, "I was thinking maybe...", and somewhere in there he adds a pause to show he really is thinking about it, "thinking the look would be perfect for Flash."

The look. Perfect for Flash.

No matter what the hell he's showing us. It could be anything. An ink illustration - perfect for Flash. A children's book - perfect for Flash. A video of two donkeys having sex - perfect for Flash.

Every single thing on this planet is perfect for Flash. Oh, but not because it's cheaper and that's where he can make bigger margins. No, it's because the look would work best in Flash.


Okay, I'm definitely done with Flash for the moment. Honest.

Derek Versus Dad

Gah, blogger hates this format. Ah well, not to worry.

So I was thinking about Derek Versus Life. The thing is, with kids, most of the problems come from parents. All those scary-ass real life things are filtered through in the form of the craziness of your parents.

So here, for example, Derek doesn't know that his dad is worried about losing his job, has a slight alcohol problem, is tortured every day by feelings that what is going on in Gitmo is wrong, is afraid of pedophiles getting to his kid, wishes he could ask his missus for all that kinky stuff he actually wants to do, wonders if he could have made a go of that band he was in once and so on.

All Derek knows is that there are no hard and fast rules on how his dad will react. He's a crazy bastard. And that's how kids see the problems in the world I think.

But you can't really make a kid's cartoon about that, can you? Really? Wouldn't that make for a generation of messed-up kids? Possibly. Maybe the truth would make that craziness easier to handle but I doubt it. Could make a funny theraputic show for adults though. I don't know. Would be nice to make a show based on the truth about being a kid.

Besides, nobody would air this. Although, that said, channels air Barney and I think that show is an attack by the US on the rest of the world. It's worse than having the US bring democracy to your country. No offense to people in the US of course. Unless you're responsible for Barney, in which case I wish you all the offense I could possibly muster. Maybe some crazy loons would air Derek Versus Life. But I'd have to work on the look to make it more like other cartoons out there.

And maybe make him a cosmic explorer or something.

Time for a rethink maybe.

Ooh! I'm on the web!

Was browsing Cold Hard Flash this morning when I saw a familiar image. It was me! Seems someone took note of my Flash ramblings. Well that's just lovely of them.

Insightful, eh?

See? http://coldhardflash.com/

See?

Thanks, Cold Hard Flash guys! I appreciate the mention.

Derek Versus Life

So I started working on 'Derek Versus Life' - my cartoon show about a kid who is a complete loser. Finally, a show about real children. But I hit a real wall.

I couldn't decide if life was this place full of scary, hateful people, paranoia, media lies, greed, death and pain...

Or just completely devoid of anything.

What do you think?

Flash - for the moment

So I think, ultimately, Flash and its equivalents will be harmful to animation and harmful to those employed by the animation industry. I don't like what it is, what it does and what it's doing to animation. But, right now, it's keeping people employed. Right now, it's helping shows get off the ground. Right now, it comes with a lot of positives.

And it's not going to go away.

I've learned to use Flash and I think anyone in animation today should because we are not living in an age where one can specialise any more. Animators need to be jacks (or jills) of all trades to be employable. And Flash does offer quick means of expression as a bonus.

I know if I get a show going in the next few years, it will have to be produced in Flash. That's just the reality of budgets over here. And accepting that means the design can be tailored right from the start to work with those methods rather than against them.

And there is good Flash out there. If you're curious, keep an eye out at the Cold Hard Flash blog - they have showcased some great work. Sure, it's not traditional, but it's not all atrocious by any means. And a lot of cartoons are just really entertaining regardless of technique or animation ability.

Sometimes the animation is just an expression of ideas and that's okay.

There was way too much rambling about Flash over the last week so I'll let that positive note be the end of it for the time being. I guess we'll see where the industry takes us or, hopefully, where we take the industry.

Flash as its own form

There is also the argument that Flash is simply another form of animation, like stop-motion or cut-out or whatever and should be taken on its own with its own positives and negatives.

This is a view I would be inclined to support. After all, you can't get the same things in cut-out animation that you can get from traditional hand-drawn animation but that doesn't mean cut-out animation doesn't have merit or isn't valid. Cut-out animation brings its own character and can be really entertaining - just look at Terry Gilliam's Monty Python work.

Similarly, Flash has its own limits and should be taken on its own... right?

Well, the problem here is that Flash is being used as a direct replacement for 2D. It's faux 2D. If anything, a huge amount of studios using Flash are trying to fool you into thinking it's not Flash because Flash was a dirty word for a while in the industry - not so much now. If Flash is being used as faux 2D, then it should stand up to direct comparisons.


But it doesn't.