You can find Part 1 of Matthew’s interview here. And Part 2 here.

Hope you dig it. I know I did.

Do you have your own kind of process of how you think through a sequence?

FEAR.

But I’ve gotten better at it. When I get my script, I pretty much just let it sink in a little bit. Just kind of think about it. It’s really an 80% thinking and 20% drawing kind of thing. I don’t want to just sit there and hope that my doodles might turn into a sequence.

Lately what I like to do is, from the sequence I just start thinking of those ‘key moments‘. I kind of think of them like ‘beat boards’ and I develop thumbnails from those shots or those moments in that sequence that I know that I want to be there.

I sometimes find that when I just start at the very beginning and go straight ahead, I start wasting time doing A’s and B’s and getting into the details. Because I know when I get to the end I’ll go, “Oh great. Everything else I did at the beginning, I’ve changed my mind on.” Then I have to go and change it.

So if I just get those key moments down, I kind of use those at the ‘tent poles’ to putting up the circus tent sort of thing. Then I can start putting in those little in-between moments to string it all together.

What’s your favorite kind of sequence to work on?

Probably comedy and character based stuff. That’s what I usually get too. I’ll get the ‘idea-guy-comedy-problem-solving’ stuff.

I’ve gotten better at where I’ve told myself that I want to keep versatile, so I’ll take on action based sequences once in a while. But my heart really is with the funny stuff. And they know that.

What’s your best piece of advice for people who dream of being story artists in feature animation?

I would say if you’re in high school and you’re young, I know that you’re passionate about getting right into story but to just remember that those basic life drawing, draftsmanship kind of classes are really good for you.

And they will pay off even if they may seem boring at first. Being able to do that and being able to transfer those images inside your head onto paper as best you can.

I would also say doing improv helps out a lot with idea development. Being able to come up with ideas with limitations.

And then the other thing I would say is the more you actually storyboard, the better you’re going to get at it. The easiest thing to do to get better is to just go on the internet and go to one of those free scripts websites and print out just a couple of pages of a movie script and board it out.

Don’t just copy what was already done in the movie. Do your own version. You’ll learn a lot from that.

Watch movies and freeze frame through shots and sketch them up on paper. Listen to the commentary of why the DP made the decisions they did with the shots. That’ll help out.

And also the biggest thing is just being in an environment with other story artists, especially ones that have more experience than you do. You will learn from them.

There’s only so much you can do sitting in a room by yourself storyboarding. You need to be around other people who know what they’re doing and who do it well. That’s where you really learn.

That’s why it’s great when you’re able to take a class at university or college and have someone who’s experienced at storyboarding as your teacher. Cause you’re going to learn.

What should you have in place before applying to a big studio? Do you think you should start with television and work up to feature? Or do you think people can get right in?

Well, I’ve seen people get pulled in, even in the last couple of years, right out of college.

But I think that every different studio has a different type of ‘sensibility’ of how they make movies. During the time those great Disney movies were being made, there was also the Warner Bros. Studio. And they were making these irreverent, offensive cartoons for their time compared to the happy fairy tale Disney stuff. It was just a different kind of sensibility.

When you’re applying to studios, different studios may like your type of storytelling sensibility better. Some people may go right into a studio off the bat because they may just have liked how you do story and how you draw. In other places you may not fit with their sensibility.

In my experience, I found it was easier to get a job at a commercial animation place first before getting a job at a movie company. It’s good to get experience working at those smaller places first.

And education? You feel that’s important?

Oh yeah.

And I think there’s no way of getting around it, there are certain schools that certain movie studios tend to gravitate to. So it’s kind of like if you were playing baseball for a college or whatever and when the baseball teams scout out the players, they go to certain schools.

It’s the same thing is with these animation studios.

Fortunately there’s more animation programs at universities now so the animation studios are going to a lot of these. But you want to be someplace where your stuff is going to get seen. Like my mom used to say, “It’s just not going to fall into your lap.”

You have to put yourself out there.

How would your advice differ for someone with more experience as opposed to a student?

If you’re young and you’re going to school, focus on learning how to draw, taking your classes and where you can make that student film and get seen.

For someone who is older, I think it’s a matter of being able to show examples that clearly demonstrate you know how to storyboard.

I don’t want to say ‘a portfolio’ because anything can go in a portfolio. But if you’re applying for a storyboard job, you just want to show storyboards, character design stuff and gag development stuff.

That’s a big mistake people make when they apply for jobs. They show it all. Just show what you want to get a job in. Don’t confuse people.

So what is your all time favorite PIXAR movie as a *viewer* and why?

It’s got to be Toy Story.

Toy Story was the one that gave me ‘the tingles‘. That’s when I know a movie is good. When I’ve forgotten I’m sitting in a movie theatre and that moment in Toy Story with Woody and the match blows out and he realized Buzz’s helmet to light the fuse…that’s when I got the tingles.

I was like, “YES! They’re gonna make it, it’s gonna work out alright!” And even though I knew the story, watching it in the theatre I was all “Wow, this really worked! This is a great movie.”

And I don’t always get that kind of feeling for any movie I watch, let alone all PIXAR movies. Even though you may look at it now and some of the CG may be a little more out of date, Toy Story is still a great story that’s just so moving.

And what’s your favorite PIXAR short?

I would have to say I really like Presto. It’s a really funny one. It’s like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

But the one to make me happy is Bounding. I think it’s partly because I’m really good friends with the guy who directed it, sang it and designed it. But it’s a very heartfelt “Life’s gonna be okay!” type of thing.

So those are my two favorites.

And finally, what was your favorite PIXAR film to work on?

I think it was Toy Story 2. Because that was my first role as a storyboard artist and I really got to experience the good and the bad of working on a story and how hard it is.

And wondering “Is this is going to work out?!”

After you work on a couple of movies you’re like “Oh, this is going to work out because it’s always worked out. It‘s going be okay.” But when it’s your ‘maiden voyage‘, you’re like, “Oh craaaaap! Is this gonna turn out okay everyone?”

But you learn to trust the process.

We’re going to follow all the steps we always do with creating the story. And if we do that, we’re going to be okay. And in trusting the process, it also means the good ideas will always come back.

You come up with the ideas, you pitch them, they get shot down. Don’t worry, the good ideas will come back.

That was my first time working with Joe Ranft on story and he and I had offices right next to each other. When you work with people on a film you just become friends with everybody.

And Joe and I spent many hours working on stuff together.

We were both working on sequences together in the story room and he was working on the moment when Woody is having his nightmare dream and Andy is saying, “I don’t want to play with you anymore” and Woody and all the playing cards are falling and he falls in the garbage can. I was in there when Joe was boarding that, totally using sharpie pens and prismacolor pencils.

I was working on ‘the Evil Dr. Porkchop’ moment. Where Andy is like “five more minutes” and they do their little playtime.

We both had gotten those sequences unscripted and it was our job to create a fun moment out of those, so I created that whole scenario of Evil Dr. Porkchop and the crazy monkeys which ended up going into Toy Story 3 in the opening with the big space-pig and everything.

It was just an awesome experience working on that movie.

Thanks so much Matthew! We really appreciate you taking the time for this.

Part 1 is here: http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2010/09/19/pixar-matthew-luhn-1/

Part 2 is here: http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2010/09/27/pixar-matthew-luhn-2/

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© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Here’s Part 2 of the interview I did with Pixar Story Artist Matthew Luhn.

You can find Part 1 of Matthew’s interview here.

Enjoy.

So I animated a couple of the army men shots on Toy Story and it was very difficult. But the great thing about the experience was that in the room right next door was the story department. It was made up of only 5 storyboard artists and their Head of Story, the late Joe Ranft.

That was the very first time I saw people actually drawing and creating story at a studio. At The Simpsons as a character layout animator, you just get a storyboard handed to you at your desk. Then you’d get a cassette tape with the audio of the actors so you get their inflections into your acting. But I never saw people sitting down and figuring out the story.

Even at The Simpsons, they have a script first and then the storyboard artists (like most TV shows) just go directly from the script to drawing the storyboards.

But what I was seeing at PIXAR was that there was no script. It was like an improv show with cartoons. Basically people were coming up with ideas, drawing them up as gags and that was inspiring sequence ideas. Then the sequence ideas would end up inspiring and making the decisions of what the story structure was going to be.

I totally remember the very first pitch I saw which was the opening for Toy Story in storyboards with Joe Ranft pitching it. And I was just like, “I really want to do this.”

At the same time when I’m doing animation and learning how to animate on the computer, the Head of Animation was Pete Doctor. We became good friends.

Then John Lasseter was the other guy teaching us how to animate Luxo, because you had to do a Luxo the Lamp jumping animation test. John would totally step you through it, showing you how to animate it.

This was a different time. This was when John drove a beat up Honda and he would sleep at the studio a lot.

So I became friends with all these guys and not just at work, but after work. Then one day I confronted Joe and said, “I really want to do story. Can you give me any things to do, any advice?”

Joe was always a very nice, big uncle or older brother type who always wanted to help you out, kind of personality. So he started giving me little gag assignments and little sequence scenarios to work on when I had free time. I’d show him and he’d tell me what he thought and help me out. As I started to fall more and more in love with story, I was not so interested in the animation part anymore.

Then what happened was, Disney decided this ‘crazy CG animated film‘…who was gonna watch this? The story’s not a fairy tale, there’s no musical, there’s no “I want” song, it’s CG, so we’re going to have to rethink this.

So I remember getting called into John’s office, and John saying “Matthew I’m really sorry, but we’re having to let the animators go because we don’t really know if we’re going to be making this movie.”

I could sense from John that he was really sad, that this was possibly not going to get made. He said he would call us all back in four months to let us know. I knew that this was pretty normal at animation companies and things like this happen.

So I meandered over to ILM for a little bit and worked as an animator to pay off some bills. Then after that I was like, “You know, I really want to do story.” My options for working in animation companies were ILM and PIXAR, and that’s it.

But I started figuring out there were a few little commercial animation studios like Wild Brain and Colossal Pictures. And I started working as a freelance artist for these places.

I went in and said I want to do storyboards and gag development. They thought I’d been doing this for a long time, but I hadn’t. So the first couple of freelance jobs I did for them, they didn’t even pay me for because they said I “did them wrong“.

But the great thing is there was this great guy who was a director and he said, “Let me show you what we’re looking for in gags. Let me show you a good way to come up with this stuff.”

And I found that it was very similar to when you do improv. The way you come up with ideas is just a matter of giving yourself a little structure, some limitations and to allow yourself to be spontaneous. At that time and still today, I do a lot of improv.

For about two years, I did freelance story stuff for these companies.

Then PIXAR called me back in that four month time to hire me back as animator. I said, “I really want to be a story guy.” So they said,  “Okay, if a storyboard job opening becomes available we’ll let you know.”

Well, it took about two years then something did come up and it was working as a storyboard artist on Toy Story 2.

So since that time of Toy Story 2, I’ve been working here as a Story Artist. The job entails storyboarding, character development and story development. We do a little bit of writing, a little bit of drawing and character design.

Usually on a film there are five to eight story artists, and we are the ones who help create the story with the director and the writers.

It’s pretty awesome.

Do feel being an animator made you better prepared as a story artist?

Well, the process of storyboarding is ‘throwing things away’ to be able to get to the good stuff. Storyboarding is the process of elimination, figuring out the best and quickest way to get to the ‘right story‘.

If you throw things away in animation, that means you’re moving backwards. If you animate an entire scene and say that you’ve done it wrong and throw it out, you’ve wasted your time.

In storyboarding, if you done something and say it’s wrong and throw it out, that’s GOOD. It means you’ve eliminated that bad version.

In animation, you have to pose out your characters and you do the same thing in story. You do need to know animation to do story because you’re doing basically character layout posing along with the composition and story and all that.

While I’m doing a storyboard, I don’t worry about how the effects department is going to make fire or water or fur. But I do know the storyboards are going to be a the blueprint for the entire movie. I also know my drawings should look appealing and I want them to look good and all that stuff, but I also know that it’s serving a bigger purpose.

It’s not about my drawings looking pretty in an ‘art of’ book or hanging on a wall in a museum. These storyboard drawings are not supposed to be seen by regular people. They’re just supposed to be about figuring out what the movie is going to be about.

And I’ll say that’s one big thing that’s happened in storyboarding now. It affects how some storyboard artists think while they draw. Now that these ‘art of’ books are so popular and with the extras on DVDs, I think more storyboard artists think, “Is my drawing beautiful?” instead of, “Is the story part of it working? Is it entertaining?”

What’s the best part about doing storyboards for you? And what’s the worst?

Well, my favorite part is the beginning part. Getting no script and being handed an idea and having to turn that idea into a situation and flushing out the sequence all the way from the beginning.

I like coming up with the gags. I like thinking about story structure.

I think the part that doesn’t interest me as much is beautifying the drawings. Doing the clean-up, the shading. Because sometimes that’s just not needed. The visual storytelling is important. You have to make sure the story panels read and your storyboards read. THAT’S important.

But when you’re going in just to make it look like ‘an illustration‘, that’s when I’m like, “Uhh…this isn‘t storyboarding you guys. We‘re not making this a gallery piece for the MOMA…”

What do you think are the three most important skills a story artist should have?

That’s funny you ask because I know the exact answer to it.

The first is you have to have good ideas. You have to be able to brainstorm in meetings, be able to get your brain in a place where you feel comfortable with just being able to come up with ideas.

The second one is the draftsmanship. Being able to execute your ideas and communicate them visually.

And then the last one, is you have to be able to ‘play well with others‘. A big thing I see with people who end up getting asked to leave is not because they’re not good artists or have good ideas. It’s because we’re making movies that are a collaborative team effort and as an artist, sometimes there’s that thing of just wanting to ‘do it all on your own‘.

You have to be able to tell yourself that we’re making a movie with a group of people and we have to share the fun. That’s something you have to make sure you just don’t forget.

Those are my three things. That’s what I always tell my students.

Back in the Toy Story days, did you have any inkling of how successful the studio would become?

Oh, heck no.

When I was in high school, I used to go to these animation festivals up in San Francisco, like the Spike & Mike ones. They would show those little PIXAR animated shorts like “Knick Knack” and “Luxo Jr.” and I remember seeing those and they really stood out. Not so much because they were CG but because the story was endearing and moving.

When I heard of PIXAR, I thought, “Yeah, that’s a cool place.” I was so young I really didn’t think about how things was going to pan out. You don’t think of that long term stuff when you’re 21 years old. The main thing for me was it was in a place I wanted to live.

But yeah, I don’t know. Nowadays when I read something in a magazine or the paper with some big article on PIXAR and I’m like, “How do they know about us? I don‘t understand this.” Then I think, “Everybody knows about us? This is crazy.”

I’m just thankful that good story still counts for something, you know?

What’s the usual pre-production process at PIXAR? How long does the storyboard stage usually last on a film?

Well, there’s not really a sure answer for that. Because I’ve seen films that the story has been done in one year and I’ve seen some take three years.

It’s a weird thing with this studio. I mean, they would love for it to be figured out really quickly. We’re just those kind of perfectionists that if it‘s not working, we’re going to keep figuring it out until we absolutely run out of time.

But I would say for most films the storyboarding lasts for one and a half to two years.

What’s a typical day for you in production?

Well, my hours will be nine to six. And for a sequence, that is 3 or 4 pages long, I will get about a week and a half to turn it around. That is kind of quick.

So I’ll do a really rough version to show the directors and see what they like. From there the director can see it a little fleshed out and they can say, “Well that is or isn’t what I’m looking for” and then I can get some clear direction from them.

Then I go back and put another day or two into it and try to get something cleaned up to go to editorial.

But the first part of the film is really the brainstorming stage. Then it turns into actually storyboarding out the sequences and stuff.

(To be continued…)

UPDATE:

Part 1 is here: http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2010/09/19/pixar-matthew-luhn-1/

Part 3 is here: http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2010/10/04/pixar-matthew-luhn-3/

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Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to catch the rest of this great interview.

© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Trust me, it was worth the wait.

Because I have one awesome interview for you. Remember the (sold out) Masterclass coming up in Vancouver with Pixar artists Matthew Luhn and Andrew Gordon?

Well, I got to talk to Matthew Luhn (yes, I feel your envy) and here’s the first part of that interview.

Now grab a beverage of your choice and enjoy!

Before we get started, what would you like to tell us about the VanArts Masterclass in Vancouver?

Well it’s really fun for me to be able to do these classes. I love inspiring people about story and how to come up with ideas.

Some people wonder, “How in the world can you talk for that long and keep people entertained and stuff?” I do a lot of hands on stuff when I teach these classes. I do a lot of exercises like story development and idea development exercises where I give people assignments in class to do.

Basically I go over why we tell stories, how we tell stories, how to create characters for stories, character art and all that stuff. And how to start from the very beginning if you have an idea for a movie.

Then we move into how you develop that idea into a script. Then how you take that script and turn it into visual storytelling and storyboarding.

It’s a very full day of  “if you want to make a movie, this is how you do it.”

It’s also for people who do storyboarding for a living. Or for people who are in college and doing storyboarding. Or even if you’re not a storyboard artist, because everyone uses story in some form or another.

So whether you want to create better video games with story and character, whether you want to create better toys that have a story behind them and have good character development, this is who my class pertains to. People who want to create good stories and characters.

I basically share my experiences of working as an animator/storyboard/story artist on 9  PIXAR films, an animator on the The Simpsons, and my other experiences working in the animation industry.

Awesome. So let’s start with some background information. How did you get started in the animation business and how did you end up at PIXAR?

I was really lucky to have a dad who was totally into animation and drawing cartoons and loved everything Disney. A total artist. But he did not get to do animation for a living. He ended up working and later taking over the family toy stores ‘Jeffrey’s Toys’, in San Francisco. That’s our family business. Which is still pretty awesome.

My dad owned toy stores, my granddad owned toy stores, my great-granddad owned toy stores so it’s been going on for a while. And my plan was that I was just going to work in the toy store because everyone in our family worked in the them. It was like being part of ‘the mob’.

Like many artists, I started getting hooked on cartoons and drawing in kindergarten. It was in high school when I was like, “I really want to do animation”. I didn’t know what job or how l would do it, but I really wanted to do it.

Then I found out about Cal Arts through my art teacher who had a nephew working in the animation industry. He suggested to me, this naïve 16 year old kid, that I should call up Cal Arts, ask for a brochure and get a tour to check the place out.

I did that and fortunately I was smart enough to realize that okay, I’m only 6 hours away from this school so this is my best option. In 1989, it was really the only option to attend an animation program in California. Every university has an animation program now, but back then it wasn’t that way.

But I did know that it was super hard to get accepted into this school. So I pretty much spent my junior and senior year of high school just focused on putting together a good portfolio. Also my art teacher had an 8mm camera which you could shoot animation on. He let me borrow it for two years and I was able to shoot flip books, do claymation and stop motion stuff.

So by the time I applied at Cal Arts, I had about five minutes of different animation samples to show. That’s what really got me accepted into the school. I think they saw that I was very ambitious. I mean, I showed up in a shirt and tie in a school where everyone had purple dyed hair. I had never been to an art school before and didn’t know what to expect.

I ended up going to that school for one year. This is during the time when Roger Rabbit came out 3 years earlier, The Little Mermaid came out the year I was a senior and The Simpsons was on the air. So all of a sudden the animation industry is booming and they need people and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

In that first year at Cal Arts, I made a student film that was a minute long like everybody does. It was seen by people on The Simpsons and they asked me if I wanted a job as an animator. And I was like, “Hmm, go back to school another year or work in Hollywood drawing cartoons? Hmm…”

So I didn’t go back to school and I ended up, at nineteen years old, working on The Simpsons as an animator. They called it ‘character layout’. I got an apartment in Burbank, and that was the beginning of me working in the animation field.

I worked there a year, and after that I decided it would be smart for me to head back to Cal Arts for a second year to continue my education. During my second year at Cal Arts I really focused on learning more about animating and life drawing.

So I went back to Cal Arts for another year and made another film. This time I got a couple of different job offers at the end of the year. The reason why I picked PIXAR was because my whole family, that whole ‘toy store family’ is from the Bay area.

When I lived in LA I was just very separated from my family, which is very important to me. Also the LA climate is different than the Northern California climate. The Northern California climate is trees and peaceful walks along the ocean and LA is kind of seedy and polluted. And I was like, “Nehh, I don’t want to do that again.”

So PIXAR offered me a job to work as an animator on Toy Story. I was going to be one of the very first twelve animators trained to work on this “crazy film” that was going to be the first CG animated feature film that everybody was like, “This is not going to work”.

The funny thing is when they hired me, they didn’t tell me I was going to be an animator. And already in my second year at Cal Arts I was getting passionate about story. So when I got hired at PIXAR I actually thought I was getting hired as a Story Artist.

It wasn’t until the first day I was working there, when they sat us down in front of the ‘black glowing box’ and they said I was going to animate on this thing, I was like, “Ohhh sh*t…what did I get myself into?”

Then I thought, “I’ll just go along with this.”

(To be continued…)

Thanks so much Matthew! Stay tuned for Part 2 coming up soon(ish).

UPDATE:

Part 2 is here: http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2010/09/27/pixar-matthew-luhn-2/

Part 3 is here: http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2010/10/04/pixar-matthew-luhn-3/

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Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to catch the rest of this great interview.

© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

I have an actual post in the works, but here’s a little note of interest for you Vancouver artists.

It’s pretty neat and you better hurry because at the time of this writing, it’s 75% sold out!

So get cracking.

VanArts is proud to present a Masterclass in Animation & Story Development with instructors Story Artist Matthew Luhn, and Animator Andrew Gordon, both from Pixar Animation Studios!

This exceptional 2-day event offers participants a rare and exciting opportunity to learn from the industry’s top talent. This class has toured the world, with this being one of only two North American stops in 2010.

Pixar Animation Artists Masterclass website link and phone number:

http://www.vanarts.com/pixar-vancouver [Update: Link is now disabled]

Online ticket purchase link:

https://register.beanstream.com/scripts/registration.asp?form=852 [Update: Link is now disabled]

Event location:
Fletcher Challenge Theater – Simon Fraser University
515 West Hastings St., in downtown Vancouver

Event schedule/dates/times (this is a 2-day event):
Day 1:  September 24th, 9am-5pm
Day 2:  September 25th, 9am-5pm

© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Remember me?

I used to write a blog about storyboarding. Well okay, I still do… just not lately.

*slaps wrist*

And I’ve been stressing about starting up again because it’s been so long. As in…the first post back better be a GOOD ONE.

So I’m going to write a crappy one just to take the edge off, if that’s okay.

Rest assured I am very much alive and well.

I’ve just been suffering from a case of post-storyboard-contract “Lazy-ass-itis”.

Here’s what I’ve been doing.

I ended my Kid vs Kat contract at the end of May. *whew*

And survived.

I went to Hawaii at the beginning of June.

See?

Sweet, sweet Hawaii. *sigh*

Then home and relaxed some more. (That’s about when the “Lazy-ass-itis” kicked in.)

I turned down some work. (See above.)

I saw ‘Toy Story 3′. Twice.

Loved it. *sniff*

I did some summer racing with my sailing team.

Still teaching at the film school once a week. That’s all good.

I did some Mini-Critiques for people, which are tons of fun.

June stunk weather-wise, but July is gorgeous. So I’ve been outside.

Avoiding the internet. A lot.

Then I had a young house guest. And did some beachy stuff and touristy stuff.

And more outside things.

Did I mention July has been gorgeous? When it’s gorgeous in Vancouver, you go outside people!

Starting to learn a bit of golf. (I must have some Scottish in me.)

Saw ‘Despicable Me’. Very enjoyable. Very fun. (“It’s so FLUFFY!”)

Going to Montreal in August. Then coming home to some work I actually did take. Good gig.

And I finally got a blog post written! (A very bad one, but who cares?)

There will be a much better one coming soon.

I just needed to ‘break the creative dam’ so to speak.

Thanks for your patience lovely readers of mine.

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Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email because I will post something full of teachy goodness soon.

© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

I was looking forward to April ending because of all the ‘death stuff‘, then on the morning of the 30th (the last day of the month) I received an email with more sad news.

My ex-boss and friend of many years had succumbed to cancer and passed away at the age of 59.

I burst into tears. And cried all day.

But I don’t want to write another post about death (one was enough don’t ya think?). So I’d rather tell you the good stuff about my friend and one great art lesson he taught me ‘way back when’.

Call it a little tribute.

As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I used to be a graphic designer in my twenties (remember…I’m old). I worked at a small studio out of college for a year or two, then tried to go the freelancing route at 22. A bit risky. But I was still living at home so the timing was good.

Through a mutual connection, I met Steve Buist who was looking for a little extra help around his small graphic design studio. He took a chance on me and I did some work for him off and on for another two years or so.

Then he offered me a full time position. I took it and worked at D-Zign S.A.B. for the next six years until I left to pursue animation with Steve’s blessing.

Back then, the studio was just me, Steve, another guy named LP and Steve’s wonderful wife Cheryl. Steve was a boss who wasn’t a ‘boss’. His clients loved him. His suppliers loved him.

He loved his job, he loved his family and he loved cars.

Anyone would be lucky to work for a guy like Steve. We were a little family in that studio.

I saw his three girls grow up. We knew what was going on in each others lives. We drank a lot at our little Christmas parties.

And I learned tons about graphic design.

Now, this was a time when a graphic designer didn’t mean ‘someone with 3 months of training and a MacBook’.

When I started, it was markers, paste-ups, wax machines, rubber cement thinner, x-acto knives, T-squares, Letraset and stat cameras (Google it). Half of the supplies could cause some serious health issues or cut the end of your finger off! Those were the days, baby.

Everything was done by hand. It rocked.

This was how you developed a sense of design and typography. This was how you honed your compositional skills. And this was how I could eventually find the center of anything by just looking at it.

(I later translated those skills to the computer when the industry started going that way. Beyond valuable!)

But I was still young and I was still learning. I needed advice and guidance sometimes. And when something just wasn’t ‘right’, I would ask Steve what he thought.

Sometimes he told me exactly what to fix and why.

And sometimes he told me this:

“I don’t know. Just make it look good.”

We’d laugh, I’d go back to my drafting table, and guess what?

I made it look good.

Amazing.

It became a running joke between me, Steve and LP.

“Just make it look good, Karen!”

And I did.

As time when on, I ended up telling them the same thing when they asked for my opinion.

“I don’t know. Just make it look good!”

It bloody well worked.

I carry that with me to this day. And smile about it.

What’s the translation of this little bit of wisdom?

Figure it out! Stop whining! Don’t over-think it! Rework it! Do better!

Do what you need to do to make it look good.

I haven’t really used this awesome lesson when teaching storyboarding until now. Because it is different than graphic design and a storyboard can’t just ‘look good’. It needs a whole lot more.

But the lesson can work for the composition of your shots.

Just make it look good.

Is your perspective not quite right?

Just make it look good.

Can’t get that character expression?

Just make it look good.

It really works better when someone actually says it out loud to you. I think that’s the secret. If you can’t find someone to do that, bookmark this post and pretend I’m saying it to you.

Because I can be bossy that way. : )

Thank you Steve.

Thanks for the job. Thanks for your friendship and guidance. Thanks for being one hell of a guy.

And thank you for that phone call on the first of April. I don’t know if you ‘knew’ when we talked that day. But I can’t thank you enough for being able to talk to you one last time. Because when I got that sad news 30 days later, that’s really all I would have asked for.

As I go forward in this life, you can bet I’ll “just make it look good”.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

(I hearby declare April 2010, ‘The Month of Death’ CLOSED thankyouverymuch.)

NOTE: I’ve also decided I don’t want comments on this personal post. They’ll be back next time. Thanks!

© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

I hope this post isn’t too much of a downer. But it might be.

Sorry.

Because it’s a little off-subject and might not have the comic snark you’re used to if you come here often. If you are new (hi!), just know this isn’t the norm and I will get back to the business of boards eventually. I’m still in Kid vs Kat vs Karen mode.

But here it goes anyway.

A man died in front of me a week ago.

His funeral was yesterday but I didn’t go because I had to work and I didn’t really know him.

But I was thinking about him. Because I witnessed the last moments of his life.

I crew on a 36 foot sailboat and I’ve been on the same boat for 9 years with mostly the same people (give or take a few over the years). That’s most of us in the picture from a happy time last year (I’m in the white hat).

We do organized races out of the yacht club on Wednesday nights and we do some weekend races throughout the spring and summer.

We had a race last weekend and since I was between boards (yay), I was happy to be able to participate in the Saturday race. We usually need 8 or 9 people to race and we were short a person. So one of the women on our crew asked along this guy Doug because she sails with him on another boat.

We all show up on time and gear up the boat. I shook Doug’s hand and said “Hi” as did the rest of us. It was a pissy, rainy day but once you’re a sailor it really doesn’t bother you. As long as you have your wet weather gear, it’s all good. At least it wasn’t too cold.

They usually try to get in 3 or 4 races on the weekends. We finished our first one and did pretty well. Then it’s clean up the lines, grab a sandwich and wait for our next start. We were in our 5 minute countdown and almost in the last minute to start when Doug was suddenly lying down in the cockpit.

Not moving.

First, it’s “Dude, you okay?”, then it’s “Did he hit his head?”. But when we rolled him over, we knew it wasn’t good.

We start motoring in to the yacht club and called 911 (thank goodness for cell phones in emergencies). We lie him down and the woman who is friends with him performed CPR.

But the boat can’t go any faster.

You can’t do anything but watch and hope. It’s such a shock and so unexpected, you’re in denial. No, no, no he’s going to snap out of it. He’s going to be okay. We’re going to have beers with him one day and talk about this.

And the boat can’t go any faster.

Even though it was only about 15 minutes till we reached the dock and the emergency workers who were there to meet us, it seemed like forever.

They worked on him for quite some time. They eventually got some vital signs. They took him up to the ambulance.

Yes, yes, yes…he’s going to be okay. Please.

Fifteen minutes later we get the call that he had died up in the parking lot.

But we all really know he died on the boat with us. From a severe heart attack. He was 57.

I shook hands with this man in the morning and less than 4 hours later he was gone.

Sad. Horrible. Live altering.

One of those things you know you’ll never forget.

Then the questions start in your head.

Why today? Why with us? What if we were further out? What if it was one of us? Why, why, why. Then there’s those big ones. The ‘what am I doing with my life?’ ones. Yikes.

We tell ourselves stories everyday.

I don’t mean the movies and cartoons. I mean all the stuff that goes on in our heads that may or may not be true. That are not fact-based.

Stuff like “I suck.”, “I’ll never get a job.”, “Everyone hates me.” On and on. Are these facts? No, they’re stories. These kinds of stories can be damaging and do us no good.

But sometimes we need the other kind of stories. The better kind.

I need a story for Doug.

Even if I knew all his ‘facts’, I’d still need this story. Just to deal with what happened.

My story for Doug is that he was a sailor. That he’s been sailing for many, many years and he loved it. That it was a twist of fate he ended up on our boat with a crew of new friends. That maybe he was destined to have that severe heart attack on that particular Saturday. Race or no race.

That maybe he lived alone. That maybe he would have been alone if he hadn’t come sailing with us that day. And if he had been alone when that heart attack hit him, no one would have known for a while. And that would have been even more horrible.

That he never knew what hit him and he didn’t feel any pain. That at least he was on the water, doing something he loved when this happened. Among fellow sailors that loved it too.

And he wasn’t alone.

Are these the facts? Doesn’t matter.

I just need to keep telling myself this story. For me and for Doug.

Rest in peace sir.

Thanks for reading. (I’ll try to be funnier next time. Promise.)

© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out this great guest post by Marcie Begleiter and the contest details at the end.

If you don’t want to watch the video in all it’s silly glory (I mean just look at that screen grab) and just want to know who won…well, it wasn’t you.

Unless your name is Lamont Wayne. 

So congrats to Lamont, yay for Muk Muk and Olympic mitts and yay that I’m still alive and have motivation not to die before June!

Enjoy the video and hopefully I can post another one soon. With educational content and stuff.

If you can’t see the video, click through to the blog here or watch it at Vimeo here:
http://www.vimeo.com/10225639

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email because I will post something useful…eventually.

© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Only one birthday. Mine. Today. I’m old.

And only one contest. But it’s my first, so that’s cool.

But first a quick note to say I’m still alive.

Again. And it looks like I can only manage one post a month or so until I finish this contract that may or may not kill me.

You know you’re working too hard when you have to write “Don’t die” in your day planner. (You think I’m kidding…I actually did that. Twice.)

But enough about ‘Kid vs Kat vs Karen’. We have a guest author today! From a real author!

I’ve recommended this book before and I am doing it again. Because the new edition just came out last month. And word has it, my blog is mentioned in the resources. How cool is that? Plus it is one great book on the subject of storyboarding for live-action film.

If that’s what you want to do, get this book.

So in celebration of this second edition of  ‘From Word To Image‘ by the awesome Marcie Begleiter, I bring you a guest post by her. About a little twist to storyboarding  and pitching a film.

Then there will be some details on the little contest we’re having. I’ll give you a hint…FREE BOOK. Signed by the author. (Okay, that was more than a hint.)

Take it away, Marcie!

Visual Pitching: Storyboards on Steroids

By Marcie Begleiter
Author of From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process

Since the mid 1980’s my film activities have covered storyboarding, set decoration, art direction, prop design, graphics and even gassing up cars…basically, when a producer or director called, my attitude was ‘You need it, I’ll do it’ (within reason, of course )

The pre-viz work in particular was developed once the financing has been secured, the heads of the production team chosen and then we raced against a production schedule to complete the prep work before the cameras rolled.

But lately a particular request has arrived on my desktop that’s a bit different in character.

Visual Pitching’s time has come.

With production financing a challenge in the best of times, many a director and producer are looking to walk into meetings with more than a practiced verbal pitch. Bringing in visual research that focuses on characters and settings, presenting key frames and flipping though storyboards or even showing animatics in pitch meetings have often been a key to selling Action and SciFi films.

But these materials can also bring inspiration and an expanded avenue of communication to pitches for all manner of projects including character driven stories, romantic comedies or indie dramas.

What comprises a visual pitch?

At the simplest level, it helps to  convey the look and feel of the story and how it will be told in images. There can be references to lighting, to other classic films, to character appearance and even how the film will be shot. Key frames, what I sometimes think of as ‘storyboards on steroids’, are sometimes used to give a snapshot of particular moments of high action or emotion.

These boards are often rendered in color with plenty of detail – quite a bit more developed than the typical editorial board, but not as tricked out as a full-blown production illustration.

Balance is crucial.

Some directors wish to avoid creating a presentation which conveys a sense that all the critical decisions have been made. Some producers want the opportunity to give creative input (did I say “some”?) and being presented with an over-blown visual presentation can backfire.

Including a short scene with traditional storyboards is also an option. Especially with writers who want to direct their own material, an editorial storyboard functions as a ‘dry run’ for showing mastery of visual storytelling as well as, more specifically, editing, shot selection and pacing (if you present it as an animatic).

Spreading the word about visual pitches can be a service that designers and artists provide to ‘above the line’ filmmakers who might not be as familiar with the practice.

It can also provide additional opportunities for you to work on films before the films are fully financed. And if your key frames and storyboards help to ‘seal the deal’ it’s a good bet that the filmmakers will be back for more once the production clock has begun to tick!

About Marcie:
Marcie Begleiter is a designer and writer working in the film and motion media industries. She is the owner/founder of Filmboards, a company which creates visual pre-production material for pitches as well as production and has worked as art director, illustrator and set decorator on dozens of projects for production companies such as HBO, ABC, Tristar, and New Line Cinema. In academia she was Founding Director of the interdisciplinary program at Otis College of Art and Design and is on the Graduate faculty of the Department of Broadcast Cinema at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. She also has served on the faculties of AFI and the International Filmschule in Cologne. The second edition of her bestselling book, From Word to Image; Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process, has just been released.

To Contact Marcie and see upcoming events visit www.marciebegleiter.com

You can also  order a signed copy of her book, From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process by emailing marcie@marciebegleiter.com

You can also buy the book from Amazon and many fine book stores.

Thanks Marcie!

Now about that little contest…

[UPDATE: The contest is officially CLOSED. I\'ll be posting the winner soon. Thanks to all who entered!]

Marcie has graciously decided to GIVE AWAY a signed copy of her book to one of my fantastic readers!

Wee!

How do you enter? Just leave a comment on this post. You can leave more than one, but your name is only counted ONCE.

How do you win? I will literally print out all the comments, cut them up and pull one out of a hat. Probably on video to show it’s legit.

When is the deadline? Let’s say one month from today. March 13, 2010.

How do you get the book? Marcie will contact you by email and then mail it to you. So make sure the email address you use in the comments is one you use and check!

What do you have to say in your comment? It really doesn’t matter. But “Happy Birthday Karen” is a good choice [UPDATE: OK, that\'s kinda old now...as am I.  "I wanna book!" is good] and “Marcie Rocks the Casbah” isn’t bad either. Or even a knock-knock joke. Whatever. You won’t be judged on the comment itself (but gee whiz, have fun.)

Easiest contest ever, right? And let’s face it, I don’t exactly get hundreds of comments around here so your chances are pretty darn good. So comment! Enter! Get a signed book that’s awesome!

And if you don’t win, buy it anyway.

That is all.

You may now go about your Valentine’s Day bitterness and Olympic Games watching. (Not that I care all that much about the Olympics but…Woo Hoo Vancouver!)

Sign-up for the Storyboard Club Mailing List and get a Free Storyboard Template Pack!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to make sure I didn’t die.

(And uh, just ignore that “related post” below. This is a different kind of contest. Oh, the irony…)

© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.

Wee! The first official post of 2010!

(Finally.)

And what better way to kick it off than the second part of my interview with Paul Briggs? You can find the first part of my interview with the ‘The Princess and The Frog’ story artist, here.

Enjoy Part 2 and don’t forget to click on the illustrations to get a better view of Paul’s awesome work!

What’s a ‘typical day’ for you as (current) Head of Story when you’re in production?

A typical day as a Head of Story is managing a team of Story Artists to help the Director get their vision up on screen.

That doesn’t mean I completely buy into it. In fact, I feel the biggest part of my job is always being honest and open in questioning and confirming what the Director wants. Together as the story team, we work really hard in supporting or challenging the idea that is being presented on the screen.

There’s also the scheduling side of it all, but that’s no fun!

Is there a process for assigning certain story artists a particular sequence to work on? Do you go with their strengths or is it the ‘luck of the draw’ for them?

We have some pretty incredible board artists at the studio that can do a wide range of scenes but most tend to gravitate to sequences that appeal to them more. So you want to assign sequences that people will have the most fun boarding.

You know you’re going to get incredible work from them but I always like to try and push people out of their comfort zone for a sequence or two. It really challenges them and forces them to keep their skills sharp and grow as a story artist.

The best artists are the ones that you can hand any sequence to and know you’re going to get something special back.

Are feature boards still done with paper and pencil and set up in a story room? Or have things gone completely digital? What are your typical working tools?

You know it all depends on the artist. Some guys here still work on paper but a lot of us work digital now. Whatever makes you comfortable but also allows you the freedom to quickly sketch your ideas down and not become precious with them.

I normally work in Photoshop on a Cintiq and use another program to pitch in. When I’m boarding I actually limit myself to 2 custom brushes, 3 to 4 levels and only 4 different gray values (no color unless absolutely necessary to make a story point.) This limited palette forces me not to get caught up in all the bells and whistles.

I concentrate more on the just getting the idea down rather than a pretty drawing. We pitch all digital on screens that our boards are projected onto.

What is your process for working?

Whether I’m issued script pages or not I always start by breaking the sequence down. I’ll ask myself – “What’s the point of the sequence ? Why is it in the movie? Where is the character at in this point of the journey?”

Once I’ve established all of that then I’ll thumbnail – I usually do 2 – 3 thumbnail passes. I try and get all of my thinking out in these rough thumbnail stages. My first pass is usually really, really rough like jotting notes and scribbles down on a legal pad. Then I’ll do a second pass of thumbnails on a long story pad.

I’m not so much concerned with staging and cinematics – I’m more focused on character at this point. I do a third pass of thumbnails and in this pass I refine a lot of things. Finally, I pin my third pass up on a story panel and redraw it all digitally. That sounds like a lot of work but it’s really not. I work really rough and I never get precious with my early drawings.

After that, I pitch to the directors and the story crew and get notes!

How was it to go back to traditional animation for this film? Is there really much difference for the story team as opposed to working on a 3D film? If so, in what way?

The biggest difference in boarding for traditional versus CG animation is the camera moves. You’re limited in how much you can do with the camera because it’s a painted set and not virtual environment. However, that can be a blessing more than a curse – I think a lot of times camera moves are obnoxious and unmotivated in a lot of CG films.

Any thoughts on the subject of 2D vs 3D? (Not that it’s a war or anything…)

As long as it’s an emotional and entertaining story I’ll watch/work on it whether it’s hand drawn, CG, stop motion or paper cut outs!

Do you think hand-drawn animation is back for good? Are there more hand-drawn films in the works at Disney now?

I sure hope so. I love the art form so much. It was so exciting when The Princess and The Frog was starting up and hearing that ‘paper being flipped’ sound again. There’s nothing like taking a stack of animation paper and rolling a scene.

I remember the first scene I saw was of Dr. Facilier by Bruce Smith and I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. It was like seeing an old good friend return again.

I believe we have more hand-drawn films in the works… but I’m not sure I can say what!

What’s your best piece of advice for people who dream of working as Story Artists in feature animation? How important is education? Experience? What should they have in place before applying? Who has the best shot? (I gotta ask…the people want to know.)

This is a great question!

It’s difficult to be a Story Artist because you have to be skilled at two things.

Being a storyteller and an artist! Hence the name.

The artist part of it is difficult enough and people struggle with just this for a long time. It doesn’t matter where you get your education, but your drawings should convey entertainment, staging/composition, cinematics, mood, acting, gesture, anatomy, perspective, strong silhouettes, energy and tone.

That’s a lot and even once you’ve got it down, you never stop practicing and improving upon these things.

Never stop learning.

When you’re confident with your drawings you can focus on visually telling the story. This is the most difficult thing to learn and practice because you’re basically writing with drawings.

It’s about communicating an idea through your drawings. The people that have the best shot at working in Feature Animation as a Story Artist are able to submit a portfolio of entertaining fresh ideas that read clearly in drawings.

Here’s my biggest teaching advice: It’s okay to eavesdrop! The greatest education I always get is in listening to people talk about their lives. Engage them and ask questions. Old people are always the best to listen to!

People make some very important decisions in their lives – some good, some bad, but it defines character and that choice in my opinion is what makes a great story.

What’s your all-time favorite animated Disney film as a *viewer* and why? What was your favorite one to work on and why? (Besides ‘The Princess and The Frog’, of course!)

My favorite animated film is Pinocchio. It’s a story that’s perfect for animation and it’s a beautiful film. There are so many great moments and messages in the film. Dumbo is a close second with The Incredibles coming in third.

I’ve worked on some amazing films but… I think my favorite is still to come!

~Thanks so much Paul!~

Visit Paul Briggs’ Blog at:
www.pbcbstudios.blogspot.com

For more information on submitting a portfolio to Disney Animation please visit: www.disneyanimation.com

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© 2007-2012 Karen J Lloyds Storyboard Blog - All Rights Reserved.