The first image I'm posting is a page of doodles and notes I made as I was doing research on deers as I tried to get some insight on the main character, Dennis. This a great starting place for any character/show development because it helps bring elements that can spark insights on the characters, rules for the universe, or even help with world building. These sketches just helped me illustrate fun tidbits like: Deer will starve if food runs out because they won't travel into a new domain. I took visual notes in their speed and leaping abilities, and, most importantly, the fact that they poop up to 13x a day as some of the other interesting facts I learned (that would definitely interfere with ones daily routine, right?) These are ideas I would have loved to have weaved into the show had Zach and I developed this short into a series.
Below that image, is one of my very early thumbnail roughs (and animatic, just playing around) to see what is and isn't working about these characters. The great thing about working in Storyboard Pro is you can create in a timeline mode that allows you to easily drop in temp dial/sfx to see how well things are playing before you finally get into actual animatic editing and storyboard clean-up. Below that, is another version of the storyboard that is closer to the final piece. I believe you can still see the final WOODSTUMP short that Zach and I created at nick.com
I post these here more as a dumping ground for me so I don't lose these files, more than a "this is how to do it" blog. Also, it's fun to share the process with those who might not know the stages animation can sometimes go through on the way to a final produced piece.
Here's one of the many different passes above...
and here's one closer to the final board
2 comments:
Hi. I tried to look for a professional email of yours so I could reach out to you on a slightly less public platform, but to no avail. My name is Cole, and I have been a Scooby-Doo fan since birth. Well, almost. My favorite incarnation has always been the 1969 original, but I have embraced and loved every version since then. Especially yours. I had a knee-jerk reaction to the character design, I will admit, and I assumed the show would be a steaming heap of garbage. How wrong I was. As much as I prefer the design of the first Scooby-Doo, the "updated" graphics melted away the same way you forget you're watching a black and white movie. I love what you did with each and every character, you re-imagined the Scooby Gang the only way they could have been done on modern television. Smart, witty, irreverent and yet very reverent to the source material. I fell in love with characters I already loved all over again. Especially Daphne, who has always been my favorite. I know there were petitions to cancel your show, and I know a lot of "hardcore" Scooby fans boycotted it without ever giving it a chance. And I heard through the rumor mill that the show has been canned after two seasons. I'm very sorry that my fellow fans were so unwilling to appreciate something truly entertaining. It saddens me very much that there won't be any more "Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!" to look forward to. If you could forward this message to anyone else involved in the project I would be grateful. There are hardcore Scooby fanatics who loved your show, and don't forget it. :)
WOW Cole, How super cool of you to write tha to me- I will make sure JCB gets to see this. For what it's worth, I, too have my issues with the overall character design of the show,. To be as fair as I can to myself AND the designer, we both had different views for how the show should look and unfortunately didn't find a way to meet in a happy "middle ground." I mean, I try to look at it from his perspective - he was brought on to design an fresh new take on these characters, before any writing was even begun. He took bold direction from an exec that had him looking at the old underground comics from the 60's and then was asked to add his wonderful sensibilities on top. When I came to WB to "run" this show and re-imagine these characters from the inside (with the amazingly talented Jon Barry), I realized the design style wasn't going to work with the type of comedy, ,acting and storytelling I envisioned. Unfortunately, the character designer then had to try and push and pull his fluid, cartoony designs into one that would more fit the sitcom style show I wanted to write and create. With production moving into full swing saddled with a designer that didn't want to kill designs he loved and worked on so hard, We had to eventually stop trying to 'fix' and move forward. I'll be honest, though, there are aspects to the character designs that I DO really like, and after a couple of episodes, I totally got used to this new set and made the best of it. I truly feel if you look at the wonderful overall art direction and incidental character designs we achieved heading into and through all of second season, there's an obvious shift that is actually quite wonderful.
But, that wasn't the most important thing to me. These characters, their engines, how they bounced off of each other (the math of how they interacted) was where my head was focused. Jon and I had specific goals and ideas for these characters and we feel we really only touched the surface of those thoughts. Wish we could have one a few things differently to have really done it our way from the beginning.
I am glad to know there are fans out there - and believe it or not, some of the most die hard Scooby fans forced their way past the character designs and saw what we were trying to... and luckily for us, they got it and loved us for it. Looks like maybe you did, too,
Thanks again for letting us know - hopefully others will continue to discover it along the way.
Best-
Zac
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