BRAND NEW YEAR!

Heya! First off, I hate reading blogs where people apologize for neglecting their blogs...that said, I want everyone to ignore the fact that I have neglected my blog. Let's put that behind us!

The Storyboard section of my website (www.aidancasserly.com, in case you forgot it) has been completely redone, so that instead of scrolling through all the samples in a linear order you can just pick and choose whichever storyboards you feel like seeing. This sort of convenience will hopefully help clients and recruiters sample my work, because if your website is hard to navigate through most people wont even bother. Take it from someone who's learned this the hard way.

A new Flash animation is up, "CHIMAERA", which is a silly but innocent little cartoon about God and the struggles it takes to create something. I'm still not quite up to the quality of "Sita Sings the Blues", but I'm working on it!

The extremely awesome Karen J Lloyd conducted an interesting interview with Paul Briggs, storyboard artist on Disney's "The Princess and the Frog". Check it all out at Karen's blog.

And finally, I wanted to give a shout-out to my friend and fellow storyboard artist Sean Petrilak. Sean is a very talented, and more importantly, very NICE artist who has been giving me a lot of good advice and encouragement. This business isn't easy, and you need all the pals you can get. Check out Sean's website.

See you all in the next post! No blogs left behind!

FLASH Forward (ha ha ha....ehhhhh....)

Hey all you stupendous storyboarders,

Haven't updated in while, so sorry to those who've been patiently following along. Times are still rough for freelancers, and rough times require change. Hence, I've been trying to reach out into other fields, namely Flash, which has caused my storyboard projects to be put on the back-burner for the time being.





Flash has its ups and downs, but overall is a great program for animators, and allows you to create great films all by yourself. My two newest animations, THIS LITTLE PIGGIE and SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLE FEATURE were a lot of fun to make; I'll let you all judge the results for yourself.




A third animation, HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SLOTH IS DEAD, is in production now and will hopefully be finished in early 2010.

To see what I've been doing with Flash, either go to my website (www.aidancasserly.com) or just click on the image links. Hope you enjoy the shows!

In the works...PRETTY PONY

Not too long ago there was a studio opening for storyboard artists on a children's show. Since I spent last spring doing storyboards for a preschooler DVD (and concept art, character designs, and environments, too!) I thought it would be a natural. Unfortunately, all of the work I had done is legally blocked off (they're still in production), so rather than gripe and whine I thought I would just get going on making some brand new stuff for the kiddies.





So here's a story idea I had about a year ago (yeah, and I'm just now starting on it...gowan, hit me with scorn!) that I thought would be nice for a children's show. A cute little girl on a ranch who wants to ride a horsie. Sounds sweet, right?

(Well, wait 'til you see the horsie!)


In other news, I recently met a very cool storyboard artist, Llyn Hunter, who's super awesome (in that she's talented and nice!). Check out her site if you want to see some really good storyboard work!

TALENT SHOW

The Scapula "Parole" board has now officially been included in my portfolio! I decided that I'll take my chances with the potty humor but to balance things out my next board is going to be a completely clean, family-friendly story. I've already started on it, so I'll show you guys something soon.



In the meantime, here's another relic from the college archives; my first attempt to storyboard a music video/animation. The song is Think Tank's "A Knife and a Fork" and is used here for non-profit entertainment purposes only, so don't go racing for your your lawyers, folks!

PART 4: REVISION (part II)

So, while I am satisfied with the way this storyboard has turned out, there is one thing on my mind that may just require another trip back to the drawing board.

Not too long after this pass was completed, I had to send a portfolio to a big-name studio for a potential storyboard job. Since every portfolio needs to be tailored specifically for the job I had to choose which samples to use carefully. I was ready to use my latest board, the one we've been following along for the past several posts, until I realized one specific part of it might not go over too well with this studio. The part I'm referring to is, naturally, the 'poo joke'.

Now comes the time when we have to engage in that inner debate of what we think is funny versus what others want to see. I think the gag is funny; the studio in question where I was sending the portfolio probably wouldn't have agreed. So, for safety's sake, I didn't include it. But what am I going to do with this board if I can't use it in a portfolio?

So now I have some options to choose from: leave the board alone and take my chances, change the gag to a cleaner one, or just think of an entirely different plot point to use. Of course, just because the joke is funny doesn't mean it's the only alternative to getting Scapula inside the high-security cell room (I don't revere in my own brilliance or anything, and this isn't as great of a joke as "fish sticks/gay fish"). Maybe it could be funnier with something else, but what happens if that 'something else' is just as taboo as the 'stool sample' gag?

Around and around like a dachshund chasing his caboose.

Back to brainstorming. I'll let you guys and gals voice your two cents: what would you do?

PART 4: REVISION

So here's my revision, based for the most parts on Karen's advice. I'll get nitpicky and explain my changes in the next post.

PART 3: CRITIQUE AND REVIEW (part IV)

The final part of storyboard expert Karen J Lloyd's review of the Scapula board. Here's Karen:

Then the others just casually walk out of the cells. Hmm. Then it ends with what looks like a line of dialogue that isn’t included. If there is supposed to be some, add it (unless you were going to in the final version). It would be better if dialogue wasn’t needed though.

Since it’s a portfolio piece, I would play with this section some more. Can you add more obstacles for Skapula? Lasers in the room? More tricks out of his bag? Can you use more action and suspense for the final break out? Some kind of ‘time is running out’ kind of thing?

Maybe other guards are on the way. An alarm could go off after he smashes the panel with the hammer. Then through a series of short, inventive (or funny) events, he gets his buddies out in the nick of time.

This will be much more fun to look at in a portfolio. And show off your skills a bit more.

All in all, great draftsmanship with fun characters and a good grasp of visual storytelling. You just need to bring it more to “we’re making a real cartoon here” to take it further away from “comic-land”.

As I tell everyone who get a critique from me, it’s still your choice what to change and what to keep. These are just my professional and personal opinions.

(But of course, I’m right. *ahem*)

Pump up the ending a bit and you’ll have a solid piece to show off your great skills.

So let's all give a big round of applause for Karen and her long-winded but well-minded thoughts! Yaaaaay! Again, remember folks, Karen does this for a living, so if you have a storyboard for an animation, film or whatnot in the works it may be worth your while to send it her way.

KAREN J LLOYD, Visual Storytelling Insights, Tips & Advice for Anyone Who's Interested

Our next step is the revision, which we'll begin next time. Tune in!