Storyartists: the meat and potatoes" PART TWO

PART TWO:

robo::
"""Then, there are directors who ask their board
artists to board their movies EXACTLY the way they
want them to appear on screen. Brad Bird, Chris
Sanders, Andrew Stanton, Hayao Miyazaki, Dean Deblois,
all do it this way. Go pop in your "Incredibles" dvd
and look at how Ted Mathot and Mark Andrews boarded
"100 mile dash". It is frame for frame, shot for shot,
identical. The animators plussed the expressions and
took the acting to the next level, but they stuck to
the boards."""

Robo, I seriously doubt that any of those guys told
their supervising animators to follow the boards
exclusively. And I KNOW that Brad never told ME to
follow the boards exclusively. And I don't think that
there is a time that I ever did. Except in action
scenes.
Which brings us to your 'Incredibles' example. I love
the 100 mile dash. But it IS an action scene. NOT an
ACTING scene. There really isn't a whole lot to do with
it, beyond whats there. I mean whats the point? Its
fairly straight forward. That sequence is perfectly
staged, perfectly handled. With all the right 'rest
points' an ACTION scene needs to make it pop and not
just be frenetic movement. Mark is wonderful. Hairy
beyond belief. But a wonderful story artist. I would
hold him up as a perfect example of what a story
artist should be. Well rounded and versatile. Abit too
hairy and doesn't have the tuckus that you could bounce
a quarter off of. but at our age that ain't easy to do.
But I digress.
So your example of 100 mile dash...not a good one.

robo::
"""I've seen a lot of story reels in my day. In some,
the character barely resembles the model, but has the
right pose, the right character, and the right spirit.
The animator can look at it and think "Oh, funny, I'll
use that pose, but I'll tweak the expression", or he
can say, "This is funny, but I think my character who
express that attitude like this " and do something
different.""

Robo...trust me...the boards aren't looked at like
that. NO animator I know is going to pick and choose
stuff from the boards. They aren't. They're not going
to use your expressions and then maybe a way a
character stands or WHATEVER. They are going to use it
as a 'broad stroke' of the scene. Put it away, and
listen to that damn track over and over and over and
OVER, until they are reciting it when ordering at lunch time or
whispers it into their wives ear late late at
night..."
That's that. Its not a slight to you guys. But that's
the fact of it. And believe me, Will-(funky code
medina)- Finn knows that this is the fact. He has to be
a bit more diplomatic, but he has had those lunch time
conversations where he as an animator will gripe about
boards.

Look. I respect the story artists. I do. I have lots
of opinions on them as I do with all things in this
industry. As you will see. Wait till I get to the
animators!
I just think that you guys aren't needed to draw
wonderfully. NOT to say that story guys cant! But your
job (outside of injecting a little interest to a wordy
script)is to draw fast, and to draw clear. That's it.
To be honest with you , I'm always a little suspect of
a board that looks well drawn. My first thought is
that this guy has his priorities mixed up. But you can
usually tell fairly quickly  when a very ooogly board
is at least clear and precise. And that's what I want.

I even have shall we say some sympathy for board
artists. I think it would be really REALLY easy to
fall into a rut. Artistically speaking.  I mean as
board artists, they have to draw quickly for their
turnarounds. So I have rarely seen a finished drawing.
I mean even looking at countsy and your blog...I don't
think I've seen ONE 'finished' drawing. That COULD be
a hole that one can fall into, robo.

I'm just sayin'.

Well I think that I've stirred my bits and set them to
a boil! Where do we go from here. Wanna tongue kiss,
sanfran man?

You let me know if I've left anything out. OK? ok.

60% :)