RubberOnion Animation Podcast

This segment premiered in #RubberOnionPodcast 126 "Voltron-and-on"

Check out Alex Dudley's Patreon Page and YouTube Channel

(Follow @RubberOnion)

SEGMENT EPISODE! There's so much to talk about this week: OpenToonz was finally released, Adam Phillips returns to Brackenwood with "Last of the Dashkin 2," we have a Creator Spotlight on Alex Dudley of DToons and we get a cartoon character to give us a shoutout! The news stories this week was mostly trailers so we get to talk about the weird world of Voltron and LEGO saving Batman. Enjoy the show!

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Topics & Timestamps: (7:03) "How You Doin?" (16:45) Trailer Talk (17:33) Netflix/Dreamworks' Voltron: Legendary Defender (28:36) LEGO Batman teaser trailer (38:25) Adam Phillips' "Last of the Dashkin 2"!! (44:02) Animation News of the Week... (44:58) OpenToonz finally released (56:34) Stop-mo movie about Michael Jackson's chimpanzee "Bubbles" (1:03:30) Creator Spotlight: Alex Dudley (DToons) (1:44:55) Message from Doggy from "Toons These Days" (1:48:25) Rapid Fire!!!! Media Referenced During this Episode:

https://youtu.be/ChXy1Qtv9TE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBJyp2LFHgk

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

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We got to talk to 2-time Oscar nominated director Tomm Moore of Cartoon Saloon about comics, animation, tattoos and producing Indie Animated Films! This show has a couple of my favorite stories (Miyazaki smoke-break, TMNT desks, and The Living Shadows) and was all around just a blast of a time recording the show. There's a lot to learn about the mentality and approach needed to get into the Indie animated filmmaking game and he gives some fun behind-the-scenes tidbits along the way.

Also, remember all those questions you posted on my facebook page?... yea he answers every single one of them! Don't forget to check out the topics & timestamps below. Thanks for listening/supporting and enjoy the show!

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

Be sure to check out Tomm Moore & Cartoon Saloon around the internet:

Tomm's Twitter Tomm's Tumblr Cartoon Saloon Twitter Cartoon Saloon Website

And you can now check us out on SoundCloud!

You can even listen via YouTube... so many options!

Topics & Timestamps: (2:23) Talking comics & superpowers (10:17) The beginnings of Cartoon Saloon (14:46) Irish animation scene (21:01) All about 'style' (23:17) Tattoo-talk (25:50) "Secret of Kells" financing (27:31) Hand-Drawn + Digital production (32:23) Irish history & folklore (36:07) "Song of the Sea" (36:03) Jack-of-all-Trades and which 'trade' is preferred (37:15) International co-production ins-and-outs (38:19) "The Breadwinner" (40:15) What the motivation to enter another production is after one finishes (42:10) Brendan Gleeson (43:31) "Wolfwalkers" (46:59) R-Rated animation? (48:56) Audience Questions... (49:00) James T. Nethery: "What are some benefits and drawbacks to a fully digital workflow?" (51:28) Chris Guido: "What aspect of your visual story telling do you value most?" (51:47) Jacob Krehbiel: "Do you think there is a higher demand for independent films like yours [and] has Hayao Miyazaki seen your work?" (54:02) Stephen asks about animal sidekicks (54:37) Alex Dudley: "Eddie and the Realms Eternal was fantastic. Will you shop the show around to Netflix or network TV if Amazon passes on it?" (55:17) Dionysis Zogaris: "What made you stick with 2D... instead of going more into 3D like everybody else?" (56:18) Jack Morgan: "Have you had any famous actors and actresses asking for voice roles in your movies after gaining success [and] when will Wolfwalkers be released?" (57:33) Kaishu Mannella: "What's your daily routine [and] any places you recommend visiting/favorite spots in Ireland?" (58:21) Rodney T Masanga: "Beard or no beard?" (1:00:08) Chris Cookson: "How are you able to make such personal projects without really making any compromises for marketability?" (1:01:21) Ashley Catherine Fontones: "How do your ideas come to you?" (1:02:35) Emmett Goodman: "How do you look at yours and Cartoon Saloon's contributions to animation culture?"

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

Preorder Stephen's Animation Tutorial Book:

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=

SEGMENT EPISODE! This week we talk about the tough distribution situation that "The Little Prince" is in, the upcoming Ghostbusters animated film, and the TMNT crossover episode with its 80s counterparts. There's an audience question, a preview of next weeks interview with Tomm Moore, talking about all the #RubberOnionBattle videos from February and Rapid Fire! This was a really fun episode to put together and I think you're going to love it. I'm already part way done with the editing of the episode next week and you are going to love that interview, trust me!

Preorder my book coming out in July 2016: "Tradigital Flash: 12 Principles of Animation in Adobe Flash"

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps: (5:25) "How You Doin" (10:50) Animation News of the Week... (11:10) Paramount drops US distribution of THE LITTLE PRINCE (19:08) GHOSTBUSTERS cartoon reboot gets 'Clash of Clans' commercial director (25:32) Nick's TMNT to have a 'crossover' episode with original 80s cartoon series characters (34:10) Audience Question: "What's your process for working through a particularly difficult action or movement when animating?" ~Samuel R. Albro (46:53) Preview of Interview with Tomm Moore (49:05) Battle Talk: February's #RubberOnionBattle (1:19:17) Rapid Fire!!!!!!!!!! Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=

HOT-COCOA SHOW! Now that we're in our third month of the #RubberOnionBattle (check out January & February's compilation video in the links) I thought that a discussion about improving the speed and efficiency of your animation was appropriate. I get this question a lot and you can check out my detailed list on the companion blog post by clicking here!

Preorder my book coming out in July 2016: "Tradigital Flash: 12 Principles of Animation in Adobe Flash"

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps: (9:52) What animating "faster" means (16:05) Planning and talking about process (36:03) Working with character rigs and staying organized (48:19) The importance of Hotkeys (51:56) Using program Extensions (58:44) Smears & other tips (1:06:09) Reusing Keys from previous work (1:12:17) Refining your character designs

Media Referenced During this Episode:

#RubberOnionBattle Feb 2016

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=

This segment premiered in #RubberOnionPodcast 122 "What's the Deal? Doh!"

Check out Ross Bollinger's website for his animated "Pencilmation" web-serieshttp://www.Pencilmation.com

(Follow @RubberOnion)

SEGMENT EPISODE! Since the Oscars were last weekend we talked about Animation & the Oscars throughout history, we get an audience question about the 2D vs 3D "rivalry" and apparently Homer Simpson will be LIVE for the first time in an episode in May. This week is a fun combination of a segment episode and a hot cocoa show actually due to the return of a neglected segment... "slow burn!" Enjoy this fun episode and one that has one of my favorite titles ever (you'll find out why when you listen).

Preorder my book coming out in July 2016: "Tradigital Flash: 12 Principles of Animation in Adobe Flash"

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps: (5:11) "How You Doin" (8:05) New Zealand Dildo Attack (12:18) Animation News of the Week... (12:56) Homer Simpson to be LIVE in an episode in May (23:45) Slow Burn: Animation and the Oscars (46:02) Creator Spotlight: Ross Bollinger (and his Pencilmation series) (1:14:50) Talking February's #RubberOnionBattle (1:23:35) Audience Question: "I often wondered if there were any cartoons that didn't have an interesting storyline, because the artists involved just put scenes in it that were interesting and challenging to draw/animate, but didn't turn out to be fun for an audience to actually watch?" ~Benjamin Shelley (1:36:31) Rapid Fire!!!!!! Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=

This week we have a very special interview with animator Harry Partridge (see below for a small selection of his works). We talk about YouTube comments, using Flash and ToonBoom, how following his own path helped him find success, money and "batboobs." We had so much fun recording this episode and I think there's a lot here for new and experienced Indie animators to learn from... so enjoy the show!

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

Be sure to check out Harry's YouTube Channel and follow him on Twitter!

And you can now check us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps: (3:50) Flash & ToonBoom (7:30) Where you learned animation (13:48) With Animation You Can (16:36) Go Animate (19:15) YouTube & Twitter comments (24:38) Social Issues & the changing landscape (26:52) Rifftrax (32:32) YouTube copyright and recent changes (35:30) Talking Money and that CartoonBrew post (42:20) Audience Questions... (42:38) Lamont Wayne: "YouTube's changes in their policies and compensation and how that's affected him and the other Newgrounds animators." (46:18) Alex Dudley: "A lot of animators have found great success in making fan animations and parodies. What does one need to do to get their original creations a chance to reach that same success, or is it even possible at this point?" (48:53) Christian Kelly: "Do you ever feel bad that there is so much art to appreciate with all the time and hard work put into it but, not enough time to appreciate it all?" (51:02) Joel Townsend: "Your song about animation, you said you wanted to make movies but you turned to animation instead. Is that really true? How old were you when you made that switch?" (53:45) Ronald Chaparro: "Starbarian update?" (55:42) James T Nethery: "how does Harry stay sane when his fans are constantly bothering him over social media about when the next cartoon will come out? Does that push him to animate faster or does he ignore it and keep going at the same pace he always does?" (1:01:24) Sam Albro: "How does he balance his level of polish with the demands of the online audience?" (1:05:42) Alex Harvey: "What's your view on the 2D feature animation climate? Do you think that it could make a successful comeback, with both Brad Bird and Laika's Travis Knight mentioning that their interested in doing 2D features, and now the Dragon's Lair campaign? Would you want to ever make a 2D animated feature? Also, please can you send him a big hello from everyone on the Animation BA course here at UCA Farnham for me! ;D" (1:09:99) Alex Fox: "When the next few episodes of Starbarians are finally completed and released will you release a Kickstarter or Patreon as you've kinda mentioned about it on Newgrounds?" (1:12:52) Sam Freeman: "What would you say to your old university tutors now that you have more recognition in the animation community then they do?"

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

Preorder Stephen's Animation Tutorial Book:

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=

I just got to see Anomalisa. I phrase it that way because it does feel a little bit like I have been given some sort of exclusive golden ticket, and not just because the film has a limited theater run at the moment - it was special.

This segment was used in episode #120 of the RubberOnion Animation Podcast (click to listen to the entire episode)

HOW IT STARTED

Anomalisa started as a live-performance "sound play"; like a radio play but on stage. The actors read their lines in real time, a foley artist created sound fx in real time, all while the musician (Carter Burwell) played in real time. It wasn't intended to be recorded or preserved film. As writer/director Charlie Kaufman put it "we performed it twice in 2005... and then it was over... I liked that it was ephemeral."

It was Dino Stamatopoulos, a friend of Kaufman's, who saw the play being performed at UCLA and asked if he could make it into a movie. You'll know Dino as the founder of Animation Studio Starburns Industries (Rick & Morty, and many more), writer (and more) on the new Netflix show W Bob & David, and he was (clearly) the character of "Starburns" on Community.

Kaufman reluctantly agreed, stipulating that Dino had to raise the money (never thinking that it would happen). Enter the Kickstarter campaign which raised $406,237 from over 5,000 backers to produce a 40 minute short. Well that success led to Starburns Industries securing more funding and turning it into a feature length film with an ultimate budget of $8mil.

STORY, and my critical dilemma

It's written by Charlie Kaufman. That, right there, should say a lot. This has been said a lot about the man over the years but it's very rare that an auteur, when referring to film, is the writer. Charlie Kaufman is an auteur. Understand that while he is billed as one of two directors, the direction as far as the visuals are concerned is Duke Johnson.

Here's the problem, I feel like too much is being given away about the plot in reviews. I'm not saying that in the modern "no spoilers" tone where you're not allowed to say anything about any movie without getting scolded. What I'm saying is that the film itself is a very subtle exploration of a mundane rut in someone's life so it doesn't naturally lend itself to many significant reveals. The few plot turns which are there... are significant.

I really feel like this movie is best enjoyed if you know absolutely nothing and let the filmmakers take you through it all... so if you trust me that much, just go watch it!

But if you want to know a little more, there are a few things I want to bring up.

1. The main character, Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis, who also played Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter series) stays in a hotel called "The Fregoli." Even the sound play was written under the pseudonym Francis Fregoli which references the Fregoli delusion which is "a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance."
2. Michael is a customer service guru who wrote a book and gives talks at conferences.
3. Everyone except for Michael and a woman he meets at the conference, Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh), are voiced by the same actor: Tom Noonan (who fans of Last Action Hero might remember as the film villain, Ripper)
4. The film is set in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2005.

There's a reason I picked these four to pick out and tell you: they directly relate to the animation. To be more precise, they perfectly encapsulate why I think this film with its generic, work-a-day setting should be a hyper realistic animated stop-mo film.

ANIMATION, or did this really need to be animated?

Yes. Here's why:

Ok first up, the fact that the main character sees everyone as the same person and is also customer service guru is a great touch. But more important is the ability to marry the visuals of 3D printed stop-mo puppets and their interchangeable features to the world that this man is living in.

Everything supports the mundane. No offence to my Cincinnati fans out there... I dig your chili (and the fact that it and the zoo are constantly being brought up as 'things to do' while he's visiting is a fun running gag), but Ohio is kind of the perfect place to set a movie like this. The every-state, state.

Just as every character but the two mains is played by the same actor (Tom Noonan), all their character designs are made of the same puppet parts... like a high-end Mr. Potato Heads.

There are couple excellent moments for animation fans in the film. I don't want to ruin it other than to say that the design choice isn't just aesthetic, but in true Kaufman fashion there is some 4th wall busting moments with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AILnP1Y-0o

The acting is very subtle. Aside from The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (though maybe more so) this has probably the most subtle acting performances I've seen in an animated feature. I would be fascinated to find out what challenges that presented to the animators because the motions are deliberate while still seemingly spontaneous. There's a particular sequence I noted where Lisa falls down in the hallway and Michael runs up to her as maybe the most true-to-life stop-mo run I've ever seen.

The lighting is especially fantastic in the "date" scenes with Michael and Lisa. And sidenote: yes Anomalisa has something to do with her name, and no I'm not telling you what it is. If you haven't figured it out on your own it's better that the film tells you.

THE SEX SCENE, or "yes, that one"

Yes there is a sex scene. Yes there is nudity. Yes there are explicit acts performed.

But I've read in other reviews words like "filthy" and "raunchy" and it is definitely neither of those. It plays very real, and by real I don't mean just the physical act. I mean that the moment is full of interplay which reinforces the characters and their dynamic in real-time. There's communication, mood breaks, awkward advances and retreats, and all these other intricacies that aren't in other scenes like this.

I know that not everyone checks their watch to note the pacing of a film, but if you want to know perfect editing... note what happens at exactly the 60 minute mark of the film. Not so incidentally, Garret Elkins is nominated for Best Editing at the Annies this year.

SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?

I know, this sounds a little heady and boring and you're right. The fact is, it's very hard to communicate this film without discussing it line-by-line which I refuse to do. Just understand that this is the first R-rated animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for BEST ANIMATED FEATURE. That should speak volumes right there.

The fact of the matter is that we don't get films like this very often but I'm seeing it more and more these days in the animated medium, whether it be stop-mo, computer-modeled, or hand-drawn.

TL;DR This is an R-rated, introspective, critically-praised, independent animated feature film which started its funding with a successful online crowdfunding campaign and ended up getting nominated for Best Animated Feature Oscar... that is special.

Go watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQkHA3fHk_0

SEGMENT EPISODE! After such a long break from these you get 2 in a row, how about that! The theme this week is the broad range of animation and that means quality, quantity, and future projections! We talk about some animation news, answer an Audience Question, of course hit up some Rapid Fire segments, and I (Stephen) review Anomalisa on this episode while the written version and the segment by itself will be up tomorrow! We also have a talkback moment about Deadpool since I saw it last week and I make Rob jealous with my gloating. Finally, I want to give a shoutout to Mukpuddy who saw their new series "Barefoot Bandits" premiere this week, so congrats on that! Click the link on their name to check out the interview we did with them.

Preorder my book coming out in July 2016: "Tradigital Flash: 12 Principles of Animation in Adobe Flash"

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps: (3:05) "How You Doin" (6:05) Deadpool Talkback (13:39) Mukpuddy's "Barefoot Bandits" premiere shoutout (15:17) Animation News of the Week... (16:07) Cinesite to Produce Nine Animated Movies in Montreal in Five Years (24:49) Netflix Announces Beatles-Inspired ‘Beat Bugs’ Series (34:05) Self-help author recommends learning animation in 3 months (45:26) Sonic the Hedgehog getting a hybrid live action animated feature film in 2018 (52:12) Preview: Next week's episode 121 "Harry Partridge Interview" (55:17) Review: Anomalisa (1:16:17) Audience Question: "I often wondered if there were any cartoons that didn't have an interesting storyline, because the artists involved just put scenes in it that were interesting and challenging to draw/animate, but didn't turn out to be fun for an audience to actually watch?" ~Benjamin Shelley (1:27:42) Rapid Fire!!!!!!

Media Referenced During this Episode:

"Beat Bugs" trailer (24:49)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu-5mkWii0c

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=