Animation Job Searching Advice from Maaike Scherff

 Reposted from https://twitter.com/yesmaaike/status/1420463232230117380

"Here's a dose of animation school tough love. Getting through your classes and receiving a degree does not guarantee a job. School will only get you partially there; maybe it'll give you fundamentals or provide you with a network, but it won't do everything.

The amount of times I see alumni get through the program (completing assignments & nothing else) and then lament they don't have a job is honestly staggering. In the last year of my education, I realized homework and finals weren't a one-way ticket to a job.

CLASS COMPLETION =/= EMPLOYMENT

Keeping your head down and doing your (probably outdated) school assignment, at a certain point, won't help you. Teachers only know so much. 

Please, look outside your classrooms! You cannot rely on them to take care of your career- they won't!

You have to research on social media, look at animation trends. Find the styles that are popular and the portfolios that are getting people hired. Look at websites of industry folks and aim to be just as good, or //better// than that.

The good news? By being here & engaged in the animation community alongside people making cartoons these days, you're giving yourself a HUGE leg up. Stay in the loop! Keep being friendly and posting your art! We see you and we think it would be rad to work with you."

- Maaike Scherff

Healthy Animation Productions - The Fungies - Jess Marfisi

Reposted from https://twitter.com/jessdrawz/status/1296544050518978560. From August 20, 2020

Fungies Character Designer Jess Marfisi shares her joyous production experience on the series:

"Okay I’m gonna get a lil mushy here but working on the Fungies has been my best experience working in animation by far. No to put down the other productions I’ve been on, but I didn’t think it was possible to work on a show that was so accommodating and supportive of its artists. At least on the character design side, I have never ONCE felt stressed about the scheduling, there has been nothing but endless support from my AD and production staff, and there are 0 shenanigans. I legit want this production to last forever. My mental health has been so good on this show. This show is why I have left over creative energy to work on my book. It feels good and I hope other shows can learn from our production. It’s really a special crew.

Anyway, I just wanted to point this out bc I feel like there aren’t enough testimonies from folks here on Twitter who have been on well run productions. It’s possible! Heck, at least before the pandemic hit we were weeks early in terms of deliveries and shipments!"

Tig N' Seek Storyboarding and Animation Guide by Nick Cross

 Reposted from https://twitter.com/ncrossanimation/status/1353063346841378816. Nick Cross's own words from this point on...

For Tig n' Seek, I put together a document to help the storyboard artists and animators with some tips on drawing the characters. When we first started the show I was sure that we wouldn't need something like this...but after a full season, I realized that some artists on the show weren't picking up on the subtleties of the designs and it was causing problems when it went to the animation studio...

1/ Tiggy was really tricky to get right so I spent a lot of time going over every aspect of him.

2/ Eyes were always an issue and a lot of retakes resulted in this not being done correctly.

3/ This was for the board artists to help with acting and expressions since so much of the comedy came from the range of emotions Tiggy would go through in an episode.

4/ General construction

5/ His mouth was another tricky thing to keep consistent. In the pilot (Tigglewinks) his mouth was a little different. It was connected to his nose and it didn't allow for big expressions...we ended up going with the old tried and true bean mouth...

6/ Contrast is super important!

7/ On to hands - A big part of Tiggy's hand design was based on the way Akira Toriyama would draw cute chubby hands.

8/ Shape vs. form - the eternal struggle

9/ Proportion of the characters is super important to keep consistent when storyboarding - if sizes vary too much it really affects the layout of characters in the final animation.

10/ cont'd

11/ Ear placement - this is one of these details that can make or break the silhouette and make the character feel off-model, especially with one that is as 'simple' as Tiggy.

12/ Myke had a very specific look for Tiggy's feet which was really challenging

13/ Same with his hair...we really struggle to figure out how to make an asymmetrical hair design work for animation.

14/ Cont'd

15/ Cont'd - A lot of super specific stuff

16/ Last of the hair theories...

17/ Arms and leg construction

18/ On to Gweeseek...she was a little easier than Tiggy but still had a few tricks to her.

19/ Gweeseek often would end up looking dog-like if her muzzle wasn't just so...this was to help solve a few issues that would often pop up in the final animation.

20/ More weird idiosyncrasies with her head...

21/ The relationship between her giant head and small body was always tricky. It's so different than a real cat so it was hard to keep the feline look to her.

22/ Her legs were tricky...

23/ Her collar also had a specific look to it...

24/ This was to help with eye direction -  this is usually the #1 source of retakes in TV animation!

25/ More eye direction notes. How to match eye lines between cuts - super important!!

26/ Boss. I really liked drawing Boss, he was really built for good cartoony animation - lots of squishy structure.

27/ More subtle things with Boss' head.

28/ This is similar to the notes with Tiggy's eyes and mouth...

29/ A final set of notes for Boss - hands and body theories

30/ Nuritza - at this point I was losing steam ha!

31/ A few more notes on Nuritza's head...the way her teeth worked was one of those weird cheats you sometimes have to make in TV animation..

32/ cont'd (nearly done)

33/ Tiggy often was posed holding Gweeseek and we would get final animation back where she would be drawn blocking Tiggy's face...so this was to help artists to plan the pose to accommodate her big head and goggles.

The Fungies Storyboarding Guide by Stephen P Neary and Nick Edwards

 Reposted from https://twitter.com/StephenPNeary/status/1418313624725069824

"Hello would you like to see this ancient storyboarding guide for The Fungies!? Drawn by myself and Nick Edwards, back when the show was still called "The Fancies". We tried to make a board-driven show that respected the artists and gave them lots of freedom. Something weird, specific, and heartfelt, in the grand tradition of "Cartoon Network" shows!"

- Stephen P. Neary