Wednesday, September 03, 2008

John K - not a fan of his work, but he's a great teacher

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Recently I've been edumacatin' myself about traditional cartooning concerns via John K's Stuff blog:

Label=COMPOSITION

John K(ricfalusi) is the creator of Ren & Stimpy and other sick & twisted type cartoons. Not my cup of tea, but he's using his blog to educate a new generation of aspiring cartoonists from which he hopes tp recruit a stable of employees - and for that he uses examples from great cartoons of the past, both still and animated. And he reveals a vast wealth of knowledge about it. Pretty smart feller, he is!

The link is for all his posts about composition, which are the ones I've been absorbing. Exciting stuff for sure, and it makes me almost want to give up stopmo and turn to cartooning, which is the purest form of animation. Most of these principles can be applied only loosely to stopmo (unless you were to design a new set for each shot, or work out some way to substitute new elements each time you move the camera). There's a lot more latitude in drawing... you're not bound by reality as much as when you have to make things in 3 dimensions. But just being aware of these design principles can help you lay out your sets and work out a style for everything. It can also help you break out of boring visual styles (or lack of style).

In related news, I have finally managed to get a printer/scanner that actually works with my computer, so work on my film will be able to resume.

7 comments:

Shelley Noble said...

Fantastic use of the web, kudos to Mr. Kricfalusi. That's how to do it! Educate about a niche, foster ability, create those worthy of hiring and/or buying! My favorite thing that's webhappening!

RE: Resuming filmmage: Yay for Darkmedia Omninational™!!!

Anonymous said...

Great link, thanks!

Anonymous said...

It's interesting, how small the web is because sooner or later you bump into the same things. I just discovered John K's blog two weeks ago because he also provides a lot of helpful information for animators in general. Great stuff!

Emily said...

That's really cool - thanks for the link! His analysis of the 'Canadian accent' in animation is pretty interesting too - never really thought about it before.

bRYEnd_of_the_schtick said...

(^ anybody with the balls to claim John K is a great teacher doesn't know the snob.
(^ he had ron tweedie walk up and try to talk to him and you know: missing deadlines while working a pay gig? not good teacher at ALL: (^ good warning what not to do, tho!

jriggity said...

glad youll be bak on the project!

jriggity

Darkmatters said...

Um Brian.... I said he was a good TEACHER. He doesn't teach being late on deadlines. Have you even looked at his blog?

I don't judge a person's teaching ability based on my personal experience of his personality. I've had great teachers I wouldn't care to hang out with, and awful ones who were great people.