So if you havenât already seen it, I produced a cartoon.Â
Iâd never done something like this before, and Iâve gotten a lot of messages about the process, so I thought Iâd share the journey with you.Â
As you might already know, I am a co-publisher of a new comic book company called Z2 Comics, and our first book to come out was Welcome to Showside by Ian McGinty. When we decided to publish the book, Ian had already come up with plans to make it into a cartoon - heâd designed all the characters and had written the early basis for the pilot. It was a matter of our parent company, Modern Prometheus, pulling the trigger on producing it. Based on the quality of Ianâs early designs, it was kind of a no-brainer. We committed to doing a 5-6 minute animated pilot.Â
ABOVE: Ianâs early designs for âBelleâ who we hadnât named yet.Â
Our first thing to do was to get the script in order. Ian wrote the pilot, and in a rare instance, we had zero notes for him. Like none. And I usually give a LOT of notes. It was pretty much perfect. We locked the script and Ian got to work on the designs of the characters, doing âturnsâ of each character - seen above - meaning how the character looks from every angle. We had five primary characters in the pilot.Â
We then found our animation director, the wildly talented Brian Kaufman, whoâd been at Titmouse Studios doing animation on several Cartoon Network shows. Brian was a mutual friend of my business partner and he was sold on the designs and script, and assembled a small team of animators for the project.Â
Our first step was for Brian to come up with the boards for the pilot. Unlike storyboards for live action, animation boards are far more detailed and precise, as they have to delineate how the entire project will be paced, performed and edited. After a few weeks, Brian assembled the boards into an animatic and used temp voices for the dialogue, and we made small tweaks in terms of visuals, angles, and pacing. Brian also worked closely with Ian on background designs and production design, and assigned specific members of his team to work exclusively on those elements. Itâs a large reason why the short is so rich in texture, as so many of the background elements are moving and have function and purpose.Â
With the animatic locked, we then turned to voice talent. We ended up being very lucky in that one of the voices for the temp track, the voice of Belle, was actually Brianâs wife and we thought she was absolutely perfect for it. She wasnât a professional voice actor but sheâs a natural, and was the first talent we signed.
As the world of entertainment is a heavily saturated one, we knew we needed a bigger name talent for at least one of the characters, and it seemed natural that the voice of Frank, the giant flaming skull, should be the one we try to find a recognizable talent for. I wanted to go for a musician, as the short as whole had a huge music lineage to it, and I started working whatever connections I had built in the industry these past fifteen years to get access to agencies. We had a lot of non-responses, and in the eleventh hour I finally got a call from Henry Rollinsâ agent. He loved the part, and wanted to do it. He felt it was just him. We signed the paperwork and finished casting our other parts and were ready to record.
We rented a studio in LA - the beautiful Margarita Mix studios in Hollywood - for the recording, which took about four hours in total. We recorded lines individually and then a few times as a âradio playâ with the entire cast together in one room. I preferred the latter, as it brought a lot more spontaneity and natural reactions, and the core of what we ended up using were from those takes. I received the files and Ian, Brian and I went through the takes and picked the winners. I laid them into the animatic and we made more tweaks and finally locked the boards. Then Brian and his team got to work with animating.Â
They first created animated tests of each character, and like Ian did with his designs, created âturnsâ of the characters, including all the mouth positions for animating dialogue.Â
Once were locked in on designs, the animation began. We received the short minute by minute, and with each consecutive minute we were really blown away. It was at this time I had to turn to the equally important part of the short, which was sound design and music.Â
When it comes to sound I relied upon my friends at HOBO Audio in NYC. Theyâve done all of my films and never cease to amaze me, and this was their first cartoon theyâd ever done. With animation it is no small task, as youâre basically building EVERYTHING from scratch, and the only thing you have is the actorsâ voices. I also recruited my dear friend Alap Momin from dalek to do the score, which was a natural choice because I know Alap is a self-described âcartoon junkie.â Ian worked closely with both to get the sound he really wanted for the show, and after almost five months of animating and sonic sculpting, we had ourselves a short.Â
The last piece was the end credits, and we wanted to do something special with the music. Something different. Maybe have a band write a song. As Ian and I were thumbing through music references, I found the song âAgonyâ by one of my favorite cult artists, the venerable Nate Denver. The lyrics fit the overall story of WELCOME TO SHOWSIDE like a glove, and Ian wanted it. It was pretty much perfect for what we needed. I got on the horn and contacted Nate and he was all in. We signed the paperwork, assembled the end credit and we were done, just in time for the launch of the comic book.Â
WELCOME TO SHOWSIDE Issue No.1 Books-A-Million Variant cover by Erin Hunting.Â
I have to admit it was weird producing someone elseâs work, and doing it in a medium that I had zero familiarity with was an eye-opening experience. Iâm pretty blown away by the meticulous work animators do, and the amount of patience required is incredible. But with animation, you get out with exactly what you put in, because for the most part it is all in your control. There are few if no happy accidents that can happen on a live film shoot. So itâs all on you, and there is great power and great culpability in that. And I love it, and I canât wait to do it again.
The next step is selling the show, which we need your help with in doing. Spread the word, share the video. We need as much following as it can to demonstrate that it is viable. Weâve had a great start but we need so much more, and if you like what you see and want to see more of it, we need you to help put it out there. Thanks!Â
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