hey!this is very very very random but I saw your old post about attending the tuck tucker lecture and writing about it on another blog. could I have a link to it? been rewatching alot of hey arnold recently and I've been reminded of his work, and would love to read more about him.
Oh, yes, I loved getting a chance to talk with him and hear about his writing and animation philosophies. I was sad to hear that he died a few years ago; he was quite young and had such clear passion for his work. In answer to your question, I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think I ever did a proper write-up of the talk (though I'd planned to do it for a little animation blog a friend of mine was helping with).
However, I was able to find my handwritten notes from the lecture! (The notebook was in the wrong area of my files, so I don't know how I was able to find it so fast - lucky!)
Here are a few quotes/notes about the shows he's worked on.
He was the supervising storyboard director for this show for many years, and that was his role at the time of the talk (2013), although the show was on a temporary hiatus while the crew worked on the second film.
"People think this is a very optimistic show, but has anyone ever noticed how horrible the people of Bikini Bottom are? They're terrible people! ... It's an exercise in keeping the citizens as far from you as possible ... The tone of the show is 'people? ehhhh.'"
The show is storyboard-driven, which locks performers into the drawings rather than the other way around. The actors convey the artists' intent/tone.
The second SpongeBob movie, Sponge Out of Water, allowed all staff to move off the show to work on it for 2 years. Creator Steven Hillenberg made sure that all the people working on the show would get to work on the movie.
He loved Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, "washed-up underwater superheroes." They had good support for the show from those two Oscar winners. At the time, he said he wasn't sure about when the characters would appear again and said it depended on Hillenberg.
SpongeBob had a "spoiled position" at the studio, so they could ask for more time, resources, or people as they needed.
In The SpongeBob Movie, Tucker was in charge of the "angry fish kitty" sequence, the gas attendants, King Neptune, the little royal page sidekick, and Mindy, so basically most of the "new" characters.
He feels the average production timeline for a SpongeBob episode is the best system: they had 2 weeks to work on the premise, 2 weeks for rough boards, 2 weeks for clean boards, 1 week for animatic/voices, creating assets/models, and then shipping to Korea for a 6-week animation turnaround time, followed by 4 weeks of retakes, 2 weeks for audio/color correction. He estimated it was about 8 months between when an episode began conception and when it aired or was ready to air, and they usually had to work on 3-4 episodes at a time.
Overall he thought SpongeBob was the most satisfying show to work on because they had fewer limitations and worked with great people.
He said the difference between classic SpongeBob episodes and the newer ones is that the actors evolved and sometimes got tired of the same kind of performance, plus some people who developed the original show moved on to other projects. He said they felt like they had explored the old stuff but were trying to keep the show focused on the core characters and their interactions rather than continually introducing new characters.
Tucker grabbed Helga every time he could. She taught him so much about young girls and life in general.
Helga was the "meatiest" part of the show for him.
He confirmed Miriam is an "alcoholic mother."
"[Helga] is funny and a rage-aholic and, in her pug-nosed way, pretty. I always thought she was in love with Arnold, who doesn't seem to be the obvious object for that affection." (Personal Note: I really like the idea that Arnold is just an unassuming, average boy. We see him from Helga's eyes so much that it's easy to forget he's not the most popular or talented kid. It's his quietness and his goodness that draws Helga to him.)
Tucker turned down the SpongeBob gig at first because he was directing the Hey Arnold! movie.
Helga's crush on Arnold was the most satisfying thing to write in his career.
It was "trusting a child with deeply adult emotions." The character could carry that weight, the performers and animators could enact it, and the young viewers could handle it.
Craig Bartlett generally trusted Tucker to do what he wanted with Helga.
At the time, since The Jungle Movie hadn't come to fruition, he talked about how it was pitched as a life/death fever epidemic that would have gotten "dicey."
He said he had had kids come up to him at talks saying they were proud to be an orphan because they saw themselves in Arnold. :'(
Hey Arnold! is tonally similar to Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films.
Helga is his favorite character, she's "such a mess." He felt it was just a great privilege to work on her and started tearing up trying to explain it. His favorite episode that he worked on was "Monkey Business," and he said he could feel himself getting choked up about it even as he was drawing it.
This show was more script-driven, and Tucker preferred storyboards.
Unlike SpongeBob, the FOP productions were always pressed for time, and the network didn't give them the same slack/care.
"People drank and smoked at their desks ... and other things."
Ren & Stimpy and Warner Bros. cartoons were influenced by broad comedy.
He said writing is always very stressful and was not his favorite part. It is satisfying when it's successful, but basking in that success is *not* part of the process (lol). Animatics were his favorite aspect.
His art portfolio got STOLEN on his first day in L.A.
The problem in animation is not getting a job, it's getting sleep.
His advice for hopeful animators is to "learn to have some fun outside the dark-lit world of animation."
He sold a show to Cartoon Network, but I think he ended up buying it back from them for like $200,000. I may have some of the details mixed up on the exact deal, I'm just trying to decipher my notes!
Advice for people sending portfolios to get animation internships: Don't draw dragons. Don't draw Brunhildes. Don't draw motorcycles. (I guess they see those a lot!)
Storyboarders are the most employed type of animator and it's the most labor intensive role.
When he started in the '80s, animators were less valued, but now the industry values creativity more.
He felt that Pixar was a benchmark for the future of animation. He said they connect with their audience in a way only 2D used to be able to do. They break the stereotypes of 3DF modeling by going simple (think Pixar lamp). 3D and good acting is still an evolving thing, and it's difficult to get the soul of characters through the eyes in a computer.
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