I recently did some Adventure Time storyboards for class! It was fun having the chance to work with some classic characters from my childhood, even though this sequence isn't in any official episode. Here's a little pitch video -
Even though these drawings are pretty rough, even rougher drawings preceded them - the thumbnails! In case you'd like to see my planning process, they're right here. Thumbnailing is fun - unless you're thumbnailing buildings in perspective. Luckily this sequence is fairly free of buildings. I'm still figuring out my process and style for boarding, but so far I've been following the method of thumbnailing character introductions and group shots first, and referencing the board artists of Gravity Falls (like Dana Terrace) when it comes to drawing style. I tend to over-sketch, so finding a style that communicated well while still being fast to draw was a challenge!
Hope you enjoyed it and more storyboards should be coming soon!
I’ve been reading through Nicholas Kole’s At Happy Rock blog recently, and one of my favorite articles on
there was when he posted his “Dream List,” a collection of goals and hopes for
his future career/life. And I thought that was a super cool idea. So I rather
shamelessly stole it. Sorry Kole.
But in all seriousness a list of dream jobs, projects, and
adventures just seems like a good thing to have around. Life seems to go by so
fast, and I feel like having some definite goals to shoot for would help me make
better use of present moments and not let opportunities slip away. God’s got
great plans that I can’t predict, (and those will be way better than what’s on
this list) but it’s fun to imagine what the future has in store! I also thought
posting it here could help give a better picture to you Roost-ers of what I’m
interested in (and if any of you can help make these dreams a reality PLEASE let
me know - I am all ears. 100% ear. In a metaphorical sense.)
So here it is – and in no particular order:
The Dream List
Work on/direct a character voiced by Jack McBrayer
Direct something scored by Michael Giacchino
Work with Louie Zong and/or Insaneintherainmusic
on something
Be involved in the reboot of one of my favorite childhood shows
Work at Disney TVA
Jump on board the Ducktales, Hilda, and/or Craig of the Creek
trains before they exit production
Zootopia 2???
Be on a podcast
Showrun for Cartoon Network
Be paid to teach art
Work on the Wingfeather Saga
Do something old school for Studio MDHR
Work on a project with a complete jazz score
Master an instrument
Talk with Craig McCracken
Draw in the Outback
Host a nature show
Learn another language
Cook something other than nachos (luv u nachos, but I need to
grow up)
Collaborate on a project with one of my top 8 art heroes
Have a hand in redesigning an iconic character
Have a character I worked on made into a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
balloon
Work on an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows
And Get an Internship in 2019
I plan on returning to this list, updating it, and hopefully checking some things off as time goes by. Now comes the hard part of actually doing the work it takes to make these things happen!
I currently use the company Sticker Mule to print all of my stickers. I’ve been consistently impressed with the high quality of the prints, the ease of the ordering process, and the durability of the stickers. Although I have not tested my stickers against flamethrowers or boulders, I suspect that they could survive at least the boulders.
However, they are definitely not the cheapest option. Unless you can count on selling each of your stickers, I’d only buy from them on sale. Thankfully, they send out sales by email more than once a month which lower the price down to $20 for 50 stickers. I’ve even seen a sale that was $9 for 50. In case you’d like to make your own stickers sometime, I’ve attached this button which should net you $10 store credit, which if you buy on sale could be worth 25 stickers!
I’m very committed to keeping all of my social media channels, including The Wayfarer’s Roost, ad and promotion free. But if you were already going to make stickers, this is essentially free money. Love others, and do what thou wilt with it. If the link stops working or they cut the deal, let me know and I will promptly delete this post. And if you make some stickers, I’d love to see them!
I’ve been pushed out of my post-Christmas slumber by the near avalanche of posts summarizing and celebrating the accomplishments of this year – Instagram “best 9,” thank you’s, and cool collages – so I figured it was high time that I get to some reflecting of my own. I’ve been a bit hesitant to do so, mainly because my new year happens less so during January and more so during August when I head back to Lipscomb. But since I’ll be living without a school-based schedule scarily soon, I might as well start doing some long-form reflection based on the old Gregorian.
This has been a great year in my art journey – it’s crazy to look back at posts from January and see what all I’ve learned and how God has been working with me since then, which definitely brings some hope to my currently weary heart. I feel a lot more confident in my use of color, I’ve discovered some favorite methods of digital painting, and I’ve realized my pressing need to study figure drawing. Here’s a summary of my favorites from each month (some of which I haven’t posted yet, but hopefully will at some point…)
This brings me to one of my biggest discoveries of the year: I actually like doing visual development work! Going into this fall semester, I was sure that character design and visual development just wasn’t for me. At Lipscomb I was (and still am) surrounded by super talented people who can just pull out amazing looking designs on the first or second try. It seems like they make iconic characters within mere minutes. Meanwhile, I’m over here on version 45, spending hour upon hour upon the project with drawings so painfully short of “just right;” my draughtsmanship sinking at titanic speeds. In short, I could do vis dev, but it wasn’t really enjoyable and I doubted if I had the natural ability to actually do it for a career. I was really, really hoping I would like CG animating. However, in God’s providential plan I ended up taking a Concept Development class during the fall. Pure and unescapable vis dev. I figured I could do just enough to squeak by with a good grade and then put most of my effort into my 2D Animation 2 Class. But how the turns had tabled! I loved it! In contrast to mostly figure/character based classes I had taken previously, I was finally encouraged to wield color, design backgrounds, and draw weapons a la Splatoon! We got to geek out about our favorite designers for classwork and draw fun and frequently laugh-inducing warm-up doodles. I sunk hours upon hours into projects, not simply because they were difficult but because I wanted to. My best work of 2018 came out of that class, and now I think it would be amazing to be a background painter or color stylin’ dude. I’m so glad I didn’t count those career avenues out.
This was also the year when I got to dive into animation, starting out on paper, old school style. Animating was nice cause I could tap a little bit into my naturally analytical brain which I usually have to suppress during other kinds of creative work. (“Back! Back! Leave that foreshortened arm alone, you tyrannical beast!”) Animation has a lot of nice rules/guidelines that keep my left brain busy while my right brain does the actual drawing. I’m still trying to reach a Glen Keane-state when I can really sense what the character “wants” in my head rather than a more mechanical process. I do find animation a bit tedious, but the finished product is really sweet. Animating on paper was pure magic – no digital trickery, yet it still moves! I felt like I actually peaked then and my work suffered when we switched to all digital in 2D Animation 2. I don’t know if it was because I leaned into a couple digital shortcuts or the assignments were a lot harder. I felt like my characters moved a lot more like robots than living beings. But I will say that the first moments when my drawings moved and especially when my drawings talked back to me were incredible rushes that I hope I don’t forget.
OH and I almost forgot perhaps the biggest discovery of the year (I know I just said the vis dev thing was the biggest, but put that on hold for a moment): I want to make animals and natural environments a big focus in my art! When I was a little kid, I loved animals. My favorite show was Zoboomafoo. I could look at aquariums for hours. But when I got older, that love kinda faded and got replaced with other things. I wasn’t too fond of science or picking up animal poop, so it seemed like a career involving animals was not in my future. But when Aaron Blaise visited campus this year and talked about his career, I realized that there were artists in the animation industry who specialized in drawing animals – and I wanted to be one of those artists. Although I was already drawing animals before, I’ve been paying special attention to making animal/nature based art a key part of my portfolio by going to the zoo and working on a substantial bird-centric project (art is coming soon!!!!)
Here’s some more miscellaneous things that happened this year which were important, but perhaps didn’t warrant their own paragraph:
Decided to grow out my hair
Went to a North Carolina beach for the first time, although I’ve lived in NC for over 10 years…
Kicked off the Lipscomb Animation Caricature Show
Started a life drawing club (to provide some much needed practice)
Discovered the art and music of Louie Zong (both are equally charming, equally texture-y, equally commendable, and equally brief)
Took over Lipscomb University’s Instagram for a day – now my face is PERMANENTLY scarring their social media reputation
Lost a relationship and watched friendships crumble
Made an animated short in 24 hours with some friends (more info on that here)
Finished Inktober for the first time (missed one day but I made up for it, OK)
Smoked a pipe for the first time (related first: blew first smoke ring – on accident)
Built the Roost!
Dove into the Old Testament
Got both Aaron Blaise and John Musker to sign my *stolen???* 2D animation board
Got to talk to Nicholas & Erica Kole for A COUPLE HOURS!!!! And didn’t fanboy too much!!!
Won a little CTN Scholarship!
Was told I was someone’s inspiration (which like, wowee that’s amazing and reassuring but I really need to step up my act to deserve that kind of responsibility)
And here’s some media I’ve enjoyed this year:
Shows of Da Year: Hilda, Craig of the Creek, Ducktales (2017), Gravity Falls
Game of Da Year: Cuphead
Movie of Da Year: Spider-Man: The Best One. Oh And It Also Has the Spiderverse.
Over all, it’s been an amazing year and God has been incredibly faithful. I’ve recently been a bit of a slump and chafing for some more dramatic improvement in my art… but it’s nice to get a bit of perspective and realize I am improving, even if I don’t see it on a dramatic, daily basis. There’s always a reason to be thankful. I’ve got big plans for 2019 and it has the potential to be an incredible year – what with CTN, taking my first steps into storyboarding, and an internship (VERY HOPEFULLY!!!) So be praying for me! And if there’s some way I can pray for your 2019, let me know at dannyhaycox@gmail.com!
See ya in 2019!
-dh
(Note: This was originally posted on New Years Eve, 2018)
So I recently had the pleasure of helping to make Lipscomb’s second ever animated short film! It’s only 30 seconds long, but did I mention we made it in 24 hours? I’ll link the final short below before I dive into the story –
Like a surprising amount of other things in the Lipscomb animation department, this film started due to Tom and Tony’s sibling rivalry. When Tom heard about this 24 hour student animation contest, he promptly challenged Tony that Lipscomb could make a better film than his students at Azusa Pacific. He did all this before telling us, his own students, about the contest. Clearly, Tom was more excited about the challenge than any of us. After all, he wasn’t going to be the one stuck in the animation lab for 24 hours. Which, on second thought, is only a few hours short of the Lipscomb student’s typical workday experience. Everyone also had regular homework that they would have to do in the groggy days that followed the competition. It was an especially bad weekend for Aedan Peterson and I since Hutchmoot was happening at the same time and NICHOLAS KOLE would be there, the first chance I would have to meet him in person since I developed an unhealthy obsess- *ahem* I mean great appreciation for his work. So it was going to be a surprise if Lipscomb could even muster a team to challenge Azusa in the first place. However, once we found out that there were several good prizes on the line, a few of us were willing to make some sacrifices. The winners would get subscriptions to TVPaint, and more notably, a mystery prize pack from a major studio. And that, in the words of Jeff Probst, was a reward worth playing for.
After leaving halfway through Kole’s panel at Hutchmoot (I was pretty upset) we arrived back at Lipscomb and gathered around the computer to get the word on what our official prompt would be. To prevent early starts, all teams were required to work from the same prompt delivered at the beginning of the 24 hours. After listing a bunch of recent social justice advocates, the prompt concluded with:
In 24 hours make a 30-second animated film depicting a strong point of view educating to your audience about the need to have empathy. Whether it be race, gender, lifestyle, social mobility, disability, geography, or even species, we all face challenges in making our reality be understood. Animate an experience that will help convey to the audience what it is really like to speak your truth.
Essentially, we had to show someone speaking out against the majority to defend their beliefs and/or a minority group. Although that’s a noble thing for our nameless protagonist to do, we encountered quite a few issues in adapting this idea into a 30 second short. First of all, this idea of loveable-rebel-vs-unfeeling-majority is an incredibly common cliche in modern animated storytelling (think Smallfoot, Zootopia, Bee Movie, Steven Universe). We were also a little philosophically unsettled by the prompt – nowhere did it include searching for the truth amidst controversy or loving your enemy, just the importance of pushing your particular point of view. And don’t even get me started on “speaking your truth.” How could we find a take on this idea that would be sensitive and inventive – and fit in the 30 second required time limit? We went to our “writers’ room” (the fashion design room) and tried to come up with visual metaphors and find if there was a way to subvert the prompt in a refreshing and truthful way. We wanted to show a story of two sides coming together, not an underdog beatdown. Someone came up with the visual metaphor of a fire in combat with 1,000 raindrops, which after a decisive drop in temperature became the story we used for the film. We liked the idea of a role reversal – at first the fire appears to be the bad guy, killing hundreds of snowflakes for seemingly no reason. We then learn that the fire is the only thing keeping a young girl alive, and it’s actually the snowflakes who are the insensitive ones. Once the snowflakes understand the fire’s point of view, they join it in its mission of protection in a way neither side could accomplish on its own. Overall, the story felt a lot more wholesome than showing some outcast “sticking it to the man.”
We then moved on to the visual side of the film. Lipscomb only had one 5 man team in the competition, but I think it was a great combination of people to work with. It also meant that we had the whole lab to ourselves :). Aedan, Hayley Evans, and I got to work on character design and later moved into animation once we got the storyboards from Naomi Bethel. I was particularly happy with how the fire design progressed – we took a lot of inspiration from the Grim Matchstick Cuphead fight and he turned out delightfully grumpy.
Fire Model Sheet by Aedan Peterson
Naomi’s boards fit our much-too-long story into the 30 seconds pretty admirably with some great expression work. The igloo gag at the end was all her idea and directly based on one of her sketches. We all essentially co-directed it, but I acted as team captain/producer and tried to keep everything on track. I helped a bit with character design and animated the first couple snow shots and the final igloo shot based on Naomi’s boards (and recorded the igloo’s voice in a different room so no one could watch me make that sound). Throughout most of the process Audrey Wagnon was working on these really cool backgrounds, getting a really nice pastel feel reminiscent of the Brother Bear visdev. Here’s some of my favorites.
Background Art by Audrey Wagnon
She later handled most of the editing.
We all had a lot of fun at the beginning and end of the process – the middle was pretty rough and we all got a little delirious. I was worried for a while that we wouldn’t be able to finish in time. Our animation lab is in a basement, so the passing of time grew very ethereal. Since I didn’t see the sun move in the sky, it felt like the day didn’t really pass. We finished the film 30 minutes before the deadline. Most of us then had a CG modeling assignment to turn in that night, so no rest for the weary!
We all were pretty happy with what we were able to make. For most of us, it was the first animated short film we had ever made. After watching some of the other entries, we realized that we probably should have picked a story that fit more neatly into the 30 seconds and required less quick cuts. We didn’t win any of the major awards, but we did place in the top 50 out of 200+ teams, 34th to be exact. Tom said we beat Azusa, which made him happy. All things considered, not a bad first attempt. And the Kole story ends happily as well – I was able to talk to him and his wife Erika on Sunday night after the challenge was over and I had gotten some sleep. It was really a God-sent opportunity, and I tried not to geek out too much!
We had a special guest on Lipscomb’s campus last weekend – John Musker! John’s one member of Disney’s dynamic directing duo, along with Ron Clements. Together they’ve made some great films, including one of my personal favorites, ThePrincess and the Frog (Jazz? Animal characters? That one really cool shot at the beginning of “When We’re Human”? Yes Please!) Since I was familiar with his movies, I was excited to hear more about the man himself (I don’t think I had ever seen a Musker drawing before his visit). In his talk on Friday evening, John spent the most time discussing his early years at CalArts and in the Disney Training Program. He had some particularly wild stories about Tim Burton that are worth asking about if you get the chance. He took a pretty humble view of his own films, and only talked about The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, and Moana with a great level of detail. Most of what I’d heard about Ron and John involves their several-year-long quest to make Treasure Planet, but Musker didn’t linger too long on that point. In fact, though Musker did admit that poor marketing and release dates often hurt the success of his films, he didn’t seem especially bitter or regretful. Every time he talked he spoke with an amazing sense of humble confidence – he had all the authority of a Disney legend, but was also warm and encouraging.
His talk was punctuated with caricatures of his fellow Disney crew members, filling me with a distinct sense that I should be drawing more pictures of my own friends (except for Sam Abner, who I somehow end up drawing at an alarming rate – sorry Sam). Fortunately, John led a workshop on caricature the next day. One note of clarification – when John says caricature, he doesn’t mean merely the style being drawn at theme parks or boardwalks, but capturing a likeness through exaggeration and stylization. There’s so many ways to caricature, and much of character design involves the skill. Most of John’s principles of caricature (pose/gesture, expression, contrast, and simplification) are also principles of regular character design.
After the talk, John gave us an in-class assignment wherein we had to draw three caricatures based on three words he gave us. The words were all slightly different levels of a similar idea (such as warm, hot, & scalding or take, grab, & snatch). The challenge was to communicate each word distinctly. We only had 30 minutes to draw all of them, so the focus was much more on the statement of the image than the actual quality of drawing (thank goodness). I was pretty nervous anyways at the thought of Musker seeing my work, which did not help the line quality at all. Feel free to guess what my words were in the comments below – the caricatures are here:
I didn’t pin my drawings on the wall in the proper order (whoops) but after a brief period of confusion, Musker did say that he liked my third drawing and pointed out that my second drawing was actually a decent (unintended) caricature of John Pomeroy. The challenge was pretty fun, and something that I would like to do again in my free time! (Once I get some free time, that is.)
I didn’t really give myself a chance to talk to Musker aside from having him sign my animation board. I just don’t quite know what to say whenever I talk to someone like that. I’m a total fan, but I don’t want to be “just another fan”, so I end up kinda doing nothing. It’s something I need to work on and figure out before the next Disney legend comes to campus, and definitely before CTN. There’s got to be some way to engage genuinely that lasts longer than “Thanks for coming today! Sign this?” Got any ideas for me, Internet? If so, send them my way!
