I once read a statement in Shamus Colhane's wonderful book "Animation From Script to Screen" that computers would supposedly give us material of such beauty and depth that cel animation would become a thing of the past.
Unfortunately, I have to honestly say that by now, and especially today, I thoroughly disagree with him even though I think he was a great teacher in his publication. But then, he also claimed that it was impossible to thoroughly move an audience's heart with animation except for Snow White, a statement which is deathly wrong.
Pixar has been releasing movies for over a decade and a half now, and while critics coo over them, they just don't do a thing for me. The writing is just so average, and I don't dig the visuals at all, which are mechanical and move with odd machine-like smoothness.
But the real feeling for this was permanently cemented in my heart two days ago when I checked out online footage for Epic Mickey, the highly anticipated new game coming out at the end of this month for the Nintendo Wii.
On its official page they actually show footage where they say that, in order to make sure everything looked impressive, they consulted Pixar, watched tons of cartoons, and show how they actually reanimated already existing real classic cartoon footage to make sure it was all just right.
And I looked, and while they sounded extremely pleased, I liked the look alright, but I sighed disappointedly, "It still doesn't look as nice."
This game looks cool and I want it, but I've very much come to the conclusion that videogames and special effects are all that CGI is good for, and that anyone trying to advance it beyond that to something matching hand drawn art is chasing a will-o'-the-wisp.
I've come to the conclusion that it's just impossible. Disney spent years inventing new tools to attempt the same thing with Tangled, and that was with their top talent, and it STILL sucks.
So I'm shrugging and going, "Guys, give it up." It just doesn't feel the same, I'm afraid. Which only goes to show that once again -- just like a hand-made statue as opposed to a machine-made one -- the human hand remains the finest in technology.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"Why don't you socialize with other cartoon artists, Craig?" a.k.a. How my fondest lifelong dream was spoiled for me forever.
Well, once again, here I am attempting to write myself out of my stress by adding on to the list of posts regarding why I just haven't felt like giving my all towards my career. Eventually these posts will end, but I want to get them all out of the way so I can be free to write about better and brighter things.
All my life, I had been the only cartoonist I knew about. Oh, I occasionally got to meet some adult friend of my parents for a day or two who were professional artists themselves, but I never actually met any other cartoonists.
One of my biggest dreams I was the most enthusiastic about was when I would finally get to meet other cartoon artists face to face. Up until 1990, my contact with them had been limited to watching interviews with animators on The Disney Channel in the 1980s. I thought of them as being very much like myself: people who were working together as a team, working to forward their artform while striving to make a positive influence on people's lives via their creative output. I was positive that I would make lots of friends once I entered the field.
And so it was that, early in 1990, at the age of 21, I attempted my very first attempt at branching out and wrote a personal letter to a cartoonist whom I was unfamiliar with but was a professional in his field and who had drawn a few books whose look I had liked at the time.
Big mistake.
His reply seemed normal enough, and shortly afterwards he called me on the phone. It was genuinely exciting for me at the time to actually be contacted by another cartoon artist, and we stayed in contact for the next four or so years, a time I wish had never existed as I seriously regret ever having come in contact with him at all.
Let's call him Michael Zealous. That's a good name for him, as "zealous" is exactly was he was and who he is. I won't bore you with all the details regarding what he did, but he became more and more flat out ferocious when talking to me, hypercriticizing me like crazy, and most of the time I came away from our conversations convinced tha I was far less talented than I ever imagined and that listening to him was the only thing that could save my life and career since, after all, he had "experience with on-the-job coaching".
I was so trusting. He was the pro, after all, so he had to know what he was talking about, right?
And, having just moved far and away off to a small, quiet little ranch out in the middle of nowhere cut off from all my old friends at my parents' insistance at the time, there was nothing to contradict that belief, nor anybody or anything else to suggest that I was doing something correctly: my parents, as usual, insisted that I must have been doing something wrong (they always did assume I did everything wrong, even though I never got into trouble). The notes I took of my phone conversations with Michael Zealous at the time sounded more like interrogation than learning how to draw cartoons.
Every once in a while I've heard him say, "I think that drawing cartoons should be fun." In reality, under him it was far more often filled with dread and fear. One of my best longtime friends, once he learned what was going on, would later liken his "teaching techniques" to emotional abuse and brainwashing.
But during those years, I began accidentally finding out other sources as I started making my first rounds to studios hoping to find work. I began to learn that this guy had a reputation for being hated by pretty much everybody else in the industry due to his horrible temper and vicious attitude. It also turns out that he treats everybody the exact same way he was treating me, unless they were someone he saw as being "useful" to himself, and then he could be a real kiss-up. And the more and more awful he'd become over the years, the more his friends had left him one by one. It was getting dangerous, they said, to have such a man around. Nobody could predict when, where, how or even why he would fly off the handle next.
As such information continued to reach me, all of which matched up, I began to finally see that the real "problem" lay elsewhere, not with me, that I had been blinded simply by the stupid fact that I've always been such a person to believe in others, not to mention my lifelong habit of blaming myself first for everything, and my lifelong "boundless patience", as I used to call it, was actually running out.
Well, to make a long evil story short (so to speak), I found out that the guy was a scam. A manipulator, an abuser. So I basically told him precisely what I thought of him, dumped him on his head, and haven't wanted to contact him since.
Since dealing with him, I no longer have any interest in socializing with any other artists in my industry: I went through such a nightmarish living hell dealing with Michael Zealous that I simply don't want to take a chance of going through all that again.
So out the window went my dream of expecting to make friends with other cartoonists, especially once I started dealing with more and more of them and began learning that they are pretty much all very much the same way in their hearts, although maybe not as verbally vicious; they're all out for themselves and themselves only, are only interested in money, making it "big", creating some huge hit that will supposedly make them rich, socializing with others if they personally like their credits lists or the amount of projects and studios they've been involved in or the amount of money they make, and generally have a snobbish "Get lost, peasants (sniff), go away" attitude to anyone who doesn't fit their little finger sandwich society. And why would I want to be friends with people like that?
And now -- brace yourselves, everybody. This is one of the few times you'll ever hear me actually defend myself to such a jerk in public.
I have been hearing for years now that Michael Zealous, who has badmouthed everyone from Chuck Jones to Walt Disney and everybody in between, has added me to his list of "hates", characteristically laying the blame for our failed friendship on me, claiming that I was "using" him, and saying that he wouldn't want anyone else to know he had been socializing with me because it would supposedly damage his long-standing reputation both in the industry and with the people who know him in general.
I believe 100% that yes, it WOULD be damaging to Michael Zealous's reputation if it was thought even for a moment that he and I had ever had personal connections.
TOP TEN REASONS WHY I WOULDN'T WANT ANYONE TO THINK MICHAEL ZEALOUS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH ME
(10) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for being a rude, arrogant, elitist snob of a jerk, being so vile and awful that Hollywood no longer wants to have anything to do with him.
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I believe that the best way to treat people whenever possible is with kindness, politeness, common courtesy and humility -- as much as is within your personal ability to muster.
(9) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for hating anybody and anything that he sees as having more talent, power and success than he has out of sheer green-eyed jealousy.
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I am personally extremely thankful for who I am, what I can do and what I've got. And if anyone out there is excelling out there in a way that I currently am not -- then hey, more power to you.
(8) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for grossly hypercriticizing anybody or anything else he sees as a personal threat (this is obviously due to the problem described by Number Nine above).
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I state any criticisms I may happen to have for someone or something due to a very specific personal difference of opinion, personality, personal learning experience or what have you -- never out of sheer spite.
(7) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for "mispelling" (instead of "misspelling") words, and for cramming certain portions of words and phrases together in an attempt to create a supposedly humorous effect (i.e. "gedonwidditawreddy").
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as when in doubt I at least make the effort to use a spell checker or dictionary.
(6) Michael Zealous has a reputation for placing ellipses... in the weirdest places...
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I use ellipses rarely... and even then only when appropriate.
(5) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for blaming everybody and everything else when things don't go his way. Examples of this over the years have included the following: "It's all Disney's fault", "It's all Warner Brothers's fault", "It's all Spielberg's fault", "It's all Hanna-Barbara's fault", "It's all the audience's fault", "It's all Hollywood's fault", "It's all California's fault", "It's all Florida's fault", "It's all North America's fault", "It's all God's fault" and, most upsettingly and uncalled for of all, "It's all my wife's fault".
(NOTE: If anyone should happen to realize by now whom I'm discussing here and still know his wife, please be sure to send her lots of comforting letters of encouragement if you still can -- assuming he doesn't destroy them, that is.)
All my life, I had been the only cartoonist I knew about. Oh, I occasionally got to meet some adult friend of my parents for a day or two who were professional artists themselves, but I never actually met any other cartoonists.
One of my biggest dreams I was the most enthusiastic about was when I would finally get to meet other cartoon artists face to face. Up until 1990, my contact with them had been limited to watching interviews with animators on The Disney Channel in the 1980s. I thought of them as being very much like myself: people who were working together as a team, working to forward their artform while striving to make a positive influence on people's lives via their creative output. I was positive that I would make lots of friends once I entered the field.
And so it was that, early in 1990, at the age of 21, I attempted my very first attempt at branching out and wrote a personal letter to a cartoonist whom I was unfamiliar with but was a professional in his field and who had drawn a few books whose look I had liked at the time.
Big mistake.
His reply seemed normal enough, and shortly afterwards he called me on the phone. It was genuinely exciting for me at the time to actually be contacted by another cartoon artist, and we stayed in contact for the next four or so years, a time I wish had never existed as I seriously regret ever having come in contact with him at all.
Let's call him Michael Zealous. That's a good name for him, as "zealous" is exactly was he was and who he is. I won't bore you with all the details regarding what he did, but he became more and more flat out ferocious when talking to me, hypercriticizing me like crazy, and most of the time I came away from our conversations convinced tha I was far less talented than I ever imagined and that listening to him was the only thing that could save my life and career since, after all, he had "experience with on-the-job coaching".
I was so trusting. He was the pro, after all, so he had to know what he was talking about, right?
And, having just moved far and away off to a small, quiet little ranch out in the middle of nowhere cut off from all my old friends at my parents' insistance at the time, there was nothing to contradict that belief, nor anybody or anything else to suggest that I was doing something correctly: my parents, as usual, insisted that I must have been doing something wrong (they always did assume I did everything wrong, even though I never got into trouble). The notes I took of my phone conversations with Michael Zealous at the time sounded more like interrogation than learning how to draw cartoons.
Every once in a while I've heard him say, "I think that drawing cartoons should be fun." In reality, under him it was far more often filled with dread and fear. One of my best longtime friends, once he learned what was going on, would later liken his "teaching techniques" to emotional abuse and brainwashing.
But during those years, I began accidentally finding out other sources as I started making my first rounds to studios hoping to find work. I began to learn that this guy had a reputation for being hated by pretty much everybody else in the industry due to his horrible temper and vicious attitude. It also turns out that he treats everybody the exact same way he was treating me, unless they were someone he saw as being "useful" to himself, and then he could be a real kiss-up. And the more and more awful he'd become over the years, the more his friends had left him one by one. It was getting dangerous, they said, to have such a man around. Nobody could predict when, where, how or even why he would fly off the handle next.
As such information continued to reach me, all of which matched up, I began to finally see that the real "problem" lay elsewhere, not with me, that I had been blinded simply by the stupid fact that I've always been such a person to believe in others, not to mention my lifelong habit of blaming myself first for everything, and my lifelong "boundless patience", as I used to call it, was actually running out.
Well, to make a long evil story short (so to speak), I found out that the guy was a scam. A manipulator, an abuser. So I basically told him precisely what I thought of him, dumped him on his head, and haven't wanted to contact him since.
Since dealing with him, I no longer have any interest in socializing with any other artists in my industry: I went through such a nightmarish living hell dealing with Michael Zealous that I simply don't want to take a chance of going through all that again.
So out the window went my dream of expecting to make friends with other cartoonists, especially once I started dealing with more and more of them and began learning that they are pretty much all very much the same way in their hearts, although maybe not as verbally vicious; they're all out for themselves and themselves only, are only interested in money, making it "big", creating some huge hit that will supposedly make them rich, socializing with others if they personally like their credits lists or the amount of projects and studios they've been involved in or the amount of money they make, and generally have a snobbish "Get lost, peasants (sniff), go away" attitude to anyone who doesn't fit their little finger sandwich society. And why would I want to be friends with people like that?
And now -- brace yourselves, everybody. This is one of the few times you'll ever hear me actually defend myself to such a jerk in public.
I have been hearing for years now that Michael Zealous, who has badmouthed everyone from Chuck Jones to Walt Disney and everybody in between, has added me to his list of "hates", characteristically laying the blame for our failed friendship on me, claiming that I was "using" him, and saying that he wouldn't want anyone else to know he had been socializing with me because it would supposedly damage his long-standing reputation both in the industry and with the people who know him in general.
I believe 100% that yes, it WOULD be damaging to Michael Zealous's reputation if it was thought even for a moment that he and I had ever had personal connections.
TOP TEN REASONS WHY I WOULDN'T WANT ANYONE TO THINK MICHAEL ZEALOUS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH ME
(10) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for being a rude, arrogant, elitist snob of a jerk, being so vile and awful that Hollywood no longer wants to have anything to do with him.
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I believe that the best way to treat people whenever possible is with kindness, politeness, common courtesy and humility -- as much as is within your personal ability to muster.
(9) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for hating anybody and anything that he sees as having more talent, power and success than he has out of sheer green-eyed jealousy.
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I am personally extremely thankful for who I am, what I can do and what I've got. And if anyone out there is excelling out there in a way that I currently am not -- then hey, more power to you.
(8) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for grossly hypercriticizing anybody or anything else he sees as a personal threat (this is obviously due to the problem described by Number Nine above).
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I state any criticisms I may happen to have for someone or something due to a very specific personal difference of opinion, personality, personal learning experience or what have you -- never out of sheer spite.
(7) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for "mispelling" (instead of "misspelling") words, and for cramming certain portions of words and phrases together in an attempt to create a supposedly humorous effect (i.e. "gedonwidditawreddy").
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as when in doubt I at least make the effort to use a spell checker or dictionary.
(6) Michael Zealous has a reputation for placing ellipses... in the weirdest places...
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I use ellipses rarely... and even then only when appropriate.
(5) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for blaming everybody and everything else when things don't go his way. Examples of this over the years have included the following: "It's all Disney's fault", "It's all Warner Brothers's fault", "It's all Spielberg's fault", "It's all Hanna-Barbara's fault", "It's all the audience's fault", "It's all Hollywood's fault", "It's all California's fault", "It's all Florida's fault", "It's all North America's fault", "It's all God's fault" and, most upsettingly and uncalled for of all, "It's all my wife's fault".
(NOTE: If anyone should happen to realize by now whom I'm discussing here and still know his wife, please be sure to send her lots of comforting letters of encouragement if you still can -- assuming he doesn't destroy them, that is.)
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I prefer to say, "The buck stops here".
(4) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for grossly underestimating the intelligence and knowledge of his audience (he actually had the nerve to assume that his readers were so stupid and unknowing that they actually had to have it explained to them what a lava lamp is and who Monty Python are!).
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as I prefer to assume off the bat that, unless proven otherwise, the members of my audience are every bit as intelligent, thoughtful and witty as I am, thank you very much.
(3) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for doublespeak, to wit: statements such as "artistic freedom of expression" mean "I'm free to express my opinion but you're not"; "I believe that an artist has the right to create and express themselves openly and honesty without any retaliation or criticism from others, and that's including myself, for whom am I to judge anyone else?" translates into "I believe that as both an artist and as a human being I have the right to say and do whatever I please, and nobody else has the right to criticise or retaliate against me, but I myself in turn do have the right to criticise and retaliate against them and rip them to shreds all I want to, including having the right to judge as whether they have 'real' talent or not, as I am one of The Elite, I am All Knowledgeable and know everything"; and "respecting one's fanbase" becomes "divide and conquer".
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as my motto is "I call 'em as I see 'em".
(2) Michael Zealous has a powerful reputation for saying that he wants "friends" instead of "fans", stressing that the term "fan" is in fact short for "fanatic" (NOTE: this is yet another example of doublespeak since only a fanatic would consider an artist an infallible deity).
This reputation could be very seriously ruined if it was ever thought even for a moment that Michael Zealous has ever had anything to do with me, as many of the fans and admirers of my work really have become my friends.
(1)...
I did have an extremely powerful Number One prepared and was all set and ready to use it, but legal advisory very strongly cautioned me on the possibilities of being sued if I did.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Well.......
I haven't had time to update here (although there are plenty of drafts, believe you me), but I finally got my hands on a new laptop as well as a scanner/printer. So hopefully now I'll no longer have to worry about needing a scanner (I haven't really tried it out yet except when setting it up).
I'm exhausted. I've been working extremely long hours and when I haven't been working I've been attending peaceful tea party rallies. I've been extremely busy and hope to update more soon when I can find a spare moment.
I'm exhausted. I've been working extremely long hours and when I haven't been working I've been attending peaceful tea party rallies. I've been extremely busy and hope to update more soon when I can find a spare moment.
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