Toronto Animation - Blog Posts

Re-familiarizing myself with a couple of old acquaintances.. Traditional drawing, pen-and-ink finish, and digital coloring.

I had a half-finished pencil test or a HELLBOY rotation that I worked on, in 2000. Last night, I added and inked a few missing drawings, so that I could get it ready to post on HELLBOY Day! Congratulations to Mike Mignola for 25 Years of this iconic character!

Back in August of ‘97, I was working at George Elliott’s first animation studio: 'PICTOR Entertainment'. I was likely working as either a Designer or a Layout artist, on one of the many series we did service work for. But one day George asked me if I could also pull Layout duties on a "Denny’s Restaurant” TV spot that local legend animator Chuck Gammage was working on, for ‘Colossal Pictures’? I’d never worked on a TV commercial before, but was certainly game to give it a try!

As memory serves, I got the storyboards from Chuck on a Friday,-- and completed the layouts over a long weekend. There weren’t any designs for the 30-second “Skillet Breakfasts” spot. But Chuck mentioned that he wanted the BG’s to be styled after the classic “Tom & Jerry” cartoons of the 1940′s..

Before I even got started, I got word that 2 of the 6 BG’s were being cut for time. Less work for me.. YAY!!  For the remaining 4, I tried to follw the staging that appeared in the storyboards, as closely as possible.. As you can see from the final ad,-- although many of the design elements were retained, all of my Layouts got changed at the Paint stage. Which if my memory serves, were beautifully painted by: Branislav Perkovic.

The only other initial instruction I recall getting from Chuck, was that he’d wanted the dog to chase the cat repeatedly around the Kitchen, at the start. He’d asked for a few extreme Foreground elements in silhouette, which weren’t in the board panels..  I chose to forego that idea, because I couldn’t think of way to make it work..  Chuck Gammage had worked as an animator on Richard Williams’ 1988 “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” feature. And I think he may have wanted to try and recreate some of the crazy chase elements that appeared in that Kitchen? As you can see by the screengrabs, the pair only run thru it once, without doing any of the elaborate laps in the storyboard..

In the end,-- I think everyone’s contributions helped create a fantastic-looking classic 90′s-era animated commercial, that still holds up to repeated viewing.. You can watch it (and judge for yourself), by clicking here!

“Scarilyn” chills on a Neitherworld beach.. A 29 year-old layout from the 12th episode in Season One of “Beetlejuice”, entitled: "Quit While You're a Head".. This was my first real Animation job, back in 1989. 

The other day, I unearthed 3 pages of Storyboard Cleanup, which I had zero memory of. Not only couldn’t I identify the series, but the time period escaped me, as well. After posting it to my Instagram, a few kind souls volunteered that it was actually from: “My Dad The Rockstar”, which aired in 2003..

The only thing I knew for sure, was that I did the Storyboard Cleanup job for my friend: Rob Walton. I’ve only ever done cleanup for him. Usually, at times of extreme deadline crisis.. I thought it’d be fun to lookup the episode online and make a few screengrabs to compare the finished broadcast shots to the initial storyboards..

The episode was entitled: “High Infidelity”, and was the 4th show of the 1st Season. I recall making the storyboard panel grid myself, and the underlying blue rough drawings were mine too, based on pencil roughs Rob provided. Looking at the finished shots, I was a bit surprised to how graphic the interpretations were.. I didn’t have any model sheets to work from. And simply did my best to glean volumes and construction of the characters, from Rob’s roughs..

This was a Nelvana cartoon series, co-produced with Gene Simmons of KISS fame. The Layout Supervisor was my late friend from Sheridan College: Kevin Klis.. I recall that some of the layout work was also farmed-out to George Elliott’s studio. But I don’t know the extent of that arrangement..

A keen eye will spot a few bad Layout tangents that managed to slip thru.. On the 2nd page of screengrabs, the first few shots almost appear to have the kid bully (“Buzz” Sawchuck) reaching into the van. Who’s arm is it?  it’s really supposed to be the arm of the bald tropical shirt dude, leaning on the van window.. On the 3rd screengrab sheet, you can see that there is a bad leveling error of that same bald dude, sandwiching the bulk of his body BEHIND the actual van seat he’s supposed to be sitting in?!.. I think the unfinished rough of the bald dude falling out of the van was simply a gag that Rob suggested, that was not even in the script..

Like I say, I can’t recall. But it was a fun job to work on. Thanks!

Been a long while, but I’m finally back with an update.. I was digging thru some old work files on my HD, and thought I’d put together a brief post..

Back in 2015, I worked at Nelvana on Nick Jr.’s  “Fresh Beat Band of Spies” cartoon series. A lot of the front-end creative work was directed by ‘6 Point Harness’ in L.A., including some of the Design work; usually establishing the look and style of: characters, props, and locations. Full turnarounds and additional views of those designs though, were done at Nelvana in Toronto.

Early in the production, I spent most of my time creating rotations and additional views of Props. I didn’t have any real experience drawing directly with vector lines. So, I was allowed to draw them in Photoshop on a cintiq, using very clean bitmap lines. I'm guessing another artist may have converted my finished work, later on?..

One of my favorite episodes to work on was: “Band Of Pirates” (ep.14).. There were a lot of very nice design elements in that one. Plus, a fun storyline that featured “Captain Arrrgh” stealing half of a Treasure Map. He does so, using a flying robot and a Steampunk-inspired JetSki. For which, I drew some of the additional views..

The Fresh Beat crew makes a quick pursuit using their elaborate Tour Bus, which could conveniently transform into a kind of hydrofoil speedboat! The Bus was  based loosely on the handful of Art Deco “Futurliner” trucks that GM produced in the 40′s. And I felt like the speedboat itself, also gave off a bit of “Thunderbirds 2″ vibe? Creating the fuller rotation, was something of a drawing challenge, as I had to make hard decisions about the overall dimensionality and how each of the surfaces and corners attached to each other..

About halfway thru the production, I took over the Layout Supervision from my friend: Terry Lenko. This may be the only show that I’ve ever worked on, where my End Credit designation changes across the episodes arc?! Again, I have zero experience (or interest) in vector-based art. So thankfully, all I had to do was “direct” a very talented Layout crew, rather than contribute to the production art directly..

But there were always Layout issues with the storyboard animatics, that would require attention. And Terry taught me the valuable lesson of creating quick Layout thumbnails for each entire episode. Not only did these drawings allow me to identify where the Master and Reuse BGs existed.. But I could also spot and correct all of the continuity, cutting, and staging problems, too!

Enjoy.

Toon Talk Sessions - Rich Dannys

Welcome to the first episode of Toon Talk Sessions, a Toon Talk Weekly interview series!

Listen above of download the MP3 (67.4mb).

For some time now, we’ve wanted to sit down and interview the people that work behind the scenes on bringing our favorite cartoons to life. It’s no secret that animation is no small task and it requires a large team to create these awesome shows.

On this episode of Toon Talk Sessions Jake had the chance to talk with Canadian artist Rich Dannys about his work in cartoons.

Rich Dannys is a freelance illustrator and cartoonist, based in Oshawa, Ontario. He is an experienced Layout/Design artist, that has worked at many of Toronto’s finest animation studios. His style ranges from work featuring: animated cartoon & comic-book sensibilities – to vintage/retro motifs, with occasional ‘classical’ overtones.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

How he got into the cartoon industry

His early work on Beetlejuice and the time he fired himself

Stories and the coolest scene from the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs series

Rich’s education and teaching experience in Canada

The extraordinary pipeline on his latest project, Welcome to the Wayne

His love of comics and where he finds inspiration

His advice for getting into the cartoon industry and improving your art

For more about Rich Dannys and his work you can find him at the following:

Tumblr - richdannys.tumblr.com/ Instagram - www.instagram.com/richdannys/ Portfolio - www.coroflot.com/Attezarf IMDb - www.imdb.com/name/nm2147403/

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Took almost a year, but I'm finally back with an update..Thanks to all, for your kind patience!

Since February 2016, I’d been working Layout on Nickelodeon’s upcoming “Welcome To The Wayne” cartoon series. But now, I’ve chosen to take some well-deserved time off. I was feeling pretty burnt out, and wanted to take my body/mind off of any kind of clock or schedule, to try and recharge my creative batteries.. Been spending a lot of time thinking about things I’ve already done in my career, and what I still hope to get done? During one of these moments of reflection, I was surfing YouTube and stumbled across something I’d once worked on here..

In 2000, I did Layout and Design work on a rather dodgy Christmas Special entitled: “Timothy Tweedle: The First Christmas Elf”.. It was done thru a small Toronto boutique studio called: 'Animation House'. But I think at that time, they'd just been bought up by ‘Evening Sky Productions’..

That was 17 years ago, and a lot has changed.. Chris Hayes, was a friend I worked Layout with. He passed away suddenly, this past January. Fred Wilmot was the principal animator on the sequence I worked on, and he passed away in November 2013. Our Production Manager was a young Morghan Fortier, who now co-owns her own Toronto studio!

Much of the production work was farmed out to Ottawa’s ‘Dynomight Cartoons’. It was my job to check their Layout work. And to complete Layouts (with Chris) for a big song sequence (featuring “Fabulous Flo”) which would be animated by Fred Wilmot, in-house..

Overall, it was a fun experience. But as is often the case, the project was a low-budget affair with short deadlines. Designs too, were largely non-existent,-- and I had to invent most of that stuff myself, as I was laying out the scenes. I’m relatively happy with the end results, but was frustrated that many of the Staging details we included in the layouts were either ignored, or used sparingly. I think the final animation comes off as pretty rushed, too. Fred probably realized it was not his strongest work, as I noticed he chose to use the name:“Marcello Wilmot” in the end credits!! haha