Handycat

Animation continues here at HANDYCAT headquarters. We don’t, however, use the Kem to look at it anymore. At 90 feet a minute of screen time, plus tons more for heads, tails, leader and those inevitable retakes, we use to run through a lot of 35mm motion picture film to make a cartoon. Ah, but now that’s all different! As HANDYCAT is being completed in Flash, we’re not using any film. We don’t even talk in terms of “footage�? anymore – we talk in terms of “seconds.�?

Below is a link to a few of those “seconds” for you to enjoy!

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Here’s some panels from the original HANDYCAT storyboard. Handycat’s character design changed, but Drillbit pretty much stayed the same.

During the recroding session, I gave the “high-sign�? on the takes I liked, and Meredith Layne, our Casting Supervisor, indicated those takes on the script. The marked-up script is then used for editing the master track – at least the first crack at it. By and large, I kept most of those takes.

Here’s a script page from the recording.

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Meet Andy Friz. Andy came over last week from Columbus, Ohio. He is doing much of the Art Direction and Layout on HANDYCAT. Andy is another of the talented artists with whom we’ve enjoyed a long relationship. Andy first came to work at our studio as a Background Painter in 1993. He cut his teeth painting backgrounds on many of our productions including the ones in O.RATZ – RAT IN A HOT TIN CAN for the 1995 Cartoon Network’s – What A Cartoon /World Premiere Toons. He currently spends much of his time teaching animation classes at Columbus College of Art and Design and doing freelance animation projects as time allows. We have always admired Andy’s talent, and it’s good to have him working with us again!

Nice work Andy!

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Meet Daryl D. Pyle. Daryl is one of the animators who will be bringing Handycat to life. Daryl is working out of our studio and has animated on just about everything we’ve produced over the past few years. Daryl’s wanted to be an animator ever since he was in Pampers, and first came to work at our studio in 1995. He started in the Ink & Paint Dept as a photo copier and cel painter. (Anyone remember cels?) He then moved over to the Camera Dept and operated the Richardson RB300 Animation Stand throughout a couple of productions. (I’ll post a picture of the Richardson sometime – right now it’s buried under empty Dell Computer boxes.) Next he evolved into an Assistant Animator and then about eight years ago - an Animator. This marks Daryl’s first venture into Flash Animation, and he says he’s loving it!

Daryl will be animating a [Read more…]

Brian and I arrived back in Indianapolis the day after we recorded the track. Although it was late, I drove by the studio to listened to the some of the raw tracks. I was very pleased. I knew of course, that the track was going to come out long – but I wouldn’t be for sure by how much until after the first edit. We wanted the cut dialogue to run no longer than five minutes. Even though Handycat performs a lot of the action while he’s talking, there still needs to be enough time for the other screen business. When I got home that night, my built-in “focus group�? – three daughters ages 6 to 11 – and my wife Natalie wanted to know how it all went. “It went great!�? I declared, but was actually thinking, “I’ll really know better after I cut the track.�?

The next day, I [Read more…]