The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival

Tip #5 Include more dialogue than action. Why draw a complicated action scene when you can just talk about it?

For those who are fans of Spike and Mike Sick and Twisted will be familiar with Craig McCracken’s No Neck Joe.

Tip #4 Add violin and piano music. No matter how bad your film is, adding violin and piano music will make even the toughest of art critics think your film is genius.

Outlaw Animation, by Brew Master Jerry Beck, is a great read on short animated films. It talks about the history of the Spike and Mike Festival of Animation, and the raise of the underground animation movement that launched the careers of talents such as Nick Park and Peter Lord, John Lasseter, Craig McCracken, Mike Judge, and many others. The best part of this book is the interviews with all these great filmmakers and how they got their start. I recommend this book to any aspiring filmmaker.

-Hadley

Tip #3 Get help by offering animation credits. Tell young naive animators that this is a big project and it will be seen by top industry professionals. Tell them you will offer them animation credits and a job when you get famous. (Remember, it’s just a lie, you don’t actually have to offer them anything once the job is done.)

Nothing motivates me more then the work of Oscar nominated and recent Sundance Grand Jury winner, Don Hertzfedt. Don is brilliant with his simple drawings, traditional animation, and dark sense of humor. Here is Billy’s Balloon, one of his lesser-known films, that is one of my favorites.

-Hadley

Tip #2 Avoid sleep, people, and your job. There can be nothing more distracting than life and all its little annoyances. Cut yourself off from the world and get to work.

Working on that film of yours trying to make the deadline of June 1st? Relax a bit and enjoy these short films to help recharge and motivate you!

Lets start off with one of the granddaddys of all short animated films, Frog Baseball. Frog Baseball goes to show the power of great characters, a limited knowledge of animation, and some rock’n theme music.

-Hadley

The clock is ticking, folks. Only 23 days left to get your films in! Like most of us animators we have about a hundred unfinished films lying around. Whether it is some actual test animation, a story board, or just a scribble of an idea in a sketchbook, here are some helpful tips to get that film finished quick, easy, and guaranteed to achieve success.

Tip #1 Avoid straight smooth lines. There is nothing more authentically independent then shaky lines. It also tells the audience,” Hey this is animated, look at all them drawings I did!”
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Time is running out, filmmakers. You’ve got four weeks to submit your cartoon to this year’s Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. You could win $10,000. Did you know, with this year’s batch of films, we will have presented more than 200 short cartoons as part the NNAF? Me, neither. Go here for submission details.

– Eric