Stephen M. Levinson's Blog

Hey everyone.

The episode of WAP that I’ve been working is going to be put on a hiatus until further notice.

Steve  (Click for my animation reel!)

Although it took me longer than expected, I finished the animatic! As you can see, it is very rough but I know exactly what I’m going to be animating. The characters are recognizable enough, not being on model. Here is a short clip from a scene where Prikk is lending Jon some advice on dating. Click the image to play it Hope you like it! By the way, I’m the voice of the TV character

Steve

video © 2008 Stephen M. Levinson.

What a Prikk products HERE or HERE! Stickers are selling hot! Get em while ya can!

I’d appreciate anyone’s interest to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot, as I’m self-funding it! It would mean alot to me!

While I catch up on barely finishing the What a Prikk intro, take a look at these 3 panels from the animatic. As you can tell the characters aren’t perfectly on model, and are very rough. I know what’s happening so that’s all that really matters. Can you tell what’s happening?

Steve

What a Prikk products HERE or HERE! Stickers are selling hot! Get em while ya can!

I’d appreciate anyone’s interest to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot, as I’m self-funding it! It would mean alot to me!

Besides Channel Frederator being totally awesome, they can also be described as being totally awesome!! In yesterday’s podcast, I was surprised with my award! I went into the city to meet with Fred and “catch up”. I went into the office, everything seemed quiet and people just doing their usual thing. I spoke with Fred for a few minutes and then he showed me a tour around the new studio I hadn’t seen. So everything seems normal and we go up to see the green screen room. All of a sudden the door opens and I hear “Congratulations!” . I was SHOCKED! I didn’t see Ace & Aqua in any of the categories this year and was disappointed, so this was a huge surprise! I went back down to the main offices and everyone was clapping! Everyone was in on it! This award means a lot to me! Especially being a producer created award just for me. Frederator ROCKS!

I’ve been seeing some great comments on the youtube of yesterdays podcast and its really great to see! I have also gotten 9 share requests for people who want to see my videos! Such a thrill! Someone even took the liberty and re-posted Ace & Aqua on their own and said ” It’s one of my favorite cartoons, since it has the SpongeBob humor.” AWESOME!! I also noticed Ace is the current icon for the youtube account for Channel Frederator! SICK!

Thanks again Fred and everyone at Frederator who created this award!

Steve

What a Prikk products HERE or HERE!

I’d appreciate anyone’s interest to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot, as I’m self-funding it! It would mean alot to me!

Looks like I’ve been getting a little lazy with What a Prikk! In the meantime since I don’t have much to post, check out this flipbook I’m working on. I’m going to create a cover and bind it next. Also, it’s just a coincidencethe audio times perfectly.

Steve

What a Prikk products HERE or HERE!

I’d appreciate anyone’s interest to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot, as I’m self-funding it! It would mean alot to me!

I’m proud to announce that Ace & Aqua has taken home a Freddy for this years Channel Frederator Awards! I am soo excited! I took home “Youngest Filmmaker” and I’m VERY proud of it! Ace & Aqua has been really great and everyone has been soo supportive! Means a lot! First off I’d like to thank the wonderful voices of Ace & Aqua! Brian Ufen did an amazing job as Ace, the eccentric and wacky boy and totally nailed the character! Greg Eagles did an equally great job for Aqua, the intelligent abominable snowman. Thankyou(In no particular order) Roxanne Beck(April), Brian Haymond(Delivery Man), Derek Shetterly(Penguin), Tom Ackerman(Squirrel), and Thomas Davis(Nice box guy) for their great voices! I’d also like to thank Puny, Elliot Byrne, Hal Becket, Salami and Mai Tai Studios for their great work! I’m really proud and appreciate everything you’ve done!

I’d also like to thank Eric Homan for his great advice throughout the years, and Fred Seibert, who gave me a landing pad to talk about my animation, showing my work and for always keeping me involved with projects! Lastly I’d like to thank Carrie Miller for her hospitality and kindness throughout the years, who also managed to surprise me one day, not too long ago! You’ll see in the next podcast ;). Frederator is such a great company!

I’m glad to have this honor and thanks so much to everyone and their support! Couldn’t have kept motivated without ya!

Thanks again! I look forward to next years awards, where What a Prikk will hopefully be in! Here’s to hoping!

Steve

What a Prikk products HERE or HERE!

I’d appreciate anyone’s interest to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot, as I’m self-funding it! It would mean alot to me!

On the left are the very original designs from August of 2006. These were the very first drawings of the characters and were changed July of 2007; almost a year later.

I’ve been blogging about What a Prikk a lot lately, and you might wonder where this idea, which seemingly came out of nowhere began.

In August of 2006, I found out about 6 Point Harness‘ Tire Fire Films program. I was watching the shorts they had and was very eager to pitch them something but didn’t have anything to pitch yet. I asked if they were taking submissions and they were. Having no ideas in my head, I sat down the night of Thursday, August 10th and within 15 minutes came up with What a Prikk. I started drawing the characters, and was up very late getting the pitchbook together. I was very eager to hear their thoughts, and immediately sent them What a Prikk( the original pitchbook). Much to my surprise I got a call explaining that it was being shown around the studio, and that many people liked the idea! I was soo excited! Anyways, 6PH was doing business and unfortunately wasan’t able to do anything with it.

Over a year later, after I redesigned, further discovered, and defined in greater detail my characters personalities, I had the pleasure of getting in-touch with a very large company; who was interested in the idea…and currently still is. Hopefully everything will work out in the end! Anyways, I’m currently working on What a Prikk and I am soo damn excited!

More soon!

Steve

What a Prikk products HERE or HERE!

I’d appreciate anyone’s interest to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot, as I’m self-funding it! It would mean alot to me!

I just finished the animatic for the 30 second intro for “What a Prikk”. I think it came out very well and believe it will make a great intro!

So how exactly does someone make an animatic?

After you have a script written, whether you have audio or not, you need to have storyboards. Storyboards are images, like in comic books that tell the story visually. It is used so that the animators know what to animate, as well as giving the producer, or director or anyone working on the production an idea of what the cartoon will look like when it’s done. Animatics are very important parts of production. It helps time everything out and keeps it organized.

Typically storyboards are drawn on paper and then scanned into the computer. For What a Prikk, to save myself time, I’m doing something alittle different.

My process was first writing a script. After I got the script nailed down, I’d send it to the voice over artists. They would return with their audio files and i’d check to make sure everything came out well. After that I import the audio files into flash. I’m using flash for the animatic because in flash you can have a layer of audio, and a layer underneath where you can draw. This way, you draw the storyboards WHILE you time the animatic! It saves a whole lot of time and is much faster than scanning in storyboards, then timing them.

Since I’m going to be animating this myself, I know exactly what I’m going to animate from the drawings. It’s important that if you have someone else animating, the storyboards should be very detailed! Keep the drawings clean, and the action detailed…The animator shouldn’t have to constantly ask what’s happening in the animatic.

After the animatic is done, I export it as a .mov file. Then with quicktime pro I cut up each scene into separate movie files. Remember, a scene is every time the camera changes. In the animatic above, there are 3 scenes. The earth, the guy and then nuclear poweplant. I import each scene into it’s own flash file so that I can keep my computer running at optimum speed, as well as not having enormous flash files. After I animate ( which i’ll show you how I do when I do it) I export each scene and then re-combine them in quicktime.

So now, please enjoy this extremely short clip of the beginning of the intro. The stick figure is just a place holder for the to-be character. I did that so I could save time when making the animatic. Also, I cut it at the point right before it gets a little…doodie dirty! By the way, that’s Prikk narrating

More to come soon!

Steve

video © 2008 Stephen M. Levinson.

What a Prikk products HERE or HERE! I’d appreciate anyone’s interest in the products to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot! It would mean alot to me!

Here is a touch up of Prikk. After drawing Prikk several times, and more notably the action pose, I thought Prikk needed some angering up! Here’s the new Prikk face! I think it looks much more mature, and angrier. What do you think? I’m still going to use his old mouth, but that will be a special mouth when he’s disgusted and not in the regular sad and happy mouth charts ( I know what you’re thinking! Prikk needs a happy mouth chart? Don’t worry, it’s only when he’s rubbing something in either Jon or Martha’s face and is being very sarcastic and obnoxious.).

Steve

What a Prikk products HERE or HERE! I’d appreciate anyone’s interest in the products to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot! It would mean alot to me!

Well here it is. The finished drawing of the Prikk in action sketch. I’m going to blow it up as a poster and hang it up in my room! In case anyone else is interested (in the poster, or small sticker version), you can buy it HERE or HERE! I’d appreciate anyone’s interest in the products to help me fund my low budget ( but not low quality ) “What a Prikk” pilot!

Steve