The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival

You look like the kind of person who would draw a jump cycle and not have the common courtesy to put in some follow through. What do you think your doing! Get off the Internet, stop working at your so called “job” to pay your “bills”, and get to work on your film! You think you’ll be the next big animator by just setting there? You’re just gonna go through life telling people about this great idea for a film you have, but you’ll never do it! You’re too lazy, you think, “Oh, I’ll just wait for my ship to come in.” Well guess what buster, this is your ship and its about to set sail because your to much of a dingy to get on. You think John Lasseter was sitting around twiddling his thumbs, going “Maybe I’ll make a film for next year.” No! He was working with [Read more…]

How To Cope With Depression is one in a series of shorts called Tales of Mere Existence by Lev Yilmaz.

Tip #7 Dedicate your film to a fake person who died of something. People will clap and applaud when they think you did that crappy animation of a cow ninja who fights a diary farmer for someone who passed away.

Tip #6 Make references to pop culture. No matter how awful your film is, people will be forced to like your film when you relate it to something they obsess over.

This film may have taken an afternoon to create, be two minutes long, and mostly contain credits, it was voted t#38 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons and is the shortest classic ever. Though not very funny by today’s standards, it paved the way for short, off the wall cartoons.

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.)