Stephen M. Levinson's Blog

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

So here’s the schedule for the production of “What a Prikk”! (yes, I did create it 127 years ago) I’ve given myself a fairly good amount of time for each step of the production. I definitely believe I will finish many of the deadlines early, which will give me more time for the animation, which is planned to be 11 weeks. I’ll post about everything along the way, you can count on that! Sunday my friend Jeff is coming over to record for the voice of the BUMblebee! That will be the final of all the voices, and then I plan to cut the audio for the animatic. You might be wondering who has done the voices of the other characters…Well, not me BUT more on that soon!…I’m just all the background characters.

More to come soon!

Steve

**GUNS ARE BAD!**

Here’s a drawing I’m working on of Prikk in action… I’m going to add color and what not soon! And no, he doesn’t have a license for his weapon…tisk, tisk, tisk!

More to come!

Steve

My good friend Chris Kennett told me he had an urge to draw Prikk, and decided to turn it into a good luck message! This has truly made my day week production! It’s hard to describe the feeling this drawing truly brings to me; that he spent his time drawing a character I created! And I didn’t even ask him to! lol. I’m very excited about this drawing, he even got ALL the details right! This is really going to help me keep going! Thanks a lot man!

I’ve gotten a great response from people about Prikk’s design, and am really glad! I think Prikk is one my most well designed character! Thanks again Chris!

Steve

Here’s a sketch of Prikk’s best friend, who is a BUMblebee! He doesn’t have a name…you’ll find out why!

More soon!

Steve

Last Thursday I attended my first life drawing class! It was really great! All my worries with deadlines and work, school and family problems no longer existed. I was just focused on the drawings and really had a great time! I can’t wait for my next class! I’m going to post my progress as I go along! I can’t wait to see how I progress over the next months! I have a lot to learn and am very eager to do so! Below are the images, in order of creation!

Enjoy!

Drawing 1

Drawing 2

Drawing 3

Drawing 4

Drawing 5

Drawing 6

Steve

The What A Prikk boat has been sailing famously! I just finished the script, entitled “Jokes On You” and am very happy with it! The script came out to six and a half pages, for the 5-6 minute long episode. I’m sure I’ll think of more jokes along the way, and if I do I’ll just add them when I storyboard!

More to come soon

Steve

“What A Prikk” is a go! I’ve gotten great feedback from the idea and have decided to finally make the animation, which will be about 5/6 minutes. I’m aiming for a 5 month production beginning in mid-May and will blog about each step as I go along. In fact, I’ve actually begun working on the script and am happy so far! I”ll be posting character turnarounds, audio clips, storyboards, animatic clips, animation, and so on and so forth.

“What A Prikk” is about three dysfunctional animals; Prikk, Jon and Martha, and their awful lives. This is a VERY raunchy and inappropriate cartoon and I hope no one thinks less of me because of it

More to come soon!
Steve