#ey watch me projecting onto an 80s cartoon

[collectivedirective]

JatH Characterization Masterpost

Jerrica

-Eldest daughter 4.2 gpa syndrome

-She was raised believing she would be a foster mom and has come prepared for all that entails; that means she is responsible and disciplined, but pushes herself to always think of others before she thinks of herself

-She loves music, but that comes second to her parental responsibilities, so even though she and her sisters are very skilled she never thought music would be a viable option for them

-So when Synergy offers her services, the first thing that comes to her mind is to start a band!

-The rockstar persona was a spur of the moment idea, though it came from a subconscious desire to escape her responsibilitie. Jem is everything that Jerrica represses in herself

-Since Jem is more outgoing, she feels more confident around Rio. I personally think Jem is drunk when she tries to kiss Rio during the yacht scene, she wouldn't put Rio in that position while she was sober

Aja

-Middle child syndrome 01, subcategory eldest daughter syndrome

-She is the most emotionally intelligent, and the best at reading the room. She is always the one that distracts Rio when Jerrica needs to transform.

-In the rare scenario that Jerrica isn't taking charge, it is Aja who picks up the load

-Aja, like Jerrica, thinks about others needs and desires before her own, though Aja has this to a lesser degree.

-She sympathizes with Jerrica for taking on so much burden, and so she is not critical of Jerrica for wanting to keep her identity a secret from Rio, and will defend her when her sisters criticize her.

Shana

-Middle child syndrome 02

-I just checked the wiki and it says shes the bass guitarist and thats basically all you need to know about her characterization

-Shana is reserved and shy, and I am 95% certain she has RSD.

-She is more easy-going, allowing her sisters to make the big decisions

-She and Kimber are closest with each other, and she'll go to her first for advice. These two are the creative masterminds behind JatH, generating 75% of their music while Jerrica and Aja edit the drafts

-Shana quietly agrees with Kimber that Jerrica should rip off the band-aid already and tell Rio that she is Jem. No dick is worth his cheating ass!

-But shes too nice to confront Jerrica directly, and too empathetic to Jerrica to back up Kimber during an argument. But once the dust settles she will validate Kimber and reassure her of her logic

-Shana knows that her advice will only make Jerrica feel worse. She knows from experience that RSD hits like a bitch and she doesn't want to inflict that on Jerrica.

Kimber

-The youngest of the Bentons, her whole life she's relied on Jerrica for behavior inhibition. Also tutoring, thats the only thing keeping her grades up

-Kimber is the Anna to Jerrica's Elsa

-While the lack of behavior inhibition makes her more distractible and impulsive, it also allows her to explore paths that would have otherwise been dismissed by Jerrica

-Winx Stella syndrome: Kimber is very blunt in her relationships; she will tell you exactly what she is thinking about if you ask her, and she will tell you even if you dont ask

-Regarding Stormber: Stormer will always let Kimber take the lead in their adventures. After Kimbers decisions for both of them wind them up in trouble, Kimber will FINALLY gain some much-needed behavior inhibition

Raya

-Winx Aisha syndrome: she is the only hologram that isn't a Benton foster girl, and thus has known the rest of the band for the least amount of time.

-She is afraid of being left behind, of losing her place in the band because she is so new, so she does her best to be kind and sweet and appealing and low-maintainence

-This would make her quick friends with Shana, and instinctively reach out to her when searching for companionship. Unfortunately Shana is frequently with Kimber

-Kimber bluntly tells Raya that she would rather Raya be upfront about herself and her values; after all, Raya knows much more about them than they do about her

-Of course, if Raya decides to open up to Kimber about her fear of abandonment, Kimber would immediately empathize with Raya. She might see some of Shana in Raya.

-This communication would not be made directly; rather, Raya would tell Shana and Shana would tell Kimber

Pizzazz

-Owns the netflix account

-Her father gives her money instead of love and attention, so she looks for those things elsewhere- ie stardom and lawsuits

-She and Riot are very similar in this way, though I imagine they would bring out the worst in each other. In the scenario where they team up, these two would be a formidable opponent.

-If she were ever to team up with the Stingers it would not be by Riots invitation. Either Minx or Radish whatever her name is would have to take an interest in Pizzazz.

-Eventually she graduates to hanging out with the Stingers, and by proxy Riot, who eventually warms up to Pizzazz. Think TommyInnit and Wilbursoot.

-Maybe she one day joins the polycule who knows. This is an alternative ending to the "Lovesick" arc, and here Pizzazz would not rejoin the Misfits

Roxy

-Shes the smartest of the Misfits, but doesn't realize it because she is blinded by her insecurities: she didn't finish high school and is illiterate. Dyslexia?

-Roxy also has RSD, though where Shana recoils inward, Roxy lashes out in defensiveness

-My hc is that Roxy meets Pizzazz while skipping school. She sneaks into Pizzazz's old money debutante ball and they become fast friends.

-Roxy is probably the one who sets up the gear for the Misfits. Not because shes selfless like that, but because shes the only one who knows how.

-Stormer tries to help out but this irritates Roxy more than anything, because she has to give Stormer instructions and its more distracting than helpful

Stormer

-Too nice to be a bad girl and too spineless to be a good girl

-She is a borderline good guy, but when caught between an objectively moral choice and the Misfits, she will choose the Misfits.

-Do not mistake this for loyalty.

-She might object to a lot of what the Misfits do but her inaction enables it (compare to Aja?)

-Stormer subconsciously understands that the things she does as a Misfit are harmful, but she can usually frame herself as a victim to peer pressure and thus dodge the blame.

-This charade only holds up so long as she is in proximity to the Misfits validation; without their reassurance she cannot deny the awful things she has done.

-Cue Stormber!

-Kimber would be a good influence on Stormer. She openly condemns things she disagrees with, and will criticize what Stormer has done in the past. This will be a harsh confrontation, but paired with healthy communication it will make Stormer a better person.

-She will learn that its okay to vocally disagree with the people you care about (ie the Misfits), and that conflict doesn't mean the relationship is over

Jetta

-british

Rio

-He is a hothead and posessive over those he loves, which works as both a protective instinct and a destructive one

-When Rio reciprocates the kiss to Jem he establishes himself as a huge jerk, because he is technically cheating but not really??

-Because in his mind he is under the impression that Jem is a different woman than Jerrica, so he believes that he is cheating. In another world the mistress would have actually been a different person.

-The solution to this is not my own idea, I saw it somewhere else:

-Jerrica and Rio were never dating, but have been pining for each other since they were in high school.

-Jerrica feels confident enough to court Rio as Jem, but Rio feels like he is betraying Jerrica by accepting Jems advances

-The love triangle between Jem and Rio and Riot is very much like Malina versus Darklina: does the female lead choose her childhood friend and longtime crush, or follow the mysterious seductive stranger?

Riot

-" The Perfect Man"

-Headcanon poly relationship with Minx and Radish. Weaponize the evil power of friendship you manwhore!!!

-I am skeptical of his backstory. Yes I know the show's tone indicates that he is telling the truth just hushshh shhhh shh.

-To refresh, his claim is as follows: he comes from humble beginnings, and his passion for music was suppressed by his abusive father. The Stingers struggled financially for a long time, and it is implied they became homeless. They reached the top purely by hard work.

-What we know about his backstory is purely of what he tells us: it could very well be that he was lying about his rags to riches journey

-The reason I think this is because of the Stingers behavior in the show: their frequent destruction of property, their sense of entitlement to everything and everyone, their scams, their mind games and manipulations, and other irresponsible, destructive behaviors that could only have been enabled by old money paying off the lawsuits.

-That is my first interpretation: Riot is a narcissist and lied about his backstory.

-Second interpretation is that Riot is only pretending to be a narcissist, and is telling the truth. He may be compensating for his jealousy of old money with faux self-importance. He frequently states that he is the "perfect man," after all. He might be trying to convince himself.

#jem and the holograms #the misfits #the stingers #my headcanons #ey watch me projecting onto an 80s cartoon #jerrica benton #kimber benton #aja leith #shana elmsford #carmen alonso #raya #pizzazz #roxy #stormer #phyllis margaret gabor #roxanne pellegrini #mary phillips #rio pacheco #rory llewelyn #riot #jath #long post #i should make something of this #i should make a comic or fanfic or something

[max-xy]

MBAV script

Me + face claim:

Name: Max Marie Becerra

Species: Human but is the reincarnation of a witch that was killed in the 1600s. Also a “healer”

Aesthetic: kidcore, clowncore, grunge fairycore, y2k, 80’s, etc..

Age: 15 (May 1st, 1995)

Gender: non-binary (he/they/it/she/void/moth)

Sexuality: Bisexual

Hair: green

Eyes: Hazel

Height: 5’2

Teeth: straight, sharp canines

Diagnosis: ADHD, depression, and GAD(again I have these diagnosis irl)

Personality:

•Same as CR

•Goofy

•Compassionate

•Great at comforting others

•Funny

•Lovable

•sarcastic but doesn’t understand sarcasm

•Adorable

•Sassy

•Kinda oblivious

•Awkward in a cute way

•Easily flustered

•Sometimes a flirt

•Easy to get along with

•Able to stand up for others but not myself

•Tends to put my problems aside for others

•No one really knows about my problems unless they pry it out of me

•Strong Empath

•Hates crying in front of others(it makes me feel weak)

•Not quick to anger

•Will start singing randomly

•Stims a lot

•Tics

•hums a lot

•Able to react fast and is agile

•Can fight and improvise very easily

•Very strong (physically) even though I don’t look like it

•I know how to use a wide variety of weapons

•I can get information out of people easily

•I can be very stealthy when I want too

•Great at picking up others conscious and subconscious behaviors

•I pick up things easily

•Most people like me even if they just met me

•Knows a lot about mythology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and ethics.

School: good grades, school comes easy to me, and staff likes me

Friends:

Ethan- met in 1st grade when a bully pushed him off the swing and I went to help him. Didn’t like me much because “I could defend myself”. Warmed up to me after I befriended Rory and Benny. He/him, unlabeled and definitely not straight. Acts like the tired friend but is as much to blame for the dumbassery and chaos.

Benny- Met in 1st. Non-binary, He/they, disaster bisexual. Doesn’t even try to pretend he isn’t a dumbass at this point. I confide in him the most.

Rory- Met in 1st. Non-binary, they/he/she/vam/vamp/vamps/vampself, and Panromantic/asexual disaster. If left alone together chaos will strike. Actually some what good at keeping a secret but don’t trust them with everything. Good with pep talks and advice.

Sarah- met in a Dusk fan club meeting in 8th grade. Kinda became friends and exchanged numbers. We later became friends through Ethan. Mom friend. Dating Erica. She/her Bisexual

Erica- met at the same meeting. Exchanged numbers. She tolerates me more than Benny, Ethan, or Rory. Pretends like she doesn’t. Dating Sarah. She/they, trans, lesbian. Will fight someone for you.

Jane- acts as my little sister. She/her, straight?.

All- We do movie nights at least once a month at Ethans house. Erica complains most of the time saying that Sarah dragged her along but she secretly likes going. We switch off on who picks the movie. Erica always picks a Dusk film. Tons of snacks for everyone. We let Jane stay up with us during movie nights.

Love life-

Ethan & Benny- we all have crushes on each other but scared to admit it because we don’t wanna mess up our friendship.

Oh yeah no one is Neurotypical(did I spell that right?)

Family:

Older sister(left)- Bones Becerra, she/they/xe, 19 years old, trans, lesbian. Lives at home while attending a public college for art studies, history, and literature. Small group of friends. Personality: chill, ADHD, doesn’t do good under pressure, tries to understand your situation, sleeps for 4 hours everyday, loves 70s and 80s movies, That 70’s Show and Sailor Moon are comfort shows, bites her lips a lot, bad with comforting people, that drunk girl that will help you in the bathroom and told your hair back while you puke, shows love by doing things for you or picking on you, and loves playing cards.

younger brother (right)- William Becerra, he/him, 10 years old, questioning. Personality: ADHD, loves video games, very hyperactive, has many fursonas, dresses up as animals, wears makeup and stickers, has vitiligo, has a Dino mask, loves dresses and skirts, raised on Disney, FNAF, Good Mythical Morning, and Discord, extroverted, big friend group but 2 close friends, good at public speaking, hates pizza, has a pet hamster and a lizard. Stims a lot.

Mother(left)- Elizabeth Becerra, she/her, 39 years old, lesbian. Married at 19 years old to high school sweetheart, first child(age 20, in 1991) second child(age 24, in 1995) third child(age 29, in 2000). Later figured out she was lesbian so filed for divorce and got full custody of all children. Has been dating Jessica for two years. Personality: Full on Disney adult, plans two or three trips to Disneyland a year, makes you comfort food when your sick, took parenting courses, always there to listen or offer support, you have friends? Great she adopted them, works as a children therapist, lets you take mental health days, helps with projects, loves watching crime documentaries and shows, will rant about her childhood, ADHD, will tell you how dispose of a body and hide evidence, believes in the supernatural, does tarot readings, and practices witch craft.

Moms girlfriend(right)- Jessica Miller, they/she, 37, non-binary, lesbian. They have no biological children but has adopted Lizzie’s children as their own. Runs their own online business were they sell their art, deco adult pacifiers, and old things they find while thrifting or dumpster diving. They have a studio set up in the house. Personality: they loves cooking, ASD, doing art, they don’t exactly know how to respond to emotions, their special interest is art and collecting stuffed animals, she is an age regressor, will rant about their favorite show or what new piece they’re working on, projects onto fictional characters(same), watches anime and cartoons, and recently got into FNAF because of William. Has a pet cat named Luz after Luz from The Owl House.

#mbav #shifting realities #shifting script #shifting to desired reality #mbav rory #mbav benny #mbav sarah #mbav erica #mbav ethan

[bythebigcoolingtower]

Eye on Springfield - An Interview with Raymie Muzquiz

Since working on eighteen episodes of seasons two and three of the Simpsons, Raymie Muzquiz has enjoyed a strong, thirty plus years career in the animation industry, including directing eight episodes of Futurama’s second run. Here, Raymie talks about his spell on both shows, his other projects and the industry itself.

Let’s start at the start, how did you get into animation and end up at Klasky-Csupo?

In 1988-89, I was working for a movie trailer company. I was a production assistant and then a post coordinator for about 2 years. I learned a lot about film post production and worked on a flatbed editor, dubbing machines, etc. (all pre-digital). However, it was nonetheless a miserable, unartistic, poorly-paying job that laid bare all those awful “Swimming With Sharks”, fear-and-loathing tropes of the movie business. My boss was a horror. He’d yell at me about the dressing in his salad, or the variety of bread on the sandwich. I was his presumed personal assistant to deride. Yet he would shamelessly “lick the boots” of celebs and execs higher up the food chain. To this day, I cannot watch movie trailers. On the rare trip to a theater, I sit in the lobby and have my wife text me when the feature starts.

During this awful period I would look daily through the trades for another job. One day in the Hollywood Reporter there was an ad that included a picture of Marge (I think). Klasky-Csupo (just blocks from my apartment!) was looking to staff for Season 2 of The Simpsons. Since I storyboarded all my student films and some action sequences in live-action low-budget features at Roger Corman’s Concorde/New Horizons in the late 80’s. I applied for a storyboard position. What happened next gave me whiplash. I was given a test. Hours after turning the in the test I hired as a staff storyboard artist to start two weeks hence and immediately given a freelance assignment.  

How did I get this plum position with zero experience? This requires some context. The Simpsons was an unexpected TV-animation phoenix rising from the ashes of a poverty-row industry. It is little exaggeration to say that the TV animation talent pool (as opposed to feature animation) consisted largely of old, alcoholic and broken-spirited artists doing Saturday-morning hack-work, subsuming their talent to low budgets and low cel counts. The necessary talent were simply nonexistent for this new, hip renaissance. The doors opened to the young, the students and the inexperienced like me; someone who didn’t go to art school nor drew for a living. It was a singular event for me. I was ignorant that there was even a difference between animation and live action storyboards. I was even naive about my drawing ability. Imagine my reaction when I saw trained artists draw in a professional environment. It blew my mind! My only saving grace was that as a live-action film graduate, I knew film language. I could stage without “crossing the line”. Scenes “cut” together and “hooked up” and I was staging in depth rather than in the traditional “proscenium” cartoon style. My acting was restrained, not broad or cartoony.

I did my first storyboard freelance while still at the trailer company. It was for Jim Reardon; his first directing assignment: Itchy & Scratchy & Marge in 1989.

Can you explain the work you did on the Simpsons?

Everybody probably knows what storyboarding is, so I’ll keep it short. It’s the visualisation of the script/story. It’s TV animation’s biggest step from script to screen. You are staging the characters in space and acting them out and breaking it up into separate scenes that informs the entire rest of the process. Design, layout, key posing, action and timing build off the storyboard.

When you were assigned to work on the show what were your thoughts? It was a phenomenon by that point.

The first season’s episodes of the Simpsons were being re-runned to death. I remember doubting if they’d successfully make more before the buzz died off. When I was hired I couldn’t believe my luck. The Simpsons was THE hip show of the moment. To actually be a creative team member on something fresh and original AND get paid more than beggar’s wages was like winning the lottery.

How closely did you work with the directors and writers, what kind of notes and feedback did you receive?

When I arrived for my first meeting, Mark Kirkland and Jim Reardon were crowded in a small room with folding tables, right off of reception. I believe they were both directing for the first time. Although I was already hired to work in-house, I had to give two weeks to my current, satanic employer, so I was assigned work as a freelancer. It was to board an act of Itchy & Scratchy & Marge by its director, Jim Reardon. Little did I know what I was getting into.

I never had to draw so much in my life! My drawing hand (left) was killing me in those early months. I had to develop a callous on the middle finger. They gave me the “radio-play;” an audio cassette of the recorded dialog to draw to and tons of model sheets.  

I remember being overwhelmed by the volume. And you had to draw in these tiny boxes of the formatted storyboard page. I didn’t have that kind of discipline (I never did: I eventually developed a style of drawing on blank pages, then fielding and formatting them onto a page. Sometimes I scaled my drawings down on the xerox machine. I also drew on post-its (the greatest invention in animation after cels) and taped them onto the formatted sheet.  

As this was freelance, I actually only met with Jim twice: Once for the hand-out and then again to show him my roughs. I vaguely remember him asking for changes that I thought were off-show (I’d seen all extant episodes multiple times on TV by then). Plus this was my first time and really had no expectations of what the process was.

But--he was the director--I addressed his notes and turned in the storyboard to the receptionist without further feedback. This almost became my undoing. In future, I would know the director should go over the storyboard and decide if it was ready, needed further revision or even just check the “bookkeeping”; the placement of dialog, notes and scene and page numbering before releasing it to the producers (all the Executives at Gracie Films across town). However--for whatever reason--this didn’t happen. It went directly from reception to Gracie. And evidently the executives didn’t react well. I was ignorant of all of this for years; until Mark Kirkland told me what happened...

The Executives were displeased with the storyboard and demanded to know what happened. Someone blamed it on the new guy (me!). So it was decided I had to be fired (before I even started my first day on staff)!  

Did I get thrown under the bus? I can’t say. I wasn’t there. I am only relating events second hand.  

Anyway, Mark Kirkland, who shared the room with Jim Reardon and was present during my meetings came to my rescue (again, completely unbeknownst to me). He vouched for my character and said I was worthy of rescue and rather than firing me, I could work with him. 

So I have Mark to thank for my career. If I was fired, it would have been crushing and I think it’s safe to say I would never have become the artist I’ve become in the thirty plus years of my career.

What was the pressure like working on the show and at the studios during that time?

Because of my lack of experience, I found it difficult judging deadlines and the necessary labor (and just pencil mileage) to succeed. Plus I was traumatised by my previous job; I was conditioned to fear punishment and humiliation at anytime for something I did or didn’t do.

The climate at Klasky/Csupo couldn’t be more starkly different; so egalitarian! Everyone was socialising and goofing around. Gabor Csupo couldn’t be a more laid-back boss! Long lunches with side-trips for comic books and toys! Nerf guns in the hall. I shared a tiny room with two other board artists, Peter Avanzino and Steve Moore. They would both have to vacate the room for me to reach my desk in the far corner. We bantered and laughed more than worked. Celebrities would drop by (Most memorable was meeting Frank Zappa). There were events always going on; bowling, screenings and parties. And yet, a ton of thought and drawing was necessary; especially for me. I worried I couldn’t work as fast as other artists. I often had to work nights and weekends to meet my deadlines. However, there always were other artists doing the same thing; they may have been more experienced than me, but they were young and not so disciplined; so I was never alone. Plus, you never knew how off the mark your roughs could be and after a meeting with the director and Brad Bird, you might suddenly be looking at a ton of revision work. I also remember that Brad was busy weekdays and meetings could sometimes only be done on Saturdays. I simply had a lot to learn and time to put in to build my proficiency. And Brad Bird was very important influence in those days: I could be nervous and exhausted preparing for a meeting with him, but he’d so infect you with his enthusiasm and creative vision that you’d end up re-doing the whole thing but be excited about doing it. He emphasized the cinematic aspects and empowered us to be bold and push the limits of traditional animation staging.

You worked on some of the show’s early classics, could you tell from your position how the episodes would come out?

My next episode for Jim Reardon was “When Flanders Failed”. Because of the kerfuffle of the first episode I did for him, I was anxious to be as professional and impressive as possible. I thought the act I did showed improvement. However, the episode seemed to languish at some point (after animation?) and word got around that it was a bust and wouldn’t reach air. My memory is hazy about this, but I was bummed at the time; thinking my working relationship with Jim was snake-bit.  

A season later, it eventually did air. I’m not giving a very good account of this, sorry.

“Flaming Moe’s” was an episode I was excited about. I remember Brad Bird suggesting some very exciting staging that turned my head around. Especially the part where Homer ends up--“Phantom of the Opera-ish”--in the rafters. I think that was a turning point for me; I was going to be a Brad disciple and determined to push the staging from then on.

“Stark Raving Dad”, is memorable to me, but not for a good reason. It was one of the last episodes I worked on; only doing an act. I remember being scandalized that Michael Jackson was the subject of the episode. Being a Simpsons purist, I believed that the show existed in a parallel universe and celebrities were parodied for laughs; it was too hip to be a shill for celebrity. There was no Arnold Swarzenegger, there was McBain. There was no Hal Fishman (our local channel 5 anchor), there was Kent Brockman. Dr. Hibbert was a parody of Bill Cosby. Mayor Quimby was a parody of Ted Kennedy. Even Nick Riviera was supposed to be Gabor Csupo! Having Michael Jackson exist in this universe and embodied in a sympathetic character (rather than a target of ridicule) was seriously “jumping the shark” in my opinion. I believed the show had done the unthinkable and it would prove fatal to the series.  

Of course I was wrong. The Simpsons goes on like a perpetual motion machine. But I couldn’t abide watching this wise and subversive show trample over its principles to star-fuck. Now of course, which celebrity HASN’T been on the Simpsons. As you may well know, “Stark Raving Dad” has been pulled from the series since the premiere of the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland”, giving some credence to my long ago objection: sometimes it bites you on the ass.

“Black Widower” was my swan song. I remember meeting Kelsey Grammer at the table read and being mesmerized by his voice. He sounded just like Orson Welles. The act I boarded included Bob and Selma’s honeymoon. I wanted to give the staging a Hitchcockian influence with deep-focus, Z-axis compositions (like looking out of the fireplace, across the gas burner to Selma and Bob) and my first-ever use of DX (double exposed) shadows to provide menace. I thought that was my best work of the series.

One of my favourite early episodes is ‘Homer at the Bat’ which you storyboarded. What are your recollections on working on it? Did you get any specific notes when it came to the players?

“Homer” was my third “at bat” (pardon the pun) with Jim. He’s a baseball fan as I am, but he also PLAYED Chicago-Style Softball (baseball with a huge, soft ball). I’m a baseball fan too, but I felt I’d be exposed a dilettante due to my terminal lack of athleticism. I was assigned all three acts of the show as well! I really had to be on my game (again, pardon) and not miss any of the references. I reluctantly took him up on his offer playing in one of the Chicago-Style games one Saturday in Burbank. It was a sacrifice as I had to work weekends to keep up with the workload of this episode. I went with a fellow board artist, who’ll remain unnamed (to remain friends).  

It went terribly. At bat, I whiffed three pitches in a row, and Jim kept pitching more and more out of pity. I missed them all. He finally had to tell me to just give the bat to the next guy. In the outfield, I stunk just as badly. The piece-de-resistance was when my fellow board artist was at bat and swung hard on a pitch. He missed the ball AND dislocated his knee. I ran to him as he plopped down in agony onto home plate with his knee, shin and foot pointed in the wrong direction. “If my leg stays like this much longer, I think I’m gonna start crying,” he said through the pain.  After a terribly long moment, his shin and foot rotated snapped back into place. We hobbled off the field as Jim and his pals resumed the game. Could things have gone any worse? I was certain that Jim had no faith in me by that time. If so, he never said it. He was a laconic guy.  

I worked on it a hundred years ago so I don’t feel the pride I objectively should. The episode went against The Cosby Show and beat it in the ratings!  There’s even an exhibit in The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, that I wasn’t aware of until I went there. No artist other than Matt is mentioned. It’s all about the writers and the players who voiced the show.

I still have the storyboards of Jose Canseco in the bathtub with Ms. Krabappel that Jose objected to and we had to cut. I’ll post them someday.

How do you reflect on your time working on the show? Do you ever watch those seasons and episodes back?

See below for details; but no. I haven’t watched the episodes I worked on or those seasons for decades. I haven’t watched any episodes after the 3rd season at all. I did see the movie.

The relationship between Klasky-Csupo and Gracie Films finished at the end of the third season, when Gracie decided to move production to Film Roman, what was your view of that situation?

With the handwriting on the wall that Fox might pull The Simpsons from Klasky-Csupo, the in-house producer Sherry Gunther countered by getting all us artists to sign a document tying us exclusively to Klasky-Csupo in an effort to block Fox access to the crew. That gambit didn’t dissuade Fox. They pulled the show anyway and took it to Film Roman. At the time, I wanted desperately to follow the show, but naively thought I couldn’t because I was bound by Sherry’s contract. Virtually everyone left Klasky-Csupo for Film Roman anyways; contract be damned.

The studio became a ghost town. I stayed, distressed that I had to work on Rugrats. However, I eventually concluded that being torn away from The Simpsons was the best thing for my creative growth. Wherein The Simpsons was written so well, closely supervised and finding its stride, The Rugrats scripts were mediocre and the gags not funny. Rugrats was a vacuum to fill and I was empowered to add gags and exercise Gabor’s mandate to really push the staging into warped and low-angled baby POVs that defined the series. It lacked the regimentation of The Simpsons and I exposed to all the other processes in making cartoons. On the Chanukah special I directed, I timed the animation, I even helped direct the voice talent and supervise animatic and final edit.

The Simpsons, like many prime-time animated shows, are dominated by writer/producers who closely control the creative aspects and the artists are more or less staying in their lanes.

After the Simpsons you were assigned to work on ‘Duckman’ where you directed eight episodes, what was the step up to direction like?

I didn’t go directly to Duckman. There was a period of boarding on Rugrats and assistant directing on two Edith-Ann specials for ABC. It was a sad time, something like being in purgatory, but one which I believe was necessary in retrospect.

Speaking of being in purgatory, here’s an anecdote. Klasky-Csupo was a bunch of empty rooms after the Simpsons left. I was working on Edith Ann one day and Gabor was walking a tour of potential clients through. I showed them what I was doing and then Gabor directed them to the next room; opening a door to usher them in, various large and small auto parts suddenly tumbled noisily out onto the floor. A car bumper, pieces of trim, a fender and hub-caps.  

You may ask why auto parts were in there? I’ll tell you: When Rich Moore worked there, his office overlooked the corner of Highland and Fountain avenues. Over time, he and his crew witnessed a lot of auto collisions on that corner. They would go and retrieve the parts left behind and hang them on the wall. Rich obviously left without taking his collection and somebody decided to hide them all in this room. Suffice to say, it didn’t look professional and I felt terrible for Gabor at that moment.

When I did become director, there was many moments of panic. I was used to storyboarding to my personal standard and quality that defined my aesthetic. Paradoxically, being a director meant losing close control. I had to depend on clearly communicating to the storyboard artists, quickly learning you can only tell artists so much before they “top-off” and forget what you said. No one took notes! It was all by memory! I always took notes as a board artist. A good board artist makes a director look good. There are far more mediocre storyboard artists than good ones; mainly because the good ones are promoted to directors (I feel the quality has improved over time). And I had to deal with freelancers for the first time. They are the guys that fill-in when there’s not enough staff artists. These people were usually moonlighting for extra money and end up storyboarding your show in the style of the show they were working on during the day. There just wasn’t enough time in the schedule to fix everything without working crazy hours. The Simpsons had layout. So storyboards didn’t have to be so precise and if something wasn’t staged right or acting out in storyboard, you could work with a layout artist in shorthand to correct it. Virtually my entire career has been absent layouts. They are very rare for TV nowadays. This makes the storyboard all the more important. The bar must be high; we call them “layout storyboards”; they need to be closer to model and the acting must be spot on.  

Animation timing was also something I had to get control of; At first, Duckman didn’t have a supervising timing director, who could maintain the quality and the timing aesthetics particular to the show. It was up to the director to check timing. I had almost no experience and it was a new show. No one person had the answers. I could review the timer’s work (so often a dreaded freelancer) and I could see it wasn’t at all right and I’d wholesale erase it, but then I panicked that I might have done more damage than good; suddenly in over my head. It took time, but I got it.

I believe that the director who masters his x-sheets is true master of his show.  I could add quality and personal aesthetics in a new dimension.

Does you background as a storyboard artist influence the way in which you direct?

Absolutely. In animation history, there were directors who didn’t storyboard or even draw. There were a few of these “dinosaurs” on Rugrats. They sat and read the paper when we boarded their shows. But because of the overseas process of animation and the loss of layouts here at home, if you are going to direct at all, you have to be comfortable drawing a detailed, informed layout storyboard. It is literally the blueprint of your show.

That said, I had to mature as a director who storyboarded. It was insane to try and board all my episodes personally, though directors will put some work aside for themselves, especially if its a sequence that would be too hard to delegate to another artist. If a sequence involves a new character, location or prop integral to the story, it may not be designed yet, so I’ll take it on and “feel it out;” designing as I board.

I had to learn how to be a good delegator and a clear communicator. I pitch sequences to the board artist before they begin and give them roughs of designs, poses or staging I think is important for the sequence. From my boarding experience, I don’t like directors who don’t tell you what they want until after you’ve drawn the storyboard. That wastes time and effort. And morale. I want the artists to know my take and hopefully that will inform the storyboard they do. I also know from my board experience that you should balance criticism with praise. Communicate what you like about how they do this and that before you go through critiquing the parts that aren’t working. Ultimately, you want to help the board artists be successful in storyboarding it their way, not my way. If it works, don’t change it just because it isn’t the way you’d do it. Lean into and support what they’ve done.

‘Duckman’ had a cavalcade of guest stars throughout the shows run, did you ever get to meet any of them, and if so, do you have a favourite encounter?

I was always of two minds regarding using live-action stars for animation. Yeah, it’s fun to meet them and some like Jason Alexander can knock-it-out-of-the-park, but sometimes this kind of “stunt casting” backfires. In my first episode, we used Crispin Glover in a stunt role as a crazed maniac with only one line. He showed up brandishing an eight inch hunting knife acting like a REAL maniac. Maybe it was method acting, but we were scared of him and got him in and out as fast as we could. His delivery didn’t work for the line and it spoiled the joke in my opinion, but it remained in the episode. If we used one of the legion of professional voice actors available, we could have worked with them for the perfect “voice” and delivery and nailed it.

We also used Teri Garr for an episode (not one I was directing) and I attended because I was a huge fan of hers. I got to see her behind the mike as she looked over her pages and said acidly, “This isn’t exactly Tolstoy, is it.” That is the opposite attitude you should have when you’re hired. She was soon pitching underwear afterwards...obviously not Tolstoy either.

So I’ll say it again: using celebrities can bite you on the ass.

Performances aside, I certainly did enjoy meeting legends. Carl Reiner played a priest in Noir Gang. Mind you we recorded in a small studio that was in the back of the Rugrats building that was essentially a cavernous storage room. Ed Asner looked visibly uncomfortable when we huddled around him in there. I’ll never forget the look on Marina Sirtis’ face when she arrived to record an episode. Me and a couple of other guys were laying in wait in this sketchy storage area eating our lunches. She was concerned: “is this the right place?” I felt like a lech and stopped going to records that I didn’t have to be at.

Overall, if the celebrity you’ve cast for a voice roll has theater experience, you are more likely to get a good vocal performance. Especially musical theater experience. They are more aware of their voice and have the tools. This goes for Jason and others like Tim Curry and Bebe Neuwirth; all great voice talent to have behind the mic.

You worked on the second run of Futurama, had you been a fan of the original seasons?

No. I didn’t watch the show before. I had to catch up and learn the “canon” when I was hired.

How did you get involved in working on Futurama?

The animating studio, Rough Draft, was something of a clique. They didn’t just hire “anybody” and unlike most studios, they maintain a staff of lifers who usually have the choice positions. I knew Peter Avanzino from our Simpsons days doing storyboards together, so he vouched for me. I was hired to direct on the 2nd season of Drawn Together. So they had a taste of what they could expect from me. I was no longer an unknown quantity when Futurama came around.

One of the eight episodes you directed was, ‘The Mutants are Revolting’, the shows hundredth episode. How special was it to work on such a landmark episode?

It had the most visibility of my episodes, at least internally. They made T-shirts and some publicity art and even the script had a nicer cover. But it was the episode with the most headaches. The scope of the story was huge with multiple set pieces. The opening newsreel, movie in a movie of the Land-Titanic, the asteroid delivery, the party at Planet Express, the riot in the sewers and the flood and “parting of the red sea” climax all required a ton of designs and characters; plus more hand-drawn and CG effects. That’s a lot to manage and marshall for a TV show. Most episodes don’t require the director to do this kind of heavy lifting. I find that when a show demands this much visually, the story ends up being more superficial, gag driven and episodic feeling. Such is the case for this episode. It was visually pumped up because it was representing the 100th episode; meaning I was saddled with managing lots of logistics rather than the usual character-based comedy and emotion of say, Tip of The Zoidberg, which is a relationship story that--as a director--I feel I give more time to flourish and shine with.

‘The Mutants are Revolting’ features some fantastic animation, most notably a brief sequence of Bender standing perfectly still as the Planet Express ship moves around him. Can you explain the challenges of a sequence like that?

That’s a good, insightful question. A shot like this shows off the resources Rough Draft has that aren’t available at just any other studio doing TV animation. The interior of the Planet Express Ship was built and animated in CG. At it’s gimbal point was a CG version of a stationary Bender; locked to field, but who’s feet move with the CG ship. Once the CG elements were approved, they were printed out as wire frame drawings printed onto pegged paper. My Assistant Director drew key poses of the characters on a separate layer in register with the CG print outs, old school on a light box animation disc. This all was sent to our overseas studio Rough Draft Korea for inbetweening and color of the characters only. That came back as an alpha-channeled digital file and layered over the CG animation in our digital compositing department.

Scott Vanzo runs the department and directs all the CG animation effects. I can’t remember who exactly built the interior of the PE ship and animated it, so I’ll rely on IMDb: Don Kim and Jason Plapp. But all the guys in the digital department do tremendous work and allowed us to fine tune a lot of animation (that doesn’t have CG in it); giving us the ability that raises the quality and takes the curse off of overseas animation limitations.

‘The Tip of the Zoidberg’ was nominated for a Primetime Emmy, how proud were you of that achievement and the episode itself?

The episode was one of my favorites; it was character focused and elaborating on canon so a director couldn’t ask for more. As for the Emmy nomination, it’s one of those show business awards that I realized early I can’t get emotionally vested in. The Futurama guys have a formula for figuring out which episode will be submitted. I think it has something to do with each writer getting a shot at the statue. And then from then on it’s just politics.

You’ve also done work on ‘Disenchantment’, giving you the distinction of having worked on all three of Matt Groening’s shows. What’s your relationship like with him?

I can’t help but laugh at this question. I’ve run into him twice out in public over the years and he didn’t recognize me. Once at the Moscow Cat Circus! But that humbling fact aside, he’s a genuinely nice, funny person devoid of pretence and he’s said some very complementary things about my work. However, it’s all business. Like virtually all primetime shows, he’s with the writers at their separate production office. Animation production takes place in a different geographical location. My face time is limited to usually 2-3 meeting points in a show’s schedule. Anything in between are fielded via emails routed through coordinators and assistants.

As well as short form animation you’ve been involved with several feature length productions, including ‘The Rugrats Movie’ and ‘Despicable Me’, what are the key differences between long from and short form animated projects?

I don’t think I’ve ever had a purely feature production experience. The Rugrats Movie(s) were spin-offs from TV series so some processes were grandfathered in from TV production. Despicable Me was truly off-the-wall in that the storyboard artists were working remotely from literally all over the world. No one met each other. I met with Chris Renaud once. I was not allowed to see the entire script, only pages here and there. It was called “Evil Me” at the time. I was truly working in the dark and ultimately, they didn’t use anything I drew. Which to me seemed par-for-the-course: this was one harebrained, inefficient, right-hand-doesn’t-know-what-the-left-hand-is-doing way to make a show. Again, I predicted it would fail. Again, I was wrong.

At the time I was working on Despicable Me, Gru looked like Snape from Harry Potter and there were no minions yet, just an “Igor” kind of 2nd banana that was a shorter version of the final Gru design.  

So my takeaway from those experiences is that I prefer TV production. You don’t have the luxury of a feature schedule, but there is less time for executives to get replaced, sundry monkey-business and creatives pulling the rug out from under you. However, TV is catching up in those regards. See below.

Do you have a scene or episode you’re particularly proud of working on?

I feel fulfilled and proud of directing and being supervising producer on Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie. I was empowered to work in every aspect of the process and benefit from my experience to make it the smoothest running ship and happiest crew ever. Only at the very end did the executives get into overdrive meddling. But it ran well and looked good. It may not be as funny as my prime time stuff, but I think we elevated the material across the board; writing, design, animation quality. And it was a project put in mothballs 15 years before being resurrected. So it completes me in a way.

Ultimately, I believe work is about relationships and quality of life. The shows where you were empowered and respected and not overworked due to inefficiency are the shows I’m proud to work on. As Jim Duffy would always say, “It’s only a cartoon.”

Often sequences are cut or revised before broadcast. Do you have any favourites that didn’t make it in?

If I had, I’ve forgotten them.  

What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry over your time and what do you think the next big change will be?

The trend seems to be as I get better and more efficient at my job, creators and writers (especially in streaming prime-time) are becoming more entitled, indecisive, mecurial and demanding. As processes have evolved in digital technology, we’ve opened the door for those in power indulging in more rewrites, revisions, reviews, etc. Despite the technical advancements, animation remains expensive and time intensive and good artists (especially in TV) have to work intelligently and diligently on tight schedules to produce funny, inspired, detail-oriented work. Rewrites and revisions burn out artists and make us feel like office machines and though our overlords pay for the last minute re-dos, they are often throwing out higher quality work for patchwork revisions that lower the overall quality of a show.

Who inspired you as a young animator and who do you look to now?

Ironically, I never saw myself becoming an animator. I did do some stop-motion on Super 8 as a kid. But that was because I didn’t have access to peers to act and help. What inspired me were live action directors with strong, individual styles: Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Peter Greenaway and Terry Gilliam. I think of these guys in essence as “live-action-animation directors”. The stylization in their sequence planning, shot selection and composition as well as how production design integrates in their storytelling reminds me of how background design and art direction naturally occur in animation production.  

I’m sure there are new visionaries out there, but I’ve become so disenchanted with modern cinema, I rarely see new movies anymore. I find streaming TV much more interesting. Current movies strike me as self-consciously mannered and hyperactive. I find it endlessly fascinating looking back into cinema history before movies had to begin with three or four production company logos whooshing noisily about.

What advice would you give to people looking to break into the animation industry?

I’ve seen an improvement in the college educated animation students over the years. They seem to be of a higher intellectual standard than before. They aren’t as thrown by the rigors of schedule and they ALL can draw circles around me.  

Be original in your own work, but also be a craftsman (as opposed to purely an artist) who can take criticism neutrally and have the tools to fit in the grand scheme of a show that might challenge your personal aesthetics.  

Denis Sanders, a directing teacher I had in college said the director’s job is to be “an expert at all things”. In animation, that translates into intellegently knowing what to draw. If a character is looking under the hood of a car, know what an internal combustion engine looks like and what reasonable pieces you can have your character toss out of said engine. The distributor, the carburettor. Find and use reference! Go that extra step and inform your work with the texture of reality.

Don’t regurgitate old tropes. A trite example of what I’m talking about: If a character is peeking at another, avoid the obvious keyhole in the door trope. Keyholes aren’t in doors anymore. It’s been a cliche from the beginning of cinema. Rather, crack the door open, slide your cellphone under the door, look through a window or punch a hole in the door and look in. Like I said, this is a trite example, but making non-obvious choices rather than knee-jerk non-choices makes cartoons fresh and funnier.

What animated shows do you currently watch and what’s your opinion on the current state of animation?

It’s a terrible admission, but I’m not watching anything in animation. There’s a lot of animation that seems to be just writer-driven, animated live-action sit-coms. There isn’t a reason for them to be animated. Those are the kind of jobs I get offered a lot. It seems like a more trouble than it’s worth.

Who are some young animators you think we should be looking out for?

Gosh, I don’t know.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m productively unemployed at the moment.

Where can people follow you on social media?

I only do tumblr: mashymilkiesinc.tumblr.com

#The Simpsons #Futurama #Eye on Springfield #Raymie Muzquiz #Not tall or wide

[lovemesomesurveys]

What Rhymes With “AIR”?

1.   Are the walls of your room bare or do you have things hanging up there? I have some stuff on my walls.

2.   When’s the last time you went outside to enjoy the fresh air? I briefly went outside at night on the 4th of July to see the fireworks from my driveway with my family. Prior to that I hadn’t been out of the house since May and before that it had been since March. 

3.   Do you watch the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? Sometimes.

4.   When’s the last time it felt like you were walking on air? I had one bad floating feeling experience from a bad edibles trip. I literally felt like I had to hold onto something to “stay grounded.” I also ended up getting sick. It wasn’t a fun time. I found out the hard way after that time that it didn’t take much of an edible for me to get high lol. It tricks you cause it can take a bit to kick in, so you think you need more, but nope.

5.   Have you ever been on air, on a radio station? Yeah. I used to call to request a song sometimes back in the day and my call  was on air a few times.

6.   Have you ever felt like all of the air was coming out of your lungs? Yes.

7.   Has it seemed as though anything has ever disappeared into thin air? Have you ever pulled an idea out of thin air? Yes! So frustrating. I’ll be using something and then put it down for a sec, only to not be able to find it where I thought I put it. Like for instance, it happens a lot when I’m wrapping presents. The pen or scissors I’m using always seem to “disappear.” RIP to all the pens that seemed to just vanish, too, throughout my school years. And yes, I’ve also pulled ideas “out of thin air.”

8.   Have you ever wanted to be on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”? I enjoyed playing along while watching and I even had a computer game version, but nah. I wouldn’t get far at all and it’d be embarrassing. I don’t do well with being put on the spot either.

9.   Do you know a billionaire in real life? No.

10.   Would you like to be an heir or heiress to a fortune? I mean, I wouldn’t have been opposed to it if I was haha.

11.   Would you be able to successfully get away if you ever came across a bear? I mean, there’s no way of knowing for sure, but I hope so?? Well, I hope to never be in the situation in the first place, obviously, but you know. There are people who have certainly been quite lucky in that situation and others not so much, so. I know you’re supposed to remain calm and not run, which I could probably do cause I’d likely freeze up in fear. I’ve seen videos of people, some of them have been children, who successfully got away.

12.   Where’s your favorite place to go? How long does it take to get there? The beach. The closest one is like 2 hours away.

13.   How often do you err on the side of caution? I’m a cautious person. And also just a big scardy cat.

14.   How often do people say they’re angry with you? People don’t say that, but I know people have been upset, frustrated, disappointed, and irritated with me.

15.   Do you own any long underwear? Long underwear? No...

16.   How much Tupperware do you own? *shrug* A lot.

17.   What color is your underwear right now? Blue and gray.

18.   Do you still sleep with a teddy bear? No. I have a few stuffed animals that always sit on my bed, though.

19.   What pair of your shoes has the most wear and tear? My Adidas Superstars. They’re not too bad, but you can definitely tell I wore them quite often.

20.   Do you like to play Solitaire? Ha, I haven’t played since I played the computer version as a kid on like Windows 98. I played that and messed around in Paint quite a bit, ha.

21.   Do you or your family own a full set of silverware? Yeah.

22.   What do you have to take everywhere with you? My bag with my medicine, hand sanitizer, phone, wallet, and straws. I’d also have to take a mask with me everywhere.

23.   Would you like to visit Delaware? I hadn’t really thought about it.

24.   Last time you received dental care? It’s been awhile. 

25.   If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? I’d want to really think about that if I could only choose one destination. There’s a lot of places I’d like to travel to one day.

26.   Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Did we ever find her? I don’t remember, ha. I used to watch the cartoon as a kid and I think I had a computer game, too.

27.   Are you satisfied sitting here, taking this survey, or would you rather be elsewhere? Right here in bed is the best place for me to be right now. 

28.   Last time you sat in a barber’s chair? I last got my hair done back in early February. 

29.   Do you own any cans of compressed air? No.

30.   Do you have a swivel chair at your desk? I don’t have a swivel chair or a desk.

31.   Do you prefer an armchair or a rocking chair? A reclining armchair. 

32.   Would you rather have a beanbag chair or a hanging swing chair in your room? Hanging swing chair.

33.   What’s the last non-survey related questionnaire that you had to fill out? This like 4 page questionnaire that one of my doctors hands out every visit. It’s the same exact questionnaire, too.

34.   Are there any crimes that you feel make someone deserving of the electric chair? Yes, like serial killers.

35.   Do you know anyone who uses a wheelchair? Yeah, me.

36.   Do you know anyone who is on welfare? Yes.

37.   Do you play Modern Warfare? Nope. Never had an interest in playing that.

38.   Do you ever feel like life is unfair? Of course.

39.   Have you ever visited Times Square? No. I’ve never been to New York, but I’d love to one day. I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to go before everything this year, but now I really don’t know.

40.   Do you tell people to “take care” at the end of a conversation with them? It’s not something I regularly say, but yeah sometimes.

41.   Where is somewhere that you would like to move to? I’m not sure.

42.   What is something in your home that needs to be repaired? A couple things.

43.   What kind of sleepwear do you own? I wear leggings and oversized graphic tees for pjs and my normal attire.

44.   What skin care products do you use? I haven’t been using any.

45.   Do you have any spyware on your computer? Apple computers come with all that stuff.

46.   Do you own any sportswear? What sports? Nope. Not a sports fan.

47.   Do you like Fred Astaire? I know who he is and I’ve seen clips of his dance scenes, but I haven’t actually watched any of his films. Well, I’ve heard his voice work in the Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town movie/cartoon, but that’s all.

48.   How long does it take you to prepare a meal? The only thing I cook is ramen, which takes like 10 minutes or so (I’m including the time to boil the water).

49.   Do you know anyone named Pierre? No.

50.   Are you going nowhere fast? It has and does feel that way. :/

51.   How often do you have a nightmare? Not often, thankfully. 

52.   How often are you able to catch something in mid-air? *shrug*

53.   What do your lawn chairs look like? We don’t have any lawn chairs.

54.   How many chairs are at your dining/kitchen table? We don’t have a dining/kitchen table either.

55.   Favorite type of footwear? Adidas sneakers.

56.   When’s the last time one of your senses were impaired? From what? I wear glasses if that counts?

57.   Have you ever been in a hot air balloon before? Noooo.

58.   Do you have a good health care plan? Yes.

59.   Last time you went to the hardware store? I don’t go to the hardware store.

60.   Have you ever played foursquare before? Yeah, I liked playing that in elementary school.

61.   Do you own any types of eyewear? Yep, my glasses.

62.   What brand of cookware do you have a lot of? Cuisine Art, probably.

63.   Nothing can compare to: You. 🎶 Ha.

64.   Have you ever worked in a childcare center? No.

65.   Do you have a “beware of dog” sign on your gate? No.

66.   Have you ever attended daycare as a child? No.

67.   Are you very aware of your surroundings? Yes.

68.   Have you ever had an au pair or a nanny before? No. My aunts, grandparents, or older brother babysat me.

69.   Do you know anyone who has had an affair? Yes.

70.   How much are you willing to spend on airfare? I don’t know, it would depend on certain factors regarding the trip.

71.   Who do you care about the most? My loved ones.

72.   Are you more likely to choose truth or dare? Truth, never dare. Or just not play at all, ha. 

73.   Have you ever seen the Blair Witch Project before? Yeah. Major cringe.

74.   Do you like the name Claire? Would you spell it with or without the I? Sure. I like the spelling with the “I.”

75.   Last time you went to a fair? When I was a kid.

76.   What can be done to make life more fair? Gah. 

77.   How much are you willing to spend on cab fare? I don’t know. Again, it would depend on certain factors.

78.   Do you have a lot of flair? No.

79.   Do you own flare jeans? No.

80.   Is there a glare on your computer screen right now? Yes.

81.   When’s the last time someone glared at you? I say my doggo gives me attitude and “the eye” sometimes, ha. Like when I tell my parents or brother that I gave her treats, so don’t let her trick you into getting more. She gives me a look like, “gee, thanks a lot for ratting me out!”

82.   What type of hair do you have? (color, length, texture, etc) How often do you wash it? Red, long, wavy hair. I wash it every 2-3 days.

83.   Do you know the difference between a rabbit and a hare? Yeah.

84.   Do you like to eat eclairs? I haven’t had one in a long time, but they are delicious.

85.   What do you consider to be your lair? My room.

86.   A female horse is called a mare. What is a male horse called? A baby horse? A male horse is a stallion and a baby is called a foal

87.   Have you ever used Nair before? Did it work? Blech, yeah I tried it when I was like 13/14. It worked, but it smelled SO bad.

88.   Has anyone ever told you to “grow a pair”? No.

89.   What is something that you own a pair of? Shoes.

90.   What is a rare quality that you have? I can’t think of one.

91.   Last food you pared? I don’t peel or chop anything.

92.   Do you know someone who is a debonair? No.

93.   Do you like to scare others for fun? No.

94.   What is something that scares you? The present and the future.

95.   Do you like Sonny and Cher? “I don’t know if all that’s true, but you got me and baby I got you. Babe. I got you, babe.”

96.   Do you know how to share? Do you like to share? Yeah.

97.   Have you ever played a snare drum before? No.

98.   What do you do with your spare change? Put it in one of my purses/bags.

99.   Do you know how to put on a spare tire? No. I’ve never tried to.

100. Have you ever gotten a spare while bowling before? I think so.

101. When’s the last time you wished someone would spare you the details? Recently, when someone shared something that was TMI.

102.  Do you win games fair and square? Yes. I like to just have fun and friendly competition, there’s no need to cheat or get upset about it. 

103. Do you know how to find the square root of something? Yeah.

104.   What are the characteristics of a square shape? 4 equal sides.

105. Have you ever been called a square before? Haha, yeah, jokingly. Well, the times I know of, ha. An “L-7 wienie.”

106.   Do you prefer the elevator or the stairs? Well, I have to take the elevator.

107.  Do you ever stare at other people? No. I’ve had to deal with that (people staring at me) all my life, though.

108. How often do you swear? Not that often.

109. Do you ever “swear on your life”? I don’t say that.

110. What do you like to “tear up”? An order of boneless wings from Wingstop, ha.

111. What type of wares would you sell? I don’t have anything to sell.

112. What kinds of clothing do you like to wear? Comfy clothing--leggings and oversized tees.

113. Have you ever had a pregnancy scare before? Nope.

[a-zebra-is-a-striped-horse]

#personal #text #survey #surveys #long survey

[makinguglychic]

PRINTS AND PATTERNS INSPIRATION

I have decided to look into iconic moments from each year to inspire me to create prints and patterns for my work. I will be looking and the shapes and writing from my selected photos and how I could portray them into my designs, all are which inspired from the trends I previously talked about.

For the 1970s I have decided to look into the Environmental Movement. This was where people started making people realise the damage what pollution was causing to the air and the water. 1960s liberalism continued to flourish. For example, the crusade to protect the environment from all sorts of assaults–toxic industrial waste in places like Love Canal, New York; dangerous meltdowns at nuclear power plants such as the one at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania; highways through city neighborhoods–really took off during the 1970s. Americans celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970, and Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act that same year. The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act followed two years later. The oil crisis of the late 1970s drew further attention to the issue of conservation. By then, environmentalism was so mainstream that the U.S. Forest Service’s Woodsy Owl interrupted Saturday morning cartoons to remind kids to “Give a Hoot; Don’t Pollute.”I have inspiration from the signs they used, and the different font of writings. I think this could be used in my work where I base one garment on the 70s and use a screen print to put some of the quotes they use on the signs onto my designs and garments. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p8i276Xm8A

From the 80s I looked into video games, I think because geometric patterns were such a big trend and style in the 80s that because the video games are bright abstract shapes that it would look good to make my own geometric pattern from taking elements from the games. I could then also use this to merge into the trends I picked outline the aerobic gear such as leotards and leggings. Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the U.S. by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular in the United States from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is universally considered as one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game became a social phenomenon that sold a bevy of merchandise and also inspired, among other things, an animated television series, and music. Donkey Kong is an arcade game released by Nintendo in Japan on July 9, 1981,  July 31, 1981 in North America, and in Europe during the same year. An early example of the platform game genre, the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms to ascend a construction site, all while avoiding or jumping over obstacles. The originally unnamed character, who was later called Jumpman, then Mario, must rescue a damsel in distress, Pauline, from the titular giant ape, Donkey Kong. The hero and ape would later become two of Nintendo's most popular and recognizable characters. Donkey Kong is one of the most important games from the golden age of arcade video games as well as one of the most popular arcade games of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8xhFcxtxaM

For the 1990s I thought that the Y2K bug/problem would be really interesting to look into. The Y2K bug was a problem in the coding of computerized systems that was projected to create havoc in computers and computer networks around the world at the beginning of the year 2000. Until the 1990s many computer programs (especially those written in the early days of computers) were designed to abbreviate four-digit years as two digits in order to save memory space. These computers could recognize “98” as “1998” but would be unable to recognize “00” as “2000,” perhaps interpreting it to mean 1900. Many feared that when the clocks struck midnight on January 1, 2000, many affected computers would be using an incorrect date and thus fail to operate properly unless the computers’ software was repaired or replaced before that date. Other computer programs that projected budgets or debts into the future could begin malfunctioning in 1999 when they made projections into 2000. In addition, some computer software did not take into account that the year 2000 was a leap year. And even before the dawn of 2000, it was feared that some computers might fail on September 9, 1999 (9/9/99), because early programmers often used a series of 9s to indicate the end of a program. People then became to exaggerate it saying that once all the malfunction happened  that it would would cause computers to spontaneously combust and self-destruct, and the world would end. I think from this I could take the exaggeration people used into my work and also like how the news papers portrayed it. I think I would be able to make patterns and prints from the shapes and wording they used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvXVWCckDMY

For the 2000s I have decided to look into the discovery of the Crystal Caves. Giant Crystal Cave was discovered in April 2000 by miners excavating a new tunnel for the Industrias Peñoles mining company located in Naica, Mexico, while drilling through the Naica fault, which they were concerned would flood the mine.The mining complex in Naica contains substantial deposits of silver, zinc and lead. The Cave of Crystals is a horseshoe-shaped cavity in limestone. Its floor is covered with perfectly faceted crystalline blocks. Huge crystal beams jut out from both the blocks and the floor. The crystals deteriorate in air, so the Naica Project attempted to visually document the crystals before they deteriorated further. Two other smaller caverns were also discovered in 2000, Queen’s Eye Cave and Candles Cave, and another chamber was found in a drilling project in 2009. The new cave, named Ice Palace, is 150 metres (490 ft) deep and is not flooded, but its crystal formations are much smaller, with small "cauliflower" formations and fine, threadlike crystals. I think this would be an excellent idea to make a pattern and a screen print by taking inspiration from the shapes of the crystals and the way they weave through each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsIebVCr0zk

[kujo1597]

Actually, That Was a Good Thing

Apart from the awkwardness surrounding Pearl, Peridot was enjoying her stay with Amethyst. They talked, Peridot got a lot off her chest, and Amethyst accepted her despite what she’s done. Things were actually pretty great.

But while getting paper to help with a school project Peridot finds an old photo and some old feelings come back to the surface.

Chapter 6

Light filtered into the room and blinded Peridot.

Which she found odd because her room has blackout curtains.

It was when she heard Amethyst snoring next to her that she remembered she wasn’t home.

Peridot was pinned under both Max and Amethyst so she couldn’t budge. She really had to pee though so she decided to wake Amethyst up.

“Huh, what?” Amethyst wasn’t exactly an early riser.

“I need to get out of bed.”

“Oh, sure,” Amethyst sat up then passed Peridot’s prosthesis to her.

“Thanks,” Peridot put her foot on.

Peridot didn’t take long in the washroom and when she returned she decided that she could sleep in for one day. She settled back into bed and Max immediately curled up on her tummy and Amethyst’s head went back on her chest.

Peridot chuckled, having her girlfriend next to her felt so right.

She could get used to this.

“What’s so funny?”

“I’m just really happy,” Peridot replied.

Peridot felt Amethyst’s head shift as she smiled.

They ended up sleeping until ten.

Neither of them bothered changing before eating a late breakfast of cereal.

Pearl looked at Peridot’s ensemble disapprovingly. “Don’t you think it’s inappropriate to walk around in your underwear?”

“These boxers are basically shorts,” Peridot replied with a slightly irritated frown.

Amethyst chimed in, “aw, c’mon P, they’re just goofy boxers. Not like she’s walking around in a thong.”

Both Pearl and Peridot blushed.

Pearl spoke, “I suppose they’re relatively tame.” She decided to change the subject. “Did you two make plans for today?”

Peridot and Amethyst glanced at each other and shrugged.

“I have a lot of work to do,” Peridot replied. “I slacked off yesterday.” 

“You’ll have time to watch TV with me later though? I was thinking we’d just relax today,” Amethyst said.

“Of course, I’ll work for a few hours in the morning, then do a few more tonight. We’ll have plenty of time to curl up infront of the TV.”

“Oh awesome, I think we should watch Jem, I bet you’ll love it, you’re into 80's cartoons.”

“That sounds nice.”

Pearl cleared her throat interrupting the conversation.

“Steven’s friend, Connie, is coming over today. I have errands to run so you two need to keep and eye on them.”

“Alright,” Amethyst was resting her chin on her hand, “I don’t get why they need a babysitter though.”

“Connie’s parents ask that of us,” Pearl replied. “You know they worry.”

Amethyst rolled her eyes. “Ugh, yeah I remember.”

“So when does she get here?” Peridot asked.

“She’ll be here at noon,” Pearl replied. “But I want you two presentable before then.”

And with that, Pearl left the room.

“Yeesh, I think she’s gotten worse since college,” Peridot whispered to Amethyst.

Who chuckled. “Yeah, that’s Pearl. She’s just especially picky when it comes to Steven. Connie’s his first friend his age and she doesn’t want to mess that up.”

“That makes sense, but I have to say that I’m surprised. Steven’s very friendly.”

“He gets along best with older teens and people your age for some reason.”

“Ah, I was actually like that too.”

Amethyst winked. “So that’s why you’re into older woman.”

Peridot laughed. “Wouldn’t surprise me.” She stood up. “Well, I have to start getting ready, my morning routine takes a while. Some of us need to put in effort to look cool.”

Peridot stuck out her tongue and Amethyst nudged her in the stomach.

“Your hair’s still standing up, nobody’ll notice if you don’t do it today.”

“Yeah, I can get away with just touching it up. But that’s not the only part of my routine.”

“Lotion’s one of them, right? Get me after you shower so I can help with that.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Peridot gave Amethyst a peck on the cheek then left to start getting ready.

The door to Amethyst’s room opened and Steven put his hand on Peridot’s shoulder to get her attention.

“Lunch is almost done.”

Peridot removed her earphones. “Okay, thanks.” She then noticed a young girl wearing glasses standing next to Steven. “Oh, hello, I’m Peridot.”

The girl smiled. “I’m Connie.”

She offered her hand to Peridot who shook it.

Steven excitedly pointed to the brown furball on Peridot’s lap. “And that’s Max! He’s the cutest sweetest dog I ever met!”

Connie giggled as she pet Max on the head, he leaned into her hand obviously loving her technique. “I don’t think I’ve ever pet a dog this soft before.”

With a grin Peridot ruffled Max’s fur. “Yeah, and he’s especially soft right now because he was just trimmed.”

Steven’s eye lit up. “Do you have pictures of Max with long hair? I bet that looks super cute too.”

With a laugh Peridot opened up the Chirper account she set up for Max, it didn’t take long for her to get to the cheep from when she look him to the groomer’s.

“Oh my gosh! He looks like an adorable mop!” Steven had stars in his eyes and pulled out his phone. “I’m totally gonna follow him!” He pointed at the follower count. “Connie look, Max is famous.”

“Wow, thousands of people are following a dog on social media.”

“Yeah, I think that in this world a daily dose of cute can do you some good,” Peridot stroked Max as she talked. “I guess a lot of people feel the same way.”

As he was scrolling through Max’s Chirper account Steven remembered why he came upstairs in the first place. “Oh yeah! It’s lunch time!”

Peridot put Max on the floor then slightly shakily got onto her feet. She stretched out her sore back and noticed something.

She’s a little bit shorter than Steven’s friend...

Ah well, five feet isn’t exactly tall.

The trio walked to the kitchen, halfway there a delicious spicy smell hit Peridot. It got stronger and more mouth-watering as she got closer. When the trip was finally finished Peridot saw Amethyst hard at work at the stove.

Amethyst turned around with one of her catlike grins. “Hey Peri! Like what you smell?”

“Oh I do,” Peridot couldn’t control herself, she looked in the pots but the only thing she could identify was reddish rice, the other pot was full of a spicy green sauce. “Did you make curry for lunch?”

Amethyst softly chuckled. “Nope, you keep giving me tastes of your childhood so I’m returning the favour. This green stuff’s mole verde Zacatecano.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had mole before,” Peridot looked very interested.

“You’re gonna love it,” Amethyst wrapped her arm around Peridot’s waist. “Ma was from Mexico and she made it all the time. It was my favourite back then and it still is now.”

“I look forward to it.”

Amethyst kissed Peridot on the temple. “Go sit down, I’m practically done anyway.”

Peridot nestled into Amethyst. “Okay, I do have to feed Max first though.”

“Can I do it?” Steven asked excitedly.

“Sure, just only fill his bowl halfway, we just had breakfast.”

Steven jauntily walked over to Max’s things as Peridot took a seat at the island.

It didn’t take long for Amethyst to set a bunch of heaping plates infront of everyone.

Connie gave Amethyst a small crooked smile. “You always make so much.”

“You gotta eat, it’s good for you,” Amethyst warmly smiled at Connie. “And I always say that you don’t have to eat it all but you always do.”

“It’s just too delicious for me to stop,” Connie playfully groaned.

“Glad to hear it,” Amethyst noticed Peridot already stuffing chicken into her mouth. “So, wha’d’ya think Per?”

“Mfft, good,” swallowing the food didn’t even cross Peridot’s mind until after she replied, she blushed.

Amethyst laughed. “Must be good if you forgot your manners.”

“Oh Amethyst, it’s delicious,” Peridot remembered to swallow this time. “I’d love it if you cooked for me more often. And I need this recipe.”

“Sorry Per, family secret,” Amethyst winked.

Peridot shrugged. “Fair enough.”

This reaction slightly disappointed Amethyst. “Dude, it was a joke. I just found some recipe online then messed with it until it tasted amazing.”

“Oh, it being a family secret was possible. Some of my recipes are, why do you think I often make my own broths?”

“Huh, that’s pretty cool,” Amethyst rubbed the back of her neck. “Ma was like, super traditional and everything she cooked was just from her heart and passed down. Nothing got written.”

“My grandma on my dad’s side is like that,” Peridot nodded knowingly. “Well, there’s no reason your recipe can’t be a family secret.”

That didn’t even occur to Amethyst. “Y-you’re right.” She puffed out her chest. “Alright, from now on my family does have a secret recipe.”

Steven started applauding and Peridot and Connie joined in for fun. Amethyst comically bowed.

The group happily finished the delicious lunch only occasionally talking due to enjoying it too much to do so.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Connie managed to catch Peridot during a snack break.

“Ma’am?” Peridot looked over her shoulder.

“Oh sorry, uh,” Connie furrowed her brow in thought, “sir?”

Peridot softly laughed. “You don’t need to be so formal with me. So, what do you need?”

Connie shyly put her hands behind her back. “Oh, um, I’m supposed to make posters for the school dance and I have no ideas. Steven told me that you’re an artist.”

“I dabble,” Peridot shrugged, Connie looked disappointed. “That doesn’t mean I won’t help you.”

“Thank you ma’am!” Connie’s spirits were lifted.

Peridot came into the living room with Connie and just before they sat down Steven said that they ran out of paper. Peridot could see how, there are a lot of discarded designs.

Amethyst spoke from where she was sprawled out on the couch. “Me and Peri can get some from Pearl’s office,” Amethyst’s eyes landed on Peridot’s cane. “Well, if Peri feels up to doing stairs.”

“Yeah, that’ll be fine.”

Pearl’s office was unsurprisingly spotless, finding paper was no problem at all, during the trip Amethyst decided to also pick up a ruler.

While Amethyst was gathering supplies, Peridot spotted a photo of Pearl with a group of young adults cheerfully standing next to a robot. Peridot picked up the photo.

“Hey Amethyst, look at this.”

Amethyst has seen that photo a million times but she took it from Peridot anyway.

“See if you recognize anybody other than Pearl in it,” amusement was clear in Peridot’s voice.

This request slightly puzzled Amethyst, something must’ve caught Peridot’s eye. She looked at the same old faces a few times, eventually something about the short blonde woman made her take a closer look.  Short messy hair, super casual clothes, slightly stretched earlobes, green glasses, grey eye-

-That’s... Peridot!

“You’re in this photo,” Amethyst couldn’t hide her shock. She pointed at Peridot. “That’s you!”

Peridot giggled. “Yep, that’s me. Man, what was I thinking with that hair?”

“You... this...”

“That was taken a year before the fire,” Peridot knew what Amethyst was curious about. “Crazy, isn’t it? I looked so different then. Seeing this I can understand why Pearl didn’t recognize me.”

Amethyst took another look at the photo. A small part of her wished that Peridot’s skin was still burn-free.

This wish disgusted Amethyst, especially when she looked at her adorable bright-eyed partner next to her. Peridot didn’t deserve such an awful thing to happen to her, that wasn’t the disgusting part, it was the shallow aesthetic thought that was.

“What’s wrong?” Of course Peridot noticed.

“I,” Amethyst sighed. “I-”

“-was thinking that I looked better in that photo,” Peridot looked a bit hurt. “That’s understandable, I kind of saw it coming,” she shrugged. “But that’s just how it is. I couldn’t get out.”

“That’s not completely it,” Amethyst shook her head. “Yeah, the you in this picture was good looking but she wouldn’t have caught my attention. You’re... not conventionally attractive anymore but,” Amethyst cupped Peridot’s left cheek, “your scars make you uniquely beautiful. Every time I look at them I see something new. Like how there’s a red spot on your temple that kind of looks like a heart.” Amethyst kissed Peridot’s heavily scarred and uneven forehead. “And even after seeing college-you I can’t imagine my partner looking any other way. This is the face I fell in love with, not the one in the picture.”

For the second time ever Peridot broke down crying infront of Amethyst.

But this time they were tears of happiness.

Peridot stumbled forward and hugged Amethyst, she said something but it was impossible for Amethyst to make out.

“Aw, Peri,” Amethyst rubbed Peridot’s back, “the last thing I wanted to do was make you cry.”

“I know, I couldn’t help it.”

Amethyst sighed, of course Peridot apologized. “You’re crying because you’re happy, nothing to be sorry about.” Amethyst tightened her embrace. “I’m glad I could make you this happy.”

The thought, “at least I can be good for something,” ran through Amethyst’s mind.

“Steven’s probably worried that I fell and hurt myself,” predictably, Peridot spoiled the moment. “We should get back to them.”

“Okay, if you want to,” Amethyst glanced at the photo. “If it’s alright with you, I’d like to show the picture to Steven. I think it’d make him happy to know you and Pearl knew each other.”

“And maybe we can figure out how to get Pearl to remember me.”

“Well that’s easy, we can just show her the picture. I just wanna make sure you don’t, I dunno, wanna keep it between us.”

“There’s no point in that. I appreciate the sentiment but I’m okay now.”

“Are you actually?” Amethyst made eye-contact with Peridot.

Peridot’s composure didn’t falter. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m feeling better now. You’re seen me at my mostly best in that photo and you said something I will keep in my heart.”

Amethyst smiled. “Alright, just making sure. And thanks.”

“I should be thanking you.”

Steven actually did worry that Peridot got hurt when he heard her cane fall so he met her and Amethyst halfway up the steps.

“I’m okay, I just dropped my cane,” Peridot reassured Steven. “I saw something interesting; we’ll show it to you downstairs.”

“Okay,” Steven’s eyes lit up, he took the supplies from Peridot so she could make it down more easily.

Everybody settled in at the table then Peridot showed the photo to Steven and Connie with a smile.

“I actually knew Pearl in college,” she pointed to herself in the picture.

“Oh wow,” Steven was star-eyed. “Why didn’t you and Pearl mention that you’re old buds?”

“Uh well, Pearl doesn’t actually recognize me; I think my burns are throwing her off,” Peridot decided it’d be best if Steven didn’t know about their rocky start.

Steven was uncharacteristically quiet. Connie filled the empty air. “Do you intend on telling Pearl?”

Peridot nodded. “Yep, there’s no reason to not tell her,” she shrugged, “and that picture will make it easy.”

“Oh!” Steven recovered. “Maybe you two can be friends again!” He had a dreamy look on his face. “Old pals reunited, catching up on the last few years over tea... And maybe you can build robots!”

Amethyst laughed. “You’re just excited to see a real live robot.”

Steven giggled. “Yeah... maybe a little. But think about it! They could work together and build robots we can ride in!”

“I think a mech is a bit unrealistic,” but Peridot couldn’t help smiling. “It’s good to have ambitions though.” Steven gave Peridot his patented puppydog eyes. “Well, I guess we could work up to it.”

“Didn’t they build a life-sized Gundam in Japan?” Amethyst asked. 

“Well, it was actually a statue,” Peridot quickly pulled up a news article on her phone. “Although the head moved and the cockpit did open. They’re building a new one and the goal is to get that one to walk.”

Three people in the room enthusiastically talked about robots and mecha anime. But the fourth was too busy feeling her deadline approaching to join in.

Peridot noticed a very familiar look on Connie’s face. “I’m sorry Connie, we got off track,” Peridot picked up her pencil. “So, what’s the theme of the dance?”

“Theme?” Connie looked over at Peridot.

“From what I understand dances have a theme,” Peridot’s brow furrowed. “Right?”

Amethyst snickered. “All the ones I’ve been to have. Good thing I’m here, apparently Peri’s not really an expert.”

That stung a bit. “Between a missing foot and multiple knee surgeries it’s hard to make it to dances.”

“Ah shit,” Amethyst forgot about the ‘no swearing’ rule. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Peridot sighed. “No, I shouldn’t have let it bother me. It’s just a touchy subject.”

“Alright I'll uh, try to watch that one.”

“Okay!” Peridot clapped her hands together. “Back to work!”

Connie looked even more stressed than before. “I... don’t know the theme. The principal just sorta dropped this on me because I always do what I can for the school. I’m not even interested in the dance!”

“It’s okay, just breathe,” stress is very familiar to Peridot. “When is it due?”

“Next Friday,” Connie replied, trying to control her breathing.

“You have plenty of time then. Ask your principal what the theme is when you can and then we can get together to work on the posters. I work from home and make my hours so I’m almost always available.”

“Thank you do much,” Connie looked like a huge weight was lifted from her shoulders.

“And that’s why it’s a good thing Peri’s here,” said Amethyst. “She’s good at getting shi-stuff together.”

Peridot blushed. “Well, since posters are a bust, why don’t we watch TV?”

Everybody agreed to that.

Steven quietly met Pearl at the door when she came home that evening.

“Hi Pearl, Peridot and Amethyst are sleeping,” he whispered.

“What, for how long?” Pearl sharply whispered back.

“Not very,” Steven replied. “I think Peri just had another rough day. They fell asleep on the couch.”

“At least they were close by,” Pearl looked a bit peeved. “Hopefully the Maheswarans won’t hold it against us.”

Connie spotted Pearl and waved at her, she gathered her things and came to the door.

“Are you ready to go?” Pearl asked.

“Yes ma’am,” Connie replied then turned to Steven. “Tell Amethyst and Peridot I said bye.”

“Will do.”

Pearl and Connie left and Steven rejoined Peridot and Amethyst who were still sleeping with Max on the top of the pile.

He wished that Max would cuddle him but the tiny pup was practically glued to his owner.

Peridot said he’s doing his job but he’s so darn cute and soft.

What is Max’s job?

Steven pondered this.

He knows about several dog jobs, acting, seeing-eye dogs, police officers, bomb dogs, ones who help fire fighters, but not a dog whose job is to be cute and cuddly.

He decided to ask Peridot about it later.

Peridot loves teaching!

Steven impatiently waited for Peridot to wake up. He was just so excited to learn Max’s job!

Practically the second Peridot woke up he asked what it is.

“His job?” Peridot was a bit groggy. “He’s my emotional companion animal.”

“What’s that?”

“His job is to help me manage my emotions. Most often by just being a cute comfort.”

“Ooooohhhh, that’s why he’s always cuddling you,” understanding turned to compassion. “Does that mean you’re still really sad right now?”

Peridot smiled. “Nah, he just really likes nap time.” Max yawned and Peridot giggled, “I’m feeling okay now so after he wakes up I’m sure he’ll be raring to go. My legs are sore so I’ll need somebody young and energetic to play with him. Will you be that someone?”

Steven’s eyes lit up. “Absolutely!”

Pearl was almost bowled over by Steven and Max playing when she returned from bringing Connie home.

“Careful,” Pearl warned them.

“Sorry Pearl,” Steven held an excited and squirmy Max. “He finally wants to play with me.”

“That’s nice but please, watch where you’re going.”

“Okay,” Steven put Max on the floor, the pooch did a quick circle and small bark. “I’m coming.”

Steven dramatically stomped after Max who was having a grand time.

Pearl walked into the livingroom. “Peridot, a word.”

Although she was confused, Peridot came with Pearl to the side room.

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

“First, next time you let Steven play with your dog have them do it outside.”

Peridot nodded. “Okay.”

“Second, where do I know you from? Garnet said that I know you and I can’t place you.”

“Oh,” Peridot expected worse, “we knew each other in college.”

“We... did?”

“Yeah, the robotics club,” there was still a blank look on Pearl’s face. “You knocked out my tooth.”

Pearl’s eye went wide. “OH! You’re that Peridot! My goodness, you’ve really changed.”

Peridot shrugged. “Yeah, I’ve really mellowed out since then.” She frowned. “And I want to apologize again for the awful things I said to you. After I had a near-death experience I re-evaluated myself and I truly mean it. I’m sorry.”

“Aw, it’s okay, but I do appreciate it,” Pearl gave Peridot a small smile. “Would you like to join me for my afternoon tea tomorrow?”

Peridot smiled. “I’d like that.”

That evening right before bed Amethyst heard Peridot speaking to somebody in French.

“Yeah, I needed to get away from her for a bit so I’m staying at Amethyst’s. So how are you doing?”

The was a pause.

“Heh, really? It’s been super sunny here.”

A longer pause.

"I... see..." Peridot's voice got a bit harsher. "So she knows I'm here."

A short pause then Peridot sighed.

"No, I'm not mad at you, you were making conversation."

"It's fine, I haven't seen her in over a decade. She probably won't even recognize me."

"Oh, no, I assure you, it's fine. She might not even come here."

"Grandma, try not to worry about it. I'm an adult now and I'm hardly ever alone. Besides, the residents of Beach City look after each other."

Peridot's spirits sounded lifted. "Yeah, that's it. Try to get some sleep. Good night, love you."

Peridot hung up the phone then leaned back with a sigh.

She didn't need this right now.

"You okay?" Amethyst asked as she put her hand on Peridot's shoulder.

"I got some slightly troubling news," Peridot replied. "I'm sure it'll be fine though."

Amethyst gave Peridot a warning look. "Peri..." 

"Don't worry, I'm just concerned about future possibilities. If something does come of it, I'll let you know."

"Okay," Amethyst loosely hugged Peridot. "So, you ready to do your lotion?"

"Yep, all set," Peridot replied.

Her and Amethyst got into position on the plush bed. Peridot spread lotion on her chest and arms then passed the bottle to Amethyst.

"Lay on your tummy," Amethyst instructed. "I'm s'possed to massage you tonight, remember?"

"My chest is covered in lotion."

"I don't care, sheets wash."

Peridot lied down on her stomach and Amethyst got to work on Peridot's stiff shoulders.

"Tell me if I'm being too rough."

Peridot's response was muffled but sounded like confirmation.

Amethyst made sure to get in deep in Peridot’s muscles. The two were unusually quiet.

It wasn’t uncomfortable, or at least not in Amethyst’s opinion.

But it was for Peridot.

“My mother.”

Amethyst barely heard Peridot. “What was that?”

“The phone call was about my mother,” Peridot repeated herself. “As you probably guessed I don’t have the best relationship with her.”

Peridot tensed up. “She’s why my back and knee are messed up.”

The massage stopped momentarily. “I... had a feeling.”

“You did?”

“You’re so open about all your other injuries so I figured somebody broke your back and knee. But man, your mom did that?”

“She... is a perfectionist, everything needs to be perfect, even her child. So you can imagine her disappointment when she saw I was missing a foot, and you have an idea of how that disappointment manifested itself.”

“Where was your dad when this was going on?”

“He had no idea, I got good at hiding it and apart from my knee and back it was never physically serious. We explained that my knee broke when I fell off of my scooter.”

Amethyst just let Peridot continue talking.

“It was my back that made him catch on. I’m very careful on stairs. As soon as he found out he took steps to get me away from her.”

“Man, sorry I’m so quiet. I just don’t know what to say, you’ve probably heard it all before.”

“It’s okay, I just appreciate you being there to listen.”

Things got quiet again.

“Well, you told me about your family, it’s about time I told you about mine,” Amethyst broke the silence. “You know how Jasper’s my half-sister. Her dad cheated on his wife, her mom, with mine. Apparently he was very romantic and charming and promised ma the world. But he didn’t mean any of it, they boinked, he left, and then eight months later I popped out.”

“Eight?”

“Yeah, I was born a little premature. Y’know, with a messed-up heart, cleft palate, weak eye, and maybe a couple other issues. Anyway, ma was single and worked two jobs to get it all payed off along with other bills. We didn’t have much but she did her best to give me a good childhood.”

Amethyst frowned. “She died when I was twelve and I had no family to take me in and foster care sucks so I ran away. I was actually homeless for a bit. I... did some stuff I’m not proud of to get by. Then when I was fourteen Rose and Pearl found me. They took me in and I’ve lived here ever since.”

“I guess we’ve both had it rough.”

“Yeah, that may be why we get along so good. Two tough chicks put through hell by the universe.”

“Then making it through those times and finding each other. I don’t usually believe in fate but I think I can make an exception.”

Peridot sat up then put her top on. “Thank you for sharing that with me, I know it wasn’t easy.”

“Actually, it kind of was. You kinda get it.”

Peridot and Amethyst hugged, their bond strengthened by their experiences.

“Oh,” Peridot spoke. “I was so distracted by my phone call that I forgot to put lotion on my face.”

“I’ve got it,” Amethyst carefully covered the area making sure to not get any lotion in Peridot’s eyes.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Amethyst kissed Peridot’s right cheek, lotion doesn’t taste great.

They settled in like they did the night before down to Max curling up on Peridot’s tummy.

This interested Amethyst. “Does he always sleep on you like that?”

“Yeah,” Peridot replied. “I think he’s worried I’ll stop breathing. I saw a video once of a person whose dog always lies on him as he sleeps. He was pretending to sleep and held his breath. Well, the dog immediately started panicking trying to wake him up. So I think that’s what’s going on here.”

“Dogs are kind of amazing.”

Peridot nodded in agreement.

They talked for a little bit but were to drained to stay up as late as they did the previous night. They kissed and said goodnight then Amethyst turned out the lights.

#SU Fanfic #Amedot #Perithyst #SU Amethyst #SU Peridot #Steven Quartz Universe #Connie Maheswaran #SU Pearl #Human AU #Kujo Writes #Not Such a Bad Thing Universe

[marvelandponder]

Look How Far We’ve Come

Welcome to Year of the Pony’s second regular series (aside from the editorials), The Elements of MLP! Every month, we’ll be looking at one aspect of Friendship is Magic in some degree of depth to explore all the different parts that go together to make MLP what it is.

Part of the reason I started this year-long event was to get to the bottom of why I love this show so much, so maybe looking it piece by piece will help me appreciate the whole better.

This month, we’ve got the Element of Design and Animation, one of my personal favourites.

And, I’m not alone! So let’s go through the whole gosh darn process (or at least as many stages as I’ve got something to say on)!

Design

In the beginning, there was Lauren Faust.

If you only know one name from behind-the-scenes, it’s Lauren Faust. As MLP:FIM’s creator, she lead a lot of the development that made the show what it is visually (and in other areas, too, of course).

So, yes, Faust had an immeasurable influence on the design choices. And, because of her genuine love for My Little Pony as a kid, so did previous generations of MLP.

Figures that AJ would be the one to change the least during development (never change, AJ), but here they are: The old school Mane 6! As you probably know, all based on characters from the franchise’s history!

You’ll notice that even though the colours themselves varied, the pastel colour-scheme overall was there from the start, and it’s largely because of the franchise's roots in the 80s. 

*Correction: Silver Rain on EQD pointed out to me that the cartoon commonly thought of as G2, My Little Pony Tales, is actually still G1. There is no G2 cartoon (generations are defined by new sets of the toys, not the cartoons or feature films, so even though Pony Tales is very distinct from the first two movies, it’s still G1)

The closest thing to a G2 anything besides the toys is a video game, but for this analysis I decided to keep it strictly to television and movies. So, enjoy knowing G2 is a lie!

See how the first two generations looked a bit washed out? And the next two are sort of over-saturated? In addition to looking cleaner because digital animation v.s. traditional (neither is better), G4 strikes a balance between the different colour-palettes of the franchise in a really comforting, visually satisfying way.

Soothing is probably the best word, which expertly matches the breezy, light-hearted, and loving tone of the show.

So, anyway, even after development went on, as changes were made, notes were taken, and the world we’ve come to know took shape, the show’s roots still have a surprisingly big influence on its visuals.

And my god, can we all take a second to appreciate these designs?

Every element---from characters, to creatures, to backgrounds, to that storybook thing they keep doing---make this show a visual treat. For several reasons:

Cute - the ponies are round; there are very few sharp points in their designs and that combined with the classic big eyes + cute tum + small nose and mouth = cute, makes them even freaking cuter 

Instantly Recognizable - there’s a rule popularized by Simpsons creator Matt Groening that if you can recognize a character in silhouette, that’s a good design; even besides the fact that they’re ponies and you could tell them apart from human characters, there’s absolutely no doubt who’s who---I could even name the side characters if you tested me

Conveying Personality - You can tell most character’s personalities from the minute they walk on screen---take Starlight Glimmer, for instance; the first shot we see of her, she’s got kind of a 60s hairstyle, so before she even opens her mouth, you can guess she’s either got some old-fashioned ideas, or more accurately, she’s in charge of this weirdly cheery village (ever watch, well, pretty much anything from the 60s? Those fake smiles in Starlight’s village would fit right at home); her false-belief of what will make ponies truly happy is reflected in her design, and not only that, she used to have straight bangs to instantly cue to the viewer that this is a character who’s going to parallel Twilight (especially when she’s screaming about ‘creating Harmony’...)

Simplistic - Most of these designs use thick outlines and soft colours to emphasize just how cute the horses are; in relation to the backgrounds and other creatures, they easily draw the eye because the other elements are more detailed but very rarely have outlines.

Asymmetry - You’d think it would be more satisfying to an audience to see characters with symmetrical designs, but not so, and this is reflected in every single character design in the show (as well as most building designs: the Golden Oaks Library, Canterlot Castle, Cloudsdale, etc.); even Twilight, who’s bangs are cut straight across (according to the EQG universe), has a curve to her mane, highlights to the left, and a small part on one side

All of these aspects and probably more give all the designs a strong visual impact, while also making them cute as heck.

I don’t think I can say it better than this: these designs are so sweet, distinctive, and inviting that the fandom latched onto and created entire backstories and personas out of background characters. It’s like Bobba-Fett from the Star Wars franchise---in reality, he’s barely in the films, but because he managed to grab so many people’s attention with his surprisingly memorable design, he’s one of the most popular characters!

And, you know, I’m not going to lie to you. Part of the reason this show is so comforting to watch is just the soft colours and incredibly cute characters. It really is just soothing to look at. But there’s more to the visuals than just cute, pretty ponies.

Movement

One of the things I remember hearing back when I first came into the fandom in early season 2 was that some fans were downright shocked that MLP was animated in Flash--- a program so cheap and hard to animate in fluidly that most shows and projects that come out of it tend to look ... shoddy.

Which isn’t always the case, of course, good shows have been animated there, but I would say that, on the whole, shows animated in Flash seem to have great designs but less focus on fluid movement. 

Like, even if you’re not an animation nerd, if I list a bunch of shows you animated with Flash, you might notice a kind of a pattern in how they move (of the ones you know):

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends

Johnny Test

Total Drama Island

Hi! Hi! Puffy Ami Yumi

Yin Yang Yo!

Kappa Mickey

Dan V.s.

Archer

The Gravity Falls pilot (the rest of the show was animated in ToonBoom Harmony, the same animation program My Little Pony: The Movie is being animated in!)

It’s a hard quality to describe for me, but the absolute best example probably is the Gravity Falls pilot:

See how everything looks exceedingly flat (even for 2D animation)? And how each movement tends to have this weird, unnecessary (for lack of a better word) pop to it?

That’s what Flash is known for. 

I’d like to take a second to say it of course doesn’t make all of those shows bad at all; and in fact, there are a number of shows besides MLP that actually use Flash well (to the point that you wouldn’t know it’s animated in Flash).

Bob’s Burgers, Archer, Sym-Bionic Titan, The Amazing World of Gumball, even Fairly Odd Parents as of the 10th season.

I think it’s mostly just the fact that at the time we didn’t know many shows that could look this good and still use Flash. 

The exciting thing is that MLP doesn’t move like that. Season 1 had its moments of animation flubs, sure, but I’ve re-watched it recently and it is animated pretty well.

A lot of moments will have a snap for emphasis (like, the manes will move how they’re supposed to), but it’s handled in a natural way that doesn’t distract from the movements we’re actually supposed to focus on.

And, no, it’s not the most sophisticated, beautiful animation out there, but it can run the gambit from snappy comedic timing to slower, dramatic scenes.

I think the only problem I’ve really noticed with G4 animation is whenever characters run in Equestria Girls.

I know, that’s really specific. I don’t even have a problem when they walk, it’s just when they’re running that it looks the most like the cheap Flash animation. It’s a hard quality for me to describe, but rewatch a scene where they have to run at all, I’m serious. It’s almost a pet peeve at this point.

It’s a hazard of the genre, I suppose. Like most Western animation, MLP focuses most of its time and energy on expression and the smaller movements as opposed to big, involved battle sequences or choreographed action (the only big battle sequence is the Dragon Ball Z Tirek fight, which was done super well, but is still a rarity in this show).

Meaning, some of the most unique bits of animation come in the form of expressions and reactions. 

I always love these. Not for the meme potential (although... ), but because I know every time I see a face like that the animators went out of their way to make something distinct and insanely expressive. 

And that’s not the only way they bring the visuals together. I could probably go on and on about things like the shading and lighting, the staging, the intelligent use of background to hide gags or references or just add that much more depth to a scene...

But, seriously, I’ve already eaten up so much of your dash.

I will say this, though. Friendship is Magic’s style is more gorgeous, fitting, and creative than you might think at first. It’s why the artistic side of the community exploded, and still hasn’t stopped growing. And the continual improvement in this element alone is enough to get me excited for the next season. I’ll admit it, it’s one of the biggest reasons I always look forward to seeing more. 

Woo! That’s a wrap for this Elements of MLP, but I’ll have a new one for you every month this year! In the meantime, you can always check out the editorials, or, you know, whatever. I’m not gonna tell you how to live.

Year of the Pony

Header Image Only Possible Thanks to...

Elements by SpiritoftheWolf Elements by TechRainbow

Two really talented vector artists that were awesome enough to make this stuff! You’ll be seeing their names at least 12 times this year, so might as well check ‘em out now!

Pretty Pastel Ponies Practically Prancing ... Politely? Parallel? Perfectly?

#yearofthepony #animation #mlp #my little pony #analysis #friendship is magic #mlp:fim #mlp: fim #My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #twilight sparkle #rainbow dash #pinkie pie #fluttershy #applejack #rarity #princess celestia #princess luna #sunset shimmer #starlight glimmer #discord #mlp s7

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: A Performance Overwhelms the Audience with Racism in an Attempt to Heal

Khiry Walker in 3/Fifths at 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center (all photos by Skye Morse-Hodgson)

I don’t think I’ve ever attended a performance in which the word “nigger” was said so often or so lustily. The “interactive carnival and cabaret” — as writer and producer James Scruggs describes it — that is 3/Fifths is an evening-length performance that makes the corrosive effects of racism relentlessly felt through a variety of storytelling vehicles, the most painful being humor.

The performance began with a relatively innocent query. A woman sitting in a chair, wearing dark glasses and holding a walking stick, essentially posing as blind (later I would see her easily negotiate her way around a semicircular stage, so I know it was a ruse), asked everyone in front of me as they entered the theater whether they were black or white. We had to choose one or the other — I saw someone try to identify as “other,” and she wasn’t allowed. After we answered, everyone was marked with either a single black line or two parallel white lines on our foreheads, and we were each given a number of “supremacy” dollars. Some people clearly identified as they chose, not as they are; I saw some black lines on very light-toned skin. Something about this felt like the insertion of a knife between the ribs: I identified myself and was thus encouraged to see the degradation that was to follow (much of which was aimed at black people, though there were some insults only self-identified whites were allowed to experience, such as the “fragility nurses” who walked around offering who knows what) as somewhat of an extension of my own decision. However, the rest of the three-hour performance didn’t leave much room for personal choice.

Matthew Brown managing the “Scene of the Crime”

The immersion in the indignity that ratcheted up throughout most of the performance began in a long hallway filled with videos projections, including embarrassingly racist cartoons and white men demonstrating how to use a wooden baton in self-defense. Then the host, a woman in a fairly obvious long blonde wig and a red gown with a Confederate flag stitched onto the back, welcomed us to “Supremacy Land” where, among other attractions, “we can see the nigger in his natural habitat: jail.” The “nigger”s flow fast and hard after that. I was so uncomfortable I started planning to leave. I had only been there for 20 minutes.

Lauren White playing the host

After the introduction, we were led into a fairground space, the “Atrocity Carnival,” where we could play various games, like “Lynching Wheel of Fortune,” “Ask a Black Man,” and “Rough Ride,” which played off the Freddie Gray story, allowing guests to shake up a toy police transport van while a corresponding electronic onscreen avatar tumbled all over and a meter recorded how much damage was being done to the character. I played “Scene of the Crime,” in which I was told by a grinning white actor that a man of color had been spotted in the neighborhood and that I could do my civic duty by reporting him as either a gang member, a drug dealer, or a sexual predator. Then, with eyes closed, I was spun around and asked to throw beanbag weights shaped like handguns onto a chalked outline of a body on the ground. My accuracy was rewarded with more “supremacy” dollars. I also played “Lynching Wheel of Fortune,” in which the operator spun a wheel partitioned into categories corresponding to decades in the 20th century or sums of money. When a decade was landed on, participants were quizzed about what would have gotten a black man lynched at that time (the right answer, no matter how ridiculous the reasons sounded, was always “D: All of the above”).

David Roberts and William Delaney as prison workers in “Supremacy Land”

Later on, the cabaret portion took place in another section of the theater, to which we were led by a black woman in bright stage makeup walking on stilts beneath a wash of colorful fabric. She sang and chanted songs that seemed African and tribal. This interlude started out well, but quickly went south. There was a “welcome” home, pitting the white actors, who were singing a patriotic song, against the black actors, who sang their own songs and engaged in a kind of rhythmic, flowing dance that was likely West African–inspired. It all became cacophony.

Then there was a section that seemed to go on forever, in which two black men wearing blackface (blacker face?) the color of shoe polish acted out stereotypes of black people in a movie theater: loudly declaiming their business while varied clips played on the back of the proscenium. They received phone calls, conducted loud arguments, yelled their critiques of the movies — it came close to being unbearable. Finally the section closed with a kind of dystopian drama in which all the black actors played prisoners/employees in a scheme combining the spectacles of West World, Black Mirror, and Oz. This section did end on an upbeat note: Following a crisis, the characters asserted their recognition of their humanity and decided to fight back.

L-R: Ken Straus and William Delaney as the General and a prison worker in “Supremacy Land”

However, for me, the crux of the show occurred earlier, during the carnival section. At one point, a black man in a motley outfit of striped trousers, beige tailcoat, and black top hat, who, like the other actors, had a ruthless grin plastered on his face, walked into the center ring, climbed onto a dais, and began to tell terrible racist jokes — most of which featured the word “nigger” as the punchline. What do you call a black man with an education? Nigger. What’s a black man once he leaves the room? Nigger. Then a seemingly nervous white man posing as an audience member requested and was given the barker’s microphone, and he proceeded to start telling his own racist jokes. How do you keep niggers from going out? Add more gasoline. What do you do if you find a nigger sunk in cement up to his neck? Get more cement. Eventually the barker took back the microphone, and the black man finally switched tracks to tell a joke in which a white man is the butt of it. On hearing yet another “nigger” joke in reply, the barker began to get angry and moved toward the white man, who had by then fully embraced his racism and was exulting in being able to display it publicly. Another actor stepped in to defuse things.

Natalie Chapman as the attendant of the “Lynching Wheel of Fortune”

This scene was the most crucial for me because it got directly at what 3/Fifths (a reference to the Three-Fifths Compromise that effectively enshrined the dehumanization of black people in the Constitution) is doing. Those jokes felt like a bloodletting, like a bevy of long knives inserted into every audience member. It’s as if the body politic today is so sick from collective disease that remains hidden under the patina of polite conversation, unethical legal compromises, historical amnesia, and obscurantist rhetoric, that the word “nigger” is the only thing strong and sharp enough to pierce the swollen skin and let the pus flow out. The patient (the nation) is so ill that the show’s creators believe they must resort to the most barbaric form of intervention: bleeding the patient. In a way, it worked: I felt cut every time the word “nigger” was deployed with strategic glee.

But I wonder — to bring the metaphor to its conclusion — whether the patient is too far gone to save.

Perhaps because I have been watching American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, the moment when the barker approached the white man to do him harm felt like the lead-up to a riot. It seems like uprisings and riots are another way to bleed the patient. To be violent, verbally or physically, is to take a slash-and-burn approach to waking up our collective consciousness, which makes for a difficult performance to participate in. The ambitions of 3/Fifths are worthwhile, but leaving the theater, I didn’t feel cured. Would anyone be? After we’ve been cut to pieces by all that vileness served with a smile, what are the chances of recovery?

3/Fifths continues at 3-Legged Dog Art and Technology Center (80 Greenwich Street, Financial District) through May 28.

The post A Performance Overwhelms the Audience with Racism in an Attempt to Heal appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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[thealternativeguidetoanimation]

History of Animation

I already wanted to do a little research about the background of animation but Robin just reminded me about it as my quote mentions the 80's and 90's. I found this really helpful site with images and easy to read information, https://vimeo.com/112908368 Here is a little recap of what I found interesting:

"An art form that continuously challenges its creators to push technology so that anything that can be imagined can also be brought to life." I liked this quote because animation is challenging and the more technology develops the easier things seem to be and more alternative ways of animation appear. Also I think one of the best things about animation is the fact that it can create whatever we want!

30,000 B.C. – 1500 A.D.-

I ran out of time to update this post unfortunately but on the essay project I also had to look into the history of animation so I thought I would copy and paste from there. 

I took out a book from the library called ‘The History of Animation’- by Charles Solomon and the following is all information I found useful from it:

(I wrote everything word by word in the intention of summarising at the end but I ran out of time).

The first section of the book was called ‘Precursors and Experiments’.

“Animation (and all filmmaking) emerged from a fascination with light and motion- a series of interlocking dancers’ rings that began with the “new science” of the seventeenth century”

“Inventor Athanasius Kircher published his Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (The Great of Light and Shadow) in Rome in 1645. In the last chapter he described a new invention- the magic lantern, a simple device that consisted of a box containing a light source (either a candle or a lamp) and a curved mirror…… In the revised edition of the Ars Magna (1671), he explained how a revolving glass disc with a series of painted images could be used to present a story to an audience”. “This was not animation yet”.  

In 1735 Pieter van Musschenbroek “demonstrated that a revolving disc, similar to Kircher’s but with sequential images, could produce a illusion of motion. In 1736, he astonished the visiting Abbe’ Nollet with visions of a windmill with revolving arms, a man raising his hat and a woman bowing. Later, Musschenbroek used multiple lanterns, synchronised slide changes and long slides (which he slowly passed before the projecting beam) to present more elaborate illusions, such as a storm at sea: the first animated entertainments”.

“The nineteenth century was also the great era of “philosophical” or animation toys, beginning with the invention of the thaumatrope in 1826, probably by John Ayrton Paris….. It consists of a disc with an image painted on each side and threaded with a string. When the disc is spun, the images seem to combine: the wig appears on the bald man’s head; the jockey astride the horse. Advertised as “rounds of amusement,” thaumatropes proved quite popular”.

Joseph Plateau invented the “phenakistoscope or fantoscope, a more complex animation device that depended on the persistence of vision, between 1828 and 1832. The phenakistoscope was made up of two discs; one with sequential images painted around its edge, the other with slits. When the discs were spun at the correct rates, the viewer saw a moving image. The slits acted as a shutter; the spaces between them provided the interruptions the eyes requires to melt the images into motions”.

“In 1834, William Horner of Bristol created a device he called the Deadalum, or Wheel of the Devil. Nothing much was done with the invention until the 1860s, when it was renamed and marketed as the zoetrope, or Wheel of Life. Like the phenakistoscope, the zoetrope depended on the persistence of vision. A strip of paper with sequential images was placed inside a hollow drum with slits in its sides. When the drum was pun, the images, seen through the slits, appeared to move. The zoetrope also proved to be a popular amusement, and hundreds of strips were printed depicting every sort of action from a real balancing a ball on its nose to a black boy biting into a slice of watermelon”.

“Invented in 1868, the kineograph, or flip book, proved to be one of the simplest and least expensive but most popular and durable animation toys. A flip book consists of a few dozen sequential drawings or photographs, bound in order that the viewer flips through with his thumb: the rapidly changing images appear to move. Flipbooks were sometimes given away as advertisements or as bonuses with merchandise”.

“Thomas Edison took the principle further with the mutoscope, a sort of mechanical flipbook he devised in 1895… It remained little more than an amusement park novelty, although some of the original mutoscopes were still in use in the early 1960s and the independent animator Oskar Fischinger did animation for a mutoscope as late as 1946″.

“The most advanced and sophisticated of all the animation devices was the praxinoscope, invented by Emile Reynaud in 1877. Like the zoetrope, the praxinoscope involved a rotating drum and a strip of painted images. Instead of staring through slits in the drum, the viewer saw the motions reflected in a series of mirrors. Around 1882, Reynaud combined his invention with a projector and began drawing animated storie, first on long strips of paper, then on celluloid. (No other artist would draw directly onto film until the mid 1930s, when Len Lye and Norman McLaren began experimenting with camera less animation in England)”.

“Reynaud’s place in the history of animation remains the subject of considerable debate. He presented coloured, animated films with story lines and synchronised sound tracks long before anyone else… He was not a great draftsman or animator”.

“The career of James Stuart Blackton links many of the ancestors of animation. Relatively little is known about his life, and much of the information that does exist is unreliable, as Blackton often lied about his age and background. He was born in Sheffield, England, on January 4, probably in 1875, and came to America as an infant, after the death of his father….. In 1900, Blackton returned to Edison’s laboratory for another animation project, “The Enchanted Drawing.”… The effects in “The Enchanted Drawing” were achieved by stopping the camera between frames and making substitutions, rather then by conventional animation. The same technique was used in a number of early motion pictures known as trick-films”.

“Blackton was apparently interested in the possibilities of frame-by- frame filmmaking…He continued his experiments in 1906 with “The Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” generally considered to be the animated film…. “Humorous Phases” is composed of several unrelated vignettes, some them obviously adapted from Blackton’s vaudeville chalk talks…. Not a great film, but it was a beginning…. Blackmon died in 1941 after being hit by a bus”. (Videos for The Enchanted Drawing and The Humorous Phases of Funny Faces are below).

“J. Stuart Blackton may have invented animated filmmaking, but it was Winsor McCay who demonstrated the artistic potential of the new medium and inspired generations of animators. An extraordinary draftsman, McCay was not only the greatest of the pioneer animators but one of the undisputed masters of the newspaper comic strip and a respected editorial cartoonist”.

“McCay was born on September 26, in Spring Lake, Michigan, probably in 1867. He studied drawing and painting, and his cartoons and animation are distinguished by their solid three-dimensionality and extraordinary sense of perspective…. McCay declared: “The principal factor in my success has been an absolute desire to draw constantly.” His children helped as models for Little Nemo and the Princess of Slumberland.

“In 1905, McCay also began his masterpiece in the Herald: “Little Nemo in Slumberland,” one of the most extraordinary illustrated narratives ever created. Again, the story line is simple. In his dreams, Nemo visits the sometimes beautiful, sometimes frightening wonders of Slumberland. He shares adventures with the other major characters… In the last panel, Nemo awakens- sometimes reluctantly, sometimes in fright. Many experts rank “Little Nemo” second only to George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat” in the animals of newspaper comic strips…. “Little Nemo” is a series of plotless episodes involving main characters from the strip. From the opening shot of Flip’s profile, when the words :Watch me move” appear, there is constant motion on the screen. Flip and Impy run and tumble like circus clowns. McCay did not use background, but suggested movement  in perspective by by enlarging or shrinking characters…. No one knew what to make of “Little Nemo.” No one had seen anything like it…. McCay’s sophisticated animation depicted fully rendered characters who moved smoothly and realistically”.

“McCay chose a subject that couldn’t be faked: a prehistoric animal. The result was “Gertie the Dinosaur” (1914), arguably his greatest achievement- and a landmark in the history of animation. McCay made more than five thousand drawing s for “Gertie,” again working in India ink on rice paper. He hired John Fitzsimmons, then a young man in his teens, to retrace the background in each drawing. Meanwhile, McCay strove to improve hi animation, checking his own breathing with a stopwatch to time Gertie’s”.

This next section of the book was called ‘The Silent Era, 1914-1928’.

“While many of the early animators were talented draftsmen, they had no training unmaking their drawings more convincingly. There was no place to learn animation except the studios, where the men learned from each other and by trial and error.The speed of production precluded the hours of drawing and redrawing required to perfect a movement. The early studio cartoons resemble modern kidvid programs: something to be finished, shown and forgotten in a short time on a small budget…. The crucial weakness of the early shorts is that they were uninteresting as films. The artists did not know how to construct a film (or even an individual gag), giving it the necessary beginning, middle and end. Dick Hummer recalled: “We used to look at our own work and laugh like hell…. Or mistake was that we weren’t establishing anything first.. Disney always very carefully planned things, so that everything was understandable, and one thing happened after another, logically”.

“By the end of Would War I,new animators and new studios were coming to the fore…. Max and Dave Fleischer created some of the brightest and most imaginative cartoons of the silent era. Man Fleischer was born in Vienna in 1883… Around 1915, the two brothers began their first experiments with the rotoscope, a device that enabled an animator to trace live-action footage frame by frame…. The Fleshier were not the first to use the images of the artist creating a character, or to combine live-action and animated figures, but they did both with exceptional imagination and wit… The Fleishcers achieved some of their striking combinations of live action and animation by using black-and-white photographs of objects and landscapes as backgrounds and placing cels over them. In “Bedtime” (1923), Ko-Ko browns taller than a skyscraper and walks through Manhattan, searching for Max. At one point, he reaches into a multistory building and rummages inside, his fingertips emerging through the windows. Similarly, photographs of the desks and chairs in the studio enable the animators to turn their character loose within its confines”. (The video is below).

“The most popular, best-animated and financially most successful cartoon character of the silent era was the Pat Sullivan studio’s irrepressible Felix the Cat…. Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1887, Pat Sullivan…. Having learned animation techniques from Barre’, Sullivan opened his own studio in 1915 to produce War Band pictures. The next year, he hired Otto Messmer to work on a series based on the “Sammy Johnson” strip and on the films of Charlie Chaplin…. On a free-lance basis, Messmer created “Feline Follies,” in which the as yet unnamed Felix made his debut. I  was successful enough for \paramount to request another of the same: “Music Mews” (1919). After the success of this film, producer John King gave Felix his name… Messmer made the character solid black because he wanted to avoid drawing a lot of outlines; he also found that solid masses moved better on the screen…. Bill Nolan helped Messmer redesign Felix in 1922, giving the cat his familiar rounded and appealing shape. What set the Fe;ix cartoons apart from their more prosaic counterparts was their use of animation…. Something subtler than facial expressions contributed to Felix’s appeal: a unique style of movement that expressed his personality. Using principles explored by McCay and Chaplin, Messmer gave Felix a way of moving as recognisable as any silent comic’s. The Felix shorts contain the most sophisticated character animation done before Disney’s breakthrough film “Three Little Pigs” (1933). By 1925, Felix was the most popular cartoon character in the world…. Felix calmly defied perspective, gravity and logic to manipulate the world around him. Anything could- and did- happen. Felix’s tail was interchangeable with question marks and exclamation points, depending on what was needed…. Felix was still near the zenith of his popularity the he met his unhappy end. On March 26, 1932, Sullivan’s wife fell seven stories to her death when she leaned too far out of a window. Sullivan, who had suffered from a drinking problem for years, lapsed into acute alcoholism and died of pneumonia in February 1933.”