Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Original Animation Storyboard Pages, Episodes 144011, ALF, Act 1, "Neep At The Races"

These are pages 29 though 32 of ALF episode 144011, “Neep at the Races”, Act 1.

I rough blue-pencilled these storyboards. I don’t know who the clean-up artist is. Paul Wee, Marelo Vignali and Ken Kinoshita were on staff as dedicated clean-up artists. Viewers so inclined can thank any one of those stout-hearted men for the beauty and accuracy of the draftsmanship.




Monday, July 29, 2019

Original Animation Storyboards: ALF Episode 144007, Act 1, "Birdman of Melmac"

Here's some fun stuff: I'm scanning original storyboard pages (not the either 8.5x11 0r 8.5x 14, but the original 11x17 page). My goal is to archive this work and spread it around because I think these pages are really good. These pages were done of ALF episode 144007, "The Birdman of Melmac". It's a rare and special thing to have original artwork from TV animation production; usually the animation studio keeps it, later to be disposed of unceremoniously (as in, placed in the dumpster).
I don't know why I have these pages; I had assumed, until this morning when I was organizing my storyboard copies for impending bulk-scanning, that these were cut pages. Checking the board copies I discovered that all of these pages were used in the board-as-shipped. I can't imagine why I have them; excellent, stunning and superb as they are, they're no better than countless  pages that I DON'T have. Just you wait; y'all are in for an on-going treat!
 I roughed all of these pages out, to be cleaned by other artists. At the time, in 1987, the Animated ALF production crew had 3 or 4 dedicated clean-up artists that it was my job to keep busy. The only one who's name I can recall off hand is Paul Wee, who has risen to obscurity working for the past 20 or so years on The Simpsons.
To be honest, I have no idea what the actual episode looks like. I don't know how this storyboard translated to the finished product. Looking at it from 32 years later, I can' image it turned out well; I didn't give the overseas animators and layout crew enough information. For instance, I'm calling for a bg slide in the background, but haven't drawn anything to be slid, just the notation and downward pointing arrows.

This is fun; I was visualizing aviation fighter sequences and trying to storyboard it in this sequence.
Again, I can't imagine how this turned out, on-screen. I'll have to make an effort to find out.

Not enough information in scene 21;  this needs at least 3 more poses to play out properly. For instance, do the animating speed lines continue after Gordon grabs Harry by the feet? Or did the grab already happen off-camera in scene 20?  If so, why are there speed lines, since Harry's forward motion has been abruptly halted?

This isn't as bad, staging-wise, as it appear. Thor, the titular Birdman was introduce in scenes 1 through 12. I don't have the originals to those pages, so am not posting them now. You'll have to wait to see them until I do the bulk scan of the copy-board.

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