петак, 30. април 2021.

Z!N #12

 

Ako ne vidite slike u mejlu kliknite ovde.


   “Nescientia”, koji potpisuju Ivan Veljković i Iris Muller, ne samo što je prvi strip u kom ćete uživati, već je i sama Iris izašla u susret da uradi savremeniju interpretaciju glavne junakinje za naslovnu! Svoje radove postavlja na svoj Instagram profil @inner.seven i sada znate šta vam je činiti.
   U “Quattro Zingari” Lik sa veštičjim šeširom nastavlja da posmatra narod oko sebe kako se raspada, u “Odbrojavanju” klinci napokon pokazuju zube, a vratio se i “Ibrahim Kojl” nakon kratke pauze, a bolje da nije.
   Pored redovnih vesti tu je i intervju na engleskom sa par profesionalnih animatora iz SADa, sa kojima sam iskomunicirao još pre godinu-dve, ali bolje ikad nego nikad.

   Поштовани читаоци уредништво „Девете димензије“ доноси вам још једну лијепу вијест у марту. Крећемо са новом едицијом, јединственом на нашим просторима, а можда и шире. Пројекат се одавно припрема, а ево о чему се ради.
   Едиција „МАЛИ АЛБУМ“ појављује се као специјално издање стрип магазина „Parabellum ЈУНИОР” који као што знате објављује радове наших најмлађих стрип аутора из Републике Српске, али и другара из стрип школа из окружења. Пошто су наше младе стрипаџије баш продуктивне и спремне за велике залогаје тако смо дошли на идеју да они раде комплетне стрип албуме од 30, 40 и више страна.
   Водитељ школе стрипа „Кунова“ из Прњавора Здравко Кнежевић Кнез и млади писац, сценариста и штајошсвене Иван Вељковић из Свилајнца дошли су на идеју да за број један неколико полазника школе стрипа по Ивановом сценарију нацртају стрип албум „AEQUILIBRIA“. Наравно под уредничком и водитељском палицом вриједног Кнеза.

Пред вама је број 1 ове едиције коју потписују:

СЦЕНАРИО:
Иван Вељковић, Свилајнац, Република Србија

ЦРТЕЖ:
Никола Кнежевић, 25 година, Прњавор, Република Српска
Лара  Лукановић, 15 година, Прњавор, Република Српска
Вук Њежић, 13 година, Прњавор, Република Српска
Сергеј Маџар, 11 година, Бањалука, Република Српска
Наталија Малешевић, 15 година, Дервента, Република Српска
Катарина Марјановић, 14 година, Прњавор, Република Српска
Давид Ђекић, 11 година, Дервента, Република Српска
Хелена Жунић, 11 година, Дервента, Република Српска
Катарина Ћелић, 16 година, Дервента, Република Српска
Николина Аџић, 15 година, Дервента, Република Српска
Николина Миловановић, 21 година, Сребреница, Република Српска
Јелена Јокшић, 16 година, Угљевик, Република Српска

ВОДИТЕЉ:
Здравко Кнежевић Кнез, школа стрипа „Кунова“ Прњавор, Република Српска

ИЛУСТРАЦИЈА НА НАСЛОВНОЈ СТРАНИ:
Срђан Врањеш, Бањалука, Република Српска

Албум је меког увеза, 40 страна, б5 формат, црнобијели са корицама у боји. А врло брзо стиже нам и број 2, ускоро ћете сазнати о чему се ради!


INDUSTRY TALKS

Recently I had a chance to talk to animators from the US who have been working in the industry for quite some time now and here’s what they have to say, starting with the first one, who’s a storyboard artist.

I'm a story-artist who has worked on an animated feature (won't say too much due to it still being in early development and NDAs and what not). The issue with animation is that it is a very expensive medium in America.


For instance, Reservoir Dogs was made on a budget of roughly 1.5 million dollars, but to make that movie an animated movie with the level of detail and nuance in the character acting would probably cost closer to 70 million dollars or more. Animation has the curse that the characters don't act on their own and won't naturally stand up right, speak words on their own, or follow the rules of physics. Making a tracking shot in live-action (as hard as people claim it is) is nowhere as time consuming as it is in an animated film. If I recall, the tracking shot in Ice Age 5 took the movie's entire production length to make. Just one tracking shot... The cost of high quality animation is animation's biggest curse. I remember once Aaron Blaise told a class I was a part of that roughly 2/3 of a 2D animated movie's budget went into inking and coloring... not the actual animation itself. He said animating it isn't all that expensive and can be made within a relatively short amount of time, but making it "presentable" is what makes it all the more expensive.


Essentially if animation stopped trying to be so darn clean and polished more animated movies could be made. This is why Into the Spider-verse is a good sign because the animation is "stepped" (more or less) which means they spent a lot less time on the nitty-gritty of timing and the animation and focused more on the way the animation is presenting the story. However, there is still the issue of animation itself is just a ridiculously complicated medium.


Wide shots and detailed facial acting are expensive. I remember I was pitching a storyboard at a Disney Portfolio Review and I tried to tell the story through mostly extreme wides with few close-ups. The person reviewing my content liked the story, but said that couldn't be done in a movie due to it being very expensive in the long run because all of the sets, environments, and character acting now need to be more detailed. The shots can't be faked like in a close-up where you can only see very little of the background.



To compare to live-action movies again, there are many well-received movies that were filmed over the course of two weeks... all of the acting, filming, cinematography, lighting, and what not were done in two weeks. Sure, editing it still takes a while, but a movie like Cars took 6 years to make. Even if animation costs could be reduced, there is still inevitable issue that everything in animation needs to be made, which is highly time consuming and adds to a budget. This means that making even a "cheap" animated film in America would still probably cost $20 million to $40 million. This is actually why out-sourcing animation is becoming a bigger deal. Illumination makes a lot of their movies in France and I'm pretty sure Blue Sky does as well.


If animation studios would MOVE OUT OF CALIFORNIA they could reduce the expenses of their movies BY A TON! Personally, I think the movie industry in general is killing itself by having all of their studios in the most expensive regions in America. Animation companies should be out in the middle of nowhere, where the cost of living is super low which means the movie itself doesn't need to make a ton of money. Have a studio where the cost of living is a quarter of what it is in California, so then everyone's standard of living goes up, less crunch time, more sustainability, and then the movie can be made for the quarter of the budget because you are paying people less. Unfortunately, there is a pretty strong bias (from what I've encountered in the industry) that people in California seem to think that there can't be "great artists" outside of California. The idea is "If you made it to California, then you must be the best of the best. If you can't make it to here, then you aren't fit for animation work". However, this mentality is limiting the potential of animation itself. Talented artists come from everywhere and not every artist wants to move to the most expensive regions of America. Some artists actually WANT TO AFFORD A HOUSE AND HAVE LAND. We need animation studios all over America that are able to tell stories cheaply and effectively so that way the medium itself can broaden its horizons.



I don't think anyone born in California considers that the rest of the world is roughly a quarter or less of the cost. I've known people in the art industry who were shocked when they realized in some cities mortgage is only $800 per month. Also California has insane taxes. Animation needs to be somewhere cheap and quiet haha! (also, I hope no one from California takes offense to this! Just stating my thoughts!)



I would actually love to work outside of America, I just have no idea where to apply to since storyboarding positions tend to be densely populated within the California area. Also, since I'm pretty new to the industry I think they are a little nervous to hire me as a remote freelance Story-artist.



I know companies in general (not necessarily animation) are moving to Texas due to how much cheaper it is. That would be a logical place for animation studios to move if they wanted to. The main issue with placing a studio in the middle of nowhere is that job security goes waaaaay down, so I will say it is not without issues.



Having to depend on only one studio for work can be very dangerous in the animation industry when projects are frequently put on hold for different issues. Besides that I actually know a fair number of really talented artists who can't go to California not because of their lack of skill but due to the cost of living and the dislike for big cities. The amount of money that is required simply to move out there can require several years worth of planning or saving up money just to go out and get a chance to find work. A good number of artists also appreciate nature and end up dislike living in the Burbank area so they then leave California and try to find work in other locations. I've known older and more experienced artists who were animators or storyboard artists in California who left California due to wanting an environment that felt better for raising kids. I'm not saying California is evil and I hope this doesn't sound like I'm talking politics (I'm not) but to a significant number of artists the only appeal to California is the job opportunities while everything else about it is less desirable and less interesting than a good number of other locations in America (though to be fair, when I say California I'm mostly talking about the Burbank area and not the state as a whole. Northern California is quite beautiful.) And yes, being paid less and living somewhere cheaper does give you more money in the long-run.



If you check in the link, the cost of a home in San Francisco vs Milwaukee is over $1,000,000 different. Fortunately, there aren't any real big studios in San Francisco itself, but Pixar is in Emeryville which is relatively close. If a studio from San Francisco were to move to Milwaukee (which is also a city) they could pay everyone a third of the amount of money but their standard of living would go up significantly. Now to be fair, Burbank is about 2/3 the cost of living as San Francisco, so you would pay your studio about half as much instead of a third, but still, imagine if making a movie like Frozen cost $75 million instead of $150 million. You could probably make some "riskier" animated films that need to only make half as much money to break even.



Now I'm sure there is probably a business reason for the Burbank location which would most likely be the convenience of being able to talk to almost anyone in the industry by only needing to drive a couple of minutes, which means that business talks and negotiations and what not work a lot quicker and more efficiently instead of having to fly people in and out to some remote location. However, that's just my perspective on it! I'm just a storyboard artist and not a producer or anything, so there could be some GARGANTUAN issue with everything I've just said.


The second artist was following the conversation and came in with his two cents.

So, I have worked in animation, currently doing my Masters degree in directing animation, and I am more positive about the current state of animation!


Recently one of our alumni came back in to talk about what the industry is like, she's a producer at Cartoon Network, and in summary right now it is THE best time it has ever been to get into the industry. There are more pieces of work being produced but also more people are financing it seeing as how popular it has become, one of them being the long steady growth of anime in the west. I think the caveat here is though it's not necessarily film, but more television, apps and web content.



Netflix starting their own animation division has made everyone else want to be a part of that pie too. I think the one thing that has made this the most interesting to look at is that animation for films costs sooooooo much more compared to live-action, kind of why you have to treat them like a blockbuster so you play it safe and target it at the safest audience, children. So the future is brighter I think, but probably not for film, even then film in cinemas is also declining too so they are both going away slowly hand in hand...


And that’s about it!

If you’re interested in learning more, there are a lot of YouTube channels out there with animators and people from the industry spilling the tea. I won’t tell you where to look, because it
spoils the fun.

Happy hunting!
Oct 2019


NASTAVITE SA ČITANJEM OVDE.