Animated Thoughts: Unexpected Treasures

I like to go to conventions, even if they're not specifically about animation.

Having collected comic books since the mid-70's and having been a gamer for almost as long, every time I see a comic book convention or a gaming convention or an anime convention, I usually take time to look at the line-up on their website or social media page. Even though I rarely attend most cons and festivals (gotta stick to that monthly budget), I find it worthwhile to keep an eye on the events just in case that rare opportunity rears its head--like the time I learned that Natasha Allegri was attending the Midwest Media Expo and giving presentations on her animated show Bee and Puppycat. Or the time that Youmacon had a panel discussing the byzantine copyright and trademark status of the King Kong intellectual property. Or when I learned that Bobby Chiu's Schoolism.com enterprise was bringing Brenda Chapman and Kevin Lima to Toronto in order to talk about their careers.

Well one of the additional benefits of attending conventions is having the opportunity to meet some vendors that specialize in animation art. After a multi-year hiatus, I finally made it back to the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, Michigan (just outside of Detroit). And who should be there with their booth of animation production drawings and cels? Art-Toons!

I first met Daniel and Mary Anne Ergezi years ago at the Grand Rapids Comic Con and spent way too much time hanging around their booth perusing their selection. I didn't have the cash on me at the time to pick out some of the original painted animation cels from their Heavy Metal collection, but I did find a bunch of Giant Robo cels and drawings closer to my budget that made it into my personal collection of animation art.

There are other vendors out there at the cons and on eBay, but I keep coming back to Art-Toons primarily because of the breadth and the quality of their selection. On any given visit to their eBay store or their vendor's booth, I'll find cels and production drawings from both classic and more recent anime shows, American animation from movies, television, and commercials, and especially those hard-to-find animation cels from animated films geared towards adults--like Heavy Metal and Cool World. In my experience, these are some of the more difficult ones to find for an affordable price. Ralph Bakshi has his own eBay store and is selling the cels and drawings from his movies for a premium price (assuming they're from his private collection). Not that they're not worth it, mind you, but they are rather expensive. And much like Bakshi's films Cool World, Fire and Ice, and Wizards, decent production cels and production drawings from the Ivan Reitman produced film Heavy Metal are becoming harder and harder to find.

As time moved on and a lot of these older drawings and cels got bought up by private collectors, I rapidly found myself in a situation where if I really, really wanted to have an original Heavy Metal cel or drawing in my collection, I had to make a move sooner rather than later. So, when this production drawing of Taarna showed up in their selection, I nabbed it. Given that she's this strong, sexy swordswoman, Taarna is one of the more difficult characters from the movie to find in original cels or drawings. Now, don't get me wrong, you "can" find them from time to time, but they are often prohibitively expensive given her popularity and based upon the quality of the cel/drawing. And they are often smaller renderings of her--like when she's in a walk cycle scene and they're simulating a long shot through a movie camera. This makes her only two or two-and-a-half inches tall. Not a big deal if it's a painted cel against a background. Less impressive if it's just a production drawing or cel with a lot of empty space around her. As I write this, there's actually a pretty good production drawing of Taarna on eBay for $250 plus shipping and a painted cel of her for $400. But most others I've seen are in the $500 to $1500 range, especially if they have a certificate of authenticity. Ah, if money were no object. As you can see from the picture below, the production drawing of Taarna that I got was one of the better ones out there!

HEAVY METAL, 1981

TAARNA production drawing

Re-grouped after her savage treatment, she is about to re-dress.

Strong lines with red wound lines, blue underlying pencil, shading.

Well anyways, while I love the visual quality of the painted cels (especially when they have backgrounds--original or reproduction), I honestly like the production drawings better. These are the items that I'm really drawn to (no pun intended). This is mainly due to the fact that through the progression of several drawings in a shot or through the production notes scribbled in the margins, you gain valuable insight into the production process that you don't get through books or videos. 'How-to' books and 'Making-of' videos rarely provide a lot of the nuances in the production process that may seem mundane to most people but in actuality convey some snippet of very important information that the animators need to see or instruct the people in the next step of production. For example, if you look at the images below (which can be viewed on the eBay auction by vendor "collect_this") you can see what I'm talking about. 

On this production drawing, Taarna is attacking with her sword. In the first image, you can see that there are good solid pencil lines defining her form as well as internal details. Additionally, we see some blue shading on the part of her hair that's going to end up being painted a bluish-gray as opposed to the rest of her hair which will be painted white. Could've been a note to the artist painting the cel. Perhaps it was the animator reminding themselves of that little detail as they worked on other frames. Now, one reason a light blue pencil was used is because when the xerography machine duplicates the drawing from paper onto a clear acetate cel, the xerography process won't pick up the blue color. So only the dark lines show up on the cel. We also see light red pencils used from time-to-time as well. Okay, back to our example: in the upper right corner, you see that the animator has redrawn Taarna's mouth at a much larger scale with instructions that there should be a gap between her upper and lower set of teeth (see enlarged photo below). That one is far more likely be a note from the animator to the cel painter or whoever was drawing the inbetweens--a good reminder to maintain consistency between frames on a small detail that could get overlooked.

As stated, these are the details in the production process that you rarely ever see in "Making of" videos or instructional books or even "Art of the movie" books. And Daniel and Mary Anne, when possible, offer packages of these production drawings grouped together when they're in the same sequence. Take a look at this series of five drawings from Giant Robo where one of the villains, Shocking Alberto, has one of the heroes, Taisou, in his grasp and is about to channel an energy blast through him.

You can clearly see on the upper right side of frame two, the animator has written a small timing chart for himself and the inbetweener to follow as this scene is drawn (it's right above the "A2").

Another good example is this series of layout drawings that I purchased from them at Motor City. These drawings illustrate a scene where Giant Robo has been damaged during an attack on the Eye of Fogler warship/mecha and the Experts of Justice don't know if they can reactivate him before he's crushed by the rapidly approaching Eye of Fogler. In the drawings, you can see the mechanized warship "Eye of Fogler" in the background (the sphere) and in the midground is Giant Robo's outstretched arm as he lays there in the rubble. The three drawings progress from rough sketch to a more refined layout to a production drawing of the Giant Robo character.

There's a lot of interesting information you can derive from these drawings, but just a few are:

1. If you look at the top of the page, you can see holes for the registration pegs. While it varies from studio to studio, a lot of American animators are trained to load their paper where the registration pegs are at the bottom of the page, not the top. One of the reasons Jack Slutzky taught us this at R.I.T. is that when multiple pages are stacked on each other, it allows you to flip more pages with your hand and it makes the flipping easier (one point of flipping through the pages is to see the progression of motion between the keyframes and inbetweens so you get the motion right).
2. Another interesting note is that most American animation bond is 12.5 inches by 10.5 inches. Most of the Japanese animation production drawings and cels I have seen are approximately 10.5 inches by 9.5 inches. I don't know why this is. The only other size of animation bond I've seen for sale here in the States is the standard letter size (8.5"x11"). Something to ponder. Is it a filming process issue with the cameras they use? Is it something that just became a standard from those days of animation shortly after the end of WWII when resources were scarce--they used a smaller page because it would be less resource-intensive to produce than a larger page? I think I'll ask Sami, she does a lot of work in the anime industry. If you haven't read my interview with her, I highly recommend looking it up. You can find it at: Samantha Inoue-Harte pt 1 and pt 2.
3. I'm going to put up another video. In it, you can see some of the special effects for this episode. This is another 'oddity' as I see a lot of characters and some backgrounds for sale by vendors, but rarely do I see special effects work for sale! It's only a couple drawings but would love to take some time and examine these with my copy of Tezuka Productions' animation book where they cover hand drawn special effects ('Effects - Lightning', page 100 of Tezuka School of Animation Vol. 1 Learning the Basics).

Okay, just heard back from Sami. She's at a convention this weekend but was kind enough to take a moment to answer my question. Turns out I was close, but not enough to get the proverbial cigar. According to her, it's a fiscal decision based upon the smaller budgets that Japanese productions have when compared to American productions. Apparently the larger-sized cels "are" available in Japan, however, the smaller cels allow the studios to save a couple pennies per cel when compared to the larger sized ones--meaning, when you're buying hundreds of cels, the smaller, less expensive cels would be a better fit within some production studios' budgets. And the money saved could be allocated somewhere else on the production. Hrm. Makes sense.

To work out a hypothetical example: CartoonSupplies.com has a 100 sheet pack of blank 12f (10.5"x12.5") clear cels for sale at $99.99. Considering that an average feature-length animated film could end up using tens of thousands of cels, that number clearly adds up quickly. Now, obviously, a production studio is going to be buying in bulk so the price per 100 cels is going to be lower--volume pricing and all that--but we'll keep it as simple as possible. Consider the following example:

You're making a short 2d hand drawn animated film of five minutes in duration.

• There are 60 seconds per minute (5 minutes x 60 seconds = 300 seconds).
• You're filming at 24 frames-per-second (24 fps x 300 seconds = 7200 frames).
• If you're shooting your animation on 3's--meaning every drawing is filmed three times. That's eight individual drawings per second or a total of 2400 drawings (7200 frames / 3 = 2400 drawings).

Now, you've decided to draw the characters for each scene on one production drawing, therefore you're using one page of animation bond. And you're going to use one animation cel placed over a single background painting when you film each frame. You're going to need 2400 clear acetate animation cels (assuming no mistakes were made requiring the cel to be thrown out). If you buy your cels at $99.99 per 100 cels, it's going to cost you $2,399.76 (plus tax and shipping). That's a good chunk of your budget for ink-and-paint. And we haven't even gotten into the costs of paint, paintbrushes, xerography transfer from the production drawing to the cel, and the cost of labor to do both xerography and cel painting.

If we extrapolate using the example above from a five-minute short film to a 75-minute animated feature (using the same specs just to keep the math simple), you're looking at $35,996.40 just to cover the costs of the animation cels. And that doesn't factor in mistakes during production or the fact that many features have multiple layers of characters and props and foreground elements all layered one-on-top of each other per shot! So, as the numbers add up for the cost of production materials, you can see how a couple pennies saved per cel, by using a smaller cel according to Sami, could help keep a film within budget. And you can see why some American studios in the past used to hire people to wash the acetate cels clean so they could be reused for other animated films.

Well, before I go any further down the rabbit hole of animation production minutiae, let's get back to the point of all this: that I encourage people to build professional relationships with vendors--especially if you're an animator (or future animator) who is serious about your craft. Even if you don't buy something every time you see them, it really pays dividends to maintain those relationships. I like to buy from Daniel and Mary Anne. They sell a quality product, they're very knowledgeable about their product line, and I feel very comfortable purchasing animation memorabilia from them--knowing that I'm getting an original product, not a knock-off. I'm not sure how prevalent counterfeit items are in the "animation art" industry, but on more than one occasion I've backed off from an eBay sale when I read the fine print and saw the words "serigraph" or "reproduction" in the description when the image and title were billed as if it were an animation production cel. And don't get me started about counterfeit products in the Japanese animation scene! One of the things that the now defunct ShutoCon did right was that they wouldn't allow vendors to sell counterfeit merch at their convention and they had presentations that taught fans how to recognize a counterfeit product. Now, let's be clear: I'm not knocking actual promotional art items, like serigraphs and lithographs--I actually have a couple in my collection from movie premieres and animation festivals. But it you're looking for an "actual" production drawing or cel that was used in the film, it pays to keep your eyes open so you know exactly what you're buying. Working with people who have a proven track record of trustworthiness makes this easier. 

Disney was giving out these lithographs at the OIAF one year

Another bonus is that when they know your buying habits, they'll keep an eye out for some of the more unique items -- like the set of layout designs from the Giant Robo OVA series (shown previously). Even though I only see them every couple of years, Daniel knows what I like and is able to guide me to the latest Giant Robo or Ghost in the Shell product that he's added to his store as well as to more mature animation production drawings and cels--what I mean is, animation that's geared to a more mature, adult audience (stuff in the PG-13 to R range), shows with more mature stories and storytelling, like the Simpsons, Aeon Flux, Ghost in the Shell or the various films of Ralph Bakshi.

As the industry continues to move away from a physical media "drawing and ink-and-paint" model to mostly digital, you're just not going to see much of this kind of animation memorabilia with newer productions. A lot of the "hand-drawn" animation here in the States is done digitally using software like ToonBoom or OpenToonz or something programmed in-house. In Japan, Retas Pro and OpenToonz are two of the programs used by studios. TVPaint is used all around the world. And then there are those studios and independents who use Adobe Creative Cloud. 

The water spirit from Rocks in my Pockets

Still, there are people working in the realm of 2d hand drawn animation with paper and pencil: like indie animators Bill Plympton and Signe Baumane. However, with their more recent feature films, they've been moving to a digital ink-and-paint model. Bill's 2013 film Cheatin' was the first feature where he used a digital ink-and-paint system to support his hand-drawn animation. And on her first feature film, Rocks in my Pockets, Signe also drew her characters by hand, then scanned them into Photoshop for digital clean-up and coloring before digitally compositing them with photos of her live model 3d set backgrounds.

Is the day approaching where the only animation memorabilia worth framing that we'll be able to purchase from newer films are these mass-produced serigraphs or lithographs printed from a specific shot in the movie? I would argue that if we're not already there, then the day isn't too far off in the future. And given how physical media deteriorates over time, it becomes more important to preserve these animation treasures from days long gone. For a reasonable price, I can own and preserve one of those rare moments of animation history where almost everything was done by hand using physical media. Unless they create a film by themselves, drawn, inked and painted by hand, most of the kids who are studying to be animators today will never know this experience: one where the film is in the can and there's a box of drawings and cels in the closet and they are secure in the knowledge that if the hard drive got corrupted or a software upgrade was incompatible with their old files, they could still recreate their entire film if they had to. Or maybe just make a couple bucks on the side from selling a part of their film in order to fund the next.

Single hand-drawn and colored frame from Joanna Priestley

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NOTE: While the cels, lithographs, and production drawings displayed in this blog post are my personal property (unless where otherwise noted), the images and animations are being provided here for informational and educational purposes. Any intellectual property, copyrights, and/or trademarks remain with their respective owners.

NOTE #2: The production drawing of Taarna charging forward with her sword drawn... the one being sold by eBay vendor "collect_this"? Yeah, I was the one who bought that drawing after this blog entry was posted. I'm now looking at having both Taarna production drawings framed. Editor's note 06/13/2022

Women of Animation: Perks and Swag

One of the cool things about supporting animators (on Crowdfunding sites and thru their website stores) is the wonderful swag you can get. Yes, yes, I know: "virtue is its own reward" and we should be supporting these animators regardless of perks and rewards. But that doesn't change the fact that above and beyond the reward for being altruistic, the perks can be pretty cool!

So, I'd like to share some pictures of the wonderful products I've purchased, rewards I've been presented with, and gifts I've been given during my time supporting women animators.

Signe Baumane: Water spirit drawing/cel from Rocks in my Pockets

The "water spirit" from Rocks in my Pockets

Back when Signe and her producer, Sturgis Warner, were taking Rocks in my Pockets on tour, the closest it was going to screen to my hometown was Chicago. So, I enlisted a pair of friends who were familiar with the area and we made the five-hour drive to the windy city for a day of Chicago-style pizza and animation. I was already going to receive the DVD of her feature as a Kickstarter reward, but having seen sneak peeks at other venues, I really wanted to see her film in a large scale format. Well, Signe was floored that we made the ten hour round-trip drive to see her film. As a special 'thank you' for supporting her film, Signe gifted me a drawing from Rocks in my Pockets.

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Joanna Priestley: framed "cel" from her film All My Relations

Paper cel from All My Relations

In 2016, I was working on my history of women animators class for Huntington University. One of the most fun aspects of the class for me personally was expanding my research by hunting down lots of DVDs. Many of these films I had seen in the past during my college classes or at festivals, but if you're going to teach a subject, it's really best to refresh your memories. One such purchase was the latest compilation DVD from Joanna Priestley. For supporting her work, Joanna was kind enough to include an original production "cel" from her film All My Relations.

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Samantha Inoue-Harte: 'Stitch' print

Also back in 2016, Samantha made a return trip to Michigan's own Alma Con. Well, for this visit, she brought a bunch of Lilo and Stitch artwork that she had produced for the House of Mouse. Sami had obtained a license from Disney to produce a limited number of these prints and sell them as a fundraiser for cancer research, to which she donated all the proceeds. Well, I really like Lilo and Stitch... and Sami... and it's for a good cause, so...

Now due to peculiarities of licensing, I can't post an image of the print, but suffice it to say, when you have the chance to support someone who is promoting a worthy cause, you take the opportunity to help out if you can. :)

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Satrun Sisters: Fairy Sleep print


Fairy Sleep by Sarah Satrun

This was the first print that I purchased from the Satrun Sisters--the full story of which was printed earlier this week in part two of the Satrun Sisters' interview. A short while later, they visited the Grand Rapids Comic Con and I couldn't resist picking up two of their framed mermaid prints that would go along nicely with the fantasy art theme in one of my rooms.

Mermaid prints by Sarah Satrun

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Jessica Borutski - Foolish Kingdom t-shirt/Canadian Crest t-shirt

Foolish Kingdom by Jessica Borutski

Having been a fan of Jessica's work for years, when she started selling t-shirts with her delightfully subversive bunny on her website Foolish Kingdom, I had to have one!

Canadian Crest by Jessica Borutski

Jessica was also one of the first women I interviewed for this blog. For years afterwards, I'd see her at the festivals and say "hi" but I never had an opportunity to say "thank you for the interview" in a more tangible way until the summer of 2014 where she had an artist's table at TAAFI. So I was able to support her by purchasing one of her Canadian crest t-shirts. It never ceases to get a laugh and positive comments whenever I wear it.

Additionally, on Jessy's website Foolish Kingdom, she released paper cut-out dolls of her characters. So far, I've only got the I like pandas figures printed and assembled. But the mole and bunny from The Good Little Bunny with the Big Bad Teeth are on my list of things to do on a rainy day.

Panda 2 and Panda 1

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Monica Brujenes: Penguin & Peep Kickstarter rewards



Penguin & Peep! Little Moments by Monica Brujenes

The last animator I'll showcase is ASIFA Central's own Monica Brujenes. A year ago, Monica hosted a crowdfunding campaign to produce a cartoon book called Little Moments featuring her original characters Penguin and Peep. Some of the rewards you could get as part of this campaign included Penguin & Peep stickers, original hand painted art:

Penguin & Peep painting by Monica Brujenes

exclusive prints:

Exclusive Print by Monica Brujenes

and original autographed drawings in our copies of Little Moments.

Penguin & Peep ink drawing by Monica Brujenes

As I alluded to at the start of this article, yes we should be supporting women animators regardless of the perks--but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the art that they create and make it a part of our lives. If you've clicked on any of the hyperlinks, you've been taken to these talented ladies' websites where you can support their work yourself. Regardless, I hope that in the future, you will all find a woman animator whose work resonates with you. And if you have the resources, take the time to support them financially. Every little bit of encouragement helps them as they produce their films.

Women in Animation: Samantha Inoue-Harte, Part 2

Cat Shit One 1

CW: After a successful short film, 'Cat Shit One' didn't make it into full series production. How do you deal with the disappointment of putting that much energy into a project and not seeing it come to fruition?

SIH: I was brought in on 'Cat Shit One' after the first episode was finished.  I was given DVDs and action figures for the main characters.  Our studio then developed a presentation deck that could then be presented to American distribution companies to pitch as an animated series.  We partnered with a talented live-action actor for voice work and we spoke with several networks and outlets but unfortunately, though many 3D animated series at the time had budgets of over $1 million per episode with very geometric or Lego looking characters.  We were asked to keep our high quality/furry animation the same as the short but asked to meet budgets far lower than many less complicated 3D animated series on television. We were also asked to change the story from a serious action packed series to a comedy.  In the end, we could not make the numbers work enough to make American audiences interested in buying the show.

And when that happens, you just keep moving forward.  You NEVER put all of your eggs in a single basket.  Many of your projects fail, you just have to keep coming up with new projects until one sticks.

CW: When you produce animated films/series, do you focus on one or do you usually have a couple that you're working on at the same time?

SIH: I am always working on multiple projects at any given point in time.  If I kept all of my eggs in a single basket then I would not be as productive as I am.

Tailchaser's Song 2

CW: How did you get involved in producing Tailchaser's Song?

SIH: A sweet voice actress colleague of mine, Carrie Savage, introduced me to another voice actress/writer who had a project that was being developed into a feature.  I met with Bethany Rhoades for coffee as a favour to Carrie.  The meeting....was pretty painful.  Everything that you could do to mess up a pitch, she did.  But then, she pulled out some artwork that an artist had done for characters and settings of the project.  And I was sold.  I joked with her saying that she should have just started off the meeting by showing me the artwork.  It was like lightning struck.  I called my producing partner, Paul Alvarado-dykstra and convinced him to look at the artwork.  The artwork spoke to me.

CW: Tailchaser's Song was announced back in 2011, can you talk about how production is coming along?

SIH: Big things are happening. I would need to discuss with my team about what I can say at this point.  Things are happening. I'm really excited.  There's a name I want to drop. But I don't want to jinx things.  Can we come back and discuss things about Tailchaser at a later point?  :)

CW: In the context of your production work, how do you think that crowdfunding (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Patreon, etc.) has changed the game of animation production (if at all)?

SIH: We have spoken at length about crowdfunding and have seen how popular it has been to help create some amazing work.  We have not moved towards doing any crowdfunding at this moment, but I do have to say that animation production, especially of shorts, have definitely benefited from the funding created by crowdfunding sites.

Fritti Tailchaser concept art by Matt Rhodes  2

CW: How have opportunities changed for women pursuing a career in animation today as opposed to when you started your career?

SIH: When I first began work as an animator, there were less than five women.  Now, there are a few women in every animation studio that I have walked into.  It's definitely become more accepting.  I'm glad I never have to be the lone female in an animation studio anymore.  Things are definitely a lot better for women now in America.  Japan, has always had more women in the animation studios than in America. 

CW: What do you think is the biggest obstacle to women who want to pursue a career in animation?

SIH: I do believe that one of the biggest obstacles that women have to face in the animation industry is fairness in pay.  Though things have definitely gotten better for women since I first began, you still run into the random moments when you find out that a woman is being paid less for doing the same, if not more, work than a male animator counterpart. 

Pouncequick & Rikchikchik concept art by Matt Rhodes  2

CW: If you had a daughter said that she wanted to work in animation, what advice would you give her?

SIH: I would make her take business classes.  Teach her how to read and negotiate contracts and teach her how to take care of her money.  Most problems I see in studios in the US is many animators/artists are not well versed in basic Business skills so I have seen many people run into problems with money and with taxes.  My daughter will definitely need to focus on Business classes before I EVER let her get into any animation work.

CW: What is the most important thing that authority figures (parents/teachers/professors) can do to encourage girls who are considering a career in animation?

SIH: My parents desperately wanted me to work in Math or Science.  I was terrible at both subjects.  I was pressed to go into fields that I had little to no interest.  I was an artist from the get go and unfortunately, it wasn't until halfway through high school when my parents conceded that I would just never be good at science or math.  I had tutors, I had study guides, I took extra courses in science and math just so I could get better.  I just could not wrap my brain around any of it.  I was frustrated. My parents were frustrated.  It took YEARS for my parents to come to terms that I needed to study something else.  But before that ever happened, it was like my parents were in denial.  They pushed and pushed.  It wasn't for lack of me studying.  I had a periodic table poster plastered on my ceiling for years as well as math time tables on my bedroom door for years.  I have to say that to authority figures, encourage all kids to do what they enjoy.  Listen to your kids. And if they want to consider a career in animation, then get them into life drawing classes as early on as possible.  Sign your kids up for after school art classes. Buy some art programs for their computers and buy a Wacom tablet.  If they want to consider animation, then the earlier you can expose them to it, the better.  But keep them focused on perspective drawing and life drawing. 

It's been a real pleasure being able to spend time with you.  If you have any further questions in the future, please do not hesitate to ask.

CW: Thank you very much for the interview. :)

Sami and I at AlmaCon 2016  3

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Samantha’s larger body of work is listed on her IMDB page, where you can find her animation and anime projects as well as her voice acting and live action work. And keep an eye out for the upcoming Tailchaser’s Song, currently in development. Press releases for Tailchaser’s Song can be found at Animetropolis’ website and an archive of info can be found on their Facebook page.





1. “Cat Shit One” available on Blu-Ray at Amazon.com at the following link. Image used with permission.
2. Image copyright Animetropolis and used with permission.
3. Image copyright Charles Wilson.


Copyright 2016 Smudge Animation LLC, all rights reserved

Women in Animation: Samantha Inoue-Harte, Part 1

Samantha Inoue-Harte 1

There are a lot of smaller animation conventions and anime festivals around the country, one such being "Alma Con" up in Alma, Michigan. Smaller cons and fests can be places where you find those rare little gems that'll keep you coming back year after year. And every now and then, you'll hit the jackpot! In February 2015, the organizers of Alma Con released their finalized schedule shortly before the convention. When I saw a listing for a woman who would be running a couple panels on animation, my curiosity was piqued. Since Alma is less than an hour's drive from my home, I made the trek up North with a friend. That's where I had my first encounter with Samantha Inoue-Harte. Only once before in my travels have I encountered such an exciting bundle of positive energy in the animation community (that being Haitian-Canadian animator Martine Chartrand). In mere minutes, Sami had the entire crowd eating out of her hand as she told us stories of working on animation projects for Disney and several Japanese anime studios, acting in movies like Grindhouse and Idiocracy, and doing voice acting for anime shows like Trinity Blood, Dai-Guard, and Final Fantasy Unlimited (she's the "Chocobo"). After her hour presentation was over, the entire crowd followed her out into the hall where she continued to regale us with more stories of working on-site with Troublemaker Studios (Robert Rodriguez's studio) and trying to get networks like Adult Swim interested in the 3d animated adaptation of Motofumi Kobayashi's Cat Sh*t One. After the crowd thinned out somewhat, Sami readily agreed to being interviewed for my blog. Unfortunately life, as it often does, got in the way. But, we stayed in touch, talked back and forth a bit over the year, and met back up again at Alma Con 2016. This time, everything worked out and we were able to complete our interview just in time. Thank you again for the interview, Sami, it was well worth the wait.

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SIH: Hello Charles! This is Samantha Inoue-harte but feel free to call me, Sami or Samu.  Most of my family is Japanese and due to the fact that the "th" sound really doesn't exist in Japanese I really don't get called "Samantha" a lot and will probably not respond to it...however, if you say, "Samansa" I will.  lol.

CW: What is your current job description?

SIH: My main job title is Animation producer and as for description....well, I develop animated content for transmedia platforms for Western and Eastern audiences.  By that, I mean that I come up with ideas for new anime or feature projects, pitch them, develop the ideas that interest my partners, navigate through multicultural business practices, create presentation decks, budgeting, story development, overviewing scripts, making sure script translations are done correctly, etc.....in other words, a lot.

Sami and grumpy cat 1

CW: You've worked in the animation industry for 19 years. What roles have you performed during your career in animation?

SIH: I was lucky enough to be the assistant to a fantastic animation director by the name of Sam Fleming when I was a freshman in college.  I was a receptionist, cleanup artist, colorist, inbetweener, animator, character designer, layout artist, background artist, scriptwriter, storyboard artist....and eventually I worked my way into various animation studios and by 2005 I started Saiko Studios where I finally became the animation director for Spike TV's Fresh Baked Videogames under Justin Roiland (Rick and Morty).  I rarely draw anything anymore, my role now is more of a story developer.

CW: What made you choose animation as a major course of study?

SIH: I graduated high school in Illinois and originally thought I would attend Northwestern or some other college in the Illinois area.  Had a full scholarship offer at the Rhode Island Institute of Art and looked at Sheridan.  But my mother had cancer so my family decided that the best thing for us was to move to Texas to be close to MD. Anderson in Houston so that she could get the best care possible.  I knew nothing about Texas and called A&M and the University of Texas at Austin to see if there was an animation program.  The advisor at UT@Austin informed me that their college had the state's leading Animation program and I immediately filled out an application.  Found out upon arrival to Texas that there was no animation program at the University of Texas and so I had to make changes to my plans.  I was LIVID.  I had already been accepted and my family had already spent a lot of money to move to the Austin area from Illinois.  I was stuck.  So I ended up choosing to pursue a double major for a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio art and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History focusing on the Italian renaissance.  I became an avid art historian.  But the lack of animation programming at the University of Texas at Austin in 1997 was the reason why I began pursuing a position at an animation studio.  I worked throughout my college career at an animation studio while doing my double degree at the University.  I still get a little angry sometimes, but at the same time, if I had not been mislead by the advisor, I would not have pursued my animation career so early in my life.

Sami teaching 'grumpy animator' what a "Glomp" is. 2

CW: You have worked for American studios and with Japanese studios, what are some of the differences, difficulties and challenges to working in a Japanese Animation studio vs. an American studio (or vice versa)?

SIH: Wow....hmmmm.... good question.  As for the differences between American and Japanese animation studios....the first thing that comes to mind is the studio space size.  Every American animation studio I have ever been in is larger compared to Japanese studios.  Ceilings are higher, hallways are wider, offices are bigger, there is more cartoony decorations, brighter colors on the walls, there is always some sort of videogame console somewhere in an American studio.  Japanese studios....are compact by comparison.  The environment at a Japanese animation studio is also a little more serious.  You don't see a lot of cartoony looking characters decorating the walls and I have never witnessed any animator in a Japanese animation studio playing videogames from their desks, there are no action figurines decorating artist's workspaces like they do in America either.

Now, my main challenge and difficulty that I have faced in American studios and Japanese studios?  Well, let me make one thing clear, I do not work in a Japanese animation studio, I have never been an animator in a Japanese animation studio.  I work WITH Japanese anime studios and partner WITH them to develop new animated content.  So I can never really say that I work IN a Japanese animation studio. 

Dai-Guard 3

But back to the question....the one challenge and difficulty that I have faced in both American and Japanese studios is the fact that I'm a woman.  I have, unfortunately, been paid less as a female artist at American studios when doing the same jobs as men.  I have been treated with less respect for being a woman and have been laughed at when I have previously tried pitching ideas.  There have been times when, as a woman, I have been excluded from Animation studio functions like lunches or getting company items.  For example, there was one studio where all the employees were given matching company jackets.  All the female employees were excluded from this perk.  When asked if the female staff could get a jacket, we were told that we could if we really wanted them but that we would have to pay $150 for a jacket.  Needless to say, I don't believe any of the female employees received one. It's the opposite in Japan.  I may be a woman, and though that has posed some unique situations in Japan, I am a producer, therefore I am presented with more respect and am treated like a guest whenever I go to Japan.  It is awkward in business meetings because as a woman, I would traditionally be the person responsible for pouring tea to the rest of the people in a meeting. But as a producer, I do not have to do that, so the lowest man on the totem pole has to do this.  No one is rude enough to mention anything about it, but it does cause some awkward moments.  I am a woman, but am treated as a man.  And I am fine with that.  :)

CW: What do think is the most important skill set animators should work on to prepare themselves for the industry?

SIH: I cannot stress enough....animators need to work on life drawing.  I get a lot of new aspiring animators who come to me with sketchbooks full of "Anime" styled artwork, but unfortunately, many aspiring artists are not able to draw the human figure realistically.  In order to create a new style or your own personal style of artwork, you have to be able to draw a human figure realistically.  Bones lay a particular way, muscles sit on bone, skin covers the muscles....and if you don't know how each layer works with each other or how they lay on each other when a human is posed in a dramatic pose, then how can you be expected to understand how to animate a character? 

CW: Throughout your career, you have done live action acting and voice acting. How does your live-action work influence your animation work?

SIH: My live-action work has actually helped me with my composition and staging in my animation work.  Using myself as a character in a film, I am able to see where the director sits, how the camera is angled, and I am then able to see the set from the director's perspective.  I have recreated camera shots that I acted in and transposed those shots into my storyboards to create more of a live-action feel in some of my projects.  Voice acting....it has helped me with my mouthflap animations.

CW: Now that you've made the shift to producing films, do you prefer animating or producing?

SIH: I do miss animation and may do it from time to time on some personal stuff, but producing has become my passion.  It's amazing to see a story get developed from inside of my head and then be transformed into something that everyone can see.  You are working closely with talented animators and creating characters from your mind. You layout whole worlds and create maps, create costumes, layout a whole plot, etc.  I feel I am able to create more as a producer than I ever could as an animator where my supervisor would hand me a stack of papers or computer files where I have to animate characters that I had nothing to do with the creation of.

* * *

Be sure to come back next week for part two of Sami's Interview where we continue discussing her shift from animator to producer, talk about her work on the animated feature adaptation of "Tailchaser's Song", and hear her advice for young ladies who want to work in the field of animation.






1. Image copyright Samantha Inoue-Harte and used with permission.
2. Image copyright Charles Wilson.
3. Image copyright ADVFilms.

Copyright 2016 Smudge Animation LLC, all rights reserved.



Animated Events: International Women's Day (or month here on this blog)...

Greetings all,

It's March. And in honor of March 8th being "International Women's Day", I'll be publishing interviews with a pair of trailblazing women who work in the animation industry.

The first interviewee is Academy Award winner Joan C. Gratz. It's not very often that you get to meet one of the legends of animation much less get to talk to them about their craft. But for years, Joan has been on my short-list of women animators to interview and our meeting at the Ottawa International Animation Festival was the textbook definition of serendipity (more on that later). During editing, I had to cut sections from her interview as we would find ourselves drifting away from the discussion and over into topics like the current state of the art of animation and the festival scene. After Joan approved the final draft and I was transferring it over into this blog, I found myself hoping against hope that Joan comes back to Ottawa soon as I'd love to spend more time just sitting there and listening to her talk about animation.

The second is Samantha Inoue-Harte: actress, voice actress, animator, and producer. One of the (many) things that makes Sami so special is that she has roles in both the American and the Japanese animation industries. As I travel to anime festivals, I meet a lot of kids who are enamored with anime and love the idea of working in Japan. During her lectures at festivals (and in her interview for this blog), Sami brings a fresh dose of realism to the discussion that covers both the hard realities of working in the animation industry and provides a lot of concrete steps for budding animators. When I read the first draft of her interview, I was almost in tears when she stated how all artists/animators should study business principles as I've been beating on that particular drum for many years!

So check back on Tuesday, March 8th for part one of my interview with Joan Gratz, and Happy International Women's Day Month!

Animated Thoughts: The Power of Repetition

Cherry blossoms at R.I.T.

Back in 1996 when I was working on my Master of Fine Arts thesis at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I found myself facing some major artistic roadblocks with regards to drawing my characters--mainly because I was not the most experienced artist in the program. Having an undergrad degree in English Writing with a minor in Computer Science, as you'd imagine, my strengths were in story and the background technology for computer animation, not in traditional hand-drawn animation. However, even though I could barely draw stick figures when I entered grad school two years prior, I had made some great artistic gains in the figure drawing and 2d hand drawn animation classes that I had taken in those first two years at R.I.T. and had committed to producing a film that mimicked the C.A.P.S. system that Disney was currently using: at its core, 2d hand drawn animation scanned into the computer then colored and composited digitally. Well, my thesis advisor Jack Slutzky had some simple advice to solve my problem: draw fifty copies of each of my characters in different poses EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And he was right. At first I struggled mightily and found myself staying up until all hours of the night just to get those one-hundred drawings completed. I'd sit there at my desk and leave late night television playing in the background--unexpectedly, those infomercials spawned my affection for '40's and '50's rock-and-roll that persists to this day. It was incredibly slow going at first, but the more I threw myself into the task, the more I progressed. And, more importantly, the faster I was able to draw those two characters. By the time my storyboards and animatic were approved by my thesis committee, I was ready to sit down and animate my film, shot-by-shot. I graduated on time with a completed thesis film.

Shot from "Zero", my MFA thesis film

In 2011, I was invited to return to R.I.T. by my former professor Stephanie Maxwell to give a presentation on Forensic Animation in both the legal and historical fields of study. The thought of public speaking filled me with dread as most of my time since graduation had been spent behind a computer (except for a short diversion where I took a Dale Carnegie class). And I really didn't want to show up there with a bunch of slides and 'wing it'--those presentations usually sound half-assed to me. So, I wrote my presentation, assembled my slides in PowerPoint, then grabbed a timer to see how long it took me to talk through my entire presentation. That first run was an unmitigated disaster. But, Jack's advice held true, so I mercilessly cut slides from my presentation and talked through it a second time. By the time the presentation was completed and ready for public consumption, I had stood there in front of my laptop and spoke through the entire lecture slide-by-slide over ten times (including one time at my hotel the night before I was to speak at R.I.T.). Since it was a two-hour lecture, that put my preparation time at twenty hours--not including the time it took to compile my research, proof the videos, and write the slides. The time spent in preparation was invaluable as it showed me every place where I needed more information or was at risk for meandering off topic. And the practice helped me keep my voice at an appropriate volume level throughout the presentation. Afterwards, I received two compliments that have stuck with me all this time: one professor said that he had three students who he wished had heard my lecture, and Stephanie said that she completely forgot to attend a scheduled meeting because of how engrossing she found my presentation.

Samantha Inoue-Harte and I at AlmaCon 2016

This past month at AlmaCon, animator and producer Samantha Inoue-Harte presented a lecture titled "Animation 101". Am not sure what the other attendees got from her talk, but the one story she told that resonated with me personally was about the power of repetition. Sami spoke about how, at the time, she was working for Powerhouse Animation Studios in Texas on the short film 'the Origin of Stitch' (from Disney's 'Lilo and Stitch'). When they received the assignment from Disney to animate their short film, she said that the animators got together and laid out copies of the characters that they would be animating. Then, they took tracing paper and traced the characters over and over until their muscle memory had been trained to the point where they could reproduce the characters rapidly and fluidly in different poses and without the initial references.

Isn't it funny how many of those basic lessons become some of the most important tools in our animators toolkit and keep showing up when we need them the most?

 

Women in Animation: 'Canadian Animation' Resources

Well, I'm sorry to say that my last interview for this month isn't finished yet. So, I'll be posting my final interview for the month a bit later and will cross-post it on my social media sites. Apologies for missing the mark, sometimes life just gets too busy. But I promise you, it'll be worth the wait!

However, as I just got back from Schoolism.com's workshop weekend in Toronto, this seems like an appropriate time to talk about another valuable resource for researchers looking for that elusive bit of information on woman animators: the Canadian Animation website and blog.

Operated by my friend and fellow Toronto Animated Image Society member, Grayden Laing, the Canadian Animation website and Canadian Animation Blog have a plethora of interviews with animators from the Great White North. His blog includes many prominent woman animators like:

- Sam Decoste,
- Torill Kove,
- Jodi Sandler, and
- Moira Marguin.

Additionally, his Canadian Animation website has "Artist of the Day" posts for animators like:

- Katie Shanahan,
- Lynn Dana Wilton,
- Nicole Hewat,
- Marie Valade,
- Rachel Moore,
- Kathy Macdonald,
- Carla Veldman,
- Janice Schulman,
- Gwyneth Mitchell,
- Jessika von Innerebner,
- Hilary Moses,
- Lillian Chan, and
- Samantha Youssef.

If you keep an eye out for them, you're sure to run across people like Grayden who are working hard to bring recognition to animators, both women and men, and both well-known as well as those not-so-well-known. But rather than just relying on interviewers and bloggers, those interested in this facet of the animation world should not be afraid to get out there and find their own opportunities to meet these women of animation.

Case in point: this past weekend, I made a nine-hour round-trip drive to Toronto.

Schoolism.com held a two-day, live workshop with artists and animators discussing their careers and lavishing advice on people who want to improve their skills. I went there to hear Brave director Brenda Chapman's presentation with her husband Kevin Lima. After meeting Ms. Chapman on Saturday night, the next day we were all treated to a three-hour presentation where power-couple Kevin and Brenda talked about their personal history, the ups-and-downs of the animation industry, how the industry has changed across the span of their careers, and much, much more! As a special treat, they even showed their CalArts student films. Was it worth the time and money to make the drive? You bet it was! Even if I wasn't working on a project detailing the history of women in animation, the information that Brenda and Kevin provided was the kind of first hand data that students who want to work in the Hollywood animation industry need to hear.

Visiting with Brenda Chapman

Yes. Sometimes those opportunities may appear a little too far to visit. Yes. Sometimes it's going to cost you a pretty penny to attend events like this. But if you look carefully, you can find opportunities closer to home.

Case in point: Alma, Michigan is a 45-minute drive from my house. Back in February, I attended a small student-run anime convention at Alma College and got to meet animator, studio owner, producer, voice actress, and stunt-woman Samantha Inoue-Harte (talk about a modern-day "Renaissance woman"!).

Samantha teaching me what a 'glomp' is.

Filled with boundless energy and an enthusiasm that I have only seen matched by Martine Chartrand, Samantha turned AlmaCon into a four-hour tornado of funny stories, a realistic vision of what it's like to work in the animation (and film) industry, and tips on improving our skills as she showed us first hand how she animated characters for Disney's Lilo and Stitch television show. It's not often that you get the chance to watch an animator at work but Samantha turned it into a spectator sport where you're laughing while you're learning. I started animating over twenty years ago and her two-hour animation workshop hammered home the fact that there's always something more that I can learn about our craft.

Need another example? No problem. In a little over a week, Natasha Allegri, the creator of "Bee and Puppycat" will be speaking in Detroit at the Midwest Media Expo. Will I be braving the throngs of cosplayers to hear her speak? After hearing her presentation at last year's TAAFI festival, you bet I will! And I hope to see many of you up-and-coming animators there too.

So keep an eye out for opportunities (both local and distant) to connect with your favorite animators, as well as those that you haven't heard of before. I guarantee that you'll be glad that you took the time to listen to their wisdom and experience. Whether it's our history or our craft, I'm always learning something new from animators who are kind enough to share their experiences in this roller-coaster ride we call 'animated film'.