Storytelling

My passion is animation. It’s a wonderful art that combines audio and visual engineering along with a story. The story carries the animation and most of the bigger studios know this and spend 2 years or more developing their story idea. Animation allows my keen attention to detail to really shine. Details from how a chair sounds crossing the dining room floor to the level of complexity the characters themselves can be.

My first real project was in high school, this was back in 93 and technology was a bit different back then. I drew up about 55 frames, placed a VCR camcorder on a tripod, and took paused stills of each image. I then was able to use analog technology to speed up the footage to produce about a 7-second animated piece.

Basically, it was an eagle in a nest that flew off and when he flew off attached to the bird was a banner with the call letters WNHS. Crude, yet effective and used for a while, I was told, as the intro to the morning school news given over the closed-circuit television set up in the school.

My desire as a teen was to work within the Animation Department at Disney. Well, the closest I got was being able to give tours of the Animation Department at the Studios through the Animation Tour. One of the jobs of the tour guide through the actual working animation studio was to turn on the lights on the desks of the animators and turn them off again at night. This was the coolest part of the job as it allowed me to see their progress every day.

One of the animators was Bruce Johnson and he had a plaque that sarcastically read, you think animation is great eh? Well try drawing the same picture over and over again but just a little different every time. I used to watch him draw for hours and was just amazed at his speed and level of detail. I was able to meet a few animators and they invited me to draw at the Disney barnyard section in fort wilderness to work on 2-minute sketches. It was from a few of these sessions I learned, I am nowhere near the caliber of an artist as these guys and pretty much hung up my dream then and there.

After this dramatic life let down, I went into the navy and have a diversified career in the corporate workspace. I have a degree in graphic design and animation and I was able to freelance back during the myspace era doing animations of eyes opening, glitter, just small looped animations mostly. No real content.

Then as I live life, I have kids and my son turned me onto Studio Ghibli. Now, this is my level of animation. I love the heart, the amazing portrayal of human emotion, the perfect way the cat's demeanor comes across, the fantasy, the imagination, the art, the sounds, the music, yes all of it! Now that I am entering my empty nest phase of life I am able to reflect on my life and see all the amazing stories I have been accumulating.

I have already started to storyboard one of my favorite, laughable moments of my girls bamboozling me to get lollipops, sugar, who knew you could motivate with the power of candy!

The lollipop story:

Christmas was a time when sugar and sugary products were given free rein in the house and heck it was being shipped in from relatives! One package had bouquets of tootsie roll lollipops, I think a total of 3 One bouquet for each of the children. And it was about 10 lollipops per bouquet.

So, the kids devoured 2 of the 3 bouquets seconds after the package had been opened. Then in an attempt to ration or preserve the precious candy, we decided to place the third bouquet atop the fridge, thinking surely it was out of reach, out of sight, then, in theory, completely out of their minds.

A few days later, I was sitting in the living room, with a side view out of my peripheral I could see the top of the fridge. And like a dad doing the mental inventory saying check yep the lollipops are still there.

Well, mid-afternoon of the third day of the lollipops atop the fridge, the girls, Krista, age 3, and Jules, age 4 came out to the living room being ever so sweet to me. Asking if I wanted my feet rubbed or a snack or a soda. Then Krista disappeared into the kitchen and it was just Jules and I sitting in the living room. I hear a screech across the kitchen floor as Krista moves a chair to the front of the refrigerator.

In reaction to that horrible sound the chair made, Jules then kicked it up a notch and as my head turned to look at the cause of the sound, Jules grabbed my face and pivoted it back so I wouldn't ‘see’ Krista. So I’m now looking right into Jules' eyes. The little charmer starts being soooo sweet, the sweetest she has ever been, ever, telling me how sweet I am, how nice I am, how handsome I am, and that she loves me ohhh sooo much.

Then the girls switched spots. Jules ran up the chair and got the lollipops while in sync cute Krista comes running up to me to start beboppin around being the cutest munchkin ever. So, now Jules was gone with the lollipops and I could feel Krista's emotional struggle as she was being torn to keep playing with my emotions as the decoy or to run and eat candy, the desire to consume the candy was short-circuiting her little cute brain. So, Krista gives me one huge last hug, reminds me she also loves me and she is so happy to have me as her dad. Then Krista runs off out of sight.

I take a moment, gather my wits and evaluate that I just got played by two little girls for candy. Yes, I saw the whole thing and I let it happen. Ok, so I let my wife know, she giggled and thought it was cute, well cause it was but I’m still dad and dads have to teach lessons right. So, I go down to their bedroom, lights off, and no kids. I then see their closet door is closed and I hear muffled giggles. I put my ear to the closet door and I hear wrappers being torn and two little girls enjoying what they thought was a perfect crime.

I give 'em just a few more minutes to indulge. I mean they are little girls and it is candy. So, then in a flash, I open the closet door and peer into their huge eyes that just popped out of their heads. They said, “HOW DID YOU FIND US AND HOW DID YOU KNOW?” I took this opportunity to simply state, I am dad, and I see everything. I like to somehow think that I won that round. (END OF STORY.)

So, this is my desire, to immortalize the life lessons of pure joy and innocence that children can bring into the world all via animation. Events from outings at the park, with all of the details of shopping, and preparing a picnic, etc.

Animation really allows me to stop and think about every single aspect of a story I want to tell. This is where I do believe I have found my niche as I was a very hands-on dad. I was able to work at home and be a huge part of day-to-day life with three kids. We had 3 kids in 3 years! I’m now divorced, I also lost all of my belongings to a house fire. I also self-published a novel in my early 20’s. I say this not for sympathy but to explain the level of intensity I have to succeed! I am a burning ball of creative energy and it’s gonna come out one way or another.