Animation

I grew up thinking "Peanuts" was called "Charlie Brown," Mike Boas. Haha The "Welcome Home, Franklin" trailer looks great. I relate to the story. My dad was in the military, so we moved and had to make new friends a lot.

Branding-wise, Apple is pushing it as Snoopy Presents…

Even in the papers, Schultz wasn’t crazy about the title Peanuts. It started as Lil’ Folks, but later was Peanuts featuring Good Ol’ Charlie Brown when most people thought of it as the Charlie Brown strip. Now Apple recognizes that Snoopy has the most brand awareness and merchandising potential.

I didn't know that, Mike Boas. I think "Peanuts" is catchier than "Lil' Folks." I like both titles though. Yeah, I think Snoopy has the most brand awareness and merchandising potential. Snoopy and Woodstock are my favorite characters.

Love seeing the Peanutsverse expanding. Always my favorite!

Thanks for sharing, Suzanne Bronson! Hope my Phoenix peeps can join.

Since THOMAS excites you the most and you think it might interest the audience more, I say go with that one, Kiara P Oxley.

Maurice Vaughan with the sage advice as usual!

Thanks, David Abrookin.

Always let your own passion guide you. Maurice is right, whatever you feel most excited about, deserves your focus and attention. You're more likely to give your best to something that you care about.

Hi ashley , and ok like i said started with novels but i found out that Family Guy and Simpsons uses Toon Boom for their animation but it's expensive to have a full trial in terms of having full program.

That's cool that Pharell is telling his life story through LEGO bricks, Bob Harper. I think it will draw people to his movie who don't usually watch biopics.

Something tells me this is a long shot to ever reach completion.

Mike Boas They have a theatrical release date for October this year. Both Pharrell and Lego are promoting it and it’s through Focus Features, so I’m betting it is going to happen.

He's always so fresh and ahead of the curve - cannot to see this!

This is so interesting!! I'd love to know a bit more about why Pharrell was inspired to tell his story in this way. He mentions that he played with them as a kid and that he believes Legos inspire imagination, but it's still such a unique choice, that I'd love to hear him discuss it more in-depth. I'm hopeful that as we get closer to the release in October, there will be more press and details. Thank you for sharing, Bob Harper!

Thanks for sharing, Leonardo Ramirez!

Thanks for all you do, Sam Sokolow!

Again, I can’t say specifically what the intern program requires. make sure this would fulfill those criteria according to your contact.

You’re producer and project manager on this project? why not treat it like a business venture? you register your DBA (also called a self-proprietorship) and call it whatever name you like, as long as the name is available. you’re sole owner, a company of one. if you ever choose to pay workers, do it as a work for hire situation, not salary.

Mike Boas Okay. You're right to treat it like a business. I'm not sure if they'll consider my "company". They want someone full-time freelance artist who works for or has a company.

I'll see where this is leading to. Thanks!

Is this project for a nonprofit organization or cause? If not, it would be difficult to find a professional to work for free on a project that promotes a creator and could be monetized. Will the students or school have any ownership or share in revenue if it does make money and if it is optioned or sold elsewhere? US labor laws would be tricky to navigate for free labor, even as an internship.

No, it's not for a nonprofit organization. The school and the students won't get any revenue, none of us will. We haven't discussed what will happen if it gets optioned. There are actually some papers I must sign with the school in case we find the host. The school is Canadian, and I'm Tunisian. So I'm not sure about the laws. God prevents the tricky laws.

Is there somewhere online for animators? Like Reddit? Where I can post there?

Hi Donia, I’m a veteran art director in animation company in Italy, please consider these following advice before starting on a animation project: the project must divided in 4 parts. Pre production, Production, dubbing and editing. Preproduction consist in creation of the bible after the scripts: 1-characters design, study of expressions, acting, 2-backgrounds, 3-fx, 4-storyboards. After that you can start the production: my advice is hire a Indian, chinese, or low price company to make a teaser or a pilot. In the meantime record voices track, music, fx. Build all in compo. It’s better make all with pros, but in case of lack of money you can make the step 1 with volunteers. Otherwise Storyboard is better to find a animation pro, voice track could be possible to be done in house. You can buy cheap music samples.Animation is better to be done paying a little company. Fx and compo you can find a student but is a risk. When you have a sample of your project you can find a producer. Is better to plan all with a production director. The animation is a real work not a hobby. My best wishes for your project.

Maurice Vaughan, I think tragic endings are fine as long as they are satisfying to the audience, which I believe Chuck mentions in the context of #7.

Welcome back! Thanks for sharing the article. I agree about tragic endings being satisfying to an audience Bob Harper . It can feel like an actual betrayal when a tragic ending fulls undeserved or not earned.

Thanks for sharing this article. Bob Harper.

Great share!

Wow !! Bob Harper , great share !! many thanks !!

Vincent Turner for VFX. YES, pre-graded plates also work.

This is really cool and interesting. Will share with some folks I know who have been trying to figure out how to produce animated features. Thanks, Kumar Sambhav!

Many thanks Sam Sokolow really appreciate it.

Wonderfully written article, Kumar, I liked that you mentioned the examples of Chhota Bheem and Arjun. Green Gold Animation has been using this technique since its inception; they are efficiently producing animation at a low cost. You could have elaborated on it. It's nice to read such insights from you. Well done.

Wardaan T Thank you

These are all clips from different episodes, so they would be written in the context of their individual episode as any script would be written.

Not sure if I understand the question. They would have been written in a script, but to be honest, for scenes like these, the storyboards would have been way more important.

Anna Marton Henry The truism in regard to children audiences wanting to see a step older than they are still is the prevailing narrative, but we are finding that children are accessing even older skewing content, yet rarely go in reverse. As far as where shows come from, they happen with waves. For a while, kid show pitches were primarily artist-driven, but writers initiated some. Now I feel it is more open, and especially now that companies are looking for established IP, writers have an advantage in pitching a treatment of an existing IP relying on the inherited visuals that usually go with it. Even shows pitched by an artist will often have another artist assigned to the show once optioned, which has happened to me on a few occasions. I do suggest writers spend a little dough on some visual development for a pitch that will help buyers get a vision for the show.

Bob Harper Many thanks for sharing insight, There is a producer in LA called Mikeyoung he has been doing this for the last 20 years, before covid the 90min 3d CGI he would spend 10mn and get it done from an Indian studio , After covid and scenario changed and our industry adapted work from home seamlessly costing further dropped, and blender and unreal emerged, netflix bought few movies based on this pipeline. So I decided to pass on this heavy-duty discount to producers who want to produce simple 3D Animation content. We recently delivered Dragonero to one of our client on belnder, its Airing now, https://youtu.be/xjCyTwa98UY?si=928qyj8f77znaXRy

So i wanted to tap into that specific niche or group of producers who really want to get their content out , recently in kids screen i met Carl Reed, founder Lionforge, he makes a movie in $800k and sells it via markets . Carl reed has found his team, but I wonder there may be more like him who are looking for this kinda teams. I want to learn how find those producers.

Kumar Sambhav I'm familiar with Mike and Carl, and as you have noted they have brought the budgets way down. $800k gives you a better chance of finding the right property. I would suggest checking the list of attendees for all of the major shows like Kidscreen, MIP, and AFM and seeing which ones distribute or produce animated and/or family films. Be direct by asking them what budgets work for them and see if you can engineer it to their needs and yours. What I heard from some of the buyers was that their concern wasn't so much about production costs but marketing costs. The Asylum has a model of doing animated mockbusters, but their budgets are even lower.

Thanks so much for your input, Bob. Are you available for further conversations? Through Stage 32?

Prema Rose I'm glad to be of help. We still have a few more hours on this AMA, so please feel free to ask further questions.