Cylon and Garfunkel

I just notice, when you see Cylon and Garfunkel take the stage, there is only one microphone. Cylon has to bend over to share it. When they change to a back view, there is a second microphone by Cylon.

--Larry

Larry F wrote:

I noticed that, I blame the overseas director.

"Mike Zaite" wrote in message news:[email]...

And why the heck blame someone for doing what they're told to do! I guess it's just so easy to point the finger at "overseas". I've seen a few cases in this ng where the finger has been pointed to the overseas studio and none of them have been correct. Unfortunately, most people have no idea how the TV animation process works. Sometimes the so called errors are actually intentional, or in some cases just haven't been caught through the entire process. Some things just "fall through the cracks".

Sometimes I feel that if people are catching these kind of things the they are obviously not caught up in the story enough.

Anyway... having spent the last couple of years in Korea, I thought that would atleast offer up some kind of response on their behalf regarding comments of this nature.

chan

chan555 wrote:

Yes, it is.

"Mike Zaite" wrote in message news:[email]...

You funny man, Mr. Mike.

-chan

On Fri, 27 Apr 2001 04:52:40 GMT, "chan555" wrote:

I noticed it the forth time I viewed it. The first times it went right by me.

I'm just guessing here, but this seems like a likely explanation. Two different animators or teams of animators worked on the scene. One did the front view, the other did the back. Since the scene from the back is very short, either they never noticed or they didn't consider it important enough to re-do the scene. If that is the case, the animation director Korea and the proof editor in the US are both responsible.

The Korean animators work off of storyboards created in the US. The storyboards may have had the error on them, then it would be the storyboard artists fault. Other times they put in little "easter eggs" for the audience to find. Matt Groeing said in interviews that they planned to put in content for people who watch repeatedly and freeze frame. For example, the Nibbler shadow on the wall in ep 1 is only there for a few frames.

--Larry

"Larry F" wrote in message news:[email]...

Well the animation process is of course much more complicated than that, but yes in general most animated TV shows are done somewhat as you say, with some exceptions.

Procedures for most shows: A show is written, recorded. Then the animation production team (in the states, assuming a US TV show) takes these and through a Director, the show is storyboarded, models (character, backgrounds, props) are designed, color models done, x-sheet timing (precise timing of actions/camera moves according to frames) and then after all checked by the directors and/or checkers the package is shipped "overseas". "Overseas" would be responsible for creating all the drawings necessary for the action according to what was indicated in the materials provided. The drawings... after layouts, animating, model check, clean-up/in-between, the drawings are colored (either by hand or digitally) and then either composited digitally or shot on film. The "Take 1" film is then shipped back to the Animation Production team in the States where it is edited, viewed and "retakes" are called. The retake process could go back and forth several times until everything is acceptably correct (or time runs out). Then after the final takes are all assembled the final sound is synced up and music/sound effects added. ( Again this explanation of the process is more accurate all though still simplified.)

On shows like "Simpsons" and "Futurama" the process has most of the same steps but some are done in different places. For instance, the layout stage (the process of 'laying out' the individual scenes full size, with more drawings/poses than are indicated in the storyboard and the background and camera size and positions) is done at the Animation Production Company in the states. This allows the Directors to have much more control over the acting and final result. Also changes can be made to make the story 'read' better. After that an "Animatic" is made by compositing the layout drawings in accordance to the specified timing on the x-sheets and adding the sound track. The writers then view this "Animatic" to get an idea if the story is working and if anything needs to be changed. (The show is just in B&W line drawings at this point.) Rewrites are done, re-recorded and layouts, timing, etc. adjusted according to the changes. When all the final tweaks are done the package is boxed up and shipped to "overseas". "Overseas" follows the exact information that was provided and sends back the completed animation(Take 1). In Futurama's case the final compositing is done in Los Angeles at the Animation Production company. The US Animation Directors view the film, call retakes and then the color film is shown to the writers for further "tweaks"/revisions. The retakes are then done (the LA and "overseas" studios combined) and then on to the rest of the process... sound/efx/music, etc. (not to mention final editing to get the show down to exactly the allotted time (~22min.).

I guess my point in explaining all of this is that you can't (shouldn't) blame one or two people for a mistake in animation. The process is so involved that the it often involves hundreds of people to put together one show over perhaps an 6-8 month period. Yes, mistakes get through, but to blame an individual (or just "overseas" for that matter) is rather ridiculous considering over 20-40 people down the line didn't catch it or thought it not necessary to fix.

I have no problem with people picking out errors, as I do that myself, but when people try to blindly put the blame on a small group of people or individual without knowing what's involved... I find that ludicrous. (Thus, being Usenet, I'm expressing my opinion ;-) ).

I remember about a week ago, people were commenting on the show where Leela had two eyes. The apparent "mistake" that Leela's fake eye didn't follow the real eye in the first few scenes but then acted as a normal eye in the rest of the show, was eventually blamed on the "Korean animators". The fact is that it was an intentional decision to do it that way by the writers, etc.. I believe that it was felt that if it continued through the whole show, it would detract from the story and affect other jokes, etc.. I believe that they were probably right in their decision, eventually it would get to distracting. ( I think that the writers, being writers, want the jokes and writing to come across as strongly as possible and don't like to rely in "visual" jokes, or at least they don't want one joke to carry on so that it detracts from another ....[I'm not a writer so I'm not sure if I worded that as best as I could, but perhaps people will get the meaning ;-)] ).

Anyway... thanks for listening... and now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

-chan

chan555 wrote:

"Mike Zaite" wrote in message news:[email]...

(snip)

(snip)

they

Futurama

that

joke.

Well, I won't argue with that. But I have one question...

Can you account for the whereabouts of your _Cat_ at the time of the writing of these episodes in question?

;-) -chan

chan555 wrote:

"Not to the best of my recollection."

On Fri, 27 Apr 2001 09:32:48 GMT, "chan555" wrote:

Obviously, you know the inner workings of Fox's animation far better than I do. Thanks for the information. Do you work in the animation field?

It's a good reminder of how much work it really takes to put one episode together. We search for the little flaws in the process, not to put the shows creators down, but rather because the show is so good that it deserves repeated viewing. Since they put in so much attention to detail, we pay attention to it as well.

--Larry

=v= Obviously, a roadie ran out and set up another mic
between the two scenes.
    Helpfully,                                          .-.  .-.
    <_Jym_>                                            /  / /  /
  |\/\/\/|                                            /  / /  /

Or a wizard.

Paul

A wizard roadie?

Larry F wrote in message news:[email]...

<classic Simpsons quote>

I hope somebody got fired over that blunder.

</classic Simpsons quote>

:)

if it were up to you Fraggler, no one would be working @ Futurama anymore.

petben wrote in message news:B70C45D8.4F62%[email]...

At least I don't wear a shirt that says "Genius at Work"...

:)

"Larry F" escribi� en el mensaje news:[email]...

A wizard did it.

C-Ya,

Ruben Gutierrez.

"Larry F" wrote in message news:[email]...

I was too busy trying to breathe after laughing so hard from hearing the Cylon sing.

On Wed, 25 Apr 2001 11:30:18 -0400, "Han" wrote:

I missed it the first three times, but the forth time . . .

--Larry