Genndy Tartakovsky's 7 INSPIRING Rules for Animators

what's up everybody this is jabril with animation hustle and i hope you're having a fantastic day in this video we're going to be looking at some advice from my favorite animator gendy tartakovsky if you guys don't know him the calarts grad who went on to create dexter's lab samurai jack directed the hotel transylvania series over at sony and most recently has been working on primal at adult swim gendy has done it all he's worked in tv shows movies commercials he's made comedy action drama he's working in so many different styles and genres and mediums and platforms that i'm excited to jump in and see what insight he has for animators of all skill levels this whole channel is focusing on giving animators a look at the mindset it needs to succeed in the animation industry and gendi is a prime example of an animator who is not only incredibly talented but also has the right state of mind to take his career and craft to the next level before we jump into it i hope you already hit that like button and are following us on instagram i post animation inspiration all the time you don't want to miss it all right let's get into it these are some rules for animators by gendy tartakov [Music] i didn't believe in test screenings because from tv i hated focus groups like i never had a good focus group and i never trusted it there's like 12 people in the room and they judge your life you know and it's totally different because tv you watch by yourself so it's a totally different experience so going to our first test screening i was really nervous because i wasn't sure and boy did i love it because it was the same thing it's like i felt myself with the audience you know and i could even though i've seen it a thousand times i felt what the audience was feeling and then i could see like oh yeah this is way too slow up here or way too fast or that joke's not landing and then we started because we were making a you know big comedy we had a lot of jokes and then it would be like well i like this joke and then they go well i like this joke and then we would put up in test screening and see what joke would win you know so even even you you trust the audience and uh and i always worry that even the test screening audience would be different than the real one and then when i compared the two like slightly different but generally pretty close you know so i used it as a tool you know i fixed a lot of gags because you know like one thing in tv like you know that you're always timing for well people should be laughing here right and it's a really dangerous thing because if they're not then it's just the slow pause right in the thing so i'm really scared of that so not going into a thing where you could sit with an audience and like in some cases people were laughing into the next joke and so the next joke totally failed and so i would be had an opportunity to open it up and then sure enough both jokes would get good laughs right right and so that was a great tool to use to for the comedy and there's a there's a big difference between obviously between animation and live action but when you watch live action timing you can hold on somebody's face and that actor's face can emote for you know 20 30 seconds you know in animation we're trained almost because we don't have a camera we don't have a character a live-action person emoting so subtly you want to just get off of him or her really quick right so our holds might be two seconds three seconds at the most you know and i've worked with other studios uh in my early days and everything is just zip zip zip zip zip you know like a you know a normal establishing pan it's going to be three and a half seconds that's the formula and get out you know and i'm like oh but you don't feel it you just go over you know and so from jack from dexter i started to really work on trying to communicate ideas because that's my job as a director to communicate to make you feel something so if you're watching a horizon it's slow enough and the music is right or the sound effects is right that you're you're really feeling the wind and you're feeling the softness and and good cinema does that being at the right place right time i can't help you with that hard work you know it's uh i talked at usc a couple years ago and a kid goes how do you work so hard you know and i couldn't believe this question because this is you know we're not mopping up floors we're not washing dishes this is what we love to do if you're in animation and it takes a lot of work and commitment and uh to get better and to get good uh don't waste an opportunity if you have an opportunity and you don't have time for it make time for it you know when i didn't like something i redid it at home in my own time and i got so much out of it it's it's crazy the benefits you get out of kind of doing something for free sometimes or on your own you know you're just like you know for two stupid dogs they did some uh walk cycles they hired an animator to do it and i didn't like it and i redid it overnight and then i showed my boss he's like wow these are great here do this opening animate the opening main titles you know so taking an opportunity got me an opportunity yeah i worked night and day making my films way overextended myself and i rose to the top of the program just because not from talent i don't think i had to do anything to the talent i think it just had to do with i just worked six times more than anybody else on it because i was so passionate about it you know my situation was very unique because it was like you know it was an abused property and knowing all that knowing that the story crew's beaten down the you know everybody's beating down executives everybody i have to come in there and i have to have conviction you know like don't that's the only thing i can have to win everybody over is that right to pretend that i know what i'm doing and convince everybody you know that i'm doing it and then we had this amazing three and a half hour uh meeting fight with uh you know the heads of the studios and stuff because she wanted to trust somebody with this with this you know because i think it's when you're especially when you're starting out as a lot of animation directors are and it's your first movie you just want to say yes you know yeah i'll do it your way i'll figure out a way to make that work and i felt like for me this is the wrong opportunity like i got to be like even if she's right i'm gonna say no you know no we can't do that because this is mad and it totally it totally worked but that's things like you you know like when you compare to live action you know a lot of live-action directors are very strong-minded and and you know they don't get you know bullied over they fight and so i felt like i had to do that you know i had to stand up for what i believed in even though if i'm not even there yet story-wise you know and same thing with the crew i came in and the story crew like attacked me you know with all this because they've been there they've been through it yeah we're like well we did that two years ago so i went like i went the opposite of what mark was doing i i said i know exactly what i want this is what i want you have to do this this and that you know in a nice way and then slowly luckily it was working and i started to win win everybody over you know but initially it was it was rough because it was just yeah everything was questioned coming from tv we're a team we're one unit and everybody's going for one goal and there's no defiance in the ranks so to speak you know well with comedic timing it's all about read read and rhythm and that is the same thing with action it's rhythm so when if an action sequence is done really well like if you ever watch bruce lee it's very rhythmic if you watch something else like some normal kung fu type stuff it just just goes but his stuff is very rhythmic so you start to realize like oh yeah good action has good rhythm you watch the beginning of mad max fury road you know that is such an amazing beautiful sequence but it's very rhythmic there's short things and there's long things you know the worst action is when it's just fast there's no rest and you're just obliterated everything's at 11 right and uh and whenever like you know jaws of course the highs and lows are just the ebb and flow is just beautiful and so you know the chase and french connection and all these things are you know uh they affected me and i remember how i felt about it and i'm always trying to capture a feeling there was one sentence that my teacher said and it completely changed the way i drew in one day he raised my ability by 200 and he just said that you know everything is a simple shape and everything is kind of a design of a shape and so all of a sudden instead of just drawing an arm i go here's a muscle and the muscle looks like this instead i thought well here's a shape and this shape looks like a muscle and all of a sudden you're doing caricature and you're in real cartooning because that's what it is well i think the most important thing is you're developing is to have your point of view and point of view i have a point of view you know i think your opinion of things you're who you are and that translated into your work is really one of the most important things you know so you never get lost amongst everybody that you you know you look at your drawing you know it's you you know and you stay right and you stay true to that and you work on really defining who you are in your art you know really just focus on who you are and it's a hard thing because sometimes nobody's going to want your point of view but you got to believe in it you got to try to sell it and become a salesman it's hard for us because we're kind of introverted sometimes as animators we you know we're artists we kind of draw at our desks and we're comfortable with that you have to get out of your own skin and present yourself talk in front of people sell yourself it's a big big deal so there you have it those are some animation tips from gandy tartakovsky one of the greatest animators and probably storytellers of all time hopefully you were as inspired by him as i am in the comments below let me know what animators you want to see featured and i'll try to make a video on them um in the meantime don't forget to follow us on instagram and subscribe here on youtube we have more videos coming your way i'm jabro mack with animation hustle and i'm out [Music] you

Channel: Animation Hustle

Views: 35,597

Keywords: Animation, genndy tartakovsky, cartoon network, how to animate, genndy tartakovsky's primal, samurai jack, dexter's lab, hotel Transylvania, Symbionic Titan, Nickelodeon, Animation tips, Animation Hustle

Id: LRzf6JBVfbM

Length: 9min 48sec (588 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021