Watching EVERY SpongeBob episode made ME a Better Animator

what's up everybody it is jabril with animation hustle it is great to see you again I wanted to try a new type of video today so please bear with me uh like many of you I grew up watching tons of cartoons everything on Nickelodeon Disney Channel Cartoon Network in the '90s and early 2000s is what really inspired me to want to become an animator but around Middle School I stopped passively watching these shows and made the conscious effort to study them what I mean by that is when I would watch them I would pause them go to through frame by frame or maybe Trace over the characters all in an effort to try to figure out how these shows were made even though I eventually went on to go to film school at USC the lessons I learned from the TV screen were all super valuable in creating my Foundation as an artist so I wanted to share some of those lessons I've learned in this brand new series uh let's jump right into it with a discussion of my favorite show SpongeBob SquarePants like a lot of people SpongeBob has always had a very special place in my heart it is one of my all-time favorite cartoons and as a teenager I actually won a Nickelodeon Animation Festival and my family and I got to go to Nickelodeon Studios and learn how they make the show firsthand it was a great experience it was a great day hanging with family at Nickelodeon talking about cartoons it was awesome the first couple seasons of SpongeBobs are pure classics you can't deny it there is so much Artistry in the show from the writing to the storyboarding to the voice acting to the backgrounds to the props to the music everything comes together in such an iconic way is no surprise that it's such a legendary series while studying SpongeBob with the lenss of an animator and a producer and a writer I learned four main things one be true to yourself two think about World building three sound is important and four embrace the creativity of animation [Music] first up we have be true to yourself so SpongeBob was created by Steven helenberg who went to Cal arts and was already working at Nickelodeon but before but before he made SpongeBob uh his first love was marine biology in the 80s he was working at the Marine Institute where he was able to explore his fascination with sea life every single day his passion for the Ocean mixed with his passion for art and an incredible unique way that would eventually make one of the most successful shows of all time to me this is a lesson in being true to yourself he didn't make something that was following Trends or something that was expected of him instead he started by coming up with something that was personal to him it's hard to stand out in animation these days and I think that one of the best ways to get notice is to just by being you um I like to let my own unique interests and life experiences combined with my artistic experiences to create something that is one-of aind and hopefully you're out there doing the [Music] same next up we have World building I feel like Spongebob doesn't get enough credit for just how great the World building is the team was able to create a brand new distinct world that resonates to this day Bikini Bottom is a fish City like no other um I think a bunch of small details add up to really flesh out a fully realized World here uh there are no cars they have boats you know they aren't hamburgers they're Krabby Patties even the clouds in the sky are unique and iconic does it make sense no but does it look cool absolutely looking at the backgrounds of the show you can tell it's sponge it's you can tell it's SpongeBob's World houses are not normal houses their Beach is not water it's goo there's bamboo sticks everywhere cats are snails dogs are worms they go jellyfishing it's such a vibrant World fantasy series like Harry Potter and Star Wars often get credit for their attention to Det detail in the world building but even though it's a light-hearted fun comedy show they went out of their way to create a fully unique World in Bikini Bottom it's got its own crazy logic that is really fun to explore I think that's one of the key elements in creating awesome stories you have to not only give the audience characters they want to hang out with but also a place they'd want to hang out in with those characters and SpongeBob does it perfectly [Music] next up let's talk about sound another thing I learned from SpongeBob that is often overlooked is how to use sound effectively to tell your stories and sell your jokes we all know the music of SpongeBob right the soundtrack of Hawaiian surf Rock and classical all Blends together in a surprisingly cohesive way but when I'm talking about sound I'm talking specifically about the sound effects some of the best jokes some of the best jokes are made even better just because the sound effects they use in the moment I'm thinking a SpongeBob squeaky boots episode or even they did an entire episode where they use the dolphin sound instead of the sensor bleep and it's hilarious a lot of the characters themselves have iconic sounds as well all right so let's play a game I bet you can tell what SpongeBob character is walking simply by the sound effect let's go I think having such distinct sound design lets the audience clearly identify the characters in a way that a lot of shows honestly gloss over not only does the show look unique but it also sounds unique as [Music] well one of the simple things I learned from SpongeBob is How to storyboard comedy SpongeBob as we know is a storyboard driven show so a lot of the jokes are visual and you have to frame it right and Stage it right and get the acting down in a way that the audience knows what the punchline is and Spongebob crew is obviously a master at that when I was growing up when I was pausing the show I would study the shots they would use and why they would use them and that kind of led me deeper into the storyboarding process framing layout continuity all that good stuff um as I got deeper and deeper and deeper into storyboarding I found more resources and one of the best resources out there is an online series by Sherm Cohen the storyboard artist on SpongeBob and he breaks down all the principles and techniques they use to make SpongeBob in his online series storyboard Secrets Sher broke down the visual language of SpongeBob and comedy and gave us the DNA of what it takes to make SpongeBob funny but when you break it down it's interesting to to see how much craftsmanship goes into the storyboarding process I definitely recommend if you are a starting storyboard artist or just a aspiring storyboard artist to check out Sherm's storyboard Secrets it's online tons of great info there but I would not have found that resource if it wasn't for [Music] SpongeBob lastly I think the ultimate best lesson to learn from SpongeBob is to embrace creativity and embrace animation everything about this show is so unique and so imaginative that it wouldn't be able to be done in any other medium but animation and it's great to see the team really push that for comedy in all these different ways whether they're using puppets or stop motion or liveaction all that good stuff or if they're telling stories that would be impossible to tell without drawn characters I think it's important for all all animators to look at projects and think why is this animated why are we dedicating hours and hours and hours and hours of frame by frame animation to tell these stories if you don't have a unique distinct answer you probably shouldn't be animating it you probably should be filming it on your iPhone over the weekend and calling it a day so there you have it those are four lessons I learned from SpongeBob when studying it as I was growing up I use these lessons every every single day in my professional work and I hope they inspire you to be become a better Artist as well if you watch SpongeBob growing up tell me what artistic inspiration you got from it or in the comments down below also let me know what shows inspired you to get into animation don't forget we're on Instagram and we have new videos coming on YouTube so subscribe and I'll see you guys in the next [Music] one [Music] nah

Channel: Animation Hustle

Views: 100,614

Keywords: Animation, walk cycle, animation studio, how to animate, making cartoons, animation inspiration, animator motivation

Id: LoqInYFWmpU

Length: 9min 9sec (549 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 11 2023