Okay so this is actually going to be kind of a test to see if I can use this speech to text thing because this one anonymous person has sent me a really long message asking a lot of questions so here we go-
Okay so this is actually going to be kind of a test to see if I can use this speech to text thing because this one anonymous person has sent me a really long message asking a lot of questions so here we go-
Anonymous asked: Hi! Since your characters have the most beautiful and well-defined personalities, I wanted to ask: how do you do that? How can you create such a wonderful and astonishingly realistic thing? What's on your mind while creating and then developing new characters? P.S.: I'm sorry - I apologise for any grammatical errors... I'm Italian :)
yikes, hard question- because I’m not sure, because I let the characters do all the work for me! I guess I’ve always observed people, how they talk and act when they’re feeling certain ways, and I’ve always been very empathetic- meaning that I often don’t just correctly observe how people are feeling, but I actually end up feeling the same way as they do (which can be exhausting and I have to be careful with!). Basically I just create a thought experiment: create a scenario and put characters into it, and see how they react. I can only do this with characters I feel I understand very well, obviously, but really I just sit back and let it play out in my head and my heart. When I think I have enough of a grip on it in my mind, then I start roughing out the comic.
Much of the framing and layout stuff has come just by doing it for a lot of years (working as a storyboarder certainly helped), so the best way to pick that stuff up is to read lots of comics, watch lots of visual media, and draw draw draw. For the acting out of personalities, I can only assume the same, but if I can’t feel or ‘naturally’ feel what a character would do in response to a situation then I have to reconsider things, or simply just wait, or backtrack- is there something else that happened before this that does not flow naturally? Is there someone else who did something that feels ‘out of character’? Is this the way this character REALLY wants to react, or have they got another angle?
In terms of creating characters with personalities, again I feel I cheat, because I usually am partly ‘approached’ by them rather than making them up from start to finish. Time’s rather abrupt and stark, panel abusing personality just appeared as a consequence of what he is and how he exists, mixed in with the behaviour of his acquaintances the Mad March Hare and the Mad Hatter. The fact that he has an Aussie accent in my head is a total surprise to me.
Uhhhh basically SIT AND THINK. THINK THINK. BUT NOT TOO HARD because the character is the one who thinks. You listen. Writing people is about listening to the people in your head. Yeah.
Anonymous asked: Uncle Mod I really love your comics and they inspire me to create art. I've taken classes since I was a kid and write often, but somehow it's like I'm never good enough? We aren't allowed to do anything cartoony in class, just realistic stuff. I can't do anatomy and my writing goes to pieces. I know I've been given the opportunities to learn, but I feel like I've wasted them. I'm 15 this year so I know I've got time to learn, but I can't help but feel lost. do you have any advice?
putting this one under a cut ‘cause it got way long!
Anonymous asked: Forgive my memory if I'm wrong, but you used to rp right? Do you still rp? I used to rp and I used to love it so much and I'm still trying to rp but the fun of it has disappeared but I /want/ to enjoy it again. I just wanted to know if maybe you grew out of it? So maybe I could tell myself it's okay to just let go of it or something? I'm sorry for dropping such an odd question of little relevance on you just like that. I hope you have a good day!
whoops got a lil’ TL:DR lemme just put a readmore here-
Anonymous asked: uncle mod this might be kinda personal but, how? how do you stay so motivated. you have EDS just like I do but you don't seem to slow down at all and you don't let it dent your love of things, you don't hide the fact that you have it and when you've talked about it you don't sugar coat but- how? I'm so tired, of being so tired, how do you still be so... cartoonish? about life?
gonna get a little long so
Anonymous asked: I feel like you're the only person I actually trust with characters these days- so how do you think the new DuckTales show should handle Gladstone?
Woah that’s a big compliment, also a big question! I’m sure I’ll be happy with what happens (I mean shucks I’m just glad it is happening), and besides I am just me I’m no writing expert. Having said that there are some hit/miss things I feel could easily happen with Gladstone, so I guess here’s my perspective;
Best case scenario: Accepting and embracing Gladstone as morally grey and using the benefits of a ‘wild card’ character. Now, it’s to be noted that I’m not expecting any character development or exploration for him, at least not in the first season. This show is probably going to be introducing him as a brand new character, as a lot of people (in the USA at least) have never heard of him, so most likely he’ll be introduced and set up simply as a rival to Donald. So far so good and fair enough, but what I’d love to see is the show taking advantage of this rare gift of an unusual character who is a power of self-interest. Gladstone can swing to either side of the good/bad spectrum depending on circumstances, but ultimately wouldn’t do anything to seriously jeopardise his family, or anyone else for that matter. There’s also the joy that ‘fairness’ plays into what happens to him and Donald; when Donald cheats, Gladstone wins outright. When Donald is honest and works hard, even if Gladstone wins the race or wins the prize, there is something that happens to makes it clear Donald actually came out a lot better than Gladstone did. Ideally, for me, the show would gradually lead to indications that Gladstone is a deeply isolated character; not simply because it makes sense psychologically, but because narratively it’s a very compelling source of story material, and gives his personality a great deal of intrigue. Whether they play it that Gladstone is aware of this loneliness or not doesn’t matter, but removing that aspect of melancholy from him reduces him to a very two-dimensional character, and not in the cartoon sense.
Worst case scenario: Pushing Gladstone into the vapid, annoying, just-plain-unlikeable antagonist corner. Similarly, making him too much like Glomgold- Glomgold fits well into the ‘evil twin’ stereotype and doesn’t much care if Scrooge and his nephews suffer (or even die, in some stories). Glomgold will do anything to win, whereas Gladstone certainly likes to win, but wouldn’t go out of his way to hurt Donald to do so (he’s too lazy, for one). They are opposites; Donald is unlucky, wildly passionate, and will work very hard if he has to, whereas Gladstone is lucky, aloof, and avoids work where-ever possible. He’s not a bad guy, he’s simply not a particularly good guy either; the ultimate chaotic neutral. My fear is that this subtlety could be run over in favour of just making him into an evil ‘anti-Donald’, which would feel lazy and destroy his appeal even as an antagonist. All the ‘bad guys’ in the Duckverse have some redeeming quality, some extra angle that makes you love them- you kind of want the Beagle Boys to get into the Money Bin, because they try so hard, and they’re adorable! You want to see Magica De Spell get hold of that dime, because she’s exciting, outrageous, and the stakes are so high! All I wish for is that Gladstone not simply be ‘the person that you hate because he’s an ass’- because then people won’t even love to hate him, it’ll just be a knee-jerk reaction of ‘oh god not this guy again’ whenever he shows up, which isn’t enjoyable on any level. We need to want to see Gladstone’s hilariously absurd luck- we need to want to see him fail because he hasn’t earned the right to win- and most of all we need to want to see him do the right thing, because as unusual as it is we know it’s possible- and that makes it infinitely rewarding when it happens.
(Tiny personal fear which is petty as hell: An annoying voice. Please, god, he’s supposed to be attractive and is canonically good at singing don’t give him an annoying voice. Make him brassy and brash sure but please...)
Anonymous asked: no offence pal but why on earth do you like Gladstone he's an ass
I can see where you’re coming from buddy, but incoming TL:DR because I like me a complex character breakdown study-
Unrelated to everything else, can I just whisper a few words in those shell-pink ears of yours, Tellyheads? Because I love you and you know that, but I have had rather disappointing news lately about less-than lovely behaviour. So far as I know you’ve been wonderful as a fandom so far, and I really, really want it to stay as a chill and friendly club and not a… well, let’s just say I want it to stay that way as much as possible.
The thing I need to say is RGB is not, will never be, has never been, the only character with television for a head to exist. I didn’t even know object heads, as a category of character design, existed! Until I fell down the rabbit hole of drawing this guy on a whim, and now look where we are. The thing is, there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of other people who have characters with television sets for heads out there; some who designed them before me, some after, but like, 99% of the time they will never ever have heard of or read TPoH or be basing it off RGB, so going out to them and accusing them of it is… not nice. Please, don’t do that.
It’s very hurtful to have someone say to you that your original, personal, deeply-thought-out design is a copy of someone else’s, and worse still if you’re told that you’re bad and should stop drawing them. It happens to all of us at some point! Heck, when I started TPoH I was asked so often if I’d read Saga that I’ve effectively been put off from doing so (but I hope I’ll get over that because I’m sure it’s awesome, really), but nobody told me to stop drawing. Even if a character was inspired by RGB, it has inspired a person to make something, another new character! And I’m all about that; if you’ve been reading the comic, you’ll know that! Unless the character is very obviously a trace-job of him (and even then people learn by copying so like, whatever) or recolouring entire pages and I saying ‘I did this’, I’m happy for them to be doing their own thing! Yes, their are copycats out there, but there is such a thing as coincidence, and zeitgeist, and luck.
Most of you folks likely know that Charles Darwin got his celeb on by publishing a paper called ‘On the Origin of Species’; well, some of you clever cookies might also know that another dude submitted a paper with almost exactly the same theory at exactly the same time. The only reason we know about Darwin’s theory of Evolution, and not the other guy, is because Darwin’s name appeared first alphabetically. Same goes for this trope- dude with TV head takes a protagonist to another world on a zany adventure. There can be ten thousand differences in the two stories from this point. Story structures like this overlap and coincide all the time, and the two writers making these stories can have absolutely no connection to each other. I kind of side with the idea that some stories just, exist outside of us- outside of people, and wander down from their hammock in the sky and sit on a person one day saying “hey, write me.” How that person goes about it, however, it up to the person. If someone else had started their version of this story before me, I’d be the one being slandered for pinching their idea.
So, TL:DR- I know the people that this addresses acted with good intentions, but don’t be hasty, and don’t be mean? Please. I want this story and its following to be a not mean place for people. That would be really nice.
Anonymous asked: okay so I have been reading back through all the doodle comics you've made that I have loved (all of them), and the thing that always gets me is how you get the 'tone' of them right. Like, on the nose this-could-be-in-this-show right; and they're completely different! Gravity Falls, Osomatsu-san, Wander Over Yonder, Ace Attorney... hell, THAT comic felt more real than the game's actual ending! So... How do you do that? Do you have any advice on that part of writing? :o
Gosh that’s very awesome to hear, that you feel that way? Because I do try very hard to do that! However I am not really sure about how to advise on it, which sounds lame but it’s true! I suppose mostly it’s practice, and I did used to do a lot of RP writing, which requires getting into the skin of a character so completely that you can respond in their ‘voice’ almost without thinking. It was a great exercise for spontaneous plot reaction too- and really that is all a story is. You put a character, who is and exists and has feelings and a history, into a situation; you let the character respond to that situation, and that is how the story happens. If you put a character into a situation and force the outcome then it won’t feel right, no matter how many lens flares and explosions you put in; the motions of the characters have to come from the emotions of the characters, and I guess every show, game and movie has their own emotional vibe and sense of timing as well? Treat the world as a character: how does it breathe? Space and time are inherently linked, perhaps we can say that every ‘world’ has its own form of time; so how does that space dictate the timing of the story you want to write? Maybe that’s nonsense. Maybe I don’t care.
Basically get out there and try and try and get it wrong until you get it right!
Anonymous asked: Hi modmad! If it wouldn't be too much to ask; I realized that you have studied animation at VFS and wondered if you could tell me a little about your own experience there. I am thinking of going into animation myself and was quite interested in their approach with a one-year intensive education. Did you like it and how do you think it worked out? And also how was your everyday life studying there? Hope I wouldn't disturb you too much
Alrighty-roo so I get asked this sort of thing a fair bit, which is super okay because boy howdy I loved my time at VFS but I get asked a lot so I’m going to make this my staple refer-to answer for all those askers to come; aka this is gonna be long folks, hit J to skip if you want to ignore it!
Personally I found that the year I spent at VFS was one of the best of my life. I had wonderful, friendly, wildly inventive classmates, the teachers were professional, personal and approachable, and every day I felt like I was this shrivelled up sponge being soaked in warm tasty information soup, and would have to stagger back home with my head swollen with the day’s absorption of data swilling around my brain. It was marvellous. I miss it constantly.
HOWEVER; it is very worth noting that before I went to VFS I had not only taken a foundation art year and studied art at A-level, but had also dabbled in animation at home, had done some work experience at a stop-motion animation company, and I had already taken a three year animation course! So… why did I go on to VFS at all? Well, the three year course I took was, to put in politely, not a good one. In fact I was clinically depressed by the third year and thought I could not draw for metaphorical toffee, it was only by the strong will and good sense of my parents that I even dared to try again, and I am so glad I did. The upshot of that course, however, was that I had the benefit of three years worth of time to practice, and the reading list that the place-I-had-studied-in-which-I-won’t-be-naming supplied (which I did, in fact, hunt down all the books from, read every single one and did many of the exercises that they suggested).
Here I must emphasise that VFS does a one year course of classical animation, and let me tell you that is absurdly short. If you aren’t used to drawing a lot (and I mean a lot) every day, or have absolutely no reading or practice with animation, it could very well be overwhelming. It might not be! You might go there and think it’s a walk in the park, I don’t know! But I could not in good conscience just wave the VFS flag and say THIS IS THE BEST COURSE GO DO THIS COURSE IT WILL BE AWESOME without due warning, because I learned everything I had learned in three years within the first two months at VFS.
Yeah. Wow.
I also had the extreme good luck to have, as stated before, a wonderful class. Now, generally I think the people who work hard enough to get onto any animation course have to be dedicated and bonkers people, but it is still possible to have classmates that don’t ‘click’ with you or each other, and I have seen art classes that have an atmosphere I really would not want to be in. That is something nobody can predict or guarantee and any course will have this hazard. I, on the other hand, loved all my classmates and I cannot wait for a reunion because I miss the heckity darn out of all of them.
Another thing to note (and this applies to any art course out there), is that the course at VFS is very much a you-get-out-what-you-put-in situation. It is intense, yes, the teachers have worked in professional circumstances and are great people to learn from, yes, the assignments they give you are tried and tested means to bring out the best in your abilities, yes, but when it comes down to it the person who has to work, who has to learn, is you. If long hours and constant, challenging assignments sounds like no fun at all, then perhaps this isn’t for you. I literally went into school every day of the week! Including Sundays! They lock the school on the few holidays there are so that students can’t get in to keep working because they know they need to take a week off! No! I’m not joking. Eventually I had to give myself Sunday mornings off because golly it’s important to rest, and I learned to not stay in school working past 8pm for the same reason, and yet I did go in and I did work and I loved it. Nobody forced me to do this, but it was necessary, I felt, to complete the work I had, and to be able to without falling apart at the seams. I actually did contract tendonitis in the second term, which is notorious as the hardest term (and it’s way before you start your final film! yikes), but I recovered and I learned from it and I kept on rolling to the end. Some people did things differently- some preferred to stay late and keep weekends free, some did all nighters, but whatever your approach it is your responsibility. The teachers can give you advice on it, but when it boils down to it this course relies on you; your common sense, your dedication, and your love of the subject.
Finally, and this is the weak note; it has been several years since I attended VFS. While I knew their syllabus when I was there, and it was an effective and stimulating one, I do not know it now, and while I suspect it will be largely the same (when I was there I learned the basic core of it hadn’t changed for several decades because it worked damnit) I have no way of truly knowing that now. I also don’t know you! I don’t know what you want, what your past experiences are, or how well this course will suit you. I do know, however, that the staff are friendly and will call you back if you send them an email; they called me a few days after I sent an email describing my interest, and I live in the UK! Imagine my shock, this school I had heard of as somewhere so prestigious, calling unable-to-draw–diddly-squat me, from Canada!
That was my first indication of what the thing that makes VFS so good; they care. They want to know you, they want to know your queries, and they want to know about your ambitions. Talk to them, and then think. Take your time in deciding. They start courses three times a year (or did when I was there), so there are always new opportunities to slot in, and there will be two other classes to talk to and make friends with at all times- if you somehow have bad luck and your classmates aren’t the coolest of cucumbers, the odds are very good that there will be people you can befriend in other classes. As for the teachers, I am in contact with many of them still (one got me my first job and went on to be my director!), and while I will always see them as my tutors I will always think of them as my friends, too.
So yeah, TL:DR = for me VFS was amazing and I would love to live it all over again, but every experience is tailored by context and just because it was perfect for me doesn’t mean it will be perfect for you!