THE SIMPSONS NEWS –  See How Easily you can Take a Simple Composition and make it Epic, Simpsons style.

The Simpsons quote:

Marge: Homer, we can’t take his money.
Homer: Aww, I can’t take HIS money, I can’t print MY OWN money, I have to WORK for my money. Why don’t I just lay down and DIE.

Sometime, late in 2001, I was fortunate enough to have worked on one of the funniest episode of season 13, HALF-DECENT PROPOSAL.

This was director Lauren MacMullan’s second episode.

Lauren is an incredible director. The show turned out looking fantastic. This was in no small part, due to her great staging and cinematography.

She isn’t credited with storyboards on the episode and I don’t recall what they looked like but, her dynamic style comes through never the less.

The thing that really stands out to me about this episode looking back is drama and depth of many of her shots.

My personal contribution to the shots was to try to keep the horizon line low where appropriate. This was made easier by the fact that the shots had been set up with so much depth already that it made it all come together that much better.

By depth, I mean that many shots had been set up with clear foreground elements, middle ground elements and background elements.

When you go out of your way brake down compositions this way, you can’t help but to come up with some beautiful, epic shots.

The Epic Shots

Below are samples of shots from sequences I worked on that illustrate my point:

Artie in the foreground + Marge and Homer in the middle ground + Helicopter, ocean and sky in the background + low horizon = one really nice shot.

The shot above, could have been easily staged with Artie walking sideways, “comic strip style” from one side of the boat to Homer and Marge. Instead the shot is of Artie walking toward camera in perspective, stopping to talk the Homer and Marge in the foreground.  It’s much more interesting and dynamic.

It’s always best to try to find ways to get character to walk in and out of the picture. It adds interest.

Centered composition with a low horizon to add interest. The low horizon makes sure that the frame isn’t split right in the middle, making the sky more dominant.  Homer and Marge are in the foreground adding depth.

Once again, low horizon to give the sky dominance put not a straight on composition like before. This time with a two point perceptive to make sure elements in the shot aren’t parallel to the “picture frame” (that was my decision). Artie in the extreme foreground adding depth. I don’t think the board looked quite like this. I plussed it up a bit.

Another one of my sections. Homer in the extreme foreground, Marge in the middle ground, the rest of the room in the background.  Very interesting shot.

I was really having fun with this stuff. It was all about drawing pretty pictures. Marge in the extreme foreground with Homer in the background. Angled shot makes it much more interesting to look at.

Not every shot can have a foreground element. How do you make it interesting? Two point perspective creating angle that go against the picture frame helps.

I just like this shot and I’m proud of the way it came out. I had to draw the shadows too.

I worked on two, maybe three full shots in the dance hall. I was mostly doing the scenes with Marge, Patty and Selma in this act.

I was put on revisions in this sequence, mostly to draw the crowd in the back.  That said, the scene above IS one of the few I did.

Again, instead of Marge simply walking sideways “comic strip style” to the door, we see her recede in space, adding interest and depth.

I’ve written a lot about working with director Jeff Lynch. Oddly enough, working with Lauren often reminded me of working with Jeff. Just like Jeff she also storyboarded and allowed us to animate a little bit more than usual, but also just like Jeff, she wasn’t afraid to do a some crazy camera moves like the one on the right.

Mid-shot of Marge for her line, then she turns and walk out the door as the crowd parts (big pain in the neck to draw).

The camera pulls out to reveal Artie in the foreground (camera cheat).  The camera “spins” around him as he put on his glasses and watches her walk away. This basically mean you animate Artie spinning in place 180 degrees with a slight camera adjust, while the background characters are panned across really fast.

I don’t actually remember drawing Artie in the scene but I think I must have. It’s possible I didn’t. I DO remember working out the technical aspects of the scene and putting the crowd in.

I also remember drawing Marge. That is definitely MY acting she’s doing. Look at that finger sticking up. Why did I do that? I don’t know but it’s was me alright.

My Act 3 work was the whole oil rig sequence beginning with the ride in the bus and the “Mount Carlmore” gag.

Lauren really assigned me a doozy of a section:

Beginning with this scene above with a hand drawn animated lens flair I had to put in. AND animated shadows on the bus.

And then there’s this crazy shot here on the left.  It’s a total cheat that works. The camera moves so fast you don’t see how odd the layout actually is.

Fire in the foreground, characters in the middle ground, PLUS dutch angle. Very dramatic.  The fire, was the bane of my existence. It was such a pain to draw. It took me the most time.

Aaaah! THREE POINT PERPECTIVE! Actually, the shot above was fun to draw and it looks cool.  I’ve very happy with my Homer and Lenny in this shot. It’s not an angle that you draw the characters in often.

Foreground, middle ground and background elements in it as well. The fire and SMOKE made my life hell.

Another three point perspective angle. Lenny as the foreground element.  The fire was awful to work on…

Did I mention the I didn’t like drawing the fire?

Less fire on this one. Very dramatic up shot. Homer and Rig are the foreground elements, helicopter is the middle ground element, sun is the background.  Everything is angled to avoid being parallel with the picture frame.

And my final example:

Marge and Homer in the foreground frame Artie as he struggles to get in the Helicopter.  Fun stuff to draw here. I especially like that I got to animate that quote I posted at the beginning of the post (full circle!). It  makes me laugh.

This is a great episode. There are people out there that complain that later episodes of the show, stop being funny. This one is one of the many episodes that prove them wrong.

My Life with Baron Von Kiss-A-Lot.

I worked on a lot more scenes than the ones I mentioned above. Including this one:

Yup, that’s right, I drew the Baron.

Which is the subject of this week’s e-mail. I write about my thoughts and experiences with the Baron. As well as what I think about this gag.

If you want to read about this, opt in to the e-mail.

The e-mail has been sent out already, BUT if you opt in before next Wednesday, I’ll resend it just for you.

 FAMILY – Poor baby Luke as the Flu

My poor one year old son has the flu.  He’s miserable.

If you’re a parent you know you’d rather be sick then have you’re kids be sick. Especially when you see them feeling so bad.

It’s also, especially tough on my wife since she’s the one who has to put up with all the poopin’ and pukin’.

The baby has puked on my wife quite a few times already.

Baby Luke has had some issues with over filling his diaper, to my wife’s dismay

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