The Art of STODOE

YOUANIMATOR TALKS WITH DAVID STODOLNY

2012-01-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

YouAnimator.com
I spoke with DreamWorks Senior Animator, David Stodolny - who is one of the most humble and talented young animators in the industry. David spoke about the process of working on feature films and what it's like being in the world of feature animation.

YouAnimator: David, you have been given quite a few of the fighting scenes in Kung Fu Panda 2. How did you become the in-house “fighting expert?”

I would never consider myself the "fighting expert" at all but I did get a chance to do some really fun action scenes such as the shot where Po throws a wolf
into the air and is caught by Viper wrapping herself around the wolf, then landing on Tigress's back and then fighting off a pack of wolves with a sword. It was a lot of fun. I would say that I was given that shot based on the fact that I tend to get shots with a lot of characters done quickly. The shot had about 10 wolves in it as well as Viper and Tigress
and a number of different weapons and other constraints. I believe I was given that shot based on how fast I got another shot done in the movie involving 10 or more characters and a lot of crazy actions.
In this industry what you do early in the movie tends to stick with you for the rest of the project.

YouAnimator: Explain to us what the process of assigning shots to animators is at DreamWorks?

I would like to say that assigning projects and shots is very clear and predictable. However, it really depends on the team your working with and how you prove yourself from the start.
Dreamworks is such a big company that you get to work with a lot of different people. Even if you're the "acting guy" on one movie. You may very well become the "action guy" on another.
It totally depends on the team you have working with you and what they cast you on throughout the film.. Overall though it comes down to what shots are available or "in inventory" Everyone for the most
part works on a couple of acting shots and action shots throughout the movie. But it really does change and evolve over the project which keeps things fresh and exciting.

YouAnimator: Once you’ve received the shots – what process do you usually take to turn it into a finished piece?

Once we get cast on a shot we get "launched" by the director where he/she tells us what the overall feeling or point of the shot is.
We take those notes and inject any ideas we may have an then the whole team agrees on the best way to handle the shot. Then we go back to
our desks and block out our idea in rough version of the scene. We then show the director and our leads and in turn get more notes that narrow
down the performance. We continue to work through this over a couple of meetings. We add details until it's exactly what the director saw in his/her vision.
We get it approved and then it becomes part of the movie.

YouAnimator: You’ve had the chance to work on quite a lot of interesting shots thus far during your not-so-long career already. Do you have a favorite?

I honestly think my favourite shot of my career was in Surf's Up. The first time that Cody meets Lani. He's really uncomfortable and trying to act cool but
his inexperience talking to girls is evident. It was a fun shot to shoot reference for as well as animate. Whether or not I think this was the best shot I've animated,
I definitely think it's one of the shots I've had the most fun animating.

YouAnimator: I have noticed that Canada has a disproportional number of animators in the US industry? What is the secret?

Disproportional as in BIG? haha... I would agree. Canadian animators have always been a huge part of the industry. For years, Sheridan College which is in Canada
has always had a huge part in supplying animators to the industry. Although there are a lot of great schools now that are pumping out amazing animators, Canada has always been an incredible source of talent when it comes to the animation field. I mean it's cold as hell up there. We enjoy staying inside and honing our
animation skills and drawing and acting skills rather than playing outside in the snow........okay sometimes we miss the snow too.

YouAnimator: What short advice would you give anyone who is dreaming about working in the animation industry?

I would say if you love it........DO IT! There are so many of my friends in the industry that said their parents tried to stop them saying there is
no career in it. No Longevity in it. I'll tell you that if you work hard and stay with it there is a VERY successful career in it for you. For instance, I have a friend
who's parents told him he was wasting his time. He kept on applying to Sheridan anyway. He is now the director of a very successful TV show. I bet his parents
are proud as hell of him, as well as never admitting that they ever doubted him. Honestly if you love to create stories and characters, then stay with it. It really
is a really rewarding and exciting career.

David is one of the demo reel judges on YouAnimator. And if you're curious about his demo reel - here it is: http://www.youanimator.com/business-card/1893

MY LATEST MOVIE

2011-10-25T14:16:00.001-07:00

Make sure to check out PUSS IN BOOTS this Halloween weekend. I saw it last weekend with the crew and it turned out amazing. The imagery is beautiful, the animation is incredible and it's genuinely enjoyable from beginning to end. Antonio Banderas steals the show again as Puss. The best thing about this movie is it doesn't feel like a sequel to Shrek. They don't even mention Shrek. It really stands on it's own as a great animation adventure movie.
Go see it and let me know what you think.

P.S. If you're curious about what I animated in it. I did a couple shots with the old crazy man in the prison, I did a bunch of shots during the wagon chase, the campfire scene, the golden egg scene, and the giant goose. I came on pretty late in the movie but I got a couple fun shots.

DAVID STOZOMBIE

2011-10-14T00:10:00.000-07:00

So my friend Elaine Bogan has started drawing a zombie every day in honour of Halloween coming up (check out her blog in my links below) . She's been doing amazing work.
It got me inspired to draw and do my own profile picture of myself as a zombie.
I hadn't drawn in a while so it was nice to just sit and draw again. Hopefully now that I drew this it will inspire
me to get a move on and start my damn short.

SMEARS AND MULTIPLE DRAWINGS CONT'D

2011-08-30T15:53:00.001-07:00

TRANSITIONS, SMEARS AND MULTIPLES

2011-08-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

So a lot of you have been commenting about funny frames in my Harrey Podder short.
As most of you probably know when there's a really fast motion in 2D we don't have the
added benefit of motion blur in most cases like 3D does so we resort to drawing smear drawings
or multiple drawings in one frame to capture all the information that is happening in that tiny amount of time.
I actually wish we had this much control in 3D animation. I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff. This to me is the
most fun part of 2D animation.

I thought I would break some of my scenes down for you to show you in detail how I tackled these situations.
Probably the most fun was the transformation shot of Harrey into a bunny. I hope you enjoy looking at this stuff. I'd love to hear what you think or if you have any questions about my process please let me know.

Some of the images are really small on this page so be sure to click on them to zoom in.

My first published interview.

2011-07-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

I was contacted by a friend that writes for Animation Career review and they posted this great interview with me.
Take a gander at it. It sorta sounds like I know something about the animation industry. Enjoy.

http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/dreamworks-senior-character-animator-david-stodolny-talks-animation

THE ROUGH ANIMATION STAGE

2011-07-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

One thing I've already learned from this process is that a lot of people are genuinely
interested in the the process and then making of. Which is great. I know I always love the behind
the scenes stuff in movies.
Here's one step further.
Here is the entire short (minus titles and credits) in rough animation form.

This is the step where I don't worry about a perfectly clean line. I'm just drawing
roughly to try and get the motion and timing down for the animation.
I then take this and clean it up later after I'm happy with the animation.
When you're looking at 2D movies like Aladdin or Lion King. And you here the name of an "ANIMATOR"
this is what they are doing.
There are a bunch of other steps to go past the animator till it gets to the big screen.

YOU GOTTA HAVE A MAKING OF...

2011-07-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a little montage I put together of the process of creating HARREY PODDER: Say the Magic Word.
If give you a little idea of what goes into the planning and execution of a short.
I'd love to hear from you and know what you think.

IT'S FINALLY DONE!!!!

2011-07-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

In honour of the final Harry Potter movie. I give you....... HARREY PODDER: SAY THE MAGIC WORD.
Please comment and let me know what you think.

Finally starting to add some colour.

2011-07-12T01:30:00.000-07:00

After coming to a complete hault on this project due to clean up. I finally was able to start colouring my Harry Potter spoof in. By the way it's officially titled. HARRY POTTER: SAY THE MAGIC WORD. Doing clean up was really tedious but it's finally done. I wasn't going for a perfectly clean line or anything. Just trying to draw lines to fill in. I'm trying to get this short out by the time the last Harry Potter movie comes out which is this weekend so I'm in full panic.speed mode right now. Wish me luck. There's no effects in this test yet. I just wanted to post an update. Enjoy.

2011-06-21T13:47:00.000-07:00

A brand new official trailer for the movie I'm currently helping to finish. PUSS IN BOOTS.
It comes out Thanksgiving this year. I can't wait to see it. Let me know what you guys think.
Enjoy.

NEW CHARACTER

2011-06-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

One of my ideas changed for one of the sequences in the short so I needed to do this last minute model sheet before continuing animation.

Still Animatin'

2011-06-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

Only 2 more shots to go in animation. Then I do a clean up pass. If I want to get the thing done in time for the last Harry Potter movie then I'd better speed up. After the clean up pass I'll fill the colour in and then comes the effects pass which I'm really looking forward to. I started my animation career as a 2D effects artist at Nelvana. Designing effects for numerous saturday morning cartoons. Should be fun.

FIRST PENCIL TEST

2011-05-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

Some of you have been asking for an update on the progress of my short. So here's a small taste of what I've been up to.
This is just a pencil test of the first two shots. I'm leaving out all the jokes for now. You have to leave something as a surprise.
But here's a rough pencil test. ROUGH!!!. Still just plowing through this.

LAST BACKGROUND BEFORE ANIMATION

2011-05-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

1. Rough thumbnail drawing

2. Colour key

3. Clean up drawing

4. Final painted background.

So here's my last background for my short. Next step is recording the dialogue and
then starting to animate. Keep checking back. Lots to come.

CELEBRITY DOODLES FOR CHARITY!!

2011-05-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

This is a doodle I did for National Doodle Day. It's an auction of doodles by celebrities and celebrity artists to raise money for Neurofibromatosis research. Celebrities and artists such as Jeff Bridges, Martin Sheen, Simon Pegg, Julianne Moore, Seth Green just to name a few have contributed doodles. Take a look at the site, browse, bid on some art. Have fun, all while helping people.
Just click the link below.

WATER TEST

2011-04-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my brother Paul (who works as a lighter/compositor) about my short. He asked me what water effect I was going to do for the sword shot. I told him that I was probably just going to animate some 2D bubbles to show that it's water. In a couple of minutes he sent me this and I instantly was grateful and inspired. Hopefully he can help me out with other little things like this.
Thanks Paul.

MOVING ON TO A NEW SCENE

2011-04-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

Well here's a background from another scene in my short. Something a little a little warmer than a dark forest.

1. Rough layout

2. Colour key

3. Clean up line

4. Final colour background.

BACKGROUND NUMBER DEUX

2011-04-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

As I promised I'm posting more often and it seems like people really favour how I'm posting my process while I work.
So here's another background for my Harry Potter spoof short.

1. This is my rough layout to get an idea of where everything will be placed in the shot. You can see that I drew the character in this as well. I have to draw him in to make sure I'll have enough room for him and still see everything else that's going on. I also drew the background a little wide as well because in this shot there will be a camera move. So I made sure to leave room
for that to happen.

2. The colour key: a rough representation of the mood and colour palette for the shot.

3. The cleanup drawing to make sure I have a nice clean guide to paint in.

4. And the final piece. For those of you Harry Potter fans out there. You can clearly see what scene I'm going to
be spoofing by this painting.

PAINTING THE BACKGROUNDS

2011-04-25T23:08:00.001-07:00

Over the past two nights I painted the background for scene 1 of my Harry Potter Short.
For those of you that are at all interested in my process when I paint here it is.
From the bottom up.

1. Drew a rough thumbnail sketch of the shot to get the layout the way I wanted.
2. Painted a colour key which is a very rough, simple, low detail painting that describes the colour
palette and explore the mood of the shot.
3. I then drew a tighter, cleaner line drawing so I could have a better guide to paint. Think of it as a colouring book.
It's a guide so I'll stay in the lines and not go too far off the original idea.
4. Then layer by layer I painted all the different elements of the shot. This is the middle ground where the majority of the action
will take place.
5. And finally here's the final background as it will look in the short which I will animate on top of.

REDESIGNING.

2011-04-21T00:47:00.000-07:00

On second thought after looking at the designs that I posted last night I decided that because my short is a comedy,
my designs were way too generic and not cartoony enough. So I went back today and redesigned Harry as well as
Hermione and Voldemort. Hopefully you like the changes.

YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE

2011-04-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

So now that I've got all the equipment ready to go I'm finally starting to work on my own
animated shorts. I'm starting off with something simple and quick so I can learn all the software needed
to complete a short. I'd rather do it that way then jump right in and find out something doesnt work
on a really complicated piece. As my first short I'm doing a little parody/spoof on Harry Potter.
All the HP films are so inspiring to me and I can't get enough of them. So it'll be a fun way to familiarize myself
with the process again.
Here's my first pass at designing Harry for my piece.
Check back soon because I'm going to start posting more often.

STODOE STUDIOS is here

2011-03-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I've finally gone out and started putting together the equipment and software that I need to do my own work. I've decided
that I'm tired of having ideas for films and shorts and not doing anything about it. So Now that I actually have a computer that can handle it, I'm proud to announce that I've started to create my own animated films, shorts and skits. So I bring you my production company, STODOE STUDIOS.

Stay tuned for my upcoming work.

FOOSBALL COUPONS

2011-03-04T09:38:00.001-08:00

I know this is a wierd entry to start with after not blogging for quite a while.
But I thought I drew it, I might as well post it. At work my friends and I have little
foosball tournaments and we've started betting drinks. The loser has to get any drink
for them at any time of day. And to make it easier to keep track of who owes who we
agreed to all make drink coupons.
The actual coupon that I'm giving is the one that reads "DAVID IS A FOOSBALL GOD. EVEN IF HE DOES OWE ME A DRINK.
Why did I feel the need to post this? Simply because I havent posted anything in a while.

PO DOING SOME KUNG FU:a little animation I did

2011-01-31T16:12:00.001-08:00

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Short Clip #1 - Happy Year Of Awesomeness
Uploaded by cinemakervideo. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Here's a little kung fu sequence I animated of Po for the Dreamworks Marketing team.
I can't release anything else yet obviously because the movie isn't out but hopefully I'll get more
of my animation from Dragons and Panda up here soon.
I promise to start posting more everyone. Keep checking back.

DRAGONS GETS OSCAR NOD!

2011-01-25T10:28:00.000-08:00

Well the Oscar nominees are finally out for 2011 and I'm very proud to annouce that HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON was nominated for best animated feature. We have a lot riding against us knowing that TOY STORY 3 won the Golden Globe but I still firmly believe that our film was original and something new that the world hadnt seen in animation and I'm really hoping the academy sees that.
I'm so proud to have worked on this movie with such an amazingly talented crew.
Congratulations to everyone who helped make this movie such a success.

THE GROOM'S LIFE SO FAR: ANIMATED BEST MAN SPEECH

2010-09-08T17:10:00.000-07:00

Years ago my twin brother Paul and I agreed we'd be eachother's best men when the time came to get married. And whenever we decided that I always knew I wanted to do something special for him when it came to my speech. This is the result.
Congratulations Paul and Cheyenne.

(for those of you that don't know me. Dont judge me based on the drawings. I had only a couple of months to do a 6 minute short in the evenings. So I couldnt spend as much time as I would have liked.)
(why do I always apologize for everything I do?)

TEACHING MYSELF TOON BOOM

2010-05-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

I've been animating in 3D for so long now that I've really begun to miss 2D.
I thought I'd pick up Toon Boom and try and learn the new software so I can start making my own little cartoons. Here's my first attempt at doing a full shot.
It's really rushed and stupid. But it was just a way to get to know the tools.
Dont judge me too hard.

WALKIN IN A WINTER ZOMBIELAND

2010-02-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

The TB1z are back with their second installation of their WINTER ZOMBIE series. Still as zany as they were in the first video while at a cottage for New Years, they create their newest sensation WALKIN IN A WINTER ZOMBIELAND. A music video about being a zombie in the frozen North. Filmed on location in Canada by the most stupid bunch of idiots in a way that only the TB1z could bring. Enjoy WALKIN IN A WINTER ZOMBIELAND.

David's CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS REEL

2009-11-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

For those of you that havent seen it yet, I thought I would post my shots from CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS on my blog. I couldnt get all the shots that I did but this is a pretty good
representation of my contribution to the movie.
I hope you enjoy it. And more importantly I hope you've seen the movie. If not get out there and
see it. You do NOT want to miss this one.

JUST DOODLIN'

2009-10-11T23:13:00.001-07:00

I haven't drawn anything in a really long time. So I decided to just pull out my tablet and start drawin. I really gotta get back into it. My proportions are completely off but the idea came through okay I guess.

WINTER ZOMBIELAND

2009-10-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what happens when a bunch of actors, animators, directors, producers and musicians do when they go away on vacation for New Years? Well watch this video and see. Besides just hanging around the cottage and drinking the whole week we decided it would be fun to make a silly zombie movie (while drinking and and hanging out)
Winter Zombieland is a LOW BUDGET parody of those "B movie" zombie films that make no sense and make people roll their eyes at with a little cheesy love story in there as well. Enjoy.

p.s. When I say low budget, I mean this movie cost about 10 dollars to make.........10 CANADIAN dollars.

SKETCHING NOTRE DAME

2009-06-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was a kid one of the things I wanted to do in my life is sit in front of Notre Dame and sketch it. Well on my recent trip to Europe I did that. I spend an afternoon just walking around drawing.

CARTOONS FOR CHARITY

2009-03-31T00:48:00.000-07:00

There is a book being put together called "THE PICTURE BOOK PROJECT" by 50 artists in the animation industry for charity. I was asked to submit a couple of monster drawings for the book. I was honoured to be asked to join such a great group of artists on such a great project. Here are two of the drawings I came up with.

Eric's and Kim's Wedding Cover

2008-10-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

This was a drawing I did for two of my good friends who got married in Vegas. They wanted a cover for their CD that they gave out to all the guests. I had a lot of fun doing this one.

Caricature

2008-09-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

This is a caricature that I did for a contest at work this week. I thought I would go overboard and make it as corny as humanly possible.

Cowboys, Pirates and other things.

2008-08-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

Some coloured stuff.

2008-08-17T23:50:00.000-07:00

The Surf's up image was a little humour around Oscar time when we were all REALLY REALLY hoping for the win against Ratatouille. They took it though. DOH!!!!

MORE STUFF FOR YA

2008-08-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

Fairytales and funny things.

2008-08-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

Femmes Fatales, Jesus Arm Wrestling, Michael Jackson and more.

2008-08-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

Munchkins, Affairs, and Twisted Elephants.

2008-08-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

Donkey Kong, Bunnies, Girlfriends and mystical things.

2008-08-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

Peter Pan sketches

2008-08-17T23:23:00.000-07:00

Just some sketches for my Sketchclub

2008-08-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

4 of the 7 deadly sins.

2008-08-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

Some Harry Potter doodles.

2008-08-17T23:08:00.000-07:00

Ninja Turtles, Lebowskis, Soldiers, Cupids and some cheap laughs

2008-08-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES (my version of a few)

2008-08-17T22:58:00.000-07:00