Tune in to PBS tonight for the premiere of “Germans in the Woods.” Check your local TV listings to find out when P.O.V. plays in your area.

It was exciting to see these two work together. Jim started by sending us thumbnail layouts, which Tim used as a guide for his animation:

When Tim was done with animation, we sent Jim the character layout showing the key poses and he drew the final layout. It was really important for him to get great line quality with his pencil, because we used his drawings as final art for the screen:

We did a very small amount of cleanup (pushing contrast and levels around, erasing stray marks and smudges) and passed the final layouts to Bill Wray. We wanted to be sure the animation had a hand-made feel, so Bill painted both traditionally and digitally. Sometimes he would combine hand-painted elements with digital painting in the same BG:

Other times, he decided to go all hand-painted:

We gave both artists as much freedom and latitude as possible. As a result, we got artwork back that was better than anything we had imagined, and hopefully they felt a stronger sense of pride and ownership of the work they did. These cartoons would not have been the same without their brilliant contributions.

Next Tuesday, our animation for StoryCorps will begin airing on the PBS documentary program POV (check your local listings). The first episode follows the amazing love story of Danny and Annie Perasa, from their very first date to the last week of Danny’s life. Over our next few posts, we’ll give a behind-the-scenes look at the production of “Danny and Annie”.

As with all our StoryCorps work, we started “Danny and Annie” with research. It was the first time ever that we visited the home of a subject in our animation. The majority of the story takes place in the Perasa’s Brooklyn apartment, so it was particularly important to gather good reference so that we could depict their home authentically on screen. We took photos of everything; the bedroom, the kitchen, the exterior of their apartment, and even their knick-knacks. Sometimes the photos were just used as inspiration, but other times we used them more directly.

The best part of the visit was talking to Annie. She is one of the greatest storytellers you could ask for. She shared lots of her favorite stories and memories of Danny. Those stories helped us better understand who she and Danny were as a couple, and gave us helpful details we were able to use in the animation. For instance, the drinks we show them with on their first date—Annie with wine and Danny with whiskey—are the drinks they actually had that night. Annie also showed us a photo album from their wedding, which we referenced on screen.

Look out next for a post about the amazing background art by Jim Smith (Ren & Stimpy, Ripping Friends) and Bill Wray (Ren & Stimpy, The Mighty B!).

So how did Joshua and I end up at StoryCorps in the first place? Well, every school vacation since my kids were little, I’ve tried to have a one-on-one day with each of them, doing something fun … An entire day of Mom’s Undiluted Focus.

In February 2006, I was in year two and counting of a difficult divorce and to say that thing were difficult financially was an understatement. There was no way I could afford to take the kids away, but figured I could splurge enough to spend a fun day in New York City with each of the kids, doing something that they would enjoy. Amie, my artsy, musical daughter, wanted to go see “Wicked.” Joshua’s first response, inevitably, was that he wanted to go the Nintendo World store, the self-proclaimed “gaming paradise in the center of New York City.”

Now there are a lot of things that Joshua and I enjoy doing together, but video games are not one of them. Yes, I’ll admit to having suffered from a Tetris addiction when the original Game Boy came out – I think it was that corny Russian music. But if it’s a matter of spending hours in front of a screen playing some game involving a princess being saved by an elf or an Italian plumber, call me old-fashioned but I’d rather read a book.

But this was supposed to be Joshua’s day, so I agreed that we would go to the Nintendo Store. Being the evil parent that I am, however, I insisted that we do something else as well – something cultural preferably, but I was willing to accept pretty much anything that didn’t have to do with video games.

Unfortunately, Joshua wasn’t particularly forthcoming with other ideas.

…

“What do you think about going to StoryCorps?” I asked him. “You could interview me – you know, ask me anything you want and I’ll answer it.”

Joshua’s reaction was probably typical for a 12 year old boy who is being told he has to do something besides going to Nintendo World: “I dunno.”

“It’ll be fun!” I assured him.

He didn’t look entirely convinced.

Sometimes, Mom just has to make executive decisions. Clearly, this was one of those times.

And so, few weeks later, we found ourselves sitting on the Metro North train into the city, our action plan mapped out. Lunch at Mars 2112, a Martian-themed restaurant on the West Side, back to Grand Central for our StoryCorps session and then over to Rockefeller Center where teen-boy mecca Nintendo World is located.

Somewhere around Mamaroneck, I made Joshua put down his Nintendo DS and handed him my omnipresent writer’s notebook and pen.

“Write down some questions you want to ask me,” I said.

I expected grumbling, but he took the book and pen and started writing. I made the mistake of not looking at the questions when he handed the notebook back. I just stuck it in my bag.

After an entertaining meal at Mars 2112, complete with Martians, mad scientists, and gooey chocolate desserts, Joshua and I headed back to Grand Central Station and found the StoryCorps booth.

It’s almost surreal how quiet it is when you enter the booth, after navigating the noisy bustle of Grand Central. We sat on opposite sides of a small table, each with our own microphone. Our facilitator, did a sound check and adjusted the mikes for our voices. Like many kids with Aspergers, Joshua was born without volume control. He has one voice setting – loud.

Our facilitator asked us to each say the date and where we were conducting the interview, and then, with Joshua’s first question, it started.

The rest, as they say, is history. But not quite. Sarah and Joshua’s story continues. They will be featured on Good Morning America this Sunday, Mother’s Day. And of course, their lives go on outside of StoryCorps. Joshua is nearly ready to graduate high school. Sarah continues her life as a mother and her career as an author and writer. It’s one of the really great parts of documentary storytelling— the story lives on in interesting and unexpected ways.

Character design can be a real challenge at times, but it’s also really exciting when you can see the personalities developing in front of you.

I find that we get our best results when the designs reference a specific story point, or a particular relationship dynamic between characters. It forces you to make the designs function in a more practical way, instead of just being pretty pictures.

We’ll try and show this character design approach at work with more detail in a future post. Out of this group, the design that does it most closely is probably the two guys at the top. I like all the other design here, but the more direct link between these characters and their story gives me the most confidence in their design.

We’re working on color and background design for our latest project. Our goal is to suggest a lot with only a little.

The stage will consist of abstract backgrounds that have a feeling of depth and light like the one above, and others that incorporate elements that are more specific to a particular environment.

I start by listening to the track in loops of one second. As the loop plays back, I jot down the sounds and mouth shapes being made on a chart listing each frame (0-1, 0-2, 0-3…0-6, 1-1, etc).

The storyboard usually has the major dialogue beats mapped out, so I thumbnail the key frames from that and consider whether any others should be added.

The key frames in my work come from the stress in the voice. Every major action is designed to link up with a point of emphasis in the voice. If I respect each frame and look for ways to ride the flow of the voice track with smaller gestures — the opening and closing of a clenched hand, the raising of the eyebrows, a shift in posture — the end result is so tightly tied to the audio that the relatively low frame rate is acceptable to the eye.

I think of the performance as a kind of choreographed dance. Our characters often talk for as long as thirty seconds without the camera ever moving or cutting. Their performance must be compelling, without gaps or redundancy.

The following video is the finished animation for the sequence shown above. As you can see, I push the finished drawing past what I’ve indicated in the thumbnail. The biggest addition in this sequence was the shifting of his weight and darting looks over the shoulder. I also made an effort to push the composition of the movement, making the action read more clearly through silhouette.

Everyone has different processes and preferences when it comes to planning animation. What are yours? Do you have a frame rate that you swear by? Let me know in the comments!

For optimal playback, download the Quicktime to your desktop.

Rauch Bros. work inspired by W. H. Johnson

As mentioned here last week, the above image is from a new Rauch Brothers project for which we are using William H. Johnson’s work as our visual inspiration. Looking forward to diving in on this one!

A little festival news. As noted before on our Twitter page, “Q&A” will be playing at this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June 8-13). Mike and I are thrilled to be showing at this prestigious annual event and will definitely be in attendance along with many of our great NYC animation friends (Signe Baumane, Alex Budokovsky and PES are three other NYers screening this year).

We created a Rauch Brothers Flickr page to share screen shots and concept art from our films with you. The slideshow above is concept art from Germans in the Woods. Check out our other Flickr sets and our photostream to see more. Check back often. We’ll be adding new work all the time.