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Creative originality. Where do you find it, how do you respond to it.

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Creative originality. Where do you find it, how do you respond to it.

I've been going through a dry spell lately, and I am interested where the rest of you get your ideas. From movies, I haven't seen anything lately that inspired me. From your lives, mine's not moving very fast at the moment. Do you try to create for a market? If so which one. Why is it that fart jokes still seem to inspire a whole new generation?

If I haven't stated this clearly enough for you please don't bother to reply with a critique of my gramar. I would just like to discuss creative process.

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Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

Conflict is a great source of inspiration...:D

Read...Read...Read...and read some more.
Watch lots of (interesting) documentaries.
And patiently wait...

Talking about the creative process is ok for a thread but it is a complex process. I hit upon idea after idea but I still lack the skill set need to animate them. The basic source for all muse is ones own life encounter, even if it is just you hearing about someone elses experences.

I am collecting a fair number of ideas that reflect some passing thought or event. Encounters with the opposite sex is rich with possablities and I am talking about "G" rated ideas.

I have come to the conclusion that all ideas are neophyte, vying for our attention. I am very eager to produce two of these storys but these storys are no where close to what they were when they first came to me.

If you fill you are empty of any interesting storys then you could go back to one you have already produces. Rewrite your story in some way that appeals to you as an animator. As you already know, you should keep it simple.

Is this what you are looking for in feed back?

I thought I would post one more thing. The other day something interesting and odd happened, I saw a light in a tree. Now I know I started off saying " The other day..." but this event happen at night.

Now seeing a spot of light in a tree is no big deal, but this spot was a little on the large size and it was on top of the tree. It moved about the top of the tree vanishing from view for a second, reappearing still set to the top of the tree.

Now I am thinking, this might make for a fun animation, once the idea is fleshed out.

I do think personal experience plays a large role in the process.

I once saw a man in a trenchcoat on crutches silohetted against a rising sun. It was a powerful moment and I've never done anything about it.

I've looked at my old stuff, and part of me wants to revisit it and add to it, another part says you finished there. Let it lay.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

I think in the last couple of years I've focussed on marketing graphics that would sell, before then I worked on what I felt compelled to do or was interested in working on. It's hard to get out of the will it sell mode.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

Friends, family, strangers---they can shed light on things you may have never come across/thought about/considered. Just observe, notice the peculiarities that at times rule over us. The funny, the sad, the inspirational, the disturbing, the outright bizarre always find their way onto the movie screen, nes pas?

No insight on why fart jokes remain popular animation fare?

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

I think Shrek was the last time I saw an actual fart joke in a major animated feature. I haven't seen some things I'd like to (like Open Season) and some things I never will (like Shark Tale)...but are they really so prevalent or more something people say is there to propogate stereotype? Or more simply, is it that the word or phrase is used to refer to bodily function humor in general?

In general, I think if you have to ask why a fart is funny you just may never know =)

I've been going through a dry spell lately, and I am interested where the rest of you get your ideas. From movies, I haven't seen anything lately that inspired me. From your lives, mine's not moving very fast at the moment. Do you try to create for a market? If so which one. Why is it that fart jokes still seem to inspire a whole new generation?

If I haven't stated this clearly enough for you please don't bother to reply with a critique of my gramar. I would just like to discuss creative process.

There's lots of things you can do to spark creativity:

Take something you hate, and fix it. Take something you think is weak or lame and fix it. Do your thing with it. If you hate it, find something in it that you can like and exploit that.

Take a favourite character and re-think them. Take Batman and approach him from a completely different POV.
Take your favourite characters and swap their gender. Then run with that.

Draw porn. Seriously. Do it for yourself, no need to show or tell anyone you do it. Sex and the human body are two things we all have very distinct ideas about and drawing same forces you to concentrate because you are applying emotion, esthetics and appeal to the image.
If you want to break out of a rut--focus on the "breaking" and less on the rut--and this kind of idea will certainly break your thinking.

Ask the "8 yr old " inside of you what's cool--and draw that. Spelunk thru your childhood and draw the things that drove you then. Take older drawings and re-do them to your modern standard.

Find the kinds of drawing stuff that scare the piss out of you, and concentrate on that. Have some balls/guts--tackle something REALLY hard or perplexing.
Listen to music, watch TV, go for a walk.
Ask God to guide your hand for a while--show you a trick or two. Do a squiggle with your eyes shut, then open your eyes and "complete" the drawing.
Get someone who's a lesser artist than yourself to do a image, then go over it and beef it up.

Take a celebrities head in a photo, cut it out and draw in your own body. Take the strongest memories you have and express them in a image.
Be bold, daring, take chances. No-one has to see it. Try DELIBERATELY to fail at a image, then go back and fix it later. Mess with your own mind.

Don't do the same old boring crap everyone else does, take a look at your own rules and break them.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Very good suggestions so far. Personally, among other things, music usually does it for me. It's why I keep a large collection of soundtracks near my drawing table. I don't just do it for moods, sometimes I re-choreograph entire song or dance sequences in my head using my own characters. By that I don't mean just swapping them for the characters which are actually in it: using the melodies and cues, I try to come up with entirely new routines, surroundings and situations. This "technique" once even helped me establish an entire relationship between two characters, completely with a subplot based on it.
I really have a hard time listening to music while doing something else, I always have to concentrate on the music. (And considering my habit of absent-mindedly jerking to the rhythm, I prefer to do it in utmost privacy. ;))

While we all get caught up in the whys, whats and hows of the world, and engage in you vs me banter, a fart joke seems to drop everyone's guard and remind us that we are all the same. A common element to bring us together.

I guess a fart joke is a more polite way of communicating that our shit does stink, regardless of our differences? We are all the same, and we are all in this together.

Well, I tried to explain it! Good question though.

If I see something set up and the creator takes it a different direction than I expected, I find myself asking "What if it had happened this way, instead?"

What if Batman had the same motives, but no money to pull it off?

What if Superman had come as the world's oppressor instead of the world's savior?

What if only four of the sections of the Titanic had been damaged by the iceberg instead of five? What if the Titanic limped into port in America a few days behind schedule with a minimum number of dead, how would history have been different?

I had an idea about a boy who was half boy, half robot. How did he get that way? I came up with a couple of reasons. What if he believed one but the other was true? I went from there.

Mainly, since this is about animation, you have to play the "what if?" game and if the idea you come up with isn't interesting visually, write it down, but set it aside.

Another place to start is decising if there's a particular universe you want to visit. "Flushed Away" is about rats. OK, so you're making a cartoon about rats. What happens? They're in the sewers. There's a whole world down there. A lab rat - no, a PET rat - is sucked down into the rat world where he doesn't belong. Fish out of water story. There's a love interest and she's in danger. There's a villain... you get the idea.

So let's say you're going to write a story about animals in the wild. Is that really a good idea? Maybe five years ago. Maybe five years from now. But not right at the moment. Animals in the city? *bzzzz* wrong. How about... animals in space? What? How? They're experimental animals. A bird, a monkey and a rat. Launched into space. They meet alien invaders and save the Earth, and the humans have no idea. There you go. Animals. Wild. But new. OK, MAAAAAYBE Bugs Bunny and Marvin went there, but that's a stretch. **EDIT** Sounds a lot like Chicken Little, too, now that I think about it. But it happens out there instead of down here... anyway... **

OK, here's a cartoon for you: "Smilies." I bet you know how I came up with that one. There's smilies to the right of where I'm typing this. So, let's say Smilies are a race of little, round people. That little red mad Smiley is going to have his revenge on all those other happy, amused Smileys. One night, he jumps down onto the keyboard and makes a whole army of mad Smileys, and... you can take it from there.

(PS Jab, why aren't we pitching that idea?)

My highschool art teacher had an assignment aimed at getting around writers block:
A) Get paper, a pencil and a timer (or clock).
B) Draw for five minutes. The pencil has to be on the paper and drawing for the entire five minutes. Stopping to think is not allowed. Worrying about quality is not allowed. Just draw for five minutes. (Or fifteen depending on your endurance.)

I find that sleep deprivation does wonders for creativity. The flipside is that sleep deprived works can be incoherent and not make sense later.

I guess if you are feeling really crazy, you could combine the two. =) Buy a sketchbook, set your alarm and draw for the whole day. Draw until you can't stay awake. Stopping to think is not allowed. Worrying about quality is not allowed. Eating is optionally not allowed. (Artist's block diet? =) The day will be exhausting and suck, but the next day should be fun. This is when you look at everything you did and try to turn it into something productive.

-Brendan

While we all get caught up in the whys, whats and hows of the world, and engage in you vs me banter, a fart joke seems to drop everyone's guard and remind us that we are all the same. A common element to bring us together.

I guess a fart joke is a more polite way of communicating that our shit does stink, regardless of our differences? We are all the same, and we are all in this together.

Well, I tried to explain it! Good question though.

Fantastic answer and probably the closest to the truth. I know even though I run them down, I find myself laughing at them from time to time, and never could justify it, but I think you've explained it.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

As to all the great contributions helping break my block. So far I've tried almost all of them. From exercise to reworking old work...but I've done a minimum of that because even though I see improvement in the old work, part of me feels I should have moved on.

There's also the part of me that when creating them had a limit to how much effort I would put into each piece, because in essence I was giving them away. To put more time into them would change that ratio...and once again I am kind of back to the old thing of design for return. Guess I need to try and really break out of that. Perhaps that's the biggest thing holding me back right now.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

You know....

You know....this is an excellent question for a friend of mine...My way is to always imagine what the outcome,like if I do something,I know what the ending must be and I'll make sure that it will be as i want it to be...Even when I don't even know what to do in the first place, I'll take my time and try to relax, normally my mind will swirl with thoughts, and basically it construct something by itself..........Well, I'll gotta go,Ill try to continue....

Imagination is much more important then knowledge...

It seems like most of my ideas just pop into my head when I least expect it. It's usually when I'm bored and my mind starts to wander. I guess that's my remedy for fighting the "will it sell" mindset. My mind rebels and starts to create things to entertain itself.

I'm also not big on going back and improving finished work. I'd rather spend that energy creating something new and better.

Sharvonique Studios
www.sharvonique.com

Animated By Sharvonique Blog
http://sharvonique.animationblogspot.com

AWN Showcase Gallery

I'm also not big on going back and improving finished work. I'd rather spend that energy creating something new and better.

So Sharvonique isn't George Lucas... ;)

Not unless I have a split personality! :D

Sharvonique Studios
www.sharvonique.com

Animated By Sharvonique Blog
http://sharvonique.animationblogspot.com

AWN Showcase Gallery

My ideas often come from finding unusual patterns and using those as a foundation to build up something else, then I'll see if characters start to grow out of it or maybe just line, color, or form... whatever does I'll just follow that train of thought and see if anything interesting comes out of it.. I'll start with looking at nature... watching animals almost always sparks off a narrative for me.. doodling non-representational forms setting it down then coming back later and seeing what I can make of it... I also like to play with scale, create the characters or stories that would exist on an extremely different scale, what problems would they have, how are they different/the same from us.... As was said part of the problem is thinking about what a client or someone else would be interested in/want to see/be entertained by, and after a while that is really a dead end, because you aren't them, you have your own perspective and its the only one you can really follow.....

I dunno just some ideas....

As for fart jokes, they work on so many levels of humor, it's unexpected/surprise, it's a funny sound, it's embarassment/uncomfortable, and as was said it's identifiable/everyone does it