Month: March 2017

If you could make an animated character as funny as Gene Sheldon, you would be doing something great.  Sheldon was a baggy pants comedian, whose character was in the style of the childish man, similar to Harry Langdon.  In this entertaining compilation, note that he is an excellent banjo player.  The lesson is that foolish characters can endear themselves to audiences by showing great skill.

I also like how his loose clothing helps accentuate his motion. Some smart animator could make use of cloth simulation to get the same effect.

Mobile is a great short film directed by Verena Fels.

It’s simple, short, and funny.  The characters are super appealing.  I am particularly fond of short stories that wrap up nicely.  Of course, I am attracted by the non verbal nature of the comedy.

I stumbled across this nice animated Ted-Ed video about writing comedy by Cheri Steinkeller.  She briefly mentions Commedia Dell’arte, and the archetypes of comedy.  I have an entire chapter on comedic archetypes in my book, and they are all explained with live and animated examples.  If you like this video, you’ll get a lot out of Comedy for Animators.

Bram Ttwheam is an animator and visual effects supervisor for Aardman Animation, and he produces idents for The Bristol Silents Slapstick Festival which is held annually in Bristol, England. It is a festival I would love to attend. The festival has a blog where I found this fun short film he created to show his process.

Here is last years ident: