#animation screenwriter

[aaronwaltke]

I’m beyond thrilled to be joining Tui T. Sutherland on this journey, adapting her fantastic WINGS OF FIRE novels as a television event series for Amazon Prime.

Pyrrhia is a realm of wonder, epic drama, and hope for a better tomorrow.

I can’t wait for you all to see it take flight!

[spooksier]

i really do love writing analysis and meta tb freaking h im thinking to starting back up my youtube purely to make videos about niche media analysis like steven quartz universe being allegorically transgender or how estrogen would've saved kendall roy

[ravenstarmedia]

Me learning the original concept for Wish had Star as a Peter Pan/Genie-esque shapeshifter, he would be Asha's love interest, the king and queen would be a villainous couple, and that sounds a hundred times more interesting than what we actually got:

*opens Final Draft*

[yourdailyqueer]

Dana Terrace

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

DOB: 8 December 1990

Ethnicity: White - American

Occupation: Animator, cartoonist, writer, director, producer, voice actress

[uniiiquehecrt]

Voice actors are NOT the same as actors.

It takes a specific kind of skill-set and training to be able to warp and meld the voice. It takes a certain kind of talent and dedication to hone that talent into the ability to meld the voice and invoke emotion with one's voice alone. Actors are used to using their voice secondarily to their body language and their facial expressions. It's all mirrored back on camera. They do have nuance. But it's a different kind of nuance and a different kind of training to produce that nuance.

Voice actors might get their likeness transposed on their character's design, and maybe their mannerisms might seep into the character's animation. But when it's all said and done: their presence is in their voice. They are bringing a character to life, showing that emotion in their voice, trying to keep a specific accent, drawl, pitch, tone in that voice and keep it consistent for their recording sessions.

The voice actor is like a classically trained musician who can play first chair in a competitive, world-renown orchestra. The actor (who fills the voice actor's role) is like a moot who played violin in beginner and intermediate high school orchestra and thinks they can get into Juilliard with that 2-4 years of experience.

This doesn't mean that the HS orchestra moot can't play. They can even be really good at it. Maybe they won competitions and sat first chair. But they are not in the same league as the person who's been training their whole lives and lives and breathes to hone their craft using the instrument and all of the training they've ever acquired to perfect it. They are not meant for the same roles. They are not in the same caliber. You do not hire the HS equivalent when you want to play complex music in a competitive orchestra.

Actors are not the same as voice actors.

And furthermore, actors - especially big name actors - taking the roles of animated characters for big budget films or TV pilots makes no sense anyways when - at least in the case of TV pilots - there's not a point to hiring a big budget actors anyways. That money could be used elsewhere (like paying your animators), and the talent that is brought onto the screen for X character could then be hired on to voice said character no recasting required.

I wouldn't say voice acting as a profession is in danger exactly, but it's certainly being disrespected and overlooked for celebrity clout, and this has ALWAYS been an issue. Shoot, even Robin Williams knew that much - which is why he tried so hard not to be used as a marketing chess piece for Aladdin and got royally pissed off when it happened anyways. People shouldn't go to any movie (but especially not animated films) because "oh famous actor is in it". People should go because it's a good movie and the voice acting is good.

People who honest to god think that voice actors are replaceable because "oh well anyone can voice act" or "I like xyz celebrity so naturally it'll be good" ... Honestly I just wish you'd reassess your priorities because you're missing the point and are part of the problem.

Voice Actors ≠ Actors.

[nickrocketrodriguez]

Gonna be doing some waiting around tomorrow if anyone wants to get some questions answered! Doesn’t have to be JWCT-related. I love talking about the writing/production process, too!

[seekerknight557]

While the threat of AI is a very real thing, we must remember that all it will ever be able to do is make something exist. It cannot make it real. It cannot make it believable. You can tell a bot to make a story about a dog finding their way back home, but it will never generate a prompt that can touch thousands because it's never lived. It doesn't know how it feels to lose a dog. It doesn't know how it feels to be lost. A carbon copy, cookie cutter, formulaic story will be made. But it will not change a viewer's life, because it knows nothing about life itself.

If we allow a computer's logical approximation of life to overcome the real heart of it all, it's no one's fault but our own. Keep making art. Everyone can, because art is human. Not robotic.

[makkinsart]

THE NIKOLAEVS - COMING NEVER (maybe)

This is my original animated series concept titled The Nikolaevs. The series follows a loving, mildly dysfunctional family of human-presenting mutants move to the town of Nhormalton, a simple & pretentious community gated off from the rest of the world, in hopes of starting fresh while keeping their monstrous secret hidden.

The series takes place in late 1969 and would ideally run for only one season. I’d also intend the series be catered towards adults & older teens due to its themes.

I’ve spent about 3 ish years on this project. And I hope to do something with it in the future. I hope you enjoy! Follow me here on tumblr and insta/twt/tiktok (@makkinsart) for more development updates!

[animationsnstoriesnstuff]

I think the one thing bothering me in the pilot is Zoe… she’s not supposed to do much (at least early on in the series) but giving her lines and having her still not do much feels off.

I’m also bothered that the series is called Record DEAL and so far there hasn’t been any deal.

If I were to rewrite the pilot to include time with Zoe and Danny making the main deal in the series and have it be more introductory would that be fine? I know it’d be a big change so…

[aaronwaltke]

hi aaron. i have an ask about the ending of wizards!! (hoping it hasnt been asked yet)

i believe(?) i read that one of the ideas for post-full-troll jim was for him to become a changeling. was there a reason he turned fully human again instead? thank you!!

For Wizards, we’d originally planned for Claire to use her new mastery over shadow magic to turn Jim into a changeling, just as Morgana originally created them back in the Middle Ages. (Merlin couldn’t do it or refused to acknowledge the possibilities of its powers, because he never learned or trusted dark magic.) Jim would have been able to shift between human, half-troll and beast form at will — or perhaps via his emotions, not unlike The Hulk.

This ending was altered when those working on the follow-up film determined Jim’s arc for the movie would revolve around him coming to terms with losing his powers and being “merely human” during the magic apocalypse. Sadly, our ending simply wouldn’t work with that direction for the film.

For the curious, I’ve attached a small snippet of the original outline grid to see how it would have slotted in rather elegantly.

[blackfilmmakers]

hii, can i ask for your help on something? im trying to run an animation short film for portfolio build that will be run on international festivals, and my protagonist is a black woman so id really like to get a black woman to be voice acting for her, but my post is only getting so far. ive been following you for a year or so and i think its safe to assume you have a lot of followers that are black and interested in cinema and animation, so i wanted to ask for that help with sharing this �� im also still accepting storyboarders and musicians. professional experience isnt necessary, only have had at least a few theather classes/study it by yourself for v/a and know how to draw for storyboard. we'll direct and guide you and try our best to make the schedule comfortable for you. the link is on my pinned post, applications go up to next weekend.

if you know someone that you think would be interested feel free to call them over, and if youre not interested in sharing thats okay, you can just ignore this! thanks for the time anyways :)

How fun! Now I dont know any voice actors personally, at least ones that have proper recording sets. I do know, however, know some sites and platforms you can look into

African American Voice Actor Database: The site may be a bit outdated because it sometimes glitches out. But definitely take a look through this. Some have their contact info in their portfolios, but some actually provide links to their websites

Fivver: If you look up African American Voice actors on here, you'll find some guys. Please look out for AI generated voices, though, because that's what Fivver is doing, i guess. The prices are usually pretty good too. Now if you do find someone keep in mind not all of these voice actors do character voice acting they may be exclusively for commercials (which is a whole issue i need to talk about at some point). But you can also contact them and see if they are willing to try character reels

Youtube: Same thing, if you search African American Female Voiceactor Reel, you should find some guys that will have their socials/website for you to contact them through.

Over the years I have listed down some Black voice actors for possible projects. If I had a better idea of what your character is like I can probably recommend some to look into

But if anyone that follows me is a Black voiceactor, feel free to @ us or DM OP

[vcendent]

art vs industry

Sometimes I'm having a good day, but then sometimes I think about how industry is actively killing creative fields and that goes away. People no longer go to woodworkers for tables and chairs and cabinets, but instead pick from one of hundreds of mass-produced designs made out of cheap particle board instead of paying a carpenter for furniture that is both made to last generations and leaves room for customization. With the growth of population and international trade, the convenience and low production costs are beneficial in some aspects, but how many local craftsmen across the world were put out of business? How many people witnessed their craft die before their eyes? There is no heart or identity put into mass produced items; be it furniture, ceramics, metalwork, or home decor; and at the end of the day everybody ends up with the same, carbon copy stuff in their homes.

I'm a big fan of animated movies, and I see this same thing happening too. When was the last time western audiences saw a new 2D animated movie hit theatres? I can't speak for other countries, but, at least in America, I believe The Princess and the Frog was the last major 2D movie released and that was back in 2009. Major studios nowadays are unwilling to spend the time and money that it would take to pay traditional animators who have spent years honing their craft to go frame by frame, and to pay painters to create scene backgrounds. We talk a lot about machines replacing jobs, but when the machines come, artistry professions are some of the first to be axed (in part because industry does not see artistry as "valuable" professions). Art, music, and writing are no longer seen as "real" jobs because they belong to the creative field and there's this inane idea that anyone who goes into those fields will be unsuccessful and starving. I'm not saying that 3D animation is bad, it has its own merits and required skills and can be just as impressive as anything 2D, but it has smothered 2D animation and reduced it largely to studios that cannot afford the tech to animate 3D.

And now we have this whole AI thing to deal with, stealing existing artists' work to "train" it to take over those few professions that, until now, required actual people to do them. Internet artists have already been dealing with people complaining about the price of art for years and now have to face their work being stolen to train AI. With AI technology, anyone who undervalues the work of the artist can now get something generated at little or no cost to them, all at the expense of the artists themselves. Why would studios pay script writers when they could just get an algorithm to do it without pay? Why pay actors to bring characters to life or pay models to pose for ads when CGI has progressed enough we could digitally render humans and cut out having to pay people entirely? Why use practical effects or film on location when green screens and adding in-post is faster and so much cheaper? It's no wonder we had the SAG-AFTRA strike. AI has already been trained to write children's books and produce music, continuing down this road will replace authors and musicians too at the convenience of cost. How much longer until the actual, real-life people behind all forms of artistry become completely obsolete?

Industry is just driving the cost of people-made crafts up and up with every mass produced product and every streamlined shortcut to reduce costs, which only makes it harder and harder for artists of all kinds to make a living, as very few people want to pay for the time and skill of artists when they could just pick something off a shelf or feed AI a prompt and get something satisfactory enough, yet not what they actually wanted, for so much cheaper.

[yourdailyqueer]

Jambareeqi (James McLoughlin)

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Bisexual

DOB: 19 September 1990

Ethnicity: White - British

Occupation: Youtuber, animator, actor, comedian, puppeteer, songwriter, screenwriter, director, producer

Note: Is autistic

[secretagent9]

hiroshi seko you fucking LEGEND

[thecookieshop]

I've been thinking about starting a certain kind of project for a while. If I began reading webcomics and pitches other cartoonists/writers submitted to me & giving constructive feedback (& hopefully signal boosting others' projects at the same time in a positive way!) would other creators be interested? I've been thinking about doing this for a while because I did a lot of editing and note-giving for scripts & art in college & loved it.

I also just want an excuse to read more niche, original work!

If you'd like to signal boost this post please feel free, I'd love to get feedback on whether this has potential or not.

[twelvewednesdaysago]

you ever go so long without creating something you get this ache in your chest? you just have to get it out? it's like that feeling of needing to cry when you haven't in a long time I think.