WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.700 --> 00:00:01.700 Helloooo again. 00:00:01.700 --> 00:00:02.700 Are you new here? 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:03.700 Pfff. 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:04.700 Nah. 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:05.700 Of course not. 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:09.889 But just the same, welcome to my inn and tavern, the Scribble Kibble! 00:00:09.889 --> 00:00:16.550 Notorious as a hangout for animators, artists, people who apparently just like the sound 00:00:16.550 --> 00:00:19.960 of my voice, and the occasional bar fight. 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:20.960 (dodges a mug of ale) 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:24.680 The feature of today’s song and dance is a bit… different. 00:00:24.680 --> 00:00:25.680 Minimal. 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:28.920 I’m hoping you’ll indulge me for a few minutes all the same. 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:36.980 Here ‘tis, Thatch & Dial Episode 1. 00:00:36.980 --> 00:00:41.260 The voice of Thatch is a buddy of mine - hey Dusty - so I had to laugh at the beginning 00:00:41.260 --> 00:00:44.900 because it’s odd to me to hear the voices of people I know. 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:49.470 It makes it take a few minutes to hear the voice as the character instead of the person. 00:00:49.470 --> 00:00:55.079 Now you may be thinking, hey this isn’t an animation at all! 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:59.930 I only come to Scribble Kibble for the finest of the fine animations! 00:00:59.930 --> 00:01:02.390 This isn’t even a storyboard! 00:01:02.390 --> 00:01:03.840 And you are right. 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:07.490 I’d be more inclined to call Thatch and Dial a picture book. 00:01:07.490 --> 00:01:11.670 In a picture book, you are presented with some text on the page and a large illustration 00:01:11.670 --> 00:01:12.670 to go with it. 00:01:12.670 --> 00:01:14.940 The purpose is to tell a short story. 00:01:14.940 --> 00:01:19.619 The pictures are not crucial like they are in a comic, but they are supportive additions 00:01:19.619 --> 00:01:22.670 to the text. 00:01:22.670 --> 00:01:27.659 A storyboard’s purpose is to be a guide for an animation. 00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:33.619 Through still images, an animator can see what should be where on screen, what a character 00:01:33.619 --> 00:01:37.479 is doing, and how the camera is moving. 00:01:37.479 --> 00:01:40.939 A storyboard must accomplish a few specific things: 00:01:40.939 --> 00:01:44.200 It must tell the story without text on screen. 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:53.810 It must contain notes on camera, motion, direction, and sometimes dialogue or sound effects. 00:01:53.810 --> 00:01:57.479 Even the most minimal storyboard will have arrows drawn that show motion direction. 00:01:57.479 --> 00:01:58.549 It must accurately depict where the characters are within the camera frame. 00:01:58.549 --> 00:02:03.590 If the storyboard is synced to the animation’s audio track, the storyboard must be timed 00:02:03.590 --> 00:02:04.950 appropriately. 00:02:04.950 --> 00:02:09.709 A poorly done storyboard will dedicate too much or too little time for the action a character 00:02:09.709 --> 00:02:10.829 is supposed to take. 00:02:10.829 --> 00:02:16.189 As a result, the animator either won’t have time to fit everything into the shot, or they 00:02:16.189 --> 00:02:19.180 will be left with a long space and nothing to do. 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:23.239 You’ll also notice that because storyboards are meant to prepare for an animation, there 00:02:23.239 --> 00:02:29.049 will be far more pictures than a picture book or a comic would have. 00:02:29.049 --> 00:02:34.230 The characteristics of Thatch & Dial are far too minimal to qualify as a storyboard. 00:02:34.230 --> 00:02:39.110 The technique in the video is to make a few pieces of art very well, and then fade in 00:02:39.110 --> 00:02:43.939 each aspect of it, like the character color, the background lines, and the background color. 00:02:43.939 --> 00:02:48.630 This way you can stretch out one piece of art over a long period of dialogue. 00:02:48.630 --> 00:02:57.450 Adding camera motion is essential, otherwise your viewers will get bored. 00:02:57.450 --> 00:03:02.860 Outside of the colored illustrations, Thatch & Dial relies on sepia toned character portraits. 00:03:02.860 --> 00:03:05.950 Much like how I edit this show, except with better art. 00:03:05.950 --> 00:03:11.220 I expect in future Thatch & Dial episodes, the artists Erin and Sabrina will draw more 00:03:11.220 --> 00:03:23.100 poses and have more to change between while editing the video. 00:03:23.100 --> 00:03:26.340 But does the story suffer from the minimalism? 00:03:26.340 --> 00:03:27.340 Not at all. 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:31.519 In fact, you could turn the images off completely and likely the only confusion you would have 00:03:31.519 --> 00:03:36.100 is when Thatch talks about walking on his paws instead of on his human feet. 00:03:36.100 --> 00:03:39.760 The art gives us the information about what the characters look like, which spares us 00:03:39.760 --> 00:03:44.430 a descriptive paragraph or two about a gray fox with a sash around his tunic and such 00:03:44.430 --> 00:03:45.459 and such. 00:03:45.459 --> 00:03:48.269 The main purpose of the video is to showcase music. 00:03:48.269 --> 00:03:54.780 That is what MandoPony’s channel has always been about. 00:03:54.780 --> 00:04:00.350 On the musical story front Thatch & Dial could be very interesting indeed - if the story 00:04:00.350 --> 00:04:05.299 were inexorably intertwined with the music, like a musical - or if the characters composed 00:04:05.299 --> 00:04:06.909 pieces related to immediate events. 00:04:06.909 --> 00:04:08.599 Like composing a battle dirge as the country prepares to go to war. 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:15.640 I have no idea which direction it’ll move because this prologue-feeling episode is all 00:04:15.640 --> 00:04:17.850 we’ve got to go on right now. 00:04:17.850 --> 00:04:22.030 So while Thatch & Dial may become a little more animated in the future, it’s safe to 00:04:22.030 --> 00:04:24.870 say the series will be all about music. 00:04:24.870 --> 00:04:29.560 And I’m happy to showcase it because I love repeating myself about how you don’t need 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:31.700 to animate to tell a story with art. 00:04:31.700 --> 00:04:34.250 Art is for storytellers. 00:04:34.250 --> 00:05:12.590 Animation is for visual actors.