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