Must Read Material: Design for Animation

John Kricfalusi’s blog is a place to find strong opinions, offered without apology or flinching. There are times when I don’t always go along with the polarity of his notions and I occasionally find myself not liking the look of some of his work, but you can’t deny the dude’s got passion about cartoons and he’s got loads of skill, knowledge and talent to back it up.

Well today Mr. K. put something up on his blog that is just fantastic stuff. He discusses the lost art of layout compositions that work with the character animation. He rails against the current crop of TV animation style for 2d stuff, but I see the desperate need to apply the principles he outlines in CG animation today. In the larger world of Cg art it is evident that we suffer from a terrible disease known as Detailitis. Symptoms include obsession with digital photos and video reference, an unnatural affinity for normal maps, the overweening attachment to detail as the arbiter of excellence and a slavish dedication or recreating the visual versimilitude of one’s front yard. If you’re a young a designer for animation then you need to go read this. Shoot, if you’re a professional designer for animation then you really need to go read it.
Brilliant stuff.