Playing with dolls

When a live action director wants to make a film he casts actors that he believes best fit the roles-

He doesn't build these human beings from scratch-

The purpose of an actor is to become a dramatic vehicle to realize your cinematic vision-

Like every other part of the production- the actor serves the story- they are vehicles that allow you to tell your story-

My character creation process is like playing with dolls-

On We Are The Strange- I bought doll eyes and heads from the craft store- I took arms and legs from different toys- I use a little wire, clay, and latex to create other parts and put them all together-

In other words I only made as much of the actors as I had to-

On Heart String Marionette the character creation process was very much like my mix and match doll part technique I used on We Are The Strange- I modeled one set of male doll parts and one set of female doll parts- then I simply mixed and matched them to create all the characters- I also made some monster parts as well-

On I am Nightmare I used the SAME doll parts I had made for Heart String Marionette except I scaled them all down to more realistic proportions- I actually used these real ball joint doll templates to match their proportions to

So I approach animation production like a live action director- I just want actors to act out my stories-

I only make characters from scratch if I have no other options-

I don't understand this elitist perfectionist attitude that seems to pervade the world of 3d animation wherein people believe they need super high quality technically perfect models in order to make a film etc-

Here's a tip about that- NO ONE GIVES A SHIT!

If you have great mood, interesting characters that people can connect with and tell a compelling story MOST PEOPLE WON'T GIVE A SHIT WHAT YOUR CHARACTERS LOOK LIKE!

The technical quality matters IF you are making a DEMO REEL

If you're telling yourself you can't make an animated film because your characters don't look good enough you're lying to yourself- if you're letting that stop you- you probably don't have a story worth telling as you lack the passion to tell it- IF YOU DID you wouldn't let the technical quality of your models stop you.

If it was still 1995 maybe people would be impressed solely by the technical quality of your characters but nowadays people just don't care much-

Why is Minecraft such a huge hit with its rudimentary graphics? Because there are other things that matter besides fancy graphics.

IF you cannot create something interesting, compelling, and entertaining with rudimentary sets and characters- the fanciest models in the world are not going to save your work.

So GET OVER IT and make something.





Brought to you by professional weirdo M dot Strange.