The Jump by Charles Huettner

Nyan!

The Late Night Work Club was introduced to us in the lesson at the beginning of term and one of the animation within has caught my attention since that day which is The Jump by Charles Huettner. Huettner is a 2D animator who has an unique art style. The illustrations are simple but strong in presenting the story on their own without much text and the use of colour is very bold and surreal. 

The Jump from Charles Huettner on Vimeo.

The Jump is probably the best short animation I have ever seen these months. The animation are brilliantly made that has includes a huge amount of details and the animation principles are applied in it. The plot is interesting and creative that successfully project the fascinating thoughts Huettner has in his head. The staging is suitable for the story and the quality of the drawings are good. He has created some good characters that are most appropriate for the story in this case teenagers that are curious to investigate the world but got themselves into a sad ending at the end.
I really into the story which I think I have discovered many hidden messages when I repeat watching it like treasure life and no pain no gain.

He has the sense of humour in his work. Simple and it works.

I found this Q&A really thoughtful and inspiring from Huettner's website:

''FATHOMSMOVIE: HEY DUDER, REAL QUESTION TIME! MY IMPRESSION IS THAT YOUR WORK IS VERY IMPROVISATIONAL AND IN THE MOMENT. OR IS THAT JUST YOUR SUPER CHILL VIBE? WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS LIKE IN DEVELOPING / PLANNING / CREATING SOMETHING LIKE A SHORT FILM THAT CAN'T BE COMPLETED IN ONE OR TWO SITTINGS? DO YOU OUTLINE, STORYBOARD, WRITE STUFF? IS THE PROCESS WILDLY DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON YOUR MOOD? WHAT'S THE DEAL?! THANKS, JOE

Hi Joe. thanks for the thoughtful question.  First off I want to say, if you’re looking for advice, my main tip is to ignore any rules you might have been taught and focus on what works for you. There is no right or wrong way to animate. So do whatever you want to get sweet results. 

Yeah you guessed it. I mostly just animate off the top of my head.  I’m not big into pre production. I never make animatics for my own stuff. I only do rough animation if its a complicated shot that i might fail at. Otherwise i just go straight into final clean animation. I’m not saying that’s the best way to do things, but its best for me. I do make storyboards for longer stuff.  They’re super sketchy and loose.  Mostly just make them to quickly reference what happens next and to keep the big picture in mind.  This is the storyboard I used when making The Jump.''

''You’ll notice I cut some stuff out and didn’t bother planning out the ghost memory stuff.  I think if story meant a lot to me I might be more into planning. But it doesn’t, so I’m not.''

The sentences that underlined give me a lot of thoughts. When he suggests ignore any rules and focus what work for you and there are no rights or wrong in making animation, I feel motivated due to the sense of support and the flexibility in the animation world. However, I do think learning the basic animation rules is vital in the stage where I am at at the moment in order to create a firm fundamental base for making high quality animation in the future.

Huettner's storyboard for The Jump is loose and this is working for him. For me, sometimes it works for me as well but not always. The sketchy storyboard I made initially for the pixilation project did not help me at all because it is way too weak in terms of it's content and information. Anyway, I do not think his storyboard would be understandable if I have not seen his animation before. There are hardly any notes or description to demonstrate the key frames which might be a problem if the information is sent wrongly to the other teammate.

Lastly, there is a photoshop tutorial from his website and I found this more useful than the photoshop induction we had...and it is interesting to know how he produces and process the animation with his signature drawings.

http://charleshuettner.tumblr.com