Wacom interviews The Norm creator Michael Jantze about his process of animating The Norm and posting them on YouTube.
What are the tools and software you use to create The Norm and edit it for YouTube?
I’m still drawing on paper. I use a printer’s card stock similar to Bristol or Bristol (honestly, whatever is available). I pencil and ink on paper, color the scanned image in Adobe Photoshop and then put it to production in Adobe After Effects. It’s at those stages the Wacom Cintiq comes into play. I’ve set a goal to finish the color and production work in no more than an hour each. I don’t want the experience for the viewer/reader to get too close to animation or even motion. I’m relying on the gag to be funny and choosing the transitions and sound effects to add to the reader’s experience.
For some reason, I always feel that animation is the next step for comic strips and panels; not a long cartoon feature, but just some small movement in daily strips that some cartoonists are experimenting with now.
I love Michael’s and admire it so much but I’m 100% sold on creating motion comics in the manor he does works. I love seeing his beautiful in a different medium and it is fun to watch it move, but it still feels like a comic produced as a 3 or 4 panel static comic does not translate over to an animated comic 1 to 1. It feels like animated medium requires a comic to be produced exclusively for the animated medium in some way. I’m playing with this myself out of desire to animate my comics and I’m not completely sold it is going to work but I do feel the work needs to created specifically for animation and the amazing work that Michael does plays so much better as a static piece. I could be completely wrong here. Just my feeling.