Rediscovering the Road Not Taken …

I caught a glimpse of the behind the scenes magic today thanks to an incredibly nice, former art director turned writer, who goes by the pen name of Aurelio O’ Brien. His invitation to a book signing event resulted in Mark Kirkland arranging for a studio visit to the home of the Simpsons in Burbank, CA. Jason Bikoswski conducted the tour and explained the process, popped us into various departments where we got to meet artists who explained their roles. I peeked under the hood at storyboarding, timing, layout, animatics and other bits. After the tour Ed Ghertner, Aurelio, and myself sat down to lunch and I was thrilled to hear a bit about their battlefield experiences on classics like Beauty and the Beast and Cats Don’t Dance.

I have to say it was a wonderful day. Everyone I spoke to from Mark on down was genuinely nice, in love with the job, extremely competent and working hard. I’m sure this rarified atmosphere is as big a factor in the success of The Simpsons as the writing, the directing, the colors, and the subliminal messages woven into the film. My thanks to all of those who took time out of their busy schedules to make this possible.

Just in case you missed it The Simpsons Movie is slated for release in July.

I did a little side job designing a web page as my current job officially ended a week ago. I finished today and start my new job tomorrow - how’s that for cutting it close?

Here’s a snapshot of the page I designed (a few tweaks needed after they give me some images and bios). It’s not my strongest skill, but I did learn a bit of HTML and CSS during my web business days.