A lot of animators inspire me and I feel like sharing their talent and their expertise with any other animator or cartoon enthusiast out there. So, as often as I can, I'm going to write a short blog post on those unsung animators.
This post goes out to a guy that I'm so fortunate to have the pleasure of knowing...on twitter. Maybe one day I'll be able to meet this guy in person, but he lives Toronto, Canada and I'm still in college...being broke. I had a dream once that I meant him in one of those fancy hotel ball rooms, you know like the one in The Shining, minus the creepiness and Jack Nicholson.Instead of there being people having nonchalant conversations and creepy- ass Jack ordering his drink at the bar, there was nothing but Cintiq tablets, a green screen and a few other animators in the room. This guy welcomed me in and simply said, "Are you fucking ready to have some fun?" Doors close, and then I wake up.
The guy I'm talking about is Steve Stark.
His animation style is somewhat reflective of what you'd expect from a Ren & Stimpy cartoon. The humor not only comes from the awesome raunchiness in the dialogue, but the animation itself is very exaggerated and fun to watch.
I first found out about Steve Stark through his involvement in Jay and Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie. I remember after I found out there was going to be a cartoon of Jay and Silent Bob, I had to follow the guy responsible for bringing my two idols to the big screen again. Not only were they on the big screen again, but as cartoons! I thought I had died and went to Heaven. All I needed was Jennifer Lawrence and some whipped cream and I would've definitely been in Heaven...excuse me...
8===D----fap break----
ok...anyway, back to what I was saying, I had to follow the guy responsible for bringing my two heroes back on screen. So, I jumped on twitter and that day, Steve Stark gained another follower. I decided after that to see what else he'd done. And let me tell you, the man is an inspiration! Through some digging around on the Interwebs, I found that he not only animated the full length movie for Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes, but he's one of the animators that animate Kevin Smith's Smodco Cartoon Show. Needless to say, I went straight back to twitter and immediately tweeted him saying something along the lines of, "Oh my god! You animate for Kevin Smith! You're awesome, man!"
Something miraculous happened that day...Steve Stark tweeted me back! I WENT CRAZY!! My new found inspiration had tweeted me back! Then, through a series of tweets, he told me that he was getting together a few animators to put together an animation for the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI.) I asked if an amateur animator like myself could be thrown into that mix. Up until then, I hadn't really done much animation, but I wanted to, so this was a chance to not only animate something for a festival, but work on a project with someone that I started to really look up to.
The project is called Richard's Dreams. It's about Steve's fat cat Richard who strolls around, eats and farts then goes to sleep. The job of the animators was to animate this fat cat's dreams. I got to see the work of some fantastic artists through that project, some of which I still talk to on twitter today. SHOUT OUT TO MY RICHARD DREAMERS!!!
So, not only did Steve Stark open my eyes to possibilities in the cartoon world, his cartoons remind me to just be yourself. Who cares if no one likes it. It's nice if they do because then you can do cool stuff for cool people, but in long run, if you're not creating what you like, then you're just faking yourself and no one likes a faker.
Thanks for reading the post. Sorry if it's sloppily written. I'm an artist, not a journalist. Get off my sack lol
Til next post
- Tommy
Follow Steve Stark on Twitter. He'll bless your child. @starktoons
STEVE STARK'S BLOG
http://stevestarksblog.blogspot.ca
SMODCO CARTOON SHOW
http://smodcast.com/people/steve-stark/
STEVE'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvpEijOWBD6idIXzMJDK4Pg
This post goes out to a guy that I'm so fortunate to have the pleasure of knowing...on twitter. Maybe one day I'll be able to meet this guy in person, but he lives Toronto, Canada and I'm still in college...being broke. I had a dream once that I meant him in one of those fancy hotel ball rooms, you know like the one in The Shining, minus the creepiness and Jack Nicholson.Instead of there being people having nonchalant conversations and creepy- ass Jack ordering his drink at the bar, there was nothing but Cintiq tablets, a green screen and a few other animators in the room. This guy welcomed me in and simply said, "Are you fucking ready to have some fun?" Doors close, and then I wake up.
The guy I'm talking about is Steve Stark.
His animation style is somewhat reflective of what you'd expect from a Ren & Stimpy cartoon. The humor not only comes from the awesome raunchiness in the dialogue, but the animation itself is very exaggerated and fun to watch.
I first found out about Steve Stark through his involvement in Jay and Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie. I remember after I found out there was going to be a cartoon of Jay and Silent Bob, I had to follow the guy responsible for bringing my two idols to the big screen again. Not only were they on the big screen again, but as cartoons! I thought I had died and went to Heaven. All I needed was Jennifer Lawrence and some whipped cream and I would've definitely been in Heaven...excuse me...
8===D----fap break----
ok...anyway, back to what I was saying, I had to follow the guy responsible for bringing my two heroes back on screen. So, I jumped on twitter and that day, Steve Stark gained another follower. I decided after that to see what else he'd done. And let me tell you, the man is an inspiration! Through some digging around on the Interwebs, I found that he not only animated the full length movie for Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes, but he's one of the animators that animate Kevin Smith's Smodco Cartoon Show. Needless to say, I went straight back to twitter and immediately tweeted him saying something along the lines of, "Oh my god! You animate for Kevin Smith! You're awesome, man!"
Something miraculous happened that day...Steve Stark tweeted me back! I WENT CRAZY!! My new found inspiration had tweeted me back! Then, through a series of tweets, he told me that he was getting together a few animators to put together an animation for the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI.) I asked if an amateur animator like myself could be thrown into that mix. Up until then, I hadn't really done much animation, but I wanted to, so this was a chance to not only animate something for a festival, but work on a project with someone that I started to really look up to.
The project is called Richard's Dreams. It's about Steve's fat cat Richard who strolls around, eats and farts then goes to sleep. The job of the animators was to animate this fat cat's dreams. I got to see the work of some fantastic artists through that project, some of which I still talk to on twitter today. SHOUT OUT TO MY RICHARD DREAMERS!!!
So, not only did Steve Stark open my eyes to possibilities in the cartoon world, his cartoons remind me to just be yourself. Who cares if no one likes it. It's nice if they do because then you can do cool stuff for cool people, but in long run, if you're not creating what you like, then you're just faking yourself and no one likes a faker.
Thanks for reading the post. Sorry if it's sloppily written. I'm an artist, not a journalist. Get off my sack lol
Til next post
- Tommy
Follow Steve Stark on Twitter. He'll bless your child. @starktoons
STEVE STARK'S BLOG
http://stevestarksblog.blogspot.ca
SMODCO CARTOON SHOW
http://smodcast.com/people/steve-stark/
STEVE'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvpEijOWBD6idIXzMJDK4Pg