Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

[poisonbella]

Hello Vincent! Thanks for joining us....i used to watch ren and stimpy, the real ghostbusters etc. my neice also watches spongebob squarepants with my dad....this is so cool! hmm, so what do you think about the subliminal msgs in spongebob? if you youtube it, you will find alot!!! here, i will find a link: is spongebob a freemason? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFohsiwXhyE

[VincentWaller]

Hi LDK_SPARDA,

Good question. Usually for me it is just looking at the character imagining what voice would come out. If you saw the Hey Look! Short I did for Oh Yeah Cartoons and Frederator, I wanted the characters to have that 1940s New York average Joe feel to them, and Maurice LaMarche, and (Oh my god, I can't remember the actor who played the big guy. That is so embarrassing, because I've dug his work on live action stuff for years before I used him on that. Oh egg on face.) but they both fit that bill perfectly, I think knocked out of the park.

On Pete Patrick Private Investigator Danny Mann came out with what I thought was the perfect voice for Doctor Don't. He was evil and perfectly happy about being so.  Pam Segal I thought was just right for Pete, and I knew even as I was drawing it that I wanted Billy West to do his Peter Lorre as  the fez wearing Persian Puss. We had to cut it for time, but I had Persian Puss hitting on all the ladies they ran across.

[VincentWaller]

Just realized I didn't really answer your question.

Train yourself to listen to people and mimic their voices. People from different regions, and countries. Learn speak above and below your weight range. People are always stunned when the meet Doug Lawrence because his voice that he uses for plankton comes out of such a thin frame.

Then compile them as entertainingly as you can.  For me when I'm listening to peoples pre audition tracks I'm listening for folks that have a lot of range both in characters and the range within the characters themselves.

I hope that helps.

[VincentWaller]

As to getting into animation, I had a lot of help. From folks like Larry Hama and Gary Halgren, back in NYC when I was doing Comics and Illustration. I was also lucky enough to have Bob Camp as my best friend and  running buddy in those years. We meet while doing Caricatures at Six Flags Over Texas. He was well ahead of me into all these fields and more than once helped me out by covering my share of the rent and keeping me feed, while I was working in a low paying construction jobs and trying to build a portfolio.It is also a great thing to have someone that talented to learn from.

After working construction for a year or more in LA I interviewed (Bob C may have had a hand in me landing an interview. )with Will Meugniot. He recognized my name from my comic work and gave me a chance on The Real Ghostbusters doing storyboard revision. Yet another talented and patient mentor.  Man in my mind I was rich taking home $534.00 a week. 

[VincentWaller]

  Thanks viperxmns.  

That is always good to hear that one has  had a positive effect.

[VincentWaller]

Also no rules about spelling apparently. LOL boy i need to use the spell check button.

[VincentWaller]

Oh the duckman cliff hanger, that would be a question to Pete Avenzeno. He was Supervising Director on the show and I think I only did one storyboard for him on Duckman. 

[VincentWaller]

Uncle Grandpa looked like it would have been fun.

In the future I'd love to find a project that was more adult but not solely writer driven.

i'm excited about a short that mr.Lawrence is doing right now and I am helping out with designs and scene set ups.

Can't really say more than that now, but i'm enjoying it, and I think people will too.

[VincentWaller]

Working on Childrens or Adult themed shows. I enjoy both , but lately have been a little jealous of the prime time shows.

Dealing with Standards and Practices it seems the circle of what you're allowed to do keeps getting smaller and smaller. Things that I find completely silly, like how many bites a character can take of food.  There are so many things that we've done on the show that are no longer allowed. It's for crazy making.

People feeling we can cure society's problems through cartoons in just ludicrous. People aren't fat because they saw a cartoon character eat a platter full of hamburgers.

[VincentWaller]

Well Captain Planet wasn't my favorite show to work on. I was really just a paid wrist. A lot of the first season was taking Japanese storyboards that were very very loose and reformatting them for the American industry. But I know it had a profound effect on a lot people watching it, and you can tell that the actors really cared for the project. Also it kept me eating a and a roof over my head for two seasons. So YAY! Captain Planet!

[VincentWaller]

Hi Poisonbella,

Well I know our BG designer isn't a satnist or a free mason. I think like most artists we are intrigued by icons of all sorts. Who knew that a symbol that you can find on every dollar in your wallet would cause such a fuss?

[poisonbella]

Thank you for the answer! ha! I was reading about the bites? how many bites of food can they take? what do cartoons usually eat? i like noticing things like that. yes, there are alot of crazy youtube videos. what do you think about the president of hollywood one?? (i will find a link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn3Jg8QDh9w

what was that all about? i think it was made to freak out everyone who believes in the illuminati and get them talking.....

thanks again!

[VincentWaller]

Ha Ha! looks like someone was making fun of the group that is IMO overly concerned about the IMO Non Existant  " All cotrolling unseen hand".

Some times folks like to see peoples hair catch fire.

[LDK_SPARDA]

Oh I thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. I hope you keep us fans happy with more of your work to come. I really thank you for giving me the encouragement to press forward through the obstacles that I face. Your encouragement and wisdom to acknowledge and recognized that even those who in general have it rough can press forward and achieve greatness such as how you have accomplished a lot. It's not in generally handed-out to you, you gotta work for it. Do the work you love and get it recognized by those who have an appeal to it. I thank you again for the wisdom and encouragement, Vincent Waller.

[poisonbella]

ha! oh my gosh....that is what i was thinking too in fact, yes alot of people read too much into things...but there are TONS of symbolisms and hidden messages....arent there??? do you ever read those sites?? (conspiracy style ones)

[desantoos]

---

VincentWaller wrote: 

Things that I find completely silly, like how many bites a character can take of food.  There are so many things that we've done on the show that are no longer allowed. It's for crazy making.

People feeling we can cure society's problems through cartoons in just ludicrous. People aren't fat because they saw a cartoon character eat a platter full of hamburgers.

---

Holy crap I didn't know S&P was that bad. And I just do not understand how they can be so hypocritical and allow so many junk food/fast food commercials between their sanitized shows.

(Just a comment)

[duzitickle]

i have no idea why she thought it was ok to color it,
i never woulda done something like that.
its quite rude.


whats the coolest fan art someone ever made you?

[lupinfan83]

As an animator, how has the advancement of technology helped with the creating of a cartoon? Is it alot faster, does it allow you to do things you couldn't do with just hand drawings?

[VincentWaller]

Usually after three bites we get a flag of concern. But it changes from day to day, depends on who is doing the S&P notes.

[VincentWaller]

Man we get so much cool fan art it would be hard to pick. We put a lot of it up on a wall where we have a twelve foot tall painting of SpongeBob's Pineapple on cardboard that was a leave over from one of our Halloween celebrations.

[VincentWaller]

Well most of the crew are now drawing using the Cintiq. If you haven't seen one picture a 16 by 24 inch drawing tablet that you draw directly on the screen. They have helped make us grow fatter. As we no longer need to walk to the photocopy machine to to copy a background, or set of characters that may be standing behind which ever character is animating. Also we don't need to have so many copies of storyboards floating around since Paul, the board supervisors Clint Bond and Tuck Tucker and myself can access anyone's boards through the computer.

[VincentWaller]

I don't ever read those. Too busy keeping up with my pals on FaceBook

Oh Also if you want to see my drawings that I do outside of work please check :

http://incoherent-thought.blogspot.com

But be warned some of it is more adult in nature.