Festivals - Wondercon 2019 : We were at the panel Crafting Cartoons & comics

By Mulder, Anaheim, Convention Center, 30 march 2019

For the final panel of Impact24’s Behind-The-Camera Superblock at WonderCon 2019, hundreds of fans gathered to learn the secrets of their favorite animated shows during the “Crafting Cartoons and Comics: The Sights and Sounds of Your Favorite TV and Film Characters” panel. The conversation included composer Ryan Shore (Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures), animation director Anna Hollingsworth (Unikitty!), supervising director Mike Hollingsworth (BoJack Horseman, Tuca & Bertie), supervising director Mike Mayfield (Big Mouth), animator David Han (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), and composer Brian H. Kim (Star vs. the Forces of Evil). The panel was moderated by voice actress Vanessa Marshall (Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, Guardians of the Galaxy), and content creator Chris Villain.

Beginning the panel, Ryan Shore talked about challenges and rewards of composing for visual media, stating “As a composer, you're composing music for a story in a collaborative process. You work with a number of visionaries, which helps you more about storytelling. You delve into the language of storytelling, as well as director and showrunner preferences, and and must find the best musical ideas that serve the story and work for everyone.”

Discussing Annie Award-winning work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, David Han commented, “We wanted to do something totally different from the other Spider-Man films we have seen. We tried to emulate a lot of the things we see in comics. The art direction has a graphic look and the best way to compliment that was animating with 12 frames per second. The most challenging part of working with different animation styles is that we were nervous about how it would all blend and turn out. You get all of these characters and you have to make them all occupy the same space, but I think we knocked it out of the park. The animation that the team did, combined with the voice acting, makes it all feel very complete.”

Sharing her wisdom on how to succeed in animation with the audience, Anna Hollingsworth suggested, “You need to consider notes or critiques as a gift from someone else. It's easy to get hurt personally by that, but try receive it well.” Mike Hollingsworth added, “I started my career in stand-up comedy, and I recommend that every aspiring animator should take an improv class. It will really help improve your visual gags and comedic timing.”

Mayfield encouraged the creatives in the audience to make as much content as possible. “Always work on creative projects, even if it’s just holding a camera for a friend’s short film. It will help you improve your work, and you never know when something may become relevant later. I did an animated short a long time ago, and my current showrunner happened to see it and wants me to insert a similar character into this series. It’s a fun throwback for sure.”

For his advice, Brian H. Kim noted the importance of balancing supporting other people’s projects, while still finding time to make your own music. “It's likely that you’ll have to write music for someone else at one point, but take even an hour to make something of your own. It will help you improve and build your portfolio.”

The panelists closed the panel reflecting on their varied, contrasting career paths. Ultimately, they all agreed that a key to success was hard work, putting yourself out there, and finding great collaborators. Audience members exited the panel full of excitement, having learned a lot from some of their animation heroes.

This panel was produced by Impact24 Public Relations and its team members, and was a part of the inaugural Behind-The-Camera Superblock panel series. Impact24 PR is dedicated to capturing the spotlight for the talent behind-the-camera and behind-the-curtain, and supports many of the industry’s leading creative artists, including composers, cinematographers, VFX companies, production designers, makeup artists, VFX, and more. 

Photo Credit – Steven Chou, Impact24 PR
Poster Credit: Impact24 PR

(Source : press release)