Lytesander: Please tell me a little about yourself, including your experiences and background.
Brian Lemay:
I am a graduate of the Sheridan College Classical Animation program way back in 1980, I’ve been working in the animation industry for the past 32 years. I started off as an assistant animator on the feature film, Rock and Rule, then was hired as the character designer on the original Inspector Gadget series, then I did layouts on Ewoks and Droids, Smurfs, Flintstone Kids, Laser Tag and Punky Brewster. I became the layout supervisor on Carebears and Teddy Ruxpin in 1985, and then did some animation on a French show called, “Y's the Magnificent” and other short films. During this same time period I worked as an illustrator for various advertising agencies whose clients included, Kellogg's, Nestle's Quik, Barbie, McDonald's, and Burger King.
I did several different freelance projects during this period including comic books and storyboards for the show “Freaky Stories”.
I left Nelvana in 1988 and started teaching Layout and Life Drawing at Sheridan College. I became the Co-ordinator of the Classical Animation program from 1996 - 2000. During my time at Sheridan I was also taught Storyboarding, Character Design, Animation, Background Painting in all 3 years of the program.
In 2001, I left Sheridan College and moved to Seneca College in Toronto. My proposal to set up a new 2D/3D animation program was accepted by the Government and implimented in 2002. I also wrote the curriculum for the 1st and 2nd year courses.
In 2002, while at Seneca College, I was asked to draw the storyboards for a film entitled "Ryan", directed by Chris Landreth. "Ryan" won the 2005 Academy Award Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film. To date the film has won more than 45 international awards.
From Feb - May 2007 I once again worked with Chris on another computer animated film titled, "The Spine", drawing the storyboards for the entire 14 minute film.
I am currently teaching 1st year Animation at Seneca College as well as 1st and 2nd year Production Art which involves Character Design, Storyboarding, and Layout at Humber College in their 3D Computer Animation Program.
In 1991 I began writing a series of books about the different aspects of animation.
To date, I have written 8 books on the various animation processes, including;
• Designing Cartoon Characters for Animation Vol. 1,
• Layout and Design Made Amazingly Simple,
• The Advanced Layout and Design Workbook
• Layout Examples,
• The Animation Drawing Course and DVD
• Animation: The Basic Principles
• Character Animation and Lip Sync
These books are currently being used at many schools of animation across North America, Europe, and Asia.
In Sept. 2011 I was a special guest speaker at the 6th Annual Shijiazhuang International Cartoon Fair in China and a Guest lecturer at the Hebei Institute of Communications Animation Program.
Lytesander: The term “storyboarding”, traditionally used in art, is commonly used in marketing today. Do you think different terminology should be used or is it a justified term?
Brian Lemay:
It’s basically the same thing. Storyboarding is the planning stage for how the story is going to look on screen. It really doesn’t matter what medium it’s used for the principles behind the process are the same.
Lytesander: How has storyboarding impacted your job?
Brian Lemay:
It hasn’t “impacted” my job, it’s part of the process that is the job.
Lytesander: Have you ever used a storyboard for a purpose outside of work?
Brian Lemay:
Nope... wait, you mean like for planning a food menu??... eh, no.
Lytesander: Storyboard art varies from stick figures to fully rounded and shaded subjects; how much detail do you typically put in a storyboard?
Brian Lemay:
It all depends on the requirements of the project and the individual artist’s abilities. I’ve never done “stick figures” because I know how to draw. Typically, on a cartoon show you are given model sheets that show what the characters look like and their proportions to the other characters. You then have to draw the characters so they look the way they are supposed to. You can leave off detatils like buttons and even clothing, just so long as the action is clear of what the character is supposed to be doing.
In long shots, you can leave a character’s facial features off if it’s not necessary to see the expression on their face, but in medium and close up shots you absolutely need to have a clear representation of the emotion of the character at that particular point in the scene.
Lytesander: Do you have any advice or any extra knowledge about storyboarding you’d care to share?
Brian Lemay:
There’s so much information about storyboarding and the process involved. If you go to my website, you can find a whole bunch of stuff in there: http://brianlemay.com/Pages/animationschool/storyboarding/storyboarding%20basics.html
The basic rule is: show the audience what they need to see to be able to understand 1) where the characters are, 2) what the characters are doing, 3) what the characters are looking at, 4) what the characters are feeling and 5) make sure it makes sense.
Storyboards are like the sentences in a written story, if they are out of order or say something that you don’t want the audience to know, it won’t make any sense.
Lytesander: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Brian Lemay:
Wiarton Willie, Punxsutawney Phil and General Beauregard Lee once held a woodchucking contest to see who could chuck the most wood. Willie chucked a total of 17 logs weighing 5 lbs each before giving up. Phil chucked a total of 22 logs of the same weight.
The General threw only one log which weighed a reported 15 lbs and won the contest by default because it crushed both Willie and Phil. The General is now serving a life sentence for 2 counts of woodchuck slaughter in the Georgia State Prison for Sciuridae. His prison nickname is: "Yellow-belly".
Hope this helps,
Brian
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