Eric Grajo:

I wanted to do something with subtle and dramatic acting because just about everything that I had done up to the point of the short film had been comedic. During the brainstorming process, however, I gravitated back to the comedy. Instead of fighting it, I just went with it. Since most animated short films you see have little to no dialogue, I looked to the Three Stooges for inspiration because their shorts have physical/slapstick comedy with no dialogue. That’s when I dove in feet first researching as much three stooges material as I could find. You could say that Trading Punches is straight out of the book of the Three Stooges.

---

Eric Grajo:

Keep it simple. Making a short film is a huge task for one person to do. I made the decision to stick to the syllabus and keep it to one character at 30 – 40 seconds in length, or in my case, one character and one object. Yes, there is another character in the story, but he is only shown in the beginning and the end. Keeping it simple in this case meant “less moving parts.” I also wanted the mentors to review the film as a whole as opposed to a portion of it (if it were longer). Keeping it shorter made it easier to produce the film and I nearly finished it by my last class. I also walked away from this experience realizing that as animators/filmmakers, our job is to convey some sort of emotion -- to let the audience think or feel a certain way. If a great story, the way you tell it, and great animation draws the audience in and makes them forget they’re watching an animated film, then we’ve done our job.

---

Eric Grajo:

The best piece of advice was from a friend and fellow Animation Mentor student, and it had nothing to do with creating a short film. He had persuaded me to finish Animation Mentor. I was unemployed at the time and had nothing to do besides look for work. So I figured that this would be a good opportunity to take advantage of the time that I had to finish the program. I had taken a couple of terms off with no intention of completing the course. I’m so glad I finished.

---

Eric Grajo:

When I was thinking of ideas, I would run them by friends to get their feedback. Once I had nailed down a scenario that I liked, I began to write out the details of the story as they came to me. This was a bit challenging, having never done anything like this before, so it was easy to lose focus and go off on a tangent. I would go back and read what I had written and make changes. I would show it to friends again to get their feedback. When it came time to submit it for my mentor to review, he would offer suggestions that would make it read better visually. Once the written pitch was signed off on, I began working on the video pitch by acting it out in front of a mirror. When the acting portion of the pitch became “muscle memory,” I began filming myself. This was a whole other “animal.” After the video pitch was approved, it was onto storyboarding and using those story boards to build the animatic, which is used to work out the timing of the action and camera cuts.

---

Eric Grajo:

Please download Flash Player 10 to view video.
Download at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

A) This final video pitch is an edit of different takes that I thought were clear. At this point I think the short was at about a minute or more.

Please download Flash Player 10 to view video.
Download at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

B) The animatic was challenging because my drawings were a bit hard to read as far as perspective and camera angles go.  My pre-production mentor suggested that I do it all in Maya and then trace over it, which really helped. The animatic read much, much better. I also added some sound effects to help sell it.  Here is an early version of the animatic I drew by hand. It’s not as clear.

Please download Flash Player 10 to view video.
Download at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

C) In this layout, there are some camera changes throughout the short. My mentor also suggested putting the weightlifter shown at the end of the short in the beginning as well to help sell the gag at the end. It also makes a nice bookend piece. I also added music that I thought was appropriate at the time.

Please download Flash Player 10 to view video.
Download at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

D) This is my blocking plus stage. It still looks very rough.

Please download Flash Player 10 to view video.
Download at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

E) Final render. As with any project we start at Animation Mentor, the final product looks very different from when we started it. I took a few months after graduation to polish it up more. My mentor also suggested changing the music because he felt it didn’t fit, which was a good call because I was able to time the new music to fit the animation.

---

Eric Grajo:

I think the biggest obstacle for me was the actual filming of the pitch. I didn’t keep track of how many takes I did, but it was grueling. Fumbling your words, forgetting your lines, conscience of how you look, wondering if everything reads clearly and running out of breath. Yes, running out breath. These pitches sucked the life out of me but I was able to get around it by repetition. I eventually got through it without a fumble or forgetting a line.

---

Eric Grajo:

Animation Mentor helped me create my short film by teaching me the fundamentals of filmmaking to tell a story effectively. Animation Mentor also helped me stay on track during the story pitch phase so I didn’t lose focus on what I wanted to tell in my short. The mentors taught me techniques on how to properly set up cameras and how to stage the characters in front of those cameras so I could get the most out of each shot. I also learned how to link each of those shots to have a certain flow so the viewer could follow easily. The mentors guided me on my storytelling poses so that they were strong and read well which was important because a lot my animation has big and broad motions. All in all, Animation Mentor helped me in every aspect of the short from conception to final polish.

---

Eric Grajo:

You can do it!! When I saw that the last two classes were on producing an animated short, I was a little concerned. Will I be able to do all that myself? It seems like a lot work for one person to do! After going through it, it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I enjoyed it. I would also suggest that you try to keep it as simple as possible. It can be exciting because you have all these ideas you want to explore. You want to do this, that, and the other thing, but just keep in mind you have to do it all yourself. The last piece of advice I would like to offer is to have fun with it.