Animation &Animation Artifacts &Hubley 12 Jun 2009 08:10 am
Johnny Gent’s Spellbinder
Johnny (Gentilella) Gent had the hardest time on the Letterman series done for the original Electric Company. He could never get the characters and kept trying to add 3D form to the 2D characters that John Hubley had created.
It was my first job, and I was in awe of every animator that walked through ________A very early John Hubley model of Spellbinder.
the door. We had 2½ months to do
all the artwork on the 20 spots that were 2½ mins each. A total of 50 mins in 10 weeks. (That’s about right these days for a 30 second spot!)
I did all the assisting, inking and inbetweening and had to do it quickly. (I estimated about 18 secs. per drawing. The game I played with myself to keep up was to keep one eye on the drawing and another on the clock.)
As I said, it was my first animation job. What did I know! I had to take Johnny’s drawings and reshape them into Hubley’s characters, and I had to do it in ink. No pencil tests. Just do it. Whatever came out, was the final artwork (and I use that word loosely.) I felt, even while I was doing it, that I was killing Johnny’s work, and I ultimately apologized for it. No one else complained, so it went as it did.
Here’s a cycle of Johnny Gent’s Spellbinder rowing a boat.
1(If you click on any drawing it’ll show you the full animation page.
3
4
5
7
Johnny Gent’s Spellbinder rows a boat
on two’s per drawing indicated
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.
on 13 Jun 2009 at 11:21 am 1.bill said …
Michael,
Thanks for posting these various pieces on Letterman. I always enjoyed these cartoons as a kid, and it’s great to finally learn the “behind the scenes” information on them.
Also, it’s also only my opinion, but even though he’s off-model, I really like how Gent’s Spellbinder looks.