Pat Bradley was born in Upstate New York but eventually made his way to Chicago after studying fine art at the Maryland Institute of Art. He always hoped he would draw for a living. Pat started animating at the Field Museum of Chicago then branched into commercial advertising. He just started his own business, Storywell Productions, specializing in educational animation and interactives. You can see some of his work at www.patbradley.net or find him on facebook (www.facebook.com/patcbradley)
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5 years
When I worked at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago I produced a series of animations for their various exhibitions. The challenge was to make science fun, so I developed comical characters such as dinosaurs and mammoths that helped demonstrate scientific principles. As a result, the animations won a national industry award for their creativity and humor.
I was introduced to animation with the first version of Toon Boom Studio which really got me excited about being able to produce my own animation. When Toon Boom Solo first came out I upgraded to that, and moved from there to Digital Pro and now to Animate Pro.
I do a lot of freelance animation for cultural and educational institutions that requires storyboarding. Depending on the client’s needs, the storyboards can be anywhere from being rough sketches to tight color presentation boards and animatics. I also use storyboards to create my “Dailies”, which are like an online sketchbook. I’ve been posting them on facebook and receive lots of great feedback.
Not always.
It all depends on the project. I usually do some tweaking in After Effects for animation. Photoshop is great for adjusting storyboards and I’ll use Maya if I need to develop 3D elements.
There is no software that does it all. I enjoy watching and creating complex work where you’re forced to analyze it in order to figure out how it was made. I have found that using a range of tools gives me more flexibility and richer results. For the most part however, Toon Boom serves as the base of my projects because it allows me to capitalize on my biggest strength--- my ability to draw by hand.
I think my workflow is pretty typical and starts with some concept art and storyboards. Because I do a lot of work for educational institutions that need approval from scientist, the character design is an important step in the process. If the script has been approved, I’ll do a recording session with the voice talent and edit the voice tracks. I often use the voice track to create an animatic, even if it’s not meant to show to the client. If possible, I hire my brother Chris Bradley to produce the soundtrack, so I’ll send him the animatic to get started on the musical themes. Once that’s all approved, I use the “export to Toon Boom” function in Storyboard Pro, which creates all the individual scenes with their correct lengths and audio. From there, I either create puppets from the characters or jump into animation. Many moons later, I export the scenes, add some extra effects in After Effects and finish it all in Final Cut Pro. Of course, because often the deadlines are so short, all these steps tend to get compressed and overlap, and I’m usually working on sections that haven’t been approved, keeping my fingers crossed.
When I am competing for a project, I typically create a lot of concept art in Storyboard Pro. It kick starts my thought process and often gets the client excited about the project’s potential. After it has been awarded, I storyboard each scene and create an animatic if necessary.
Professionally, I specialize in animations for museums and classrooms. It is really gratifying to make educational content both fun and entertaining for kids. I also work at Calabash Animation which produces feature quality commercial animation, so I have a range of different style and content that I work with.
In my free time, I’m always working on a short film of my own. I recently finished “Undo” about a middle-aged man who can erase elements of his past with the push of a button. It’s both funny and slightly disturbing… Hopefully it will be shown at a film festival or two this year.
I've always done paperless, but the last few projects I've been working on have been a mix of traditional and cut-out puppets.
For storyboarding I think having the ability to create different texture pens helps to give everything an organic look. The multi-plane camera and ability to easily move through 3D space instantly makes projects more interesting. Also, being able to marry traditional animation with elements created in other programs or live action allows for huge variety of different styles and moods.
Definitely. Being a one man studio requires me to do everything extremely efficiently. I’m currently producing an animation for The Art Institute of Chicago, which is about 5 minutes long, and jam packed with scenes containing multiple characters and dialogue. The deadline is bordering on ridiculous, and would be impossible for a one-man operation if I were using any other software.
I guess the last toolset I used before Toon Boom was Flash. Like I said before, no software can do it all. It does a lot of things really well, but it's obvious that the Toon Boom products are based on producing feature animation, and the demands to make the animation process as efficient as possible.
Perhaps, but only if you had lots of extra time.
I am always amazed about how much thought is put into the software to give the user such flexibility. I’m always impressed with the support team. I feel like we are all on a first name basis, because I’m always asking questions or suggesting new features. I can’t image having that kind of relationship with any other software company.
Having come from Digital Pro, the learning curve wasn't too bad. I think the hardest thing for people coming from other software is learning how to set up networks. I do compositing for Calabash Animation, and had had experience making really complex networks. I think with Animate Pro, it will be much easier for people to transition to it since you can do much of the hierarchy and effects through the timeline. The video tutorials are helpful too.
MacG5 and Wacom Cintiq
