Fumblebums!

Another of my favorite episodes of Back at the Barnyard: Fumblebums!  I loved the kinetic vibe to this story (written by Jed Spingarn) and we had a lot of fun with all of the football action.   I know very little about the sport so I was lucky to have some super football fans on the team like Jason Dorf.   In addition to directing this one I also storyboarded the entire episode, and Jason had to explain to me all of the positions and players on the field in order for me to figure out most of the staging – thanks buddy!  

Production Problmes!

So how do I create a stadium of people on an animated cable TV show budget?   You make the bleachers up high!  I asked our production designer Phil Cruden to make the crowd seating begin at the top of a 15 foot wall – this way I was able to shoot a lot of the action on the field without having to see a crowd of characters in each BG.   Worked out pretty well!  

The Birth of Coach Coachman!

For years I had been doing silly caricatures of my fellow director TJ Sullivan and was always looking for a place to put him in to the show – or SOME show somewhere!  Well Coach Coachman was my opportunity!  You see, there’s always a little bit of friendly ribbing going on (mom jokes, etc.) and I wasn’t going to make TJ’s character just be some guy.  No, he had to look a bit . . . well . . . goofy.  Our character designer on the show was the great Bill Schwab, so in an attempt to mimic his brilliant visual style, I created my TJ-inspired Coach.  I believe it was our Modeling Supervisor Gerardo Orioli who created the actual 3D model of TJ . . .  er, I mean Coach. 

Graphics!

I always loved playing with visual style and incorporate fun graphics into the shows.  One thing I do know about football is that there are many flashy graphics when you watch a game on TV – so in doing a football episode, we HAD to have the Barnyard equivalent.  

Unfortunately, these elements aren’t often factored in to the production pipeline of a CG show.   Being a stylistically different approach, it’s hard to determine who will do what and where it will fall in the schedule.  But when you’re determined you find a way . . . even if it means you do it yourself . . . on the weekend.   My equally determined editor at the time Nick Simotas, agreed to bite the bullet along with me and help me get this bit in the show.  We agreed that I would do all of the graphics and Nick would animate them.  Now, does the result look like something two guys did in about two days?  Yeah, kind of . . . BUT we did it and it’s in the show!  That was all that mattered.  Check out the clip below.  You’ll also hear Nick lending his vocal talents as the announcer in the clip.