It’s really just a compositional thing. Too much space above the head is kind of ‘dead space’ that isn’t being used in the best way. Why not have more of his body in the frame? There’s nothing interesting in a bunch of blank space above a character, so use it up.

People seem to try to always center the *head* in a close-up when they really should be centering the *face*. The face only takes up the bottom HALF of the head. And there’s usually nothing too interesting about tops of heads. (There are always exceptions…like if they had something in their hair or a weird hat we had to see.)

Does that make sense?

K

Thanks man. Awfully nice of you. And propose all you want…the answer is still “no”.

(Yes folks, we have never met. Heck, we’ve barely even emailed before this. I guess weird likes weird.)

In short, you’ve very welcome and I’m glad I’ve given you some stuff to work on and think about. Yay!

If you’ve serious about another critique, don’t forget about the price increase on Oct. 12th! (plug, plug)

So stay in touch and stay nuts. And you might want to check into that little split personality thing you’ve got going on there…

K

[Editor's note: Karen and Aidan have never actually met before, so all their banter here is just keeping it fun and loosey-goosey. Remember to be professional in a studio environment.]

…when did we get an editor?

But seriously, there’s a lot of good stuff that Karen has listed here that I hadn’t thought of, the main thing being that I was restricting myself to tiny panels for sake of a clean portfolio lay-out. That’s going to have to change. There are also instances when I took it as a given that the reader would understand that the camera was moving (i.e. panels 1-3 on page 1), but instead might be confusing. As Karen taught us, these things are really a guide for what the animators and artists will be referring to, so don’t assume that they’re all on the same mental wavelength as you are (or clairvoyant, thank Christ, because animators are a sickly breed and you don’t want their telepathic fingers digging into your mind!).

While Karen is right that if she was my boss (…more so) I would have to change these things with a tiny chance of defending my choices (depending on the situation/director/studio/deadline), there are a couple of things I kept because, even after I changed it to match her suggestion, felt a bit off. I’ll probably point out some examples of that in my own blog, or I’ll come back and post something here if I feel like fighting Karen.

[Editor's note: don't ever fight Karen, unless you tire of having all ten fingers.]

Get rid of that damned editor!

[Editor's note: go to hell!]

There is one final issue for this board that I’ve been working on (other than adding the little arrows and directions, THANK YOU MADAME LLOYD). The ‘stool sample’ joke is not really appropriate for a lot of studio productions, and I’ve been thinking of another alternative (read my blog for the full rant). I’ll open the floor to you loyal boarders for suggestions.

All in all, this has been a great experience, and I open you all to give Karen’s services a try, or, even better, have her critique your boards out here in the Wild Open Internet. It’s worth it.

…and if no one rises to the challenge, I’ll come back in a month or so with another board (and the money, Karen, and the money.)

[Editor's note: No, he won't. He's going back to his graveyard shift at the KFC drive-in. ]

THAT’S IT!!! TIME TO KILL THAT EDITOR!!!