Leftovers

The Origin of Species

I'm no hero. I never set out to make the worlds greatest web comic.* In fact the story behind the origins of Nick Walks the Dinosaur are as simple as they are innocent.

I would occasionally fill in for a friend (Nick's name sake) at his job when he needed a day off or was away. He commented after one of these instances that I was always leaving drawings on his desk, usually doodles of dogs or wolves. So the next time I found myself his replacement I decided to mix it up and doodled a dinosaur. I was unhappy with the drawing and discarded it; it just wasn't very funny.

What would make a dinosaur funny? Perhaps a man riding down it as if it were a slide. To add to the humor of the visual, a caption that implies this is too often an occurrence and advisory signs must be made to protect the dinosaurs from constantly being slid down. Add all that up and you get this:




A cartoon simple in its genius and genius in its simplicity. I didn't think I would go any further beyond that point, but I was inspired by the form I had create. The "Do Not ___ the Dinosaur" formula was born. I guess I am a hero.

The drawings continued, still only meant to be an amusement for my friend upon his return:



The characters grew closer:



Relationship humor makes it's first appearance...



...and takes hold of the characters and starts to bring them away from the tried and true formula fundamentally changing the comic forever:





Back to basics:




And thats the way it crumbles, cookie-wise. Following these doodles I turned to the computer and created the first two comics seen here and here, and the rest is history. I did not leave the drawings behind, I greedily gathered them up and started churning out my new web comic. From humble beginnings to the highest of internet stardom.**

* Sorry, Ted.

** In Alberta, Canada and Delaware

Behind the Scenes: Dinomation

Everyone knows the world famous Nick Walks the Dinosaur animation short "Dinomation," but how do the wizards in Hollywood actual make an instant classic like that. All it takes is the will, some know how and a pinch of Disney imitation brand magic!

When animating first the artist draws a sketch of his characters:



The he uses those sketches as a starting point and make several more based on this sketch to create the illusion of movement:




Then he draws individual "cells" that will show the different parts of the movement. Here's an example of a bunch of cells layered on top of each other, you can start to see what the motion will be:




After he completes his cells, he lays out the order and pacing of the animation:



Finally he hands a mess of files over to his friend and say, "Make it look like these guys are dancing, you worthless bastard!" And two days later, Animagic is made!

Watch "Dinomation," again, for the first time in brilliant, exactly the same quality as you saw it the first time, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWoCRaX-NMw

or here:

http://nickwalksthedinosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/dinomation.html

Sketches

In celebration of 100 comics posted, a behind the scenes
look this week at how NWD is made.

100th Comic!

Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery

Just a Half

With an onion slice

Politics

Plan B

Roller Rink

Untitled 4

Lost Weekend

Dresden

27

Nothing

Untitled 3

Quietly turning the backdoor key...