So What’s an Animatic?
What you’re about to see is called an “animatic”. It’s an animated storyboard with a soundtrack, meant to show what the finished sequence ought to look like when finished. In this case, it’s one done by an internet artist calling themselves “Captain Sealant”, who lives in the Phillipines.
It’s based on two creative works made by other people, namely the popular Cartoon Network animated series Steven Universe and a song called I Do Adore by Mindy Gledhill.
This artist appears to be just expressing themselves and the fandoms that interest them (we think it’s a him, but we can’t be sure). They have a YouTube channel, an Instagram page, and a RedBubble page, and describe themselves as a storyboard animator and artist on YouTube – and that’s it. Captain Sealant is a fan artist, and currently does not work professionally so far as we know.
And yes, you can hear Mindy Gledhill’s I Do Adore in the SCIFI.radio daily play list. We added it in part because of this marvelous animatic, and partly because the same song has been used in dozens of other noteworthy fan made animatics on other topics. It seems to be one of those creative seeds that fan creators seem to have latched onto.
Enjoy this animatic. It’s just charming beyond words, and the song is an earworm. Oh, and pause the SCIFI.radio music stream at the top of the page before playing this video. Dualing soundtracks do suck.
Fan artists frequently resort to making animatics instead of fully animated sequences because of the labor involved. It takes months to hand-animate a sequence like this, and that’s if you can do it as a full time job. Animatics put hand-drawn visual storytelling in reach of individuals, while not requiring an entire team to produce.
Fan to Pro
A common question asked of fan artists, costumers, writers, musicians and filmmakers is “Why are you making stuff using somebody else’s ideas? Why not make your own stuff?” The jump from being a fan to being a pro is a big one.
But how do fans get to be professionals? This is how. Doing fan stuff is the missing link between not knowing how to do something at all, and doing it professionally. This is how we rise. This is where all those professionals who make all the games, books, TV shows and movies we like are coming from.
The answer seems obvious when you think about it. Everybody’s a fan of something, and it’s easier to jump into somebody else’s world and create something based on an established framework or universe. Before you can stand on your own and create something completely original, you have to learn the skills it’s going to take to do that. You also have to learn the workflow, the steps and work sequence it’s going to take to get your project to the finish line.
Working on fan creations is great for this. And, sometimes the creator gets so good at it that they’re ready to make that leap. We think Captain Sealant could go work for Cartoon Network doing storyboards right this minute if he or she wanted to apply.
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