For BrettDrawsStuff, there isn’t much more too it than, well, drawing stuff. The muralist turned cartoonist turned animator can’t seem to turn his brain off—moving to Colorado didn’t help much. His hobby went to the next level when he moved here ten years ago. As Brett gets set to release another short animation, we talked with him about all things Bugs Bunny, the complex process of creating an animation and Saturday morning cartoons.

 

How long have you been drawing and what got you into art?
I’ve been drawing on and off since I was little, mimicking cartoon characters. I had a book of the first 151 Pokémon and I remember doing as many as I could, not sure how many I actually made it through. Almost all of my textbooks in school turned into flip books in the corners with stick people skating or fighting or a ball bouncing around the page. It wasn’t really until I moved to Denver ten-ish years ago that I started drawing more as a hobby, kind of because I needed something to do, and I just never stopped and it took over everything.

How would you describe your art/style?
My art style is very much 90s – early 2000s tv animation inspired. Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network from that era are major influences of mine, also very big into classic Looney Tunes. I still watch a lot of cartoons from this era daily.


Your art descriptions have almost a life-advice message tied up in a cartoon, are you a shining light in this dystopian social media world?
My art is just inspired by cartoons I grew up watching mixed with some dumb idea that popped into my head that made me laugh. It’s not really that deep. If you’re using my art as life-advice, I’m sorry.

Alright, what’s the best cartoon of all-time?
The best cartoon character of all time is Bugs Bunny and I will gladly argue with anyone on that stance. The best cartoon show of all time is SpongeBob SquarePants for many reasons I couldn’t even begin to explain from an animation stand point. The Simpsons is a very close second. The best singular cartoon episode is a Looney Tunes episode titled “Duck Amuck”. Go watch it.

When did you make the transition from cartoon animation to murals?
It’s actually the other way around, I started with murals/street art first. And I wouldn’t say I made a transition into one or the other because I still do both as much as I can. I was just always interested in making cartoons and went back to school a few years ago to learn that process so I can make the things I want to make.

You collaborate with a lot of other Colorado artists, what have been some of your favorite projects?
Not really any specific collab projects, just whenever the Secret Skwad gets together, it’s always a lot of fun.


You’re now making longer-narrative animations, can you describe the process and labor behind the magic?

Animation takes a lot of work, probably more than most people know and are willing to do. Animation is 24 frames per second with each drawing holding for (usually) 2 frames, so 12 drawings every second. Most animated tv shows are 22 minutes, which means just under 16,000 singular drawings in one episode of SpongeBob. Now think about the movies that are 90 plus minutes.

For the process, this will be a pretty extended response because I want to emphasis the amount of work that goes into creating an animation. I’ll start by saying my brain never turns off and rapid fires ideas until something starts snowballing in my head. It usually begins with a pretty basic story idea and I try to stretch it to be as nonsensical as possible, it’s a cartoon so it can do as much as you can imagine and draw. From the idea, I start writing a more completed story, making sure to introduce the character(s), some sort of conflict, and maybe a few gags. I’ve been writing stories on and off for a while but keep them to myself. Then the story gets turned into a script, adding in more dialogue, details, and thinking about what the scenes could look like. At the same time begins the character sketches, reference art hunting, and figuring out the setting. Thumbnails are next, which is just taking the script and doing rough sketches of those parts of the scene. Thumbnails turn into clearer storyboards and it’s almost like a comic strip at this point. The storyboard gets timed out, deciding how long each part will be on camera to make the story flow properly. Some scratch dialogue gets added in just to have something to work off of. Then comes in the beginning part of the rough animating, doing the key frames. Essentially, you’re breaking down the storyboard even further and getting those main, important drawings in to start showing the acting and fix the timing. Somewhere around here the final dialogue is recorded and added to be able to do lip syncs. After the key frames is the breakdowns, which is the drawings directly in the middle of the key frames and timing gets adjusted more. After the breakdowns are the in-betweens, which are exactly as they sound, the drawings in-between. Once all the rough animation is working, then you go back over every single drawing with final line work. The backgrounds are simultaneously being worked on making sure the layout looks right and the scenery fits into any camera movements. After all the final lines are done is the 1st pass of color, then the lighting and shading, and making sure important things don’t get lost in the background. Add in any final effects and little details. But it’s still not done here. Almost as important as the actual animation is the music and sound effects. Finding or creating the perfect sound effect is a lot of fun, whether it’s just searching the web or creating foley sounds. The music also needs to fit what type of emotion is going on at that particular moment in the animation. In most cartoons, there is almost no dead air. There’s always some slight ambiance in the background that usually goes unnoticed, but without it, the animation would not have the right feeling, or much feeling at all. Once all the animation is done, once all the sound design is done, comes the final render and export.

Hitting the play button after everything is finished, after spending days/weeks/months/years working on something, and seeing the idea come to life exactly how you imagined is one of the greatest feelings I’ve come across while making any type of artwork. Then I share it and move right into the next idea.


What’s next for Brett besides drawing more stuff?
Other than drawing more stuff, probably not much.

Shameless plug (anything coming up):
I’m currently working on finishing another short animation and then into a longer-form project I’ve been working on slowly for far too long. I’ve also been doing a lot of stuff with this cool organization called Nouns which helps fund artists/creatives to make pretty much whatever they want from cartoons to sculptures to full-length documentaries, as well as funding public goods like beach clean-ups, free glasses for kids, building playgrounds, and countless other charitable acts.

Fast Facts:

Name: Brett

Hometown: The Swamps of Florida

Favorite Bear? Fozzie Bear

Strangest thing in your fridge right now: The ingredients to the Krabby Patty secret formula

Advice to live by: Saturday mornings are for cartoons 

Last book you read: Something Under the Bed is Drooling by Bill Watterson

Burrito or sushi: Depends on the day

Favorite time of the day to draw: Yes

Every artist should have: An overactive imagination that doesn’t turn off