Comedy for Animators

Jonathan Lyons earned his BFA and created an award winning student film at New York University, where he studied with noted animator and author John Canemaker. After moving to California he earned his living in traditional animation, before transitioning to computer graphics and becoming animation supervisor for a dozen Pillsbury Doughboy commercials. While working at Industrial Light & Magic he earned two Clio Awards for commercials and went on to work on the first four Pirates of the Caribbean films. From the workshop for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse to teaching animation at the university level to animating on Seth MacFarlane’s feature film Ted, Jonathan has been employed in animation for over 25 years. During those years he also studied the work of great physical comedians simply for the love of the art. He applied the principles to his Floyd the Android character in two short films that have been screened in 50 film festivals around the world, and won a handful of awards.He is happy to share with you what he has learned from watching the classic comedians, and reading about the thousand year history of character comedy.

1. Introduction

2. Human Cartoons Part One

3. Human Cartoons Part Two

4. Human Cartoons Part Three

5. Comedy Duos and Teams

6. Essential Characters

7. Context

8. Structure, Styles, and Themes

9. Gags and Comic Events

10. Props

11. Comic Acting

12. The Impossible