Your are hereby commanded to lay our eyes on Common Scents, Steve Whitehouse’s 3-minute short. According to Steve, this is “a tale of lust, greed and the overwhelming desire to smell good,” and you’ll likely notice that it serves as an allegory concerning more than just romantic endeavors. You may already know his work from Mr. Man, the long-running Flash-animated series, one of the many topics in our 2-part interview with Steve, titled The Man Behind Mr. Man.

[link] - Artistic Nudity

Back in 1992, I was lucky enough to enroll in a class taught by the late Stan Brakhage, who was a professor in Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado. He often spoke far over my head, but what I did understand inspired me. He spoke about ‘visual music’ and ‘the mind’s eye,’ two metaphors for animation that stick with me to this day.

He’s also influenced Steve Whitehouse, an animator who was recently profiled here at CHF. In fact, his latest piece, ‘Abstract,’ is a tribute to Brakhage (as is the character ‘Stan’ in ‘South Park’), amongst others. Throughout his prolific career, Whitehouse has made what could be called ‘approachable art films,’ including ‘Da Vinci Blues‘ and ‘Gallery.’ Not only is Whitehouse a pioneer of the medium, animating one of the first internet Flash series, ‘Mr. Man,’ but he helped elevate it to an art form.

Earlier this week, CHF launched the first half of the Steve Whitehouse interview. He discussed his earliest Flash work, and how the internet has changed artistic collaboration. We’re back with the second half, in which we touch on Steve’s work with Dave Cooper and the ‘Mr. Man’ series.

AARON SIMPSON: You worked with John and Arna on their series of ‘Coolman‘ shorts. How much of this project did you animate yourself?
STEVE WHITEHOUSE: I boarded 4 of the 5 episodes. I did all the Flash design, including the turnarounds, walk cycles and lip sync. And I animated the entire ‘Deep Sea Blues’ episode. Quite an enjoyable experience. John (JVB as he is known) is also a drummer, who I’ve played with since the early 90’s.

AARON: You animated Dave Cooper’s short film ‘Bird, Bug, Goat.’ How did you two team up?
STEVE: I got a call from him. As it turns out, he knew an animator pal of mine (Ian Jeans) who recommended me as someone who knew Flash. I was/am a big fan of Dave’s work. In fact, I always take a book of his when I go overseas as part of my treasure box of goodies that remind me of home. so I was quite excited to be a part of what he was doing.

AARON: Tell us about the The Petrie Lounge and your short film ‘Kunstbar.’
STEVE: Well, its sure got ‘legs.’ The Petrie (pronounced PET TREE as oppose to PEE TREE) Lounge is: myself, Paul Teglas, John Halfpenny, Chris Labonte and Denis Gonzalez. We’re all ‘traditional animator types.’ The Petrie Lounge comes from ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show.’ His character is Rob Petrie and he worked as a comedy writer for ‘The Alan Brady Show’ in the writers lounge (with piano!), hence, ‘The Petrie Lounge.’ However, our lounge was not static. It changed to whichever bar we were at!

One day, whilst sitting around having a ‘meeting,’ Paul said he had had a drink the other night consisting of part beer, bloody mary and gin and tonic. Don’t ask. Another friend deemed it a Tangy Tanguy, as in Yves Tanguy (surrealist painter). I posed the question: ‘What would actually happen if you drank an Yves Tanguy?’ I could immediately see the ‘film’ completed in my head. At least in form, if not exact details.

We discussed which artists each of us would represent. John took Chagall and later incorporated Dix, Paul took Morisseau and Chris took Bosch and Rodin. I did the rest. I’ve gotten a lot of emails from art teachers who use it in their classes which is very satisfying and it’s won a number of international awards. I still get emails for it today!

AARON: Was the inspiration for the ‘Mr. Man’ series truly drawn from a piece of dada-ish art?
STEVE: Yup. Years ago, I played in an improve/noise band called Bonepusher where we played spontaneous soundtracks to super 8 movies behind a projection screen. One night, after a jam, we went upstairs to listen to the tape. On the walls were some artworks by another friend of mine (Steve White - no kidding) and I saw this ‘figure’ in one of the pieces. I got a scrap piece of paper and drew what turned out to be the character eventually named Mr. Man. I got up to take a closer look at the artwork (which was at an angle from where I was sitting) and as I neared it the pieces started to shift into proper alignment it looked NOTHING like what I had drawn (Mr. Man). It turned out to be some diodes, a block of wood and some other doodads. So I had this character now. While supervising a pilot for Nickelodeon in Seoul, S. Korea, I made ‘The Pest‘ in my spare time and sold it to Animation Express. They, in turn, asked me (and 3 more artists) to do 4 more shorts. Which turned into the ‘Mr. Man’ series.

AARON: What was the most gratifying acclaim you’ve received for your ‘Mr. Man’ series?
STEVE: The Grand Prix Vivendi for ‘Interactive’ from the FIFI (Festival International du Film de l’Internet in France) was a nice surprise. In fact, I’ve won a number of awards from FIFI since. But, the most rewarding thing has been the emails from so many different people from so many different places. Boys, girls, men, women - ranging from 3 olds to 83 year olds! From France, Italy, Russia, Australia, South Africa, South America - all over the world! The fact that it has crossed so many boundaries is something I’m very proud of.

AARON: I read that you’ve created over 140 ‘Mr. Man’ shorts. Do you ever intend to release these on DVD?
STEVE: Eventually. Just a matter of time.

AARON: Are there any more ‘Mr. Man’ shorts in the pipeline?
STEVE: Yup. ‘Abstract,’ which is a tribute/homage to Norman McLaren, Stan Brakhage and others. And of course the somewhat controversial ‘The Prophets‘ has just come out.

AARON: Are the e-cards you created for Shockwave still viewable on the web?
STEVE: If so, I can’t find ‘em. Shockwave discontinued their ecards a number of years ago. I occasionally still get emails requesting them. I would like to get then up and running again as I’m told that they were pretty popular.

AARON: Are you working on any new original projects?
STEVE: Constantly. In my head at any rate.

AARON: What animation DVDs have you picked up lately?
STEVE: The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3. Warner Bros. cartoons are the best! I look forward to getting ‘Howl’s Moving Castle,’ and I highly recommend ANYTHING by Miyazaki. Also purchased ‘My Neighbors the Yamadas,’ ‘The Incredibles‘ and ‘The Point.’

AARON: What animation websites do you check in on regularly?
STEVE: Unfortunately, none. Too busy to go on any mystery tours these days. The only times I check out anything online is when someone sends me a link.

Steve Whitehouse isn’t your typical Flash animator. During the 80s and 90s, Steve was working as a traditional animator on projects like ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘The Ewoks,’ and then in 1999 he found Flash, and became one of the first (if not THE first) to use it for TV.

But it wasn’t a TV project that propelled him to Flash-fame. It was a series of shorts called ‘Mr. Man,’ which feature a blinking, speechless, triangular man and his three-legged dog. Over a hundred Flash-animated shorts later, Steve Whitehouse had created one of the internet’s most popular characters.

And the festivals took notice. ‘Mr. Man’ won the Grand Prix Vivendi award at France’s 2001 FIFI awards for top internet series. He was nominated in the Internet Series category at the 2004 Ottawa International Animation Festival for his short ‘Vacation,’ (40 episodes!) and in the same year, his short ‘Fishing‘ was nominated at Annecy in the Internet Films division.

But what separates Steve from so many animators using Flash today, is his pursuit of a higher artistic achievement. An art connoisseur (see his Mr. Man short ‘Gallery‘ for proof), Whitehouse has conceived and animated several shorts that would more aptly be classified as ‘avant-garde’ than ‘cartoon.’ From ‘Warholvis,’ ‘Kunstbar,’ to ‘Da Vinci Blues,’ his experimenting is as adventurous as ‘Mr. Man’ is clever.

Steve took a moment earlier this year to answer a few questions about his career, what inspires him and what lies ahead.

AARON SIMPSON: You seem to have bounced between the worlds of television ‘cartoons’ and avant-garde animation rather effortlessly. Do these two genres fulfill separate artistic needs for you?
STEVE WHITEHOUSE: Absolutely. Traditional animation (for TV etc.) requires so many people and so many (necessary) compromises that a pure artistic vision is impossible to achieve. There are many restrictions to what can and can’t be done on TV. The internet has NO restrictions. When Flash came along, it opened up the doors to me and other independent ‘film’ makers as a viable means to get our work out ‘to the masses’. Free world-wide distribution! The one is a team sport and the other is individual effort. Both satisfy on different levels (mostly monetary! Ha ha ha).

AARON: What was the first animation you created with Flash?
STEVE: The first was ‘Interactive Steve‘ I believe. I was just trying to learn the program; using buttons, etc.

AARON: You emerged on the Flash animation scene fairly early. Did you see it as a movement that would eventually gain steam, or simply a niche?
STEVE: I guess I thought it would gain steam. And as it turns out, it has, only not the way I thought it would. Now it’s used as a mainstream/cost-saving tool by the big studios, for which I am partly to blame as I was the first to use (Flash) for broadcast. I did a 3 minute promo in 1999 for a show called ‘John Callahan’s Quads‘ (originally called ‘When Quads Won’t Leave’). Dan Aykroyd did the voice! I love Callahan’s cartoons and thought the style would suit Flash to a tee, and I was right. In fact, too right. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a double edged sword.

The outcome was that since I was able to the work of so many departments (layout, animation, paint, compositing), the studio saw it as an opportunity to cut back and save $ and do the productions here (in Canada/US) as opposed to sending things overseas (where I spent a lot of time in the 80’s and 90’s supervising). So now, the salary levels have dropped back to where they were 15 years ago. Sigh.

AARON: Were you using any animation software before you began using Flash?
STEVE: I made some animated .GIFs but the file sizes were so huge that it was prohibitive to put online.

AARON: How has the software evolved since then?
STEVE: Flash 4 was a big improvement over 3 but Flash 5 was a step backwards. They fixed the bugs for Flash MX and that’s what I’m still using now. Apparently, in the latest version, they’ve made the in-between function a little more sophisticated, which I look forward to checking out.

AARON: What was the goal of the Half Empty collective you participated in?
STEVE: You would have to ask Marty Spellerberg or James Paterson that. I was just taken along for the ride (and the bandwidth!). Someone showed me the Halfempty site as it had some of James’ animation on it and saw that they were interested in others posting their work. Since I didn’t have a website of my own, I sent them a couple of my early shorts (’Da Vinci Blues,’ ‘Warholvis’) which they kindly accepted to put online. In fact, James wrote my HTML (which I am still using for my site today!).

AARON: What inspired your ‘Warholvis’ short?
STEVE: I did that initially as a birthday card for my Mother (who is a big Elvis fan).

AARON: Where did you first release your Flash short ‘Da Vinci Blues?’
STEVE: I came across Wired.com’s Animation Express site and sent it to them. To my surprise, not only did they accept it but, they gave me some $ for it! Wow! I realized that not only could I do my own shorts but people would pay me for them. I was off and running.

AARON: Are your Flash character models more elaborate than when you began?
STEVE: Oh sure. Initially, I designed Mr. Man in a crude way on purpose in order to exploit the limitations of the Flash program. But, as processor speeds have improved and with the introduction of broadband, I’ve been able to add more subtleties.

AARON: What’s the secret to ‘turning’ a Flash character model?
STEVE: Drawing! My background is in traditional animation (ie; pencil and paper) not computers. The computer is just a tool. Using the onion skin function takes the place of the traditional light table.

AARON: You’ve worked on several animated TV shows, including ‘Sam & Max,’ ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Duckman.’ Do you have a favorite?
STEVE: All those have a special place in my heart. For ‘Sam & Max’ we won the Gemini (Canada’s Emmy) for best animated series. ‘Beetlejuice’ because it was rated X (religious fanatics deemed it the WORST show for kids to watch! Because of the existence of the Netherworld, I guess). Duckman because Frank Zappa did the music. Unfortunately, he died that same year. More recently, ‘Gerald McBoing Boing’ is cool. I’ve always been a Dr. Suess fan. And ‘Pucca‘ too - it’s cute and violent! Ha ha ha.

AARON: When compared to your experiences on ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Duckman,’ how does the animation pipeline differ on the projects you’re currently working on?
STEVE: When I’m working in Canada, I work out of my home. And currently I’m doing storyboards. So my pipeline work like this - I get the script and designs, do the board, ship it off and wait for a cheque. Ha ha!

AARON: What’s your main function at Nelvana?
STEVE: I’ve worked off and on (and off and on again) with Nelvana since 1986 (the first show was ‘Ewoks’). But have not worked ‘in house’ since 1998. Since then, I’ve supervised animation on 3 direct-to-DVD ‘Franklin the Turtle’ features in Thailand.

AARON: How has the internet changed the way teams collaborate on animation projects?
STEVE: It’s very cool. ‘Kunstbar’ was done in a virtual studio. I did my bits in Manila while the others did theirs from their homes in Toronto. We e-mailed SWFs back and forth discussing the pros and cons as we went. The big studios have networks set up so you can access materials from home. I animated on ‘Foolish Girl’ from home.

That’s the end of Part 1 of ‘The Man Behind Mr. Man - an Interview with Steve Whitehouse.’ Check back at the end of the week for the second half!

Steve Whitehouse is back with yet another ‘Mr. Man’ short film. It’s been written that Steve has created over 140 shorts featuring the beloved, blinking character known only as Mr. Man.

The new short is called ‘The Prophets’ and in this piece Steve is sharpening his critical eye and aiming it at religion. I share with you Steve’s own disclaimer - that “the following film may be offensive to some viewers.” So, considering recent events, go with caution, and enjoy Steve’s latest creation.

Hotwired’s Animation Express, which launched in October 1998, was one of the first (if not the first) web animation portals. The site, sadly, is no more.

Animation Express jumped on the Flash animation bandwagon early and offered a place for artists from around the world to display their work. It wasn’t a Flash-only site, but it often looked that way. Artists like Joe Corrao, Kirk Millett, Xeth Feinberg, Steve Whitehouse, Craig McCracken and Naoki Mitsuse showcased their shorts on the site, and it’s sad to see it go. The editors of the site were obviously seeking unique material, often hosting work that could even be labeled ‘arty,’ but that’s not to say they didn’t highlight work that was just plain good. One of my shorts, ‘Snail Detective,’ (which wasn’t particularly ‘arty’ nor that ‘good’) was amongst the first posted on the site way back in 1998, and it was one of the milestones in my career that gave me the confidence to keep pushing.

Thanks to Cartoon Monkey for spotting this story. If you haven’t checked out the Cartoon Monkey website yet, make haste. They’re posting pencil tests from the upcoming Cartoon Network show ‘Camp Lazlo.’

****UPDATE****

It’s not dead! It’s just hibernating. Reader ‘pcdoctor01′ spotted a new link to the Animation Express archive.