Nick Bachmanonceanimated on Super(2010) and is now our super Supervising ProduceronCostume Quest. Coincidence? You decide.ToCQ, Nick brings experience in many areas: he previously wrote and storyboard directed several episodes of the awesome DreamWorks/Netflix series Home: Adventures with Tip and Oh, following tenure as a writer/board artist on another great show, Nickelodeon’s Sanjay and Craig. Here, Nick gives us the low-down on his path to animation (it came down to cartoons or horticulture - the classic conundrum), why CQ is his favorite show he’s worked on (✿◠‿◠),and his fluff-daughter who makes it all worthwhile.
Did you have an “A-ha!” moment about animation? What’d you want to be growing up?
My earliest memories of recognizing animation as a profession are seeing little blurbs on TV that showed animators flipping through drawings. I remember thinking, “Drawing the same thing over and over again? That sounds horrible!” I thought I might be in some animal or plant-related line of work, but definitely not in animation.
Where are you from, and did you go to college for animation?
I’m from a small town called Garner, Iowa. It has around 3,000 people and one lonely stoplight. It sounds bumpkinesque, but it was a pretty nice place to grow up. I did lots of fishing, working on cars, looking for frogs and salamanders, and playing in many a punk band. I began my higher education at Iowa State University, with a probable major in Horticulture. I soon discovered that my one weekly Art class was the only thing keeping me going, and transferred to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where I did end up majoring in Animation.
What was your first job in animation?
My first full-time Animation job was at PUNY, a Flash studio in Minneapolis. At small studios, you wear a lot of hats. I animated, did some design and background painting, did sound work, cut animatics, directed a little, and pitched a couple small projects. It was a great way to learn about all facets of the industry. I think working at a small studio is the perfect first job in the industry; it gives you tons of perspective.
Agreed! How was transitioning from animating to being a storyboard artist on Yo Gabba Gabba? Is storyboarding what you like most?
Boarding on Gabba was pretty different from boarding for animation. Since it’s live action, the boards don’t need nearly as many poses, because the human actors provide those poses in real time. Animating is definitely fun, but as much as you put into the scene you’re animating, you might be stuck working on content that you might just not be in love with. With storyboarding, you have more control over the writing, and if you draw enough poses, you can have a lot of control over the animation as well. So if I guess if I had to choose, I prefer storyboarding.
WasSanjay and Craig the first show you wrote for? How do you like the writing aspect of storyboarding, compared to boarding from a script?
Yes, it was. I love writing the things I board. I wasn’t at all excited about storyboarding from a script until Costume Quest. Since the show is serialized (one big story told over multiple episodes), we went with the method of scripting the shows. But we encouraged the board artists to make any joke changes or story edits that they saw fit, without affecting the overall narrative. I couldn’t be happier with the result: a perfect mix of the writers’ and board artists’ voices, and we never ran into a moment where we had to redo large sections of the board. It’s not uncommon on a board-driven show to get a note like “Act 3 isn’t working,” and a lot of work has to be redone. We never had that on Costume Quest, because the script was already there from the start.
What does being Supervising Producer on Costume Questentail?
