Thursday, October 27, 2011

Interviews

If you'd like to know more about my role as Producer, Art Director, and Writer for Young Justice or if you'd like to know about the path I took to get to these positions then you might be interested in a couple of new online interviews with me that explain a little more about those topics.

World's Finest has posted an interview with me that focuses on the production of Young Justice and my role in it.

The Joe Kubert School website has an interview with me that highlights my experience at the school, my job with John Romita Sr. at Marvel, my career in animation, and my day-to-day duties on Young Justice.

Feel free to post questions about animation, Young Justice, or anything else in the comments and I'll try to respond as soon as possible.

12 comments:

  1. Mr. Vietti, Young Justice is a fantastic show. In fact, I hesitate to use that word because I feel it is an underwhelming description for such an overwhelmingly great show! You and your teammates have woven a tapestry that's fresh and familiar in all the right ways. Bravo!

    I have 2 questions:

    1) When you build a character, are you trying to make them feel as real as possible? Or do you also keep in mind their symbolic role in a fictional work?

    2) The animation on Young Justice is phenomenal. It seems that the two studios MOI and Lotto essentially alternate. Would it ever make sense to have 6 or 7 animation studios to speed up production or is that not how it works? Is there a "sweet spot" for the ideal amount of overseas partners to work with on a project?

    Thank you so much for your time and especially for your work. It is most inspiring!

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  2. 1) Any plans to write an issue or so of the Young Justice tie-in comic?

    2) During production of the Young Justice episodes that aired so far, what's the biggest disagreement that came up and how was it resolved?

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  3. Does considering budgetary concerns affect the storyboarding process dramatically from project to project? Ie any difference between YJ and the batman?

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  4. Thanks for the questions! Here are some answers.

    Q: When you build a character, are you trying to make them feel as real as possible? Or do you also keep in mind their symbolic role in a fictional work?

    A: The goal for every character in the show is to introduce them in the most realistic way possible while keeping in mind their symbolic role in the DCU. A great example of this can be seen in the costume design sensibility for our heroes. The Justice League represents the classic American superhero so I wanted their costumes to be pretty close to their original designs established in decades of comics. But our young heroes are of a new generation and I wanted that reflected in the tailoring of their clothes which is why their designs are a little more modernized from what fans are familiar with. So that's just one example. As form follows function, design and writing follows character which includes any symbolic role any given character may hold.


    Q: The animation on Young Justice is phenomenal. It seems that the two studios MOI and Lotto essentially alternate. Would it ever make sense to have 6 or 7 animation studios to speed up production or is that not how it works? Is there a "sweet spot" for the ideal amount of overseas partners to work with on a project?

    A: The more studios involved in a production the more you run the risk of inconsistent animation. First of all, as with any artist, it takes time to learn and master a new design style. Each animation studio takes about 3 episodes (give or take) to really master a new show's design style. So if you give 6 studios about 3 episodes to master a show style then you're possibly going to be looking at up to 18 episodes of wildly fluctuating quality and consistency. And even after each studio masters a new style you'll still be able to spot differences in style between studios. As with individual artists, each studio tends to have their own slight variation on any given style. I'm not sure that every viewer can see it but I can easily tell the difference (it's a subtle difference) between Lotto and MOI episodes. So for the sake of consistency and getting a series on model as quickly as possible I prefer to work with as few studios as possible. Right now I'm very happy with how well Lotto and MOI are synchronized with their interpretation of our designs so 2 studios is working out well for our series.


    Q: Any plans to write an issue or so of the Young Justice tie-in comic?

    A: Nope! That project is all Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps now. I kicked in some ideas for stories at the beginning of the comic project like explaining character origins and the history of Mount Justice- stuff like that. That was back when Mike Baltazar and Franco Aurliani were writing the early issues and we were offering them some advice to help tie the comic in with the show. But otherwise the comic stories are out of my hands.

    I'll answer more questions as I can find the time to do it. Thanks again!

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  5. I read on askgreg (also noticed it too when watching) that you intentionally made some character design changes like adding the armour/padding to kid flash etc. What was ur thinking behind this?

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  6. Loving Young Justice so far! Seeing the Forever People done justice in "Disordered" was a dream come true for a long-time Kirby fan.

    Kind of technical questions:

    1) Are animated movie scripts longer than their live-action counterparts? For example, how many pages was Batman: Under the Red Hood, Batman vs. Dracula or Superman: Doomsday (if you have that info handy)? Just interested in seeing if animation scripts are more descriptive or if there is a certain element that makes them longer than live-action scripts.

    2) When you finish a script, how do you know if there is enough (or too much) material for a 22-minute episode? Does that not get determined until the animatic stage?

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  7. Was the headquarters for the Injustice League a homage to the Hall of Doom?

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  8. I noticed Batman referred to the Light as a secret society of super villains. Was this intentional to draw a connection to the original group (perhaps so far as a hint of an Apokolips connection)? I also detect some similarities between the Light and Luthor's Mankind Liberation Front and Marvel's Cabal. Were these groups some inspiration in the Light's development?

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  9. I've noticed some similarities between Artemis and Arrowette (connection to Kid Flash, not wanting to follow in the family footsteps, etc). Is that purposeful? Thanks!

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  10. I love Young Justice and one of my favorite dynamics in it are the relationships - mainly Superboy and Miss Martian.

    I'm sure we've all noticed Miss Martian's use of her powers are becoming ruthless. I read Miss Martian's biography as well. Does her sudden change in behavior within the last five years have anything to do with that? Any chance of Superboy and her reconciling?

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  11. Mr. Vietti, great interviews both! If I were to want to interview you on my podcast (which covers Young Justice every week, when it's on), how would I go about getting you on my show? I'd appreciate a response, thanks!

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  12. please bring back young justice season 3 and the original charectors i you do i will be forever grateful i love young justice and please get paul dini and bruce tim as the writers and maybe introduce the original harley quinn with joker and please involve zantanna more and please reply
    thank you from your biggest 9 year old fan

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