Brandon Vietti

Season One

2011-11-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

Production on the first season of Young Justice has officially ended as of November 21, 2011, 14:38 PDT. We screened and locked our season one finale and sent it on its way to Cartoon Network. It felt kinda weird. Ending a season seems like a landmark to stop and appreciate- maybe eat some cake or something. But season two production is moving so fast that we blazed right through our finale screening only to hurry off to a season two production meeting.

Anyway, the finale turned out pretty awesome! It's JAM PACKED! If you blink, you'll miss something. So I'm telling you now, don't blink when you watch the finale because we definitely wrap up all our season one story lines and answer all of your burning questions. Or do we? Either way, I think you're going to love how we close out the season.

Hey, you wanna see our first season story wall? Here it is (censored to hide the plot lines of unaired episodes, of course).

This wall of cards is how we plan and track the season story arcs. I imagine this practice isn't all that different from other productions. I mean, I don't know how else you would keep track of so many multilayered plots and subplots that are further complicated by secrets and lies. Greg has gone the extra step of color coding the cards to make tracking certain elements a little easier for us. Yellow cards track the titles and timeline. Blue cards track the stories of our teens as superheroes. Purple cards track the stories of our teens outside of their hero lives. Red cards track Justice League stories. Green cards track bad guy stories. White cards... don't ask me about the white cards. I can't tell you what those are for.

I've been trying to answer some of your questions in the comments section but I figured I might as well post the answers here as well. Thanks for your questions. I'll try to continue to answer more of them and post more behind the scenes stuff as my schedule allows.

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.

Q: Was the headquarters for the Injustice League a homage to the Hall of Doom?

A: Yes.

Q: 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?

A: In our series, Kid Flash uses his speed powers to become a human cannonball. He's not invulnerable so he needs the armor and padding to protect himself while hurling himself into bad guys or even sliding to a stop (because our Kid Flash can NOT stop on a dime like some other speedsters can). Please see my earlier posting for more about this.

Halloween

2011-10-28T14:34:00.001-07:00

If you're looking for a fun Halloween themed movie to watch this Halloween night then you should check out The Batman Vs. Dracula. I directed the first third of the movie, Seung Eun Kim (The Boondocks) directed the middle third, and Sam Liu (Batman: Year One, Green Lantern: The Animated Series) directed the last third.

The Batman series ran for five successful seasons and I was a director on the first four of those seasons. It was difficult work to be the new Batman series following Bruce Timm's run with the character- big shoes to fill! But I was proud of the work our crew did in creating a new and unique take on the Batman universe that stands very well on it's own. We introduced Batman to a new generation of kids and reimagined his Rogues Gallery of villains in a really interesting new way. And we won an Emmy! That was cool!

The Batman crew has, of course, moved on to other cool projects in the animation world. The Batman Producer and Story Editor Duane Capizzi is now producing the Transformers: Prime series. Story Editor Michael Jelenic went on to produce Batman: The Brave and the Bold and is now producing the new Thundercats series. Producer Michael Goguen produced the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies movie and is now directing for Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Producer and Art Director Jeff Matsuda jumped over to Marvel to design the Hulk Vs. Wolverine movie and Character Designer Jose Lopez is now the lead designer for Transformers: Prime. Character Designer Jon Suzuki went on to work with me on Batman: Under The Red Hood as lead character designer and continues to crank out awesome designs for all the other DCU animated movies. And Character Designer Thomas Perkins has too many cool post-Batman credits to list so you should just check out his blog that I linked to his name to learn more about him.

You can watch The Batman Vs. Dracula on Netflix, download it from iTunes, or buy it from Amazon.

Interviews

2011-10-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Emmy!

2011-08-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

Many congratulations to Mr. Phil Bourassa for winning a Primetime Emmy Award for his outstanding work as lead character designer on Young Justice!

There's just no way the stories we're trying to tell on Young Justice would work without the sophistication and subtlety of Phil's style. Maybe I'm a little partial, but I think Phil has raised the bar for design in action/adventure animation in the US. We're all lucky to have him working to bring the DC Universe to life in new and exciting ways every day.

Congratulations, Phil! Your award is well deserved!

UPDATE:

Phil received his gold statue recently at the Primetime Emmy Award ceremony and today (September 15th, 2011) WB placed a half page in Variety to congratulate Phil. So once again, congrats, buddy!

Interesting note: Much of the art on the Variety page is Phil's early design work for our series. Pick up a copy of today's Variety for a closer look at our early development art!

Recording

2010-11-25T16:49:00.000-08:00

Greg and I spend a hell of a lot of time crafting our Young Justice stories with our writing staff and the recording studio is where we see those stories first come to life- or at least we HEAR the stories come to life. We SEE a story come to life 5 or 6 weeks AFTER the recording in the form of a complete storyboard which gives us the truest sense of how the story will play out after animation. Nevertheless it's quite a kick to hear a story come alive after spending so much time imagining it in our heads. It's often surprising to hear how an actor interprets dialog that you might have imagined being said in a very specific way. Sometimes these interpretations are for the better and sometimes not. Either way, the spontaneity of working with actors makes the recording sessions an exciting place to be. As does the fact that we have to record a show in under 5 hours. Believe me, 5 hours blazes by FAST so everyone has to be focused and on their game.

Voice director Jamie Thomason helps our actors navigate the emotional flow of each script. He has to be super familiar with each character and every story as well as the acting process so that he can properly provide direction to the actors to help them achieve their best possible performance in the shortest number of takes (remember, we record on a deadline). Speedy delivery of clear and concise performance notes is also important to help keep an actor enthused and "in the moment". Think about it- if you spend too long repeating any task or if you have to listen to someone drone on for too long about how to do your job better your enthusiasm for that job is probably going to decline quickly. Jamie has to keep this kind of thing from happening.

Jamie also has to interpret notes from producers, writers, and directors and translate those notes to the actors during the recording. It takes fast thinking, solid communication skills, and quick wit to keep a room full of actors, writers, directors, and producers all jazzed and on point. Jamie's got those skills times ten!

Speaking of skills, check out our cast! We lucked out in the casting process and got a hold of some great talent to bring our characters to life. The realistic nature of our series demands a touch of subtlety and sophistication in vocal performance beyond that of the average cartoon. This subtlety in performance and vocal quality is a key factor in selling the reality that Greg and I are trying to create. We found a cast that can hit that mark of reality on a weekly basis and we couldn't be happier with the results of their contributions to the series. We think you'll be happy with their performances as well.

Promos

2010-11-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a few promos for our upcoming movie premiere.

New York Comic Con 6 minute preview at MTV.

Cartoon Network commercial.

TV Guide's full page ad.

Production Update

2010-11-15T22:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a post for any scholarly individuals out there who might be interested in seeing a snapshot of our current production progress for educational purposes. I won't list all the episodes here but I'll list enough of them to give you a sense of our work flow. Reading down the list between episode 26 and episode 1 will give you an idea of how a story originates and is brought to life just to bring you something cool to watch for 30 minutes.

Episode 26: Story beats have been worked out and finalized- hand written on 3x5 cards and currently tacked up on a wall in Greg's office.

Episode 24: Story outline complete. Ready to go to script.

Episode 22: First draft of the script is complete.

Episode 21: Recording the voice actors Tuesday morning.

Episode 18, 19, 20: Currently being storyboarded.

Episode 16: Storyboards complete. Currently being noted, revised, and cut to the proper length.

Episode 14: Storyboards were shipped to Korea this week. Working on designs at WB.

Episode 11: Finishing up designs for backgrounds, characters, and props at WB.

Episode 10: Background paint is in progress at WB. In Korea, key animation has been completed on 153 scenes.

Episode 7: Ink & paint on models is in progress at WB. Animation layout has begun in Korea.

Episode 6: Key animation has been completed, inbetweens are in progress, and 110 scenes are in the process of being colored.

Episode 5: Arrived from Korea last week and is now being edited. Beautifully animated by MOI!

Episode 3: Edited and locked for time. Awaiting retakes from Korea. Met with composers (DMP) Monday morning to discuss music for the episode.

Episode 1 and 2: Completed last week! Done! Ready to hit the air! Here's a picture of the final DVD sitting on my desk at work.

Costumes

2010-11-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post a little behind-the-scenes material from Young Justice. If I have the time, I will try to update this blog with more entries like this with some regularity in the coming weeks.

When Greg Weisman and I started developing Young Justice we had a lot of discussions about how we could make another DC superhero show in a way that feels new. In both art direction and story a lot of ground has already been thoroughly explored in shows like Justice League, The Brave and the Bold, Teen Titans, Legion of Superheroes, The Batman, and Batman: The Animated Series. We had no desire to disrespect any of those great shows by trying to copy or emulate them. So it was important to us to create something new to establish a unique identity for our series, present familiar material in a new light for our audience, and also to challenge ourselves artistically.

I think one of the most defining characteristics of our series is realism. Once Greg and I established a realistic tone for the series it was clear that the art style of the show would have to match that tone. I do the majority of the art directing as part of my duties producing the show so the first rule I established during character design development was that it should never appear that any of our heroes shop at the same store for their clothes. Each costume should not only reflect the wearer's personality, physical needs, and traditional DCU look but also have unique tailoring. Conveying a sense of texture/tailoring variation between costumes would be the mark of realism needed to match the tone of the stories Greg and I want to tell. Hopefully it would also help to visually set our series apart from the other animated DCU TV shows that came before us.

The two characters that best illustrate a difference in tailoring are Aqualad and Robin . Aqualad's outfit is nearly seamless and shiny to convey a slick and textureless material designed to cut through water fast. Robin, on the other hand, has a costume that's all about seams and padding. When fighting crime on the streets of Gotham it just makes sense to wear protection. Robin's costume seams imply reinforced stitching and sewn in materials designed to protect the body during street fights or even stop a bullet. Unlike other versions of Batman in the animated DCU, our Batman will have the same extra stitching lines on his outfit for all the same reasons that Robin does. The subtle difference between them is that Batman's costume may have the feel of next gen. military gear where as I wanted Robin's outfit to be a little more sport inspired to match his youthful energy. Kid Flash not only runs fast but also uses his momentum to become a human cannonball. His costume needs to be protective against skidding and impacts so I wanted him to have lots of pads and a leathery texture which is indicated by thick folds seen on his outfit.

I could ramble on about the theories behind the other costumes in the show but I think you get my point. There's a lot of thought behind these designs and our choices are all designed to visually ground the show in reality. But all these choices and theories are pretty useless if you don't have a designer who can make them a reality which is why I was extremely lucky to get my friend Phil Bourassa to be the lead designer on Young Justice. Phil has an innate sense of how to make all of these theories about realism work to enhance a character's personality and look good on screen. He lives and breathes this sensibility.

Our design process begins with a talk about each character and maybe a look through some photo reference I gather together before he sets to work. More often than not he just comes up with concepts on his own. Either way, Phil nails it whenever he brings a new design to the table. He's a sharpshooter. He only seems to need one or two passes on a character before he finds the final design which always exceeds expectations. He's that good! And if you compare his current designs with his previous work on Crisis On Two Earths and Planet Hulk I think you'll find that he's doing his best work now for Young Justice. Lucky us! Check out more of Phil's work on Deviant Art. http://phillybee.deviantart.com/

Warner Brothers

2010-05-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

Top two reasons why I never have time to do art for myself or this blog anymore:

Young Justice, the series I'm currently producing.

Batman: Under The Red Hood, the movie I directed last year.

Back Issues

2010-02-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

Been busy. But busy is good when you love your job. For the past couple years I've been working 10-14 hours a day, directing/developing/producing 2-3 projects at a time, and often working 6 days a week. Thought I'd dust off this blog with some oldies since I have no new personal art and I can't post any of my current WB work.

Silver Surfer

2009-04-20T00:27:00.001-07:00

Cap!

2009-04-15T17:25:00.001-07:00

iPhone Art

2009-02-11T01:54:00.001-08:00

Drawn using the Brushes app on my iPhone.

...

2009-01-02T00:42:00.000-08:00

New year. New Blog.