From Disney to Zombie Love Stories: An Interview with Storyboard Artist Tim Hodge

It’s drawing month at Pencils.com and Studio 602! Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Hodge, a storyboard artist, writer and director who has worked with studios such as Disney and Big Idea Entertainment (the team behind VeggieTales), just to name a few. Check out this interview, where Tim shares the story behind his nickname (Bald Melon), how he got into filmmaking and what an animator’s life was like before the release of the Palomino Blackwing. 

Interview with Disney Storyboard Artist Tim Hodge

Can you give our readers some background? Where you grew up, how you got into filmmaking, things like that?

I grew up in more than one place but mostly all over the south. My parents moved around a lot. At a young age I realized I wanted to go into film making because I wasn’t doing well in my science class. My dad had this old camera and I had been drawing all my life anyways. So, in 7^th or 8^th grade I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker.

I never went to art school, but I kept sending my portfolio to Disney. When they finally brought me on, I started as an inbetweener. They fill out the details in between the frames drawn by the animators. I started on on a short called Trail Mix-Up and soon after that we started Lion King.

I worked my way up to animator when we started Pocahontas. But then I started to gravitate towards being a story artist. I still love making characters live and breathe but I really love creating the drama. After Disney, I went to work with Veggie Tales and now I’m working with a few different studios.

What drew you to animation and storyboarding?

I love the magic of animation. Getting into a character. It’s a lot like acting. There is a great magic there. When I started coming up with the ideas behind that, with the drama, making a conflict, creating a broader emotional arc for big chunks of the story and communicating a feeling to tell a story. It sounds trite but you’re speaking in metaphors and that resonates with an audience.

If you’ve attended any screenwriting classes, they tell you to write what you see. Script writing is different than writing a book. You have to detail what the camera sees. Storyboarding is even more exact than that. It eliminates the words and brings it down to the images.

One of the images you sent us for last week’s Pencil Artist of the Week feature came from a book you’re working on. Can you tell us a little more about that?

I have been writing these poems that are both humorous and dark. That image comes from a poem that’s a letter from the monster under your bed. Another one is a zombie love story that started as a Valentines Day card for my wife. I still have a few poems left to write and if I can’t find a publisher for it, I hope to self-publish it.

I have to ask, where did the nickname Bald Melon come from?

(laughs)

Bald melon came from my fortieth birthday. Some friends and I put together a blues band and I played harmonica. We were called Bald Melon and the Midllife Crisis.

(laughs)

Do you play any other instruments?

I also play ukulele. The harmonica and the ukulele: one when you’re happy, one when you’re sad.

Do you have any other creative outlets?

Well, I write poems. I’ve written a few of the scripts for Veggie Tales as well. Sometimes I tell stories in words and sometimes I tell stories in pictures.

Do you have any favorite creatives? Writers, animators, etc?

Some of my favorites are Bill Watterson and Doug TenNapel. Bill, of course, did Calvin and Hobbes Doug is the creator of Earthworm Jim. His style is brush and ink and very raw.

I also really like Stephen Silver. He does a lot of great illustrations. I like Bill Peet, the Disney story artist and Wallace Trip, who’s an incredible illustrator.

As far as writing goes, I really like graphic novels. The first one I fell in love with was Art Spiegelman’s Maus II. It was a version of the Holocaust story with animals. It just leaps over to the pure emotional side. He won a Pulitzer for it.

I know there are a ton of names I’m forgetting.

What is your favorite creative medium?

I really like just the pencil. Or an ink pen on a napkin. I really prefer a simple medium. Digital is quick and fun and clean, but there’s something about a nice felt tipped marker on a Starbucks napkin.

(laughs)

But that’s the way I grew up. People today are learning to draw with a mouse or a stylus and, for the next generation, that’s going to be the medium of choice.

I’ve noticed you also like to draw on envelopes. Any particular reason?

(laughs)

Any time I have an envelope going out, I like to draw something. I feel like it brightens their day.

Any time I can send a tangible card, I will.

How did you find out about Blackwing pencils?

I discovered the Blackwing when I was at Disney. A lot of people used them there. I think they went out of production when we were working on Brother Bear. I went to the supply closet and there weren’t any more!

Having to stop using Blackwings was really like someone trying to quit cigarettes. Everybody in the animation community was scouring and looking for more, searching for stubs in their drawers. When we found out they were being brought back it spread very quickly.

What do you think Studio 602ers? Do you have dreams of being a storyboard artist? Let us know  in the comments below!