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Robert mentions the book on Villains by Thomas and Johnston (and their 'Illusion of LIfe' of course is well known to animators) but their other book 'Too Funny For Words: Disney's Greatest Sight Gags' provides good insight into how to 'write' animated sequences without words. The concept of 'the gag' has largely fallen out of favor but the underlying idea of entertainment and humor is still just as popular. Something I find interesting is how Disney got the entire staff involved in coming up with good storytelling visuals and some even made some extra income by submitting gags that were used in their films. I'm sure it led to more than a few promotions as well. In part 2 Frank and Ollie break gags down into the following basic categories. The Spot Gag The Running Gag The Gag-That-Builds The Action Gag The Tableau Gag The Inanimate Character Gag The Funny Drawing Specialized Gags (Color, Effects and Caricature) It is also very interesting to me how this approach to 'writing' pulls in aspects of thumbnailing, brainstorming, storyboards, etc. The whole idea being that while dialogue and other elements of story are important it is essential to tell the story through visuals; pantomime, character, performance, mood, etc. to the point where the story can be told without them but then is plussed up even more through their inclusion. The Disney approach was of course heavily influenced by silent film and that carries through well into caricatured performances. Most of the illustrations in the book have been posted online in some form or fashion over the years but the book is unique in it's collecting of the story gags into general categories. This not to present a formulaic approach so much as to explore what makes visual storytelling work. This thought and theory then can be applied to the creation of shorts and films in animation or live action. Note: There are several books with the title 'Too Funny for Words' out there so if purchasing online make sure it's the right one.

To make the elfin ear I thought I could lathe out a tall cup and push the splines down on one side... But after quite a bit of pushing and pulling of CPs I wasn't happy with the shading the stretched patches were making... So I deleted all but the front edge of the ear... ...and resplined between the edges with more conventional contours...

Cool Robert. I have found one too and just told Steffen about it in the bug report you've put in. That might help to find the problem even better :).

i finally captured a reproducible case with my beta of v19p and have sent that off as a bug report. clip5000CopyNoCopyDecals.mp4

Here a PRJ waterfall025_CrustyLavaStartedy.prj The materials are keyframed to move horizontally through the model. Because the "waterfall" is inclined (a section of a parabola, really) the texture appears to move down as it move through it. A Pose alters the splines so that the lava appears to drag at the sides of the channel.