With the right tools used in your arsenal when it comes to making cartoons, you can take advantage of said tools to not only turn in a well made scene but some scenes which are lacking can actually be enhanced with simple SOUND SOLUTIONS as well as Layout techniques.
A Prime example is in the REN & STIMPY 1990 Pilot BIG HOUSE BLUES.
The animation is Crude and all over the place but with the right set of tools, scenes can be enhanced so that you are really getting into the story:
Which in this PILOT's case is THE TITULAR DUO needing to be adopted before something bad happens to them in the DOG POUND.
Anyway, here's an example of what additional edits can do to enhance a scene during production.
Here, REN asks a dog named JASPER about what happened to another dog named PHIL..
"Hey Jasper."
"Where's Phil?"
Jasper explains,
"I told ya. They put him...."
"to...."
"SLEEP!!"
Ren, not getting the context of what Jasper says, responds.....
"So, wake him up then."
But Jasper's unperturbed that Ren doesn't get what's going on.....
So....He leans forward
And says...
"You don't wake up...."
"From the....."
"BIIIIiiiigggg...."
"Sleep...."
Look at how much emphasis was put into JASPER's poses as he explains to REN what has happened to PHIL.
Ren seems content about the idea of "BIG SLEEP"....
But then Suddenly,
*Sudden springy sounds of realization*
"THE...."
"B....."
"I"
"G"
"SL"
"EEEEEEE"
"PPPPP"
All while a Siren plays during his sudden realization.
That's how you can tell your audience that your character is SCREWED BIG TIME!!!
Ren repeats this FRIGHTENED MANTRA TWO TIMES...
"THE BIG SLEEP!!!!"
"THE BIG SLEEP!!!!"
Ever had realizations of your mortality to a point where your heart starts to beat faster?
I've been there, but this exaggerated animation of REN's heart beating is a clear indication of what's gonna happen to our Asthma Hound Chihuahua.
STIMPY on the other hand is just as dumbfounded as the EEDIOT he is...
All while REN is crying offscreen in the background...
This tongue animation is inspired by the CATS from the Looney Tunes Cartoon
KITTY KORNERED.
REN is now reduced to a blubbering whimpering mess....
But curiosity strikes the MANX CAT.....
"What's the big sleep Ren?"
This surprises REN, as he's noticed STIMPY has just become concerned.
All while SAD violin music plays in the background....
Ren whispers to STIMPY to come closer to....
You might think that it's REN feeling pity for the dumb animal....
But then.....
"IT'S DEATH!!!!!"
"DEAD YOU EEDIOT!!!!
YOU KNOW WHAT DEAD IS!!!!!!????"
"JUST LIKE WE'LL BE IF WE DON'T GET OUT OF HERE!!!!!"
And the SAD VIOLIN has been replaced with the sound of
AN ANGRY SWARM OF BEES....
Hey... AN ANGRY SWARM OF BEES is enough to scare the bejesus out of us so the sound of their swarm to heighten the fear of Death is plausible....
That alongside a heavy emphasis on REDs for the Backdrops.
What a way to enhance your art.....
Sound effects, Musical Queues, understanding of the meaning of what color can do for a setting, that all helps to enhance the feel of a Cartoon.
For example, here's some animation done by an old COLLEGE friend of mine:
Here, TIAGO OLIVIERA did the animation but I enhanced it with some sound effects, which made sense since I was the editor of the entire 2022 Thesis Animation.
The scene took place outside of the tower where NEKO fell from so I used the sound of the wind blowing.
The bone cracking sound was to make sure NEKO the Cat didn't hurt his spine.
And when NEKO tosses the diamond in the air slightly, I used the sound of the PLAYSTATION 5's PLATINUM TROPHY RETRIEVAL to show that NEKO still has his DIAMOND he stole.
This is quite important for you editors.
Pay attention to what the scene calls for before you go to your DATA LIBRARY of SOUND EFFECTS.
The number of people who've worked on DOUG whether its within Nickelodeon or Disney is staggering.
Some are there for each era, some have worked for both eras for the entirety of all 117 episodes,
And then there are some who are barely within the show for less than a Season or two.
One person who is of the latter is THOMAS WARBURTON.
Better known to us CARTOON NETWORK fans as MR. WARBURTON.
He's known for his famous CODENAME:KIDS NEXT DOOR Cartoon in Early 2000s CARTOON NETWORK.
Yes, I've watched this show before, as a matter of fact, It's a show I watched as a 6 year old back in 2004 when I was under the care of GREGORIA.
Anyway, it's not important for me to talk about this show now since it's not a dedicated KND post but rather it's connected to what I'm about to talk about.
The interesting thing I found out about MR. WARBURTON himself is that he was a layout artist on the first Season of NICKELDEON'S DOUG back in 1991.
Even ROGER is shocked about this Revelation.
And I have a photo of a drawing to back that up:
This is an actual drawing done by WARBURTON himself.
The inaugural 1991 Season of DOUG is a mixed bag for me due to a number of animation errors that pop up as well as the floatier animation of that Season but hey, someone's gotta start somewhere
WARBURTON however left after the first season so he never got to work on the later parts of the show during the rest of the Nickelodeon years or even the Disney years...... sort of.
While he did not work on the DISNEY version, he did work for an Internal Competitor within the network.
DISNEY'S PEPPER-ANN, a cartoon made by Disney's first female Creator SUE ROSE with MR. WARBURTON being the lead designer just because his art style was similar to ROSE's.
The funny thing is that PEPPER-ANN was originally susposed to be a NICKTOON but I guess in the aftermath of the firing of JOHN K. as well as VIACOM freezing DOUG's Budget in February 1994 which led to the SLIME FACTORY selling the series to DISNEY in February 1996,
NICK wanted tighter CREATIVE CONTROL with their newer I.Ps so PEPPER-ANN was instead pitched to DISNEY, they accepted and allowed CREATIVE CONTROL to remain with ROSE, and the rest is history.
One thing that didn't change was MR. WARBURTON's preference to remain in NEW YORK
This was common for people who knew they had to help with production but sometimes the production was in LOS ANGELES but I have a hunch late 90s DISNEY was flexible with WARBURTON to allow him to remain in NYC.
Even though COMPUTERS were advanced for TELECONFERENCING back in the late 90s,
it was still the days of DIAL-UP so nobody was using ZOOM, MICROSOFT TEAMS, or even DROPBOX back in the late 90s as those apps and services didn't exist back then.
So WARBURTON had to FAX his drawings to his employers,
often late at night due to the 4-5 hour time zone difference between NEW YORK & L.A.
I have a hunch WARBURTON must have been pretty annoyed that DOUG, a former Cartoon he worked on in 1991, was with DISNEY when PEPPER-ANN premiered on September 1997......
But the funny thing is, that's Internet Logic where people on SOCIAL MEDIA are expected to discredit VIACOM's infamous 1994 budget freeze for the sake of perfect nostalgia.
But at least the people I talked to in person regarding DOUG have at least acknowledge the events that have happened since February '94.
As for MR. WARBURTON, he's since moved to LOS ANGELES since 2009 and most of his newer work is with DISNEY with MUPPETS BABIES being his most recent work.
But for me, I'll always remember MR. WARBURTON as the guy who made KND for early 2000s CARTOON NETWORK.
For many of my readers out there, there's only one type of KEYBOARD I'll ever use when it comes to things like typing these posts and that's:
MECHANICAL KEYBOARDS
That's right.
Keyboards that use individual switches like these AKKOs shown below
One of the reasons that I've preferred this kind of Keyboards is two-fold:
The feel of Keys that use Actual Mechanical Switches just feels so much better than when typing on your typical BOG STANDARD membrane board you used in your very first Family PC or your school or workplace's office.
After many years of typing on KEYBOARDS with various past machines as well as those used in Schools & Offices, I developed an obsession with MECHANICAL KEYBOARDS with actual individual switches.
And it all started with this KEYBOARD below:
This was my very first MECHANICAL KEYBOARD.
A RAZER BLACKWIDOW V3 HALO EDITION Gaming Keyboard that I bought on DECEMBER 27 2022, shortly after I had my dental appointment that day.
This was the Keyboard that I primarily used when I migrated my blog from WIX to BLOGGER.COM.
It used one of these Switches:
A Second Generation CLICKY GREEN SWITCH
I actually did a post about Mechanical Switches back in Late October 2023,
But in the ensuing years after getting ahold of Newer Mechanical Keyboards as well as checking the marketplace for newer keyboards, both locally and online retailers like AMAZON,
I've gotten a little cocky in what I want to see in a MECHANICAL KEYBOARD.
So in this KEYBOARD variant of my previous post about what I want from a MOUSE, I'll get into the nits and grits of what I want in a design of a keyboard.
Are you hearing this manufacturers?
BUILD QUALITY:
One thing that's important about a Mechanical Keyboard is the build quality of the outer shell.
It's not what technology you use to make the board or the switches that you install in your board but rather the outer shell to house all them components
Even though there are keyboards that use INDIVIDUAL MECHANICAL SWITCHES that feel like that they're superior to the membranes you use at your office job, that doesn't mean they are all created equal when it comes to build quality.
There are some from NO-NAME Companies or Companies you never even heard of from your community that can sometimes skimp out on the quality of the outer shell.
These CHEAPO Mechanical keyboards have outer shells that are still solid but at the same time, they might lack the weight necessary to prevent from sliding around even with the best rubber feet attached by the end user.
Some CHEAPO brands do use added weights but often that's not enough, especially if the user is tempted to open up the board and remove the weights out of curiosity due to standard Phillips screws.
That's why whenever you sometimes see keyboards from enthusiasts out there, they often would rather buy a pre-assembled or barebones kit where the frame is often made with aluminum or die-supplemented material.
Think GLORIOUS and their GMMK Boards
HOT-SWAPPABILITY:
Yes, most off-brand, or even those boards you order online from AMAZON often sell you BOARDS that are advertised as HOT-SWAPPABLE.
My EPOMAKER DYNATAB 75 keyboard which I'm currently using to type this post is an example of a keyboard that lets you change the switches.
Though mine is the one with the PHONE HOLDER
One of the reasons why people LOVE the hot-swappable boards is because they have a preference for a certain type of Switch or they don't want to assemble themselves a new board but want to try different switch types.
For example:
Lets say a Keyboard you ordered from AMAZON uses CLICKY SWITCHES but you'd rather prefer to use LINEAR SWITCHES.
OH NO!!!!!!!
Nah!!! I'm just jostling ya!
Unlike on some keyboards from those like STEELSERIES or CORSAIR, etc. where they opt to solder the switches to the board,
The ones you order from AMAZON often let you change the switches without running the risk of BUYERS REGRET.
For example, My EPOMAKER DYNATAB75 came with these WISTERIA TACTILE switches when I order the board originally back in early December 2024:
Their ok but I've gotten used to using LINEARS to the point that I think Linear switches suit me better.
So I got AKKOs and I haven't looked back ever since.
Some companies like RAZER & ASUS have started to allow their boards to be hot-swappable as of recently.
I know as I've used some of their demo units before.
Less Gimmicks, More Productivity:
Be careful of what you see in a Keyboard when you buy yours off of AMAZON. There are MECHANICAL KEYBOARDS out there that can prove more.... well they're good at being serviceable but at the same time, they can have gimmicks that can be more distractive than helpful.
There are Keyboards that have LCDs either that are built-in or they're a separate USB-C addon.
These remind me of those LOGITECH G19 Keyboards from late 2009
While it's nice you can customize your keyboard with newsfeeds or GIFs, they can be distracting if you're one of those who uses keyboards for PRODUCTIVITY.
And another thing is that many of the features of these LCDs that you can customize often require an active app on your WINDOWS machines in order to fully take advantage of all that unless your keyboard is one of them that has it's own internal memory cache.
The GIFs thing is more of a CPU AIO COOLER thing than it is for a keyboard like mines.
Enough with the shrinkage!!!:
What's with this trend by Mechanical keyboard Manufacturers where they shrink the keyboard into only to what they think are the most essential in gaming?
Going as far back as late 2022 when I was shopping for my Mechanical Keyboard, I noticed both on display and online that there are these keyboards that are advertised as 65% or even 40% but in reality, it eliminates a majority of keys that are allegedly not needed for your games.
I actually own one of these:
This is a FEKER IK65 Keyboard and it's a source of aggravation for my use case because it eliminates the much needed FUNCTION KEY ROW and remaps it to the NUMBER KEYS and requires you to use the FN key in order to use function keys.
Fine for gaming but bad for productivity.
I plan to give this FEKER IK65 Keyboard to a former girlfriend of mine once I finally buy my RK ROYAL KLUDGE KEYBOARD.
I'm not the only one who's annoyed by this layout of boards.
CLINT BASINGER of LGR has stated in the past that he's not a fan of boards that eliminate crucial keys for his line of work.
Here's his negative review of a WINMIX REBORN 67 keyboard from 2024:
Somehow, he conceded to using this layout after HURRICANE HELENE when he temporarily switched to a SNUPURDIRI Keyboard before he moved back to his repaired house in September 2025.
But it goes to show you that it's never a good idea to eliminate crucial keys.
It brings back bad memories to some when it came to the original MACINTOSH Keyboard from 1984
This was the board that was originally bundled with the APPLE MACINTOSH 128K and the idea was that because the MACINTOSH was to be completely mouse driven with it's dropdown menus and crap that certain keys like function and arrows are not needed.
APPLE then realized that it was a big mistake to remove that many keys so they wisely redesigned the keyboard to reintroduce the keys back into the board, well into their era of their ADB bus.
Customize your Switches:
One of the things that somehow get to me is that when you're buying a mechanical Keyboard on places like AMAZON, they don't let you customize your key switches like you would customize your computer in sites like DELL, HP, LENOVO, etc.
Often at times, these pre-assembled boards are often outfitted with LINEARS because according to manufacturers, Gamers prefer linear switches because it makes things easier to double tap at a faster rate when compared to Tactile or Clicky switches.
Yes, I've stated in the past that I prefer LINEAR SWITCHES but my gripe is that manufacturers chose the lighter actuation variety which is fine for gaming but not for typing up a storm due to how light the switches feel as well as the fact that you are prone to be making twice the amount of mistakes than you would with a switch with more weight to it.
That's the reason why I chose my AKKO green switches because I know it's heavier actuation force is comparable to using a tactile or clicky board but with the smoothness of a linear switch.
Sure, You can swap the included switch out of your board that way but not everybody is an enthusiast as some of us are.
This can vary from one user to another but in my mind, I like to try a variety as long as it's advertised as 3-IN-1.
Both my EPOMAKER DYNATAB75 & my FEKER IK65 are 3-in-1 boards that allow variety in their use.
Makes sense since it's virtually a requirement to have a board that uses USB-C instead of the older MICRO-USB that some older boards used to use as the EU has mandated devices to use the USB-C Standard for connectivity.
For my, I often prefer to use the DONGLE because it's use of 2.4ghz provides better latency than i would have if I used Bluetooth.
Not my dongles but you get the general idea.
Also, be sure not to lose this as it is important.
One of the reasons I'm ribbing on what I want in a Mechanical Keyboard is because I'm in the process of buying a new RK ROYAL KLUDGE Keyboard on AMAZON that I'm planning to use as the daily driver for the MAVERICK FALCO 7900RT build but I'm still procrastinating at the moment since there are certain functions of a board that I want.
I'll follow up with a review of said board once I finally buy it but I won't do an immediate review as it takes about approximately a week to get used to your new board before your final say.
It's a general review amongst keyboard enthusiasts.
