TOILET PUCK

Game Experiment

2011-10-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since Toilet Puck has had any news, no new episodes, no new developments, nothing. But all that may change soon. I really want to give this property another effort. It's a personal project, it's tons of fun, it keeps me sane. Anyway, I took the backgrounds from the first episode and decided to make a little point and click game out of them, like the many point and click 'escape from a room' games that you see on the 'internets.' There's nothing to it yet, no objects to pick up, no puzzles to solve, no keys to unlock, no story, no point really yet... BUT you can explore the bathroom with some simple navigation. There are some secret spots, so move the mouse around the room and find the hot spots. It's just a start, but I think I could make a cool little game out of this. Will TOILET PUCK himself make an appearance? Will the other SUPER HEROES from the Toilet Puck Universe show up? Stay tuned to find out.

a la South Park

2010-01-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

This is what Toilet Puck would look like if I ever did a South Park spoof....hmmm not a bad idea. I think I need to get working on that one.

hiatus

2009-11-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

crossing the road

2009-11-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

When I have time I'll make the old lady actually walk, very slowly; for now she just shakes on the spot.

making it up as I go

2009-10-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

All the character designs were basically one drawing of each character in a 3/4 front pose. I only create full front, profile, and back views if/when it comes up in a storyboard. So in this episode a full front view of Champ needed to be designed. No back or profile view seems necessary...yet.

wrestling episode

2009-10-01T03:14:00.000-07:00

Storyboards are not usually clean and colored like this. However I did some test animation and animated almost all the expressions I will ever use on the Toilet Puck character before I ever did the first board. So it is just a matter of copying and pasting the proper expression into the board. Also the BG's are mostly already cleaned and colored, so I copy and paste those too. I am more concerned about the pacing than anything else.

another freeze frame

2009-09-21T02:15:00.000-07:00

Lots of short cuts and tricks here to make it look more involved than it actually was. One of the tricks used is the staggered shake cycle, almost all of the animation in this scene is just a cycle of staggered drawings, with 2 to 4 frames per cycle.

Eureka!

2009-09-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

One thing I do not like about many flash shows is the "flip." When a character or head turns from left to right, I see many shows take the lazy way out and simply flip the symbol with an equally lazy stretch as some sort of lazy anticipation. Did I mention I thought it was lazy? The "flip" works fine on a show like South Park because it's flat and it's supposed to be cardboard cutouts. But it bugs me when a show is supposed to look good, with good character designs and they use a cheap flip. Anyway, here is Toilet Puck's head turn, now full body turn.

head turn

2009-09-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

As much as I tried to resist doing this head turn, it turned out just fine. The animation in Toilet Puck is very limited. I did not want to ever have him turn his head, but inevitably there will be a scene where there is no way to avoid it. So here it is. This was the easier part; the tricky part will be when he is not imagining himself with a superhero body, when he is just Toilet Puck, because I will have to animate that clip he holds on to. Tricky, but I like a challenge.

freeze frame

2009-09-19T05:02:00.000-07:00

Each of these vignette shots will have about half a second of animation before the freeze frame, kinda like this.

last of the vignettes for this sequence

2009-09-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

Well that was crazy fun to do. This episode might include a musical number. If it does have a song sequence, then there will be a whole other set of vignettes that needs to be done.

from rough sketch to finished drawing

2009-09-17T00:20:00.000-07:00

I'll work on the background tomorrow.

its a scene

2009-09-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

Flash is not the best program for imported bitmap backgrounds, especially one that zooms in and rotates, so this will have to be done in some compositing software. This flash version is just for fun.

flying puck

2009-09-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

Did a quick animation of Toilet Puck's cape flapping. If I tossed in a BG that slowly pulled back, it would practically be a finished scene.

excuse me

2009-09-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

Add one more to the vignette. This time Toilet Puck saves a girl from the clutches of a bad guy.

vs.

2009-09-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

These vignette shots are so much fun to do! The character, Toilet Puck, is like every kid out there that is into comic books. We all have dreams and fantasies about being a superhero ourselves.

montage or vignette?

2009-09-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

This is another shot from a vignette of Toilet Puck imagining himself as a superhero. I was calling it a "montage" before, then I got a lesson in the difference between a montage and a "vignette" from my girlfriend...literary types, go figure.

This is how the picture progressed, from rough to clean and colored.

plodding ahead

2009-09-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I finished boarding episode 02, more or less; there will be some changes that need to be made to it down the road. But for now it is as done as it could be. So I went ahead and started boarding episode 03. There are a lot of still shots like this one in episode 03. This is Toilet Puck imagining himself as a superhero again. This time fighting off Ninja Bank Robbers.

tell me it ain't so?!

2009-09-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

What does this mean for Toilet Puck? Is this the end? What will happen to the super-hero washroom? The intrigue, the drama, the answers...in the next episode of "The Refreshing Adventures Of TOILET PUCK!"

close up

2009-09-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

This is a panel from the storyboard. It's a close up of TP. Technically, his head would not fill the whole screen. But there are good reasons to do it this way; first, and most importantly, it's funnier looking. Second, it saves me from adding a BG, which would be mostly obscured anyway.
I wish I could take credit for coming up with this, but I saw an episode of Sponge Bob where they did this on a close up shot, and I thought it was pretty funny. So I am using it on a Toilet Puck close up.

animatic pan

2009-09-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a short animatic for this one scene. There is still one element missing, it's a work in progress.

pan bg

2009-09-06T01:42:00.000-07:00

How many times can this washroom get destroyed, exploded, trashed, and obliterated? More often than I thought. This is a panning bg of the washroom after an explosion. There was an explosion in the first (origin) episode, and here again in episode 02. There is another character in the scene; as soon as he is done I will add an update with him.

TP back view

2009-09-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

reveal

2009-09-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

So simple, yet effective.

Toilet Puck weird mouths

2009-08-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

And the range of Toilet Puck's expressions keeps growing. The newest ones are at the top of the page, including the gaping mouths on the top right.
Yeah, these mouths will be pretty funny. I won't use this type of mouth often, but if it's thrown in every once in a while it could make an ordinary piece of dialog look funny.

gaping mouth

2009-08-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Just testing out the gaping mouth. I like it a lot, I will find a way to use it in the next episode.

no limit

2009-08-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

I would like the character of Toilet Puck to have limitless expressions and lip syncs. In this case I did something completely different with his open mouth. It is inspired by a couple commercials I really like; the stop motion Wrigley's commercial spots done by Laika. The gum character has a mouth that opens on the side of his face like this. The other is the Cinnamon Toast Crunch "lick" commercial. I love that commercial!

low res rough test

2009-08-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

strip

2009-08-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

literally

2009-08-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

A shot of a gag. Not sure yet if I will have Toilet Puck pull the menu out from behind his back, or if the shot will start on this pose when it cuts to Toilet Puck. The easier thing to do would be to cut to this shot and just animate a lip sync as TP talks. Animating the menu being pulled out from behind him could be tricky...but I like a challenge.

TOILET PUCK MAN

2009-08-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

So I decided to stick this scene in episode 02. The idea that Toilet Puck dreams of being a Super Hero himself one day is an important theme, so the earlier I can establish his ambition the stronger his character is. And the earliest I can do that is the very next episode after his origin episode. I'll make sure TP expresses his desire to be a Super Hero several times throughout the series, maybe even reuse this shot a few times.

maybe one day

2009-08-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

Whether the refreshing adventures of TOILET PUCK remains an internet cartoon or television broadcast, short 3 to 5 minutes or a half hour show, there is one long term story arc throughout the series; Toilet Puck's ambition to become a SuperHero himself one day. So this is a shot of Toilet Puck imagining himself as hero one day. I don't know which episode I will stick this in yet.

girl power

2009-08-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

The blue female Superhero is not finished yet. I haven't decided who I want her to be yet. She will be in the same pose, but she will probably have more of a Superhero costume. Orgasma is done. And the green girl in the foreground is also done. I cheated with her design. I just used an older pic I did of a mermaid and changed her a bit. Since she is only in this one scene, and the only thing she will do is blink, I figured I would save a lot of time by reusing some old work.

peek a boo

2009-08-04T02:25:00.000-07:00

I added a shot of the GIRL-SUPER-HERO-WASHROOM in this episode. A friend of mine told me, when he saw the intro to Toilet Puck, "Too many dicks, not enough chicks." So I'll fill this shot up with a few scantily clad female Super-Heroes to take care of that problem.

sperm logo

2009-08-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot from episode 02. I know, I know, episode 11 was done before episode 02. However, if we went in chronological order this is the first episode with Super Stud, and this is the reveal of his Super-Hero-Chest-Crest.

mild mannered disguise

2009-07-22T00:20:00.000-07:00

I have just begun working on the next episode, which is episode 2. The script is ready. I just needed one new design, Super Stud in his mild mannered guise. So here it is. Now I can get on with the storyboard.

last scene for this episode

2009-07-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

I am working on the last scene of this episode. Originally the episode ended with a close up of Super Stud saying his dialog. But it felt like the episode ended really flat. Anthony Reece, the voice of Super Stud and Toilet Puck did some great ad-lib in this scene, it definitely does not end flat anymore. So I had to change the scene from the boring close up to something interesting to match the energy of the voice acting . The shot above is what I came up with. Super Stud picks up Toilet Puck and pokes him.

gross finger

2009-07-15T01:12:00.000-07:00

Who knows where that's been?! This is a scene I added at the last minute. There is no animation in the scene, just this still shot. There are at least four still shots in this episode. I love when they do that in cartoons. Ren & Stimpy used it alot, Sponge Bob uses it, so does The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flap Jack. The painted still shot has many uses. Humor is the main reason. But also to achieve a gross look that flat colors can not effectively convey. I also find it's the best way to achieve a P.O.V. shot from another character's perspective.

dirty mirror

2009-07-12T02:16:00.000-07:00

Another screenshot with a dirty looking background.

right back at it

2009-07-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

BEFORE
AFTER

It's been one month since I finished the first episode of TOILET PUCK. I entered it into an Animation Festival, sent it to one network, one studio, and just put it on you-tube a couple days ago. Now it's time to get to the next episode. This is shot from episode 11. No, episodes 2 to 10 are not done yet. I'm jumping straight into episode 11. The more episodes I can get done, the easier it will be to pitch this project. Anyway, if you look at all the posts labeled "episode 11" you will see that I need to add textures and graffiti to the backgrounds. I started working on episode 11 before episode 01. It was during the making of the first episode that I came up with this look for the BG's. So now I need to go back and add graffiti and textures to all the BG's in episode 11.

EPISODE 01 is complete!!!

2009-06-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

A PUCK IS BORN

I am very excited to have an episode complete and ready to show to the world. The web site is still an ongoing work-in-progress, but at least the video is up. Only this small version is up right now, I am hoping to have a large full screen, good quality version up by the end of summer.

As for episode 01; It turned out REALLY GOOD! I could not be happier. The pacing, the gags, the voices, the comedy, all turned out great. Now the real work begins, the pitching, the leg work, the rejection, the marketing, and the SHAMELESS promoting. I will put it on you tube in a few weeks, there is no better way to reach a mass audience than you tube.

MAGIC

2009-06-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is a good example of one of those "magic" moments animation. These 2 characters, Major Pecs and the Unintelligible Hunk, worked so good together and played well off one another that I decided to write another episode featuring these two together. When something works, it is important to shift direction, rethink, and alter course. Originally, I only planned on using Hunk in 3 episodes, including this first episode, and he wasn't teamed up with Major Pecs in the other two. Now I am going to rewrite them together.
The screenshots above are from 2 close up scenes that were added after receiving the audio tracks, because I was inspired by how the characters interacted with each other.

END CREDITS...UPDATED

2009-06-02T22:23:00.001-07:00

The pic above is the updated, final credit for the voice actors. They did an outstanding job. Big Llou Johnson as the Unintelligible Hunk steals the show. Anthony Reece, who voiced all the other characters, once again did great work. His Major Pecs is awesome.

This is my end credit.
This shot is still being worked on. I need to add the second voice actor, instead of having voicetoons.com twice. Anthony does amazing work, I really lucked out finding him.

My girlfriend has earned the associate producer credit. Not only did I run everything by her, animation and scripts, timing and ideas, but she also invested her dollars to get the first episode made.

I am very grateful to Haris for permitting me to use his song, it's the perfect theme.

The best source for sound effects on the web.

And finally, a little plug for the website.

And there you have the end credits. It's going to zip pan from one shot to the next.

THE INTRO IS COMPLETE!!!!!

2009-05-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

OR

CLICK HERE! TO SEE THE INTRO

I am very happy with how the intro turned out. The idea behind the intro was to make it fast paced, with lots of quick cuts, and tons of action. Then when the show starts the pace is instantly ground to a halt. The show is slow paced, with no action at all. So the intro serves a couple of purposes; first, it gives us some contrast in pacing. Second, it shows the characters have a history and a life outside the washroom, making them more real. The show takes place entirely in a washroom, so the intro was a good place to escape that.
The theme song was written by my friend Haris Cehajic many years ago, when he was in a band from Brampton Ontario, called DILAN DOG. I loved the song from the moment I heard it, and right away thought it would make a great intro for a cartoon. Now, more than 10 years later, I finally got to use it.

bg revised

2009-05-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

A couple reasons I had to change this bg; first, the whole graffiti and textured look came about AFTER this bg was originally made. Second, the shot didn't look right after I finished the scene before this. The two scenes are sequential. I didn't know what the scene before this was going to be when I did the original bg, I'm putting together the intro on the fly, making up scenes as I go along to put together into some kind of fake montage for the show. I say fake because these scenes are never actually going to be in the show. I used some of my old illustrations as posters again, and some of the graffiti drawings on the wall is from an old sketch by Errol Burke which was from another series concept we where throwing around years ago.

my neighborhood

2009-05-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

This is a bg used in the intro. Once I decided to put the graffiti and textures on all the backgrounds, it has come to feel very much like my neighborhood. I always thought Montreal felt like Sesame Street, without the muppets...except some of the characters around here are practically muppets anyway. I used my art for the posters on the foreground pole and on on the building. It was a good way to make use of all those random illustrations.

Action Packed Entrance

2009-05-23T00:53:00.001-07:00

This is a pose of Blaction Hero falling or jumping into the scene.

toiletpuck.com

2009-05-21T10:11:00.001-07:00

The website is up...kinda. There's not much to look at just yet. The first episode is very close to being done, I would say only 3 weeks away. Then it'll be on the website for the world to see. The website is a work in progress. I plan on having many more features, especially if the series catches on, then we will have a message board feature, a shop, games, and downloads. So visit toiletpuck.com and check back by June 14 2009 for the first episode to "air". I know it's air for the television, but is it air for the world wide web too? I dunno.

rotation on the fly

2009-05-15T23:52:00.001-07:00

I only had a three quarter view of this scientist before I started animating. I got to a point in the scene where I needed a front view, but did not have one. So I created his front view on the fly.

janitor

2009-05-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

The pic above is a screenshot of how the final scene actually looks. The pic below is a shot of the design of the janitor and the establishing shot of the first scene.

We only see this guy in the first sequence of the first episode, and never again after that.

pan test

2009-05-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Trust me, it'll be hilarious once the audio and sound effects are added, and the timing adjusted. I just wanted to render it to make sure the pan works...and it does. There is a quite a bit of dialog in this scene, so it'll stay on the characters legs longer, but you get the idea with this abbreviated version.

Urinal Puck

2009-05-12T03:55:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how many people I talk to that do not know what a toilet puck is, until I explain it to them several times. Everyone knows the urinal puck though. So to make it crystal clear what a toilet puck is, I made a scene where the janitor tosses pucks into the urinal. A couple scenes later he puts a clip on the same pucks and sticks them on the toilet rim. Brilliant!

ep01 sc07

2009-05-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Another scene, without sound. It's all coming together quite quickly now. Thus far I am very happy with how it's turning out.

compositing

2009-05-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

Put together the walk cycle, the background, a new opening door, and voila! You have a complete scene, minus the sound.

writing on the washroom wall

2009-05-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Some of my girlfriend's quotes I used as graffiti on the background.

The audience may never be able to read them, but it's the kind of inside joke that makes the creative process fun.

The "inside joke" graffiti was my girlfriends idea. In case you can't read the backgrounds, here are the quotes:

"I'm dream interpreting, don't talk to me right now."

"I want to introduce this to your life; I wanna sit around and discuss with you the aesthetic value of different tomatoes."

Z-"In a crunch it could be a substitute."
N-"I don't want a crunchy substitute."

"It's really hard to maintain a naked life style."

N-"Look at him."
Z-"Where is he?"
N-"He's not there. Look at him in your mind."

economy of a scene

2009-05-05T23:40:00.001-07:00

It's all about economy of a scene at this point. Primarily because there are only 4 weeks remaining to finish it on time to submit it to the Ottawa Animation festival. So in this sequence, instead of showing a long shot of the characters pull their pants up, flush the toilet, and exit the washroom, I cut to a close up shot of their legs, panning from one character to the other as he pulls up his pants. I don't have to animate them flushing the toilet, because once they stand up we will hear the flush. Then I cut to the shot of them walking out to the left. Doing it this way saved me a lot of animation. Plus there is something really cool about the low angle shot of their legs on the toilet, it's kind of Quentin Tarantinoish.

current line up

2009-05-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the current line up of Super Heroes and Super Villains in the Toilet Puck Universe.

censored

2009-05-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

Even though Toilet Puck has no "anatomy", I thought it would be funny to add a "censored" block over him when he drops his clip.

inanimate toilet puck

2009-04-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

Before good ol' comic book gamma radiation gave him life, this is what Toilet Puck looked like.

scientist walk cycle

2009-04-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

I am not sure yet whether or not to swing his arms. It kind of makes him seem more dorky if he doesn't swing his arms. Plus it will save me some time. I'll have to consider this one.

another bg pan

2009-04-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

There was a scene in the storyboard that would not work. So I had to change it. Without going into the details, the scene is replaced with another panning scene of the character's feet. This is the new bg pan.

pan bg

2009-04-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

And here it is with a blur to emphasize the zippy quickness of the pan.

This is a pan shot, zipping back and forth from the far left stall to the far right stall. We will see the feet of the super heroes from under the stalls as they talk.

another dirty background...updated

2009-04-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

So here's how it looks with the character in the scene. It really pops, I like it.

The backgrounds for episode 1 are finished. The next step is to clean up the posing of the characters and break them apart so they could be animated.

a bunch of bg's

2009-04-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

The two pics on the top, with the washroom door, are a part of the same scene. The door goes from being grimy to clean when it becomes the Super Hero Washroom, even the symbol on the door changes to a Super Hero. The rest of the bg's are grimy because they are from the first part of the first episode, before the place gets cleaned up.

graffiti and textures...updated

2009-04-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

I added Major Pecs sitting on the toilet. There will be another character on the far right toilet, but I haven't cleaned him up yet.

Yes, I definitely want to have the washroom with graffiti and dirty textures before it becomes the clean looking super hero washroom.

graffiti...updated

2009-04-21T01:10:00.000-07:00

Here's the shot with a couple of Super Hero's feet in the stalls. Major Pecs on the left and the Unintelligible Hunk on the right.

I had a thought to make the public washroom dirty, grimy, and disgusting in the first episode. Then at the end of the first episode, when Toilet Puck comes into existence, and the washroom becomes a washroom exclusively for super heroes, it would look nice and clean. The trick will be to animate the stall door opening with all the graffiti on it. But I think I know a way to do it.

explosive diarrhea

2009-04-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

A shot of the washroom after the explosion. I will most likely animate some water spraying from the broken pipes in this scene.

scene set up

2009-04-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

Took the doors off so you could get a peek at the inside.

I am working on the origin episode now. This is the set up for a big chunk of the episode. This sequence consists of a couple long shots like this, some close ups of the character's feet from under the stall, and a couple of pans from the scientist's feet to the hero's feet in the left stall; not much to animate in this sequence, except for when we see the scientist's feet under the stall transform into the Unintelligible Hunk.

transformation

2009-04-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

Put 'em together with some fade ins and effects; and voila! You have a transformation sequence.

old ,new, old again

2009-04-04T19:17:00.000-07:00

This is the third time I changed this character's design. A while ago I took an old design and changed it to look more flat and angular. I didn't like it, especially the change in his face. So this new version is a mix of the two. He is very close to what I want now. He looks like a spoof of Iron Man.

2 bg options

2009-03-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

I have 2 BG options for this scene. While the red version has more of an overall harmony and mood once the character is in the scene, the blue version really makes her POP. Since this is a very short 2 second scene and the audience will have little time to take in what's going on, I decided to go with the blue version. The character stands out and the scene is quickly readable. If it was a long scene I would have gone with the red.

Orgasma intro

2009-03-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

Color.

Clean up and break into symbols.

Sketch

This is going to be a quick shot of Orgasma shooting laser beams from her boobs. This is one of the many actions scenes that will make up the intro to the show.

another into screen shot

2009-03-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

Since Toilet Puck is the main character, I tried to squeeze as much of him as I could into the intro. An easy way to do that is to have a montage page like this.

intro screen shot

2009-03-07T00:19:00.000-08:00

This is a screen shot from the TOILET PUCK intro. It is going to be an action packed, fast paced intro with each and every character in the Toilet Puck Universe to date!

shot set up

2009-03-06T16:23:00.001-08:00

This is the set up for a short pan shot. The scene starts on the right and then pans left to bring Toilet Puck into the shot.

scene 5

2009-03-05T17:07:00.000-08:00

This scene has some pretty good flash animation in it. It has a nice flow to it, doesn't look too mechanical, and definitely does not look too rigged and puppet like.

what's betwen a 3/4 and a straight on shot?

2009-03-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

7/8? 4/5? I should have paid more attention in math class instead of stare at Mrs. D'Angelo's legs. What ever it is, this is how his head looks in that view. It's an inbetween for a head rotation going from a front on shot to a 3/4 head shot.

exit stage right

2009-03-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

This was a time consuming walk cycle that had to be done, just to get the character to exit the scene. This was also far more challenging than any walk cycle I have ever done. My first attempt used only symbols and tweening in flash. I did not like it at all. It looked mechanical and lifeless. Next, I tried to draw it with the brush tool in flash. But without a Cintiq, and only a wacom tablet I could not get perfect accuracy on my lines and inbetweens. So what I ended up doing was roughing in the walk cycle with the brush, it was okay to be off in the rough. Then I used symbols only where neccessary and manually drew the rest with the line tool. It was a lot of work. But it was worth it. There was an old Flintstones episode with a character, either Cary Granite or Rock Quarry or some other movie star of the time, and he had the craziest walk cycle ever! His legs did all kinds of wonky bending, but it worked. I wanted a bit of that in Pee Brain's walk cycle, but slower. A retarded looking walk cycle for a retarded clone character.

backwards mouth

2009-02-26T13:48:00.000-08:00

Depending on the expression, I like to put the mouth on backwards. It makes a wacky expression look even wackier. They did this a few times in some of the earlier Simpsons seasons. Watching the Simpsons and seeing it on TV for the first time, the backward mouth really jumped out at me. I thought it was just the craziest thing I ever saw. And so I have been using it throughout the years wherever I could sneak it in.

flash animation

2009-02-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

This is a scene I worked on today. I really need to get a cintiq soon. I would do so much more traditional, albeit digital, animation with a cintiq, instead of using short cuts like symbols, libraries, and tweening. I did manage to get some decent action on his cape though. This is just a rough; once I get the voice recorded I will change the lip sync and get the right facial expressions to match the voice acting, and most importantly fix the timing. For now, the lip sync is just a place holder.

PEE BRAIN mouth and blink

2009-02-22T22:42:00.000-08:00

One of the scenes I animated today. I am not using a standard, generic A to H mouth chart for this pilot or for this series. I want the acting, particularly in the lips syncs to be funnier, more specific to the dialog, and different from scene to scene. Most shows these days that use flash or toon boom have 2 sets of mouth charts in the library, happy A to H and Angry A to H, and ALL the lips syncs for ALL the scenes use only those mouth positions. Sure it makes for some very fast animation, but it's not acting, and it is not interesting. So I am creating several completely different lip syncs in every given scene, and then if it those lips work in another scene, I will reuse them. Eventually, as I animate more scenes and the library of lip positions grows, there will be increasingly less lips to have to be drawn. Most digital shows do this very same thing for hand positions such, so why not lips?

Angry inbetween

2009-02-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a screen shot from some of the animation I was working on today.

new and improved scene 2

2009-02-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

The filthy, grimy BG texture really helps in this shot. The old version HERE did not convey the grossness and disgust with which Super Stud views Pee Brain. Now it really does.

new and improved scene

2009-02-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

I painted the Pee Brain character more, adding highlights and deeper shadows and blood shot eyes and made him look dirty, and changed the BG. Click HERE to see what it looked like before.

new villainess...introducing ORGASMA!

2009-02-11T10:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a new villainess character. Sex is her weapon.

Captain Toxoid colors

2009-01-22T21:58:00.000-08:00

I tried to stick with red and yellow, just like Iron Man. Not sure if those colors are best to convey that he is made of a bathroom sink though.

Captain Toxoid

2009-01-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

This is an old character I designed for another concept of mine. I love the character and the idea for the series, but I don't think it'll go anywhere. So I am taking this character and putting him in the Toilet Puck Universe! The character was always a spoof of Iron Man, so he fits in the Toilet Puck Universe perfectly. I am plucking him out of one super hero series and dropping him into another. The design obviously had to change, so I re-designed him to fit in the Toilet Puck series with a flat design and some wonky lines. A cleaned up and colored update of this character will follow soon.

Black Super Hero

2008-12-30T14:28:00.000-08:00

This guy is a spoof of the Black Panther. I'm not sure what his name is going to be yet. For sure it will be "BLACK..." something, I just don't know what that something is yet. I just used the body of Scar Man and changed the colors and changed his head and neck.

Hunk option

2008-12-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

The character of "THE UNINTELLIGIBLE HUNK" is still evolving. He started out as a spoof of "THE INCREDIBLE HULK", he is still is, but that original design was just a cartoon version of the Hulk without a twist to make him something new. So then I decided to make him into a white rapper, but he still had gray/green skin like the Hulk. This time I kept him as an unintelligible rapper, but made him a black guy. I figure a nerdy white guy scientist that turns into a black rapper with bling is pretty funny, and it takes the character further away from a straight up spoof of The Incredible Hulk. I have not decided which version to settle on yet.

mad walk cycle

2008-10-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

TOILET PUCK's first walk cycle

2008-09-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the OTTAWA ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2008, and the TELEVISION ANIMATION CONFERENCE. As well as being very informative and educational, the festival has motivated me and inspired me. So on my first night back, I did this quick and easy walk cycle.

MAJOR PECS expressions

2008-01-05T11:08:00.001-08:00

As I was sketching out his expressions, digitally with a wacom tablet, I encountered a problematic detail....his nose. Originally I was going to have a line there for his nose under the mask, as in the top left expression. When I tried different expressions the nose got in the way. So I just got rid of it. He can still have a line there for certain expressions, if the nose line does not get in the way. I actually like him better without the nose line, it allows more freedom of expressions with his eyes.

episode 11 STORY BOARD

2007-12-10T20:52:00.001-08:00

The story board is done, cleaned and colored, and ready for the leica. It is about 2 minutes 15 seconds long, when timed out, and that is without an intro and end credits. You can see the whole board on the TOILET PUCK episode 11 STORY BOARD BLOG.

bow legged

2007-12-07T03:23:00.001-08:00

An exaggerated, funny, still shot of Pee Brain's legs. Not sure if I am going with the digital painted one above, or the flat colored one below.

hunch backed

2007-12-07T03:19:00.001-08:00

He's not this much hunch backed on his model sheet, but in this shot I wanted to make it funny and show how Pee Brain is perceived by Super Stud, which is uglier than he actually is.

double jointed

2007-12-07T00:22:00.001-08:00

This is a shot of Pee Brain's hand. One of my favorite things in cartoons is when they use still shots. They do that a lot in shows like Ren & Stimpy and Sponge Bob and even Drawn Together. It is done for humor and exaggeration, and to make shots more gross than usual. This is Super Stud's perspective of Pee Brain's double jointed fingers.

Super Stud and Pee Brain

2007-12-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

Together again. This is from a panel in the board for the pilot. I am making the whole board this clean and colored. The animatic/leica will look really nice with finished, clean, colored,and vectorized board panels.

Super Stud test poses

2007-12-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

These are the poses I am going to animate for the next bit of test animation. I kept it as simple as I could. I am in the process of story boarding an episode to use as a pilot episode. These poses are straight from the board.

PEE BRAIN expressions

2007-12-01T15:02:00.001-08:00

He's got more acting range than I thought he would, especially for a retarded clone.

Super Stud expressions

2007-11-28T23:53:00.000-08:00

I want to do something different with the character expressions on this production. I want the animators to have as much freedom as possible with the expressions. I don't want them to be constrained by being "on model." As long as the head shape stays the same, the characters features, eyes, and mouths can stray far from the model. One of the issues I have with programs like flash and harmony, is that the animators rely way to much on the library. So on this production there will be no standard lip sync in the library. Each expression will require the animators to do a new lip sync and use specific acting.