2 bg options

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

new and improved scene 2

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

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!

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

Captain Toxoid colors

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

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

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

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

TOILET PUCK's first walk cycle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Super Stud expressions

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.

Expression test

Another little test to see how the character looks popping in and out of different facial expressions. It is not inbetweened fully yet, a lot of it is on 3's. That will not be the case for the real animation, but for the test, 3's are ok. In the next character I animate, I will make it a medium shot and include arm and hand gestures.

Scar Man expressions

I will animate him going from one expression to the next, like I did with Toilet Puck's expressions.

new SCAR MAN run cycle

POW!

MAJOR PECS vs. THE EVIL BRAIN TEASER

POW!!

SCAR MAN vs. METAL HEAD

POW!!!!

SUPER STUD vs. PEE BRAIN

PEE BRAIN rotation

He's hunch backed, bow legged and double jointed.

SUPER STUD rotation

I removed the sperm shaped lock of hair that he had before. It was a bad design choice, it didn't look appealing, it was clunky and ugly. It was also overkill, there is already a sperm in the middle of his chest crest and another one on the back of his cape.

SCAR MAN rotation

I had to tweek his head in order for the rotation to work. In the earlier design he did not have a straight horizontal line at the bottom of his chin. That line was angled before, it was impossible to rotate it properly. Looks pretty good now.

Test Animation

The goal with this test was to establish the style of the animation of the show. I did not want it to look too much like the mechanical, puppet animation that seems to be the norm these days. It works for some shows, not for all, definitely not for this one. The inbetweens are not perfect, but I would rather have those imperfect inbetweens than perfect, mechanical lifeless movement done automatically by a computer program. I did use a lot of flash tweens, but I also animated some of it in the traditional way...traditional, but digital. The result is a good compromise of rigged puppet animation and a more traditional look. Here's the test animation!! ENJOY!!

happy colors

The Bg changes to this triumphant glow when Toilet Puck recovers and picks up his clip. I have one or 2 more expressions to animate in the test animation. It is up to over 30 seconds long.

another new TP expression

This is a key pose before he bends over to grab his clip that he dropped.

new TP expression

I had to add this new expression in the test animation, to better transition to the next expression. I am up to 19 seconds of test animation. It looks good so far, for flash animation. I'll post it as soon as it's done.

seeing red

I am working on some test animation of TOILET PUCK. Basically, I took the expressions from a couple posts below and used them as key poses. I want to see how Toilet Puck would change from one expression to the next. The test animation is being done in MACROMEDIA FLASH. We will use TOON BOOM HARMONY once Toilet Puck goes into production. This is a screenshot of an angry pose, I made the entire BG change to that angry red just for this pose, then it changes back to a shot of the floor of the washroom.

white rapper

I felt the character of THE UNINTELLIGIBLE HUNK was way too much like the INCREDIBLE HULK. He is a spoof of the hulk of course, but he needed an interesting twist, not just a cartoony version of the hulk. So I made him into a white rapper type of character, with blond Eminem hair and bling around his neck. He is going to talk like a rapper, which is unintelligible anyway, so the name still fits. So now the articulate scientist turns into an unintelligible green rapper.

new expressions

I made a few different arm positions and moved his "clip" in various positions.

flyer back

very simple on the back of the flyer; a description of the show, a single image of Toilet Puck, some contact info, the show's logo which is only a mock logo. I have not begun working on the real logo yet.

flyer front

The idea was to make it look like a comic book. I would have wanted to add a few more things to it, and make it look old and worn out, but I did not have time to do all that. I think it gets the point across as it is, it does look like a comic cover, and it represents the show properly. As of right this moment the flyer is being paraded around in France at MIPCOM, one of the biggest mutlimedia and licensing conventions in the world. I think I will work on this flyer some more, so that by the time the KIDS SCREEN SUMMIT happens in February, I will have the exact look and feel of an old retro comic that I was going for.

Toilet Puck Expressions

Just experimenting with some expressions. I just copied and pasted his body for now. I will eventually change his body, arms and hands to better suit the expressions. I also plan on doing more expressions for him. I want to really push it as far as I can. I want him to have the same range of expressions as Sponge Bob Square Pants, really wild and extreme. Most series I have worked on were really lacking in character expressions, with directors, producers, and supervisors all afraid to be "off model." Which is ridiculous and wrong. It's not being off model at all, it's acting, it's pushing, it's exaggerating. I worked on a show called "My Goldfish Is Evil" and the main characters were horribly designed, they couldn't even rotate properly. They looked like completely different characters in their profile. And the expressions were non existent. They had no range of emotion, no acting, no personality. They were designed with triangle eyes, very bad, and impossible to get expressions out of without being "off model." Goldfish was one of the worse shows for expressions. One of the best that I worked on was "PIG CITY" All the characters in the show were anthropomorphic pigs, but they great expressions.

NEWS 10 04 07

Lots to report in the world of TOILET PUCK. I pitched The Refreshing Adventures Of Toilet Puck to OASIS ANIMATION, and they love the idea. I didn't even have to say to much during the pitch. I started explaining the concept and the producers just started going off on all the possibilities and they actually ended up saying all the stuff that I wanted to say during my pitch, but didn't have to because they were totally on the same page as me. So for the next 2 years, the ball is in their court. They are going to do all the leg work, the travel, the pitching, the meetings with broadcasters. I have a good feeling about this. I really like Jacques at Oasis, he is just a great guy. I trust him completely to pitch Toilet Puck as well, if not better, than I would myself. I put together a kick ass bible for the pitch. And now I am working on a one page flyer for MIPCOM. So here's just one of the expressions of TOILET PUCK I did for the flyer. The color of his clip/clothes/belt/whatever it is he is holding on to, changed from what it was before. I accidentally colored it the color you see in the pic above, and I like it better than what it was before.

Newer version of the LINE UP

Here's the line up again. This time THE UNINTELLIGIBLE HUNK, THE SCIENTIST, and PEE BRAIN have been updated with their latest versions. I have been very busy working on a new production, so I have had to leave my own projects, like TOILET PUCK, on the back burner for a while. I don't mind, the project I am on is a good show, I need the money, and I am not in a rush to move forward with my own projects. I would rather take the time and develop TOILET PUCK the way I want. Hopefuly I will have a couple of months off this summer, between this season and the next season of the show I am currently working on, I could get some more TOILET PUCK designs done during that time.

RIPPED GLOVES

Now that's better! I should have thought of this before. The HUNK would rip right through those gloves when he changes from the scientist. I made them to look like fingerless biker gloves.

SCIENTIST

This is the scientist that turns into THE UNINTELLIGIBLE HUNK. I just added the purple lab gloves.

HUNK CHANGES

The old version of THE UNINTELLIGIGBLE HUNK had no twist, no new element on THE INCREDIBLE HULK character. He was just a cartoony version of the Hulk. The rest of the characters in the TOILET PUCK universe have unique takes on the old super hero archetypes. So I had to do the same with HUNK. I gave him purple lab gloves, like THE EVIL BRAIN TEASER, or DEXTER'S LAB, and instead of the ripped pants like the Hulk, I gave HUNK underwear. I always wondered how the Hulk's pants did not rip right off. As for his personality; HUNK is still a dumb gentle giant, but now he also has a weakness for burritos. It was the combination of Gamma Radiation and a burrito that caused him to turn into the HUNK, have diarrhea, and accidentally create TOILET PUCK. I may also change his skin color. Personally, I like the 3rd one, the yellowish one.