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!!