Pixar parody

[dstofka]

Just completed a LONG (8+ minutes!) project for an architecture/engineering company who's client of mine for their annual animated Christmas card to their employees and customers. Every year they cast their company leaders in a different story, and this year it was a certain story about toys.... Although the faces and names won't be familiar, I hope you enjoy the animation. (And please feel free to share critiques positive and negative!) I had so much fun working on this, particularly with a great voice cast!


I've using Moho to animate these parodies for six years now (having become a convert from Flash), and the biggest challenge every year is always dealing with the scope of the project. I need to incorporate over 30 people into a story with multiple sets, camera angles, etc., so I have to spread my attention wide and a little thin. But this year though was unquestionably the most efficient production for me. Lots of Moho's features "clicked" for me for the first time this year. But I also credit the new version 14 which came out just in time for this ... I LOVE the real-time effects previews (allowed me to experiment and add shading like never before) and I experienced FAR fewer crashes this year than in the past!

Thanks to the makers of Moho for an amazingly powerful product and to many of you in the Moho community whose tips and scripts and posts I have been drawing from over the years!

P.S.: Some quick technical notes .... the very first logo shot was done in Blender, but everything else was animated in Moho. Backgrounds and character designs were created in Photoshop (most of the characters were redrawn in Moho as vectors rather than bitmaps with meshes). Sound editing: Audacity, video editing: After Effects.

[mmmaarten]

Wow, that's awesome! Looks great, nice story and voice acting (that voice of Woody sounds pretty close to Tom Hanks btw) and even the music and singing all sounds custom made. Did you all do this by yourself?
This must've taken a lot of thoughts and time to create. Especially having a client involved. I'm very surprised there's an architects company with such a high budget for such big projects.
Very well done! Loved watching this.

[dstofka]

Thank you! I did the all of the animation as well as asset creation and sound editing. I had my daughter do most of the lipsync work using Papagayo. I actually started working with the client back in June, so yes it did take awhile!

[3deeguy]

Thank you! I did the all of the animation as well as asset creation and sound editing. I had my daughter do most of the lipsync work using Papagayo. I actually started working with the client back in June, so yes it did take awhile!

Wow! Beautiful work.
Did you write the story? Your project looks like a feature film so when I saw the credits I automatically assumed they were part of your company. I can't imagine the amount of work it must have taken to get to the point where your client approved the storyboard.
I don't know much about the business of animation. For me it's just a hobby that I really love.

[slowtiger]

This is amazing on every level. I wish more shorts I've seen in festivals would've been made with this amount of work and dedication.

[mmmaarten]

Thank you! I did the all of the animation as well as asset creation and sound editing. I had my daughter do most of the lipsync work using Papagayo. I actually started working with the client back in June, so yes it did take awhile!

Thanks for the info and nice to see you do all this yourself. Keep up the great work!

[SimplSam]

Hehe. I am guessing you also did The Simpsons one. I think that is hilarious (and very well done):

[mmmaarten]

Hehe. I am guessing you also did The Simpsons one. I think that is hilarious (and very well done):

I agree. Nice story and jokes, looks great and also the music and sound design is completely on point (love that Simpsons alike music there, that sounds super awesome). Could've been one created by the original studio. So much talent around!

[Little Yamori]

Ok....you are a genius!!!

Bravo Bravo Bravo!!!

[justoshow]

Man this was really good. I loved it. I'm sure the company employees will be thrilled.

[mattjordan]

That was genuinely entertaining, even without getting the inside jokes. Well done!

[Víctor Paredes]

Fantastic!

[pihms]

Great Work! Humorous, great camera work, and writing.