LOST & 24

[funksmaname]

Hey,
Well, its been nearly 6 months since i made these for a large well known network who wanted to develop a pilot for a new tv series... I don't believe its happening anymore - so i may as well share them with you guys and get some feedback

Everything was drawn directly in AS, i really liked the clean look it gave me trying to keep things simple for animation. I worked directly in AS, with a photo reference on my other monitor... just sort of 'went for it' and then spent days tweaking points... maybe not the most efficient workflow, but it got me there in the end.

Jack (lost) mouth was using switch layers i think, but then for Jack Bauer i developed a mouth rig which i animated with actions.

LOST characters:






Also, there is an animation test of Jack here: http://www.vimeo.com/436916


Also, 24's Jack Bauer:



2 Animation tests here: http://www.vimeo.com/436923
and here: http://www.vimeo.com/436922

Hope you like em.

[slowtiger]

Watching these was a very interesting experience ...

Technically speaking, they're perfect. Nice style, recognisable characters, smooth and flawless animation. And yet I didn't feel like wanting to watch a whole episode of this, so I asked myself, why not?

On one hand a series in that style would be a typical product of our time: "Let's milk our property in every possible way", the execs say, and so there is a plethora of "XYZ - the animated series" clogging up the channels. Not that I ever would refuse a job to do something like that, if I get the chance, mind you! There's bills to be payed.

On the other hand I have that distinct feeling that animation in that style doesn't really add anything to the life action version, so why should it be done? Why do execs still want such things? Is it because they pay less for voice talent than for the whole actors?

I was never a friend of that certain subspecies of saturday morning cartoons which consisted only of talking heads - it just wasn't my taste. Generally I prefer animation which does things which only can be done in animation. This does not only mean wild surreal action like in Looney Toons. This as well means different ways to tell stories, abstraction from the real world, strong graphic qualities and so on. (Coffee hasn't kicked in yet. Can't really write what I mean, sorry.)

So what do I miss in a concept where the characters are based on real actors, where the proportions are nearly human, the faces are quite faithful to the originals?

Maybe I just miss caricature and exaggeration. I don't know wether this would work with a concept like Lost or 24, because both series come across so damn serious. Something like the A-Team would be easy to be done in animation (I found no mention that this already happened) because it already was done tongue-in-cheek. (I wasn't much interested in Lost or 24 in their live-action incarnation, too.) As a parody, I think it could work very well.

[funksmaname]

Hey,
well, the animation tests were purely for facial animation purposes... the bodies were'nt rigged, but would be eventually - the style i wanted to go for was very animated acting in face and body.
The sound files i used were just ones i found online to try and make the characters look like in motion...

I have to tread carefully if i speak about the project itself, but lets just say that a 'straight' 'XXXXX - the animated series' wasn't/isnt the intention - the genre would very much be comedy/parody - which is why it was important to make the characters instantly recognisable, without being too charicatured or grotesque (that was the brief infact).

Please judge the executions on their own merit, without a project in mind, and not taking the animation tests as anything other than just that - a test completely unrelated to the project itself.

[mkelley]

Funk,

I instantly saw the "parody/comedy" thing going on here -- it was *very* apparent from the way you draw the characters. And the character drawing was absolutely perfect -- very mindblowing.

I understand what slowtiger was getting at, but I don't think that has anything to do with your work. I hope you take this the right way, but I'm copying the images to my drive because I think there are many things I can learn about drawing in AS just from looking at them. You've already given me a dozen or so ideas for my own characters (which aren't based on anyone famous).

The other thing that really impresses me is your ability to caricature -- what an amazing talent this is, always -- I never quite know where to start.

Anyway, stunning and thanks for sharing!

[mkelley]

Ah, now just saw the animations -- and I'm amazed slowtiger didn't "get" the comedy.

Even on using the stock voices I was ROTFLMAO -- the "Lost" clip of Jack as his eyes were rolling back and forth and the camera zoomed in... really priceless.

And Jack's mile a minute mouth going on "24" -- while I love both of these shows there is no doubt the comedy element is really apparent when they are cartoonized. Once again, bravo!

(And I see you and I are the same age -- yipes, now I *really* feel I've wasted my life. If you were younger I could think "Just some young punk with talent" but now I'm thinking I should have been studying drawing and animation about 30 years ago).

[slowtiger]

As I already said, it is a perfect piece of work. It's just that personally I wasn't sure where to put it. If I don't "get" it, then it proves that it probably would not work out of context - like for one like me who isn't that familiar with the characters from Lost and 24 (but both are available in german TV right now).

But OK, some people think I'm humour-impaired just because for me it's not enough to have two guys wearing sunglasses - that's just not funny. Blues Brothers was nearly completely lost on me.

[funksmaname]

Slowtiger - i know where you're coming from, these weren't really intended to be 'got' other than the characterisation, if you are familiar with the shows

(And I see you and I are the same age -- yipes, now I *really* feel I've wasted my life. If you were younger I could think "Just some young punk with talent" but now I'm thinking I should have been studying drawing and animation about 30 years ago).

mkelley, how old are you? i dunno where you got my age from but I was -2 years old 30 years ago! lol i like the sound of 'young punk' better hehe.

either way, i'm a hobbiest really, ive never studied drawing or animation (everything i do is new to me) - although ive been 'cartooning' (myself, and friends) for a long time, and i guess thats where some of the charicaturing ability comes from, but honestly - it was more a matter of getting base shapes together and then doing point manipulation till a charicature was achieved... Its a way of getting down what is in my mind without relying too much on my drawing skills per-se. I would say that in doing these observational skills - looking, identifying and filtering elements which are what makes a person recognisable, were more important/useful than actual drawing skills. the hard part is filtering it down to as few bold lines as possible - which i think i achieved with the LOST characters better than i did with jack bauer, who was harder to charectarise for me without getting into more details.

Anyway - thanks for looking

[mkelley]

Slowtiger -- being based in Germany is going to give you a different perspective anyway (what is it they say about German's sense of humor? It's telling that they have a word for enjoying the misery of others -- nothing like *that* in any other language :>)

Trust me -- these are *very* funny (and so was the Blues Brothers, but that's a whole different story).

And funk -- I made a mistake, I looked at one of your "contacts" who was the same age as I am. Knowing you are much younger makes me feel better, actually. Hard to explain.

I totally understand your remark about "observation" -- in truth, that's all a good artist needs to do, but most folks (myself included) don't have that kind of skill. Drawing on the Right Side shows this when they have you draw your hand by only looking at line segments -- suddenly everyone's a great artist! It's because we are observing, instead of trying to "think" about things.

And I think you did a great job with Jack Bauer -- actually, as usual, the only real hard caricature problem comes with Kate (females are hard to do in that style because it tends to eliminate their prettiness, so it's a fine line between the comic and the ugly. Unless the woman is way over the top, like Lucy Ball, or Bette Midler, it's very difficult for even the best cariacturist to get it right). But you have her well enough that in the context of the show it would have worked.

I'm not surprised the network changed their minds about this, though -- what surprises me if they even considered this in the first place (they usually don't like anything that makes "fun" of their "serious" work).

[slowtiger]

what is it they say about German's sense of humor?

To put things in perspective: Blues Brothers is highly popular in Germany. It just doesn't work for me.

[DarthFurby]

Funk, when I was growing up I used to completely ape the caricature king, Mort Drucker, and even today I am still partial to caricature artists. It definitely has a big impact on the way I develop stuff, although I have a harder time coming up with more abstract designs like the old UPA artists. But even so, I love these designs, and I think it just goes to show that caricature art is the key to great looking characters.

[funksmaname]

Thanks DF

[Freakish Kid]

Hey,
Well, its been nearly 6 months since i made these for a large well known network who wanted to develop a pilot for a new tv series... I don't believe its happening anymore - so i may as well share them with you guys and get some feedback :)

Hi,

We also have done a test for this show. Like your style. Please PM me your contact details, we may be able to do something in future, if you know what I mean.. wink... wink...

GK