They Might Be Giants

S'up guys. I was just forwarded some music videos by a band called 'They Might be Giants', who've done some stuff for kids that's just brilliant. It doesn't treat kids like drooling idiots, which I like.

I No Longer Have a Beard!

Oh, and here's a little animation I did before joining the course. Back when I had Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. I miss Adobe Preimere Pro. ;~;



Oh and while I'm sharing old things.

Maya Fun

I've been having a bit of a play with Maya. =3

Brakk, the blue guy in the middle, was created from scratch by  myself and rigged using a script by Anthony J Smith. 

Richie on the far right is a modified rig. The original is called 'Andy Rig' and was created by John Doublestein.


Also, UFO.

Aesop's Tales by Hooplakidz

Whilst looking for cut-out animations for kids and trying to get more in touch with the preschool age for my pivoted preschooler animation., I came across this animation by Hooplakidz.




So apparently, its important to teach kids to be suspicious of their sick, dying elders.
Thanks, TV! Another great life lesson taught expertly.

Pivot Pitch

Blockades on the way home

One of my first ideas for the 2D pivoted animation was inspired by a series called 'Through the Dragon's Eye'.
Three young children stumble upon a world where fantasy rules and reality isn't what it seems. They're trapped there and their only way back is by solving riddles. The riddles would be simple and designed to teach preschoolers the properties of various objects. One riddle I thought up involved a troll blocking the path and requesting lemons in return for safe passage. Another is a keyhole that doesn't accept keys but the object riddled on the nearby sign.


The characters are designed to be simple and easy for kids to relate to.

I also sketched up some possible backgrounds to use. I thought a nice watercolour look would be appealing, made to look like something that could be found in a children's book.

Pivot Pitch 2

Some turnarounds for characters designed for the 2D Pivoted animation I'm working on. Remmo, D-Growl and Sam are three orphaned animals trying to make sense of the world. They write songs based on their discoveries. This is an idea I think I'll be holding on to. So yeah, character art!

D.Growl is a little dopey but a great guitarist.

Remmo is suave, cool and a master at the drums.

Sam is the latest edition to the team and
enjoys dancing and providing vocals.

I've also had some vague ideas for songs that the characters could perform, as seen in the concept art and a vague storyboard.

Concept art

A Storyboarded Rhyme

One of my younger friends, aged fifteen, enjoyed the rhyme about meeting the queen (to the right) but another friend (nineteen) found it to be unwitty and ultimately dire. I have to wonder how a member of the key demographic would react. Alas, my collection of child slaves were released by the oppressive EU government last week.




The same nineteen-year-old friend improvised a skit based on the characters, which I found entertaining but ultimately unsuitable due to its heavy political agenda. That can be heard here.

Idea Dump

Just dumping some ideas for my 2D cut-out animation for kids thing...

Educational musical and comedic pieces. inspiration; animaniacs, seaseme street

Whaling with Akimotoshiwa-kun - Children help Akimotoshiwa-kun harpoon the appropriately coloured and numbered whales for fun

Identifying shapes and colours - a simple game, Dora the Explorer style

Young friends/siblings go off on an adventure in a world where literacy is the key to everything - with riddles, puns and puzzles that the viewers can try to solve. Inspiration; through the dragon's eye

Hide and Seek With Uncle Frank - Uncle Frank hides in various places and the viewers get clues as to where. Helps with item identification and literacy. 

Shapes with Pythagoras  - Pythagoras shows us how many different triangles there are.

Pose References

I happened across a great resource for pose references. It shows the muscles under the skin and stuff so it looks really useful. I'll share it now before ACTA passes and I become eligble for arrest for conspiracy to commit piracy or some such bullshit. ----> Pose Maniacs

Maya Rig Exercises

The rig was created for us and we had to make it do jumping jacks and an "arm flop."




Its harder than it looks.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That

From Treehouse Entertrainment and Random House Publishing, its the Cat in the Hat! 

As I've outlined in a previous post, we've been looking at the children's stories and illustrations of Dr.Seuss and the animations that draw from them.  

'Fox in Socks', Dr.Seuss

Dr.Seuss' illustrative style is very interesting. He adapts common shapes that children would likely recognise, and makes them into stylized characters. For example, The Cat in the Hat as seen above is essentially a long-neck bottle (like a champagne bottle) with limbs and a head. Similarly, the Fox in Socks consists of two bean-shapes, a circle and some triangles. These very simple designs make for recognisable characters that children (and myself x3) can appreciate. 

I find it important to note that while the characters are simple, Seuss has not exchanged style for simplicity. Indeed, the characters are distinctly stylised and its easy to distinguish a Seussian fox from Chaffinian fox, a Seussian elephant from Dumbo and a Seussian Who from a Doctor Who. I think it's because of this that cartoons featuring Dr. Seuss' characters emulate his style. It's part of the character's recognisability.

In the cartoon features 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' (1966) and 'Horton Hears a Who' (1970), directors and designers (notably Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble) worked with Theodore 'Seuss' Geist to keep the stylisation in tact, as you can see in these screengrabs. 

You may notice that even in animated form, these characters retain their simplistic shapes. The Grinch has a rounded-off rectangle shape, while Jane Kangaroo has a body like a water balloon. 

The animated versions of Dr.Seuss' characters seem to have richer, more saturated colours, too. This would make them more appealing to children, as bright colours are eye-catching and attention-grabbing. A prime example of this is 'The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That'.