Wednesday, June 21, 2006

My Dumb Doug...

Here's the bottom half of the back of the one sheet. I'm not usually one to hide my ideas but someone was talking reverse engineering the other day and it freaked me out.
Besides, it's not the ideas but the execution that counts...right?

If you're a follower of this blog you'll remember and be able to pick out all the little ideas, influences and characters that eventually became this one sheet.
I've seen ideas similar to this before but Neptoon's added an interesting twist that makes it unique and fun.

Get Yer Pyjamazon...

The big wigs felt the show was a bit preschool - not sure how they would get that impression with ep titles like...
Courtesy Flush
Buffy the Washboard Player
Little Shop of Drawers
Dial "M" for Monotonousnessisity
Mr. Right Foot
But then again, they also said they didn't like the font we used in our bible. Wicked.
This was our original Preston Pyjamabag. After asking for Sponge Bob, Nick thought it looked too Sponge Bob - hmmm. I think if you cut open Sponge Bob PeeWee Herman would fly out anyway - what's original anymore?
This was Preston after the "nick" incident.
Older versions of the characters were fun but not as Flash friendly as we needed them to be and we've since redesigned them - see below post.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Pyjamazon Anim Test...


While I was diggin around for old Pyjamazon files I came across some test animation I did. It's nothing spectacular - just something thrown together.
I love to do this after I've designed a cast of characters - and it's a great exercise. It's fun, quick, cheap and you'll learn tons about the limitation of your characters.
I usually grab some BG off the web (this one originally had baloo and mowgli in the middle of it - gotta love PS) then I find some old audio clips that match the characters (in this case Alf and Buzz Lightyear). Some fun music or sound FX then I throw some simple animation on top of it all.
I find it super gratifying to see my characters come to life.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Pyjamazon...

Some people had asked who these characters were when I had shown them on some pins in an earlier post. They are from an old pitch called "PYJAMAZON" created by my partner (business) Mark Thornton and designed by yours truly.
It was one of our first combined efforts back in the day when everyone was looking for the next Sponge Bob. Guess they still are???

Thursday, June 08, 2006

The Rejection Letter...


On the left - a letter we received today. On the right - the response we'd love to send back.
WOW! We sent that pitch out FOUR years ago - now that's some serious red tape folks. Oh well, maybe it took them that long to come up with a nice way to tell us our idea stank.

I kid of course. We're always in the business of accepting your rejection letters - so send away.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Neptoon's Habbo Short Clip...

~CLICK~
Here's a clip from the Habbo animated short Neptoon Studios did with Elliott Animation Inc. Sorry for the pixelation - i'll try to throw up a better quality clip later.
This is another one of those projects done after hours and on weekends so thanks to all the super talented folks that helped out and pulled some late nights to help us meet our deadline;)
Rumor has it that the folks at Sulake plan to have the DVD out this summer.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Neptoon Habbosode Stills...







The pic below is from our original test - The characters in the actual short above had colors similar to those the Habbo community would be more familiar with.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Neptoon Does Habbo...


At long last - we've finally been given the okay to put up a clip from our Habbo short.
As reported by Cold Hard Flash way way back in April 2005, various studios from around the world have been invited to create a series of 15 three-minute 'Habbosodes.' The effort is headed up by Sulake, the company behind Habbo Hotel, a massive virtual environment with over 3.6 million users. The 'Habbosodes' project will resolve with the release of a compilation DVD, that will eventually spawn a TV series.
Here's a still till we get a chance to throw a clip together.