So for this project the main objective was to teach us how to work creatively as a team by simulating working on a production for a client. I was part of the 2D team and our client was Niall. The brief we were given was to create our own show for Cartoon Network following the theme of either “Stay safe online” or “Don’t Judge a book by it’s cover” and animate a short 30-40 scene that showcased the main theme and points of the show.

I’ve a load of experience of this process and the pipeline from my undergraduate and working in the industry so it wasn’t too hard to know what path to take. We started by coming together as a group and throwing up as many ideas as possible up on a whiteboard. We briefly dabbled with ideas about “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” like a man biting a dog or a rabbit eating a fox but we quickly started to congregate around the “Stay safe online” theme.

Photo by Anni.

We took the idea to Niall how seemed pretty happy with what we had done so far. He had some really good pointers to pay attention to and had questions to help us refine the idea further.

With Nialls feedback we returned to the whiteboard and refined the idea further while focusing on tone, world and hook.

We came round to the idea of kids fighting computer viruses inside a computer and from there we started to build an action comedy about a trio of kids getting trapped in the digital world and adventuring across a digital landscape fighting a rogue AI and an evil kid. Our three kids (aged 6 to 12) filled the tropes of the leader, the muscle and brains.

With the general idea under our belt we split up to concept some designs and write up the script.

Early in the brainstorm we had discussed becoming their avatars when they entered the digital world and gaining super powers. Gabe drew a sketch of a kid in a horse costume on a post-it and we all agreed the idea was adorable so I decided to work it up further, I quickly realised it was gonna have design limitations and started exploring other options. I had a look at some shows that were already on Cartoon Network and tried to replicate their styles in my own designs. One thing I knew Cartoon Network did was design their characters with simple shapes so that kids could draw them. I had a look at Adventure Time, Craig of the Creek, Steven Universe and OK KO!.

When we took the idea to Niall he seemed pleased with what we were doing and didn’t have too many changes beyond getting us to figure out the exact tone of the show. This lead to another brainstorm where we refined our ideas further and explored more of the world’s mechanics and characters. For the animation we felt it would be best to have a short scene almost like a teaser that showcased the main characters, scenario and theme of the show. This consisted of our two older main characters, gamer boy and sporty girl entering a new digital hub looking for gamer boys little sister and finding her in a confrontation with the bad kid and a fight between the three ensues. Simple and punchy. We continued concepting the characters. I envisioned each main character designed around the basic design shape principles. Such as triangle for the gamer boy, representing speed. Square for the sporty girl to represent strength and circle for the little sister to represent youth and innocence.

I was struggling a good bit with the earlier character designs so started focusing on the sporty girl more since I had a clearer idea of where I wanted to take her design. I started looking at female roller derby, Steven Universe and Scott Pilgrim for inspiration. I know I wanted her to be thickly set and look like she could shoulder a door open. Nothing peeves me more than when I see a female action hero that’s a stick. We need more buff female heroes.

Matt had also done some really sweet designs and we all agreed to try and steer the style a little into his.

Above designs by Matt.

I steered into a lot of the shape designs from Steven Universe, thick set women with long flowing hair. They all a slight 80’s action hero vibe to them so I started steering closer to the sporty girl vibe. I really liked 6 but continued with another few designs before moving onto the villain since I felt more comfortable with that design. (I’m awful at designing females).

Villains were easier for me, sharper shapes and harsher proportions. At this stage I was quite sure if the villain would look more like someone in a suit or be a completely in-humanly shaped avatar. My references came from a collection of Teen Titans, Samurai Jack, Shaolin Showdown, and Digimon.

With the initial concepts done we decided to start specialising roles. Anni wrote up a role list based on what people were interested in and what we’d previously been doing. I think with more experience I was somehow chosen as the creative director but in terms of practically I worked on character designs, backgrounds and animation. We decided after seeing a combo of Matt, Toms and my own designs that Matt should design Zack (gamer boy) and Riley (sporty girl), while Tom designed the little sister (Lyra) and I took the villain Darkstar. We all agreed 1 was the strongest design so I continued to work that design further.

I was already sure of the body shape but didn’t quite have an idea yet of how to do her helmet. Eventually we settled on 8. From there I made an “expression sheet” and worked out a turnaround.

With our character designs done the next stage for me was backgrounds, I’d worked in the industry as a background artist so I knew what I was doing here, and external jungle shots are the easiest backgrounds. Matt and Eoin had worked on storyboards so we took the scenes they did and used them as the bases for the layouts of our backgrounds. The backgrounds were split between myself and Shane. I made a google sheet for us to keep track of the BGs, who was  assigned what, timestamps/reference shots, if they were reused and if they had animation in them. I also created a colour code to tell us which backgrounds need to be started, in progress, pending review, layout approved and final lines. I based the structure on a background tracker I’d used while at Studio Meala. Link to sheet.

Shane and me had a discord call and we discussed what background style we wanted to go with. We had found a show called Craig of the Creek that had lots of forest shots that we liked. I also looked at Bgs from the Jungle Book and the Hey Arnold! movie of all places, plus real life ref to give me an idea of what type of foliage we’d need.

With the shots split up between us I got stuck in. I gave Shane a film guard I’d used from an Adult Swim show I worked on so we made sure to keep everything with the correct frame. I also took the more technical shots like the background pan, since I’d had more experience. I suggested early into the production that we wouldn’t do colour for anything unless we felt we had additional time at the end, since colour was so time consuming and wasn’t marked.

Worms eye view BG was pretty difficult to work out, especially since I need the top of the canopy to match up the tree trunks. Trees only grow where there’s light so no tree could be under the shade of the other. I worked out the canopy by taking a suggestion from Kirstie, start with the shadows and work backwards. It was a huge help and I was really happy with how it turned out, although we ultimately ended up cutting that shot after feedback from Niall concerning the staging. I was pleased with the backgrounds I made and felt I was able to put my own spin on the designs with the details. We had a few BGs that were animated but I was going to handle that at the animating stage.