2nd Deals
July 31st, 2007
On pg.5 Sam reviews his favorite stumps.
This probably does it for the clips. If I post anything further I will basically have shown the whole cartoon. Also, the well of content has been plumbed nearly dry by now.
Samsquatch
The Dissipating Milk Trick
June 25th, 2007
With apologies to Xavier Robel
The screening at Nickelodeon went pretty well. Thanks to all the crew who attended. That was the first time I had watched the cartoon with a sizable audience and it brought to light a major miscalculation on my part. See, I thought that Sam was a funny character. That’s what I hoped, at least. But it turns out his humor is overruled by his adorableness. Expected laughs were supplanted by awwws. Which is not a complaint, but it really did take me aback.
Also, for good measure, here are some color progressions for a few of the characters. My coloring book versions are on the left. The intermediary and final versions were done by Saelee. Perhaps you will find the differences illuminating. Perhaps not.
Karl:
[Read more…]
Wide Eyed
May 22nd, 2007
Sketch by Nicole Mitchell
His slimming secrets revealed. Someone, somewhere, has been remiss. So here’s a parade of images without context offered in atonement. Mostly, I just wanted to showcase more of the sterling BG designs (these JPEGs don’t do them justice) of Seonna Hong and Edward Juan. They’re nicely complemented by Saelee’s colors, too. Thanks for stopping by.
[Read more…]
Luis Nariño or The Old Settler’s Song
February 18th, 2007
This is Luis Narino, the composer for “Samsquatch”. My ideas were at their wobbliest when it came to the music for the short. Thankfully, the score he delivered is totally sweet. Below are a few samples he worked up initially. I liked this first one so much that it became the title theme:
It’s never explicitly stated that the story takes place in the Great Pacific Northwest. But it probably does. Despite the title music’s Southern twang we wanted to have some musical cues that would evoke the region. Sea chanteys and logging camp songs, maybe? Thanks to a zealous music teacher in grade school, when I think of Northwest music I invariably think about the tune “Acres of Clams”. Not the Pete Seeger version.
Free of that impediment, Luis came up with this sample which ended up being Sam’s theme:
Off-the-Pegs
December 12th, 2006
Hey. Pencil tests. A round of tests arrived from Wang Film Productions late last week. We requested those scenes which might have posed problems for the animators so we could get a leg up on fixes and retakes. Since the rest of the show is due to arrive tomorrow, though, that plan has lost most of its advantage.
This short will be a talkie (and probably far too talky, at that) but these pencil tests have no audio. No text or context this time around. Instead, imagine the sounds of dueling bon mots, fierce oaths, and solemn gurgling.
CLICK BELOW for ANIMATION:
Back in March, I was having a tough time finding a character design for Conrad that didn’t make my face hurt. Cute woodland creatures are very forgiving subjects but funny humans? The drawings just wouldn’t click. Bland, awful stuff. It wasn’t until I stumbled onto a MySpace profile, of all cockamamie [Read more…]
Bona Fide or Brummagem
October 27th, 2006
Plush by Nicole Mitchell
Painting and design by Edward Juan
Ladies and gentlemen, two pieces of printed ephemera for your ocular ingestion. One of them is a promotional postcard for “Samsquatch” while the other is a prop appearing in that self-same fiction. Special thanks to Ed and Nicole for lending their expertise on the postcard, both digital and textile, on short notice. I contributed just a few messy sketches but they both did a bang-up job executing the final version . . . that I promptly stamped my name on, Chihuly-like. Ed, incidentally, was recently interviewed on the Character Design blog:
Read it here.
Finally, the McGuffin that kicks off the cartoon.
[Read more…]
Perez and the Jaws of Yarwen
October 21st, 2006
Layout by Chad Coyle
Color by Saelee Oh
It’s too bad that this story happened too recently to incorporate into the warp and woof of “Samsquatch”. I’m sure there could have been a scene of Sam being handcuffed to a rollbar in New Jersey. Y’know, like a cryptid Midnight Run . . . if Charles Grodin had been a Chupacabra.
Well, time marches inexorably onwards as we wait to get the pencil tests back. Pins and needles, friends. Here’s another rough walk cycle that was sent along as reference for the animators:
Obeisance to the Honeyed Ape
September 22nd, 2006
Cranekicksquatch by Jesus Chambrot
No one I know makes drawings that wed the cute and the gruesome as readily as Jesus. By readily I mean compulsively. His other sketch of Sam was at least as creepily endearing.
Here’s one of the animation tests I promised Neil I’d post . . . months ago. This is the second version. On my first attempt I limited the swing of his arms so they’d dangle at his sides, just like the reported Realsquatch. I thought it mostly worked so I vetted it past the Larrys, both Huber and Leichliter. They weren’t as sold on it. So I took another pass:
CLICK HERE for HOT LOPING ACTION
(Edit- Sorry, I posted the wrong test earlier.) The first version looks like a Jumping Jack in comparison. I worried that he’d look too forceful with this stride but, since he’s walking on 16’s, his arms keep the unhurried swing I thought [Read more…]
