. . . Updates of one of the characters we're developing for the BetterKidsTV project.
Though we're still in the script development stage, we're close enough to start finalizing the designs on most of our characters, so these assets are not only designed, but prepped for animation!
She's a cute kid, and I think she'll be a fun character once voiced and animated.
. . . Flinch Studio just finished remastering the Stainboy series we created for Tim Burton back in 2000 and 2001 for a Museum of Modern Art exhibit honoring the director's work.
Because this series was created entirely with Flash vector art, it is Resolution Independent, so none of the design assets had to be recreated at higher resolutions... but we faced huge challenges and spent a great deal of time converting the compositions from their original 4:3 screen ratio to 16:9 for HD.
Episode 1
The first challenge was updating these assets to the latest versions of Flash. For some reason, many of these old Flash 3 & 4 files were opening up and we simply weren't seeing the animation as we created it... heads, eyes and arms were just not there anymore. The original SWFs we output in 2001 still look okay, but the newly-reopened FLAs and their subsequent outputs were a monstrosity. This strange compatibility contradiction occurred somewhere between Flash 4 and 7... so we've been looking at it and scratching our heads for years.
Episode 2
To fix the issue, we would have to drill down into every single problem symbol to simply reveal each element - pupils, fingers, etc... and then it would show up on the stage, like "look Flash! See? there it is"... "oh yes, thanks, I got it." This was the case for dozens of deeply nested symbols in each file.
So you save as a new file... but the next time you open it - poof! All the changes were gone! So it was fix fix fix, output, pray. We had to figure out how to make our fixes more permanent for these files, so we could make changes after post if necessary.
Part of the problem may have been the odd way we chose to execute the animation. Because of limited bandwidth back in "those days" our file sizes had to be ridiculously small - we're talking under 1MB or no approvals from Shockwave, who hosted the movies. So every 40 or 50 K we could shave off mattered... hence, we kicked into R&D mode.
Episode 3
We did a fair amount of R&D in 2000 while working with Shockwave on this gig, including finding a practical way to portray Burton's watercolor stain FX with vectors. Shockwave had a team of coders working on it (this was a very prestigious project for them), and we figured out a solution in 2 days using the tools at hand.
We also discovered that executing the animation segments as movie clips and controlling their frame designations with commands would save us hundreds of KB (rather than using animated graphics clips), so entire files were rebuilt that way like some kind of animation/code hybrid. We were outputting SWFs, so the final product looked fine... but trying to decipher the animation in the FLA (or any non SWF output) was pointless. So for this project, we had to reconvert the movies entirely back to a linear playback so they would output into post-production-friendly frame sequences correctly.
Episode 4
And of course, there were the stains. All of the animated stains were created using multi-layered shape tweens of raw gradients of varying transparencies. They worked fine when we originally created them, but... well, shape tweens are finicky enough, but 8-year old shape tweens from 5 releases ago are nothing short of a nightmare. Much time went into repairing the tweens and making those stains work again. Permanently!
Episode 5
Finally, there was the challenge of Post Production, including our first foray into Blu Ray DVD production & authoring. After much learning & testing (our biggest problem turned out to be audio synch), we had a product that looked and sounded amazing on a Blu Ray / HD screen setup. It even looks pretty good on YouTube!
Episode 6
It was kind of amazing seeing Stainboy at this size, this resolution.... like we've never seen it before. It's not often I get the chance to be thankful I chose Flash as my medium of choice - this was definitely one of those times!
I hope you enjoy these shorts equal to or greater than the amount of hair we pulled out bringing them to HD!
. . . This one bubbled to the surface many years back. Still tickles me a little bit. Sorry for the roughshod appearance - these are the raw squeezins, right out of the coconut.
Copyright 2000 Tony Grillo
Puppy Boy. Like so many superheroes before him, born of a radioactive bite. Hey, it was either that or being fused in some kind of transporter. It's really just an excuse to show dogs doing funny things... and introduce the world to this talented canine cast:
Copyright 2000 Tony Grillo
I don't know if we'd ever see any actual action... when this was conceived, it was more about the silly, mundane day-to-day life of a hero - in this case, among a city of dogs who attempt to deny their base, doggish desires - like rolling-off in the grass and butt-sniffing on a first date.
Nowadays, Adult Swim shows like like the Venture Brothers, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Family Guy cover this subject matter pretty completely. Still, I hope we get to churn out some dopey laughs with this one sometime.
. . . As we wrap up on the Inspector McCloud project, we're putting together a new project for Better kids TV. It's a series of videos designed to educate kids about finance in an entertaining way. The project is pretty involved, incorporating multiple media and new technologies to present a combination of animation and live action.
Here's a peek at the main characters from story that weaves through the lessons and interviews.
I'd love to tell you more about the project, but it's still early in the process, and we can't share too much info. As Willie is busy cranking out some more looks for the project, we're digging into our live-action production roots to "cast" some of the live action roles. More to come...
. . . I'd like to present a new song, produced by myself and Will Jenkins, the composer for Inspector McCloud's Stormwater Adventures.
This little ditty, called "The Republic of the Rio Grande", was inspired by the history behind the Texas/Mexico border towns, the culture that links all of these regions, and the need to unite in the protection of their most important natural resource.
This version of the song, which will play during the closing credits for Inspector McCloud's Stormwater Adventures, features samples from the show, and is voiced by Stephen Grillo as the character of the Narrator. There were incredible contributions from several other musicians as well, all of whom will be credited in the final piece.
The original Republic of the Rio Grande was an actual nation located in a disputed zone between Mexico and texas back in 1839. The country lasted less than 200 days, and was governed from Laredo.
. . . Here's a little bitty taste of the score we are producing for Inspector McCloud. This piece will open the show.
Flinch music is almost always a family affair - Composer Will Jenkins, my brother in law, scores more than half of our projects, and my brother Steve steps in to co-write songs for our musical shorts. Sister Barbara often provides vocals, and of course, I fill in where needed.
This time around, we were joined by my talented brother Jerry, who provided the whistling cowboy you hear in this song. I tried to pull it off, but clearly I was not the one who inherited our Father's world renown lips. When Jerry's not blowing me away (what a delicious pun!) he's a senior editor for Georgia Trend magazine and a funny playwright.
Thanks to all my musical kin and the others talented musicians who have jumped into the mix - stay tooned for more hot numbers!
. . . Meet inspector McCloud. No, I mean... Meet Inspector McCloud! He's actually out there, walking the streets of Laredo. Probably scaring the crap out of little kids!
These pix were sent to me by my friends over at the City of Laredo... they work fast. I'm not even finished with the dang cartoon, and they already have a costumed supermascot ready to thrill his future fans with tales of storm water adventure.
I don't know about you, but I was always terrified of man-sized manifestations of cute cartoon characters. Strolling the idyllic lanes of Disney World, I always made sure to circumvent the giant Mickey and his unsettling incorrect proportions.
Truth be told, it is absolutely a pleasure to see your drawings turned into living towers of felt & pleather. Just the idea that some costume designer spent hours ogling my artwork is thrilling in itself... but when you see pictures of little kids hugging them, it just plain awesome, damn it, and I don't care if I'm obviously lame and easy to please.
It's not the first time one of our creations has made the jump from 2D to a strip mall near you. You may remember Otto, our Irvine Auto Center mascot.
Clearly, not every kid shares my fear of cartoon characters come to life and towering over them. Good for you, cast of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants... good for you.
Robin Williams knows what I'm talking about...
To quote the Mork: (regarding a trip to Disneyland): "Mickey Mouse to a 3-year-old is a six-foot f***ing rat!"
