Yaki and Yumi

An animatic for those who do not know, is basically a filmed storyboard with voices, and temporary sound effects, to give the crew, and the animators an idea of how scenes are working, before animating it.
In this scene, Yaki has been complaining about being hungry and wanting to eat, but having no food or money…Yumi meanwhile has been eating everything in sight, Yaki dramatically begs Yumi to help him! Everyone remember those fortune teller fish that used to come inside a box of Cracker Jacks??? I used to love those…I still consult mine for all of life’s important decisions..

What have I been doing while Paul is coloring away you ask??? Well..I have been working away at character expression sheets for our loveable friends (as well as drawing backsides of the characters that have been designed..yes…even cartoon characters have backsides!)
Anyhoo…..Heeeerrre’s YAKI!

NERDS NERDS NERDS NERDS NERDS!!!!!
Here are the wonderful doofi who interrupt Yaki when he is about to FINALLY get to eat. Paul worked his magic on my designs and took them a step furthur into MEGANERDOM!! The characters are voiced by me, so I thought it would be fun to post a soundclip along with these designs (thank you Kyle for your help)
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!

Here is part of the “Yaki and Yumi” character line up..this will be an ongoing process, as there are a LOT of incidentals in our episode, but I hope you enjoy these for now…
I will post sound soon I promise..there was some trouble with it, but I hear they’ve got it working again..

So here is a line up of the colored characters so far…We deepened Yumi’s main pinkish color and added some lavendar, and I think she looks grrrrreeeeat!! The kid on the left is an example of the look Paul has created for the incidental characters…isn’t it amazing??

Also this week, Jun, my fab director, and I sat down with our wonderful sound magician, Mr. Petak, and put together the voice takes that I picked. I now have a cd of the full episode put together. I LOVE listening to it! It just cracks me up..I will post some stuff for you all to listen to soon

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the final verdict on the Yumi’s hand style was a cross between the graphic one, with a little spongy-ness from the other hand.

Join me in a group drool over Paul’s latest coloring extravaganza! Yumi looks great!! And she is a perfect contrast to Yaki, don’t’cha think? We have to play around with the hands and decide on whether to keep them spongy like her left hand, or more graphic like her right hand, or something inbetween. We are also still playing around with the colors on her belly, and are contemplating something in the purple family, but for now…ENJOY!

I thought it would be fun to see how Paul colored the drawing I did a couple posts below this, it looks SOO COOL!!

In other news…we recorded today! Andre and Candi were absolutely hilarious, and just perfect as the voices of Yaki and Yumi. I also jumped in the booth to do some voices, while Jun directed me. Here is a picture of Andre, Jun, me and Candi. We had such a blast…thanks to everyone for making today amazing!

Behold!!!! Taste Paul’s amazing color/design work he did of Yaki! It looks so cool!!! This is a work in progress, but I am completely amazed and excited about it!! ENJOY!! Thank you Paul!

It has been an exciting week! On Friday, we had audition callbacks for Yaki and Yumi…we had so much amazing talent read for the parts..it was quite an honor (I laughed all day!) Monday I made my final decision. I chose Andre Sogliuzzo for Yaki (who’s credits include “Madagascar”, “The Polar Express”, “Shark Tale”, “Shrek 2″, and “Star Wars- Clone Wars”) and Candi Milo for Yumi (who’s credits include “Dexter’s Laboratory”, “The Life and Times of Juniper Lee”, “Mucha Lucha”, “Jimmy Newtron”, “The Fosters”, “The Power Puff Girls”, “Chalk Zone”, and “My Life as a Teenage Robot”). Tomorrow is our recording session…I am sooo excited! It is such an amazing experience to hear you characters come to life! OH…and in case you were wondering..I will be doing the voices for some characters as well…namely the Doofus kid, the Sweet Little Girl, and the Amazing Enlightened Fortune Fish! As far as [Read more…]

I have been working on character turnarounds while waiting to get my network notes on my storyboard. I had a hard time getting Yumi to where I was really happy with her. So I pulled my fellow creator aside, Adam Henry (of “Krunch and The Kid”) and asked him to lend me a fresh eye (or two). He suggested lengthening the neck some, and we sat and drew on post-it notes playing with design ideas. One of the best things about working with many creative people is sharing ideas and being open to suggestions. I cut up the original drawings and threw some post-it notes on top and had some fun implementing the ideas we came up with. I am really happy with the result! Thanks Adam!