 Can the forces of old school hip hop overcome the diabolical forces of swag?
The Swaggatrons was created by Tamar "HQ the Producer" Tyler and the Etherian99, the collaborative ideation of a Hip-Hop themed animated TV show that satires music and pop culture with a colorful cast of unique and bizarre characters that teenagers and more mature audiences alike can gravitate to.
The cartoon follows the classic good vs evil story arc backed by a unique cast of quirky characters and action to match. The Swaggatrons is in the midst of assembling a Kickstarter campaign to launch in the near future, you can check for more information here. I was initially brought on to the project as a consultant, providing critiques and insight into various portions of the design process along the pre-production pipeline to. After realizing I had the opportunity to elevate the material to a higher level of quality, I pivoted into assuming the role of Art Director for the Swaggatrons. From this new position, I was able to unify a single design language and realize HQ's vision in a more consistent manner. Naturally, this makes me the entire process of conceptualizing, drafting, editing, producing, and managing the work that much more difficult as the sole artist on the project. By far the most challenging aspect of the project is maintaining motivation to see each milestone reached. Vertical Divider
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Art Director 5/2014 - Current (hiatus) Responsibilities: Character Design Environment Design Layout Design Storyboarding Editing Tools:
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Visualization
Naturally, I used pinterest to gather reference that would help establish the tone and mood of the cartoon. According to the brief provided by HQ, we looked at various properties expressing design elements the reflected urban culture, architecture, and color palettes. For the color palettes in particular, the cartoon is heavily influenced by outrun, cyberpunk, and western comic styles.
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Character Design
Since the cartoon features two opposing forces, we reinforced this idea by contrasting the shape and color design between each side. If you take a look at the hero character boards below, they utilize warm, earthly tones as opposed to the colder, synthetic neon palette of the antagonizing forces. While these boards were intended to be used as canon for the pre-visualization process, their finalized production versions would not be realized until the turnaround sheets were introduced to the animators.
Design Process
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The character design shown below was originally created by HQ, the author of Swaggatrons(far left). By emphasizing anatomy, storytelling elements, and refining his vision, I developed the character into the image on the far right.
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Some characters did not have a design to extrapolate from. Therefore, they were designed from scratch. Developed from numerous thumbnails(far left), the design process evolved this particular character into the finished product seen on the far right.
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Other characters were inspired by real life individuals or celebrities such as the character above. In these cases, a study was drawn to better understand forms and accurately translate the character into the established design language.
Beauty Shots
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The artwork showcased among the beauty shots is a representation of the quality and finish we want to present in the final animation. Moreover, they function as quick character studies informing the audience of particular traits, abilities, story elements, and character quirks.
Characters such as the “Swag-goons” featured below, have more diverse attire than the typical henchmen found in other serialized animations. Even though the characters are cannon fodder, we decided to add as much detail into their attire to give the overall world of Swaggatrons more depth. |
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Turnarounds
Like most technical drawings, these turnaround sheets went through several iterations to correct and refine proportions, anatomy, and design.To ensure future animations stay on-model, I created “turnarounds” for major cast members.
Expressions
As with all animations, it’s necessary to show the range of emotions for the characters. I designed a number of character appropriate expressions as an example for future animation model sheets.
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Environment Design
Simply known as “the Factory”, the citizens of Swaggville trek across town, brainwashed into selling their souls for swag and contributing their support to Swagpops’ evil scheme. The factory is located out by the docks in the cities former steel district.
Much like the character designs, the environments went through a similar iteration process. Since we had intentions of producing a promotional trailer to accompany the project, I went to great lengths to produce detailed sketches and layouts to be modeled later in the cycle. I paid special attention to the arrangement of space and surface materials to interpret what would be visible and potentially interactive as the characters move through the layouts to progress the story. A majority of the trailer takes place within the factory facilities, so a huge number of thumbnails were drawn to explore the space with extensive detail(above). As the Art Director, i decided it would be more cost effective to produce 3D environments that would allow flexible camera placement and more fluid cinematic direction(below). I also collected dozens of reference materials via Pinterest to help fill out the atmosphere of the surrounding environment. This was doubly useful in assembling shader packs and exploring different types of lighting conditions. You can also find some preliminary model block outs with included notes between the modeler and I.
Much like the character designs, the environments went through a similar iteration process. Since we had intentions of producing a promotional trailer to accompany the project, I went to great lengths to produce detailed sketches and layouts to be modeled later in the cycle. I paid special attention to the arrangement of space and surface materials to interpret what would be visible and potentially interactive as the characters move through the layouts to progress the story. A majority of the trailer takes place within the factory facilities, so a huge number of thumbnails were drawn to explore the space with extensive detail(above). As the Art Director, i decided it would be more cost effective to produce 3D environments that would allow flexible camera placement and more fluid cinematic direction(below). I also collected dozens of reference materials via Pinterest to help fill out the atmosphere of the surrounding environment. This was doubly useful in assembling shader packs and exploring different types of lighting conditions. You can also find some preliminary model block outs with included notes between the modeler and I.
MIniature Alley
Using my original environment designs, layout, concepts and assortment of texture references, I directed artist to prototype a miniature set using particle board, super sculpey modeling clay, and a variety of everyday materials to create the 3D space in which the opening scenes of the trailer are set. We intended to use the set inform the cinematography as we could place the camera anywhere within the scene; ultimately giving us the most flexibility to keep editing in-camera. The set would later be awarded to a top-tier kickstarter contributor.
World Building |
Layer Organization |
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Because the lore for Swaggatrons is deeply integrated into its environments, I treat these particular designs as supporting characters to the main cast. Therefore I design around the characters, movements to interpret storytelling as opposed to designing an empty space to be filled with characters.
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As you can see from the design process above, many layers go into the creation of a single design. For this reason, layer organization is not only necessary for me, but for others that may access the file. The above screenshot is a general idea of how I approach layer organization in all my projects regardless of the program.
storyboards
Trailer Animatic
This cut of the pitched trailer features music production, story beats, and characters by Tamar "HQ" Tyler. I supplied the rough storyboards, cinematography notes, sound effects, and the editing to ensure the final edit fit well within the proposed 5 minute timeline based off my own shot list.
Social Media
Banners・Logos
The artwork showcased here is for social marketing purposes on various media platforms. Banners and Headers for YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc were designed to give a much more general impression of the animation. Encouraging interest and curiosity using familiar tropes was the goal behind these selected designs was the intended goal.
