Zhu Zhu Pets – The Photo Booth

As one of the character designers for the upcoming Zhu Zhu Pets movie, The Quest for Zhu, I had to get a lot of personality into my drawings so that the many storyboard artists and animators could more accurately work together to make these characters come to life as individuals. Most of the time my drawings remained completely behind-the-scenes and were only seen within the studio. This time things were different.

My director, Bob Doucette, asked for a series of photo booth style drawings of our one human character, Katie, and her pet hamster Pipsqueak that would be used directly on screen in the movie. As you know if you have spent any time at all in a photo booth, it is nigh impossible to not act a little goofy once that camera starts-a-clickin’! So, I set out to create a set of cute and goofy images as Katie and Pipsqueak would likely have done.

 

Katie & Pipsqueak
Say “CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!”

 

I will say that I had a little help with the above. In order to draw Katie juuuuust right for a few of those poses, I recruited some folks in the studio to pose for me. The bottom two crazy faces were expertly supplied to me by our wonderful production assistant Steffi Larson. Steffi dove right in without hesitation making the best crazy faces I had ever seen while my camera clicked away. If her face had frozen in any of the contorted poses she provided, I would never have been able to forgive myself.

For the image second from the top, I had a different model. Tom Cain, a bald buddy with a decidedly different physique than that of a 12-year-old girl, was helpful in posing with that outstretched hand. Inspiration comes from the places you sometimes least expect it! I’m glad Tom could help in that way, because you see, he was the next artist to have a go at these drawings. Tom is a painter on this movie painting all the characters and props so that the foreign studio knows exactly how to create everything in a CG (computer graphics) world.

Below are Tom Cain’s paintings of my drawings. Since these are going right into the movie, Tom’s goal was to make the drawings look as if they were photographs of the CG characters, even though they are really just two-dimensional paintings. Tom is an amazing artist, and I’ll likely be showing you some more of his paintings of my drawings in future posts. (Try not to think of that outstretched-hand Katie as a self-portrait by Tom.)

 

Zhu Zhu Pets movie art
Drawings by Chad Frye, paintings by Tom Cain! This past year you may have noticed Disney characters in ads for D23 in the margins of your Facebook page and on the D23 website – Tom painted those, too!

 

If you’d like another sneak peek at the animation from the movie, and get to see Katie and Pipsqueak in action, here is a music video that will be seen at the end of Zhu Zhu Pets: The Quest for Zhu when the movie comes out on DVD September 27 (CLICK HERE to order it on Amazon.com).

 

 

The Zhu Zhu Pets DVD

In May of 2010, I began working at an animation studio in Woodland Hills, California called Moonscoop Entertainment. I was one of two character designers hired to help turn the very popular Zhu Zhu Pets toys into living, breathing, and adorable animated characters. My partner in this endeavor was the highly esteemed Stephen Silver who had been developing the characters’ looks with director Bob Doucette. When I joined the team, it was my job to give the hamsters personality and to make them work for a CGI (computer generated imagery) animated film.

Fast forward seventeen months later, and you will be holding the results of our initial efforts in your very own hands. Amazon recently began to pre-sell our first Zhu Zhu Pets movie to be released at the end of September from Universal Studios (CLICK HERE to see it on Amazon). When I saw the video cover that the marketing folks put together, something looked strangely familiar – all the main four character poses were based on some of my early drawings!

Quest for Zhu movie
The very first Zhu Zhu Pets movie featuring Num Nums, Pipsqueak, Mr. Squiggles and Chunk with the sneaky Stinker poking in from the corner.

I was planning to share with you some of my work for the Zhu Zhu Pets series from time to time, so why not start by showing you the sketches that led to the first video cover!

After Stephen Silver created the initial designs, I took them and drew up lots of action poses. The goal behind these drawings was to really get their personalities across, and to show the range of motion that they should be able to have when they get animated. These types of drawings help the CG artists know how to build the characters, they help the storyboard artists get a handle on how to draw the characters, the animators on how to animate them, and sometimes they help the marketing people promote the film as was the case with these four drawings.

Our story is about the adventures of four hamsters who go on their Quest for Zhu – the title doesn’t lie! There is sweet and dainty Num Nums, the adventurous Pipsqueak, the heroic Mr. Squiggles and laid-back surfing aficionado Chunk. Below are just a few of the many sketches created really early in the process of developing who these characters are. While they were early sketches, somehow these particular four poses struck a chord with others who came after me since they influenced the video cover.

Zhu Zhu Pets movie

Zhu Zhu Pets movie

Zhu Zhu Pets movie

Zhu Zhu Pets movie

The Quest for Zhu movie is just the first of three DVD films that will be sure to capture the imagination of your little ones. In fact, even now I am at work on more Zhu Zhu cartoons that will eventually make their way to the internet as webisodes. Now and again I’ll share some of my behind-the-scenes work with you from this magical series here on my blog.

Here’s a trailer showing the characters in action….

Tuesdays with “TIM” – As Seen on TV!

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you a version of the news below. Now that the video file can be embedded within the blog instead of being posted just as a link, I thought I’d share it once again…
A few months ago I was regularly sharing updates with you about the short animated film TIM that I have been producing with my friend Brian Joseph Ochab. Back when we went public with our fundraising efforts on Kickstarter.com, a relatively new cable channel (Reelz Channel) was talking to us about running a spot on their Hollywood magazine show Hollywood Dailies. Well, earlier this month it aired!

Hollywood Dailies did a real nice job capturing the spirit of our Tim Burton tribute film, including some interview footage of our narrator Sir Christopher Lee! The piece is littered with my artwork right from the get-go, and if you don’t blink, you’ll see some shots of me in my home studio along with some shots of Brian and me in Brian’s garage studio.

 

Reelz Channel – “Hollywood Dailies” from Wonder Motion Studios on Vimeo.

 

If you know of anyone with the resources to invest in a great film project, let me know!  Kickstarter was NOT our answer and we need financial assistance if we are to get this great short project made! I can be reached at:

Chad@WonderMotionStudios.com

Thanks!

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Zhu Zhu Pets Movie Trailer

Last May I was contacted by a studio in Woodland Hills, California called Moonscoop to come work for them as a character designer on a series of DVD movies based on Zhu Zhu Pets toys. Zhu Zhu Pets? I had been oblivious to their existence, despite the fact that the Christmas before they had been THE “it” toy. Turns out that they are cute little electronic hamsters that roll around the ground squeaking, laughing, and bumping into things. They sounded a little bit like animation artists.

So, I jumped into the project with all four paws working closely with fellow character designer Stephen Silver (known for Disney’s Kim Possible designs). The two of us worked on adapting the toy characters into personalities that would help tell the story that lay before us all under the guidance of our director, Bob Doucette.

This past Wednesday the first trailer for The Quest for Zhu was released online. The film will be released on DVD in the fall through Universal. Hopefully as it gets closer, I can show you some of my actual drawings created in the planning of the movie. For now, here is the very short official teaser of what is to come for little hamster-loving kids everywhere (batteries not included):

 

 

Tuesdays with “TIM”

Yes, I know. It’s Monday. Our fundraising effort for TIM ends in the wee early hours (12:42am to be exact) of Tuesday morning for some of you, so I thought I’d post this week’s Tuesdays with TIM column today to give you one final look at some of my art created in the development of this short film before donation time runs out. For my Pacific coast friends, our fundraising on Kickstarter ends at 9:42pm TONIGHT!

 

Today I offer you an insider’s look at one of my illustrations showing Timothy Todd moping about in a cemetery dressed like his hero Tim Burton. The purpose for this development piece was to show the dichotomy of Timothy’s world. On the right, you can see the world he actually lives in. It’s a bright, cheery, and very straight-laced version of suburbia not unlike that portrayed in Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. The cemetery reflects the imagination of little Timothy Todd – an imagination that sees a dark, muted and skewed environment such as is common in a creepy Burton world.

 

Tim Burton kid
Timothy Todd ponders his youth well spent, while sitting atop the grave of Vincent.

 

In looking at the evolution of this illustration, you can see that I hadn’t quite figured out the two worlds. In the first drawing below, both the world of his imagination and that of his real life were depicted as eerily creepy. In looking at Tim Burton animation projects, it is hard to find a straight line anywhere in the creepy scenes. I had my “eureka” moment when watching The Nightmare Before Christmas – in the “real life” world where Christmas is celebrated, straight lines abound!

 

Tim Burton tribute
This was the first drawing that made Timothy Todd’s home look too creepy.

 

Having a different look for the “real life” world is necessary for our story not only to create the separation between Timothy’s life and his imagination, but it also helps you as the viewer to relate. Even though Timothy’s real world is cartoony, by having it be more straight and suburban, it reminds us of the suburbia we all see around us. So, in this next drawing, the house is made a bit more boring, and the picket fence was changed to define the yard. The car was just in the way.

 

Tim Burton parody
This second pass worked much better in showing the difference between the two worlds.

 

And then we get to the final watercolor & colored pencil illustration. Really, the only changes here are the addition of curly branches in the cemetery trees (which was always the plan), and a little dog in the yard. While it may be tough to tell in these scans, the tombstones all reflect past Tim Burton projects. Of course, little Timothy is sitting atop the tombstone for Vincent, the short animated film Burton made in the 1980s that we are parodying with TIM.

 

Tim Burton tribute parody
You can almost hear the voice of Christopher Lee, our wonderful narrator, speaking over this image.

 

This is your LAST day to lend us a hand by pledging some money to make TIM. To make this film become a reality, we need to hire professional puppet builders, miniature set builders, animators, and many other creative people. Stop-motion animated films require many different talents pooled together to make something special. You can click on any of the images above to go right to Kickstarter. Here is our promo video one last time:

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at these Tuesdays with TIM updates over the past two months. Even though our Kickstarter fundraising ends tonight, I’ll continue to have these updates periodically should we proceed with making TIM.

Tuesdays with “TIM”

We have now entered the LAST week of fundraising for TIM through Kickstarter. The only way we can make this cool stop-motion animated Tim Burton tribute starring Christopher Lee is if our friends, fans, and the occasional passersby offer to pledge their financial support by going to TIMtheMovie.com.

Each Tuesday during the past two months I have been sharing with you updates and artwork from the making of TIM thus far. If you have missed any of these posts, you can see them all by CLICKING HERE!

Well, today is yet another behind the scenes look at TIM. To further inspire your financial pledges, Brian and I filmed a video update last week in which we reveal our puppets for the film which you can view below…

 

TIM Video Update 2 from Wonder Motion Studios on Vimeo.

 

(If the embedded video does not play for you via an RSS reader, Facebook, or another source, you can access all our video updates at http://vimeo.com/21151171 .)

If you are among those who have been waiting for the final lap to pledge a little something to help us make this short stop-motion animated film, that lap has just started! If we don’t reach our goal 100% by March 29, then none of the pledges will be realized. So come lend a hand TODAY!

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TIM the Movie Videos

Tues…er…Thursday with “TIM”

I know, I know – today is Thursday. It’s not actually Tuesday, the day on which I isolate my comments about my short film TIM here on the blog. There was just too much to share on one day this week, so I thought I’d spread it out onto Thursday as well.

We only have 18 days left in our fundraising efforts over on Kickstarter.com, so we can use all the help we can get to spread the word about the cinematic joy my producing partner Brian Joseph Ochab and I are trying to achieve! In my post on Tuesday, I alluded to an ad that we created for Stop Motion Magazine‘s website. I wanted to post that same ad here and encourage you to download it and share it on any website, Facebook page, MySpace, and wherever else you can on the web to help us spread the word!

 

Tim Burton
Click on the image to get a slightly higher resolution version of the ad.

 

In addition, Brian and I spent some time last week recording a special video update that was also briefly mentioned on Tuesday. So, it is posted here today for your enjoyment! I know it’s hard to believe, but we are completely untrained actors. Colin Firth better watch his back…

 

TIM Video Update from Wonder Motion Studios on Vimeo.

 

Come back again next Tuesday with another look at the art of TIM, and please come support us at TIMtheMovie.com!

Tuesdays with “TIM”

Each Tuesday of late, I have been sharing with you some behind-the-scenes artwork and information about the short animated film I have been working on with my producing partner Brian Joseph Ochab called TIM about a young boy who wishes to be like his hero Tim Burton. If you need to catch up, you can CLICK HERE to see my previous posts.

Today’s TIM report is not so much any new info about our film as it is a celebration of  our film’s narrator. You see, Sir Christopher Lee was just honored this week with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts highest honor, the BAFTA Fellowship Award. The Fellowship Award is bestowed upon those for their significant contributions to the art of film making, and as such has been bequeathed to worthy recipients such as Charlie Chaplin, Billy Wilder, John Barry, Alfred Hitchcock, Sean Connery, and Steven Spielberg to name a few.

And who presented the award to Christopher Lee? Why, none other than the actual Tim Burton.

 

Come back again next Tuesday when I’ll share with you some more art created in the process of making TIM the movie. And be sure to visit TIMtheMovie.com to see Christopher Lee talking about our film and more info about how you can be involved in our endeavor!

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TIM the Movie Videos