I'm wrapping up on my first episode of doing character art on Super Jail on Monday so I figured it might be a good time to give a little update on it. First off, everyone at Augenblick Studios rocks. The people there are super talented. I'm easily the worst artist in the whole group. And everyone is really nice. It's been really great so far getting to know all the other storyboard artists, background artists, character artists, animators, assistants, and interns. It's funny, I actually have mutual friends in common with a lot of the people there through either friends of mine who went to SVA or my twin brother who went to RISD as there's a large contingent of both working on the show. So people-wise, it's a great atmosphere and very friendly.

Work-wise, the schedule is pretty crazy. Everyone's busting their asses trying to meet their deadlines. We're doing eleven-minute episodes (I think there are nine in the first season) with three weeks to complete each one and all are completely hand-drawn frame by frame, so it's a lot of work and late nights. The process is really cool. Everything is done directly on the computer. Not a piece of paper involved. We're drawing on these Cintiq tablets, which are like computer screens that you can draw directly on. I'm amazed and totally in love with these things. I will most definitely be getting one in the future. *Drool*

As far as what I'm actually doing on the show, I'm a character artist. The way this particular show is broken down is that there are storyboards that are created, then they go to the background artists who create the backgrounds based off of the boards. Then they go to me and the three other character artists and we draw and color all the characters into the backgrounds. So, if they're established characters, we draw them to look like who they are, but if they're new characters or background characters, we get to create them there on the spot. So a lot of my time is spent creating really super jacked, crazy, dumb, violent criminals. They're really funny to look at. (Although this week, I was drawing all sorts of crazy shit that I can't even talk about yet because I signed a really scary contract that said I couldn't. When the shows air, I'll have to point out what I worked on.) The character artists just do the key poses. Like if someone is standing and then sitting, I would draw the two poses and then it would go on to the animator who would draw all the in-between frames to put it into motion. So that's been my job on the show the past few weeks.

The show itself is going to be awesome. I really can't believe the stuff I'm getting to draw and all of the subversive, obscene, and just plain bizarre stuff that we're allowed to sneak into the show. And that's not to mention the stuff that's clear as day right in front of your face. I have no idea what kind of success the show will have, but I can certainly see it getting a cult following. I would most certainly tune in to watch it every week.

So, like I said, I'm wrapping on the first episode on Monday. Then I have two more episodes to plow through that will keep me pretty well occupied until mid-January. It's still up in the air about whether or not I'll want to stay on and do the remaining six episodes afterwards. I'll have to see how I feel after I finish episode number two in a few weeks.

So that's been my crazy work life the past few weeks. On a non-work related note, I have to ask, why is it that I am only now just getting into Jens Lekman? Black Cab and I Saw Her At The Anti-War Demonstration have been stuck in my head all week. Mmm...good stuff.

Found in Translation
November 13, 2007

The Italian Mr. Wiggles book just shipped to the printer. Publishing date will be December 9th—or il nove dicembre per i miei amici italiano (I hope I didn't butcher that! Should it be "italiani"?). Just in time for Natale! Look for it from (Fusi orari)!

Emoticonnections: The Final Word
November 4, 2007

Wow. After writing that I was pulling the emoticon storyline, I got a lot of emails.   Like a ton. So many that I actually don't have the time to respond to each one individually. So, I'll take this space here to reply to everyone who wrote me.

First off: you guys fucking rock. For serious. Thanks so much for writing with encouraging words. You guys are really awesome. Really, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Secondly, addressing why I decided to pull the comics: This was sort of an experimental thing I wanted to try, but I was kind of on the fence about whether or not it was appropriate to run it in the Mr. Wiggles space/world. The early negative feedback really solidified my uneasiness about it. The more I thought about what I wanted to do with the story, the more I realized I couldn't cut it down. I really wanted all twelve strips, and maybe even more. Twelve comics is not a lot for a storyline, but when broken down into the actual publishing schedule of one comic a week, it's about three months worth of material and that's a lot to ask from a readership for something that isn't even Wiggles-related.

So, faced with the choice of going on with it or pulling it early while it was only on the second comic, it seemed like the best decision to pull it. So, yeah, that's pretty much what happened.

But...here's the thing. The feedback I got after pulling the storyline was very encouraging. So much so, that I'm putting the comics back online and will actually complete the storyline and put them on the site in addition to the weekly Mr. Wiggles comics. This won't be weekly though. It'll be pretty much whenever I have the time or inclination to do so. Maybe once a month? Maybe more. Maybe less. Who knows with me? But I figure this is the best of both worlds and seems like the obvious decision to make. So, yeah. That's the final word on that I guess.

Thanks again to everyone who wrote in to express their opinions.