Miracle Animation Studios Inc.

Jobert with Cyber Pulsar Guns with Neutron Discs Blasting Away Lamprey-like Aliens

          A new art graduate from a nearby ASEAN country sent her portfolio to us last mid-June as she was applying for a position as a conceptual artist; unfortunately we have no job offers for her. But one of her digital paintings caught my eye, as it was rendered differently compared to the traditional style, as it was more colorful and emotional. I wanted to have the quick sketch of Jessalaine by Alstaire colored like her style, so that I could put the poster in the widget area of this website as something new and refreshing to look at.  If the coloring is good, I will ask Alstaire to do quick sketches of the other characters and have it colored and placed it in the widget section also. I asked Alstaire to look for artists who can do it like what the new graduate did. After a few weeks, there were about 6 local artists at Top Peg Animation who tried but they did not follow what I asked for, they all did it in the traditional style, with some really ending up short of the quality I was expecting.

Jessalaine Quick Sketch

Traditional Digital Paint Style

      I set the coloring project aside for the time being as I cannot find a local artist to do the job. Sometime in late August I even emailed back the new foreign graduate and asked her if she wants to do the job, how much is her fee and how do we pay her but I received no reply. Maybe in the future we’ll be able to find that artist who can do the work.

     Since there was no artist for the poster, around mid-July, I was looking at posters or wall papers at deviant art as sample for our property. There were posters or wall papers that were conceptual and hyper realistic that could work for Jobert and the Crop Circle Warriors®, so I asked Alstaire if he knows some local artist who can do a job like the samples I showed him. One local artist known by Alstaire showed his portfolio and a sample sketch, but it was not the type of art I was looking for. Alstaire emailed a message to another local artist as his art was one of the handful of poster samples chosen  as a guide but Alstaire received no reply. 

     I was thinking of making new realistic posters for Jobert and the Crop Circle Warriors® to push the conceptual boundaries of the property. The chosen artist was free to do his own interpretation of the faces and costumes for the characters in the series. I remembered that Alstaire talked about Anthro who worked with the Jobert and the Crop Circle Warriors® animation series years ago; and he contacted Alstaire out of the blue last year as was he itching to do some more action scenes in the Jobert series. I even wrote about this story somewhere in the earlier topics of this website.  Anthro for a few years now is based in Dumaguete City. I was thinking Anthro might be the right guy for the job as he was motivated, he has the feel about the series and the characters compared to outside artists.  

     Alstaire contacted him, but it took Anthro many days before he replied and I was already thinking that he might not be interested in the project. But eventually he sent his portfolio and he reasoned out he was just busy with other projects. I was not really hopeful to get the type of poster I was looking for from Anthro, based on his portfolio his style was different and he admitted he cannot do the type of style that I wanted. After a few days, he sent his sample poster and his idea was to do 3 separate posters for the characters but he can combine all of it to make one poster. The preliminary sample sketches were okay for the budget but they were not exceptional.  Alstaire and I agreed that he should do one action poster for Jobert first and the group poster later on as it was financially risky on my part if the first poster did not work out to my satisfaction. 

Preliminary Proposed Posters

     Alstaire was the intermediary to relay all my messages, as I don’t know Anthro personally. I told Alstaire that I wanted Jobert doing a B-twist or Butterfly twist while holding two guns. I really wanted the B-twist as I remembered the slow motion action scenes of the films GI Joe and Transformers 4 doing something like that move.  Another condition was to put crop circle designs in the poster.  It took awhile before Anthro submitted his first preliminary sketch, but it was just okay as it was not a B-twist move and the face just looks like one of my office personnel. After looking at a number of B-twist tutorials at Youtube, I was finally convinced that it was not the right image for the poster. While doing a B-twist,  one cannot see the face properly and the position of the hands and legs were not proper for holding 2 guns. Alstaire also emailed me photos of  a male and female model holding 2 guns with different action shots as an artist reference, but I could not find the action pose that I like. So I was satisfied with the action move drawn by Anthro.

First Preliminary Sketch

     Office Personnel

     After a day or two, Anthro emailed his partial rendering of the first approved sketch. What I noticed right away was the way he rendered the guns with crop circle designs on the sides which I did not notice and understand before. I was blown away with the creative thinking, this was an innovation that I never even thought of and never seen before, Alstaire had the same opinion and sentiment with me. The rendering of the crop circle power discs was almost the same with the quality of rendering of the other types of powers from some of the posters I have chosen as guides. I didn’t even care that there was no final rendering of the face. I was really excited for the poster to be finished, but I wanted some organic mecha monsters attacking him like a piranha or lamprey type of creatures being blasted away by Jobert. Alstaire relayed the message what I wanted, but I was really disappointed when the next rendering came. The face was a disaster as it looked like a male geisha and the robots were from the Jobert comic book and animation,  it was not something new. So I relayed my disappointment and Anthro reasoned out that it was just a quick rendering but he admitted his difficulty. I also emailed Anthro directly suggesting a particular look for Jobert and the type of monster I like – I even emailed my own sketch of the monster as a suggestion. It was at this time, that I also emailed a foreign artist whose poster was the style I was looking for, just in case Anthro cannot deliver satisfactorily. I asked for a quotation for a commission artwork at par with the quality with a particular poster that he did and I was prepared to pay for a higher fee for the quality output but the said foreign artist never replied back.

Cyber Gun with Crop Circle Power

   Disappointing Face Rendering

     I was thinking that this was it, Anthro may not be able to deliver, but after a few days he emailed his new sketch to accommodate the monsters. I was again blown away with the new face, monster design and action move which I never expected. I was really excited for the poster to be finished, as I was very satisfied with the new sketches even though he did not follow my suggestions for the face and monster look. The poster needed only some minor corrections in the costume and the stance. With the new quality of work, I was motivated to think of new ideas for the other characters and 2 group posters. I was glad that the 2 artists did not reply back as their fees will surely be much higher and they may not be able to think of the crop circle gun concept.  It was at this time that I also began thinking of a new name for the cyber gun and the crop circle power discs and after some research I came up with the name Cyber Pulsar Gun and Neutron Discs. After a few days I called Alstaire to incorporate the Neutron Discs design and the name of the Cyber Pulsar Gun in our animation series. 

New Sketch for the Jobert Poster

Lamprey-Like Alien Monsters

    After more than a week, the poster was still a work in progress. When the special effects were added, I cannot see the second hand, Anthro suggested the Neutron Discs only appear when the Cyber Pulsar Gun is used, the other gun was used awhile ago. I suggested to Alstaire that I wanted the other gun to have the Neutron Discs also, as I wanted to see the hand  and I wanted more action. 

    As an independent producer, I found it very hard to look for freelance artists who are willing and able to do the job. Most of the artist we inquire from will not reply back for whatever reason. I guess they are overwhelmed with the many inquiries from people like me looking for the best price, they are too busy with other jobs commissioned or they don’t have any interest for the project. The ones who are interested in the project have a different skill set from what I’m looking for.  Even with artists who I have some contact with, sometimes there is no reply to my emails, for whatever reason. I just have to learn to take the no replies professionally and not to take it personally and be relentless in looking for the people who can finish the work. From my previous experience with artists in our first poster, not much has changed with dealing with the artists, even if we agree on the price, sometimes the level of skill, commitment and professionalism is not there, and this creates a lot of problems. At first I was hesitant to put up any down payment as the artist might just change his mind or the level of skill is not there, so the work might not be finished. Grace helped me by giving a sample contract before the poster was to be done, but I left it at that. I only used the contract after the Jobert poster was done to assure some protection in terms of commitment to finish the other character posters.

     The whole exercise of commissioning conceptual art was very fruitful. It achieved the objective of enhancing the property through new images and concepts which was directly applied to our current animation project which I have not foreseen. There was no way for me to know that commissioning a digital paint work for a quick sketch can lead to new concepts that could be used. Even in our mobile game, I was able to think of new powers for Jobert indirectly related to the conceptual art poster.

Jobert with Cyber Pulsar Gun

     Tany with Cyber Pulsar Shield

     

Jessalaine with Cyber Pulsar Boomerang

     For future projects, if there are any; such as new animation, games and films, the conceptual artwork has opened doors where we can apply new concepts that I already thought of to enhance the property further. I may commission for more poster art works as Jobert and the Crop Circle Warriors® property has so many angles  and areas for growth and improvement visually which somehow helps with the creation of new story lines. As of late November 2015, I commissioned 3D models of Jobert and the lamprey alien with rigging for a proof of concept video scheduled to be online sometime first quarter 2016. 

     The rest of the other posters for the other characters and group will be added in this blog later on as Anthro is busy working on some animation work for our mobile game. Anthro had some problems with his other clients that affected the delivery of the posters, but as of late December 2015, the final Jessalaine poster still needed some corrections.

Tany with Cyber Pulsar Discs (Final)

     The Tany poster had many iterations before the final one because we were not sure of the concepts, the weapons, monster, look of Tany etc.  Alstaire guided Anthro with some of the corrections. Some of the drafts and corrections are shown below.

Suggestion of Alstaire

     Just like the poster for Tany, the poster for Jessalaine had many iterations, because we were not sure of the concept, the look, weapons, monster, etc. Although there are many sketches, these are just quick sketches and it didn’t take too much time to do them. 

Jessalaine with Cyber Pulsar Boomerang (Final)

      Shown below are some of the drafts or iterations for the Jessaliane Poster.

Rejected Outright as the Character Does not Have Jet Boosters

Basis for the Succeeding Drafts

Alstaire’s Suggestion 1

Alstaire’s Suggestion 2

     For the group poster, Anthro agreed to do it but it may take awhile since he is busy with other contracts. From time to time there are on-the-job trainees (OJT) at Top Peg Animation; as of early January 2016, one student – Sean Manoloto is interested in conceptual work so he was asked to do a quick group poster of the characters among other things. He came up with the characters with glass helmets on. It was very refreshing to see the characters of the property drawn with a different perspective, presentation and technique, so I’m always grateful for the OJTs.