Miracle Animation Studios Inc.

Jobert and the Crop Circle Warriors is primarily a 2D animation or hand drawn, but we also used 3D graphics for faster production. The total production got stalled mainly because of training new artists for the 2D animation. Toppeg Animation does not yet use tablet computers for the 2D in the series, as the budget was lacking. The 3D animation is mainly used for technological or machine drawings, like automobiles, robots and space ships, after which they are rendered  and colored in 2D style to fit the whole picture environment. According to the director and the co-producer, drawing the machines by hand takes more time, an example like similar multiple robots could easily be duplicated by the computer. However, people’s faces  and bodies in the series need to be drawn as they will look too stiff  if the 3D graphics are used.

The design of the machine is first drawn by hand and given (job-out or outsourced) to the freelance 3D artists to make a 3D model of the machine, spaceship etc. and rendered into 2D. Shown below are the numerous 3D animation used in the series.

Jellyfish Canon

Jobert’s Car

Stolen Car

Mother Ship

Jeepney and Background

Background

Ordinary Droid

Ordinary Droids in the Laboratory

Original Battle Droid which was replaced as it looked like Bumble Bee in Transformers

Study of New Battle Droid

Final Battle Droid

Army of Battle Droids

Assassin Droid

Assassin Droid

Balhalya’s Manta Ship, it was replaced as it looked like a ship from the Avenger’s cartoon

Study of Balhalya’s New Angler Ship

Angler Ship and Akalan Background

Frogee’s Tadpole Shuttle

Another view of tadpole shuttle

Cloaked Tadpole Shuttle

Battle Tadpole Ship

The sample realistic poster  for Jobert and the Crop Circle Warriors was the result of many months of trial and error from many new artists and the director’s various study samples. It was very frustrating, as it was just a poster and it took many revisions and studies to have the final output. Even the final poster is not exactly the way I want it to look, but it is good enough as a sample poster. The concept is clearly shown and the rendering is also good. The most difficult part was deciding how Jobert should look like. We cannot just make the face look like a popular local actor, so we kept on changing it, but it still doesn’t look as good as it should. Anyway its just a sample poster, the face could be changed any time if we want to.

Final Sample Poster

Below are the various faces of Jobert that we were trying to finalize, even the final one was not exactly what I had in mind, when it was colored the face changed.

Various Jobert Look

The posters below are just some of the studies that the director sketched and the colored ones are the work of some of the artists.

Various studies of posters

There were lots of studies and typographies, as back then we were still not sure of our final concept and typography. We hired artists who were not really seasoned but who acknowledged that they could do the job. I gave the director some guidelines what the poster should look like and the director lets the artists have a free hand in executing it. After weeks of waiting, the artists could still not show any progress with the poster, if they did, it barely showed any promise of being a good commercial art work. The director finally was the one who finalized the presentation and look of the poster. The chosen artist all now had to do was color  the poster, but several artists who agreed to do the job fell very short of our expectations and some did not even bother to reply back on what was their progress. This happened about four times and it took weeks to find another artist who was willing to do the job for the budget. Some who were capable were too busy or found the professional fee too low for them.

Samples

After months of frustration, the director was finally able to get hold of a former artist of the studio who now works as a freelance artist. It took time to contact him,  and the only time he responded was when we finally agreed to his professional fee. After a week, there was fairly good progress, but he needed to be guided as he was changing the faces without being told to do so.

Sample

The poster is just a promotional tool to expand our property to other media, more specifically in films. However, our property is still very far from realizing a live action film project as there are still many hurdles before that can be realized. But there is no harm for aiming for something bigger in the future. The aspired film needs a good script that will entail a substantial budget, so I’m open for option fees, film rights and television rights to the right producer/s who can take the property to the international market at the right time and for the right price.

After the poster, the next in line to be finalized are the first season episodes and pitch bible for the said season. The second season script, pitch bible, character look and android game will be finalized while the first season animation is being marketed.