CLIP: E3 Gnome

More sneak peeks at the upcoming Munkshroom/Startcast crossover special!

I had been mulling over what to post as a preview here over the past few days. A lot of the animation on this project that I've been working on is from the most climactic part of the entire video, and I just felt it was a disservice to show too much of it off without its intended context.

I also haven't had anything to show from the latest Mashed video's production, since there actually hasn't been any progress on it over the last couple weeks. It's still in the writing phase, as it's been a very tricky story to get down, so there have been a few revisions of it. I haven't heard back about the latest revision I sent over, but I'm hoping it will do the trick...

Anyway, back to the animated progress clip: It's the E3 Gnome! Who is the E3 Gnome? Allow me to attempt to explain.

i did have a VERY stupid idea that Geoff is powering his evil villain device with like, "the e3 gnome" who is the most sterotypical cartoon gnome ever and he just has the e3 logo on his pointy hat

Above is a direct quote from Ryan Ribbity, friend of mine, fellow artist, and co-host of Ready to Start the Podcast, the podcast that I co-host. She was actually the one to initially devise this Munkshroom E3 finale story, and the E3 Gnome was a part of the first pitch to me.

That's basically all you need to know about the E3 Gnome. Ryan thought it would be funny if the spirit of E3 manifested through a generically whimsical gnome character.

There is one anecdote I would like to share concerning the strange device the gnome is imprisoned in. You see, this machine is designed to extract magical energy from the gnome for nefarious purposes, akin to some of Gargamel's schemes in the Smurfs. Here is what the contraption looked like in the storyboards I drew:

Pretty basic. I was sort of visually inspired by the vegetable machine in the final boss of Super Mario Bros. 2. In some ways it was a bit of a placeholder design, but it does its job.

I assigned Rosa, another friend and fellow artist and co-host of Ready to Start the Podcast the podcast that I co-host, the job of drawing this machine, since it was a pretty basic prop that wouldn't need to be animated. It just needs to sit there and contain the gnome.

Well. OK. Do you know what I received in return, when I made this request?

This is what she drew.

This was a few hours after I asked if she could draw the machine. I saw this, and I didn't even know what I was looking at. She told me it was the "Baja blast robot." OK. Well, obviously, this wasn't going to work. I mean... I mean if you just look at the storyboards, there's no room to put a Baja Blast robot. It was sheer insanity to even suggest such a thing. I almost didn't know what to say to her.

We were able to reign things back in from this point, and the final design became this Aquapet-inspired machine. Perfect!

Now, all of the animation work I had initially saddled myself with on this project is FINISHED. What remains now is helping out Ryan with everything she has to finish, as well as handling all the sound design since I actually quite enjoy editing audio and adding sound effects. It's something I don't get to do as much these days, what with Mashed having their own editors and everything.

Two more posts coming this week! I'm saying that now so I remember. I'm not sure yet what I will post about... hopefully by the end of the week, I'll have something to show from the Mashed video we're supposed to be making!