Monday Morning Motivators: Bees

Welcome to another exciting installment of Monday Morning Motivators… our weekly exercise where we pick a theme -- preferably something we normally wouldn't draw -- and spend the first hour of each week sketching. The sketches can be very loose or super tight, but the point is to work out the weekend stiffness and draw something new.

This week’s theme is… Bees!






Copyright © Two Animators! LLP

Fun Art Fridays: Happy Turkey Day!

2A!'s been hard at work on a new Johnny's Secret Nipple! graphic novel -- which we can't wait to share with you -- but for now we thought it would be cool to revisit some of our existing JSN art. So here's a Thanksgiving greeting I drew back in 2002, which seems like the perfect place to start given that tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

Have a Happy Turkey Day!!

Watch Johnny on YouTube.
Fan Johnny on Facebook.
Visit Johnny's Website.

Copyright © Two Animators! LLP

Sifaka World Game: Frog Invasion!

2A! prepares for the Frog Invasion!

Get your umbrellas ready, because it’s raining adorable little frogs in this addictively fun Sifaka World game. Inspired by classic games like Puyo Puyo and Tetris, the object of Frog Invasion is to score as many points as possible by lining up frogs of the same color, thus clearing them from the game board and causing damage to your opponent. The last player standing wins, but be watchful, because your opponent has some sneaky tricks up their sleeve to throw off your game.

2A! designed and created all of the front-end visuals for Frog Invasion including the characters, animations, music and sound effects.

Be sure to head over to www.sifakaworld.com to test your game skills!

Copyright © Sifaka Productions, LLC

Monday Morning Motivators: Turkeys!

Since Thursday is Thanksgiving here in the US, we thought it'd be cool to dedicate today's Monday Morning Motivators to what’s typically considered the main course for this holiday… Turkeys!

Have you ever really looked at a turkey? I'm not talking about when it's all cooked and slathered in gravy... I'm talking about real, live turkeys. They're some pretty crazy looking animals! In any case... that doesn't change the fact that I'll be stuffing myself with this tasty fowl on Thursday. Gobble, gobble!






Copyright © Two Animators! LLP

Fun Art Fridays: The Ottguin!

I've been playing around with some critter designs inspired by a recent project 2A! worked on. I like the idea of taking two types of animals and trying to combine them to create something new. Thus, we have my breeding of a Penguin and an Otter to create... drum roll please... the Ottguin! This dude was a ton of fun to draw, so I'll definitely be playing around with more critter designs in the future.

Copyright © Two Animators! LLP

Animation: SweetIM Witch

Yes, here it is... another SweetIM video for your viewing pleasure! This week I bring you the witch from our batch of Halloween animations. What can I say about the witch? She was fun to animate and I really like her design. I especially enjoyed posing her slide down the screen at the end of the animation. Hope you enjoy it and keep checking back for more videos! I've got plenty more where that came from.



Copyright © SweetIM Technologies Ltd.

MyScene "Shopping Spree" Game Art!

2A! recently worked on some updates for Mattel’s MyScene Shopping Spree game. In the game, you get to go shopping with Barbie and her friends, and choose all new outfits and accessories for the girls to wear. So, Mattel asked us to create some stylish new clothes and a new background area for the girls to strut their stuff in. This week I’ll talk about the background...

Below you can see my initial concept sketch. Mattel wanted a hip, SoHo-type art school, which has a wall filled with graffiti in front of it.



Next up is the color mock. I tried to use cooler, muted colors to fit the urban theme, while giving the area a more laid back feel. I think the overall effect is very welcoming… a place I'd want to hang out at.



Here's a look at the final background art, done in Flash by Greg Kleid. The final is pretty close to my color mock, but they did ask us to change the building from yellow to a purplish color so Barbie’s blonde hair would “pop” easily.



Along with the hip new background for the girls to chill in, we also created all new clothing (based on the toy line) for the game too! I'll post about those soon, so keep checking back. Now, why not head over to MyScene.com and try out the game for yourselves?

Copyright © Mattel

Sifaka World Game: Squirt Gun Bandits!

2A! rounds up some pesky varmints in Sifaka World’s Squirt Gun Bandits game.

Grab your Sheriff’s badge and get ready to lay down the law… It’s your job as Sheriff to maintain peace and order in Sifaka World. Using your trusty squirt gun, spray the enemies as they appear on-screen, but be careful to dodge their attacks and not get soaked yourself. Complete all three levels without running out of water or drenching any innocent animals to save the day.

2A! designed and created all of the front-end visuals for Squirt Gun Bandits including the characters, animations, music and sound effects.

Be sure to head over to www.sifakaworld.com to test your squirtin' skills in this quick draw game! Good luck, partner!




Copyright © Sifaka Productions, LLC

Monday Morning Motivators: Cacti

Welcome to another exciting installment of Monday Morning Motivators… our weekly exercise where we pick a theme -- preferably something we normally wouldn't draw -- and spend the first hour of each week sketching. The sketches can be very loose or super tight, but the point is to work out the weekend stiffness and draw something new.

This week’s theme is… Cacti!





Copyright © Two Animators! LLP

Animation: SweetIM Werewolf

This week's SweetIM video was one of my favorite ideas from the Halloween batch. We were trying to hit upon each of the main types of monsters, so of course there had to be one involving a werewolf. Surprisingly, I was never really a big fan of werewolves, but I do remember being freaked out by the one in the beginning of the "Thriller" video. It was fun to put my own twist on the notion of a werewolf. Check out the video above and stills below... if you dare.



Copyright © SweetIM Technologies Ltd.

Background Design: Australian Outback

2A! recently had the opportunity to design the all new Australian continent for Sifaka World. The new continent is made up of a few different areas, the first of which is the Outback, probably the most well known area of the Australian wilderness. Much like the backgrounds we designed for South America and North America, we tried to stay true to the actual topography of the area, while also making a bright and colorful place for users to visit.

Below is my initial sketch of the Outback. When designing these areas we have to leave a good amount of space in the foreground for users to walk around, so I really wanted to accentuate the impressive monolith rock formations that the area is known for in the background. I also tried my best to split the horizon as close to the center of the screen as I could, so you can see the vast sky against the desert. I wanted to give the feeling of grandeur and sheer mass of the land.



Here is the first color mock up I created. I used bright colors on the ground and rocks to highlight the orange, clay soil of the Outback. I made the sky a bright blue, which everyone liked, but felt might compete too much with the oranges of the ground and rocks.



Here is the final background which incorporates some color changes, making the scene more of a sunset so that oranges and yellows help blend the colors in the sky. To my surprise, they actually balance out the bright oranges better than the blues did. I really love the feel of this new color scheme, and the client does too.



You can head down under too at www.sifakaworld.com. Just remember to send us a postcard!

Copyright © Sifaka Productions, LLC

Graphic Novel: The Poochinos Pages 1 to 4

Last week I posted some of the working pages from our first Poochinos Graphic novel. Those pages focused on Vinny and Dom’s storyline, so I thought it would be fitting to show a bit of Bully and Tony’s story this week. Below are pages one through four of the comic, which feature Bully “The Boss” Poochino and his right hand mutt, Tony "The Rott" DeBoneo, on route to finish up some last minute business.

Check out the following pages and let us know what you think. We’d love to revisit this comic one day as we had some really cool things in store for these characters. Also, don’t forget to check out our work on The Poochinos animated short and Lost Episode for more K-9 mob action!





Written by: Gregg W. Boita
Art by: JoE C!
Colors by: Tom C!

Copyright © Dog Mafia, Inc.

Monday Morning Motivators: Apples

Welcome to another exciting installment of Monday Morning Motivators… our weekly exercise where we pick a theme -- preferably something we normally wouldn't draw -- and spend the first hour of each week sketching. The sketches can be very loose or super tight, but the point is to work out the weekend stiffness and draw something new.

This week’s theme is… Apples!






Copyright © Two Animators! LLP

Fun Art Fridays: The Thundercats' Tygra

Welcome the Thundercats' whip-cracking-wise-cat, Tygra!

Tygra is probably one of my favorite characters from the show (second to Lion-O of course). I loved the fact that his design was based on a Tiger -- my all time favorite animal -- and his weapon of choice, his bolo-whip, was totally awesome! With a twirl of his whip he could become invisible and get the drop on those pesky Mutants. Plus, let's not forget he was the wisest cat on Third Earth, helping Panthro design and build many of the cats' cool inventions.

Again, Tygra is part of a larger Thundercats team drawing I'm doing for fun. Be sure to also check out my takes on Lion-O, Panthro, Cheetara, and Snarf if you haven’t already!

Next up is Wily Kit and Wily Kat. So until then... "Thundercats HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Illustration © Joe Costantini

Animation: SweetIM Doc Frankenstein

With this week's post, I'm bringing you another installment of SweetIM animation show and tell.

I think we all know the drill by now, but above and below you'll find a video and stills showing a SweetIM animation from animatic to final animation. This week's animation is of Doctor Frankenstein and his monster. When coming up with ideas for the Halloween SweetIM animations, I really wanted to push interactivity with the user. I thought it was a really fun idea to have the Doc steal the user's brain. It was tricky to pull it off, but I think it works well. What do you think?



Copyright © SweetIM Technologies Ltd.

KidzChores.com Backgrounds

When 2A! was in production with KidzChores.com, a website dedicated to making chores fun and rewarding for kids, we had to design all the elements that would be used in the site. In my last post about Kidz Chores, I shared our design work of the little girl avatar. Today, I’ll share some of the background scenes we created for the avatars to visit.

This project called for a fun, cartoon style which I think we totally nailed with this first background. Mixing bright colors with rounded edges on the furniture really helped the overall feel. Plus, who wouldn’t want to have a cool bedroom dedicated to outer space!



Next up, is the driveway background, complete with cute chalk drawings on the driveway.



Here we have the family room. I went with more reds here because it made the scene feel nice and cozy. I wouldn’t mind relaxing here and watching my favorite movies on that wide screen TV. ;)



Last but not least, we have the backyard, which looks like a good place to cook some food and have some fun.



Well, that’s it for now… If you’d like to see more of our Kidz Chores backgrounds, just head over to Kidzchores.com and check them out!

Copyright © Kidz Chores, Inc.

Graphic Novel: The Poochinos WIP!

Along with our work on The Poochinos animated short and Lost Episode, 2A! was also involved in developing an original comic book starring the gangster dogs! The comic was supposed to premier online then be printed and available for purchase through the Dog Mafia website, however as we’ve mentioned before, the client sadly put the project on hold for economic reasons. In any case, we are very proud of our work on the comic book and thought it’d be cool to share some of the pages with you.

The first issue was titled “Timeline” and revolved around the gang having only a short window of opportunity to tie up some loose ends (a.k.a. whack some mutts) before they started a moratorium on killing. Below are three pages of the Vinny and Dominick storyline, which was interspliced between Bully and Tony’s scenes. Check them out and let us know what you think...





Written by: Gregg W. Boita
Art by: JoE C!
Colors by: Tom C!

Copyright © Dog Mafia, Inc.

Monday Morning Motivators: Graves

We hope everyone had a great Halloween this past weekend!

While it may officially be November, we're still in a ghoulish mood and have decided to keep our Halloween sketches going for another week. So this week's theme is... Graves! Mwhahahahahahahahaha! ;)

Monday Morning Motivators are a chance for us to pick a theme -- preferably something we normally wouldn't draw -- and spend the first hour of each week sketching. The sketches can be very loose or super tight, but the point is to work out the weekend stiffness and draw something new.






Copyright © Two Animators! LLP