Last but not least, here are the backgrounds to the Bride & Groom Planner animation I mentioned last week. Our Chef and Florist needed backdrops to complete their world of wedding cakes and flowers, so we jumped right into creating the designs.
As you can see, the style of these backgrounds is a bit different than others we’ve done in the past. The client wanted a look that the characters would easily pop off of, while feeling simple and somewhat elegant at the same time. So we chose to go with a looser design, focusing on trying to capture more of a washed look to the colors… lots of whites, grays, and pastels. We played around with this to make sure the characters popped and the backgrounds weren’t too boring or bland.
Overall, I think these turned out great and definitely showcase a different style that we were able to achieve!
Truffle Shuffle is a fun shuffleboard game located on the Australian continent of Sifaka World. In the game, players use their mouse to aim and shoot truffles in an effort to knock other player’s truffles off the board. The player with the highest score wins the game!
2A! designed and created all of the front-end visuals for Truffle Shuffle including the characters, animations, music and sound effects. Check out Joe’s character design posts on Boomer and Eggburt to see more.
Take a trip down under and play a round or two at www.sifakaworld.com. Good luck mate!
You better watch out… the week’s Monday Morning Motivators has a mean left hook! The theme for today's sketches was chosen by our good pal Marc Manalli over on our Facebook page. Thanks a bunch, Marc!
Next week's theme is anything that starts with the letter "L," so anyone interested in making a suggestion can drop us a line here or on our Facebook page. Become a fan, suggest a theme, and if we dig it we’ll draw it.
For those that don’t know… MMMs is our weekly exercise where we pick a theme and spend the first hour of each week sketching. The sketches can be loose or tight, but the point is to work out the weekend stiffness and draw something new.
Now without further ado, we present... "K" is for Kangaroos!
Watch out for Slithe, the axe-wielding-reptilian-leader of the evil mutants!
That’s right! After a brief hiatus I’m back to drawing some of my favorite cartoon characters, the Thundercats! And who better to start off with on the villain's side then the coolest mutant of them all, Slithe. I always found Slithe to be a great character. He tried to act so tough, but always ended up coming off as a scaredy-cat to me. Still, you gotta love him.
Just like my heroic team shot, Slithe is part of a larger team drawing I’m doing for fun. Again, I'll be posting each villain as I finish, then the whole image once it's done.
Now for a few extra goodies... Below is a screen shot of Slithe I took as I was refining his sketch.
And here is my quick layout sketch of the whole villain team. This is going to be a fun one to finish! ;)
Until next time... "Thundercats HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
This week I'm back with more fun with dogs! What self-respecting dog doesn't enjoy a good game of fetch? You know, of course, that once you throw that ball you're going to be busy for awhile. A dog will play fetch for hours. That's the inspiration for this SweetIM animation.
Last week I showed off our designs for the Pastry Chef from 2A!’s Bride and Groom Planner animation. This week I present his co-star, the lovely Florist!
The Florist was a more straightforward design to work on. We needed a cute yet sassy female lead to help our clueless Chef. I think we captured her attitude in the design well, and she comes across as knowledgeable without being annoying.
Boomer was another one of those rare designs that actually came to me pretty quickly. My first sketch had more of a realistic kangaroo stance – hunched over with a wider bottom – but I quickly decided that it didn’t fit in with the other Sifaka World characters well enough. Sketch two has a more cartoony body, which the client quickly approved. And of course, the hat and outfit were inspired by the Crocodile Dundee flicks. Good times! ;)
The subject of this week’s Monday Morning Motivators is a critter that I didn’t even know existed until today. He’s a cool little dude that looks like a cross between a mouse and a kangaroo, with the ears of… well, I don’t know what. Anyway, this week’s theme was suggested by Chris Pompeo. Thanks Chris!
Next week's theme is anything that starts with the letter "K," so anyone interested in making a suggestion can drop us a line here or on our Facebook page. Become a fan, suggest a theme, and if we dig it we’ll draw it.
For those that don’t know… MMMs is our weekly exercise where we pick a theme and spend the first hour of each week sketching. The sketches can be loose or tight, but the point is to work out the weekend stiffness and draw something new.
Now without further ado, we present... "J" is for Jerboas!
I'm sure you're all as happy to see winter go as I am, and there are so many things to look forward to in spring. So, of course, I was inspired to create a drawing about the fact that the first day of spring is tomorrow!
Sitting on fresh green grass, admiring the pretty yellow forsythia bushes and feeing the hungry chickadees and sparrows are the pastimes I felt worked for this year's piece. I wanted to play around with SketchBook Pro's coloring tools, so once I sketched out the line work I went straight into coloring. It was a fun challenge, and I look forward to practicing in this program more.
Just looking at this makes me wish it was tomorrow already, so I could jump on my bike and enjoy the weather! What things are you looking forward to most this spring?
With the warm weather finally back, I've been seeing a lot more people out and about running, jogging, and walking their dogs. Here's a SweetIM animation we recently did featuring a dog who's excited to get out for some exercise.
Here comes another cool character design 2A! created for Sifaka World.
This time I present Sifaka’s resident party animal, the DJ Snow Leopard! This cat can be found spinning the techno tunes over at Kintana’s Clubhouse, located in the beautiful Treetop Village area of Sifaka Island.
You can pay her a visit and groove to the funky beats at www.sifakaworld.com.
It’s another rainy day here in New Jersey, and if that didn’t make me feel chilly enough, then drawing this week’s Monday Morning Motivators surely did. This week’s theme was suggested by Dawn Costantini over on our Facebook page. Thanks Dawn! ;)
Next week's theme is anything that starts with the letter "J," so anyone interested in making a suggestion can drop us a line here or on our Facebook page. Become a fan, suggest a theme, and if we dig it we’ll draw it.
For those that don’t know… MMMs is our weekly exercise where we pick a theme and spend the first hour of each week sketching. The sketches can be loose or tight, but the point is to work out the weekend stiffness and draw something new.
Now without further ado, we present... "I" is for Igloos!
Here's another fun exercised I did for the Design-A-Character group over on Deviant Art. The idea was to re-imagine a provided character – in this case "Goku" from Dragonball Z – in a style different than the original. So, with that in mind I tried my hand at two different Gokus.
The first is what I consider to be my “comic book” style, where Goku is proportioned more like a normal human in a dramatic, superhero-type pose. The second is my “cartoon” style, where I had more fun with his proportions and used a more playful theme… spoofing the idea of having to collect balls, magical or otherwise. :P
I've also included my initial sketches at the very bottom, cause I like seeing rough stuff. ;)
This week's SweetIM animation is one that's reserved for only the people you despise the most. Actually, it's all in good fun, but this one was definitely tough to pull off. Figuring out how to convincingly rip up someone's instant messenger window took some time, but I think it turned out well. Check out the video, and use it next time you need to release some of that pent up aggression!
The first episode spoofed Britney Spears and her crazy family situation, so we tried to make the most comedic puppets for Britney, Kevin Federline, and Baby Spears. This show had a very unique style, as we used cut out photos for heads and drew the bodies in Flash. We had to alter the photos before using them, but it was fun to accentuate them with wacky eyes and crazy smiles, as well as adding drawn elements like Baby Spear's cornrows.
2A! animated the 2006 season of this show, which consisted of 39 episodes. You can watch them over at Heavy.com and on YouTube. The show also airs on Comcast On Demand.
Today’s post is a look at some of the background designs from one of our favorite Superficial Friends episodes titled, “The Superficial Friends vs. Harry Knowles!”
This episode was a ton of fun to work on (no pun intended)! We especially had a blast designing Harry’s evil lair. Below is a shot of the entrance, which is a giant Harry head carved into the side of a volcano. In order to get inside, the girls find themselves flying straight into Harry's mouth. :P
Next up, is a shot of the interior of Harry’s lair (sans overlaid characters), which is something from a fanboy’s wet dream. If you look closely, you’ll notice a bunch of cool collectables like a life-sized Optimus Prime, a Star-Wars Star Destroyer, Boba Fett’s helmet, a Hellboy bust, and more!
2A! animated 20 episodes of this action packed show about Hollywood’s shallowest super team! Episodes are currently available online at Heavy.com and on YouTube. The show also airs on Comcast On Demand.
If you think your hair looks wacky in the morning, just wait till you see the crazy styles today’s Monday Morning Motivators are sporting. This week’s theme was suggested by Beth Ann Spiegel over on our Facebook page. Thanks Beth Ann!
Next week is the letter “I,” so anyone interested in making a suggestion can drop us a line here or on our Facebook page. Become a fan, suggest a theme, and if we dig it we’ll draw it.
Now get ready, because here comes… "H" is for Hornbills!
I recently did some work for the new Garbage Pail Kids Flashback Series. This painting was done for the "Where Are They Now" subset. The idea behind it was to get a look at what the Kids from the original 1980's series are up to now. Above is my final painting, with my concept sketch and printed card of Bony Joanie below. I figured with today's pressure to stay thin in the modeling world, she'd be a perfect fit. I've also included the original Bony Joanie card for comparison. I'll be posting more of my concept drawings in future posts, so be sure to check back!
We've all had jobs where we stare at the clock watching minutes pass by like hours, waiting for any kind of relief from the madness. This animation captures the excitement of that glorious point in the day where you get to drop everything at work and eat.
Since spring is right around the corner, I figured I’d better post our Christmas character designs before it was too late and all the snow had melted! :P
It was super fun to play with this batch of SweetIM designs, as Christmas characters are so widely portrayed. For example, I really enjoyed working on what the "sexy elf" would look like. As an artist I always like to see the sketches that helped form the final design, so I hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I enjoy sharing them!
Our friends over at Snark Rocket Studios (formerly Camp Chaos Entertainment) just posted the full pilot episode of Farewell, Manga Squad!
You may remember reading in our July 2009 post that 2A! handled all of the 2D animation sequences, which included character animation, prop and effects animation, and background designs. We also tackled the job of compositing all of the 3D robot and space ship exteriors into the final piece for delivery.
Check out some cool screen shots below. Then head on over to Snark Rocket to watch the full video! ;)
Two Animators! LLP (2A!) is a full-service animation production and development studio.
Founded in 2001 by brothers Tom and Joe Costantini, 2A! creates content for animated series, shorts, music and explainer videos, commercial spots, games, apps and more. We’ve had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects during our 14+ years in business, from full-blown television series to online virtual worlds (MMOs) and mobile apps. Our team works in many different styles and can adapt to your specific production needs, and of course we’re always excited to design a unique look for a brand new property. We love creating new characters, worlds and storylines, and can help transform your ideas into fully developed IPs (Intellectual Properties) ready for pitching, producing or selling.
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