Friday, May 27, 2011

"Adventure Episode" Design Concepts Part 1


The Adventure Episode; One of my favorites!
Christian's brilliant script called for Muno to discover an underground passage leading to an ancient Mesoamerican-esque temple where he discovers a golden statue resembling an ear of corn. This is no doubt paying homage to our favorite adventure movies of the 80's.

Brandon Minton sent over this early computer sketch to show where we needed to start. We had to build a miniature model as well as a full scale set for the top of the temple.


I started clicking my mouse too and brought to the table the concept below. I heard that DEVO's energy-dome hats were actually inspired by Mayan temples, so I thought it would be fun with art-imitating-life imitating art again and tried a DEVO inspired temple shape.
It didn't really work and we went back to the traditional block shape.




Then I put down the mouse down and picked up the colored pencils. More sloppy = more fun!
The colors here were important to me. I didn't want warm rock colors. I wanted something cool & stony but still Yo Gabba bright. I went for blues, greens and purples; a meager nod to Eyvind Earle's genius castle interiors from one of my favorite movies, Sleeping Beauty.

I felt that bright green moss everywhere would really make the the background pop in certain areas.
I'm often throwing in concept ideas that just don't work budget or script-wise but are fun. Why not have a puppet snake in the background? Oh..yeah, that's why.
Also notice the popcorn motif on the altar. It's a tiny reveal to the forthcoming popcorn payoff at the end of the script.
Later I thought it might be fun if the carved faces in the background were more character specific to the show, so I made them random smiling Goobles instead of generic tiki-hieroglyphs. I confess, I try to sneak Gooble in as much as possible.


The script also called for a pillar or post for Muno to lasso and climb up on, as showed here in Julia Vickerman's storyboard.

So I was asked to design a pillar. BO-RING. I figured if we were going to make our guys sculpt and paint something, it might as well be fun looking, right? I felt it was another oppurtunity to work in some more YGG characters. Naturally, I first thought of another chance to work in Gooble, but maybe too much...

... We are telling the story of an ancient ruin, not my fascination with a crying ghost, so I drew inspiration from these gargoyles representing the great Quetzelcoatl, or "feathered serpent"

I thought that our own little cat-dragon Toodee would pull this look off really well, so there's your pillar design for you.

Also, I had this idea of having the top of the temple to resemble a Pizza Hut. Wouldn't you think that's funny? I guess it was just me. Bryan Anderton pointed out that with Muno being almost 7 feet tall, it would be difficult to even fit that roof into frame. You win some, you lose some.
And now, here's how it turned out! (Click to enlarge)





Hooray for corn!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

DJ Lance is making friends over at Vans!

It's DJ Lance and legendary skate legend, Omar Hassan!!

Speaking of legends, is that Alex Knost!?!?

Check out this clip of Alex surfing with Toodee!



Man that guy gets around...

Monday, May 23, 2011

Vans + YGG Commercials Behind the Scenes! (Plex)


While we were busy making commercials to promote the Yo Gabba Gabba + Vans shoe collection, the folks at Vans were taking the time to document it happening. This video features Skate legends, Christian Hosoi, Bucky Lasek with your favorite skateboarding robot, Plex tearing it up at the combi bowl over at the Vans Skatepark
http://www.offthewall.tv

And here's the finished Plex Commercial



*Bonus*

Watch the inspirational reference from the classic DEVO video, "Freedom Of Choice"

Vans + YGG Commercials Behind the Scenes! (Muno)


While we were busy making commercials to promote the Yo Gabba Gabba + Vans shoe collection, the folks at Vans were taking the time to document it happening. Check it out! It's really cool.
http://www.offthewall.tv

And here's the finished MUNO Commercial



*BONUS*
I thought it might be nice to share the reference of Lance Mountain from The Bones Brigade Video Show. Most specifically at 2:52.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

The Office of Joel Fox


This is a real treat! Joel Fox has just shared with us what his office was like during production of Yo Gabba Gabba,; Season 3.
You've got to check this out. Especially the part where you can see what was inside his desk.

http://joeldepartment.com/a-desk-made-for-working/


This makes me really excited about what Season 4 is going to bring.