Friday 10 February 2017

Adaptation B - Idea Change


Personally, I felt that my 'Gonna Get Yer' idea was dead in the water, I struggled to find the momentum that would propel my excitement for it. I have decided to drop the idea and look at something different. 

I want to Design a character, or set of characters, that would be for a Saturday morning cartoon show.
I would design the characters and create an (after effects) animated teaser for an upcoming cartoon whilst also adapting the designs to work as quirky, 3D action figure models which would be made in Maya. 
I have been looking at western folk tales and one that has stood out to me is 'El Muerto'.


In broad terms, the tale tells of a Mexican outlaw man named 'Vidal' who was killed (beheaded) by Texan Ranger, 'Bigfoot Wallace'. He then strapped the dead body and head to a horse and set it on it's way. This frightened many people. Although the body was thwarted by those brave enough to do so and the horse was put at ease. But some say they still see the ghost of 'El Muerto' riding across the moonlit land.

Characters:

El Muerto (Alive and dead)
Bigfoot Wallace
Creed Taylor


2 comments:

  1. Tom - OK a change of idea. I'm liking the idea of a Saturday morning kids cartoon series approach however your story is a perhaps little 'dark'? Saturday morning kids cartoons are defined by their era and the 'governing rules' around what could and could not be shown on TV in that age - They same is true of toys (In the 40s/50s you could have science kits with actual Uranium). Saturday kids cartoons also had 'toys and play' as a driver, not necessarily the story (sometimes that came after). Take a look below at two recently made cartoons which use 80/90s as their inspiration. One spoofs the 80s and was made by a group of students using 3D and the other is made 'as was' by one person.

    Space Stallions (A spoof of 80's Saturday morning kids cartoons - eg He-man)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Otaq2tmNMM

    Indianna Jones Fan Opening for a Saturday morning TV show that never existed.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE8v5WDbbC4

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  2. One other thing - Bernie Loomis (The former head Kenner / Matel Toys) was one of the most successful company directors in the history of toy design. The reason for that was his approach to 'play'. He was famous for asking his designers to 'show him the play value' in each toy. If they couldn't it was a 'collectible' not a toy for children.

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