alt

Behind The Scenes

About 6 months ago, my company got a project that my producer couldn't resist accepting. It was going to give my company a good rep if we get it done right. This client was NBA (National Basketball Association). Yes! It's THE NBA. Upon finishing our current project at that time, my team and I jumped directly into this with a short briefing and didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. It was also our director's first time directing so there was a lot of ground to cover.

For weeks I see the concept being developed. The script coming back and forth with feedback. Character designs were underway, environment designs, voiceover talents were hired, and we needed to book a motion capture studio for this project. If you don't know what motion capture is, it is those suited black suit people with white balls stuck to their bodies. Their movements would be recorded and added to the animation. Something like this :

alt
source

Well, it was also my company's first time using this technology and we had to, because we had to complete this project in 4 months' time. In these 4 months, it included pre-production, production, and post-production. Everything from the beginning to the end. We even had to develop 6 episodes, 2 minutes each worth of pure animation. When I heard about this, I knew it was going to be crunch time.

My company was already out of manpower because the lot of them were moved to complete a movie we set to air next year. So it was left with 3 senior animators. 2 of my colleagues and me. We needed to get 6 episodes out in 3 months(which normally takes 6 months or more) but we thought that the motion capture would save us. We were wrong... It was a whole new learning curve and we only had limited time to get up to speed. As we started off doing the layout and rough pass for animation, we were faced with many technical issues. We started bringing in more animators from the movie pipeline and they too needed to get up to speed as the motion capture software was new to every one of us.

alt
source

WE WORKED HARD! I can still remember like it was just yesterday that we had to work from 9.30am to 1.00am everyday. We did this from Monday to Sunday. There were no breaks in between except the time for us to sleep. We kept the hustle but a lot of us were emotionally drained as well. There was once, an intern didn't dare approached me because she said I looked angry all the time. I wasn't angry, I was just drained out and my default face was an RBF(Resting Bitch Face).

We hustled for 3 months straight and soon enough, it ended just in a nick of time before the NBA season launched. We were all proud of ourselves and relieved at the same time. I was really happy that it ended, and as much as I'm glad it ended, I was very appreciative of the progress each of us had. The bond that we have created during these tough times, the late nights where we would just rant and grumble because we needed to and to see so much potential and improvements in my team. I was looking after the junior animators and I was pleased by how committed and hardworking they were. They really 'leveled up' in their skillset. after this whole fiasco.

Now that we're done with this miniseries, I can't wait to show you the first episode! The following episodes are on youtube if you want to watch more of it. It's only about 10 minutes for the full series. So here you are! My sweat, blood, and tears :

Character profiles:

Ana

Ana is the team leader. Her teammates always get on her nerves with their playful sides. Always determine and competitive. Loves keeping a vlogging diary.

Ben

Ben is a sharpshooter/scorer in the team. He just lacks of practice and his dribbling skills need to be greatly improved. He is an introvert and timid in nature and usually doesn't say much in conversations.

Kai

Kai is the Asian kid in the team and being an Asian and his tall height, he is 'assumed' to be able to play basketball. He joins the team for friendship sakes but has low self-confidence in himself.

Carlos

Carlos is the jokester of the group. Always playful and cheeky at the wrong time which leads to the team failing. He has potential in being a point guard or a tanker in defense but because he is never serious, he often let this potential go to waste.

Putri

Putri is the youngest in the group and is incredibly talented in basketball. She is quick and she is an all-rounder.

This is just the brief profiles of each character. The profile bible is a little longer than this but according to my memory, this were some of the important notes we as animators need to take note to give the characters their own personality.

I hope you enjoy watching this series and if you do, do share the cartoon with everyone else! It is much appreciated.