Collideascope Animation Studios

The Big Bash

2008-09-06T20:23:00.000-03:00

Thank you all for coming! Over 150 people showed up, most of the Nova Scotia animation community, it was good to see everyone, it felt like a big heart-felt reunion even though it had only been a few months. Collideascope will be missed.

All Good Things...

2008-08-21T12:12:00.013-03:00

Well, here we are.
After 13 years in the business, Collideascope Animation Studios will no longer exist as of October 1st. Through some unforeseen circumstances, we are forced to close our doors. I'd like to say we had a good run; with over 90 hours of footage produced over the last 8 years (with over half of that being our own original properties) we've made lots of cartoons over the years, and I for one, am proud of the many things we've accomplished.

A combination of many different factors have lead the owners of the company to this decision, but in the end we simply could not stay open any longer. With the state of the industry and the position that Canadian broadcasters are taking nowadays, it's gotten much tougher to produce new shows lately. You can see M-A's closing speech here for more details.

I'd like to personally thank all the people I've had the pleasure to work with these past few years at Collideascope. I've enjoyed meeting and collaborating with hundreds of artists on lots of incredibly cool projects. The challenges of pushing ourselves and our tools to their limits while inflating the company to over 120 people as we juggled 3 projects at once was exhausting and highly rewarding at the same time.

I'm eternally grateful for all the hard work everyone's done with me (and for me) over the years. We produced and developed some very enjoyable and creative shows, we've had some great laughs and some unforgettable moments along the way. I don't know what the future holds for me, but I know for certain that all the immensely talented artists and employees at Collideascope will have no problem expanding their skill sets to other projects and studios.

I'll keep this blog alive for a couple more months. I'll create a new home for all the surprisingly popular Flash FX tutorials, and I'll link them off of Flooby once I've made a new blog to host them all (plus more new ones).

When I first arrived here, nearly 9 years ago, I would have never dreamed that I was going to participate in making so many cartoons with so many amazing people, so I must thank Sean, and Curtis for giving me the opportunity to start here, and a big thanks to Steve and M-A for giving me the freedom in managing the studio the way I did these past 7 years.

See this Eulogy.

I've had an amazing experience and an incredibly fun time working at Collideascope. The most kind and generous people I've ever met have been at this studio, and I thank you all for the fantastic time you've given me.

-Ron

An old studio drawing jam of random doodles

2008-08-20T19:01:00.001-03:00

More Background Designs

2008-07-23T15:09:00.004-03:00

Location Designs

2008-07-22T15:38:00.003-03:00

Johnny Test Fan Art

2008-07-22T15:28:00.002-03:00

Johnny Ratings still kicking butt!

2008-07-08T11:11:00.001-03:00

Mid June Ratings

June 18th, 2008 1:17 PM by Aaron H. Bynum
Via Animation Insider

Cartoon Network Ratings: Program Specific

Chowder (Thurs. 8:00pm):

Kids 2-11 ratings 2.6 (+30%) / 1,066,000 (+35%)
Boys 2-11 ratings 3.3 (+38%) / 688,000 (+38%)
Girls 2-11 ratings 1.9 (+27%) / 378,000 (+29%)
Kids 6-11 ratings 3.1 (+35%) / 750,000 (+33%)
Boys 6-11 ratings 3.9 (+26%) / 490,000 (+27%)
Girls 6-11 ratings 2.2 (+47%) / 260,000 (+48%)

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack (8:30pm):

Kids 2-11 ratings 2.6 (+24%) / 1,031,000 (+23%)
Boys 2-11 ratings 3.2 (+28%) / 663,000 (+28%)
Girls 2-11 ratings 1.9 (+19%) / 368,000 (+16%)
Kids 6-11 ratings 3.1 (+19%) / 743,000 (+18%)
Boys 6-11 ratings 4.0 (+11%) / 503,000 (+13%)
Girls 6-11ratings 2.0 (+33%) / 241,000 (+32%)

Total Drama Island (9:00pm):

Kids 2-11 ratings 2.9 (+21%) / 1,159,000 (+20%)
Boys 2-11ratings 3.6 (+29%) / 738,000 (+27%)
Girls 2-11ratings 2.1 (+11%) / 421,000 (+11%)
Kids 6-11 ratings 3.6 (+24%) / 872,000 (+24%)
Boys 6-11 ratings 4.8 (+20%) / 595,000 (+21%)
Girls 6-11 ratings 2.3 (+28%) / 276,000 (+29%)

Johnny Test (9:30pm):

Kids 2-11 ratings 3.0 (+36%) / 1,195,000 (+34%)
Boys 2-11 ratings 3.3 (+22%) / 688,000 (+23%)
Girls 2-11 ratings 2.6 (+53%) / 507,000 (+51%)
Kids 6-11 ratings 3.6 (+33%) / 870,000 (+33%)
Boys 6-11 ratings 4.5 (+18%) / 557,000 (+19%)
Girls 6-11 ratings 2.6 (+63%) / 313,000 (+68/%)

Ben 10 Alien Force (Sat., 10:00am):

Kids 2-11 ratings 2.3 (+35%) / 945,000 (+37%)
Boys 2-11 ratings 3.5 (+40%) / 727,000 (+40%)
Girls 2-11 ratings 1.1 (+22%) / 218,000 (+29%)
Kids 6-11 ratings 2.9 (+61%) / 701,000 (+58%)
Boys 6-11 ratings 4.4 (+57%) / 548,000 (+57%)
Girls 6-11 ratings 1.3 (+63%) / 154,000 (+64%)

Boards to Animation Comparison - 6

2008-06-20T03:11:00.000-03:00

A sequence from Johnny Test, displaying the stages from animatic to roughs and final paint.

Boards to Animation Comparison - 5

2008-06-18T03:09:00.000-03:00

A short character animation sequence from Johnny Test, showing a breakdown of the stages from animatic to roughs and final paint.

Boards to Animation Comparison - 4

2008-06-18T02:53:00.000-03:00

Another short and simple acting scene from Johnny Test, showing a breakdown of the stages from animatic to roughs and final paint.

Boards to Animation Comparison - 3

2008-06-13T14:29:00.002-03:00

Short and simple acting scene from Johnny Test, showing a breakdown of the stages from animatic to roughs to final paint.

Boards to Animation Comparison - 2

2008-06-09T15:10:00.002-03:00

A quick break down from animatic to final ink & paint animation.
A short sentimental moment between Dukey and Johnny as they get ready to combine their powers just before the big climax to the season finale.

Boards to Animation Comparison - 1

2008-06-09T15:08:00.003-03:00

A quick break down from animatic to final ink & paint animation.
Johnny rescues a cat from the well with his 'mega-power poots'.

New Johnny Test Online Game on CN

2008-06-08T12:29:00.003-03:00

Bromwell High - Still Going Strong

2008-06-08T12:05:00.010-03:00

Now available on DVD in the UK!
International purchases have seen the show screened in the United States on BBC America, on The Box in the Netherlands, dubbed to Spanish on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in the Latin Americas, on ABC in Australia, on TVNZ's TV2 in New Zealand, and also dubbed in French for the Canadian Télétoon network.

In 2005 it was awarded the Best Comedy Prize at the
British Animation Awards. It had high ratings during its 2005 run on the UK's Channel 4. Since then it's a huge hit through out Australia and the Netherlands.

There are some other differences between the UK and Canadian versions of the show, notably that the UK version has a longer and slightly different version of the opening credits and theme, and the UK broadcasts were in the 16:9 (widescreen), while the Canadian versions are cropped to a 4:3 aspect ratio.

A UK DVD release was originally planned for early 2006 - in connection with which a 15 minute Making of Bromwell High short was certified by the British Board of Film Classification as a '15' on 31 January 2006 - but was subsequently cancelled. The thirteen episodes were certified as '15' on 30 August 2006, apart from Keisha's in Love, which was classified as a '12', for the release of the complete series as a two-disc set on 2 October 2006. This release contains all 13 episodes (seven of which have never aired in the UK), and extras include the previously-prepared Making of Bromwell High short, deleted scenes and outtakes, commentary on the episode Sweets and the original animatic storyboard for Baby Boom.

- Canadian (Teletoon) transmission order -

1x01: Tolerance

First Aired: 1 February 2005

Our three girls prepare a presentation on the theme of tolerance, a subject which highlights the multi-cultural diversity within Bromwell High, but which Latrina dismisses out of hand as being "for gays". Keisha and Natella become arch rivals in a bid to win a prize which seemingly doesn't exist.

1x02: Police Story

First Aired: 8 February 2005

When a prevalent mobile phone thief continues to evade the local police, Inspector Lehman decides to pay Bromwell High a visit. Lehman advises maverick Headmaster Iqbal that he will be leaving PC Carter at the school in a bid to catch the thief, and threatens that if Iqbal does not comply with the police, they will clamp down on his illegal animal trade.

1x03: Keisha's In Love

First Aired: 15 February 2005

Bromwell High has a new pupil - blonde-haired blue-eyed Spencer. Keisha starts to experience strange warm and tingly feelings every time she sees Spencer, causing her to shower him not with affection, but with punches. Meanwhile, the Head of Year Eight position becomes vacant, resulting in a hard-fought battle between Miss Dickson ("the slutty one") and Mr Philips ("the stupid one"), both of whom set out to impress Iqbal with their teaching prowess...

1x04: No More Teachers

First Aired: 22 February 2005

After a sensational performance at the school music evening, Mr Anderson, the English teacher, is offered a career as a pop star, leaving the rest of the teachers to ponder their own pathetic and unrewarding careers in the classroom. Depressed and dreaming of pastures new, they resign with immediate effect on their own very personal routes to fame and fortune, and Iqbal is faced with the problem of replacing an entire staff.

1x05: Fire Drill

First Aired: 1 March 2005

Keisha's fascination with pyromania has spiralled out of control and she is unable to stop herself setting fire to things, including the school premises. Iqbal's real problems start, however, when one of Keisha's fires inadvertently highlights the fact that Bromwell High has no wheelchair access.

1x06: Valentine's Day

First Aired: 8 March 2005

It's Valentine's Day at Bromwell High but Natella has persuaded our laydeez to give it a miss this year on the basis that it is a meaningless market event created by greeting card companies to boost sales figures. Keisha and Latrina are none too pleased with Natella when Miss Dickson decides to banish all pupils without cards to "ugly class", but things start to look up for the girls as Davis - the coolest boy in the school - is seen putting a Valentine's card in Keisha and Natella's box. Who is it meant for?

1x07: Goodbye Mr. Crisps

First Aired: 15 March 2005

Iqbal and Mr Bibby need to raise money quickly to solve Bromwell High's latest financial crisis, so when Natella introduces Iqbal to her new friend, posh Katie, who she met at the National Science Competition, Iqbal is ecstatic - and amazed - to learn just how much some children's parents are willing to pay for a decent education.

1x08: Baby Boom

First Aired: 22 March 2005

Latrina's mum has just given birth to yet another baby, which Latrina accidentally brings into school in her bag. In a ploy to get rid of the baby in a spot that she has not previously used, Latrina swaps the infant with the sex education teacher's doll. Will the teacher even notice?

1x09: Sack Race

First Aired: 29 March 2005

When P.E. teacher Mr Philips gives Latrina a grubby old vest that she believes belonged to Bromwell High's famous sporting alumnus Leroy Thomas, she immediately displays an astonishing, and not unsurprising, athletic prowess.

1x10: Prefect

First Aired: 5 April 2005

Keisha's behavioural problems have reached epic proportions and it is time for Iqbal and Mr Bibby to take drastic measures. To Natella's extreme anguish, they appoint Keisha as a school prefect. Keisha's mission is to reduce crime levels in the school, which she manages through a carefully orchestrated campaign of violence and threatening behaviour.

1x11: Natella Takes Charge

First Aired: 12 April 2005

When the girls innocently play around with a bomb that has been left in the playground, it unsurprisingly ends with a scene of chaos and destruction. In order to fund the necessary renovations, Iqbal and Mr Bibby arrange for Albanian Chicken Nuggets to sponsor Bromwell High, resulting in a drastic change to the school curriculum...

1x12: Drama Queen

First Aired: 19 April 2005

Martin and Carol Jackson's marriage is in tatters, and Carol decides to put her energy into organising a school play to exorcise her woes. Latrina is given the star role but encounters an extreme bout of stage fright. Meanwhile, Iqbal and Bibby have managed to secure funding from various banks and need to decide how to invest it. A hard-fought battle between the teachers ensues, each one bidding to secure desperately needed cash for their departments.

1x13: Sweets

First Aired: 26 April 2005

When the girls find themselves in possession of a truck-load of black market sweets, they quickly discover that the sweets are - quite literally - mind-blowing. With an education article being written about "Heads and their Deputies", this is Iqbal and Bibby's chance to shine. But will the journalist be distracted by the newly formed sweets racket in the playground, and by the recent spate of exploding pupils?

A Review By 'Geeks Of Doom'

2008-05-20T05:08:00.005-03:00

Speed Racer
The Next Generation
Voice cast: Kurt Csolak, Peter Fernandez,
Robbie Sublett
Lionsgate
Released May 6, 2008

Hot on the heels of the recently released movie of the same name, this movie-length primer with the movie-length name Speed Racer the Next Generation: The Beginning cartoon is a breath of fresh air to any Speed Racer fan able to stomach a few upgrades here and there.

I was, of course, utterly skeptical (I even had my skeptical spectacles on!) when I got this DVD for I saw Speed (Jr. I guess - but I will get to that later) puff-chested and CGI-like on the cover and thought to myself “here we go, a sad rip off of the original and classic Speed Racer” (cue the theme music). But, to my surprise, I found the movie quite watcheable and a decent premise to a series that “promises” to be pretty decent.

Two things impressed me about Speed Racer the Next Generation: The Beginning (and for the benefit of all Geeks I am reducing that to Speed Racer TNG TB from now on). Firstly, there is a cunning transition between your usual Saturday morning 2D cartooning and the smooth — and obviously much more labor intensive — CGI-syled computer-generated motion graphics. I would love to explain this further, but I am sure a watch of the movie will explain it much better than I can. Cleverly, the creators of this series have woven in the ability to transport the actual vehicle races onto a “virtual race-track” giving them complete creative license to have Speed and his teammates/adversaries/robots race through anything from a Tron-like, space-age landscape to an ice world and back to a dessert and then back again. This concept I imagine will be the high point of all the following cartoons.

The second indent on my brain about Speed Racer TNG TB was the back story. Clearly we are talking about sacred ground here for many geeks and this was my main contention when I first saw the title. I was indeed ready to scoff at anything trying to re-hash such a classic.

How they managed to tackle this is quite cool.

The premise is thus: Years after the original Speed’s “disappearance,” a young and impressionable orphan named simply “Speed,” armed with nothing but a passion for racing, a red bandanna and a fancy looking key purportedly given to him by his father, arrives at the prestigious School for Racing run by Principal Spritle. (Ring any bells there? Yes indeed, Principal Spritle was the annoying little brat of a younger brother that was manically jumping up and down and hiding in the trunk of the original Speed Racer cartoon with that damn monkey!) Speed has to make an impression straight off and sets off making all sorts of waves whilst retaining his boyish and almost irritating niceness.

Enter X, the bad boy of the school and the best (as of yet) racer. X is Daddy Speed’s “recognized” son, pressure is on him from all angles to be “the next Speed,” and the friction between him and this new boy, called Speed (confused yet?) is another point of no doubt series’ long contentions.

But wait there’s more. There’s Zile Zazic, the Mega Corporation-owning racing fiend who enjoys nothing more than funding the Racing School and watching the goings on from various spy cams and his hot daughter Annalise, who attends the school and manages to create enough havoc to keep a series running by herself. Zile, a man with more Z’s than any other living evil mastermind in history, is bound to be the bain of Speed’s life as the series continues.

Of course the infamous monkey Chim Chim from the classic series has been upgraded by a robot version built by Conner, the new Speed’s roommate/comic relief, and ultimately his mechanic for…. well, it wouldn’t be right to tell you what sort of car the new Speed drove, would it?

Needless to say, the film sets up the series very well and even for I, Skeptical Spectacled Groovespook, found it quite entertaining and not at all the classic-killing show I thought it might have been.

Check it out!

The DVD is a lead in to the new animated half-hour TV series, which airs on Fridays at 7pm ET on Nicktoons Network.

Via Groovespook's article here.

Cartoon Network's First Johnny Test Promo From last Janaury

2008-05-16T08:01:00.004-03:00

D&J Backgrounds

2008-05-01T11:47:00.004-03:00

Industry Day

2008-04-25T18:48:00.017-03:00

I had my first Industry Day at Sheridan. It was an awesome experience!

I handed out the award for Best 2D Animation (in which Collideascope sponsored a $1000 cash prize for the winner) to Eduardo Avenir for his film Lion's Den. This was not an easy decision, there were 8 films out of the 90 classically-animated shorts we screened that I totally particularly loved and were all brilliant for character, story, acting, and design in every way, it wasn't easy to pick just one. Maybe next year we'll figure out a way to split the award amongst the top three equally somehow, because it was a rough decision to make, but it was fun to watch and participate.

At the end of the day I saw...
130 films in 6 hours!
Talk about exhausting, but there was lots of amazing concepts from traditional to CG to stop motion, with a wide range of graphic styles and design.

Meeting some of the 24 students I had hired last summer was very cool as well. It felt like a reunion, seeing their final films, watching how well they had progressed and how well they had done was truly inspirational.

I was blown away at some of the post production that students were able to make for the film, I have no idea how they found the energy to put some much work into adding paint, complex camera moves, crazy compositing tricks, rack focus, Foley style sound effects, fantastic music, and TONS of After Effects. Simply Amazing!

Surprisingly (and thankfully) lots more Flash animation this year too, nearly all of it rough and fully animated in Flash, it was beautiful to see, it's too bad it's taken soooo long for it to catch on in colleges, but finally students can and do experiment in Flash to produce some stunning animation. It was as if Collideascope had started a small revolution for a few of the graduating students that had returned to college to finish their final year and spread the word of what the software could do. After a 4 month internship here the knowledge of Flash had spread all over, and a few used its tools to create some wonderful frame-by-frame animation.

From the sketch blog of Mark Anthony.

From the sketch blog of Ewen Nguyen .

Another aspect I was blown away with was all the students' preparation for this epic event! Thousands of printed business cards, posters, portfolios and show reels, all very professional, some with booths setup with tons of concept art and 'behind the scenes' materials from their film. Overall very impressive.

I had a great time and I hope I'm not too busy next year to go again and again, it was a nice and well organized showcase of over 100 graduating student's works and definitely worth the trip.

Series Bible

2008-04-23T06:07:00.010-03:00

The playing field for pitching cartoon shows has changed considerably in the last 10 years. Our various animation series have evolved to encompass several different styles for both service work to original properties. Thanks to Flash, the production pipeline has changed to allow animation to stay in North America. But in the 80s and 90s, it seemed all you needed was a face to face meeting or interview with an executive and a nice concept scribbled on a napkin to get a potential show off the ground. If your pitch was a good idea, you'd enter into a development phase whereas writing, visual development and rough character/location designs would begin. Eventually once the show was green lit by the broadcasters, merchandising would begin production as script, voices and boards would be done and animation would be shipped overseas, returning to North America a few months later with full color animation complete, then music/sound effects would be laid in for a final cut.

Nowadays broadcasters and executives need more a lot info before putting a new show concept in to full production. They need to know your resources, they need in depth research on the marketability and originality of your product and preferably a ton of pre-design and script writing to help get a chance to even be considered. Some need fully developed concepts, episodic scripts, color keys, animatics, and animation tests all included in your pitch. In essence, spend a lot of your own time and money to develop your idea... yourself. The competition is the same, but it's gotten a lot more intense, a one-sheet or a 10 page bible may not be enough to sell your idea anymore, making contacts, working harder with your research, and fully developing the idea yourself has become the norm.

Now most major studios look for catch phrases and marketability above all. Quoting Denny Furlong and MickMak from Frederator:

Sometimes you will even be asked to sum up a characters entirely using catch phrases, and be ready to explain your target demographic. Oh and now they love to see you walk in with a fully animated pilot or a few shorts because that allows your idea to go straight to market testing at very little cost to the company (executive types like saving money).

The Series Bible is a pitching tool to show executives that you have the nuts and bolts down to sell a show to them. It's size ranges from 1 pg (called a One Sheet) to 15pgs (a Presentation) and usually consists of a setup (What the show is about), character designs and descriptions, what the world is and why it's different or not different from the real world and then a list of either Springboards (think TV Guide) or a season of synopses (beginning, middle and end). Generally in that order.

Here at Collideascope, our templates have always been something like this:
• Main Concept of the Series
• Characters - Descriptions/Designs
• The Environment/Style- Descriptions/Designs
• Story Outlines / Episode Synposis

A simple 10-20 page bible describing the visual style, character development, and stories of the series is all you would normally need, but many have gotten off the ground thanks to the internet, releasing their own YouTube channel or webisodes/independent short films online. Garnering attention with lots of hits for it's original & entertaining content and eventually landing a deal to expand their concept to broadcast television, all this is slowly becoming a more common occurrence, but still quite rare.

Here's some links on advice and strategies for developing and pitching animated series:
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=search&sval=pitch&article_no=3506
http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=2338&ltype=pageone
http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=1598&ltype=Columns
http://coldhardflash.com/2007/07/pitch-pros-preach-passion-and.htm
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=search&sval=pitch&article_no=3392
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=search&sval=pitch&article_no=3505
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=search&sval=pitch&article_no=3340
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=search&sval=pitch&article_no=3131

Shown below is one of our very first pitch packages. Constructed about 10 years ago, Teletoon gave us the chance to make this half-hour pilot that got us off the ground and got the ball rolling with our first cartoon series. This pilot was made up of 10x2min. shorts and was one of the very first times Flash had been used to produce fully animated content for television.

Eventually the show looked like this:

Art by Sean Scott.
In comparison to the final product, the designs and characters changed quite a bit, but Teletoon was stoked about getting their own Calvin & Hobbes style show about a kid who escapes into his own imagination, so after a year in development we got started in mid-2000, the Bible helped us get our first show off the ground, got us funding for the pilot, and eventually continued the series into 39 full-length episodes (in full HD 1920p resolution) that kept us busy for 3 years in which all scripts, voices, designs, storyboards, animation and post were produced here in-house.

Johnny Test Rough Design Sketches By The Talented Marc Perry

2008-04-02T16:01:00.000-03:00

The Animation Retakes Process

2008-04-01T00:45:00.000-03:00

Takes A Lickin' And Keeps On Tickin'

2008-03-21T05:49:00.002-03:00

Our video editor chewed through this hard plastic pen! From the original Wacom Intuos series of 7 years ago, with thousands of hours of use in animation and animatic editing time, this tablet pen withstood the test of time. However, when put into the hands of a pen-gnawing editor, there's no survivors. The craziest thing is...
the pen still works fine!!!!

Flash Animation Tests

2008-03-10T14:52:00.012-03:00

We're often asked to produce an animation test to showcase how the "symbol-style" of motion and timing is achieved in what producers label as the 'standard Flash look'. When there's a style of design that is already established it can be a challenge to duplicate the visual look of the series. Below is a clip where we had to do a simple acting test for these characters to be built then animated in Flash as well as create the background to have that watercolor look to it.

We are always growing and evolving as a company, always working to find new projects and create original properties. With budget and time restrictions abound, it's often challenging to develop and produce good quality television. Our studio filled with traditionally-trained classical animators that prefer the full-animation style, so we struggle to find shows that request the 'hand-drawn look' as shown in a previous post. But I always marvel at the series that can pull off some amazing animation despite whatever limitations of time and budget they might have had, with great plots, designs, and acting achieved in shows like Being Ian, TDI, El Tigre and Foster's (to name a few). These are high-end projects that show how well Flash animation can look on screen with strong character development, well thought-out stories, beautiful character models, with brilliant background and color designs. Not to mention all the important elements that writers, sound designers, voice actors, and musicians can contribute to the series as well.

As always, it all comes down to the entertainment value. Incredible designs, scripts, voices, colors, compositions, character acting, and music are all pieced together by talented directors, writers, designers, storyboard/layout artists, voice actors, animators, painters, composers, and technicians. Whether created with Flash symbol art, or all filmed from hand-drawn paper art, or digitally drawn, built and assembled through Cintiqs, Wacom tablets, ToonBoom, Maya, After Effects, Photoshop and any other tools used; the quality of aesthetics are all a matter of opinion, the end result always matters most. The appeal of the characters and stories to the audience determines how much of a cult hit, or how successful, or marketable, or popular something may become. The viewers determine how styles and trends in writing and visual look go, sometimes it leads to what many consider to be high quality cartoons to never see the light of day or get canceled long before their time.

As time goes on we try top push ourselves with each new test demo, we are still a small and young studio, but we try to opt for a Flash hybrid technique somewhere between the usual puppet-style and traditional old-school look (which ever fits the product best). But in the end, the technical process means nothing compared to the deadly combination of amazing characters and story-telling with the merging of well crafted art and animation.

I'll post more animation tests and demos soon.

Credits for the clip embedded at the top:
Animation by Darryl Blake
Backgrounds by Tori Coulthart

Johnny in Dutch

2008-03-09T10:54:00.002-03:00

Nickelodeon in the Netherlands broadcasting JT!

Furor Over Film Bill

2008-03-07T10:16:00.002-04:00

Nova Scotia filmmakers are speaking out against proposed amendments to the federal tax credit system they say could hurt funding for film and TV shows, and affect the local movie industry.

“I think it is going to stifle and silence a lot of unique voices, including my own,” said local director Mike Melski. “It is dressing up fascism in the guise of ‘We are only going to fund projects that are good for you.’”

He is among those upset with the federal Conservative government’s Bill C-10, which would allow a panel from the Heritage and Justice departments to deny tax credits to productions they find offensive or not in the public’s best interest.

The bill is between readings in the Senate, but Liberal senators are vowing to ensure the legislation won’t result in censorship, the Globe and Mail reported.

Heritage Minister Josée Vernersaid this week the amendments are meant to ensure taxpayers’ money doesn’t fund films that feature extreme violence or pornography.

Filmmaker Daniel McIvor says the bill would create a morality board.

“Morality, and it has been proven time and time again, cannot be dictated by a board,” he said. “How you see things depends on your story …you are going to see the things that either inspire or offend you.”

McIvor experienced this with Whole New Thing, a film where he plays a teacher whose teenaged male student tries to seduce him.

“People had a strong reaction from the press release and they hadn’t even seen the film.”Melski is currently completing post-production of his first full length feature, Growing Op.

“I am not sure Growing Op would be deemed worthy. There is a significant cinematographic element involving marijuana,” he said.

It is being produced by Halifax resident Thom Fitzgerald, who has won awards for his films — like 3Needles — which often feature the gay community and subjects such as AIDS and assisted suicide.

“Having funding revoked after the fact would bankrupt any Canadian producer. But I’m more concerned about productions running away to other countries,” Fitzgerald said.

The following is an excerpt of an e-mail interview with award-winning Halifax filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald, director of such films as 3 Needles, The Hanging Garden and The Event.

Dean Lisk asked Fitzgerald about Bill C-10, which would allow a panel from the Heritage and Justice departments to deny tax credits to productions they deem offensive or contrary to public policy. Fitzgeraldis currently in Los Angeles.

Q. What was your reaction when you heard about Bill C-10?
A. My immediate reaction to the Globe and Mail story about Bill C-10 was hysteria. I think that was the intended effect. I compared it to similar regulations in China — because in 2004 I chose not to shoot a segment of the movie 3 Needles in China because the footage would be subject to approval by a Committee from the Chinese Ministry of Culture. Bill C-10 seems to be proposing a committee from the Canadian Ministry of Heritage will review finished films and decide whether to withhold certification and revoke funding already received.

Q. What concerns you themost about the bill?
A. I have many concerns about Bill C-10. Having funding revoked after-the-fact would bankrupt any Canadian producer. But I’m more concerned about productions running away to other countries,because Bill C-10 is perceived as an additional risk factor in assessing film investment. Private investors and bankers are extremely risk averse, and they may choose to avoid sexy or violent Canadian films. I’m most concerned that Canadian creative people will stifle their artistic expression because of a fear of censorship. Fear of censorship is as powerful as actual censorship, and the two fuel each other.

Q. What does this mean for filmmaker in Nova Scotia?
A. At the moment, the government has succeeded in creating a cloud of uncertainty.That’s not good and it wasn’t their intent. I’ve been in Los Angeles for the last month. Trade papers like TheHollywood Reporter have reported Bill C-10 as a new restriction on violence and overt sex in Canadian funded films. The media isdoing guesswork because the details of the bill are unclear. So producers around the world are reading about it and deciding to shoot their sex comedies and slasher films in Eastern Europe instead.

Courtesy of Metronews

Johnny Test: 5 Days a Week!

2008-02-21T21:29:00.011-04:00

Johnny is now on Cartoon Network every weekday!

In other news...
Johnny Season 1, is finally available on DVD in Europe!

Also, Delilah & Julius DVDs are available in the Netherlands!
Click here to see.

Johnny Test has been nominated for the Shaw Rocket Prize!

2008-02-16T12:10:00.006-04:00

The Shaw Rocket Fund is committed to identifying quality children's television production in Canada, it is designed to fuel our industry by supporting and celebrating the best of Canadian television programming for kids. Now in its third year, the Shaw Rocket Prize is a single, winner-take-all $50,000 prize to be awarded for the best independent Canadian children's television program. It represents one of the largest prizes of its kind in Canada.

The Rocket signifies the pinnacle of children's television production, helping to inspire creativity, generate excitement and maximize publicity for prize winners, finalists, and Canadian children's television in general. See the finalists here.

Delilah & Julius Stills

2008-02-03T16:15:00.000-04:00

As the final episode to air on television draws near for the final season of D&J, here's a few promotional images for you to enjoy.

Promotional Stills for Johnny Test Season 3

2008-02-03T15:08:00.000-04:00

Background Color Designs

2008-01-08T19:15:00.001-04:00

Background & Prop Designs

2007-12-13T05:48:00.000-04:00

BG Designs: Gord Jackson
BG Colors: Tori Coulthart
Prop Designs: Mark Cappello
Design Clean-up & Colors:
Scott MacDonald & Robert Krete

Design

2007-12-12T05:28:00.000-04:00

Some more character models, color stylizations & location designs for Johnny Test.

Designs & Colors

2007-12-12T05:17:00.000-04:00

Background Designs: Gord Jackson
Background Color Designs: Tori Coulthart
Character Designs/Colors: Scott MacDonald
Character/Background Clean-up: Robert Krete

Designing Locations

2007-12-11T09:39:00.000-04:00

Just a few samples of the many new environments we had to design for the 3rd Season of Johnny Test.

Design Work

2007-12-11T09:20:00.000-04:00

Johnny Test Season 3 pushed the design elements even further than last year, here's the first of many samples.

Johnny 3 - In the beginning...

2007-12-04T05:58:00.000-04:00

This season's challenge wasn't in the technical or artistic challenges of last year, this year was different, we had mastered the style and developed a nice system, however... we had our first (and worst) staff-shortage ever! This year we were ready for even crazier action scenes, we had done it all last season, we thought we were ready for this season's more demanding scripts. What we weren't ready for was the fact that every animator in eastern Canada was so busy with other projects that we had a hell of a time recruiting new blood to start this season.

Johnny Test was our most demanding project yet, but our little studio had grown and learned, and now that we tackled another 13 episodes, spirits were high, and the show ran much smoother than last year (once we finaly found all our artists). Designs and storyboards are the foundation to good visual appeal and strong storytelling, and we had a great crew for that this year.

Here's a samples of John Lei's first board,
fantastic acting and posing.

Sample Color Keys: Johnny Test - Season 3

2007-12-04T04:00:00.000-04:00

Location Designs by Gord Jackson
Colors by Victoria Coulthart.

Environment Design

2007-12-03T12:45:00.000-04:00

Samples of set designs and color stylization made for Halifax Film
and their pre-school 3D animated series Bo On The Go.

Courtesy of Kevin Abreu and Nick Baker

More Fan Art

2007-11-27T19:39:00.000-04:00

A Julius bust by "Gucci84".

Another year, another season of Johnny coming to a close...

2007-11-23T01:47:00.000-04:00

Season 3 of Johnny Test was probably the funnest show to work on since Olliver's Adventures. The writing was superb and our crew did a fantastic job producing it to completion.
Animation and Clean-up departments are coming to a close, another 4 weeks of FX, revisions, and post production and we're all set.

Now we're ramping up for all the new projects rolling in for January! In the mean time we're working on service work from Cookie Jar to keep us busy for the next little while. Thanks to all the artists for all your hard work! When we started Johnny 2 years ago, it was our first official big budget U.S. co-pro and it's been very successful! Here's to hoping we get another season!

Title Card Art

2007-11-20T08:46:00.000-04:00

Blast from our Past

2007-11-08T07:54:00.000-04:00

8 years ago...
We did an animated demo for Nickelodeon. The concept was called Jerk Chicken, created by Chris Gilligan. In regards to 2D animation, all Collideascope had done thus far was some commercials, internet stuff and a couple short films Legend of Raggot and Tongue Twister, by Sean Scott.

As we were still developing what was going to be our first series Olliver's Adventures we spent a few months doing this pitch demo. Under Sean's supervision, we were 4 of us trying to wrap our heads around Flash 3 to make it do what we wanted. After endless upon endless weeks of revisions, we were finally done by early 2000. At the time we didn't realize how much we had learned and how much that experience would help us in our future. This was the final result, it never went any further than this web-broadcast test pilot. Sorry for the low quality, but it's the only version I could find that had final voices, sound effects and music.

The last week for D&J Animation and Backgrounds is almost upon us - Thanks for all the hard work guys!

2007-11-05T15:54:00.000-04:00

Bit by bit, the crew is twiddling down as each department finishes off their one year contract (and 3 years for many others). Designs, storyboards, layouts, and soon the rough character animation and BG paint departments for Delilah & Julius are taking a much deserved rest after such a long haul.

The final week for the D&J Layout Department is upon us... the end of an era.

2007-10-30T08:13:00.000-03:00

Johnny Intro

2007-10-24T20:50:00.000-03:00

Johnny Clips

2007-10-24T20:49:00.000-03:00

The Porkness Monster

Dutch Nickelodeon Spot

The 22nd Annual Gemini Awards

2007-10-17T13:47:00.000-03:00

Canada's Highest Honors in Television
has given
Johnny Test
the award for
Best Direction in a Children's Series!
Thanks to Scott Fellows and Joe Sherman for guiding us through with your highly entertaining scripts and creative direction, and many thanks to our designers, story artists, animators and painters that made the show look so nice!

Johnny Test Promos

2007-10-11T05:58:00.000-03:00

Animation Tests

2007-10-06T08:35:00.001-03:00

As we are growing and learning as a company and as artists we are often asked to do animation tests. Producers and show creators want to see if we can be trusted with their concepts and ask us to do walk cycles or acting tests. Sometimes we pull it off, sometimes we don't. As we we've branched out from solely developing and producing our own properties to expanding into more service work to stay busy, we often provide samples to show we can do the style of design and timing a client is looking for.

When Warner Bros. wanted to see if we could re-create the style of the Johnny Test series using Flash but keeping with the quality of a traditionally animated/painted show, we did this animation test for them, though we've improved a lot on the style since, a mere 4 artists pumped out this sequence in a week. I guess WB liked it, cause 2 years later we're still producing episodes for them.

Another concept that came to us was a show created by former Futurama designers/writers called "Crumb Snatchers". Unfortunately the series never got picked up, but we enjoyed doing a short animation test for them while it was being developed.

One of our artists did this animation test in a week from an animatic. We were so busy ramping up for
26x22min. of Johnny Test and 26x22min. of D&J
that we simply did not have the resources to commit to this project. So the series was picked up by FatKat, and they seem to be doing a fantastic job.

Title Cards

2007-10-01T13:30:00.000-03:00

Created by the talented Dave Sourwine.

Model Sheets - Delilah & Julius

2007-09-17T19:11:00.000-03:00

The Gemini Awards!

2007-09-10T11:40:00.000-03:00

Nominated for Best Children's Program or Series Johnny Test - Episodes: "Saturday Night's Alright for Johnny" & "Johnny Mint Chip", which is entirely animated by Halifax based Collideascope Digital Productions Ltd., has been recognized for Best Direction in a Children's Series.

Key poses by Matt Shepherd for a Johnny Test Karate sequence

2007-08-28T22:12:00.000-03:00

Farewell to Scott

2007-08-27T22:30:00.000-03:00

After 4 wonderful years... our beloved character designer, Scott MacDonald is leaving us. He had a successful art auction today and then he said his long goodbyes. Designer of hundreds of characters, props and color models, we watched him grow into an amazing artist during his time here. He left his mark with more than just crazy murals. You will be deeply missed. Good luck out west!

Crazy D&J fan art! Found online from various forums and stuff!

2007-08-25T08:34:00.000-03:00

Experimental Flash FX

2007-08-24T16:29:00.000-03:00

Our special effects guru is at it again. This time he's trying out different techniques to achieve more realistic visuals. It's still a work in progress, but here's some tests, all done in Flash 8! A real-time QT and a slo-mo SWF for your viewing pleasure.

Delilah & Julius - The Video Game!

2007-07-30T12:07:00.000-03:00

Keeping animation looking like classic cartoons

2007-05-19T22:16:00.000-03:00

Not many Canadian studios still do rough keys & in-betweens for frame-by-frame traditional animation anymore, it's a dying and overly-expensive art form. But we still do, we feel lonely still being one of the only places in North America to hand draw and fully-animate broadcast animation with Flash.

Many still think the ways of paper-cut-out-style (Harmony/Toonboom), or 3D/CG animation, or shipping it all over-seas is the way to go, the way of the future. We're still staying competitive with pricing, and keeping the animation looking old-school with the classical approach, and we'll hold on to those principles for as long as we can.

We still have a feature-style system of rough posing, in-betweens/breakdowns and ink & paint departments, including all our designs and background layouts are all still done with paper and pencil. Somehow we keep finding clients that want that hand-drawn-look to it. So we've been lucky so far.

Traditionally trained animators should have the chance to animate and draw shouldn't they? That's what they love to do, that's what they dream of doing, that's what they've been doing their whole lives, it would be a shame that students coming out of college would face the world and rarely get a chance to draw on a cartoon, only push pre-built objects around. It seems so sad.

Collideascope's been using Flash for 10 years, for the past 6 years we've fluctuated from 10 to 100 artists and animators, depending on how busy we got and how many projects we tackle at once. Through it all we've learned a lot, it's still far from easy, each new series brings new challenges, but our techniques are simple, we design, storyboard, draw, animate and color as much as we can in-house and discover more efficiencies every year.

Other series that are phenominal at pushing Flash in creating the illusion of beautiful classical-style movement are Being Ian, Fosters, Mythunerstood and El Tigre. These shows all still use the very flat/symbol-swapping/puppet-style of 2D/motion-tweeen animation, but they do incredibly well of achieving a traditional look and feel to the actions and acting. Then there's the incredible style of the Copernicus music videos, who are in a classs of their own.

On this note, here's the awesome demo reel of John Gallagher, a senior character animator who's been with us for 4 years now, like most of us here, he simply uses Flash as digital paper, have a look:

Some 3D-Flash test renders from early 2004

2007-05-18T07:03:00.000-03:00

Tom Baasner - Layout Supervisor - Gets thrown out on the street!

2007-04-23T13:47:00.001-03:00

Here's a clip of the footage on the local weather news:

Here's the whole interview, some of the sound is hard to make out with all the background noise, notice the lack of interest from passing pedestrians:

D&J Season 2 Effects Animation Sneak Peek

2007-03-29T03:05:00.000-03:00

Here we feature a new villain named Dynamo first seen here. Below are a few stills of some effects Jake worked on.

Here's a short clip from one of the scenes:

Courtesy of Jake Macher.

Inspired by new technology...

2007-03-25T20:50:00.000-03:00

Dave Thomas, director of El Tigre (and owner of Wendy's), describes here how he converted from traditional pencil drawing to an all-digital paperless production using the Cintiq.

Even though we've been using Wacom tablets for 9 years, going the very expensive-Cintiq-route has been a fearful and costly idea for us.
We hope to eventually convert our storyboard/layout departments to this model. The quality speaks for itself, as you can see in the samples here.

We've always been paperless for the entire full animation & BG line art/paint process, but not until now have I truely seen the potential efficiencies of using Cintiq for aspects of character/prop/location design, story art, and rough background layouts.

We've been apprehensive about this for too long, if no quality is being sacrificed, and production gets optimized, then why not? Technology has advanced to this, trees will be saved, speed is increased, creativity and draftsmanship is not compromised.... we'd be foolish not to.

Even before I saw that blog, we had already decided to slowly convert our storyboard, design & layout team to this model by next Christmas (avoiding a big confusing switch-over in mid-production). The least we can do is try it out, right?

D&J Season 2 - Sneak Peek

2007-03-23T13:15:00.000-03:00

Delilah reveals her new sexy super-hero outfit.

Another mural has popped up in the studio...

2007-03-15T08:38:00.000-03:00

Painted by Rachel Morrison & Ian Gallant

A Documentary on Collideascope staff...

2007-03-15T07:54:00.000-03:00

Spafford is hired to conduct a "Behind The Scenes" short film on Collideascope Animation Studios to find out what harsh conditions the cartoonists are working under. He makes many disturbing discoveries. Beware: some unforseen dirty language and inapproriate situations occured during the filming of this piece. Viewer discretion is advised.
Watch the video here.

3D Montage

2007-03-09T20:59:00.000-04:00

Nearly 3 years ago, I read the first Delilah & Julius Script, and by page 3 there were LOTS of animated vehicles. I knew this new series would not be possible without a 3D animator. There were simply too many diffcult shots with props and vehicles animating in perspective. This posed technical problems that would have our animators spend way too much time animating vehicles and therefore the character animation could suffer, not too mention that animating vehicles can be very, very, very hard to do consistently.

Thankfully we had the genius of Dave Thompson. An animator that just so happened to know 3D Studio and was up to the task of taking the model sheets for each episode and re-create the vehicle designs in 3D.

The results were fantastic. Dave was able to place storyboards into the 3D software, re-create the shot, model any new vehicles (each one taking about 3 hours), set the motion paths, tween away and BAM it was done. After just a bit of research I found software that exports his renders as Flash toon-shaders, the rest is history.

All the 3D blends in with the characters and BGs flawlessly because you can set the shaders & lines to render in any way you'd like. The compositing is all done in Flash with incredible ease, layering the traditional character animation as overlays and underlays directly into Flash, line weight and colors all convert into flat, frame by frame, vector Flash art and makes it all easy to edit.

Thanks to Dave, all 3D elements are done with percision and without difficulty, and no animator needs to worry about drawing hundreds of in-betweens for slowly turning geometry.

Johnny Test - Another 13 half hours - Completed & Shipped Out!

2007-02-14T07:33:00.000-04:00

What a crazy 9 months, but we learned a lot and produced one of the best looking cartoons Collideascope has ever had the plessure of working on. We've nearly completed the first 2 of 26 episodes for D&J season 2, and we're preparing for more work coming in this spring. It's going to be another very busy year.

Olliver's Adventures

2007-01-21T13:40:00.000-04:00

Ollie is getting a new lease on life through syndication. New audience, new countries, and new time slots are all responsible of Ollie's latest new jolt of popularity amongst kids.
Entirely produced, written, voiced, designed, and animated here at Collideascope. It was our own property and our own creation and it's what got the studio off the ground and into the industry.

Here's some old Hi-Res promotional images:

Post Production

2007-01-19T16:46:00.000-04:00

Season 2 of Johnny Test Sound Effects & Music are nearly complete. Paint & Effects Animation on the last episode just got finalised this week! Almost done!

Studio Antics

2007-01-06T18:49:00.000-04:00

While doing a clean sweep of our file server I discovered a few funny acts that animators had done over the last few years during what little spare time they usually had.

So here's just a few shots I grabbed that animators had done, sometimes created for an extra piece on their show reel or just to try something different and fun, enjoy these great clips:

Animated by Jacques Daigle:

Animated by Curtis Carey:

Animated by Rachel Morrison, Inked by Adam King:

Animated by Matt Shepherd:

Animated by Rachel Morrison:

Animated by Matt Shepherd:

Animated by Scott MacDonald:

Animated by Rachel Morrison:

Animated by Bianca Siercke:

This Character is a Copyright of
Warner Brothers Feature Animation Inc.

D&J ... Xtreme!

2007-01-05T19:39:00.000-04:00

Here's a doodle done by our token caricaturist Don Pinsent of Delilah & Julius.

Snap Shots

2007-01-05T19:26:00.000-04:00

Here's some pictures of the the Dec. 22nd IWK run.
We've been told by multiple sources that the story was run through several other provincial papers through out Canada. Go Cappello!

Saturday morning front page news!!!

2006-12-23T10:30:00.001-04:00

Collideascope Animation Studios did a little fund raising this year. Instead of doing the usual in-house Secret Santa thing, we decided to pool all our loose change together and see how much money the 75+ employees here could raise in 4 weeks for the
IWK Children's Hospital
(a local care and treatment center for kids with illness).

We raised $2000 total then Collideascope founders/producers doubled it! Making a grand total of $4000 raised for charity! Unfortunately for Mark "The Nature Boy" Cappello, he lost a little wager in the process. His department raised the least amount of money, thus he had to run around the block at -3 degree weather in underwear only. Witness the horror first hand here:

The Tripple Threat

2006-12-19T19:32:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd mention a small tidbit of trivia. I was recently reminded of the fact that during the Olliver's Adventures production there was a funny thing that happened where the character known as Tara was voiced by Tara Doyle and animated by Tara Audibert. I had forgotten that funny little concindence, and now everyone knows..... the rest.... of the story.

Teasers

2006-11-25T16:07:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the opening acts for Season One of Delilah & Julius.

Episode-107

Episode-105

Episode-104

Episode-102

Episode-101 The very first sequence of D&J ever animated for broadcast. We got much better as we got used to style in later episodes.

English Intro

D&J Intro - French Version

2006-11-25T15:11:00.000-04:00

New Models, Hot Off The Press...

2006-11-25T14:50:00.000-04:00

Concept & Character Development

2006-11-18T19:54:00.000-04:00

Once or twice per year a few of us get contracted to do designs and color keys for a client or for internal pitch ideas for new series, here are a few models and layouts from these endeavors.

Johnny Test Icons for Mac

2006-11-15T18:18:00.000-04:00

Click on this image to download.
Package provided by Jake Macher.

Johnny Test Model Sheets

2006-11-15T10:00:00.000-04:00

A short from back in the day...

2006-11-10T20:14:00.000-04:00

"The Singing Pickle"
A Season 3 Olliver's Adventures Episode

Sub

2006-10-25T19:38:00.000-03:00

A Montreal produced series that never got picked up. We had done some storyboards and animation demos for it. This Flash line test was made by Mirco Chen.