Comic #187: Them’th Fightin’ Wordth

Just a quick note about the updates to the comic: I really have to apologize for how new pages have been sporadic since work on the pilot started. I want to get back on track with producing regular content again, but keeping up a weekly schedule wouldn’t be possible with how much time the pilot is taking up. So instead, I’m going to put the P&C comic temporarily on a two-week update schedule.

I’m going to aim for a new comic to be posted every other week, starting with this past update. So the next page will be done and posted on Monday, June 10th. In the meantime, work has begun on storyboards and backgrounds for the pilot, so there will be plenty of Livestreams and updates to the Tumblr in between new comic pages.

Once the pilot is complete, I’ll resume pushing for a weekly update schedule again. I just do NOT want the comic to go on another 2-3 month hiatus because of it. The story must go on!

artofwhitney:

Got my new brush in the mail yesterday, it’s one of those with water in the handle and a nylon tip. It’s really interesting, I didn’t feel too well yesterday so I had the Hubs draw me something up and I painted it in just to practice.

It will definitely take some practice but I enjoy it so far!

If you’re following me, give my wife Whitney’s Tumblr a follow as well! She’s an incredibly talented artist and is just immeasurably awesome all around.

Comic #186: An Evening With Korgar’s Minions

This is the continuation of a running gag in Peter & Company, following the exploits of Skip, an unfortunate lad who keeps taking jobs that put him in the path of Korgar’s rage.

This was a fun one, streamed over three sessions, including the coloring segment in Photoshop. Thanks to Thwaitesy for the use of his character Amanda in a guest-spot as the waitress.

This is an old “Basics of Comic Theory and Design” tutorial that I had put together awhile back. I was going through my Youtube uploads while testing out my new computer (which will let me do HD streaming and tutorials — more on that soon) and found this 2-hour video in the mix.

It really starts around the 23:30 mark, so hop ahead if you don’t want to waste half an hour of me rambling and venting frustration at the slowness of my old computer.

Which is gone now. Thank goodness.

After his voice was teased in the second lip sync test earlier today, some folks were asking to hear more of Seth’s recorded dialogue. Here is the short monologue that Christopher Wade of Spark-Flow Studios recorded as a demo for his take on the character, which ultimately landed him the role.

At this point, the only three characters that are set in stone for the pilot are Peter (Jonathan Ponikvar), Seth (Christopher Wade), and Whitney (Whitney Ponikvar). The other characters will be cast through auditions, and they include the following: Iggy (possibly voiced by Jonathan, it depends on how the auditions go), Skin, Ezzy, Chelsea, Korgar, and a couple additional male/female voices for extras. Information on the schedule and location for the voice auditions will be posted soon.

Once the series gets picked up for its first season, we will hold additional voice auditions for the remaining cast members who are not appearing in the pilot. The only two non-pilot characters who have been cast are Persephoni and the head worm — though I cannot say who their voices are just yet. ;)

Here’s the latest complete style test for Peter’s mouth shapes, experimenting with his emotions and facial expressions. This is primarily a lip sync and emotion test; his hand shapes are just placeholders at the moment, as the rest of his model puppet has not yet been refined at this stage.

This test also features the first recorded dialogue of Seth (heard off-camera) by his voice actor, Christopher Wade. This specific scene will not appear in the pilot, and instead just uses a sample line of dialogue from one of the pages from the “Whitney’s Birthday” storyline of the online comic.

Animated by Spark-Flow Studios. Peter is voiced by Jonathan Ponikvar, author of Peter & Company. Seth voiced by Christopher Wade. Music: “Real World” by Alexander Brandon.

Good question! Physically-speaking, Seth appears to be the same age as the main kids in the comic, who are all between 12 and 13 years old. Most of the Guardians are around this age group in physical appearance, give or take a few years.

As for Seth’s true age, I haven’t revealed yet who the Guardians are or how they “age.” A lot of folks have come up with their own theories on that subject, and some of them are pretty creative, but no one has managed to figure it out yet.

I’ve had the entire backstory behind the Guardians planned and written from day one, specifically revolving around Seth. There’s even an early strip where Seth talks to Skin about how many kids he’s had. That’s usually the one people use to try and figure out his age, hehe.

Preview of the upcoming second lip sync test for Peter’s character model. It’s all of two seconds long — the final version will be about ten seconds or so — but it uses the updated mouth shapes posted a few days ago. This is getting closer to the final look we are hoping to achieve with the cartoon.

The full test will be posted in a couple days once it is complete, and it will feature the first recorded audio of Seth (though he will be off-camera, you’ll still get to hear his voice).

I wanted to put together a quick post that kind of gives a glimpse into why the process of making the P&C pilot — or any new animated series concept, for that matter — is taking a bit of time. While the updates are coming along at a slow and steady pace, we still have quite a ways to go yet.

For an established animated series, there are a lot of steps that go into the production of a single episode. Script writing, editing, storyboards, voice recording, and not to mention the animation itself and later editing/compositing/etc. Before any of that can commence, though, you have to get through a mountain of preproduction work on the series itself. Essentially, you have to establish the “series Bible,” wherein all the rules and guidelines for animators to follow are contained.

Character models have to be refined and streamlined for animation, since the original comic art is often too detailed. Every character has a specific set of rules and guidelines which have to be set in order to maintain continuity. For a blend of traditional and Flash animation, individual pieces of each “puppet” model need to be designed and tested. The ultimate goal is to get the final look and feel of the cartoon to be as close to the style of the source material as possible.

Thankfully, all of that only has to be done once. The downside: it definitely takes a while.

So far, we have made significant progress on prepping the character models and facial shapes for animation tests. These tests will determine the methods and procedures which we then use to create each episode. In the meantime, the script is already 100% complete for the pilot, and we are preparing some initial voice recordings of the characters to use for test animations. Additionally, I will be cranking through some more backgrounds and begin work on the storyboards while the remaining character models are being completed by the studio.

And yes, voice auditions are coming up as well. I’ll share more information on that later down the road for anyone interested in trying out for a part.

Lastly, I want everyone to keep in mind that this entire journey is all being done exclusively in our free time. Everyone involved in the project has their own regular 9-5 full-time job that pays the bills. Once the series gets picked up for a full season we’ll finally be able to focus all of our time on it, but until then we have to balance our time and energy to get through it and keep the updates flowing.

All of this is also why there hasn’t been a new Peter & Company comic page in a couple months. But that will also be updated very soon, too. :)

If anyone has any questions about the process of creating an animated series, please ask away! It’s been my dream since I was a kid to take part in the creation of a cartoon, and I want to share the experience as much as I can.

Thanks to everyone for following and supporting Peter & Company! You all are truly awesome. Stay tuned for more.

-Jonathan