Day of the Children

     In honor to the occasion -since it looks like today is the day of the children -I'm taking a journey of introspection and retrospective, going back to the first animations I've done. And I say animations because it's just one but a trilogy. And why did I chose this day to do so? Because, like a baby, those animations were the first steps I took in the marvelous world of digital animation.

     It was 2007. July. I was looking for something to occupy my time with, something that was not vain idleness. And then it hit me. I don't know if it was a dream, a vision from my inspiration or the fact that I spent too much time in front of the SNES port of the game but an idea came to me. So clear, so pure, it had to be done. It was a saturday. Next tuesday I went to Blockbuster and rented Doom (Hell yes, that movie with Karl Uban, The Rock and Rosamund Pike). A week later my first animation saw daylight:

O.K.

     That first animation... well, it's not been the best of my work. I must say it's not been the worst either. The story, simple (yet I like it). The drawing... minimalist. The voices, nonexistent (I didn't have a microphone). Sounds... well, I did the best I could. The animation runs at the fantabulous speed of twelve (yes, TWELVE) frames per second. All and all, for having drawn all the graphics (without having learned to draw formally), without knowing the software (I used Flash) completely and drawing with my mouse I think it was a good animation and an excellent first time.

     And of course I couldn't stay like that. I didn't want a slice of the cake, I wanted it whole. I went running to buy a microphone (OK, not so much... it was one of those headsets). I made a little scipt, recorded a few lines and... voilà:

Ten points to the one that identifies the movie in which the animation is principally based

     The animation has a bunch of pop culture references... or at least I tried it to have them. The dude that rescues our hero has McCloud for a last name... that's the way the name Connor MacLeod the Highlander sounded to me, hence his head blown off. After Jules answers 'You're damn right' that's my voice saying 'Shaft'. Jules, Jimmy ('Don't Jimmy me Jules') and Vincent (who gets killed in the bathroom) are all references to one movie... Anyway, so I could feel a complete George Lucas and complete the story I created The Return of the... ok, the third part:

GROOVY BABY !

     All the animations got out with a weeks difference. The animation and drawings are very basic, principally because I was (fair enough, still am a little) lazy. Truth be told, more than an animator I'm a storyteller. Besides, for this project in particular I think the drawings give it an extra that makes the story funnier. A year later after the trilogy, to commemorate my beginning in the world of animation, and because with Bubulubu you always have a fourth, this was born:

Of course there's no greater fury

     Animation was still pretty basic, but I think it improved. I feel it is also important to mention that the whole animation was made in one day (and still with a mouse). Anyway, the spin-off did not make it into a recurring series (nor a new trilogy nor it came to complete the saga as an hexalogy... ahem). Nevertheless, it wouldn't be the first time that I do a series of jobs related between them, but that... is another story...