Neo-Mickey

Barry Baker · Post by **Barry Baker** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:41 am

Hello everyone,

First of all I'd like to apologise for not having posted anything here on the forum for so long. Although I have spent a large part of the last year storyboarding for TV series, I have also managed to use ASP whenever I can. I still love it! I'm going to share that work here in separate threads, but first I'd like to bring your attention to my most recent, and possibly best piece of ASP work so far (I wish it were still called Moho - much easier to say).

I was asked by Matt Cruikshank, a designer at Disney Merchandising in London, to animate a demo sequence for a project that might be a game, or something else, but that was a re-working of the character of Mickey Mouse. When I saw his designs, I loved them straight away. The bad news was that I only had 2 1/2 weeks to animate the piece, but since he had already storyboarded it, I took it on. If it hadn't been for Moho, and the help of Michael Salkeld, a fellow Moho animator, I don't believe it would have been possible to complete it in the time - to the standard required.

Here is a link to the animation and the resulting discussion on Matt's own blog:

http://crookiesblog.blogspot.com/2007/0 ... ickey.html

I'm afraid the quality of the visuals has suffered as a result of Youtube's compression, but I'll put up a better copy on a fileshare site.

6th March 2007 - Apologies to everyone who has not had a chance to see Neo-Mickey yet, but for reasons unknown to me Matt Cruikshank has withdrawn it from YouTube. Until I know why I will not be considering sharing the video in any other way.

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:58 am

We all love your work, Barry. See http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8066 to read about that.

Samb · Post by **Samb** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:13 am

this is pure genius
you used soooo many moho/as features that makes the movie so beatiful.
I love the dynamic bone thing at the part with the two trees. that looks so cool!

Barry Baker · Post by **Barry Baker** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 1:13 pm

Rasheed wrote:We all love your work, Barry. See http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8066 to read about that.

Hey! I was beaten to it, and I didn't even know... Oh well, it's fine.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 1:26 pm

That's awesome Barry!!!!. Your Neo Mikey animation is wonderful. I like very much al the use of bone dynamics, particles and all characters drawings. It is a very funny style. Congratulations!!!!

Best
Genete

Manu · Post by **Manu** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 1:45 pm

Looks really nice. I showed it to Mark and Nev the other day, they liked it too.

Was this paid for by the mouse? How come you're able to show it then?

spoooze! · Post by **spoooze!** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 3:41 pm

My dad sent it to me via email because he knows I use AS, it was great! Nicely done.
James

Barry Baker · Post by **Barry Baker** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 8:55 am

Manu wrote:Looks really nice. I showed it to Mark and Nev the other day, they liked it too.

Was this paid for by the mouse? How come you're able to show it then?

Hi Manu,

Yes, the mouse paid for it. I was pretty surprised when Matt posted it up on Youtube, but apparently Disney gave him permission. I wonder if they wanted to get a liitle reaction from the real world to nudge the execs into taking it to the next stage?

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:15 am

Well, Barry, if that is true, then there are some smart people at the top of Disney. YouTube is perhaps one of the best ways for a production company to promote their video material.

p6r · Post by **p6r** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:29 am

Absolutely fantastic !!!
It's very poetic...

All is good : Drawings, story, music, effects...

Congratulations !!!
6R

ulrik · Post by **ulrik** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:58 am

I love this!! the drawings, animations the gentle flow is soo well done! And the music is very, very good.
You have managed to make the music and animation go as one unit, congratulations to you Mr. Baker!

Manu · Post by **Manu** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:21 am

Barry Baker wrote:Hi Manu,

Yes, the mouse paid for it. I was pretty surprised when Matt posted it up on Youtube, but apparently Disney gave him permission. I wonder if they wanted to get a liitle reaction from the real world to nudge the execs into taking it to the next stage?

I see. Almost sounds like some young and hot-headed exec is sticking his head out to convince his colleagues.
The thing that really gets me is that music hasn't even been paid for according to Matt's blog. It's one thing for an individual artist to post something with existing music on it, just look at all those AMV's on YouTube. They're not going to get sued.
But if word gets out that Disney (=$$$) posted an animation with copyrighted music without paying for it... If I were Aphex Twin, I'd consider taking legal action and squeezing some money out of it

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 11:45 pm

WOWZERS. Totally incredible, man. Loved every second of it. Barry, you interpreted the storyboard BEAUTIFULLY! See you also added the little bubble-blowing dude in as extra. Schweet! I TOTALLY enjoyed the STRIDER at the end...

THIS is the kind of animation that MOHO (not AS. Moho) lends itself to superbly.

Kudos. Really cool and exciting.

ONE QUESTION: How did you manage to get Mickey's arms to roll up like that right at the end? If you could describe the process you used, that's be great.

Thanks,

Mike

booboo_kitten · Post by **booboo_kitten** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:57 am

I love it! Its kind of like a dr. suess story or perhaps the strange dreams I had on halloweens after I had to much candy.

Draw_Girl · Post by **Draw_Girl** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:08 am

Wow,that's really amazing!