Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Character Studies: Becoming "The Last Mariachi"


So basically I'm designing two characters with the same face. The first guy, this dude, suffers from autism and, because of it, is also mute. Living close to the border in the U.S., he only watches mexican programming, including the news and boxing matches. He's one of those creepy regulars you'd see wandering the mall every day and eating at the same mexican restaurant. This is his first character arch at the beginning of the short. Because of the shooting that he gets caught up in, he goes through serious psychological trama and soon snaps, becoming a robotic, spanish speaking vigilante who is only known as Blanco (The Last Mariachi). It's a touchy thing to bring into an action comedy - autism and PTSD - so I'm trying to approach it as thoughtfully and knowledgeably as possible. There are no direct jokes to make about autism or PTSD, it's just how this guy becomes the protagonist of the story. I want the serious parts to still be serious with a real push in sound design and editing towards the psychological aspect of shock, dissociation, and acute stress response. I'm toying with the idea of changing the entire presentation of the animation when he snaps, too, like switching from video to film. After that, though, it's just a bunch of fart jokes.

Not really.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Piddlin'

Just playing around with coloring. Trying to get better. Not sure if I'll use any of this for the final product, but maybe a kickass poster cover with all the characters on it, like those old 80's movie posters. Yeah......YEAH!

Oh yeah, just revamped the blog, too! Whattaya think?




Friday, July 9, 2010


FINALLY got to a good place with the character design for Blanco. This won't be the final coloring, just a preliminary thing to see what he looks like in color.