Rogue Trooper
May 3, 2010 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
We were huge fans of 2000AD when we were kids. We all loved Judge Dredd, he kicked ass and took names! But we here at Freakish Kid were also secret lovers of Rogue Trooper – no one was cooler! So one afternoon, between projects, we asked ourselves what we should do for some fun. We just couldn’t believe that an animated version of the property had never been produced (maybe it had but we’d never seen it) so it was decided that we’d do something rediculous, we’d give ourselves a couple of days to produce a quick animation test of our favourite blue soldier and see if we could persuade 2000AD to let us make a Rogue Trooper show.
Little did we know it but our friends at Firestep had just aquired the rights to pitch and put financing together for a 2000AD show. A couple of phone calls later and we were hitting the ground running, the guys were having trouble making the numbers work in 3D, that was until we came along with this 2D test. They never even considered Rogue Trooper let alone anything to be done in 2D, but on seeing what we did it made them very excited about the possibilites of 2D and 3D combined.
Our original test had the classic 80’s Dave Gibbons character running across a baron landscape to camera. They loved it but felt it a little old so we took some later produced artwork and did a more aggressive run cycle of the character. The project seems to be stuck in limbo at the moment but we’re hoping it’ll see the light of day soon and we’ll be able to animate one of our all time comic book favourites.
Below is the fully comped test sequence as well as the two run cycles we produced.
2010: The Year of The Freaks!!
January 1, 2010 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
Happy New Year everyone!
2009 was a great year for us. The studio created some fantastic productions, we’re all excited about what the future holds.
2010 promises to be another quality year. There are quite a few projects on the boil. We’re producing a good batch of pilots for a few networks around the world (more about that later in the year) and we’ve just started development on our first 3D sterioscopic short film – we’ll be having an exclusive section on our website about the production of this film later in the year. We’ve been beavering away with ideas for pitches which we’ll be presenting in the first quater of 2010. And some interesting things are afoot for the business model this year.
All in all we’re hoping for a stunning year creatively. More than anything we just want to share our work with you and continue to charge onwards with global Freakdom!
To celebrate the birth of the new decade we’re posting the five episodes of Cluckie the Vampire Chicken.
Here’s to another great year!
Cartoon Netwrk ID’s: Weight Lifter
September 23, 2009 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
The second of our Cartoon Network Idents. This one was pretty straight forward and one of the chosen ideas that did not involve a Cartoon Network show. It’s always great to take a logo or famous brand and add your own ideas to it and the guys at CNUK we’re behind this one all the way.
We did change the ending slightly, originally the logo just crashed to the floor squishing the big, bulky lifter (something that you can see from the animatic below). Adding the logo falling through the floor was an extra touch of comedy gold. The squeal we hear after the logo falls is also a nice touch. Great work by everyone involved as this ID really stands out from the bunch we did, short, sharp and to the point.
More Cartoon Network ID’s to come!
Cartoon Network ID’s: Scooby Doo
August 21, 2009 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
We were commissioned by Cartoon Network to produce a series of idents for the European feed. First up for us was an old favourite of ours – Scooby Doo. What better way to pay homage to our childhood afternoons than to have ‘The Creeper’ chasing our two ‘accidental’ heroes!
It was a great little project, kudos to CN UK for letting us create some classic old school animation in the digital world. We’ve uploaded the animatics that were also produced so you can see how the idea developed, luckily this ident didn’t need much tweaking, you can see the only real change between animatics is that The Creeper is knocked flat on his butt by the swinging ‘CN’ doors – a much better ending as he interacts with the networks branding. More idents coming online soon – we’re drip feeding you!
Cluckie the Vampire Chicken
June 3, 2009 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
Cluckie is a vampire chicken who is forced to hunt chickens by day because they are on total lockdown at night. Seeing as vampires explode in sunlight, our fanged and feathered anti-hero must devise ingenious sun-dodging ways to protect himself and get his grub!!
We produced a series of five, one minute episodes for Nickelodeon UK, the aim of the show was to try and capture the essence of the golden age of animation whilst updating it in a contemporary way for today’s audience. Below is the web trailer for the show and you can head over to our ‘Art Of’ section to view the whole production process from our original pitch to final movie sequences.
A New Kid Is Born!
May 1, 2009 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
Welcome to Freakish Kid. The new incarnation of GreyKid Pictures. We’ve added, subtracted and risen from the flames! A new company with the same artistry, passion and drive for quality animation as ever before.
The new layout and blog style means we’ll be able to update more easily and more frequently, giving you not just a look at our final work but also the opportunity to go deeper into our production process. From design right through to post production we hope to share with you the passion we have for film making.
We’ll also be able to keep you up to date with the latest news and developments from within the studio. We hope you enjoy the new site and find it interesting enough to post comments and visit us on a regular basis. Its the start of the next chapter in what we hope is a long and varied future!
Introducing: The Buro
May 1, 2009 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
The Buro is our UK based, creatively driven design, communications and production agency. Handling everything from design, web application and interactivity to illustration and photography.
The Buro’s core belief is in delievering high end quality work to a wide client base. The quality of the studio’s work is what keeps bringing our clients back. Hop on over and take a look…
Muddle Earth
May 1, 2009 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
We recently did a design and test for a BBC show called Muddle Earth – from the childrens book by Paul Stewart. The series was intended to be produced in 3D but because of budget restrictions the producer was looking for a different way of making the show. That’s where we stepped in! We were asked to produce a small demo to show what the series might look like in 2D. Over the course of 2 weeks we produced a demo that went on to impress the producer – like most things we thought the series was in the bag, especially because of the feed back from the producer but alas it wasn’t to be. The upside is the demo and concept artwork make a great post! Enjoy!
Bittersweet Music Video
May 1, 2009 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
We recently finished a live action production for the popular singer Mark Zentai who is based in Hungary. The track is called Bittersweet and tells the age-old story of lost love and a broken heart. The video was shot in the warehouse district of Budapest among other locations. It’s a really fascinating place not just because of the turn of the century warehouses but because of the texture, colour and history of the district through the 2nd world war and communist era. Think Terminator crossed with Mad Max!
The music video is directed by Stu Gamble and produced by Orsi Horvath and Mike Kelly. A 35ft photo wall was constructed as a backdrop to Mark and the band. The photo wall represented Mark’s memories of his lost relationship. We thought it looked like a great piece of art then we set it on fire!
The promo was shot on The Red One at a resolution of 4k. We used a variation of shutter speeds ranging from 25fsp to 120fps. Grading and post effects were produced in Discreet’s Combustion. Two versions were produced, a Hungarian language version and an English language version for international markets. Below is the English promo.
Lego City Spots
May 1, 2009 by Freakish Kid
Filed under Freakish News
Nickelodeon UK asked us to provide services for their annual Lego City spots. The campaign involved an audition piece, a voting spot and the final film. The general idea was for the public to audition to be the new stars of the Lego City spot. We digitally animated the first spot where three lego city characters pose and perform in front of the camera to get the attention of the judges. The second spot was a simple artwork piece where it showed the 5 children that had been chosen from all of the entrants.
The final spot was the commercial. The live action plates were shot with the kids on the Lego set then we went to green screen where they dressed up as cops and robbers and acted several sequences. We then imported the footage into After FX where we comped the kids running around the lego set.
For the first spot we wanted to have a handheld camera style, like a fourth Lego man filming the other three capturing the chaos. Unfortunately Nickelodeon thought this was a little too chaotic and opted instead for less camera movement. The end result works better from an information point of view. Judge for yourself as both version of the ‘Audition’ spot and the live action commercial are posted below.
