Freakish Kid

Rogue Trooper

Freakish Kid — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:21:15 +0000

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.
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]

2010: The Year of The Freaks!!

Freakish Kid — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:30:00 +0000

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!
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]

Cluckie the Vampire Chicken

Freakish Kid — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:56:02 +0000

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 are the episodes, afterwards you can head over to our ‘Art Of’ section to view the whole production process from our original pitch to final movie sequences.
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]

Cartoon Netwrk ID’s: Weight Lifter

Freakish Kid — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:33:01 +0000

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!
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]

Cartoon Network ID’s: Scooby Doo

Freakish Kid — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:04:06 +0000

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!
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]

Cluckie the Vampire Chicken

Freakish Kid — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:17:37 +0000

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.
[See post to watch Flash video]

Showreel 2008/2009

Freakish Kid — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:00:19 +0000

Freakish Kid’s new demo reel premieres on KidTV. The reel is made from some of our favourite work and accompanied by a kicking Hollywood score!
[See post to watch Flash video]

Cupid Rookies

Freakish Kid — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:00:06 +0000

Over the sea and far away lies one of the worlds most beautiful landscapes. Nestled within the lumpy hills is the School of Love, an academy of higher education made specifically for the teachings of romance. A school where Cupid rookies graduate and fly off into the wide world to spread the love. It’s graduation day and our four new students Miss Fire, Birdy, The Twins and Commando are getting their wings, bows and arrows. Then they must prove themselves by making some whoopie between man and woman…

After the success of the Movie Time packaging Nickelodeon International came back to us with this little number. We were given a simple brief with character ideas for Valentines Day. What emerged were our thoughts and funnies about romance, love and explosive arrow heads!
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]

As Seen On TV

Freakish Kid — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:00:11 +0000

As Seen On TV is an animated sketch show that spoofs everything on contemporary television. Presented as though some unseen viewer is flicking through the channels, As Seen On TV takes its characters and sets from the television shows and films that we all know and love.

Freakish Kid developed, designed and produced the pilot for FX International Channels (Fox). Included on KidTV are a selection of sketches from the 10 minute pilot. Freakish Kid developed a photo cut out technique for the show so that it would appeal to adult audiences and also make it a little different from the current crop of flash/cartoon animated parodies.
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]
[See post to watch Flash video]

Movie Time

Freakish Kid — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:00:39 +0000

Our three main characters, Mister Chair, Missy ‘HOT’ Dog and Agent Cup turn up to the latest movie premiere all dying to grab as much limelight and media air time as they can. They fight, trick and generally cause each other as much grief as possible – after all its a (hot) dog eat (hot) dog world out there! Of course as soon as the cameras disappear they all become the best of friends again! Air kisses anyone?

Movie Time Packaging was designed and produced for Nickelodeon International. Freakish Kid used illustration animation to produce the spots to give it a richer, textured feel. The animated spots were designed to ‘top and tail’ the latest movie trailers that air on the Nick International channels. Gags and reaction shots were also designed to be cut into the movie trailers to create the illusion of the characters watching the movie. Watch the entire animation below!
[See post to watch Flash video]