First Look at "New Friends ~ An Environmental Fable!"

By: Andrew Bermudez

(LEGO Studios; December 10, 2012)

     Continuing this week-long campaign, we now give you a look at the latest film to come out of the partnership between Mustache Maniacs Film Co. and CarTOON Shack: the highly-anticipated New Friends ~ An Environmental Fable! Get ready to head back to the time of the dodo bird with this exclusive sneak peek!

     Just like An Afternoon at the Zoo, New Friends was the brainchild of CarTOON Shack's leader, Raul Flores. "The film is all about colonization and extinction," said Raul Flores. Indeed, in the original script, the dodos were designed to symbolize indigenous tribal populations that were exploited by European settlers. However, the film, which featured dodos getting stuffed with whiskey and being converted to Christianity by the priest, was deemed too violent and insulting and had to be toned down. Now the film depicts the humans as negligent rather than malicious.

This early dodo bird concept art by Raul Flores suggests a more realistic approach to the character design. The design was rejected for being too scary and unappealing. Notice the notes for how the final animation puppet would be built.

Father Juniper preaches to the other sailors while he gives Wobbles the dodo attention in this screenshot by Raul Flores and Andrew Bermudez.

     However, another film almost got made, which might have shut out this film from Mustache Maniacs Film Co. distribution entirely. During the early days of the Advanced Animation class, another film was in the works called The Hit Man. The film concerned a hit man named Juniper and the sports car he loves. However, when an ordinary man puts a ding in his car, he hunts the man down and shoots him dead. While that concept may have had potential, none of the characters had sympathy, which resulted in canning the project. The film was never made, but it is not forgotten; in honor of the film, the priest in New Friends was named Father Juniper, after The Hit Man's title character.

A pencil and colored pencil concept sketch by Raul Flores of the Island of Mauritius, home of the dodo birds. Compare it to the watercolor painting below, also by Raul Flores, that will appear in the final film.

Watercolor painting of Mauritius Island for the finished film by Raul Flores.

     From there, it was just a matter of building the puppets and animating them. After all was said and done, it was time to composite the images. The technique employed here is just like the technique to composite the footage in Gone Ice Fishin'. After all of the footage was prepared for editing (for more information on this process, see First Look at "Gone Ice Fishin'!"), it was all inserted into Adobe After Effects, where the composite animation was formed. To add extra depth, extra props were made that could be moved around later. We will wrap this up with a few of these props.

Watercolor branch by Raul Flores.

Watercolor nest by Raul Flores.

Watercolor and pencil rowboat by Raul Flores.

     On December 12, you can join in at the premiere of New Friends with our first-ever Google Hangout. You can even interact with the other audience members! On December 14, the film will be officially released.

     Next Time: See what other animation was done over the semester when we take a first look at Animation Reel 2.
     Update: Due to technical issues, the release of New Friends has been delayed until January 2013.