#chilandokko gumi strong style mash up!

[muchalucha-art]

One-Sheeter network pitch for Chilandokko. Text blurred for non-disclosure reasons.

I think it looks like a show!

[ecmort]

Chilandokko-Gumi Strong Style Mash-Up!

[muchalucha-art]

Update from the Luchaverse

I'll just leave this here...

It's been a hectic few weeks...pitches/presentation videos, character designs and descriptions for the Super Lucha! boardgame. Plus I was a full time dance chaperone for the past week as my daughter was performing in the Sussex Festival Of Performing Arts 100 Year Anniversary Gala with 524 other dancers from all over England!!!

And I still managed to eke out a rough for Rudopolis (I always have to have a project going).

For those interested, some details...

Socorro and Chilandokko Gumi Strong Style Mash Up! have been pitched and presented to a US streaming network. Waiting on a decision. It's all good so far, but you really can't count on anything until a contract is offered. I'm hopeful, but have had assurances in the past...let's wait and see! :)

I have completed character designs for Super Lucha! The company producing this uses Kickstarter to get their projects off the ground, so there will be a page up and running soon where everyone can see what shape and form this is taking. Having seen the first version of the page, it is VERY ML!-inspired. :)

Looks very probable that Los Campeones de La Lucha Libre may be also streaming at some point. More details if this actually happens!

So a lot of maybes and probables...but that's how life in animation has been for me for 24 years now! Let's see what the next few weeks bring...I'm realistic about everything, but can't help being excited!

[muchalucha-art]

While I reevaluate this...

This happened...

Love it!

[muchalucha-art]

Awww...they remember us. Love you, Mexico.

CMLL is running an all-luchadora event for International Women's Day which is great to see.

On a personal front, I have been really busy compiling video and graphic presentations for Socorro and Chilandokko-Gumi Strong Style Mash Up! - which I am happy to say is finally in a coherent form plot-wise and character-wise - for a network pitch. Round three next week, so it's getting exciting. I really believe I have both properties in their strongest possible form right now, so it's all up to the third parties as to whether they want to get involved.

Thanks for being patient everyone...

[muchalucha-art]

Chilandokko-Gumi Strong Style Mash Up! Stadium Fly-Through (*updated)

Welcome to SAITAMO SUPER ARENA 2050!

I started this project a couple of years back, but came down with a mystery illness that put me out of action for a while. After being misdiagnosed twice and on the wrong medication, I put this and all my other animation on hold. Finally I got the right medication and can now continue to function normally while I continue to take it. The downside is that this project lost its momentum, and as a result I moved forward with 'Socorro' instead.

Now as I wait for the next step forward with 'Socorro' my thoughts have turned back to this one (thank you @catisteard :)

Here's a test. I initially started learning Blender as I wanted a '2D in 3D' feel, but quickly realized Blender was really just fake 3D. I realized I could do better in my existing software Toon Boom Animate Pro and contrive a 3D feel..hence this test. I've since learnt there is an ACTUAL 3D camera option in Animate Pro (it only took me about 18 years to grasp this) which would make this a lot smoother and effective, should I revisit the scene.

So, here we are in 2024 and I have some decisions to make. Not sure where I am going with this project, but would love to finish it and Socorro. * I have a producer who deals with the 'contacts/connections' side and lets me get on with the creative, but they are dragging their feet and I am getting frustrated. Maybe it's time for a new collaboration and to (gasp) put together, like, a studio like I did with Fwak! Animation with other artists.

*Okay, Socorro is finally moving :)

[muchalucha-art]

Chilandokko-Gumi Strong Style Mash Up!

[muchalucha-art]

Around 2010 we put together a series pitch for Los Campeones. To be brutally honest, at the time - and now in hindsight - I wasn't overly thrilled with the traditional lucha libre story arc and felt it should have been a little more 'out there' and random. I think the current draft of 'Chilandokko-Gumi Strong Style Mash Up' is a much more imaginative use of the characters.

Anyway for what it's worth, here's a little glimpse of the pitch bible.

[muchalucha-art]

Storyboards

I talk a lot about storyboards, because I feel it’s where true animation direction comes from. Mucha Lucha! really verified this, as I began to understand why certain episodes were stronger than others from a visual and narrative sense. (Dawn of The Donuts by Ricky Garduno, above).

Below are storyboard pages from the feature film ‘Los Campeones de La Lucha Libre’. Because other studios were involved in the production, the storyboards HAD to be detailed and on-model – especially as we knew the animators would be skipping the layout stage and working straight from the boards.

But because these days I work independently, I enjoy working a little looser and rougher. Because the cartoons I am doing are being produced from within, it means the storyboards become more of a blueprint for ideas, and can take risks; if I get to animation and something doesn't quite work, I can just change it. And they don’t have to be consistently on model. I hardly ever use model sheets anymore and create my poses within the storyboards.

Here is an example of a rougher, looser board: Chilandokko Gumi Strong-Style Mash-Up (the first three panels are tighter, as they were lifted from an animated test scene I initially did).

This has been on hold for a while, but I am hoping to resume it sometime this year.

I don't even use the standard storyboard layout when I know I'll be ultimately animating it myself. The dialogue is usually in my head when I start boarding, and I just write in down as is, with the aim to finesse it later - very much how Ricky and Gabe worked on Mucha Lucha! The hovering video screens below are a way to keep the dialogue and action going at the same time, so there aren't any 'talking heads'!

[muchalucha-art]

Chilandokko-Gumi Strong Style Mash-Up!