MoTR Production Update: Week 3
- 1rregularcharlie
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
AHOY SAILORS!
Can't believe I haven't been saying "Ahoy". Been saying "Howdy" like a cowboy and that's for later seasons (maybe... probably not).
Anyway another week has gone and another update has sailed into port! Sailing humor!
Current Status
General
As always with a tiny team like ours, we make progress consistently, week by week, but the overall process is by no means quick. That's the nature of production like ours I suppose.
Still it's all good experience. :P
A small note on the MoTR Comics
In regards to the comics, unlike my weekly webcomic series 1rregularComics, we're not planning on making a new MoTR comic every week. There's a lot on our plates as is. We're planning on making them as we get ideas for them.
We're also hoping to get them voiced and turn them into short videos in the future. :)
More modelsheets? More modelsheets.
Yeppers, our efforts to update the modelsheets went on this week. I'm mostly done with that now and have shifted my focus onto creating the Design Guide.
Still let's go over the changes!
J.Hawkins
Didn't we see Hawkins' changes last week? Yes, yes you did but alas upon lining up all the characters in the height guide (we'll get to that) we released that in comparison to the rest of the cast Hawkins' head was just too damn big. So we stuck it in the drier and shrunk it a tad. Interestingly this made Hawkins' look a little older too which Natka is relieved about because she thought Hawkins looked a bit too... baby. Now they look a bit more like the awkward, gender dysmorphic, preteen they are.
Potas D'Bladington
Potas design was updated to be better inline with the changes made to their sibling; Carbo. In comparison to Carbo, Potas is slightly taller (discounting their fin) and broader in the shoulders.
Sulfu D' Bladington
Much like Potas, Sulfu's modelsheet was updated inline with their siblings. Sulfu is slightly shorter than Carbo and more adorable because of it. We also decided to give Sulfu head fins 3 points to bring it inline with the Rule of 3. We also discussed having this fins move based on Sulfu's mood which is a bit of characterisation I'm all about.
Cpt. Reveller
After updating Hawkins, Eliot, Casssettel and The Powder Monkeys we thought we'd be done. But again when we lined up everyone for the height guide we realised that Reveller was just TOO tall and skinny so some updating was needed here too.
We shrunk her down a bit (she's still taller than the rest of the crew), made her thicker (...), made her head a little bigger, made her arms shorter and increased the size of her hat.
We also decided that she should have 3 fingers and not 4 fingers. It's been a debate for a long time. As Natka pointed out, now her and Lamenter can hold hands easier. May this ship forever sail.
Lamenter
Lamenter's changes were minimal in comparison to the others. We made her smokey lower half more apparent as in the orginal design it wasn't clear... and we hadn't decided on that element yet. We didn't actually settle on that element of her design untill we did the slow dance test animation with her and Reveller. We shortend her arms and removed one of her ribs. Keeping with the Rule of 3.
The Height Guide
With the modelsheets updated we made sure to update our current height guide. There was a lot off with the old version. For example we orginally had Reveller TOWERING over the others. As we did the storyboards and became better aquainted with the characters this simply didn't work. Now the Judgerayment is the largest of the cast that appears in Episode 1.
The 4.1 version fo the height guide is the current working heights of all the characters with the exception of Hyppos, who's so dang big he gets his own height guide.
With all that said, these height guides are more guidelines than hard and fast rules. We'll be adapting them as needed for the shot/scene.
The Design Guide
Like I mentioned earlier my focus since completing the needed updates to the modelsheets has been the creation of the design guide to help others draw and animate in the style of series.
To that end I've been working my way through a list of topics to cover and drawn many examples to illustrate my points.
I won't go through everything made for the guide so far, as a lot of it requires the context, but I can show off bits and pieces. :)
Line size based on shot
The brush/line size used in the linework of a shot has to changed based on where the characters are placed in relation to the camera. To help illustrate this I came up with the above illustration. I think it came out pretty cute. :B
Again, it's not a hard and fast rule as such. Ultimately we'll roll with whatever looks best for the shot and given that we'll be having shots that operate in a 3D enviroment, it might be irrelevent. We'll see.
Expression Sheets
Obviously The Revelry has a large ammount of diversity, particually in regards to facial features. So as a part of the Design Guide expressions sheets are vital to better illustrate some of the design rules around the different characters.
As an example in the design guide I went over the rules for the stretch and sqwish of Hawkins eyes and mentioned that Hawkins' generally doesn't over emote nearly as much as the rest of the crew. Also that whilst hawkins' poupils can expand and contract they'll never turn into symbols like stars or love hearts like the other members of the Revelry can do. At the end of the day Hawkins is a human and we want them to be a little more grounded.
With The Powder Monkeys I went over the "mouth over eyes" rule which goes over where and when it's appropriate. With a small ammount of facial realestate to us for the monkeys big expressions can stretch into the same space as the eyes. How does this work in reality? Baby, we're in the Seas Between. Things get weird here.
In the coming week I'll need to create expression sheets for all the rest of the characters. Next up is Cassettel.
Future Plans
Currently I still have several topics to go over in the Design Guide and creating illustrations for them. Topics such as;
Mouth Shapes
General mouth shapes
Eliot's Mouth shapes
The Sharp vs Flat teeth rule
Hand sheets
Pose Sheets
More Specific Notes
Lamenter's smoke trail
Cassettel's Glow
Reveller's Hair
More then likely I'll figure out more topics to go over as I write out this guide.
3D Modelling
Katherine is keeping on between her studies and working a part time job. This week she made bits and pieces but the high light of this week is obviously, a chair. :D
The Coming Week
1rregularCharlie
My plans for the coming week is to burn through as much of the Design Guide as possible so Natka can feel comfortable to get cracking on some animation tests and get some practice drawing the characters in the series style.
After that I will begin doing the rough animation on the 2nd Short whilst also creating the Animation Guide and organising shots.
I've already run some tests importing 3D storyboards from Storyboard Pro to ToonBoom Harmony. One thing that has become clear is that if you're not experienced in working within 3D enviroments in these programs it could be a pain. As such I think I'll need to create a shot list that seperates out the shots that NEED to be in a 3D enviroment and those that don't, and I can therefor important in 2D. Doing so should make it easier for other (primarily 2D) animators we bring in to help the animation process.
I imagine I will go over more of this in the future when I get to it. :P
Natka
Natka's doing her thing. Keeping me motivated, reminding me to sleep and eat and awaiting for me to finish the design guide. Best First-Mate. :D
Katherine
As we've seen above, she's making progress. We expect more chairs in the future. :)
Fanart
It 100% blows my mind that people are actually making fanart of this series, EVEN THOUGH WE HAVEN'T EVEN RELEASED ANYTHING YET.
It's honestly, the best. I'll add these to the production blogs for the future as we recieve them. Please don't hesitate to send/message us fanart. We LOVE it.
Andrés L. Mignucci
Andrés is an increditable illustrator I met at the 2025 Annecy Animation Festival. He apparently liked the design of Eliot so much he decided to draw our favourite reverse merman in his own style and it's B E A U TIFUL. <3
LOOK AT IT. That background is just, chef's kiss.
He actually completed this a long while ago now but I want to make sure he gets his laurels. He's a fantastic artist and a really nice guy. Give him a follow.
He once said I had "good character design" and it's honestly one of the best compliments I've ever gotten. made me laugh. :D
Shogako
Thaaaaat's right the voice of Sulfu herself decided she want to draw The Powder Monkey siblings as humans! They now have humansonas. :O
I love how she managed to work in the unique head features of all the Powder Monkeys. Carbo still has her trio of buns, converted into delightful hair poofs. Potas kept the mohawk look with a more subdued blue side shave. And Sulfu in the middle still has the elements of her head fins in her delightful orange bob. I also think she did a really good job capturing their personalities.
I imagine they're all still getting used to having legs.