#and the dreams were in the 2d style

[neofelis----nebulosa]

Uhhh why aren’t the furious 5 in the king fu panda 4 trailer

[canisalbus]

Machete and Vasco made an appearance in my dreams last night and I'd like to formally apologize to them bc my dreams are always horror slanted lol they didn't have a good time poor guys.

.

[chemiosmotic]

have had at least a second in my series of dreams in which diagetically I(?) was playing zelda phantom hourglass. Reader, I was not

[tricobicofriend]

Had a dream where..(dream under tha cut)

A girl named Rapunzel (no relation whatsoever to the princess or movie or fairytale, just a vague resemblance) was kidnapped and held in the attic of her or an elderly-lady-on-vacation's house, and scu/movie sonic saw the kidnapping happen. The captors were about to hurt her and sonic, who had been trying to lie low in the hopes that the cops would show up before anything worse would happen so he wouldn't expose himself to humans against longclaw's warnings, jumped in to fight them. However, he either hadn't had speed/chaos powers for very long, or was inexperienced in using them, because he missed his shots/kicks/punches occasionally, and he got clotheslined by one of the kidnappers, and just when it looked like both kids were in trouble, Perry the platypus showed up! He kicked through the wall and took down the captors with no trouble. It turned out he'd gotten a tip somewhere, then alerted the police while he made his way to the kids' location. He congratulated the kids for being brave, hugs were passed around, therapy recommended, etc. After rapunzel went home, perry congratulated sonic for stepping in, asked how old he was, and after learning now old he was told him to please try not to interfere next time bc he could have gotten really hurt. Then he gave him a business card and said when he was older, he'd make a good fit for OWCA, if he wanted. Explained, to sonic's starry eyes, that he was an agent of sorts, sent in ahead by police or the higher ups for missions the police might not make it to in time or special secret missions.

Rapunzel looked like this, sandy blond, red 50s crisscross pattern on some parts of her dress, probably taupe eyes.

Sonic was younger than he was in the main events of his first movie, but older than he was in the longclaw flashback, maybe about 10 or 12? Rapunzel was a head taller than Sonic, and Perry was just slightly shorter than him.

[homunculus-argument]

I don't remember anything else about the dream I had last night except that there was a glitch in some video game that made one NPC horse look like this:

It was in 2D and had a laying down -animation that looked like this:

And the glitch was only on one specific horse - all the other horses in the game were totally fine. And the rest of the game was in this super realistic, RDR2-like style, so it looked like this:

[essycogany]

Here’s a personal take!

The Sonic Prime 3D models have the best facial expressions seen from the modern cast. Why? Well, I’ll explain with my 0 experience in 3D animation. I’m only explaining as an observer. Not a professional. Anyways, onto the fun.

First of all, let’s talk about the current models in the games. The animators became better at animating them in Sonic Frontiers.

You can tell effort was being put in, but Frontiers still has limits due to the structure of Sonic’s face and eyes. I’ve seen fan animations with this model which animates him wonderfully. But no matter what, he’s still going to have limitations because his hands are too big, eyes are too far apart, mouth looks like it was made to only stay on the side, and more issues. The design frankly looks dead. Even in motion.

In all fairness, this character was built for a 2D design due to it being inspired by Mickey Mouse. But Sonic Unleashed (because they used different models like Dream Team) proves this character CAN be expressive in 3D with a good workable model. It’s not the animation that’s the problem in Frontiers. Here are similar expressions from Sonic Prime and Frontiers.

See how wider the expressions are in Prime? It allows their faces to be more flexible and warped. Prime!Sonic has rounder eyes making his head look easier for his facial structure to have an array of expressions. It’s kind of close to Sonic Dream Team with the minor tweaks of the OG models. Which is why the expressions in that game looked so good. ESPECIALLY when animated.

It’s even why other designs are able to have great facial expressions. The eyes being close together just works. While the OG looks like he’s pushing expressions that’s near impossible to push. Yes, it’s still expressive, but you can see how limiting it is because the eyes aren’t supporting the face. And his mouth is always stuck to one side.

Onto more compliments to the Sonic Prime models. They emphasize the hight differences too. I personally think Sonic and Shadow look like mixtures between their 06, modern, Boom, and movie designs. They have long quills like 06. Their entire look is inspired by the modern designs. Their eyes are shaped similar to Sonic Boom and they have cool textures like in the movies. Other characters count but it most notably is for the two hedgehogs.

The hands are smaller like in the movies and Boom. The pupils being bigger gives volume to the faces. I also adore their fur and quill patterns to give the designs flare. Their gloves have little details too. I especially love how they can change the quills for Sonic and Shadow and make them look similar to a 2D style. Usually they’d make the quills smaller in the games to get that 2D look but Prime Shadow and Sonic are able to have long quills while the animators adjust them however and whenever they need to.

Their mouths are also well animated and smooth when transitioning to different sides of the face. The characters body shapes are also 100% better. While the Game model looks too straight the Prime model has a pear shape torso that are also given to Boom and Movie Sonic respectively. The Prime models look like they were made for action scenes.

I know some people complain about the eyes not going down, but honestly it’s what makes the expressions weaker when used in 3D. I’m glad they have a balance of it sometimes to allow the expressions to get their points across. I really appreciate the colors on everyone also. They look lovely and bright with help of the lighting.

The few critiques I have are due to multiple watches but they’re not a HUGE deal.

1. I can easily see their necks at points.

2. The mouth animation looks weird when characters makes an O shape and the tongues/teeth are jarring.

3. I wish their hands weren’t so flat and skinny. Other models had their hands shaped like Disney characters, but Prime’s hands can look flat sometimes.

These are just nitpicks though.

Even compared to the CGI cutscenes while still good I think Prime conveys a subtly previous models didn’t do too often. Of course the CGI looks amazing and it still holds up, but the nuance in Sonic Prime cannot be ignored. Hope my take makes the slightest of sense.

Stay Creative! 💜

[ninjagood4]

Exactly 3 years of self-study! 😃🙌

This WildBrain-like style I've been developing since 2022, but thought I'd better compare it to the earliest artwork. I keep forgetting that I actually drew the very first costume concept for Future of the Past back in 2021 💀

I didn't take up humanization for a very long time, and the reasons are clear 🙂 It was only because I learned how to sketch in 2024 (because I finally bought a stylus) that I decided to venture out again and try it. I had a hard time visualizing the characters in people form, but after a bunch of trial and mistakes, it worked!!!

Also repainted favorite old work in a new technique I've started developing recently lol :) I have some drawings from 2018-2019 and I'd like to do the same thing again! ✨🐉

There have been a lot of issues this year, from family issues to trauma to depression, leading to burnout. Now I'm feeling better and also trying to put all my efforts into content to fulfill my dream of turning drawing into a profession! I even managed to open commissions last November, which helps a lot to live up to this day. But because of all the routine, I felt too withdrawn, and didn't even notice the successes in my work, which turned out to be not few (holy cow when I saw and thought about all progress, it was like I got a year-end gift) khvjtcjthjvutcjvh

The most important achievements for this year are not only in the improvement of skills. Now I have a professional device, can compose digital music (I was able to do it before, but didn't have a chance to show you), I started humanization, advanced in FotP, learned how to sketch, opened commissions, started a YouTube channel, animation, and even learned how to draw in 2D! That's a big deal to me, as well as the rest of the accomplishments. Hopefully 2025 will bring something to help me get even closer to my goal (and lastly I noticed a lot of mistakes both in the works and in myself that I'm already working on) 🫠

There were moments when I was about to give up my favorite thing - creativity, and thanks to all your support I am still here, for which I am weightlessly grateful! No one said that this path would be easy, and you taught me that after a fall, you need to get up :’3 💚

[miraclecherryblossomsblog]

inspired by a dream i had (which i hope to draw soon cuz i forgot I wanted until MUCH LATER WTF)

Reader getting isekai(ed?) to LMK but they keep their normal anatomy except ur just now drawn in into the art style

Ur body's now 2d

YAY FINGER PRIVELEDGES STAY!!! :D

u look bit odd compared the citizens anatomically but also like.....i don't think it would attract much the attention.....me thinks

feel like even if you were under average height (well depends on ur actual height) you would still be bit taller compared to the lego people, I always saw them being like smaller than regular humans if they were sized up irl....

like 4'5 for them is 5'5 and 5'0 would be 6'0 for them??? yall get what I'm trynna say ok lol

portable monke bf LES GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

carry him like a sack of potatoes!

put him in ur lap and cuddle him!

JESSICA RABBIT AND ROGER RABBIT GOOFY AHH DYNAMIC WE LOVE

yes I'm including ALL MONKE BOIS (mac, wukong, mk)

but also none monkes but im just too lazy to tagg em all LOL

[littlemisssquiggles]

The Missed Potential of WISH

It’s funny.

Last year, I really wanted to watch the new Wish animated film from Disney.

While everyone else were hating on the art and animation style, I actually kind of liked it and was genuinely looking forward to possibly viewing it on the big screen.

Then the reviews came in. Needless to say, I didn’t watch Wish.

I remember a time when people used to complain about Disney making “too many love stories”. Then Disney stopped making love stories leading to films like Moana, Coco, Encanto and even Turning Red, which weren't bad.

Following the failure of Wish, the biggest complaint I’ve heard for that film is that “it probably would’ve been more successful if it were a love story”.

The last romance Disney had we’re the protagonist was a “black girl” was Tiana from The Princess and the Frog which was technically their last 2D animated feature film.

And don’t get me wrong, til this day, The Princess and the Frog still tracks. Second to Tangled, I still very much love TPATF and it's one of Disney's classics that definitely have the rewatchability.

That being said, Wish is the first Disney film I've seen where the missed potential of what its story was originally supposed to be (herego a love story between a human girl and shape-shifting star boy) versus what we actually got is more popular.

Aww Disney, what were you thinking?! How could you think a film where the main character, who is a PoC, the first "black girl" (well technically I think Asha is meant to be mixed) female lead/love interest that you've had since Tiana in The Princess and the Frog in 14 YEARS where she is actually human for all of the movie and gets to share a love story with a handsome "star boy" who can literally make all of her dreams come and think that that's NOT gonna make you money!

I haven't even watched Wish yet I've seen more artwork and fan-made animatics of Asha and Star Boy than anything from the actual film.

At this point, Disney should just take all of the original ideas they left on the chopping block for Wish and revise them into a future title which is an actual love story they could market from.

Or…as an audience, we can just wait for one of their competitors, like Dreamworks to smell the blood in the water like the sharks they are and capitalize on Disney’s latest flop by taking the ideas they didn’t use and coming up with something that could potentially usurp the popularity of Wish’s failure.

In the case of Dreamworks, they don’t even need to make a new star boy since, technically, they already have potential “star boy” they can use.

Remember Rise of the Guardians?

Hahaaaaa OF COURSE you do, since it gave us the original immortal boy internet heart throb (also ironically voiced by Chris Pine who played King Magnifico in Wish) ---Jack Frost.

I find it hilarious that another reason why folks are hating on Wish so much is because Disney could've given us another potential immortal boy heart throb "Star Boy" to finally usurp the chokehold that Jack Frost has had on our generation of weebs and artists for the past 12 years since RoTG first dropped.

We could've had it all.

But as I mentioned Rise of the Guardians, did you know that there is character in the original series it was based off of called Nightlight?

While technically not a “star boy”, Nightlight is the closest thing to one in an already established universe from a Dreamworks property and since this squiggle meister never misses a beat to push for continuation of Rise of Guardians, hear me out:

Imagine a Rise of the Guardian prequel-sequel about the character Nightlight and make it a love story.

(Because apparently there's a girl that Nightlight grows close to in his story called Katherine. It's just a friendship but needless to say, there is potential there).

I know it’s been 12 years since Rise of Guardians first dropped and I know I've be hollering for a sequel since 2012.

But c'mon, if there was ever a time for Dreamworks to capitalize on an RoTG sequel, it's now.

As Wish has proven, the internet is hungry for another handsome immortal boy with magical powers.

Dreamworks set the ball rolling with Jack Frost.

If Dreamworks were to revisit RoTG again, take Nightlight's story. Take his design and give him the "Jack Frost" treatment and make it a love story on top of that.

I'm not saying it will happen. Not even saying it could happen.

But if somehow thought becomes reality and something like this does actually happen, whoever does it will be rolling in dough.

This is just a longwinded way of me to say that somebody needs to bank on the concept of a star falling in love with a human and do it now since as the internet has shown, it's what the people want and what Wish failed to give.

~LMS (2024)

[fangirltothefullest]

Can I ask a question? I like your sanders sides a lot and you give them a lot of personality in their designs! How do you make them like that? Or I guess I mean, what inspires you to make them the way that you do? I want to draw the sides but I'm not sure how to start other than their canon designs!

Oh my goodness I LOVE this question! For me, it's all about the feelings you get when you see them and the vibes I want to express. The Sides embody, to me, more than an aesthetic it should also encompass personality, role, and intention. In other words, I match their aesthetics to their function and the intent of what I feel like Thomas originally intended for them for their first short videos before they were actual sides.

Let us pick Roman, because even though people say he's not, he tends to be everyone's favourite to reblog fro me because he's pretty.

So I started by drawing him exactly as he was and to me he felt flat- in the show he's exactly as he should be but I am an artist and to me he feels more than what he looks like- it's dreamy, it's romantic, it's like he's giving childhood favouritre Disney Prince vibes, you know?

Inspiration 1: Prince Phillip

Hands down the biggest inspiration comes from him because he IS my favourite disney prince. Just looks a the hair swoop and the eyelashes- perfect. So I went ok my favourite Disney Prince is Phillip, let's start here. Before the CGI movies, there was such a romantic feeling about classic Disney princess movies and I've always loved the romantic feeling of Sleeping Beauty. The backgrounds are stunning, the way she's animated makes my bi ass give heart eyes and I loved that he was the only prince at the time who had a personality (until Beast but that's a whole other can of worms because he started out as an asshole/grumpy). I feel like modern Disney movies miss a lot of the romantic dreamy feeling of the older 2d movies because there was such care into the painted backgrounds being LESS realistic and more a fabulous idea of what a background should be and AHA! MORE INSPIRATION~! Let's make Roman a fabulous romantic idea of what a prince should be!

Inspiration 2: Faerietale Knights in Shining Armour

Our ideas of medieval knights are nothing like actual knights which are more reminiscent of hired military and enforcers. Our ideas of faerietale knights in shining armour are brave knights who would go off to kill a dragon to show their devotion to the one they love. Sword fighting heroes- is that not Roman if not an idealized romantic "royal knight wants to win the heart of the love with courageous deeds, acts of chivalry, selfless devotion" etc. Prince Phillip is a good model of this. Defeats a dragon and true love's kiss saves the day. A perfect romantic dream isn't it? Realistic? No of course not, but Roman isn't realistic he's creativity and romance which absolutely ignores practicality for the dream.

So we have this culmination of dreamy romantic disney prince and faerietale influence.

Now it's about aesthetics- Roman is reds and golds and whites, all royal colours typically associated with bravery, lineage, and strength and purity etc.

Inspiration 3: Media referencing

So let's find some movie or media equivalence I can reference. They came mostly in the forms of Narnia and Once Upon a Time.

So some aesthetic inspirations for belts and textures, missing the epaulets.... so to military garb!

Inspiration 4: Russian royals

Let's face it no one does embellishments like this any more <3

Inspiration 5: Lions

Roman's colours being red gold and white give me lion inspiration too so I looked up royal lion iconography as well (which ended up with a lot of lion king in the search because this was before AI but like.... it's not incorrect and the wavy flowy mane acted like hair. If Hamlet with lions is inspiring then use it, right? that have some AMAZING lion king-style artists on deviantart to get inspired by, it's a whole thing, mad respect) But ANYWAYS it gave me some cool stuff to be inspired by too.

Inspiration 6: Classic Golden Age Hollysood Leading Ladies (Note that this isn't femme fatales, because for Janus I used femme fatales as inspiration)

I knew that I just HAD to give Roman that Marilyn Monroe beauty mark, yes he paints it on every day yes it's in the same spot every day yes it's necessary.

Ultimately this culminated in a checklist of things that I wanted for him:

He must give the feeling of Prince Phillip in disney prince style

I wanted him to have flowey hair that makes him look softer and romantic and can be pulled up into a ponytail if necessary.

Must have a beauty mark and eyelashes that go on for ages reminiscent of old hollywood ladies, and let's throw in nail polish too.

I wanted him to have an outfit that would be his original but embellished to hell that can be like Narnia or OUaT in terms of texture and added stuff. It needed more gold, 100% needed epaulets (the shoulder things with the dangly rstuff), and it needed a belt where a sword could be attached. Danglies not always necessary, but look really good when done and is reminiscent of old fashioned military garb and Russian royalty.

He needed to look like he's used to wearing this outfit every single day and going out of his way to do so.

Ended up with this:

So yeah that's how I got to his design!

[woah-uhuh-uhuh-uhuh]

I always thought if a SQUIP user asks for a nonhuman character (e.g. Kermit or a sexy anime catgirl with a tail), you just sort of perceive them in the way you can perceive characters in dreams??

As in, you're not literally seeing Hatsune Miku standing there, a 2D object meshing with reality. Instead you just have the "delusion" (not sure how else to phrase it) that the concept of Hatsune Miku is talking to you. For me at least, I can almost never recall visual information from my dreams... Because I don't think there WERE visuals. It was just my brain constructing a narrative of what happened that I perceived the same way as the OUTPUT of my brain's sensory processing. It said "you're talking to Miku" and I went "okay" because that's the same amount of information I receive when I actually see and recognize a person; my brain takes all that light information and translates it into an abstract concept like "you're talking to your friend Tom," and that's all my inner brain is really used to seeing of the world.

I know this kind of contradicts canon, but if I were to write the squip, I'd have most of its powers operate by changing what you THINK you see/hear/know, and not actually altering your senses that much. Like if I were to rewrite optic nerve blocking, I'd have it not actually block Jeremy's optic nerves, but instead just make Jeremy incapable of recognizing/noticing the sensory stimuli that make up Michael Mell.

Both more efficient and way creepier in my opinion --- Jeremy SEES Michael, he just… doesn't know what he's looking at. His brain literally can't process Michael's face as a human person. That's just a wall or a backpack or something.

(Initially wrote this as a reply to @stormytbh's post about squips appearing with an art style --- I didn't mean this as a rebuttal or anything, it just got me thinking about my rich goranski lore and then I realized that leaving it as a comment would totally derail the post lol)

[humansbgone]

I ended up going back to Vera's model after all and making several major fixes. She has an entirely new rig, lots of UV and texture fixes, and and much improved hands. Her eyes will still be needing an overhaul at some point, but that won't be for a very long time. Some touch-ups were made to Mobia's model, as well.

I also got some work done on Sophodra's Tips--making one very big, detailed painting. The rest just needs to be animated, a model needs tweaking, and then only slides and Gregorsa's Notes remain on that!

DDX.exe has finished the music for Sophodra's Tips, as well!

Next week will be given to letting the 2D concept artists finish up work and the 3D artists get started, while I get Sophodra's Tips animated. The week after, I'll finish up work on Sophodra's Tips as the 3D artists continue work. Going a little off schedule as I figure out a multi-person workflow, but hey, still making good time!

And now, for the end-of-year post!

Over two years of episodes, and almost four years of work on the series! Wow!!! Every year of work on this has been incredible, marking new milestones for myself. The first year I conquered a decade of total creative block to get out novels' worth of writing for the script (and still it isn't complete), and make concept art and completed models. The second year I finally began animating, putting out tests and finally a completed episode. The third year saw three episodes and the first Sophodra's Tips. And this year...

Wow. What a year.

Three more episodes, each longer than the last. Conquering the design of ambitious backgrounds I had long dreaded. A new style. A showing at a short film festival!!! And a sudden boost in viewership, boosting my subscriber count to over 10k!!! And monetization, at long last!!! Between that and the Patreon, I've made over $600 on HBG this month! That's allowed me to finally hire some people on to help design, model and animate!!!

So many things I had dreamed of, finally realized this year. Wow. Thank you so much, to all of you, for your support and helping Humans-B-Gone! get this far! I can't thank you all enough. Here's to a new year, and new characters, new areas, and new lore. I can't wait to show you all! Until next time!

[randy-jester]

My Imaginary Ride The Cyclone Hybrid Live-Action and Animation Feature Film that only exists in my head: Part 1

I originally wrote this in response to @sleepboysummer 's post about wanting to bring back the "imaginary rtc production in my head' trend, but it got so long I felt like it deserved it's own post. And then that got so long that I had to split it into multiple parts 😅

Anyway, here's my concept for what I would want for a Ride The Cyclone movie. This part covers everything from the beginning (Introduction + Uranium Suite) to "Talia".

The majority of the movie is shot in live-action, but colored in sepia (Think like the Wizard of Oz but while Dorothy is still in Kansas). The coloring is meant to represent how dreary the choir felt like their lives were living in Uranium.

Karnak will be a life-size animatronic creature puppet from Jim Henson's Creature shop.

The warehouse, despite presumably being abandoned for years, appears to look no worse for wear (for now). Sure, lots of old carnival stuff is stored here. Yet for some reason, nothing seems to have fallen into significant disrepair. It just looks kinda old.

Karnak's opening dialogue will have different jokes depending on whether the audience is watching the movie in theaters vs if they're watching it on home video. The theater version can keep the "armrest bit". But the home video will have it's own joke to replace it.

The first half of "Uranium Suite" is shown as a flashback. We see the choir in competition, snippets of them getting their fortunes read and enjoying the other rides at the carnival, then boarding the doomed Cyclone rollercoaster.

When Karnak says the line "hurtling the children to their deaths", we watch the choir's rollercoaster cart fly off the loopty-loop. But rather than hitting the ground, they stay floating through the air for a while. It's only when they say the lines "round and round and round" when they slowly start to descend toward the ground. Right when they're about to crash and hit the ground, the scene changes. We see the choir land in the warehouse, their souls summoned by Karnak. They get back up, almost robotically, and perform some (Karnak-controlled) choreography for the end of the song.

When it comes to the choir's individual songs, the visuals change to animation. And to reflect the individuality of the choir members, every song uses a different art style.

"What the World Needs" will use 3D CGI animation that has a classic Disney/Pixar look to it. This is meant to reflect multiple aspects at once (the happy/poppy style of the song, Ocean's bubbly personality, etc.)

During her number, Ocean dons a dramatic costume change. She's got a bright pink power suit (think like if Barbie was a businesswoman)

After her number, the world returns to normal (live-action and sepia). We see Ocean standing on the human pyramid wearing a loose pink necktie. This is meant to show that the animated sequences are "dreams" acted out by the choir. The costume pieces they get in real life were from storage.

"Noel's Lament" is animated in 2D black and white animation. Think like the classic Betty Boop cartoons from the 1930s. Additionally, his entire song is recorded through a radio filter (think like how Alastor sounds in Hazbin Hotel). That way it really makes him sound like he's from the "olden days".

"This Song is Awesome" will have a gritty, graffiti type art style. Whereas "Talia" will be done entirely in watercolor.

The transition from "This Song is Awesome" to "Talia" will be different from the stage version. "This Song is Awesome" will be framed like Mischa's dream bachelor party. We see him living it up as a world-famous rapper, partying with his friends, then taking the private jet to Ukraine. When he says "And then I see this girl. Shawty." at the end of "This Song is Awesome", there's a visual gap between where Mischa is standing (still in the graffiti art style) and where Talia is standing (in watercolor). We can hear the beginning notes of "Talia" being played in the background. Noel leans close to Mischa and asks, "Who's that?", referring to Talia in front of them. Mischa says, "That is my girlfriend. I was saving up to move back to Ukraine just to see her. Natalia Muruska Bolinska." As he says her name, Mischa steps between the gap, changing his appearance (and the rest of their surroundings along with him) to the "Talia" watercolor style.

EDIT: Here's the link to Part 2! Sorry for splitting it up. Tumblr literally wouldn't let me post it as one large chunk. ^^;

[synergysilhouette]

Plotting out "Yaksha" (Disney movie)

If you haven't checked out my post on my original Disney era, please check it out here.

Background: Disney revives the idea for a "Jack and the Beanstalk" story, though they've no interest of making it take place in Spain like originally planned, citing the recent "Wish" film still burned in people's recent memory. Fawn Veerasuthorn (Co-director and co-screenwriter of "Wish," head of story for "Raya and the Last Dragon," and a story artist/storyboard artist/visual development artist for other recent Disney films) suggests a Thai setting, since there are many stories that revolve around Yakshas there. Though Disney is nervous about the idea due to RATLD's middling box office performance and polarized reviews on their SEA representation, Fawn points out that the former issue was COVID-related, and the latter issue can be solved by specifically focusing on Thailand. Eventually, they come around to the idea, citing how "The Princess and the Frog" was based a European tale with a fresh twist from another culture. Early on that they would gamble further by not only making the film a musical AND keeping a male lead, something they hadn't done since "Hercules" (AKA 1997). They aren't totally being risky, though; they bring over the Anderson-Lopez team, who was originally going to be used to be used for "Gigantic" (the original title for the adaptation) to write songs for it, as well as bringing in James Newton Howard in after his experience orchestrating the score for Raya. Opting to lean into potential "Avatar: The Last Airebender" parallels, Disney hires Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko as directors (and I'll be using some ATLA and TLOK pics for reference), with Matt Braly and Jared Bush creating the script. It was never established if they were going for a specific time period's influence, but the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya kingdoms were the most spoken about. Scott Watanabe does the concept art, and after a severe internal argument, they take another risk: to make it a 2D film. This is only done due to points being brought up how desires for 2D have increased (and TBATH winning "Best Animated Film" in 2024) as well as it working best in the film's favor being based on Thai art. Needless to say, Studio Ghibli plays a big influence on the art style, and the change to 2D makes production take longer to reacquaint the animation team with it, as well as getting the style they want.

Plot:

(Used this picture for visual aid; courtesy of Scott Watanabe's concept art for "Raya and the Last Dragon")

A poor family made up of a man, his wife, her father, and their two children, is blessed with another child. Unable to support him, the family falls into anguish, but his grandfather has dreams of buying and planting sugarcane seeds outside the kingdom and placing the baby there overnight, and is told that the child will be cared for. He tells the family, and the boy disappears the next day, being raised by the Yaksha in a sky kingdom above. For many years, the boy--named "Cloud"--believes he belongs there, until his adoptive mother informs him of his true heritage and guides him to the stalk from which she descended to retrieve him. As he grows, Cloud descends the beanstalk to learn more about the place he would've called home, but when a jealous giant follows him and accidentally kills the crown prince of the kingdom, the King vows revenge on the Yaksha, wanting to destroy them and conquer their plentiful kingdom in the process. Cloud, as a human, must know act as a bridge between both worlds in order to prevent an all-out war from occuring.

Characters:

"Cloud"--His main color is definitely blue, which references the world above that he lives in close to the sky. His nickname is a pun on his head sometimes being stuck in the clouds, as well as his easygoing and often gentle nature and the fact that he now lives in the kingdom above the clouds. He draws influences from several people (fictional or real, Thai or not) to craft a young man with a passion for peace and keeping the order between giants and humans. While he's spent most of his life in the world above, he will sometimes sneak down the sugarcane to a little village outside the human Kingdom of Khruth where he only goes by his nickname. For many years, he has befriended an elderly man, unaware that this is his grandfather. On Earth, he's known only by his nickname, with only a handful of people who know his real name, something he hardly uses (but still answers to).

Suvana--One of the princesses of Khruth, who catches Cloud napping under the mango tree outside the palace. When she discovers he is the ambassador of the Yaksha, she's surprised, having expected him to be a brutish and reckless warrior, and she is pleased to find that he is respectful, pious, and compassionate. Somewhat of a black sheep in the royal family, she often tries to find time to herself, when she can be more playful and goofy without embarrassing her family or disrupting the royal status quo. However, despite her unique personality, she's also quite clever and mysterious, being underestimated often due to being seen as incompetent.

Note: her name is taken from Suvannamaccha, a mermaid princess from the Thai version of the Ramayana.

Ngein--A mother figure to Cloud and a leader of the Yakshas who reside in the sky, she's weary of the impending war with humans, who, in their hubris, desire to conquer the sky upon hearing of even more majestic lands and priceless gems and minerals there. On top of this, one of the Yaksha's kills the crown prince in a rage, fueling the friction between both parties.

(IDK if I'd use their "Genshin Impact" designs, but it is a nice visual aid.)

Sirichai--The King of Khruth who grew up with stories of giants who housed outstanding treasure and magic in the world above. When one of his sons is killed by a Yaksha, he follows it to the sugar cane and investigates the world above, and comes to the conclusion that while above him, it is still part of his kingdom, and his craving for revenge drives him to want to dominate the giants--or slaughter them for their wealth. Either or.

Songs:

Sent to Heaven--The opening song about the dreams and hopes of commoners, it focuses on Cloud's family leaving him below a sugarcane stalk after dreaming that he will live better if they do so rather than living with them. They ponder the drawbacks of this, however, as they may never see him again.

What Else is There?--After being told that he's the child of humans when he's young, Cloud begs Ngein to show him the sugarcane that peeks above the clouds, and as the years pass, he makes his way down to the human world, learning about the life he missed, with Ngein always satisfied because he always returns and because she watches him from Yaksha statues outside of temples

Underneath--Cloud rests beneath the mango tree, contemplating how large the world beneath the clouds is, and how he isn't ready to go back home. Meanwhile, Suvana talks about who she is underneath her decorum, and is simultaneously embarrassed by how she fails to live up to royal standards and sad that it alienates herself from her siblings.

Worth the Price--Sirichai makes an impassioned speech to his army to climb the sugar cane to the land above and make the giants above subservient to them. Suvana notes that despite her father's ill intentions, he does not recognize what he's doing as wrong, truly believing that his the skies above are part of his kingdom and thus his dominion.

What Else is There? (Reprise)--When Cloud is imprisoned and Suvana must go alone to persuade the giants not to kill the incoming warriors, they ponder if their desire to live and explore was always meant to end poorly, if they were better off living the lives played out for them. But then, they realize they wouldn't have met each other, and they'd always wonder "what if?"

Only Me--Having managed to avoid war and catastrophe, Cloud and Suvana marry, and they reflect on their journeys. Despite their kind hearts, they made hasty decisions that could have hurt so many people, and as they marry, they vow to each other and both kingdoms that the ceremony was not only a marriage of people, but a marriage of worlds. (Note: if I made the lyrics, it'd be "It's NOT only me")

Lemme know what you think and if you have any questions! Obviously I don't know the inns and outs of Thai culture, but lemme know if it sounds like it could work with these ideas. I may make minor changes to this. Perhaps I'll make more posts related to the rest of my fanmade Reinvention era.

[bungowife]

I’ve been following your art for a long time and I was just wondering what do you use as inspiration for your stuff, and do you have tips for people who kind of want a cartoony stretchy and very expressive art style (sorry if this is too much to ask I just love your stuff! Also what do you use to draw your stuff)

Thank you!!! Nice to see long-time followers :3

When I was first learning how to draw cartoons I bought the book Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair. It's a really good source that covers all the basics + some animation. When I started animating as a high school freshman I copied his walk cycles before trying anything on my own

This is a very old mini guide I made for a friend on how I push poses so the art's a little outdated but the idea is the same... I think line of action is neat lol I try to make the character follow the line as much as possible with the only thing that might break the silhouette being appendages like tails etc

My personal rule for expressions is that it just has to look like an exaggerated version of a real expression a human could actually do. To me it's not as appealing when artists add wrinkles in random places with no forethought, faces stretch around the eyes and mouth and chin and that's where I usually place wrinkles

I take inspiration from a lot of shtuffs these are just the ones I can think of right now:

-Fleischer cartoons. Favorite 30s studio besides Van Beuren

-obviously 90s cartoons, for Smokey my main inspiration is Twisted Tales of Felix The Cat and Pat Ventura's shorts for Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Animation wise I try to do something similar to season 2 of Space Goofs and Cats Don't Dance

-90s 2d point and clicks. Two big favorites are Toonstruck and UFOs

-anything by Ralph Bakshi. Fully aware it's bad lol but Cool World is one of my favorite movies ever

-underground comix but specifically 80s/90s newave stuff

-music!!! I like psychobilly and ska and it helps me draw. Massive Frank Zappa fan too

I think it's good to vary what you take inspiration from. When I started drawing cartoons I didn't let my myself improve because I only took inspiration from 30s and 90s cartoons and was so bent on perfectly replicating it that I didn't develop my own style. I see a lot of cartoonists blend together because they're only influenced by ren and stimpy and looney tunes that they don't have their own voice or bring anything new to the table

I recently just switched to my relatively new ipad so I'm using Procreate and then Procreate Dreams and Toonsquid for animation. Since 2020 I had been using Firealpaca and pencil2d because they were both free. I used a screenless Gaomon tablet I got for 30-40 dollars. I do all my sketches on paper and then airdrop them to myself since my hand doesn't move as naturally when sketching on a screen

[itriedimhighandreadytodie]

More MaBill headcanons because I'm a sick freak who becomes even sicker when I think about them

-They met again a couple of weeks after the events of Dreamscapers. Bill approaches her first thinking she's easier than Dipper, but is sorely mistaken when he gets a kitten fist to the eye. It takes a lot of failed attempts to finally gain a fraction of her trust.

-He manages this by appealing to her sense of empathy and revealing just a tiny bit about his past to her. She still doesn't completely trust him, but it's enough to get her to stop hurting him every time he enters her dreams and snitching on him to Dipper.

-The only times when Mabel wants him to transform into a human is when she wants to give someone a makeover and everyone else is busy.

-They mostly hang out in the woods when she's not dreaming, so she braids a lot of wildflowers into his hair (I hc human! Bill would have long hair because he doesn't really see a point in cutting it or keeping it short)

-Whenever they discuss the possibility of a future together, Mabel is weirdly excited at the possibility of having fucked up alien shape human hybrid kids. Even Bill is surprised.

-Bill only brings up their million year age gap and the fact he's a 2D triangle demon once, asking why it doesn't bother her. She only says that he's "a step up from a gnome and Gideon".

-Sometimes on her insistence, he'll braid her hair back, always coming up with the craziest styles that Mabel never even thought were possible. (A little bit of hairspray and magic go a loooong way)