New Studio Colours

What's up, people? We've been doing a little remodeling here in the office over the last few days and I thought I'd do you the favour of sharing a little bit of our scenery with you. Basically, anything you see in these pictures that isn't white was done very recently by a few exceptionally kind volunteers amongst the March crew (myself obviously included). Remind you of anywhere? Some place happy? Somewhere some very funny and loveable characters live? If you said "Chilly Beach" you're WAY off! Nice try though. Thanks for playing.

Encyclopedia Brit-yam-ica (huh?)

More red carpet type of news today! World-reknowned art publication company "Pictoplasma" has inducted a number of Mr. Izen's character designs into their encyclopedia coming out this September! Yam Roll, Katcho, Ebi, and 2 of Jon's relatively unknown originals are all included. This is one of the hottest publications for artists/designers/animators throughout the industry and a very big honour for us. Sweet!
Check out their website to learn more about the company.
www.pictoplasma.com

Character Contest

Today is Thursday. You know what that means?! Nothing really. HOWEVER, I AM going to show you something exciting today but that, of course, is by no means different from any other day of the week. A while back, we had a contest on CBC for viewers to send in their drawings of new Happy Kingdom characters. The lucky winner would have their character appear in an episode as well as do the voice for the character themselves! As I mentioned, this was a while back so the winner ("Poppy" as seen above) has already been chosen and the episode has already aired but here are some of the runner-ups! Cute huh?
I don't really have any...ummm... information about the kids who drew these at the moment. For now, I suggest that if you see your drawing on here then you should just tell your friends that you drew it and emotionally prepare yourself for being called a liar.

Blooper Reel

Hey gang! Good to see ya. During the production of Yam Roll we would have these sessions called Rough Cuts in which a priveledged few would watch the first round of each episode's animation. The purpose of these, of course, was to make sure that there were no stupid mistakes left in when the show finally made it to TV. Even with 4 or 5 people watching these clips in the viewing room, some things still didn't get caught until the last minute. Here's an example... In episode 10A, called "Secret Roommate Man", Phil HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED and is mysteriously absent from all of Yammie and friends' daily activities. That is the entire plot of the episode! The following scene is taken from the rough cut stage. See if you can spot the problem...

Blooper

Yam Roll to Walk Red Carpet!

Exciting news today! Read carefully! Episode #28A "Honey I Shrunk the Tamago" is now an “Official Selection” of the 2006 FAIF International Film Festival and will screen at the worlds famous Mann’s Chinese 6 Theaters in the heart of Hollywood! (That's the one with the hand prints in the sidewalk outside) Within a matter of days the episode (or possibly just a clip from it) will appear on www.MagicalFilmFest.com under the “selected films” page link. If any of you live in Hollywood then I suggest you walk down the street and check it out. For those of you that live in Canada, like myself, you can hop on the back of my dogsled. I've got room for 2 maybe 3 passengers. Please bring your own seal meat and wear a thick plaid jacket.

Get Out Your Thumbtacks!

G'day Metis! After some more extensive server browsing, I came across this super awesome poster used for promotional events and galas. Isn't it wild?! Now print it out and plaster it all over your walls. I, personally, like to tape copies of them up in unexpected places. Once, I stuck one of them to the inside of each lens of a friend's sunglasses. He put them on while he was driving. Or so the coroner tells me. RIP Joe.

COMMENT!

Alright you chatty little jerks! Either you start making some comments or I slam on the brakes and turn this blog around! Without your feedback, how am I to know which blogs are gold and which are merely pyrite (Or for the homies out there, which blogs are Bling and which are cubic zirconia).
I took a look around on a server and came up with the following: NHL promos! These were shown on the big screen at an actual Leafs game. Maybe you were even lucky enough to see them in person!

Go, Leafs! Go!

Umm... that was the only one I could find. What a crappy post! Now please comment and tell me what a horrible job I did today.

Yam Roll Spotted on Restaurant Menu

Good Friday to you! ..well not GOOD Friday. Like the one before Easter. Just.. good... Friday. Anyway, what's up? I found this picture of Yammie on the menu of a Japanese restaurant somewhere in Toronto. Looks like they use pictures of famous cartoon characters to advertise their food items. Technically, they could create an entire menu out of the characters on our show. Somebody tell them! And while you're at it, order me a Yam Tempura Roll with some Minamiko Pie for dessert. Enjoy your weekends!

New Character Designs

Much like the last post, today's will show you the kinds of things we get when people are applying for jobs here. These were conjured up by the husband of our Production Manager, Leanne Benner. Izen thinks these could very well be the best drawing on earth. Siggy is so SWEET. Terry...you got tghe job! Thanks dood.

SPLOOSH!

I know a lot of you must be thinking to yourself "How can I have a career in Yam Roll animation?" Ok, first of all, it's "Yamimation". Idiot. One of the ways we go about hiring new animators here is by having them attempt an animation test. They send us a resume and we say something along the lines of "Yes, very impressive. But can you do THIS?" and we instruct them to create a short of Yam Roll doing a fancy dive into a swimming pool. One of these entries really stood out and the person responsible for it is now writing this very blog. I think the execs had a hard time deciding between Animation Director or Blog Master. Did they make the right choice? View the clip and decide for yourself!

Yam Roll Animation Test

Yam Roll: Limbless and Hatless, Cardboard Edition

G'morning! Aren't YOU up early today! I suppose it's hard for you to sleep knowing that each day you can come back here and find a brand new blog of exceptional quality and amazingnessoscity. I certainly have no intentions of dissappointing you today. Check THIS out!

I think the directions are pretty clear. If you can't follow them and need further assistance then you don't deserve a cardboard Yammie in the first place.
Have excellent weekendings!

Animated .gifs?!

Boy, are you guys in for a treat today! I spent a little time looking through the walk cycles and other clips and made some little animated msn emoticons for each of you to spread amongst your friends like a bad case of the flu. Except the flu is bad and these are good... So that really isn't a very accurate analogy. Whatever! Just take them and say "thank you" you ungrateful peons!
...I'm sorry. I didn't mean that.
Here's a little walkthrough on how to use em. Click your emoticon button in msn, click on "more...", click "create...", then "find image" and then browse to where you saved the files and follow the remainder of the on-screen directions. Sound good, candypants?

Phil
Yam Roll
Katcho
Breakdancing Tamago

The Legend of the Rotated Genki

Hello and a merry Tuesday to all of you avid readers. How have things been in your lives since last Thursday? Utterly fantastic, I hope. Today, I have for you a few early designs of some of our main characters. The first pic is cute, little Genki's original rotation drawings so that our animators know what she looks like from every angle (wink wink). Following that is a series of wacky Tamago poses. What a silly piece of goof he is. Enjoy!