WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.149 --> 00:00:07.350 Mayhem is a brand new animated independently made pilot episode with a fascinating backstory. 00:00:07.350 --> 00:00:08.350 So! 00:00:08.350 --> 00:00:12.370 Before I breaky-break down what Mayhem is all about, you can find a link below to watch 00:00:12.370 --> 00:00:14.539 the animation. 00:00:14.539 --> 00:00:18.039 Watch all the way through because there’s a post credits scene. 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:22.440 Of all the animations featured on Scribble Kibble, Mayhem is the only one created as 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:24.000 a gift. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:29.919 Imagine directing a months long massive team-effort animation about your friend’s character 00:00:29.919 --> 00:00:31.510 and keeping it a secret the whole time. 00:00:31.510 --> 00:00:32.510 Haha! 00:00:32.510 --> 00:00:34.210 Gosh that would be so hard to do. 00:00:34.210 --> 00:00:36.790 And yet, that’s exactly what happened. 00:00:36.790 --> 00:00:41.940 Paul, the creator of Sir Mayhem, had no idea this animation about his villain character 00:00:41.940 --> 00:00:44.190 was being made at all. 00:00:44.190 --> 00:00:50.750 Before the film went live director Magpie Blackford and the 30 or so artists involved 00:00:50.750 --> 00:00:56.210 showed off lots of great animation... not a single bit of it featuring the actual main 00:00:56.210 --> 00:00:57.210 character, Sir Mayhem. 00:00:57.210 --> 00:00:59.460 Oh, to keep a big secret like that! 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:02.540 Paul’s wonderful art style inspires the entire film. 00:01:02.540 --> 00:01:07.800 Commanding line art with lots of personality: broken bits here and there, dots, jagged clothing 00:01:07.800 --> 00:01:09.250 folds, single stroke hatching. 00:01:09.250 --> 00:01:13.680 It’s the type of style you look at and immediately recognize which artist it is, if you’ve 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:15.120 seen their work before. 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:21.330 And wow, Mayhem NAILS the 80’s cartoon old school vibe - both in the visual style and 00:01:21.330 --> 00:01:22.830 in the sound design. 00:01:22.830 --> 00:01:26.220 It has that granular texture of an old cartoon. 00:01:26.220 --> 00:01:31.740 Decades ago, this style happened because animation was done physically on what we call cels. 00:01:31.740 --> 00:01:36.490 Animators inked line art onto a transparency, then flipped it over and painted on the back 00:01:36.490 --> 00:01:37.490 with color. 00:01:37.490 --> 00:01:38.980 That’s a cel. 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:42.440 Backgrounds were painted separate, so if you collect animation cels you know it’s more 00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:47.390 expensive to get a full piece because for any set of frames there’s only one background. 00:01:47.390 --> 00:01:52.430 If you want an in-depth tutorial on cels I’ve linked a fantastic video on the whole process, 00:01:52.430 --> 00:01:57.180 and a second video on the rostrum cameras used to photograph each animation frame. 00:01:57.180 --> 00:02:02.080 Mayhem doesn’t use cels but it does have real, hand-painted backgrounds. 00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:04.180 Look at how beautiful these are. 00:02:04.180 --> 00:02:05.180 Look at them. 00:02:05.180 --> 00:02:09.549 There are many different techniques and tools to make painted backgrounds, especially when 00:02:09.549 --> 00:02:12.279 it comes to lined versus lineless. 00:02:12.279 --> 00:02:19.819 Magpie did these with gouache paint - which is like a more opaque watercolor paint. 00:02:19.819 --> 00:02:23.360 You can see it still lets the line art show through. 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:28.190 Those lines are then emphasized with black or white later, or allowed disappear into 00:02:28.190 --> 00:02:30.209 the background under raw paint. 00:02:30.209 --> 00:02:33.720 Some digital touch up for glows and color correction. 00:02:33.720 --> 00:02:38.069 Other painting techniques in Mayhem include an airbrush for gradient shading on elements 00:02:38.069 --> 00:02:39.480 like these wall stripes. 00:02:39.480 --> 00:02:40.480 Yeah. 00:02:40.480 --> 00:02:41.840 That clean shading is not digital. 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:43.400 It’s by hand. 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:47.290 Stencils cut with a scalpel prevent airbrush paint from overspraying. 00:02:47.290 --> 00:02:52.659 To get clean edges in other places Magpie used post-it tag paper, sticky enough to stay 00:02:52.659 --> 00:02:56.349 but not so strong it tears off the paint like tape would. 00:02:56.349 --> 00:02:59.819 The animation itself is digital, done in Toon Boom. 00:02:59.819 --> 00:03:01.639 What makes it look so retro? 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:03.379 Lighting and effects. 00:03:03.379 --> 00:03:10.500 Take those two elements and you can transform too-perfect flat into gritty, satisfying feelings. 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:13.950 Can we take a second to appreciate this explosion? 00:03:13.950 --> 00:03:20.799 Gosh 2D effects animation makes me happy. 00:03:20.799 --> 00:03:24.069 And it’s not an animation without cameos. 00:03:24.069 --> 00:03:27.469 Best place to look for those in any animation is the crowd shots. 00:03:27.469 --> 00:03:28.579 I know you. 00:03:28.579 --> 00:03:30.099 I see what you did there. 00:03:30.099 --> 00:03:31.099 Right. 00:03:31.099 --> 00:03:32.099 So. 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:34.540 We have Mayhem, a film featuring Paul’s art style. 00:03:34.540 --> 00:03:38.480 How do all these animators with different backgrounds and skillsets draw the same characters 00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:40.379 with the same look and feel? 00:03:40.379 --> 00:03:42.849 Ah~ style guides. 00:03:42.849 --> 00:03:47.309 These are what artists working on a team use so that style stays consistent. 00:03:47.309 --> 00:03:52.349 Everything from character sheets, scale charts, color palettes, to brush size. 00:03:52.349 --> 00:03:57.290 If you enjoyed Mayhem, follow Paul and the project social media for more episodes. 00:03:57.290 --> 00:04:02.299 I’ve already seen a lyric video for a theme song and some other future bits to look forward 00:04:02.299 --> 00:04:03.299 to. 00:04:03.299 --> 00:04:08.099 All of that stuff is in the description, including the Sir Mayhem Patreon. 00:04:08.099 --> 00:04:16.259 There will be a theater screening of the film with merch and goodie giveaways. 00:04:16.259 --> 00:04:18.400 Follow the Villains_Co Twitter for updates. 00:04:18.400 --> 00:04:23.150 Thank you Magpie for supporting this Scribble Kibble episode, my personal best wishes to 00:04:23.150 --> 00:04:41.979 Paul and I hope for more Sir Mayhem!