Miss Officer and Mr. Truffles

Miss Officer and Mr Truffles is an animated series about a rookie RCMP officer and her former circus bear partner fighting crime and solving mysteries in Backwoods, Canada. Who's feeding animals at the rest stop? Who keeps littering when there are garbage, recycling and compost bins clearly marked? And what is Pathos of the Millennium Circus up to this time? Team MOaMT are a collective of animators, producers, and artists who worked remotely around North America to deliver a thirty second teaser based on the highly popular photo of RCMP Officer Suzanne Borque's encounter with a baby bear in Newfoundland. Inspired by series like Gravity Falls and The Magic Schoolbus, the team is taking advantage of new filesharing technology, crowdsourcing, and affordable software in the hopes of creating a 7 minute pilot. The show is intended to be a positive and diverse role model for children and a trailblazer for the future of animation production. You can follow along on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Contact Us: [email protected].

[officialmoamt]

It's happening... :D

My inflamed wrist tendon means I don't get to do as much drawing as I'd like to these days, but no way was I going to pass up getting started on rough storyboards for our pilot! Old school pencil and paper style! (Cheers to The Flying Animator for the templates!)

And thank you so much to our awesome contributors! :) More details soon!

-Kate

[officialmoamt]

Miss Officer and Mr. Truffles Animatic

sample animatic for my application.

Yesterday I mentioned the animatic our lead animator, Avian Anderson, sent in with her application and we've got the go ahead to share it with you all. Drawing, voice recording, editing, and rendering took about four hours, which blows my mind because I can maybe get the storyboards done in four hours. Doing all of that work in such a short amount of time takes an incredible talent and serious work ethic. In her own words, "I was really passionate about joining", and all of us have benefitted enormously from that passion.

An animatic is a video of storyboards set to a soundtrack (voice/music/sound effects) to get a sense for pacing and how the shot will flow. Storyboards are similar to comic panels, but they're drawn to provide reference for how the shot should be framed. Film storyboards can usually have looser drawings, as long as they read clearly, but TV storyboards are often pretty tightly rendered so when they're shipped overseas, the animators know how the shots should look. (For more on this, see our previous post.) Avian edited her animatic in iMovie, but you can also use After Effects or Final Cut Pro.

Since there's been interest in more of this production art, we'll have more updates coming up about Avian's work and the rest of our team. If you want to see even more of this art when we launch, drop on by the Kickstarter and contribute! There will be plenty more art in the artbook you won't see on Tumblr!

[officialmoamt]

On Model

And now for a Kickstarter update! :)

Two of the perks we're offering are our Backer Blog and a production artbook. The production artbook is essentially a condensed, downloadable version of the blog and it will contain the production art we're using to create this short. And we're going to show you one of the many excellent pieces our lead animator, Avian Anderson has been working on.

Avian came to us shortly after submission deadlines with an animatic of Miss Officer, including a recording of the lines for voice actors. She wanted to know if it was enough. Zof and I were completely knocked on our butts because she nailed Miss Officer's look, acting, and personality, added her own touches to the scenario including a background and a brief appearance by Mr. Truffles based off only a few drawings. Was it enough? She's our lead animator for a reason and we love her to bits.

For those interested in pursuing a career in animation, many of the positions are in TV and even in film, you usually need to show you can draw on model. This means that for everything you've heard about plagiarism (which you should never do), you'll need to learn how to draw the characters and style and other people's work exactly like how they were designed by someone else These production papers usually don't leave the studio for confidentiality reasons, but we wanted to show our process and how Avian figured out how to do a turnaround of Miss Officer from Ami's original designs.

These is a brief breakdown of what a model sheet looks like. You usually get a front, side, 3/4 and rear angle of the character, usually with examples of them in action, how to draw this part of their body, how not to draw it, what their personality is like and not like, and these are your guides for keeping the character on point. When you apply for an animation, layout, or storyboard job, you usually get a test to show you know how to do the work and you can stay on model. The better grasp you have of the characters, the less work the director has to do, the less likely you have to do retakes, and the more likely the episode gets delivered on time and on budget.

For an excellent resource on model sheets and how important it is to stick to it, you should check out The Simpsons Handbook: Secret Tips From the Pros, which is a how to draw book by the actual animation artists on The Simpsons and you get to see how much detail goes into these cartoons. If you want to see what happens when you don't stay on model, check out the special features of The Simpsons season 1 DVD, and watch the unaired episode with the commentary on. Despite how Mr. Brooks feels, I think it's an excellent experimental take on The Simpsons, but I respect why it was important for them to clean up the look. :)

In the mean time, thank you Avian for your brilliant model sheet! Stay tuned for more art updates!

-Kate (producer)

[officialmoamt]

Update

Hi everyone. Ami has deleted her online shops that still used her old username. She sincerely apologizes for any offense it has caused and we at Team MOAMT apologize it has taken so long. We've been working on this for several months and she has been in contact with Society6 and Redbubble to change the names, but since their policy does not allow this, removing them was the best option. Ami is a young artist who identifies as bisexual who expressed herself differently when she was younger and regrets speaking this way.

Ami lives in Tamaulipas, Mexico and if you give it a Google, you'll see there aren't as many resources available to her as many of us have. This has taken awhile to figure out since this was her main source of income, but it was decided it was best to shut the accounts down, than cause any more offense or harm to anyone. 

The last thing we want are for any of our LGBTQA followers to feel their concerns are not important to us. We hope you all understand.

[officialmoamt]

Thank you so much for the support, Deborah! This looks like a wonderful website and it's so great to find another excellent feminist site on geek culture! :)

[officialmoamt]

Visual Development!

In case you missed yesterday's post, here is the excerpt on our concept art by Gus Sanchez as we figured out the look of the series. It's not our final look, but we loved Gus's use of texture and color to create a strong, evocative environment. This is the image you can see in our Tumblr background. We'll be posting similar updates in our Backer Blog once we go into full production, so please contribute to our Kickstarter. Here's what we posted yesterday:

"To answer a recent question, our Tumblr background was made by one of our artists, Gus Sanchez, using the program Sai. You might have seen one of his awesome prints at VanCAF a few weekends ago. This is one of his concept pieces he created when we were figuring out the look of the show. He used the Fuzzystatic brush in Sai for both line art and shading. (I work off a Mac so I get to stew with envy because Sai is only Windows compatible.) If you have a Windows computer and your currency equivalent of 5400JPY, it's worth the purchase. The quality of line weight is out of this world and there have been some incredible illustrations and animation pieces done in Sai. If you're looking for an affordable drawing program, Sai is brilliant. If you use Photoshop like me, Gus advises using the charcoal pencil with a 200% scatter. If you're interested in making your own brushes, Disney artist Chris Oatley has great tutorials and reference on how to create a textured brush in Photoshop (http://chrisoatley.com/texture-brush/)."

[officialmoamt]

$7300!

We've raised over $7300 in contributions! Thank you everyone for your support! We'll be adding more updates soon from our animators and staffers since there's been a lot questions from fans about how we do the work we do. Right now, we want address misconceptions that have been circulating and share some insider tips about how we create our artwork.

We're creating original content based off Ami G's cartoons, working with a small team of artists, and the point of the Kickstarter is to raise money to pay those artists. We have the full support of RCMP Officer Suzanne Borque (the original Miss Officer). We do not have financial support from studios, networks, or sponsors. We are all adults with day jobs, some of us have support from family and friends. We want this animation to be independent. Nobody working on this is swimming in dollar bills; just rent and internet bills. We're up at 3am fighting with render settings in After Effects when we need to be up in four hours to get to work on time because that's our main source of income.

I want to address a repeated misconception that's been making its way around Tumblr. Our staff has been rotating due to production demands and personal lives. These things happen. One of our temp hires told us they had to step down due to their day job, which is completely fine. They were brought on to assist with animation on short notice. Unfortunately, we couldn't use the work they created, but they had been pleasant when we were working together and respectful in their departure. I literally had no idea there was a problem until I saw posts go up from second party sources. We've been in private communications with them and they will be paid if and when the Kickstarter is funded, just as we plan to do with all of our artists. We have a wonderful staff we will be introducing shortly and we are grateful for the work everyone has done. The matter is resolved and we wish everyone involved the very best in their careers.

I've done my best to be transparent about our production and we have addressed all other concerns in previous posts. If you don't believe us, there isn't much I can do about that. If you think we're being shady, I hope I shined a light on your concerns. If you're willing to consider we're being honest about everything, awesome! Thank you! I appreciate it. I want to pay my team because they're a fantastic bunch of people. We have great artists who can draw on model, hit their deadlines, take direction, communicate respectfully, and are really happy, wonderful people to work with because that's what makes animation such a great industry to work in. Which is why we're posting about our process and sharing information on what we're looking for in potential staffers. If you this sounds like something you're interested in, stay tuned. :)

To answer a recent question, our Tumblr background was made by one of our artists, Gus Sanchez, using the program Sai. You might have seen one of his awesome prints at VanCAF a few weekends ago. This is one of his concept pieces he created when we were figuring out the look of the show. He used the Fuzzystatic brush in Sai for both line art and shading. (I work off a Mac so I get to stew with envy because Sai is only Windows compatible.) If you have a Windows computer and your currency equivalent of 5400JPY, it's worth the purchase. The quality of line weight is out of this world and there have been some incredible illustrations and animation pieces done in Sai. If you're looking for an affordable drawing program, Sai is brilliant. If you use Photoshop like me, Gus advises using the charcoal pencil with a 200% scatter. If you're interested in making your own brushes, Disney artist Chris Oatley has great tutorials and reference on how to create a textured brush in Photoshop (http://chrisoatley.com/texture-brush/). 

Also, if I met you at VanCAF and haven't sent a reply or an e-mail, shoot us a Tumblr ask or an e-mail at team.moamt [at] gmail [dot] com. We met so many awesome people and now that I finally have time to catch up on e-mails, I want to be sure I don't miss you! We've got more updates coming up soon about how we're putting this animated short together and some news about Squishables too.

Thanks for reading all this and we'll have more to share soon!

-Kate (producer)

[officialmoamt]

$6000!

We're on the radar! Thank you Tumblr!

We've also raised over $6000! Thank you to our 160+ contributors! We hope to hear from more of you! Our goal of $80,000 is on the low end for a pilot budget because we want to make it easier for our fans to fully support us, but we really hope we'll surpass that so we can get more to our artists!

We've also had a lot of interest in submissions for voice actors. We'll let you know if and when we'll be accepting auditions, but for those interested in that line of work, I strongly recommend you check out John DiMaggio's fantastic documentary I Know That Voice. It's available to rent and buy on iTunes and it's one of the best features on voice acting at the moment.

In the meantime, are you following us on Facebook? We'll have updates there as well!

More updates coming soon!

-Kate (producer)

[officialmoamt]

Day Two!

Hi everyone!

I can't believe we've made almost $6000 in 24 hours! This is incredible! Thank you so much for your support! All of our animators and team members have day jobs so we are hustling to make this a reality during our lunch hours and off hours. We're not connected to any network or studio so our only financial support comes from you! And it means the world to us that you want to see this project succeed! 

We did the math and if each of our Tumblr supporters contributed $20, we'd be able to surpass our budget! Our Kickstarter was launched with the purpose of being able to cover our costs and pay our artists something instead of asking them to make this seven minute pilot for nothing. Passion and exposure don't pay the rent, which is why we need this Kickstarter to be fully funded because the last thing we want are our hardworking animators doing it for nothing. And they are such an incredible team!

On the subject of animators, we've been getting inquiries about reels and submissions. I'm delighted to announce that our lead animator and I will be reviewing reels and portfolios soon! We will not be hiring anyone unless the Kickstarter is funded, but if you want to get to the top of our waiting list, stay tuned to see what we're looking for!

In the meantime, please contribute!

[officialmoamt]

$5000! Wow, Thank you!!

I can't believe we've hit $5000 already! Thank you so much to all of you amazing people who have already donated. Together we are making this a reality.

We've had a few concerned Squadmates sending us messages, and we'd like to address them. There are rumors stating members of our team as transphobic, and this is entirely untrue.

Ami, also known as lemonteaflower, is from Mexico, and dating a transwoman. Her webcomic Milk, Toast, and Maple is for a mature audiences, and contains subject matter that may be offensive to some viewers, so viewer discretion is advised. Her online store may also contain material that is not appropriate for all ages. You do not have to view this material, and there are warnings for offensive or triggering language. Ami, the original artist, has used slurs in the past.  She has apologized for them repeatedly. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone deserves to be allowed to own up to those mistakes.  Ami has. I'd like to direct people to a thefrogman post about this when Ami had problems with rumors in the past.

Zofchak, the other creator, is genderqueer, from an interracial family, and also dating a transwoman.

Our core goal for the Miss Officer and Mr. Truffles project from the very start was to have positive representation for everyone; a mix of Gravity Falls and The Magic Schoolbus.

The kickstarter is to fund our animators. That's the whole point! All of our workers will be paid, but only if the kickstarter is funded. If not, none of us will be-- that includes the creators that have been working on this since January. This has always been the agreement from day one, and was the first thing we posted on our Now Hiring page-- the article about transparency.

The Production Budget is to fund things like buying the program licenses we need, taxes, duty charges for shipping, Vimeo Pro account so that the 7 minute pilot will be available to everyone (there's a data limit on free accounts!), and other fees like those. Anything not used in the production budget will be re-purposed to hire more animators!

The Merchandise Budget will cover the base costs of producing the rewards for the different kickstarter tiers to get to you. We don't make any profit on this. Again, anything not used in the production budget will be re-purposed to hire more staff!

To be perfectly honest with all of you, we don't want to make any money off of this. Every dime is going back into the show. We're not in it for profit.

Lots of profits means lots of taxes, which would be better spent on producing more content for all of you.

I hope this clears some things up! We will be making another post later about guidelines on sending us submissions.

EDIT: AN ADDITION

The bear in the original picture was not harmed, it was relocated. You can hear the original Miss Officer talk about it here!

SECOND EDIT (I promise I'll stop): I would like everyone who considers our budget unrealistic to refer to the Bee and Puppycat Kickstarter, asking $100,000 per 10 minute episode, 25 cast and crew, and a studio to help them.

[officialmoamt]

WE HAVE GONE LIVE. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO THE KICKSTARTER!

[officialmoamt]

TOMORROW...

Miss Officer and Mr Truffles is an animated series about a rookie RCMP officer and her former circus bear partner fighting crime and solving mysteries in Backwoods,…

[officialmoamt]

THE KICKSTARTER LAUNCHES TOMORROW MORNING AT 8AM PST.

[officialmoamt]

WHO'S READY FOR THIS KICKSTARTER TO LAUNCH, EH?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2085621436/miss-officer-and-mr-truffles

[the-dream-scape]

Guess whose MOaMT pins came in the mail today, and just in time for Anime North?? 

I’ll be wandering around Anime North on Sunday, in the Toronto Convention Center. If you see a Rose Lalonde, from the comic Homestuck, with Miss Officer and Mr Truffles pins on her bag or camera, that’ll be me! I’d love to answer any questions you have about the show!

[officialmoamt]

Hey Squadmates! Anyone heading to Anime North? I'll be hanging out on the floor of the Toronto Convention Center today for the last day of Anime North, and like I said, I'd be happy to answer your questions about the show and it's kickstarter, or just chat in general! 

Becca/Mod B (Assistant Producer)

[officialmoamt]

Sneak peeks of what we're working on! Art by our wonderful animator, Avian Anderson.

Love,

Zof

[everybodyatonce]

kenyatta spoke at tribecafilm institute’s Interactive day a couple of weeks back, where he explained the link between hip hop and internet memes, how Chinese fans of Sherlock are making new episodes by pairing old footage with fanfic, and how the future of filmmaking could look more like the officialmoamt project than traditional Hollywood.

The Audience Has An Audience: Kenyatta Cheese at 2014 TFI Interactive

For this year’s TFI Interactive opening keynote we were thrilled to have Kenyatta Cheese deliver a passionate presentation on how the audience has an audience. Which in essence means that with our obsession as a culture to tweet, share and blog anything and everything we are becoming a community of people changing the ways stories are being told through our own communal interests.

See an edited version of Cheese’s keynote above.

[officialmoamt]

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!

This, right here, is what we're all about. Community. Making something that everyone can enjoy and feel welcome to participate in. We want to fulfill the public desire of taking MOaMT further than a meme-- we WILL make this a reality.

Love,

Zof

(Zof might have cried at this video. Feels good to hear things like this.)