#early art

[lepurcinus]

Baby get up!

New video footages of animation tests for the TV series where found!

The first seems to be an early version of the first episode, but we also got early designs for Woundwort too! Maybe another lost Pilot? The animation differs from the final one.

The last one it's the already known test footage with the first designs.

Credits to WD Donni for the research

[cuorefox]

Hello i have a question! Uh the IceWing hatchling needle - did you design them? They look very very familiar and I can't put my finger on it and I'm wondering if it's a design I made and sold at some point????

Thanks for the question! I do design all characters I draw.

(unless specifically stated otherwise)

though needle went through some changes, I originally made him back in 2024.

Here’s some earlier versions:

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

I-

Why can’t fairy boys have a cute field mouse as a pet that sleeps with them and is sometimes a pillow to them, Huh?

Why are you so cruel as not to bless us with the idea i had just concurred because i saw you reblog mice

Why cant they sleep witha fuzzy friend >:(

(Not actual hate dw i love you)

I mean I did draw this once-

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase: Scientific Study from 1998 (1/3)

Hello all,

I was digging around on the Cyberchase wiki, and I found a link to a 1998 research report when they were introducing the series to groups of fourth grade children. Of course, this was before the 2001 debut, and even before they finished animating the pilot. It had artwork that I had never seen before, and it contained a unique surprise that I'll go into later.

Here's a Wayback Machine link to the paper. I won't reproduce the full text of the study for this post, but I'll pull some pieces here and there.

I learned a few things. We all know about the original trio, of course. Who could forget Inez and her two friends, Julie and Kyle. Yeah, it's pretty common Cyberchase trivia that Jackie was originally Julie, and Matt was originally Kyle, before the characters were re-designed. But it's cool that this study was so far back that they were still using their old names.

What I didn't know until now was that Buzz used to be called Buggs. I wonder if the legal team had them change that to avoid getting smacked by whoever owned Bugs Bunny at the time.

As part of the study, they showed the fourth graders color and black-and-white drawing of the characters. They wanted to evaluate how appealing the characters were to the kids. Here's Julie.

BEGIN

Julie: These are drawings of Julie, an African-American girl who is 10 years old and lives in the city. She loves city noises and city life. She clowns around a lot. Julie likes to be dramatic and the center of attention, but she is also warm and friendly and has a big heart. Julie is a planner. She can see a path through a problem and see how Inez and Kyle's ideas can help solve a problem.

END

I just wanted to point out that Jackie is 10 here, while she was made 11 in the show proper.

This drawing is my favorite. She just got out of bed, Hacker's pulling some bullshit, and she's about to make this the series finale. This has the same energy of Matt with the Symmetrizer.

To help keep this readable, I'm going to reproduce the text from the table below. Let's see what people thought of Julie.

What appealed about Julie:

(10) Everything

Damn straight. Okay, it was a little more complicated than that.

BEGIN The table below presents categories of what kids liked. In parentheses is the number of students mentioning each item or characteristic.

(10) Everything

(8) Shoes - color, shape

(8) Way she dresses

(7) Personality

(7) Hair

(5) Teeth - clean, huge, has all of them

(4) Socks rolled down

(4) Her name

(3) Good heart

(2) Hair band

(2) Friendly

(2) Bracelet

(2) Kind

(2) City girl

(2) Definitely a cartoon face

(1) Open to new things

(1) Really dramatic

(1) Looks like a valley girl

(1) Expressions

(1) African

(1) I like how she's putting her hands on her hips and she sort of looks like a gypsy.

(1) Likes red

(1) I would like her for a friend, She can teach me lots of things. END Her unique shoes definitely won people over, as did her hair and personality. And the last kid, who wanted to be friends with Jackie, was very sweet.

The kids did have some negative points though.

BEGIN

The table below presents what did not appeal about Julie.

(16) Hair - don't like spikes/sticks/things sticking up; looks like big cactus; bad hair day; tacky

(10) Shoes - heeled shoes, not 90's style; how can she chase villains in heels? stick up in front; make flat heels; too thick

(10) Eyes - different sizes; too yellow; bulge out

(10) Like everything

(7) Lump on back of neck/back

(6) Legs - too skinny

(6) Ears - crosses on ears

(4) Name - too normal; should have Afr-Am name; too unusual

(4) Jewelry - too much, too bulgy, too big, not Afr-Am.

(4) Socks rolled down

(3) Should dress current style

(3) Face shape

(2) Clowns around too much-you can get in trouble that way.

(3) When gets mad, screams really load / looks bad mad.

(2) Bracelet - too big

(2) Arms - too skinny

(2) Dislike all

(1) Not straight posture

(1) Draws attention to self

(1) She is fancy schmancy

(1) Earrings

(1) Four fingers

END I appreciate the kids who pointed out that Julie is going to have trouble chasing villains with the massive heels on her shoes.

Her hair also kinda does look like a cactus.

I didn't notice the lump on the back of the colored-in Julie until now. I think that's supposed to be hood for her sweatshirt, but it does look weird.

Of course, we're all used to the oddities of the pilot, like the mis-matched eyes and the crosses for the ear-holes. But some of these kids were not having it.

Later revisions on Jackie cleaned the cactus spines out of her hair, removed the hood (or whatever that lump was supposed to be), changed the color on her sweater and skirt, and tweaked her jewelry.

If we bring in a black-and-white image of an earlier revision of Julie from a behind-the-scenes document, we have the full evolution from Julie to Jackie.

Anyway, let's go see Nezzie.

BEGIN Inez: These are drawings of Inez, an Hispanic girl who is 11 years old and lives in a suburb. She has a clever and quirky sense of humor. She's school-smart but not so street-smart; she doesn't have as much common sense as Kyle and Julie, who sometimes have to protect her from situations she gets into. Inez likes to work on and analyze problems but gets frustrated when things don't go her way.

END

Huh. Inez was originally 11 years old. Meanwhile, Kyle/Matt and Julie/Jackie were both 10 years old. So, Inez wouldn't have been the baby of the bunch in this version.

But what's this line?: "She's school-smart but not so street-smart; she doesn't have as much common sense as Kyle and Julie, who sometimes have to protect her from situations she gets into."

I get that she's a huge nerd, and I do like the dynamic of Matt and Jackie coming to back her up. But that line about her not having as much common sense as the other two is bizarre. In the pilot, Jackie was the more out-there character. Inez has always been very grounded.

But what did our crowd of fourth-graders think of Nezzie's debut? What did they like?

BEGIN

(12) Way she dresses

(11) Glasses - one lens larger than other; wears them; different; square; color

(9) School-smart

(8) Name - wacky not everyday; good; cool; different; fits her

(8) Everything

(7) Hair - fits her; pointy; straight

(6) Shoes / Boots

(5) Like nothing

(4) Personality

(4) Smile - cool

(3) Cartoony; wacky

(3) Fun; funny; humorous

(2) Pretty

(1) Arms - long

(1) Ears

(1) Eyes

(1) Mouth - Halloween

(1) Expressions

(1) 4 fingers

(1) Face - good

(1) Looks like a detective

(1) Looks like a science girl

END

People really loved her outfit, especially her glasses. I never really considered her name to be "wacky", though. Was it more wacky 27 years ago?

Anyway, let's hear what they didn't like.

BEGIN

(14) Way she dresses - colors don't go togather; shorts - too baggy, too long, not 90's; need pockets; button for vest; vest looks inflated; out of style

(12) Fingers - don't look real; not 5 fingers; want even cartoons to look real

(9) Hair - Lines look like bugs; black hair if Hispanic; stupid looking; pointy; longer and curly

(8) Shoes - Bad colors; lumpy; stupis looking; should be tennis

(7) Glasses - square shape; lens different sizes; look weird ; needs contacts

(7) Ears - have crosses

(6) Like everything

(5) Bosses people; do everything her way

(5) Frustrated easily; sort of a dope; needs to take a timeout

(4) Eyes - different sizes; look dead

(4) Arms and legs too skinny

(3) Needs to be nicer

(2) Posture

(2) Nerdy; geeky science nerd

(1) Looks dirty like just played outside

(1) Doesn't look like she would get frustrated

(1) Nose - Rudolph shape

(1) Teeth - has none

(1) Needs socks

(1) Drawn un-evenly

(1) Complains alot

(1) Dislike all

(1) Not street-smart

END

So, we've got a pretty even split on the first item for both tables. Twelve kids said that they liked how Inez dressed, but then fourteen kids said that they didn't like it.

Admittedly, we don't have all of the material that was provided to this group. But I have no idea what led any of the kids to call Inez a dope. But the funniest one was "Nose - Rudolph shape". What?!

Unlike Jackie, there isn't a huge difference between the black-and-white Inez from the earlier behind-the-scenes document and the one from this research paper. But we can still get the full evolution.

I know Matt hates waiting, so let's get him (Kyle) next.

BEGIN

Kyle: These are drawings of Kyle, a white boy who is 10 years old and lives in the country, not in the city or suburbs. Kyle is an explorer. He's curious and enthusiastic. He's eager and seeks new experiences, often jumping into doing something without thinking about consequences. He likes to collect things to use for solving problems. Kyle is constantly trying to show the team that his way is the best way.

END

Alright, he had the least color changes of any of the kids. They got the sweater, jeans, backpack, and sneakers. His feet were much smaller back then, though.

But what did the kids think of him?

BEGIN

(14) Like everything

(14) Way he dresses - modern; jeans look real; wide pants cool; like my jeans; like Elvis

(9) Name

(7) Backpack - can put a lot of exploring stuff in there; cute

(6) Cool

(6) Explorer; likes adventures

(6) Like nothing

(4) Picks up useful things along the way; collector

(4) Hair

(3) Gets into trouble

(2) Shoes

(2) Eyes - go really big; different sizes

(2) Facial expression

(2) Eager to do new things

(1) Ears pierced

(1) Cartoon face

(1) Lives in country

(1) Only 4 fingers

(1) Shirt - green

(1) Sounds like me

(1) Teeth

END

Way he dresses- modern; jeans look real; wide pants cool; like my jeans; like Elvis

What part of his outfit has anything to do with Elvis? That's Hacker's thing.

Alright, let's see what our fourth-grade audience didn't like.

BEGIN

(15) Needs 5 fingers

(13) Eyes - different sizes; too big

(11) Shoes - Use Nikes; too small; weird; color; shape

(7) Ears - crosses

(6) Hair - should be smooth; too long; orange color; sticks out; not current style

(6) Liked everything

(6) Backpack or vest?

(5) Way he dresses - baggy jeans; pant cuffs bad

(5) Mouth - teeth-lips strange

(5) Doesn't think of consequences

(5) Know it all; thinks he's smarter

(4) Doesn't look like a country boy - needs straw hat; collared shirt; Not baggy jeans

(2) Posture

(2) Name - not country name

END

They definitely took into account the feedback on Matt's shoes/feet being too small. They are much larger in the proper show.

As much as I enjoy Matt as a character, I do understand where some of the students were coming from, with regard to him not looking like a country boy. I wonder what that alternate universe looks like.

Now that I look at it, this version of Matt's backpack does look a bit like Nezzie's vest. I think the problem here is that there isn't a clear defining line between the main backpack and the straps. Well, here's the evolution from Kyle to Matt.

There will be at least two more parts to this. The research paper also had some art for Buzz, Delete, and especially Hacker. Here's part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/vikenticomeshome/790147253405908992/cyberchase-scientific-study-from-1998-2?source=share

And I haven't forgotten about the biggest surprise from this paper. I'm not the first one to find it, but I'm still going to make a big deal about it when we get there.

[visceral-gunslinger34]

Early art. Again with Rock actually holding a gun with no issues! just something that's been catching my eye....even though this is Rei's much earlier art, considering his current "Twilight" character in the manga.

[jaleesamc]

1070 Early Spring by Guo Xi of the Northern Song Dynasty

[nerdy-inquisitor12]

Early Jack.