#ethan marak

[hkthatgffan]

do you have any unseen gravity falls storyboards from season 2?

Interesting question. Well, if you mean unseen storyboards as in stuff that I exclusively was given access to by a crew member, then sadly no. I though have found storyboards that previously were not known about that I helped popularize. For example, years back I found a group of storyboards that Alonso Ramirez Ramos posted to his public Facebook page in 2018. These were public but just no one had ever shared them beyond his Facebook and so, that was sort of a case of me finding unseen boards that got popular after. The Dipcifica community of course has been in love with those given the cut boards from NMM in them, but there were also some other cool boards like one of little Stan and Ford which were great to see too.

Other than that, there was a case of storyboards shared on TikTok by S. H. Cotugno that were previously unseen that I posted about which helped them gain attention outside of that app's userbase (I don't use TikTok and never plan to, so I found out about them through other means and it led there).

But, beyond this stuff, there's not really any storyboards from season 2 that I have which only I have seen or ones that are so obscure that fans barely know that haven't been shared or are up on the wiki.

Well...there is one case of that though...

Back in 2023, I interviewed Ethan Marak of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios for a video on my channel.

During the interview, Ethan revealed to me something rather insane; THERE'S AN ANIMATED VERSION OF CLAY DAY FROM LITTLE GIFT SHOP OF HORRORS!

What I mean is that as we know in the episode, there is stop motion of the various monsters that the gang encounters and in the movie they're watching. Well, as it turns out, the Gravity Falls crew animated all the monster in the episode for real, and there's a cut of it with all the stop motion instead being regular Gravity Falls style animation.

The animation was done to help map out the movement of the stop motion, given they had a limited budget. So, getting everything right was crucial. Sadly, as that is all internal work owned by Disney, I was not allowed to share it and unless things change or...idk...some ex Disney TVA employee with too much access leaks it to 4chan again like the pilots that leaked last year, I will sadly not be able to ever show it. That said, Robertryan Cory shared these designs of the characters publicly years back that look very similar to what I was sent. But what I was shown were colourized versions and almost final looks of the characters, as well as ACTUAL screenshots from the production version of the episode that had the monsters animated in GF style with storyboards and also fully animated designs. It was incredible to see but again, it's something I can't share.

But imagine these images, just animated and coloured in full. That's what I was given access to.

Ethan did let me share never before seen production photos from when they were making the stop motion characters, which I am allowed to show.

But yeah, besides this, there's not really anything major Gravity Falls related that I have that I can share (besides of course the many, MANY things Alex Hirsch told me and Hana off record that we're sworn to secrecy about). It's a real bummer tbh as part of me of course wants to share this info with the fandom, because I don't wanna gatekeep or hoard info about the show that fans may love to hear. But at the same time, I give these crew members my trust when I work with them on these interviews and breaking that is the fastest way to never being able to talk to any of them again which in turn, prevents any new info from being able to be shared that I could discuss. So, it's a case of having to retain info I can't share, in favour of more info that I CAN share.

But long story short, that's basically what I got related to GF season 2 storyboards the average fan may not know about.

NOW, CAN THE GRAVITY FALLS CREW INSTEAD SHARE DELETED STORYBOARDS AND STUFF FROM SEASON 1? I NEED MORE OF THAT TBH!

[hkthatgffan]

NEW VIDEO ON MY CHANNEL!!

I recently had the chance to talk with Ethan Marak of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, about his work on the Gravity Falls episode Little Gift Shop of Horrors.

He shared some great new info on the stop motion process and never before seen photos from the set.

Below is a transcript of what I asked and his answers...

1. How did you get involved with Gravity Falls and were you a fan of the show beforehand?

I was working as an Animation Director at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios when this project came my way. The studio producers would cast Animation Directors to projects that were a good fit, and my known love of classic stop-motion animation in the Ray Harryhausen style made them consider me for this job.

2. Alex Hirsch mentioned in the GF box set that they contacted you directly about working on the show? What was that process like?

As I recall Alex was very into the idea of using stop-motion for this episode and he was very enthusiastic and excited visiting the set and seeing all the puppets and sets. When we translate an established 2d animation to stop-motion, there are a lot of creative considerations and decisions that need to be made for the designs and animation style to work. As I remember Alex trusted us to guide that process, and was flexible with any small limitations that came up. 

3. Additionally, he mentioned that Disney originally did not want to do stop motion due to the cost and so Alex said he inquired about frame by frame costs and looked through everything that was done to see if it would fit the budget. How did that whole situation affect the filming and in turn, what was it like working with Alex and the GF team?

I wasn’t involved in any aspect of the budgeting for the project so I’m not sure what give-and-take with Disney occurred to make the numbers work for stop-motion. I don’t remember feeling like the shoot was under-funded.

4. How much creative freedom did you have in regards to the episode? Were things planned out beforehand or did the crew let you come up with ideas for the stop motion as you went along?

The team from GF provided character designs, storyboards and backgrounds. It was our job to create the puppets and shoot the animation in a way that fit into the background plates convincingly. I can’t remember for sure, but I think GF did the final compositing themselves. Everything is meticulously planned out in stop-motion animation, so that we don’t spend time building or shooting anything that isn’t going to be on screen. We had a lot of freedom as far as the style of the animation, and we were going for a cartoony look that worked for GF but also paid homage to Harryhausen, which meant paying more attention to the weight and subtleties than we might on other projects.

5. Were there any scrapped/deleted or cut aspects of the animation that did not make it into the episode? These can be scenes either planned out or animated that never made the final episode.

Not that I recall, no.

6. Would you be okay with sharing any behind the scenes photos, videos, memories, stories or more from your work on the episode that would be okay to be public now? These can be of the shoot, interesting stories or trivia about it, crew reactions, set up, etc. I understand completely if that is not possible but it would be great to learn about/see the animation process for this episode, the sets, characters, etc.

I’ll let you know if I ever find the behind the scenes photos I took. 

Side note: Ethan did find a ton of photos to send to me that you can access here or as I shared below...

However, there were several I was asked to not share, such as behind the scenes images of the character designs and storyboards of the animated version of the monsters that was used to help map out the movement of the stop motion. Those are internal works that are not allowed to be shared and I will sadly not be able to. That said, @robertryancory shared these designs of the character publicly years back that look very similar to what I was sent. But what I was shown were colorized versions and almost final looks of the characters.

7. Do you still own the models or sets made for this episode? If so, what condition are they in (and if possible could a photo(s) be provided)? 

I checked with the studio and as far as I can tell the puppets were given back to Disney at some point. There was a brief period where I remember the puppets were displayed in the lobby at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

8. Overall, what were your thoughts on working on Gravity Falls, the episode overall and the show later on? If Alex Hirsch or another GF crew member from it were to ask about helping in work on a new project, be it for GF or another show, would you do it?  

I really enjoyed working on the episode and it is a stand-out project for me! It came out really beautifully and the GF team was really kind and respectful to us, and genuinely interested in our process. I’d absolutely partner with Alex on something else if it came up. 

9. One extra question; Did you work on the mini stop motion bumper for Disney XD as well? If so, what was that like and what ideas were made for it that perhaps did not make the final promo?

Yes I directed that spot. It was another really cool project that gave us the ability to bring GF to life in stop-motion. The Stan puppet was amazing and looked so good- and our animators really brought him to life. We went though an extensive design process for the XD logo creature before deciding on the version you see in the spot. The goal was to make it look convincing as a taxidermy creation that Stan would have built, and to work in as many little eyeballs and body parts as possible that could move around.

BEHIND THE SCENES FOOTAGE OF THAT PROMO!

A huge thank you to Ethan for sharing this info and photos with me. Please do go check out his personal work on his Instagram, as it's some really cool retro stuff that I really loved checking out.

[animazion-blog]

SuperBattle Episode One

'SuperBattle' directed and animated by Ethan Marak. When a notorious super-villain escapes from his subterranean prison, the enigmatic robot warden summons his most powerful henchman to deliver justice. This is the first completed instalment of what is hopefully going to be an ongoing stop-motion animated series. Support the project by buying episode 1 on DVD here: http://www.superbattlemovie.com/