Pete the Cat

[amanandink]

Hi all

the new show we are working on in Moho has had the first episode released on Amazon Prime.
https://www.amazon.com/Teaser-Trailer/d ... te+the+cat

Here is a trailer on youtube for people who cant see the amazon material.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZCFHdeiUmE

its only the first episode for now, but its all entirely animated in moho. And the rigs are pretty jam packed and a little heavy at time.
but hope you guys like it
J

[Greenlaw]

Jeremy.

Congratulations, to you and the rest of animators who worked on Pete. It looks fantastic!

My daughter will get a kick out of seeing this show. She loved the books when she was younger.

D.

[amanandink]

thanks Dennis, the odd thing about it is we are still working on the series, actually we have quiet a bit left to do. Its odd to have the first episode out there and people watching it then we have almost another 10 months left of production.

j

[drumlug13]

Congrats... Looks fantastic!

[chucky]

Looks great Jeremy!
Thanks for sharing.

[hayasidist]

Hi Jeremy! My son (4 yo) watched ep 01 yesterday - he enjoyed it very much and is looking forward to the rest of the series. Nice to see a couple of names I recognise (e.g. you and Victor) on the credits.

I'm brimming over with questions about "how"... here are the top of my list:
What is the software used for the backgrounds?
In the "crowd" (party) shots - even if rendered using layer comps, did you have the shot in one file or did you (e.g.) have the fg action in one and the bg animated characters in another?
where you cut away from a shot then go back to essentially the same shot - (X1 - Y - X2) - did you have X1 and X2 in the same moho file?

[gjordan]

Hi, Congratulations Jeremy, sadly no matter I pay for Prime, to my zone its a big problem to see prime video but what you did is a big achieve, if you want I invite you to show all us in our facebook group, the Youtube trailer and tell us about the series at amazon, as always trying to inspire others to use Moho, here's the link

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mohocharacteranimators/

[amanandink]

hi All, I'm glad the people are enjoying the episode. and yes gjordon we cant actually see it here in Ireland on prime either, sadly.

Hayasidist, keep the questions coming and I will answer them as best i can.

What is the software used for the backgrounds?

The software for the backgrounds was photoshop, although our BG supervisor made his own custom brushes for the team to mimic watercolour and acrylic painting.

In the "crowd" (party) shots - even if rendered using layer comps, did you have the shot in one file or did you (e.g.) have the fg action in one and the bg animated characters in another?

for the party scenes we have an internal layering of character inside moho. FG Characters, MID Characters and BG Characters, and inside these groups we have the models for each level. The comp department can then split the layer comps as they need for each character, but they tend to render each character separately. We do all teh composting in after effects.
this method of FG, MID and BG characters lets us split files up to make them smaller, so one scene might have 3 or for fiels for it with the different levels of characters in them. This is extremely useful for shots with 20 or so characters in them.

where you cut away from a shot then go back to essentially the same shot - (X1 - Y - X2) - did you have X1 and X2 in the same moho file?

the short answer is yes. the long answer is, we use a web based production software called Shotgun, and in there we have every single scene listed for individual files. regardless of them being the same shot. but we can group them as linked to each other if needed, so we know what is a reuse of what. we also have it connected to our render farm, so the animator submits a version through Shotgun, it takes the file, renders it and sends a move back to the animator and to the supervisor for checking.
In fact the animators themselves have very little interaction with files as everything is almost automatic. they have moho open and they click a button on the scene they have been assigned and the file opens for them, they dont have to go looking for it. We also have staged backups built into moho, a custom script our python developer built, so animators can create a versioned backup of their file at any time. I hope this makes sense.

[hayasidist]

Thanks for the reply!

The software for the backgrounds was photoshop, although our BG supervisor made his own custom brushes for the team to mimic watercolour and acrylic painting

Neat! They work well.

for the party scenes we have an internal layering of character inside moho. FG Characters, MID Characters and BG Characters, and inside these groups we have the models for each level.

can I just check what I think I've understood by that -- the main difference between FG/MID/BG is the sophistication of animation (therefore the rigging) (and not, e.g. it's CU/MS/LS) -- IOW multiple rigs for each character depending on the need.

strangely enough I can't play the video on my desktop "because of geographical licencing restrictions" (here in the UK!) but it plays OK on our smart TV in the next room and connected to the same router???!!!

[amanandink]

can I just check what I think I've understood by that -- the main difference between FG/MID/BG is the sophistication of animation (therefore the rigging) (and not, e.g. it's CU/MS/LS) -- IOW multiple rigs for each character depending on the need.

yeap that correct, its actually the same rig we use for all but the animation can be broader and bigger acting for characters future away, so that they are easier to read.

[cynthia]

Wow! I'm so impressed you're working on Pete the Cat! He's a big deal in the children's book world, which is the planet I live on. It looks wonderful. I like the mother and father's voices. And thank you very much for sharing technical info in your discussion above.

[hayasidist]

Hi... any news on ep2 (and others) - my 4 yo son keeps asking me when he can see more than the teaser and ep1?

[chucky]

Wow! I'm so impressed you're working on Pete the Cat! He's a big deal in the children's book world, which is the planet I live on. It looks wonderful. I like the mother and father's voices. And thank you very much for sharing technical info in your discussion above.

It's not that surprising, as Cartoon Saloon are kind'of a big deal in the animation world, having been nominated for several Oscars.

[amanandink]

Hi... any news on ep2 (and others) - my 4 yo son keeps asking me when he can see more than the teaser and ep1?

actually i'm not sure when it will be out, it maybe next year when it is released. sorry about that but its beyond our control.
when I know more I can say, I will post it here

[hayasidist]

Thanks Jeremy - quite understood how these things work! (and, BTW, good to see the article in AWN re The Breadwinner!)