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August ‘15
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Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit
Desert Chrome, Speedlines & Ninjas. Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit is an intro sequence for the greatest TV series that never was. Created and Directed by Wesley Louis.
/ Behind the line
Director
Wesley Louis
/ OVERVIEW
In 2013 Wes found the comic stuffed into the back of an old folder. 10 pages that, though unfinished, and slightly ravaged by time, perfectly captured all the joys and obsessions of a 13 year old child of the 90’s. Desert chrome, speedlines, ninjas, saturday morning cartoons, it was all there. The blueprint for his career, scrawled onto yellowing paper with a startling degree of skill.
/ ORIGIN STORY
Wes Original Comic
/ Wes's Comic
Animation
When the designs were ready we proceeded into animation. Alongside Wes we had three of the best animators in the business, our long time collaborators, Johnathan Djob Nkono, Peter Dodd, Matt Timms, and Duncan Gist. The team went to great lengths to be as true as possible to the the kind of animation we knew and loved from 90’s cartoon intros such as Thundercats, Samurai Pizza Cats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Usagi Yojimbo, and Flying Hat Turbo Adventure...pretty much anything with a really long title.
The rare but highly skilled role of the 2d animation cleanup artist was a vital component getting look right for Ninja Rabbit. We turned to Denise Dean, a veteran cleanup artist, who immediately nailed the look of the linework, and executed it deftly throughout the short.
/ BG
Background Paint
Compositing
Compositing was left in the capable hands of The Line’s Max Taylor, who brought an eye for detail to the production that matched that of its creator. Studying and imitating the marvellous imperfections of cel-colouring, and in-camera effects, Max was able to create two different versions of the film - a clean ‘celluloid’ version, as well as a slightly ropey video transfer, using real analogue equipment to generate a product that was indistinguishable from any bygone cartoon you may have recorded onto VHS in the 90s.
Super Turbo Atomic *MEGA* Rabbit
When Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in 1987 it caused an uproar in the UK censoring bodies. The name "Ninja" was considered to have excessive violent connotations for a childrens program and had to be replaced with "Hero". They also had to remove all references to nunchukas in the show, one of the signature weapons of the Michelangelo character. Wesley wanted to reflect this in STANR. Wyatt, the frog character has a pair of Nunchukas in the final version of the animation but in the VHS copy we replaced this shot with one of him pressing some buttons on a computer and scratching his head. "Super Turbo Atomic MEGA Rabbit" is most likely the version that would have been aired in the UK
The VR Experience
Halfway through production process we teamed up with the astoundingly talented team at NoGhost. NoGhost were into the world of STANR from the outset and began testing the idea of building a virtual reality experience around the film. We had no idea what to expect from them but the day they invited us over to see the prototype we knew it was something very special. We had played VR games before and they'd only ever made us feel sick or confused. This experience was a million miles removed from that. As we began demoing and testing the game in the office, we got to see the immersive power of what they had created up close. The experience will be available to view online shortly from NoGhost website, keep an eye out. You remember what VR was like in the 90s? Basically it's nothing like that.
Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit Art Book
The PDF contains 108 pages of animation sequences, storyboards, character designs, model sheets, sketches and background art. Featuring designs by Jonathan Djob Nkondo, Backgrounds by Callum Strachan and Effects Animation by Matt Timms. As well as the original comic which started this whole project off, drawn by a 13 year old Wesley Louis in 1991. The physical book will be available to order online shortly. For the moment you can get the PDF version from our Gumroad.
/ Behind the curtain
The Crew
● Director / Wesley Louis ● Created, Produced & Written by / Wesley Louis ● Storyboards / Wesley Louis ● Additional Storyboards / Tim McCourt ● Character Design / Wesley Louis / Jonathan Djob Nkondo ● Graphic Design / Max Taylor ● Animation / Peter Dodd / Jonathan Djob Nkondo / Duncan Gist / Wesley Louis ● Effects Animation / Matt Timms ● Clean-up Lead / Denise Dean ● Additional Cleanup / Duncan Gist / Amix Film Studio ● Background Artist / Callum Strachan ● Additional Backgrounds / Bjorn-Erik Aschim / Kristian Antonelli ● Layout / Bjorn-Erik Aschim / Jonathan Djob Nkondo ● Colour / Duncan Gist / Helene Leroux / Max Taylor / Tim McCourt ● Compositing / Max Taylor ● Music & Sound / "Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit Theme" written, composed, and performed by Rina May ● Music Production & Sound Design / Box Of Toys Audio / Chris Didlick / Magnus Arwenhed / Ben Laver ● WTL Productions VO / Ashan Louis-Phillip / Samaya Alexander / Joshua Fontaine ● Special Thanks / Audrey Louis / Antoine James Louis / Natalie Platt / Chris King / Sam Taylor / Laurent Rossi / Gabriella Cerenzia / Electric Theatre Collective / No Ghost / Hanae Seida / Aziz Kocanaogullari / Janny Wells / Mervin Louis / Nanour Blair Gould / Tom Shearing / Dan Jessop / Rosa Nussbaum