Introducing CTHULU!!! This is a design I did for the Rick and Morty opening title sequence, which turned out to be one of the trickier scenes of the season to nail down. I was so excited to work on this mythical creature and really wanted to finesse it as much as time allowed us since it appears in every episode. The beak mouth on the second page I referenced an Octopus mouth and was shocked to find how their mouths really worked, so for our Cthulu this is whats revealed underneath all those tentacles as Cthulu comes flying into screen trying to grab Rick and Morty. I created a profile and front flight cycle to make it easier on the animator but the animator didn't seem to follow the board posing and all that we gave him and had kind of dropped the ball to those involved, still looks great, but can always be better, hopefully if theres a season 2 we can fine tune it. For the color we wanted it to feel like it had this evil inner glow existing inside that propels it. The Cthulu holding Rick and Morty is a special pose I did as my departure drawing to the rest of the existing crew on my last day there, (the actual drawing was much more phallic). The show premiered last night on Adult Swim and am so happy that the crew can finally enjoy all the hard work put into this beast of a show and share it with the world. So proud.
Great work! I was wondering if you knew what animation workflow Rick & Morty is using? Is it a combo of Flash and After Effects or something different?
ReplyDeleteIts almost entirely Toon Booms 'Harmony' and a little After Effects. Some of the vehicles and ships that show up later in the season we built in 3-d too just as a guide to help the animators re-draw in Harmony for special angles as well. All designs were roughed, cleaned, and colored in Photoshop. There are certain angles that we've done that would be too difficult to do in Flash with the volume of designs used in such a limited timeframe.
ReplyDeleteHi James,
ReplyDeleteIf you get spare time to read books, I'd highly advise that you check out "14" by Peter Clines. It is a really great story, but I say read it more because...well it's hard to say without giving away too much, but this sequence at the beginning of R&M makes me think of that book every time I see it...
Were you asked specifically to design a Cthulhu, or was that your decision?
ReplyDeleteYes, it was part of the original concept by the writers.
ReplyDeleteIs cthulhu in an episode or just in the intro sequence?
ReplyDeleteThe cthulhu character was originally only intended for the intro, but the writers may revisit the idea in a future episode. I'm not working on season 3 so I'm not aware of the new storylines that may or may not include it this time around.
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