GROJBAND FUN FACTS

Betcha didn't know that the name GODZILLA came from the Japanese word 'Kujira'. 

(Screen grab from S1E02 Cloudy With A Chance of Malt balls)

Kin and Kon Kujira playing air guitar with their future selves. 

CHECK FOR UPDATED POSTS

FYI - I often go back and add NEW drawings to old posts. So jump into the archives and take a peek now and then - who knows, you may find something you haven't seen before.

GROJBAND STANDEES - WHA?!?!?

Co-director Michelle Tripp with our newly acquired 

GROJBAND STANDEES!!!

Comin' atcha in AMAZING 2-D!!

NEW PREMIER DATE!!!

Get yer TiVo's ready!

GROJBAND is set to premier on CARTOON NETWORK US 

Monday, June 10 at 5pm (ET, PT)

Will air Monday-Friday at 5pm (ET, PT) on Cartoon Network

GROJBAND MUGSHOTS

(Screen grabs from GB_S1E11_Line of Cred)

C'MON LANEY... IT'LL ROCK!!

Laney's usually pretty skeptical of Corey's big ideas for the band. And for good reason. Things never turn out exactly as they plan. 

This is a storyboard panel from a sequence I'm working on this weekend. Doing boards digitally lets us drop actual production backgrounds into our scenes where we can draw our characters on top. It makes things a bit easier for each department down the line. 

NICK MALLORY

NICK MALLORY

16 year old Nick Mallory is a real looker, and get this - he’s NICE too. He sits between Trina and Mina in homeroom and ALL the girls are crushing on him - EVEN the school's principal seems to be smitten with him. Maybe it’s because he’s a straight A student, captain of the football team with all the charm of a Hollywood heart throb.

So if Nick Mallory could have anyone, why does he want Trina? Good question. It seems the more Corey and the band mess with Trina, the more interesting she becomes to Nick Mallory. He sees her differently then the rest of us and thinks Trina’s vulnerable side is a whole lotta fun and kind of adorable. Nick Mallory’s one flaw - Nick Mallory talks in the 3rd person.

NICK: "The secret to a cool lean, is not needing anything to lean on"

SO, HOW DO YOU DO IT?

When people find out what I do for a living, they usually say "Wow, that's a cool job!" And they're right! But making cartoons is a lot of work. Dozens and dozens of people work together on about a million different parts of a production just to make one 11-minute episode.

Here's a really bare-bones breakdown of the process for GROJBAND. Each of the stops along this timeline could easily be expanded to be a full page of it's own.

It's still a cool job!

~M 

(full-size version HERE)

TRINA'S DIARY SEQUENCE

Here's a section of Trina's diary sequence. The idea behind this sequence was to have a 

Sailor Moon-esque moment that could be reused in every episode. Although, we do tweak the sequence depending upon what mood she's in when she 'GOES DIARY'.

This particular freak out is from S1E03 Creep Away Camp. Thus the marsh mallows. It has nothing to do with TDI ;) But I must admit, I do like marsh mallows.

GROJBAND WIP OPENING

A few choice screen grabs from our 20 second w.i.p GROJBAND opening. Thanks for all the hard work GB team - this looks wicked!!! Lyrics below:

Got a band that's pretty cool
Stealing word from you know who
Playing gigs when we can
Trying to impress our fans
Older sister goes berserk
Her temper is her biggest quirk
I got a plan that might just work
Now - we're gunna rock
And we're gunna roll
We are Grojband woah-oh-ooooh.

GIFS FOR YOU

Compliments of our co-director/animation wizard Michelle Tripp.

I think we need a Tumblr page.

And now we do - http://neptoonstudios.tumblr.com/

GROJBAND GRAFFITI

CARTOON NETWORK UNVEILS GROJBAND

Cartoon Network will introduce two new action-adventure half-hour series based on heroes from DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation, Teen Titans Go! and Beware The Batman; a new animated series from LEGO, Legends of Chima; a new animated musical-comedy series, Grojband, from FremantleMedia; an all-new series iteration of The Tom and Jerry Show, produced by Warner Bros. Animation; a new season of the animatedTotal Drama “reality” series from CAKE Distribution, Total Drama All Stars; and also from LEGO, three quarterly installment specials of The Yoda Chronicles, a new CG-animated foray into the “Original Saga” world of Star Wars.

Read more: http://kidscreen.com/2013/01/28/cartoon-network-goes-face-to-face-for-this-years-upfront/#ixzz2JNGebQMN

GROJBAND STORYBOARD SAMPLES

GROJBAND_BOARD SAMPLE 01 by paulwatling

GROJBAND_BOARD SAMPLE 02 by paulwatling

GROJBAND_BOARD SAMPLE 03 by paulwatling

Hey GB fans! Curious what our storyboards look like? Well, check these puppies out. We'd love to put up a whole board - but that'll have to wait until after the episodes air. Until then, here's three great storyboard samples from three great storyboard WIZARDS. 

Sample 1: Pox-n-Roll - Brian Coughlan

Sample 2: Rockersize - Kyle Marshall
Sample 3: Super Zeroes - Chad Hicks

There's even more talented artists on our GB boarding team. So if you like this little taste let us know and we'll keep posting them!

GROJBAND ANIMATION

Corey, Laney, Kin and Kon against the green screen in their mocap suits. (Screen grab from GBS01E05 'No Strings Attached')

Sigh. If it were only this easy.

GROJBAND is actually animated in FLASH. The main character models are drawn from a number of angles with multiple hand positions, eye-blinks, and full mouth charts. These pieces are considered MDP (Master Design Pack) and the animation crew skillfully moves them around to make the actions that you see in the show. For the most part, the master designs cover all the the actions that the characters need to do. Sometimes though, the characters need to be in a position, or make an expression that the animator just can't recreate. For this, our posing department creates scene-specific drawings. Above is a sample of the custom posing done for 'No Strings attached'.

GROJBAND THEME SONG

Here's the original 1 minute Grojband theme song. Unfortunately we had to cut it down to 20 seconds so you'll never actually hear the awesomeness of this version. But do not fret - the new version is EXTRA awesome! 

GROJBAND CAST

Above: Screen grab from GBS01E02 'Dance of the Dead'

Corey Riffin - Lyon Smith

Laney Penn - Bryn McAuley

Kin Kujira - Sergio Di Zio

Kon Kujira - Tim Beresford

Trina Riffin - Alyson Court

Mina Beff - Denise Oliver

Nick Mallory - Graeme Cornies

Mayor Mellow - Kedar Brown

Buzz Newsworthy - Dwayne Hill

Chance Happening - Julie Lemieux

Above is our super talented Grojband family. There are many, many more brilliant voice actors who have made our record sessions a blast to be at. And every once and awhile I get in the booth and blow everyone away with my uncanny ability to sound like a growling bear or wedgied nerd. 

*Voice directed by the amazing Merle Anne Ridley. 

HOLIDAYS ARE OVER. NOW...

LANEY PENN

LANEY PENN

Short in stature, tall in ambition; Laney is the rock of this rock and roll band. This red-haired firecracker is the band's bassist and self-proclaimed BAND MANAGER. 
Laney's biggest secret is her MEGA-CRUSH on Corey. She sees him as a true star in the making and for whatever reasons thinks he'd never be into her (being mistaken for a dude doesn't help her self esteem much). Her thick shield of sarcasm makes her feelings toward Corey painfully obvious to everyone but Corey.

Laney takes a bum wrap for being the only girl in an otherwise all boy rock-outfit. Even though she can hang with the best of them, she has secret dreams of being treated like a lady. She openly mocks frilly girly-girl things, but her bedroom is a rainbowed shrine to unicorns, teen magazines and boy bands. NO ONE WILL EVER SEE HER ROOM!

If you ask anyone at Elementary High what they think of Laney Penn – they'd simply say “Who? You mean that dude over there?” 

Above: Laney rotation

Yup  - That's a lot of costumes. But this doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. We

have 52 unique and fun filled adventures for Laney and her friends. I see many more costumes in her future. 

GB FAN ART!!!

Courtesy of Hobo Divine ;)

Grojband's 1st Fan Art - Run Corey!!!!

Compliments of Janet Yi

And another great piece from artist Hanna Fiese

Thanks so much! Art by Molly Torsvik

How cute is this Laney - Thanks simonTBLR

MAYOR MELLOW

MAYOR MELLOW

Best known for being LOUDER than anyone he’s trying to keep quiet. Mellow’s a walking, talking contradiction. Whether he’s shouting in your ear or over the town’s built-in ‘MR SPEAKER system’, Mayor Mellow is either in your face or on your case with his unlikely cohort, a picture of his deceased mother, which he publicly confides in, like Norman Bates in Psycho (sans le murder). On top of his mayoral duties, Mellow wears EVERY other official hat in town (post office, warden, police constable etc.) He takes his job way more seriously than he should - this guy is EVERYWHERE.

As annoying as he is, the Mayor’s intentions are good. He wants nothing more than to keep his town and its citizens happy, safe and ‘peaceville’. But ‘the band’ keeps harshing his mellow. He’s afraid their success will turn his peaceful little town into a zoo full of corporate crocodiles and power tie-d producers. He plots to silence the band but his ideas are so absurdly ill- conceived, they always leave HIM with egg on his face. And despite all his ‘peace keeping’ efforts, the Mayor isn’t even a BLIP on the band’s RADAR. But that won’t stop him (and his mom) from trying again tomorrow.

MOTHER below

OUR FIRST GROJBAND SCREENING!!!

JOY!

Screening the first episode of Grojband this morning. 

Amazing to see every ones hard work coming together. 

(We're actually seeing the visuals married with the full audio mix for the first time)

~Thank you GB team!

FremantleMedia Enterprises Announces World Tour For Grojband

MIPCOM, 9 OCTOBER 2012: FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) today announced a series of international TV deals for the kids’ comedy series about a wannabe rock band, Grojband.  The 52 x 11 minutes animation is a TELETOON Original Production by Fresh TV. FME manages the worldwide (excluding Canada) TV distribution, home entertainment and brand licensing rights for the series.

New buyers cover major territories including France (Lagadère), Italy (Switchover Media), Australia (ABC) and Latin America (Cartoon Network). These acquisitions follow the announcement earlier this year that Cartoon Network USA became the US broadcast partner for the series.

WANTED

WANTED: STORYBOARD ARTISTS to work on our new series GROJBAND.

Interested? Please send board samples to neptoonstudios@gmail.com - Must be a resident of Ontario, Canada.

CREEP AWAY CAMP

Design by Aleksandar Prohaska

Paint by Martin Smith

THE GARAGE

Paint by Martin Smith

Garage concept art by Ed Lee

Considering that Corey and the band were going to be spending a lot of time in this location, we had to take some liberties with the size of the garage. We also added a second level with a loft bedroom so that Trina would be in constant 'ear shot' of the gangs shenanigans.