I've been drawing bunches of these little kids and nothing's speaking to me. Sometimes I think it really doesn't matter. Do I really think I'll come up with some sort of innovative or ground breaking design? It's just not my strong suit. I'm really anxious to just get animating and I could just pick a kid and go! But I should keep at it. I don't want to make the same mistake I did on Ruby Rocket. I started animating before being comfortable with her design and I ended up with about 30 different Rubies.

I'm depressed. I was having fun with this fat kid, then all of a sudden he looked just like Dexter to me.


I really want a character with some volume and flexibility. With Flash cartoons you tend to get one head drawing and you move around the mouth and eyebrows like a Mr. Potatohead. It's cheep and looks so cheesey and I'm so sick of not drawing cartoons! For Ultrafoot I want a kid who can go from cute to hideous as his mood changes.

Back to the drawing board.

These kids have some spunk. I'm going to keep working in this direction.

What do you think of this one? It's rough, there's a lot of pacing issues, but it does a better job of illustrating the lyrics. It also keeps most of the "feats" montage.

I haven't had much time to work on it lately, so no new design ideas to post today.

I am not at all ready to post a new version, but posting is fun and easy, so I thought maybe putting up this stuff I don't actually want anybody to see could be usefull somehow. Plus, I've had to spend a few days on a frustrating and unfulfilling assignment for the studio, so posting now will help get my mind back in the Ultrafoot game, and keep the blog momentum going.

The cartoon has gone from mostly storyboarded to about half empty! The first tossing Ultrafoot up in the air card lasted too long and then gets repeated later, so I cut it. I've always been iffy about the green glow special effects scene in the garden when he gains his powers. I've been tempted to cut it a few times but 1) I think it could look really stylish and cool! and 2) it got a chuckle from a friend when he watched it. So it stays in for now.

I think we want much more Ultrafooty type stuff happening, and we want to address the sirens and the "bad guys" line from the song.

Currently he kicks a bully, rescues a cat, repairs a dam, and diverts a meteor. I've compressed them quite a bit so they take less time, making room for more. Obviously you want his feats (no pun intended) to get increasingly spectacular, so I figure new ones belong between saving the cat and plugging the dam. Although, I really like the joke of how he saves the cat. I mean, wouldn't you expect him to just jump up and get it? So maybe that one could be moved back. Depends on what new stuff I come up with. I also moved around the dam and meteor so that we actually see his foot when the song says Uuuuultrafooooot.

I'm not ready to take out the transition from being tossed in the air by adoring fans to jumping on the bed. It may eventually get changed but for now I really like that ending.

So we come to DESIGN. Man! it's been a long time since I've designed anything. I feel like it's even been a while since I've done any drawing! It's amazing these days how you can be an animator and not even draw anything. (Makes me feel like putting quotes around that "animator".) I also feel like it's been so long since I've had any creative control I don't know who I am anymore. I'm think I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself for the design. I really want it to look unique and appealing. It's a really fun stage because you get to just let yourself draw and have fun, but it's difficult too because there's no way to achieve what you want except through a lot of work.

Some general concepts are fairly set in my mind, mostly from the work done on the original illustration for the CD booklet. He's fairly portly and somewhat nerdy looking. In most cases he has glasses and curly hair, but I'm not married to that. I imagine his back story to be that he was an unattractive and unpopular kid before gaining his super powers. After his super powers he just remains unattractive. I hope to manage something kind of "cute-ugly" if you know what I mean. I also like the joke of his "real-world" costume. I mean, how the hell would Peter Parker make that kick ass Spider-Man costume? (Especially the movie version! There's no way!) If a real kid gained super powers I'm sure he'd just tie a bath towel around his neck.

This stuff is really not worth posting! But here it is:

Just a quick change to the damn bursting sequence. It doesn't really address the "bad guys run away" issue but at least it references the sirens in the song. Unfortunately, now I feel zooming in on the damn makes the pull back to the bottom of the damn irrelevant and the whole sequence feels too long. Maybe it always was.

I have a feeling the next post might have a fairly radically different second half. Seems there's lots to try out.