ChaxDedE

I hope you’re talking about my part - where Hater is singing to Dominator’s empty suit. 

If it is, it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had storyboarding and timing. 

With songs you kind of have to animate them more than storyboard them. We work in Storyboard Pro which allows you to basically animate to the soundtrack, which makes timing a lot easier.

Hater singing on the piano was visually inspired by Michelle Pheiffer in the Fabulous Baker Boys. It was also inspired by torch bars I used to go to sometimes when I lived in San Francisco. The singers are always touching themselves all over, and I thought it would be funny to have Hater do that too. 

After that we go to the straw hat and cane sequence which was inspired by the Jolly Holiday sequence from Mary Poppins:

It’s an awesome contrast to the sexy stuff right before it. The dumber dance steps came from reference video I shot of my wife and I trying to out do each other with the dorkiest dances we could think of. It was fun!

That is followed with the fantasy sequence, inspired by Meatloaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love.” The video wasn’t much help in terms of inspiration, but his album covers were:

Again, killer contrast! 

To contrast that, I wanted Dominator and Hater’s dance to be as un-metal as possible, so I looked at Courtney Cox and Bruce Springstein in “Dancing in the Dark.”

Then we return to reality. I wanted Hater to be all alone and vulnerable when he finally tries to ask out Dominator, so I put him in a spotlight, like he was being interrogated. There was nowhere for him to hide. It wasn’t hard to remember how painful it was to ask girls out, and that’s where all his squirmy poses came from. My pals Eddie Trigueros and Justin Nichols really helped me push those poses!

But in Sierra Leone we are talking about the Mende and Temne for the most part. On my very first morning, as I stood on the front porch of my hosts house, I watched children walk to school. This young lady was walking with a group of friends and I just had to stop her, run inside for my camera and take a "snap” *

Three things struck me about this style 1. the length of her hair (short) 2. the different techniques used to create it. 3. The center tuft down the center of her head.

I don’t want to go into the styling how-to’s, since this isn’t an instructional blog, but I do want to linger on the meaning of it all.  I think it’s obvious that the number 1 purpose of this style was for beauty. But even in that vain it illustrates several points about the significance of African styling. For example, the center tuft is a repeated theme that originates with connecting to the spirit. side note: I was all giggly inside to see this modern day representation of the style that I highlighted in my video.  

Q: Hello! My question is that what advice would you give to an upbringing artist who has self doubt? How do I tackle this? 

I found these AMAZING WOY sketches drawn by Craig McCracken! They feature the OG 2009 designs for Wander, Sylvia and Lord Hater from Craig’s original unfinished graphic novel, “Wander Over Yonder: Into The Cold Black Heart of Hate.” As well as the designs for the OG 2011 pilot.