Strix Moonwing Musings

CD's Sofia the First: Royal Magic Ask Game!

💙 Favorite Zane moment?

Anytime he brings out his magical mandolin and plays music! 🎶☀️😄

But a specific moment? I would say I really enjoyed Zane bonding with Reggie over their shared love of catapults during “Royal Mix It Up”!

There’s something delightful about how there was James and Zandar and their shared love of cannons at Royal Prep in the first show, and NOW there’s Zane and Reggie and their shared love of catapults at Charmswell in RM! 😂

Since you have announced your ask game a couple hours ago, I have wondered who among the Charmswell students are your favorites?

It can be from either the main cast or a minor character? Who do you like among these kids and why?

I'm especially curious about your favorite minor character because they haven't gotten any proper development yet.

CD's Sofia the First: Royal Magic Ask Game!

Of the main cast? I love Sofia, Layla, Zane, and Camila! But I would say Layla has my heart the most 🩷 She’s SO precious- I love her so much! Her style, her butterfly wings, her stride to do her best in anything she comes across, her interest in enchanted gardening- just to name a few!

I am definitely interested to see more of Devin...I'm especially intrigued about the backstory of his and Zane’s relationship- because it was stated in the series premiere that they already knew each other before coming to Charmswell. But also, I have a hunch that Devin acts the obnoxious and conceited way he does for a reason and not for no reason, and I am curious to learn what that reason is... 👀

for the ask game!

CD's Sofia the First: Royal Magic Ask Game!

🆕 Favorite new character?

I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know ALL of the new characters so far! But my favorite new character would have to be Layla! 🩷

The more I see her, the more I absolutely fall in love with her! (/platonic) I love her butterfly wings, but I also love her personality-

She's a little bit of a perfectionist, she wants to do her best in anything that comes her way, and she doesn't like to make any mistakes- I'm also very much like that myself (and that's how I knew without a doubt she and Amber would totally hit it off when they first met! AAAAAAAAH!)

But she’s also incredibly sweet, sensitive (in a good way!), clever- oh, and she LOVES stuffed animals! Yeah- I'm 25, and I still love my stuffed animals too! You could never make me not love them 🧸🥰

Oh, gosh, yeah! I'm always up for talking shop!! :)

And that goes for anyone reading this! Seriously, if you ever have any questions about storyboarding or just career stuff in general, please don't hesitate to reach out! You can hit me up here on tumblr or email me ([email protected]) whatever works best.

Okay. Sorry about that tangent, I just wanna put that out there! I totally understand how you feel. I love storyboarding more than anything. It's one of those things that I can talk about forever!! OKAY! ANYWAY! LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS...

FIRST OF ALL! Let's tackle that first part:

Working on something and it not feeling right or off.

STORYBOARDING... is a lot of things, all wrapped into one job. You have to wear many hats. You're the artist, the actor, the cinematographer, the director— you have a lot on your plate to consider and juggle when storyboarding. It can be a lot, so don't feel bad about getting frustrated!! I've been working in animation for close to 7 years now, and that feeling of "oh god what am I doing" doesn't... go away, unfortunately. You have to work with it in the background, and you have trust yourself and your instincts.

You've watched films, you've watched tv. You know what they look like, and how they play. Anyone can storyboard, it doesn't matter if the art is "good." One of my favorite storyboards of all time is this board from the film Knives Out.

The drawing isn't "good" but you know what it is??? IT'S CLEAR! It READS! It gets the POINT THE ARTIST WANTS ACROSS!!! I totally understand wanting to make your boards just right. But storyboards, as a part of the pipeline, are meant to achieve one thing: getting the idea down visually before spending the money to make it happen. And that's the other thing about storyboarding, your boards will probably end up getting scrapped and redone.

I've worked on productions where the script was rewritten in the middle of me working on my boards. I've had to just redo tons of work, throwing things out, because that's just how it is. And what I've learned from that is you can't afford to be precious with your work. Sometimes you just gotta go "UHH OK WHATEVER WHO CARES" and get it done. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, it just needs to clearly convey your idea.

All of that to say— don't be so hard on yourself. Loosen up and make stuff messy, because you need to be prepared to do it again. Try to make it simple. Simple is always best. Again, the point of storyboards is to get your story across to your audience. You don't wanna confuse them!

I hope that helps! If you have any other questions about that first part, don't hesitate to ask! :)

Okay let's tackle that second part of your question:

How did I get into the industry?

I actually started by doing fanart!! LOL I didn't grow up on the west coast so I assumed I would never have the chance to get into animation. But I would post my work online, and always participated in things like #portfolioday and connected with other artists.

One of my first studio gigs was with WildBrain. I did remote work with them. The producer of one of their shows saw that I made some dopey fanart for a show they worked on, then saw I was looking for work, and then they reached out to see if I wanted to work on another show for them. So my advice for you would be make things you like!!!! Draw what you love, draw what you enjoy, draw things you wanna see in the world!

People will notice, and people with similar ideas and sensibilities come to you if you do. I know how frustrating it can be feeling like your work isn't being seen. But I promise you, industry folks are always looking online for people. Keep making stuff, keep sharing stuff, and keep telling everyone LOUDLY that you're AVAILABLE FOR WORK!!!! Have your email and portfolio available on your socials so they can SEE that work!

I've had the same experience when I've worked for other studios— I don't think I've ever actually gotten a job through an application portal. I've only ever had people reach out to me and ask me if I'd like the work, or I've been recommended for jobs by friends. Connect with peers, connect with artists you admire! I know it's hard putting yourself out there, but you're your biggest (and most of the time only) advocate!! :)

Always be a student, too. Look for storyboarding resources and consume media to hone your craft. Pretty much everything I learned about storyboarding didn't come from school. It came from other board aritsts sharing their knowledge online. It's all out there, pretty much all for free. Folks in the industry are always kind and want to pay it forward.

I hope that answers your questions, I'm so sorry about the novel that I wrote but like I said I uhh really like talking about this sort of thing LOL

if you have any follow ups, please DON'T HESITATE!! :)

Michael Bagdasarian (son of Ross and Janice) has reached out to fans on Instagram to explain the situation and confirm that there will be ABSOLUTELY NO AI used in the upcoming Alvin and the Chipmunks reboot.

In his message he states the following:

"There's some Alvin updates and I wanted to send you a message Ross and Janice wanted to send out:

Long overdue message, but we've been squirreling away working on creating projects and opportunities for chipmunk fans. Janice has been working on multiple stories, but we wanted to quickly write you to say that we're very excited to announce that we've partnered with a company that can help us create a direct link to our fans.

They will be focusing on sharing our stories and programs in a way that's accessible to you all.

We can't wait to start delivering our old and new chipmunk projects along with official merchandise you all have asked for and more opportunities for fan engagement. Exciting chipmunk opportunities lay ahead. Thank you so much for your patience.

All of our gratitude,

Ross and Janice."

He also went on to say:

"Alvin is not going to be an influencer, and we are not using AI. That version of Alvin isn't an official final look [and] the video [posted] today was meant to let people know that the "headshot" is not how Alvin is going to look."

Munk Media also reached out to Michael and got more information about the situation. They've posted a video on it.

In his messages to Munk Media he states:

"I have a strong refusal to use any AI unless forced to via Google search or Meta AI."

"I'm really happy to report that that image is not the Alvin used in the reboot but was more of a promotional/announcement image."

He also explains how they've been working with dozens of artists and animators on this project, and that much of it is still in very early production.

We still have no answers on what happened with "Golden" but I decided to reach out to him myself (on my personal account) to both thank him and see if he has an explanation. If he responds to me, I'll share the news here. For now I just want to say. Please don't go hunting him down. He was kind enough to talk to the fans he already had contact with but I don't want dozens of fan accounts spamming him with questions. We'll find out information when they're ready to give it to us.

incorrect response: write the rest of the story to be as twisty, shocking and counter to expectations as possible, regardless of whether this is a logical or satisfying way for the plot to go

correct response:

(you’re not stupid. I posted this thinking it would amuse a handful of mutuals who all knew the context and that would be about it, so I didn’t think about providing any other explanation. I had no idea it would spread this far.)

I’ll start from the very beginning just to be thorough. so this is Alex Hirsch, creator and head writer of Gravity Falls, a show which had a big focus on mystery, conspiracies, codes and ciphers, etc. the whole plot is kicked off by one of the main characters finding a mysterious old journal in the woods, which detailed all kinds of weird and supernatural things, but then ended abruptly with the author saying they had to hide the journal because they were being watched. the central driving mystery of the show, therefore, was the question of who wrote the journal and what happened to them.

now, the thing about Gravity Falls is that, while it must be said that the writers weren’t always quite as sure of their plans as we tend to like to think they are, it is very much a fair play mystery, with legitimate clues to what was going on. but the writers were caught off guard by how quickly the show attracted a dedicated audience, including a lot of people outside the primary presumed demographic, who started solving the clues faster than expected. so some of the fans were able to correctly guess who the author was before it was revealed in the show, and the theory started spreading. this put the writers in something of a panic, because this was THE mystery that the whole story revolved around, with ¾ of the show building up to the dramatic reveal in the middle of season 2. they wanted it to be a mystery that could be figured out, sure, but they weren’t prepared for people to solve it so far in advance of when it was planned to be revealed, which would have really taken away from the big moment. they weren’t going to change the main story itself, but having been caught unaware by how much attention the fans were paying, they wanted to up the ante and make the mystery more complex to solve going forward–but first they needed to buy some time and throw the fandom off the scent for a little longer.

hence, Alex’s plan as described above. they whipped up a fake shot that appears to give away the identity of the author as being another character in the show, put it on a screen in the studio as if it was a real animation frame, took a picture of it, and ‘leaked’ it online. it was initially decided to be a hoax (albeit, I think, presumed to be a hoax originating from outside the production team), until Alex posted this tweet:

…before quickly deleting it (though not so quickly that it didn’t get seen, of course).

it worked well enough to distract most people for a while, and wasn’t revealed as a hoax until a year later, when an episode aired that definitively proved that the supposed screenshot could never have happened, at which point Alex owned up to the whole thing as seen in the tweet above. by then the episode with the real reveal wasn’t far off, and while people did still work it out ahead of time, it was more of an “OH MY GOD I KNEW IT!” moment than a “booooooring, we’ve known that for ages” moment, which of course was what the writers wanted all along.

personally I find this a fascinating approach to dealing with the problem of spoilers, because it doesn’t affect the story itself at all; if you watch Gravity Falls today–or if you were watching it when it aired without any significant contact with the fandom–you’d never know about it. ultimately, the problem the writers were facing wasn’t that some people might guess the answer to the mystery–they never wanted to make it completely impossible to predict–so much as it was that they hadn’t designed the story to stand up to so many people working on the puzzle together, which resulted in a sort of total output of puzzle-solving ability that far outstripped the capability of any one solo human being. so their solution is something that’s very much targeted toward delaying that group problem-solving, without actually affecting the experience of any individual person watching the show.

plus, it’s very in keeping with the overall tone of the show.

don’t:

change the ending

do:

I'm opening my ask box for the next 48 hours, Sofia peeps! Ask away!

And ask as many questions as you wish! I am cool with repeats! Chances are, I might have more than one answer for these questions...

💜 Favorite Sofia moment?

🩷 Favorite Layla moment?

💙 Favorite Zane moment?

💚 Favorite Camila moment?

✨ Favorite Cedric moment?

👤 Favorite moment from another character? (i.e. Amber, Pepper, other Charmswell students, other Charmswell teachers, etc.)

🆕 Favorite NEW character?

👍 Favorite episode?

🪄 Favorite spell?

🏫 Favorite part about Charmswell?

🎵 Favorite song from the official soundtrack?

🎶 Favorite song NOT on the official soundtrack?

✏️ Write-in question of your choice!

Some very quick cassunzel doodles cuz I need to get use to drawing them more

my videos don't do great on tumblr buuuut I wanted to share this anyway..... one last Chibiverse post! Here's another clip of my storyboards next to the final ep!! You can tell where things were revised after my boards were done— some shots don't hook up and there's some acting that's missing. I'm pretty sure I ended up doing those revisions, but I didn't wanna go lookin for them haha.

The shot of Perry switching into Agent P mode is definitely my favorite shot from this seq. :) I had a lot of fun workin on this episode, and workin on Chibi stuff in general. Felt right at home with the style and sensibility.