#catgroove

First up is The Zoom! Ever since I started planning this animation 2+ years ago, I knew that this would be the first shot. Since zooming in on his eye would produce a mirrored view of the video, a double-zoom-out was necessary.

My original plan was to have the zoom be done purely in 3D. However, when it came time to implement it, I realized the shot did not look good when done realistically. The images distorted due to the curvature of the reflection, and Raymond's glasses got in the way due to how big and round his head is.

Also, even his iris was edited in. I made an HD version of his face texture, which you can see in how smooth the edge of his eye is, but because of the model's texture mapping (UVs), the iris was all distorted. I'm glad I edited in the new iris, though, because I got to make it even higher-resolution.

I already covered all the details on the laptop screen in a separate post, which you can find here.

The first good view of Raymond's room. For the most part, it is a recreation of his default room layout in New Horizons, with a few differences, such as his fax machine being removed. I didn't have all of the furniture models, so all the stuff that isn't shown directly (e.g. safe, water cooler, second desk) are super-low-poly recreations.

The laptop is from Splatoon 2. It is Marina's laptop, with all the stickers removed. If you look closely during the zoom out, you can see that the keys still have the Splatoon language keys.

Also, fun fact, his chair was a Froggy Chair as a placeholder until I got the office chair model. I was planning to keep it, too, if I couldn't get the office chair.

The animation's events really kick off once Raymond begins dreaming. The way his idea lightbulb lights up the room, and how the light persists afterward, is the first sign that things are not normal.

When I first started planning this, I had the New Leaf version of the office wallpaper in mind. While New Horizons has the windows completely obscured by blinds, the New Leaf version has a cityscape visible through the gaps in the blinds. I was originally planning to have the sky change, going from a fake sky to a vibrant real night sky.

Raymond reaches into his desk for the Ocarina of Time, giving the first style shift. This is another scene that I had in mind for years. Originally, I wanted this scene to be super-realistic. Instead of those cartoony leaves from the game, I wanted just a big pile of real-life dried up leaves, with labels written on them. They'd rustle and slide around when the drawer is pulled open just as you'd expect from leaves. I love the idea that, from an outsider's perspective, the villagers are just a bunch of adorably dumb animal children, gathering leaves and pretending they are furniture.

Here are all the leaf types in Raymond's desk. There are two "???" leaves, for a total of 10. Sadly, my favorite ones are completely hidden due to how the physics simulation worked out.

Speaking of physics, I meant to have Raymond pull the Ocarina out. However, every time I ran the simulation, everything freaked out the moment the Ocarina tried to move to his hand, causing the contents to fly out everywhere. Maybe later I'll render out that part for fun.

The Majora's Mask time travel scene. I had the scene ripped from when I was mapping the game, so recreating it was easy. I referenced footage from the game for the animation timing, which is why this and the Ocarina-playing scene are some of the only parts of the video that aren't overly fast-paced. If I had more time, I would have added in the light-blue sparkles that come off the items, just like in the game.

For the anime-esque sequence, the original idea was just to have the hair be flowing smoothly. At some point, I realized that drawing hair on the 3D model would look weird, so I decided to draw the whole thing. I've never really animated like this before, so it was a fun experiment. I posted the raw drawings in another post, here.

For the background, I wanted to reference the time travel scene in the cartoon Samurai Jack. However, the effect there is very intense and hard to look at, so I greatly toned down the flashing effect to the point of being unrecognizable.

Raymond crash-lands in the city from Animal Crossing for the Wii. All the trash that pop up are items from the game, of course. I chose an alleyway so that I didn't have to bother with assembling the city itself. While most of the scene is made from assets from the city, the brick texture is just one of the home wallpaper options.

Did you notice? Before Raymond puts his glasses on, the world is only in 480p, but when he puts them on (stylishly), the screen transitions to full 1080p. The Wii's resolution isn't 480p, but the original Cat Groove's is.

Also, this scene gives a clear example of one of the dream-like effects I used throughout the latter half of the animation. Take a close look at the placement of the bricks relative to the poster. Every time the camera changes, things subtly shift around! It's hard to notice because these are details you normally don't pay much attention to. My favorite use of this effect is in Yoshi's Island, where terrain details are randomized every time you enter a room.

It's not easy to make Raymond look happy when his expressions are normally so serious. Also, did you notice? The floor is entirely different in some shots. It has the same color palette and general design, so it feels the same, but the details and patterns are entirely different.

When the camera points up, you get a brief view of the highly-saturated night sky. Even though it's night, everything is brightly lit, another dream sign. By the way, there's supposed to be a chimney up there, but I guess I didn't put it close enough to the edge to be seen. I completely forgot about it until later.

Here is a closer look at one of the blimps flying in the sky. It's an edit of the Luigi blimp from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, with Rosie's face added on. This is actually an homage to an anime movie, something I rarely talk about. Specifically, the Madoka Magica movie. Rebellion.

Raymond meets a younger Dr. Shrunk at the club entrance, leading to another style shift. This is another scene I imagined for years. Those hands are actually Pikachu's from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/Ultimate, with some clothes added on. Also, again, different floor.

While the art style here looks like late-'90s/early 2000s CGI, this wasn't intentional. I didn't realize the resemblance until after I had rendered it. I guess it's just a natural result of using smooth models with super-basic lighting and solid-color materials.

One idea that I'm sad I didn't have time to implement was that the text on the checklist was going to subtly change as Shrunk's hand passed over it. Just like a dream, the text would change every time you read it.

At the bottom there is the rule against allowing OCs in, the explanation for why Raymond can't get in. It continues out of frame, but you can see more of it when he puts the clipboard away. I even included doodles of some YouTuber OCs! Just for clarification, I have nothing against OCs, it just seemed like the funniest option.

The orb appears!

I am not great at special effects, so this was my best attempt at a reality-warping entrance effect. Sure, it's not very dynamic, but I like how it came out. The sound it makes is a distorted, reversed version of one of the Animal Crossing jingles.

I originally had a different ending in mind. Rather than dashing into the door, Raymond would have climbed up on top of the building to look for another way in. There, he would have seen the orb sinking into the roof.

Raymond achieves his dream! For this scene, I originally imagined it ending with that Undertale sound that plays when going through the dramatic exit door to the ruins. You know the one.

Also, darn walk cycles! This was the fifth one I had to animate in a row, using nothing but pure IK. If I wasn't so exhausted by that point, I might have thought to have the camera zoom in or something.

Raymond sleeps soundly while Cat Spin auto-plays. The snoring you hear is a recording of a real cat snoring, which I found on a free sound effect website. The main reason I included it was so that nobody thought Raymond was dead. His tiny arms don't really lend themselves well to a good sleeping pose.

So, why is Rosie there?? Well, originally, my plan was for the camera to look over at the whiteboard, where something like "Happy Anniversary Cat Groove" would be written on it. This is why the whiteboard is at an angle instead of parallel to the wall like normal. However, when I animated the scene, I didn't have the whiteboard yet.

When I finally got the whiteboard model, I realized I had overestimated its size, and sizing it up didn't look good. So, I had to find a way to fill the empty space above the board. I considered a banner or Rosie-shaped balloons, but I eventually settled on the most ridiculous option: having Rosie herself.

The End!

For the credits music, I chose the Smash remix of Bubblegum K.K., not just because of how many people associate it with Raymond (because of those singing videos people made), but because I just really like it. Other songs I considered were K.K. Disco and the Jimmy T. stage intro from WarioWare: Smooth Moves.

You may have noticed that I used very little of the song Catgroove in the video. Back when I made the original Cat Groove video, the video got a copyright claim, blocking it from being viewed by my European friends. I don't know if the company making the claim was legitimate or not, but I appealed and they removed the block.

Fast-forward a number of years, and Cat Groove was at hundrends of thousands of views, eclipsing everything else I've ever made. I decided that, as much as I enjoy his music, I didn't want to be mooching off of Parov Stelar's work. That's part of why I made Cat Spin, using only Nintendo music, to show the direction I wanted to go. Besides, if the video gets claimed, then I can't show it to all my friends. Otherwise, I might have chosen something like Jimmy's Gang for the credits music.

~

Anyway, that's all I had to say! The end result may be a bit rough, but I'm glad I finally got to bring this idea to life and share it with the world after years of tossing it around in my mind.