Working Stiffs

The final cast lineup for my quarter-long project in Character Design And Storyboarding For Animation, where we had to come up with a concept for an animated series and do a number of designs and storyboarded sequences for it. The idea I came up with was a workplace comedy in space.

From left:

The Boss: An enormous aquatic squidlike alien. All the employees have universal translating devices at their disposal for communicating with their peers, but his language is too intergalactically obscure to be included in the translation package, so Imel has to interpret for him. When he speaks, it sounds like a person trying to speak with their mouth full underwater, overlaid with a few other sound effects, like the sound of mud sloshing around in a bucket.

Imel: A member of an advanced alien race evolved from something resembling deer. She is the second in command below The Boss, and very reserved and businesslike. She also won't hesitate to "misinterpret" The Boss's orders when she thinks they could be slightly improved and then convince him it was his own idea all along. As such, departments under her command tend to be highly successful.

Ted: Schlumpy, semi-depressed Earth guy in his early thirties. He’s been working in a cubicle all his life and was really excited to come work on this space station when the Intergalactic Federation finally got around to annexing Earth, but his enthusiasm has quickly deflated upon learning that he was still going to work in a cubicle again, just in space this time. Everything is still kind of new and surprising/interesting to him, but there’s still a strong weariness about him.

Phranc: An alien man who happens to look suspiciously like a stereotypical scantily-clad sexy alien babe, with body language to match, but extremely stereotypically masculine in personality and actions. His planet is one of those that got runoff Earth pop culture via TV signals being broadcast off into space, so his culture is the most similar to that of Earth's, but filtered through his world's preconceived cultural notions, so although his dress and body language seem effeminate to humans like Ted, on his planet those elements are treated as the height of masculinity. His voice is rather deep and he speaks with what sounds suspiciously like a tough guy Brooklyn-Italian accent.

Fifty-One: One of those "grays" whose race has been responsible for most alien abduction stories across the galaxy. He/she is the mechanic/pilot on board the space station, but insatiably curious and mischievous, like a hyperactive toddler but one that needs to be kept around in order to keep the space station running. His/her language does appear in the crew's translation devices, but he/she speaks so quickly that it sounds like extremely fast high-pitched jabbering (interspersed with manic giggles) and is largely incomprehensible.

I may or may not play around with these guys again in the future. We'll see.

The dialogue scene I storyboarded: [link]
The action scene I storyboarded: [link]