Skip to main content

How to Get Views The Evil Genius Way - Episode 3

Way back in May and June of 2009 I released the first two episodes of my comedy series, How to Get Views The Evil Genius Way, intending to make more in the series at some future date.

Nearly three years later I finally came up with a new scheme. Which is not to say I couldn't have thought of something sooner, I've just had a lot of other projects and ideas that I've been exploring in those years.

My key problem with this new episode was that the Underdog theme license with GoAnimate had expired - and with it, Simon Bar Sinister's availability as my original star.

There was also the problem of the Super Rica and Rashy theme license also expiring. Rashy had featured as a supporting character in both of the previous episodes and, whilst this new episode didn't really require him, I thought it would be funnier if Simon still had his monkey army around (having had it returned by Evil Witchy).

This all got me started on the challenge of seeing if I could recreate a new Simon Bar using GoAnimate's Comedy World Character Creator and a new Rashy-like monkey using the Lil' Peepz Character Creator.

You can see the results in Episode 3 below. Thanks to professional voice actor, Dan Lawson, for his fabulous talent as the voice of Simon Bar Sinister.


Behind the scenes, Dan was awesome. He kindly donated his voice talents before I ever asked him to be involved in this project. (Another reason to make your work the best it can be - great people will want to be a part of your next project if they enjoy watching your work).

Dan really delivered, giving me a choice of four different voices for Simon including one that sounded identical to Simon's voice in the original Underdog cartoons. I went with a version that was exactly how I imagined Simon would sound - which is a little higher pitched and slightly faster tempo than his voice from the cartoons.

After that Dan provided me with 2-3 takes of every line and even included some improvised coughs, chuckles and effects (such as the echo of the loud speaker) that I didn't ask for but really added to his performance.

The idea of Simon obtaining an army of bunnies to  view his animations does come from the original forum post I wrote that inspired the series right from the start. The post was a joke on how some of the top animators get their views. In it, I said this about former Top GoAnimator, Random Girl:
Random Girl has an underground lair where she has networked 3000 computers and 3000 robotic rabbits who watch her animations continuously. In their spare time the rabbits plan world domination and hope Random Girl will lead them to salvation and electric carrots.
When I first had the idea for Episode 3, Simon's rabbits were going to be robotic rabbits, using the Cyborg Bunny Character I created for The GoAnimate Complaints Dept. Cyborg Bunny episode. However I couldn't envision robot bunnies using bunnysingles.com so I ended up having them as real bunnies instead.

As I said the monkeys didn't really need to be in this episode but I thought it would be funny to have them there as a kind of secondary opportunity for humor. It's not particularly funny when Simon pushes the monkey out of the way the first time but when he does it again over the credits - even I laughed out loud at that.

I hope it won't be quite so long before the next diabolical scheme, though at this time I don't have any ideas for another one. If you're reading this and you do have an idea for an outlandish scheme, feel free to suggest it in the comments. You may just inspire the next episode.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eight 2D Animation Apps For Your Phone or Tablet Mobile Device

M obile productivity apps have become so capable that they can be great alternatives to their PC/MAC equivalents or serve as great tools in their own right when you're away from your desk. While some apps simply mimic their desktop counterparts, others offer well thought out, touch-friendly interfaces that are easier and more fun to use. Every so often I check out what's available for 2D animation for Android devices, since that's what I use, that can complement my workflow with Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5. Some may be available for Apple devices as well. Below I've listed six free (F) apps (with optional paid (P) upgrades) on the Google Play Store that you might want to explore. Some are just fun apps on their own while others may be useful as part of your workflow on bigger animation projects. Not all are exclusively animation apps and could be used on any production. JotterPad (F/P) The name JotterPad makes this sound like a notepad application but it's ...

Inochi2D - Free Open Source 2D VTuber Avatar Rigging and Puppeteering Software (Part 2 - Inochi2D Session)

In part one of my deep dive into the free VTuber software, Inochi2D , I focused mainly on Inochi2D Creator, which is used for rigging your character avatar in the correct file format for use with Inochi2D Session, the puppeteering part of the software. The two sides of the software are still very much in development and the documentation, particularly for Session, is very thin on the ground. To the point where I don't think I could even do a comprehensive tutorial because I'm not sure I'm even doing things right, and the software could change significantly in a single update. As a result, in this part of my Inochi2D deep dive I'm changing tact from presenting my finished Cartoon Animator TET Avatar, and will be summarizing my experience of getting Session up and running using OpenSeeFace as the recommended webcam motion capture software. To do this I will be using  the TET avatar I created in my review of Mannequin , since that can be exported as a full, ready to go r...

Review: Animaker - 10X Better than other Online Animation Video Making software (#DIY)... or is it?

Animaker's bold claim, right on its homepage is that it's  10X Better than other Online Animation Video Making software (#DIY). Also featured on their homepage is a cool promotional video that's dynamic, full of charming lip synced characters, with high quality animation that matches perfectly to the story being told. If I could make anything even half as good with their studio, I'll at least buy that they're better than most of their competitors. Let's see if they live up to their tagline 'Animated Videos, Done Right!' Animaker is a flash based, cloud animation studio application that gives you access to an entire library of thousands of characters, props, backgrounds, sounds and more, to create almost any kind of 2D animated video. In fact they make the bold claim that theirs is the largest animated library in the world of any similar online application (it's not... or if it actually is, it's not as versatile as other comparable librari...

The Family Guy Method - Animating Talking Hand Gestures in Cartoon Animator

Once you start getting into character animation you learn pretty quickly that people don't just speak with their mouths. Hand gestures and movements play a pretty important part of how people communicate too. The problem is, animating hand gestures and movements is extremely time consuming... and who knows what gestures and movements should be used and when? In Reallusion's Cartoon Animator I use pre-animated talking character motions that I chop and move gestures around so the arm and hand movements 'feel' right based on my own understanding of body language (and I also act out dialogue to get a sense of what arm and hand movements I might make with what's being spoken). Recently I came across a video by the creator of Culpamland Extra , an online animated series, in which they briefly outlined how they animate talking using the Family Guy Method. I'd never heard of this, and if you try to search for it online you'll be hard pressed to find anything. So I...

Review: Headshot Plugin for Reallusion's Character Creator 3

Headshot for CC3. Quite possibly the best 3D Avatar I've made of myself in any 3D application. Creating a realistic 3D human avatar is a whole lot easier with Reallusion's new Headshot Plugin for Character Creator 3. The plugin is an AI powered extension that can generate 3D digital humans from one photo. Which sounds like an amazing proposition but, in practice, if you're trying to achieve a specific likeness to an actual person, Headshot will give you an excellent base to work from. Headshot has two modes, Auto and Pro. Auto Mode Auto is well worth a try if you have an ideal photo of a front facing person that is properly lit and posed to Headshot's optimum requirements. It's also the only mode that will take a crack at generating a hair model. I grabbed an image of Harrison Ford, dragged it into Headshot without changing any of the default settings (other than specifying 'male' and selecting an 'old male' setting) and this is what I...

Moho 14 Released - Still the Best 2D Animation Software for Indy Animators on a Budget

Moho 14 Released. Regular readers know I am a Reallusion, Cartoon Animator advocate through and through. Hands down I would recommend Cartoon Animator 5 first over Lost Marble's Moho 14 to anyone who is just starting in 2D animation, is a team of one, or just needs to animate as quickly as possible. However, feature for feature, Moho is, arguably, the best 2D animation software for the rest of us who can't justify a Toon Boom Harmony , or Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (and even with their applications Moho is very competitive on features). You can get started with Moho Debut for just USD$59.99 which is a cut down version of Moho Pro but it still has the most essential features needed for 2D animation. While Moho Pro is a whopping USD$399.99 (Cartoon Animator, which only has one version, is just USD$149.00) upgrades to new version numbers come down to a quarter of the price at USD$99.00. Even though Reallusion just released features like Motion Pilot Puppet Animation and...

KIT Scenarist - Free, Open Source, Screenwriting Software that Helps Research Your Ideas Too

KIT Scenarist Script Writing Software's Mascot, Alexander Cat. While you can write a script in any word processing app, if you're writing stories (screenplays) that feature characters and dialogue, a dedicated script writing app can save a lot of time formatting, letting you focus more on the actual story. Script writing apps are also very useful if you plan to send your screenplays out to production companies, or if you're collaborating with actors and other production people, who are used to scripts being in a particular standard format.  [Note: In case you're wondering there are reasons scripts follow a standard format and are always written in Courier (typewriter) font, including but not limited to; being easy to read by actors, plenty of space for notes, and the general rule that one page of a script (in this format) equals approximately one minute of screen time.] KIT Scenarist , in my opinion, is one of the best script writing apps out there for ease of use, simp...