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Way back in 2009 I posted a couple of entries about Futureboy, a character I created in the late 1990s. You can read all about him here.
Imagine my surprise when I was googling myself today, as one does, and ran across this: a vector drawing of Futureboy.
At least I think it's forgotten. I don't remember posting this one before, and it didn't show up when I searched for it.
I completely forgot all about this drawing. This is the first (and so far only) time I've ever drawn him in vector. It's definitely my work, but I have no memory of drawing it whatsoever, or even why I did it. It's kind of eerie seeing something I obviously did but don't recall. Like there's another version of me out there posting things and jet setting about the globe and generally having a better time than I am.
I suppose I'll have to chalk this one up to old age, as my once steel trap-like mind becomes more like a sieve. Next stop: adult diapers!
A while back I posted an entry about Futureboy, a character I created about ten years ago while working at a small animation company. You can read all about him here.
I made a couple of very short (2 minutes or so) Futureboy animations in Flash. They turned out OK, so with those projects under my belt, I decided to hatch an even bigger plan: I was going to create a series of Warner Brothers-esque short cartoons that would play in movie theaters before the main feature, just like in the old days.
The fact that you've never sat down in a theater and watched a Futureboy cartoon should tell you what happened. It was a cool idea, but one that was far too ambitious for both me and the company. It would have taken months, maybe even years to single handedly write, animate, voice and direct an entire 7 minute cartoon totally by myself. Futureboy's big screen debut died before it ever got off the drawing board.
I did get far enough into the project to create some Photoshop backgrounds for an animation test.
OK, this one's techically not a background, but I included it anyway. This is an alien ship that lands in the spaceport. Drawn in Photoshop on a ton of layers. All these backgrounds were drawn with the mouse too-- I didn't have a graphic tablet back then, so I should get extra points for difficulty.
In my story outline, a brand new alien species comes to the Spaceport where Futureboy worked. His nervous boss, Mr. Feeny, foolishly put Futureboy in charge of greeting this previously unseen race, and escorting the alien ambassador to the auditorium where it was to give a speech.
As the ship lands, a small green blob slithers out of the ship. Futureboy assumes this is the Ambassador and grabs it and attempts to usher it to the auditorium, running into all sorts of complications along the way. Eventually he delivers the blob to the podium, only to discover it's not an alien at all, but a glob of sewage that plopped out of the ship's waste chute.
Charming, eh? Looking back, maybe it's just as well it never got made after all.
Here's an interior shot of the spaceport, looking out at the alien ship landing on the platform. Note the Jetsons-like flying cars. Somebody's really been waxing that floor!
Just for the heck of it, here's the same view of the spaceport interior sans alien ship.
Here's the exterior view of the council chamber where Futureboy was to deliver the alien ambassador. That's one futuristic looking door!
The most impressive thing about these backgrounds (if I do say so myself) is that they were drawn sans graphic tablet. Every pixel was drawn with the mouse. Don't ask me how.
Who knows, maybe somewhere in a parallel universe people are sitting in a theater watching the finished version of this cartoon before the movie starts. I'm also rich, powerful, 14 feet tall and coated with gold in that universe as well.
From 1998 to 2001 I worked at a small animation company. While there I created a character I called Futureboy. In my outline, Futureboy was a silent little astronaut who worked in a bustling spaceport. He was always on the verge of being fired by his nervous boss, who would stick him in different jobs each week, hoping to find one he could do without getting into trouble.
My plan was for Futureboy to star in a series of animated shorts, 7 to 8 minutes in length. These shorts would play in movie theaters before the main feature, just like the old Warner Bros. cartoons did back in the 1930s through 1960s. That plan was probably a little too ambitious.
Unfortunately before any of this got off the ground, Fox came out with "Futurama" and did the whole future shtick way better than I ever could. After that there didn't seem to be much point in going forward with Futureboy (Get it? Forward? Future? I got a million of 'em!).
My original Futureboy design was stiff, complicated and hard to draw. I decided to dust him off and simplify/redesign him.
Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.
Here's the very rough sketch of the newly redesigned Futureboy.
I dug up an image of the original Futureboy. As I said earlier, he was stiff, complicated and hard to draw. Look at all those fussy little details on his spacesuit. There's way more stuff there than there needs to be. And his stubby little legs might look cute here, but it was next to impossible to draw or animate him in a walk cycle.
He was one of those characters that only looked good in one pose-- this one. As soon as you tried to turn him or have him move in any way, it was nearly impossible to draw him. He was due for a good overhaul.
This was most likely drawn in Flash, then imported into Photoshop where color was added. Yikes, would you look at that horrible line work! Every single line is the exact same weight. It makes me cringe just looking at it.
