Nickelodeon contacted me back in Nov. to see if I would be interested in coming up with an idea for a Ren and Stimpy vine for their 25th anniversary celebration of nick toons. I had to think about it for a full 4 and a half seconds before saying yes, which tore a rift in the space time continuim, causing14 year old me crapped his pants in 1994 not fully knowing why. Ren and Stimpy is pretty much one of the reasons why I even considered working in animation in the first place. I remember being completely blown away by it, and it’s clearly a big influence on me and has been since I unknowingly crapped myself in 8th grade biology 26 years ago.
Now, it’s only a 6 second animation, but that didn’t cause me to NOT put a ton of pressure on myself to make this thing worthy of an official Nickelodeon Ren and Stimpy animation. I don’t consider myself the best at drawing other styles, in fact I don’t think I’m really that good at that kind of thing at all, so again, more pressure. Plus Ren and Stimpy I think is kind of known for how incredibley well draw it is. I tried to have fun with it and take some of the pressure off. Being that it’s a vine I knew I wanted it to loop so I came up with an idea that would do exactly that. I also thought being a weird semi trippy loop would fit the show and style. I also wanted to put some classic ren and Stimpy type poses and expressions in there but wih my own thumbprint on it.
I’m not sure how I came up with the final idea. Part of it was me missing a deadline (Which never happens I swear it!) for my first submission because my daughter was born the week that was due. Then fast forward to me buying a few days with that excuse (Seriously, emergency C-section so, lay off!) and having to come up with something on very little sleep. I always loved the grossness of this show, among other things. Stimpy hacking up hairballs, gagging and kind of being sick and gross all the time, which is why they’re basically throwing each other up. Then there is character, Stimpy’s innocence and Ren’s maniacal tendencies. I had the back and forth for balance, and Rhythm. Ren, then Stimpy, then Ren, then Stimpy again and loop. I did a pretty tight pitch board, which I ultimately ended up using for Layouts.
Below are those boards timed out in flash for the animatic.
Below that are the boards spaced out with some breakdowns and in-betweens for timing. This is where I changed some things that weren’t really working with the animation.
One thing I miss about cell animation is how soft it looks, and the element of a human being literally handling the final artwork under a camera. It can be very imperfect and very charming, so for the final look I wanted to re create that. Fuck if I was gonna put this on paper and shoot it under a camera, I’m not that stupid! I started playing around in after effects with color and texture and adding a cel shadow, which I shifted randomly at points so it wasn’t too perfect or repetitive throughout. The Final is below.
I’m really happy with the final product and wish it could’ve lasted longer or even been a more substantial Ren and Stimpy project. Who know’s maybe one day. For now this was definitely a dream job, or just a dream come true because it didn’t feel like a job. It reminded me why I got into animation and hopefully I can do more projects like this to keep that fire burning. For now I hope you all enjoy and would even love to discuss this more if anyone would like me to go more indepth to how I created it. Thanks
-Mike
