Muks on the Fred again!!

Yayyy those awesome peeps over at Channel Frederator have found it fit to showcase us for a whopping third time in their 73rd podcast!! This time around we submitted a music video we made a few years back, 2003 in fact, for a local NZ Hip-Hop artist King Kapisi. It was the first major job for tv we ever did so it's kind of a milestone for us, so we're really stoked to have it featured over there even if it does show it's age a little and makes us cringe a bit!! But we really appreciate all the support the team at Channel Frederator have given us over the last year, so to celebrate we've dug deep deep into the Mukpuddy archives to bring you some stuff from the making of the video... Enjoy! (Watch it here)

Heres some design work:

A sequence storyboarded by Tim:

And some backgrounds:

They also interviewed us about this project, check it!!

A new painting....

Here's my first painting collaberation with my fiance Karla. We did it as a gift for a good friends engagment!! I think it turned out pretty cool, I did Ganeesha and Karla did the lotus and spray painted the background (through lace), as usual it's (mostly) acrylic on canvas!

Sparkle Friends: Series 2

Hey Folks.

Last year we were thrown in the deep end with our animated short series "Sparkle Friends". Somehow we managed to produce a 3-4 minute episode a week (from script to screen) without going completely insane. Well, due to the popularity of the series, we're doing a 2nd series! Yikes.

This time things are a little different, we got a couple of weeks up front to work on 5 of the scripts and animatics, which allows us to have a full week of animation on each episode (still not much time, but better than last time). Then we have a break in the middle to work on the 5 remaining scripts and animatics, then 5 more weeks of animating.

We're really happy with how this 10 are turning out, we've definitely improved the animation (although still limited due to our schedule) and the scripts are way crazier and alot funnier. We've also gone bigger action wise, so that's made the 1 week animation turnaround pretty tough. We've compelted 3 episodes and have just started ep4.

If you didn't happen to catch some of the original Sparkle Friends Series 1 episodes, here

they all are on YouTube

We'll keep you posted on the progress of Sparkle Friends Series 2 and we'll post links to them as soon as they have aired in NZ. Heres a little sneak-peek in the mean time!!!

Some new stuff!!

In the immortal words of blogger and Frederator commentor extrodinaire "Stephen Levinson ©"..... "NEVER STOP PAINTING!!", well, I won't and here's some stuff I've been working on. A couple of kids school chairs and a commission I did for a Trekkie!!

More more new Plushies...

Once again some new plush toys me and Karla made, we're going for a Mexican-type vibe with these fellas! -Alex (sorry for crappy photos, don't have a decent camera at the mo!)

Some new plushies....

Hey there, heres some pics of the new toys me and my fiance, Karla, have made!! -Alex

First post of 2007

Well, once again, its a whole new year and Mukpuddy is back in action. There's a lot in store for us this year and we've got some big plans but we'll be sure to keep all you bloggers out there up to date!! In the mean time heres some paintings I did over my holiday, they were all christmas presents.... Alex

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hey Folks,

well we've come to the end of a crazy year. 2006 has been Mukpuddy's best year to date, and we're glad it's over so we can have a relaxing Xmas holiday!

We've managed to have work all year round (some of which was far stranger than others), so it's awesome to see that 2D still has it's place in the world. Yay for 2D!

A major part of our year (and Mukpuddy's history) has been the introduction of Jeremy to the team, not only has he brought a truck load of talent to the table, but he has become a great friend and is now most definitely a true Muk! Cheers bro, we're glad to have you around!

I have to say a big "nice one brudda" to Alex who manages to constantly amaze us with his always evolving artistic talent, your hard work doesn't go unnoticed bro. We've decided to extend your contract for at least another year. Congrats.

And Tim, what can I say? You keep rock alive! Plus you relieve our animation struggles, you da man bro! (Struggles is a weird word, sounds like mean Fraggles).

As for me (Ryan) well....I wrote this Blog post, so I've earned my wages. Plus I do silly voices and I like to constantly distract everyone, I'm a must for every animation studio.

And to all of our awesome new Blog friends....

Mukpuddy Sketchbook

Hey folks,

It's been a while since our last post. Things have been pretty busy at Mukpuddy. Got a bunch of jobs we are trying to complete so we can have a bodacious Christmas holiday.

This October we attended the NZ Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo (Imagine San Diego comic but 100 times smaller). We made up our first Mukpuddy Sketch-book which we had on sale, it proved pretty popular, so now we've slapped all 36 glorious pages on Lulu for you all to buy. Hoorah! What better gift could you give someone this Christmas? Probaby a PSP or a Wii, but a Mukpuddy Sketchbook should come in a close 2nd.

We've added buttons to the store on your left. But if your mouse cursor happens to right here, then click there to save time and effort. Smiles!

Fred Interview

Hey peeps, we just wanted to direct your atttention over to the Frederator Studios Blog where our buddy Jeaux Janovsky has posted an interview he did with us! We're really excited about it and feel really privileged to be included with many of the other artists interviewed over there (many of whom are great inspiration to us!). So a big thanks goes out to Jeaux, we really appreciate your support dude and when we make it over to The States next we'll buy you a beer!

Also thought we'd post the illustration we created for the "Channel Frederater 1st Birthday Program", the only criteria was to have a robot and an ipod......

My new Painting

Fellow Mukster Jeremy had his birthday last week and his girlfriend wanted to give him one of my paintings. He's a huge fan of Sesame Street and his favorite character is Grover so, for me, this was a perfect subject (once again, acrylic on canvas)..... Alex

The Muks go Cereal Killing!!

Hey peeps, we were asked recently to contribute to Von Kreep's Cereal Killer book so without further adieu, heres Alex and Tims efforts....

Heres Tims effort!








And Alex's!

Fredex

A few months ago we were invited to take part in a Channel Frederator project called "Fredex". 15 or so animators were given a subject, ours was "Salad Bars" then we had to make a 10 second short which dealt with the pros and cons of being a robot.

The compilation short has just gone online over at Channel Frederator or you can see the Fredex short on it's own at Mukpuddy. There's some awesome examples of the talent that's out there at the moment. Makes us proud to be a part of it. Now for some stuff made with pencils...

Server go Bung!!!

Hey all, the Mukpuddy.com server is currently down, so please bear with us!!!

I Spy Plush..

Hey, Alex here, the plush toys me and Karla (my fiance) have finally found a home on the web at www.geekfreeks.com , so go check them out!!!!

New Paintings!!!

Sorry for lack of posts lately, over the last week or so we've been busy organising stuff for the Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo we mentioned a few posts ago. We'll give ya a full run down of how it went soon as, but in the mean time heres some paintings I did for the show, to my surprise they all sold, yay for me!!! (They're acrylic on canvas) -Alex

Buttony Badges!!

Hey all, well we're almost ready for our triumpant return to Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo this weekend. We've put together a sketchbook (which will be available online soon) and had some badges made (see designs below), if theres any left after the show we may be able to find a way to sell them to yous guys overseas!! Peace out!

WE ARE SO MUCH COOLER NOW

Well, last week marked a true milestone in Mukpuddy's 4 and a half year history.

WE GOT A WATER COOLER. BOO YA! (Hence the clever use of the word "cooler" in the title. Clever!)

Now we have another reason to stand around and talk about Transformers, Thundercats and all things Star Wars. Ahhhhh, casual lighthearted banter mixed with refreshing H20. Nice!

Gather around.....if you look at the photo really close, really really close, and wish upon a golden star, you may just see a magical little powerpuff girl peeking out to say hello.

Real live flash!

Hey folks,

we just finished up a new tv advert/promo for TV2's "Saturday Disney", a New Zealand saturday morning kids show. This one was a little different for us as we got to experiment with a bit of live action/flash animation mix. Jeremy and Tim went out and filmed the live action parts, then we spent a couple of days adding in the flash animated elements. We're pretty chuffed with how it turned out, it all came together very smooth.....The Fonze smooth.

Sketches first....



and then the clip....



As always, if the clip doesn't work, head over to www.mukpuddy.com and look for the quicktime version under 'animation'.

Mukpuddy at Armageddon 06

Its with great pride and a buldge in my knickers that I announce Mukpuddy Animation's triumpiant return to New Zealands premiere Comic-Con, "Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo". It's not much but it's got it where it counts, so if your anywhere near the South Pacific you should stop by, we'll be located by the toilets on Level 5 of Aotea Centre (Stand 27), so stop by and have a chat when you go wees!

GO KIWI!!

What is a Mukpuddy?

For those of you out there who have always wondered, heres what one looks like under a microscope....

CKC-ya!

Hey everyone,

it's been a while since our last post, sorry 'bout that, been a little busy here at Mukpuddy. Anyway, the last couple of months we've been working on a new live action kids show called "Cool Kids Cooking" (renamed CKC for extra coolness). We originally created the animated opening titles and transitions for the show, but the characters proved quite popular so the creators of the series decided to incorporate them throughout the set. It's a very weird experience seeing the characters you've created blown up to 8' tall. Anyway....

Here's the character designs



Here's the final opening titles



(if the file above doesn't work, head over to mukpuddy.com and check it out)

and here's how the characters look on set (and yes....Jeremy has turned into a pumpkin in the 3rd pic.....but dont worry, Tim soon turned him back with a tender kiss).



CKC-ya. Out!