Inspidea is a group of imaginative and colorful people - in more ways than one - who come together to create entertaining and inventive shows that tell compelling and unforgettable stories.
The wonderful team at Inspidea is headed by Andrew Ooi who also acts as Producer. A Scrabble enthusiast, he rarely can enthuse others to play with him. Not much of a collector of anything, he does like his electronic toys a little too much. Watch out for his snarky bombs because he’ll drop it when you least expect it. Other key members of the team include Raymond Yap, Animation Director, also known as the Gundam guru, is a senior staff in Inspidea. He has inspired others to be like him and also inspired some interesting characters in Inspidea’s catalog. Quiet and unassuming, he has a thing for chocolates. Jane Lee, Lead Animator, is able to whip her subordinates into shape under pressure, she is also one of the lead hostess with the mostest at every social gathering of Inspidea. Respected and admired by her peers, Jane dares to try anything once, including auditions for temp audio recordings. The outtakes of those recordings are pretty funny. George Wong & Md. Fuad Zain tell stories. This dymanic - yes, manic - duo creates an interesting combo that is able to make limp stories stand erect. Even though they are polar opposites of each other, they can attack and solve the most complicated or simple plot holes ever unintentionally created. Edward Gan and Daryl Toh are background artists. Another set of a dymanic duo, the two are almost on the same page at any given discussion. So while they are not technically twins, they might as well be based on the things that they share in common. However, Edward plays his videogames on the PS3 while Daryl only has a Wii. Tan Julius, storyboard artist and prop designer, is one of the leading character designers in Inspidea. He is able to add a bizarre twist to drawings that make them hilarious. He puts his impressions everywhere, including as a voice talent in an upcoming Inspidea show. He was even picked as a leg model for Inspidea’s latest advertising campaign where he was specifically asked not to shave his legs for two weeks. Susan Gan, lead clean-up artist, has an eye for detail that is hard to match. That might explain why she is also an avid doll collector whose collection is worth thousands of dollars. This firecracker is also known to put a lot of effort into costumes for parties.
Inspidea is currently wrapping up the final weeks of Boo & Me. A co-production between Inspidea and KidsCo, the 13x2 minutes series is produced completely as digital animation, using frame-by-frame technique. The show is about Boo the baby orangutan and his two young caretakers who go on their daily adventure teaching him to respect and preserve his environment.
Every interesting show starts off with an interesting story, which is where George Wong and Md. Fuad Zain come in. They throw as many ideas on the table and see which of them are funny yet safe enough for kids to understand. They prepare the story beats and pitch it to the KidsCo team in London.
“We are not used to making G-rated stuff so finding the right comic balance for this series is really tough,” stated George Wong. “Essentially, we had to bring out our inner Disney,” added Fuad
The approval of each story can take up to two weeks at a time but once the UK team gives the greenlight, Tan Julius then use Storyboard Pro to prep the panels. He prepares the timing set and animatics then publish the storyboard as PDF files and converting the animatics as MOV files. These files are sent once again to the UK team for approval. After these files get the nod from KidsCo, the Inspidea team will start working on the animation immediately. From Storyboard Pro, the files are exported directly as Toon Boom Animate scenes. Using these scenes, Jane Lee leads her team to prepare the line test animation. Meanwhile, Edward Gan and Daryl Toh will use the animatics to map out the action before they start painting the background in Photoshop.
“It takes a lot of experimentation to achieve the lush look of the Malaysian rainforest. But in the end, we finally come up with one that also compliments the design of the characters,” explained Edward Gan.
“We use the storyboards to plan our background shots. Then after the line test is complete and comments are made, we will adjust the BG according to the scaling and panning of the animation,” added Daryl Toh.
This resulting animation and BG is reviewed by everybody on the team to figure out if they are hitting all the right comedic marks. The animation department will most likely make amendments and the final line test file will be sent to KidsCo for comments. “The review process is crucial because we have to make sure that the point of each scene is not lost,” explained Jane.
Almost without stopping, Susan Gan and the clean-up team will proceed with ink and paint. They will also check the layering to ensure that the character blends seamlessly with the background. Minimal amount of effects such as shadows and motion blur are applied before the full color animation file is rendered.
“The scaling issue is important because some BGs need to be adjusted according to the specific shots. Using Animate, we can do this rather efficiently,” stated Susan Gan.
The final file once again goes through a review before it gets sent to KidsCo for final approval. With all this backand-forth going on between Kuala Lumpur and London, it is hard to imagine doing this production without the Internet.
Prior to using Storyboard Pro, the storyboards were still drawn on paper. Due to the fact that the key message of Boo & Me is about going green - and the fact that using paper and tape is really a waste of money - Inspidea decided to implement the use of Storyboard Pro fully for this production. “Decidedly it was a great move, as storyboard artists found out how much simpler it is to use” commented Andrew Ooi.
“First there’s the requisite Copy ‘n Paste. Using paper, the artist would have to draw the shot again or make photocopies of the desired shot, and paste them on their specific scenes. With Copy ‘n Paste, scenes get assembled a lot faster than before. Adjusting scenes is also easier using this simple tool,” explained Julius
Storyboard Pro also adds a layer function. Much like its function in Adobe Photoshop, the additional layering makes it convenient for storyboard artists to tweak their boards as best that they can. This helps convey the exact feeling of the scenes and eventually the animatics.
“Storyboard Pro also helps streamline the production pipeline by omitting the need for the post-production team to be used in the creation of animatics. Previously, storyboards on paper have to be scanned and then scenes assembled by the editors using video editing software. With Storyboard Pro, all of this can be done as soon as the storyboards are done. Key to the creation of animatics is transitions. The transitioning functions of Storyboard Pro make it easier to adjust animatics, given the tight running time of Boo & Me. There are also the paint & brush tools, which can be used to depict scenes more clearly. For example, the opacity and color can be specifically adjusted to show mood and lighting of individual scenes,” added Julius.
“Simply put, Animate gives animators and clean-up artists a higher degree of flexibility. The fusion of Flash and Toon Boom Studio functionalities makes their lives easier and ultimately speeds up the production. The brush function is much more advanced, giving animators more choices to create specific moods for certain scenes,” continued Jane Lee
Animate also helps clean-up artists speed up their work. “The auto-gap function helps a lot in controlling the filling of colors. The clean-up team doesn’t need to work as harder as before because Animate is smarter at doing it for us. The eraser tools are more intuitive, which helps animators draw and erase faster than before,” explained Susan Gan.
Animate allows users to see 4 or more onion skins at any one time. “This helps bring out the right emotion from the characters as well as some of our props,” added Raymond Yap.
“The camera function in Animate is just like Maya, where dimensionality of the layers can easily be adjusted within the 3D space. Animators can see how layers must be aligned out for the shot based on the camera position, which can make it easier to plan a action shot. There are also more effects to play around like glow or blur in Animate. This will lighten post-production work later in the pipeline,” commented Julius.
“One of the more attractive aspects of Animate is its seamless integration with Storyboard Pro. The scenes in the approved Storyboard Pro file can be imported directly into Animate which means the animators can work on their scenes straight away. It does away with traditional methods of drawing storyboard on paper and scanning it.
In that regard Animate creates an environmentally-friendly production pipeline” shared Andrew Ooi.
“Animate also has better brush range and painting functions. It has smoother brush strokes that helps the animators draw efficiently. It also offers more variety of brush strokes. There are more things that can be adjusted which leads to better detailing that you can control,” stated Raymond Yap.
“Any style of animation can be achieved. From traditional cell-like animation to the flat 2D-digital look, Animate is simply a better software for animation production. There’s lot that we haven’t explored in Animate. It’s such a flexible tool,” continued Andrew Ooi.
“We’ll be able to do things faster than before. Assets we developed can be reused using this workflow. Turnaround is quicker which will make our production more efficient. This will lead to more opportunities for Inspidea. Inspidea is a Toon Boom evangelist in Malaysia. So far we’re the leading licensee of Animate in Malaysia,” concluded Andrew Ooi. Just looking at the positive and creative energy the Inspidea’s team has to offer, one can only look forward to seeing the great quality projects this dynamic studio will deliver.
