Tra-la-la!

Working on The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants drew upon every single bit of experience that I've accumulated over the years.

"Can we do greenscreen work?"

"Sure."

"Can we do digital face replacement on puppets or stop motion characters?"

"Yeah why not."

"Can you build 3d models of these toys because we don't have the legal clearance to use the ones we bought?"

"Um ok, yes?"

"Can you curl yourself up into a ball so you're clear of the camera and help control this rod puppet?"

"What?!"

Every episode had what we called 'alt animation' which really just tracked any part of the show not done by the vendor studio Titmouse. This part of the show could be CG, stop motion, digital puppets or practical puppets. Working on this show was not only a tremendous amount of fun for myself but for my team as it gave them a chance to be involved in something new and challenging on each episode.

The amount of practical props built for the show was astounding. The quality of the puppets was amazing and they were so much fun to play with. Being able to work on something that you could touch and feel was such a great departure from working on something that only lived inside of a computer. We were constantly troubleshooting things to get the shots to work right and not having the luxury of an undo button really makes you think and be decisive.

I really hope that greenscreen keys well...
No, that's not a giant man baby. That's Supervising Producer Todd Grimes in a Captain Underpants costume waiting for the shot to be ready.
This Captain Underpants balloon ultimately met a violent pointy death.
The abominable snowman puppet is as heavy as it looks.
Just hanging out while we wait for the set to be fixed.

Well okey-dokey artichokey. I'm off to find some guac.