Peek Inside An Okay Place To Eat!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Below are some of our interior shots for An Okay Place To Eat, done by our awesome storyboard/background artist, Chris Paluszek, from Robot Chicken, Titan Maximum, among others! Q&A with Chris after the breaks!

1) You've been with Okay Place since the beginning, what are your thoughts on the show?
C: I'm excited. There's a real wealth of content just waiting to be mined in later episodes (fingers crossed!). I think the best thing is how distinct each character is- no two serve the same purpose and they all have such great personalities.

2) What approach did you take when it came to backgrounds?
C: To keep them simple and not too distracting. A 50s-type diner has a lot of opportunity to be filled with a lot of kitsch and flair, but if it pulls viewer attention away from the characters and animation
you're hurting the show.


3) We hear you're going to be animating a pivotal scene between Sergeant Cereal & Hector Spector. What about it are you most looking forward to?
C: Any line from Sergeant Cereal is gold, but it's his reactions to Spector's timidity that I can't wait to animate.

4)  If you were stranded on a desert island with the employees from An Okay Place to Eat, and you could save one person, who would it be and why?
C: Juke-A-Tron, because if I were to murder him and hollow him out, he'd make the most stable raft. Crash is a close second, though.

5) Who was your favorite food or beverage mascot as a child?
C: The Noid, because he make the least amount of sense. He's a man in a costume? He has ears? But he's really tiny, so is he a goblin, or maybe some sort of demon? All I know is he wants pizza, and I can
relate to that.

6) Did you draw on your personal experiences to tailor the look of An Okay Place To Eat? If so, what diner did you model it on?
C:
Back home in Norfolk there's an incredible diner named "Doumar's" that's been around since the 30s, I think. It still operates as a drive-in so they'll serve you in your car. Definitely worth it if you're ever in the Virginia Tidewater area.

7) If you were forced to have sex with either Ruby Gold or Delilah, which one would you choose and why?
C: Ruby, mainly because I'm afraid of Delilah.

8) Would you eat at An Okay Place To Eat? If so, what's your favorite thing on the menu?
C: Every food establishment gets a shot from me, and if I were to order anything it would be whatever's the chef special. Although having drawn the kitchen background I know that includes "the brown lettuce,
yogurt, and spices," so maybe I'd just have some coffee or something.

9) You were also the storyboard artist. Tell us a little bit about what that was like.
C: It's like a sampler platter of every role on the show. There's a little bit of everything: backgrounds, animation, character design...it's incredible to be in control of all of that at once.

10) Give us an example of how of your creative storyboard ideas were incorporated.
C: When Hector steps in water in the beginning, the script called for a puddle but I thought it would be outrageous if it were actually a deep hole in the middle of the diner. That way it both underscores the
quality of OK Place and gives the "Jesus walking on water" gag a little more clarity. I pitched that to the director, Andrew Racho, and he loved it.

11) Where can we see some of your other work?
I have some clips of my previous work at chrispstuff.com, and I have a blog that I never update at painguage.blogspot.com

Cheeseburger, Please, With A Side of Rabbit...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

A couple nuggets of exciting news! Our director, Andrew Racho's, animated short film, Tobacco Man, will be playing at Dragon Con in Atlanta (Sept 3-6). Sonic Bunny is sending him and our other writer, Evan Dannemiller, to the Con to promote Okay Place. So if you're going to be there, let us know!
It's DOUBLE BONUS DAY at An Okay Place To Eat! One post, TWO clips! The lovelies below were animated by our wonderfully talented animator, Caroline Foley. Q&A with Caroline after the breaks. Careful! Clip 2 is not for the squeemish. Well, after the Ruby clip last week, you should have developed a tolerance by now :)

Clip 1 - Sergeant Cereal voiced by R. Lee Ermey

INTERVIEW: Caroline Foley - Animator:
Caroline, you animated a scene with Sergeant Cereal, so we're going to ask you a lot of questions about him...some personal. Okay? Okay. Good.

1) What was your initial reaction to Sergeant Cereal?
C: Who is this guy and why is he yelling at me!

2) Did you picture R. Lee Ermey when animating Sgt. Cereal? 
C: Yes, and it terrified the shit out of me!

2A) Did that influence the way you drew out his movements?
C: You don't have much say in a situation when you have a gun pointing at your
head... even if the gun isn't real... and by "isn't real" I mean "real".

3) Would you follow Sgt. Cereal into battle?
C: I have a feeling I wouldn't have a choice.

4) What do you think he's like in the sack?
C: Pudding. Kinda gross, right?

5) Do you think he has any illegitimate children with women from the South Pacific?
C: I believe all children of the world are legitimate! *sparkle hearts and rainbow farts*

Clip 2 - Hector Spector voiced by Scott Adsit

Alright, now that you're grossed out, we move on...

6) What was your favorite scene to animate and why?
C: The dead bunny scene! Because who doesn't love cute dead animals? Thanks for the reference, guys!!!

7) If you were stranded on a desert island with the employees from An Okay Place to Eat, and you could save one person, who would it be and why?
C: Tasty Bear because bears are people too! And I don't think he'd give me no lip, ya know what I'm sayin? Also, I think he would be great at finding food. And then eating it.

8) Who was your favorite food or beverage mascot as a child?
C: Tony the Tiger! He's grrrrrreat!

9) Where can we see more of your animation?
C: On my website: http://www.undressedanimals.com/

That's it on this end! Check back in a few weeks for one of our Okay Place Trailers! P.S. For all of THE ROOM fans out there...there's a throw back to the film in the 2nd clip. Can you spot it? Go, go, go, go, go, go, go...Alcatraz! <--That may or not be a hint.