Animation Production: Pitch Bible

For the second element of this module, we were asked to create a pitch for an animated show to hypothetically be produced by Netflix.

My friend and I have talked for ages about making a podcast where we discuss all sorts of different things, relationships, society, money, spirituality etc. We always have great conversations, we both find each other to be funny, hence why we’re friends! I thought about the idea of an animated podcast, and immediately thought of The Ricky Gervais Show.

I really like the way in this show, it cuts from the 3 members of the group talking around a table in a recording room to the bizarre stories someone (usually Karl) is telling.

Another animated podcast that I really enjoyed watching was “The Midnight Gospel”. It follows a character Clancy Gilroy, who goes around different universes interviewing people about life and death and all sorts. It uses audio from comedian Duncan Trussell’s podcast “The Duncan Trussell Family Hour”. In this particular scene, Duncan (animated as Clancy) interviews his mother who passed away from cancer weeks after the recording.

I really liked the idea of animating real people having real conversations. Going forward with this, I began coming up with character ideas for the two female podcasters. I often refer to myself and my friend as silly geese, so I played with the idea of drawing the two podcasters as geese. We’re both very different looking people in terms of style- my friend is kind of hippy looking, shes really into vintage 70’s clothes, whereas I’m more into goth and kawaii fashion.

I came up with the name “Goose Gabbers” because it’s two geese talking absolute bananas.

Character Design

I wanted my two main characters’ designs to reflect how my friend and I dress, so I began by creating moodboards.

I like the bird designs from “Tuca and Bertie”, however I wanted my characters to look more like humanoid women with bird faces, as opposed to actual bird heads.
I came up with these two rough early sketches of my characters from the shoulders up. The hair styles are based on our actual hairstyles.

I was happy with the hairstyles and eye shapes, but I felt that the beaks were too big and actually not very goose like. I decided to take a look at the shape of beaks from other animated bird characters.

I noticed that Daffy Duck’s beak curves up at the lip, so I drew a similar shape in the beas of my final designs.
I gave Kim a pastel goth themed outfit with pinks and purples contrasting with gothic shapes and black fabrics.
I drew inspiration from 70’s flared trousers and peasant blouses for Holly’s outfit. I used an autumnal colour palette for her outfit.
Updated poster, which still reflects the two different styles of the characters.

Environments

I knew I would need to design the podcast room, as this is the place where most of the scenes would take place; this is where the recordings happen. I decided to take inspiration from The Ricky Gervais Show and draw a scene where one of the stories being told takes place. In the 4th episode of the show, the girls tell their worst stories from their days working in retail and service. Kim worked in subway and made a really disgusting sandwich for a customer who wanted their lettuce toasted, so I drew a subway sandwich shop. I drew my backgrounds with the same black outlines and textured colours as my two main characters.

Conclusion

I had a lot of fun working on this project! I really enjoyed creating the two characters, however I am not the most confident 2D artist- I think I would have benefitted from practising drawing in procreate more before creating my illustrations. Despite this I am happy with the outcome, and I am glad that I used Canva to create the actual pitch document as the templates are really sleek and professional looking.