Way back when I started this blog a little over a year ago, I planned on documenting my experience and process of the storyboarding job I was going to be starting.
That job was the new TV show ‘Kid vs Kat’.
It’s in the categories as The Production Journal: Storyboarding Kid vs Kat. Well as you can see, it only ended up with seven measly posts (till now).
Pretty lame.
Wasn’t quite the information-packed series I had planned.
That’s because when you’re actually working on a television series, you’re busy as all hell. That’s when the ‘Hell Week’ linky-love posts would pop up.
Oh well. I tried.
I storyboarded on this show for Studio B Productions from December 2007 till June 2008 completing five 11-minute episodes.
Then I went to Hawaii.
As a storyboard artist, you work and slave on a show that you probably won’t see on TV for about a year. Not exactly a good job for people who like immediate gratification.
Well, that time has arrived!
Kid vs Kat is now airing in Canada on YTV. I’ll give you all the details at the end of the post.
What’s really cool is the show was created by a buddy of mine, Rob ‘Boots’ Boutilier. We basically started our careers around the same time and cut our storyboarding teeth together on the first season of ‘Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy’.
I’m pretty anal about brushing the eraser shavings off my desk. So he used to put his eraser shavings all over my desk to piss me off.
Good times.
As it turns out, he’s still talking to the ‘little people’ and has agreed to be my very first interview here on the Storyboard Blog. That interview will be the next post. Maybe two, depending if he is long-winded or not in answering my questions.
Being the lazy ass that I am, I’m hoping for long-winded.
So stay tooned for that!
(That’s a typo, but I’m keeping it.)
In the meantime, I’ll show you some screen grabs from one of my episodes. I’ve put my storyboard panels along with them for your viewing pleasure.
Since this was my first episode, my drawings suck.
(OK, I think they suck.)
Let’s take a peek at Kid vs Kat “Do Not Fort Sake Me”, shall we? Woo hoo!
Hopefully I will be able to show full sequences in the near future. Lots of material to learn from.
So stay tuned for the interview with Rob. Here’s the official Kid vs Kat pimping out info for Canada:
You can watch episodes @ 8:30 AM on YTV every Saturday and you can check out for online episodes and content.
To end off, here’s one of those super fun ‘How We Make Cartoons’ for Kid vs Kat on YouTube. Rob is the shy guy at the end with the cat in his shirt.
And yes, I know everyone else in the video. Enjoy!
(UPDATE: Well, for some weird reason the video and YouTube channel is gone. If it comes back, I’ll put the video back up. Sorry about that. Grrr.)
(UPDATE: The original video never showed up again. So here’s the intro to the show instead. Enjoy.)
Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to catch my very first interview with Boots.
Wow! Really dig the character designs and the overall look! Congrats on the gig and I hope to see more!
Thanks for such a cool blog.
-Gerald
Hey there Karen,
I really enjoyed what you did to bring our script alive for “Do Not Fort Sake Me” We had to hit the ground running on scripts so that’s the first we story editors actually “officially” wrote.
We try to inspire storyboarders with our sequences but it’s always a relief and joy to see them run with an idea and make it better.
Cheers,
Rob
Loved the behind the scenes video, I look forward to the interview!
@ Gerald – Thanks for dropping by! Yes, the designs are really great. It’s a quite the fun, cartoony show. I hope to show more too! 🙂
@ Robert – Thanks so much for the compliment Robert. I appreciate it. That’s what I always strive to do with a script. Then when you get the real gems, you can fly with them.
I feel the same way about the animation. I give them everything I can, but when animators run with it and make it better, I LOVE that. It’s how the whole process should be.
Thanks for some fun scripts! 🙂
@ Will – Yeah, I know the whole process of making cartoons but I still love to watch ‘making of’ stuff like that too. It never gets old! 🙂
K
It’s amazing how much of the expressive posing got lost in translation between your boards and the final outcome. Especially the one where the cat’s throwing stuff out of the tree
I can’t say I totally agree with you there Marty. I think they followed my boards pretty well.
Things will always change from the board stage to the animation stage. Sometimes for the better and sometimes not. I thought they stayed pretty close to what I boarded. (But I’ll grant you the throwing scene is the most different).
You also have to keep in mind that you are only looking at one frame of animation while my few board panels are representing MANY frames of animation, right?
Just something to keep in mind in comparisons like this. 🙂
K
Just caught your post at work and will check the YouTube’s clips later. But from a visual standpoint it looks like a modern rendition of Tom & Jerry. It looks like FUN! Wish I can see the episode here in the U.S. Btw, the animatics looks cool! Did you draw those too?
You actually WILL be able to catch them in the U.S.! And Australia and Europe…
I’ll have all the details in the first interview post. When I wrote this one, I was only sure about the YTV info.
And it’s funny, Rob mentions Tom & Jerry in the interview. That was the feel they were going for so I’m sure he’ll be pleased with that observation. 🙂
K
(and no, that particular animatic wasn’t mine.)
Hey Karen,
I saw the show this morning and it was awesome!
I can’t help but follow the basic story and characters the first time through, but I’ll be sure to pay more careful attention to your work next time. It must be nice to finally see your work come to life. 🙂
Hey, cool Miles!
Was it this episode? I have to admit, even I haven’t seen the whole thing! Weird thing I have about seeing my own shows.
The fact that you just watched the story and characters is what you were *supposed* to be doing. Yay! That means we all did our job . 🙂
They give storyboard credit at the beginning of the episodes, so keep an eye out there. Glad you liked it!
K
It says that video was taken down. Is that the case? I really wanted to see it.
That’s what it looks like Jack. They had a whole channel up, now there’s nothing there. I have no idea what happened.
I had the video embedded but took it down. Waa. 🙁
If it comes back, I’ll get it back up in the post. Sorry about that.
K
Hey Karen,
Wow it’s been some time since i’ve commented on here, great job btw with the Wall-E posts below, indepth and useful!
The designs for the show look pretty cool, shame that when it’s animated in flash it doesn’t look so great, although this show is much better then others that come to mind ( chaotic, martha speaks, jacob two two..etc ) and sometimes the really great and funny stuff gets cut.
love your boards though!
cheers
Thanks for letting me know. By the way, the first episode of Kid vs. Kat is available for people to download on iTunes, for free. It’s “Let The Games Begin / Invasion Of The Zombie Kat”. It was added because the series is going to be a part of Disney XD, which launches next week.
@ Dan – Welcome back! Well, considering Flash isn’t even *made* for making animated television shows, I am still in awe of what some animators (and studios) have managed to do with it.
And this one looks pretty damn good. So I shan’t be crapping on Flash for this one. But there are definitely some duds out there. 🙂
@ Jack – Thanks for that iTunes info! I’ll have more info about Disney XD and other places it’s airing in Rob’s interview. 🙂
I wish I knew what the heck happened to the K vs K YouTube channel. Hope it was just a mistake because there was some good stuff on it.
K
Looks like fun stuff – congratulations!
totally, that’s why i love Fosters for what it is, designs are made well to work with flash instead of trying to make the program work for the designs.
I read the post days ago but didn’t have time to comment, yet I saw the YouTube video attached and I’ve got to say, this makes me want to get back to work writing a cartoon project I had been working on for a while but stopped for other interests.
Anyway, I have a question. Does the creator of the cartoon come up with the character designs and you use that in the storyboards, or is that something you get to make up and the animators take it from there? I was never really sure because I watch a lot of behind the scenes stuff and sometimes the storyboard characters are drawn exactly like the finished product, like what you have above, and sometimes they aren’t. I feel a little weird asking that but at least now I’ll know.
And I like Fosters and it’s use of Flash too. I don’t watch it as much as I used to, but I loved the way it’s animated.
Pingback: The Kid, the Kat and the Creator: Part 1 | Karen J Lloyd's Storyboard Blog
@ Alex – Thanks a lot! And I WILL be signing up for your newsletter soon. *blush*
@ Dan – OK, I plead ignorance on this one. What Fosters? The beer?? 🙂
@ T – Glad you saw the video. I hope it comes back!
The creator will usually come up with the main design and look for the show. Then designers follow that style and create the characters, backgrounds and props for the shows. The creator/director approves everything.
As a general rule, in TV production the storyboard artists don’t design anything. We get everything in a pack before we start on a show.
In feature films it will be quite different.
The story process starts way before the designs are finalized and it can be a very evolving process. That’s why on feature DVDs the characters will look so different sometimes. Make sense?
Now get writing buddy! 🙂
K
It does make sense, thank you for clearing that up for me. hopefully I’ll get back on that project soon. Eventually I’ll finish 1 of the 97 projects I started. (I jest, I do complete some things once in a while.)
And “Fosters” is short for “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” which is a popular cartoon on Cartoon Network. I don’t know if you have that channel up there. But this cartoon is animated with Flash. But just like you say, the story has to be the most important part, and that’s what I loved about it… and the characters… and the animation.
Fosters is one of my favourite shows! Right up there with Dexter’s Laboratory.
@ T – Well, if Dan watches it, it must be available somewhere here in Canada. Teletoon or Comedy Network maybe? Or maybe you can get Cartoon Network…I have minimal cable myself so I have no idea.
But I haven’t heard of it. Probably because I don’t watch much TV animation. Occupational hazard. 😉
@ Alex – That’s cool. I’ll have to do some checking up on it. I used to love Dexter’s Lab (the early ones). It sounds good! 🙂
K
Pingback: The Kid, the Kat and the Creator: Part 2 | Karen J Lloyd's Storyboard Blog
Cool.
I posed out the top scene…hope I did okay…I know the Storyboard Artists can be quite sensitive ; )
Great Blog….found it quite by accident but glad I did.
Hey, that’s awesome Norm!
Looks fine to me. Once it’s outta my hands, I ‘let it go’.
Sensitive? Us? Nahhhh.
Glad you found the blog. Look around and enjoy. 🙂
K
Pingback: The Kid, the Kat and the Creator: Part 3 | Karen J Lloyd's Storyboard Blog
hey, a friend suggest your blog to me. Its very helpful. I never tought that one of my favourite shows are the woman who create these blog. Great One!
LOve the shows even i rarely had a chance to watch it lately.
Do browse at mine and leave a comment will u .
nice meeting u .
keep up a good work.
Cheers!
Faizal
Hi Faizal and welcome!
I’m glad you found the blog. You have some really cool stuff there! Nice.
Could be more Kid vs Kat down the road. Stay tuned!
K
Hi Karen J Lloyd, I’m a big fan of kid vs kat, and I love the way you drew the characters, thanks, just one question, do you know if there will be a new season of kid vs kat? please reply.. 🙂
Hi Stev,
Yes, I’m currently working on Season 2 right now. So more KvK to come!
They are just starting animation, so it will still be a while off though. Lots of fun stuff in Season 2! 🙂
~K
Very thanks for answering Karen J Lloyd!!, I love Kid vs. Kat and am excited by the second season, thank you very much and greetings from Latin America, is an honor!
ese programa es chebre muy lindo es señor gato gueno un poco chebre
aka en este programa se imcuentra la señora manzon y gueno
denis es un poco cursi bay los amo mucho
I love Kid Vs Kat, it’s a classic!
Oh my god, this show is so cute… I watch it almost every day.
congratulations for your work, and please continue…
the second season was… even better than the first.