hello! here’s a brand new episode of brobot called MIDWAY MADNESS! it’s not all fun and games at the county fair when brobot and celia switch places…and get chased by creepy carnies.
i have fond memories of the fair this time of year, which is why i’m putting it out now! but midway madness has been in the works for a while: the origins date to 2015, when i first started developing BROBOT! at one point brobot was going to have a bad trip in the house of mirrors. one iteration involved a necklace as a plot device, and brobot stuffing cotton candy into the gears of the wayward ferris wheel to stop it (i still like that idea lol). it took forever to settle on a suitable story, and i worked on this particular animatic off and on for two years. i even made another episode (miracle of milo) in between finishing this one!
its production coincided with a re-evaluation of what i want out of the series, and my career at large. indeed, the high-concept sci-fi of early BROBOT was never my interest. moving on to ep. 5 (miracle of milo) taught me a lot about my goals, stylistic preferences, length, and more. but draft after draft, THIS episode just never seemed to have the tossed-off, carefree quality that made milo fun to work on. something about the storyline, stakes, and pacing were hard to crack… there’s a lot of competing ideas at play. it was easy to tell myself things were trite, unearned, or too sentimental (and they are, lmao!). and some parts of this piece are rough… i really struggled with indecision in boards and BGs. the perspective is kind of fucked in a few shots. i fixated for some reason on making the fair a logical locale which you should never do. this is a cartoon. BUT, it’s important to let it be sometimes. and now it is done — even if i don’t feel done.
anyway, the episode’s cool, it’s got real fair memories, and i’ve always wanted to make something set at the fair. and now that dream is real! also, you may also wonder why i am only making boards now, or why this is not fully animated and colored like the old ones. it is because i am only one person making BROBOT :) this is why i drive myself crazy second-guessing and overthinking the shows! the goal is for these animatics to be watchable renditions of the eventual episode, if you can stand me voicing female characters lol. also: imagine animating crowd shots and ride animation by myself. that’d be crazy… eh maybe i’ll tackle it later on :P
okay, see you next time, whenever that is. enjoy the episode!