The Starfish Ninja teaser trailer is finally here! Directed by Joe Daniels, with music done by Emmy award-winning composer Eric Arvai, the road to completion has been a long one. Hundreds of hours of work from dozens of talented artists went into this project. Starfish Ninja has been the brain child of Joe Daniels since 2005 and it has been an honor to contribute in finalizing the first step toward his dream of making SFN a television series for children and adults of all ages. The story revolves around our reluctant hero, a Starfish with a dream of becoming a ninja, who finds himself forced to take on the responsibility of saving the ocean from a variety of nefarious sea creatures and villains.
The rendering was done using Maya 2012's new Viewport 2.0 Hardware rendering, allowing renders to be pumped out at 1-2 seconds a frame (compared to ~10 sec/f when using Mental Ray). The compositors and lighters, Asif Haque, Janine LaBar and Curtis Cheung, did an amazing job here considering the unusual workflow. Shout-outs to my fellow animators, Kimberlee Allyn, Gillian Mantchev, Elissa Peterson and Zsuzi Czompo, whom I worked side-by-side with for months to bring the diverse cast to life. To Peter Whiteside, Abraham Rodriguez, and Jenna Kind, our dynamics crew. Without their contributions we'd of had no bubbles, sand poofs, chains, or billowing sand clouds to take each shot to the next level. And, to Claire Bussell, Jared Newkirk, and Robert Garcia, our modelers, who created epic environments and set-pieces for the characters to live in. I apologize if I've missed anyone here (let me know so I can add you!). Just know that your hard work and dedication certainly have not gone unnoticed.
Anyhow, without further ado, here it is: the one and only Starfish Ninja!
Great post, Mike! The only small note I would make is that this is not a series targeted at children. Perhaps the child at heart, but animation is not a medium that is just for kids, it's for everyone that has the ability to invest in that which is not real, the fantastical, the awesome. It's an animated story, it has edgy moments and a twisting plot that will keep you thinking. It's for everyone.
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You bring up a good point; even as an animator it's sometimes easy to forget that when the, "animation is for children," angle is often pushed so hard. I'll make a quick edit to rectify that.
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