We partnered with a wonderful collaborator called Studio Moshi, in Australia. Once we got into the production, it was a little different because we realized, of course, that I would not be able to animate the entire short by myself. And then we launched into full production.
It was a pretty labour-intensive first pass, but the overall test was received really well. Knowing the style and everything they were looking for, I dove in head-first to a traditional animation on twos and threes. The initial test was about eight seconds of footage, of Yondu in particular. Then I hunkered down using Toon Boom Harmony to traditionally animate the footage. Marvel was kind enough to provide us some footage to base our initial test on B-roll footage from the first Guardians film. It was presented to us that Marvel and James Gunn were interested in doing this in a rotoscoped, Ralph Bakshi style. I was brought in very early on with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios to help with the animation test to ‘audition’ for the job. How would you describe your role in this project? What did a typical day in production look like for you? Official trailer for the The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, now available to stream on Disney+.
