The twinsanity contwinues.

With the animatic completed on October 6th (golly, do we wish we could show it to you, but some things gotta stay under wraps!), Twincesses took a brief hiatus as Six Point tended to some prior commitments. As of this week, however, the show is again moving full speed ahead! The aforementioned James, Chris & Zach were joined by Danforth France, Seth Cooper and Kerry Dwyer in Flashifying the Illustrator turnarounds. Meanwhile, Matt designed the girls’ eye and mouth comps, as producer Todd Prather produced some product, including a top secret Twincesses-related side project.



The twin and I decided we could use some mentoring on our adorable little cartoon, so we turned to Tommy Blacha. He’s the co-creator of [Adult Swim]’s Metalocalypse and stars as William Murderface. Tommy expressed disappointment that our show contains neither fatalities nor maimings, but seemed heartened to hear the episode will be scored almost exclusively with hard core death metal.

xoxo
Vera

So that's what "Barrel Fever" means!**

If you’ve watched “The Legend of a Twin Princesses,” you know that the Kindly Old Timer lives in a box community behind an old sausage factory. But let’s get something straight: he’s no Hobby Hobo. Sure, he’s got a leaky roof over his head, and he’s not risking a stay at the crowbar hotel or the bone orchard with a train-hop, and he carries his brief-bindle to and from a job, but this in no way signifies that he’s some mere Boxcar Tourist! His kicks are mangled and his rags ain’t so glad, if you catch my drift…

No?!? Then seek out the 1931 publication American Tramp and Underworld Slang. Words and Phrases Used by Hoboes, Tramps, Migratory Workers and Those on the Fringes of Society, with Their Uses and Origins. With a Number of Tramp Songs. Edited with Essays on the Slang and the Songs by Godfrey Irwin. With a Terminal Essay on American Slang in Its Relation to English Thieves' Slang by Eric Partridge. This is all one book. I received my copy via post on August 17th, seventy-five years TO THE DAY after it was stamped by its former home, the Providence Athenaeum. Freaky.

For further information on hoboes, I also recommend The Areas of My Expertise by honey-voiced professional liar John Hodgman, now in audio book. I recently made this delightful author's acquaintance at a Literary Salon hosted by mutual friend Dana Gould; fittingly, our introduction occurred over a bonfire.

xoxo
Vera

**Delerium Tremens!

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Update, 20 March 2007: Having been raised in Los Angeles, I will admit to an altered sense of what “celebrity” means. I was, after all, getting driving lessons from Christopher Atkins at age twelve, posing for PETA publicity shots with Ron Jeremy by twenty-nine, and too blasé for the 45 second walk across Sunset Blvd. to meet the cast of Heroes last week. But I recently heard a new essay by John Hodgman on fame, and realized it might be of interest to you non-read-y types that this author is also “PC” from the Get A Mac ads.

Another Update, 12 April 2007: Listen to the recording of his hilarious story here.

Colored Cuties

October 2nd we received final character color from Nick Lakiotes. This would be the last step before Flashifying everyone into animatable poppets.



Nick is the Art Director over at Six Point Harness East - that's right, this studio is too formidable for just one coast.

xoxo
Vera

Turnarounds

Mid-September... With our main characters all approved and in-love with, the next step was to design their turnarounds. This was also the time to make sure everybody was Flash-friendly. Barbara and I finalized the details with Matt, who then cleaned them up, paying special attention to their construction for animation.

Hey, look! Me, Matt & Barbara hard at work! (*Please note birthday pineapple, courtesy of Jaime Velasquez)

Over the next week or so, Matt finished their ¾s, fronts, backs & profiles.


Once completed, Mikey the PA was nice enough to scan 'em and send them over to Zach, who built them in Illustrator. He did a painstakingly perfect job, for which we say, Thank you, Mr. Aufdemberg.

xoxo,
Vera

Cleaning Up (the Ring with Your Face)

The first three weeks of August, Anna gave us a load more props as well as initial color and special poses. The fellows at Six Point -– James Crowley, Chris Toms and Zach Aufdemberg - cleaned up her drawings in Illustrator. It was kinda cool having these dudes try out different stuff, in part because it allowed us to figure out what kind of line weights and coloring worked best. Like using colored lines instead of black - I wouldn't have thought of that!

So things were moving along, which was lucky since in mid-August Barbara and I got a golly of a lot busier with training. Si, es verdad; when we're not creating adorable six-year-old princesses, we are, of course, tearing up the squared circle lucha libre-style as Bibi and Fifi Poubelle. The twin and I have been performing as luchadoras (Mexican-style wrestlers) for the past four years or so, in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and even Tijuana.

Refuse to believe us? Check this out:



(Nice music, huh? That's Mr. Uncertain, and you'll be hearing more of him in the Twincess pilot.)

So you probably donut want to miss our upcoming Lucha Va VOOM shows, October 24th, 25th & 26th at the Mayan Theater, downtown LA. Equal parts lucha libre, burlesque dancing and comedy, it will blow your mind OFF.

xoxo
Vera

Cast 'n' Characters

August 2nd was our first recording session at Esho Sound, a studio conveniently located in the Six Point Building. John Warrin, proprietor and fellow twin, has built himself a cozy little booth for one (or two, if it’s Duffys).

For the guest role of Tooth, we were thinking either a Dave Chappelle sound-alike or Flava Flav (whichever was cheaper), but we landed someone much better: Brandon Johnson. You might have seen Brandon on Punk’d, Crossballs or Arrested Development, but we knew him from his live comedy. Dressed as half man, half woman, he'd performed an insane duet with himself for the Comedy Karaoke show. Priceless. We called upon his singing skills for both a hurt-feelinged rap and a soulful jam.

The rest of the cast recorded on the 3rd. Matt Danner played Kindly Old Timer; his other voice acting roles have included Shaggy, Pussy Cow and "Go! Go! Moba Boy!" Matt’s one of those reasons this studio is so special: he does voices, development, design, storyboarding, writing - and he does it all really, really well.

Milo was done by Eric Bauza, who's on Nickelodeon’s “El Tigre" and is Stimpy on “Ren and Stimpy Adult House Party.” He can also mimic just about anyone in the studio, an endlessly entertaining skill. It's like a caricature in his mouth!
Prince Jamima was played by Matt, Bauza & me, depending on whether the infant was crying, gurgling or laughing. We pieced together a pretty cute frankenbaby.

Barbara and I voiced Priddy and Ugalee, respectively. People want to know how we picked which twin to play which twin, and the answer is simple: *shrug*.

xoxo
Vera

Anna Chambers: the poo-fect designer

July 18th, Barbara and I met famed artist Anna Chambers. Brendan had sent us to her website the week before to get acquainted with her work. Her talent is obvious, but it was a certain drawing of a blue, poo-headed child that really caught our eye. The boy looks delighted with his headwear while the stink-line-emitting merdelette appears concerned to say the least. Cute and crazy - yay! As we clicked on through, we found adorably pathetic birdies, tiny proud caterpillars, foul-breathed old-timers, tounge-sticky-outty elves. We were no less impressed with the actual Anna. By the following Monday (after Comic-Con weekend, no less!) based on nothing more than the original short, the script and a bunch of stuff we said at her, Anna turned in drafts of the main characters that made our heads spin.



Visit Anna's website and her poo-rific blog.

xoxo
Vera