The Daffy Strut: An Animated Film by Andrew Megow

After an internship at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank CA, Andrew was

extremely influenced by the animators he had met and learned from. It was after

he had returned to his normal routine, that Andrew decided to make an animated

short film. 6 Months later, the Daffy Strut, a film about superheroes disguised as

rock stars fighting an alien from another world was made.

The FInal Product:

Password: daffy

The Process:

Character Development: Sketch work

This has always been Andrews favorite part of the job. Andrew used inspiration from celebrities, musicians and everyday people to get the right look for all specific characters.

The Band:

Courtney - Courtney was developed by a mash-up of the eccentricities of pop musician Katy Perry..

Steph - Steph is a cartoon drawing of the real-life actress Stephanie Frank who did her voice. Andrew and Stephanie were high school friends and have made smaller projects together in the past.

Paul - Paul's role in The Daffy Strut band is the beats, so as a young DJ, he is drawn to look like the famous Paul DJ's Paul Oakenfold and Paul Van Dyk.

Tyree is rocker. Someone who has a lot of heart and leadership and because of that, Andrew based his look on a 90's picture of the musician Prince.

Supporting Characters:

Checkmate - By far the most fun and most improved character of the film is the villain Checkmate. Even after the script was done, Andrew still had no idea what the alien creature would look like. Inspired by The Grinch and Ren from Ren & Stimpy, Checkmate was developed purely on the first doodle Andrew drew of him.

Rory - Rory is based on two people in Andrew's life. The first was Nicholas Scott, who went on to voice Rory, and the second was a roommate of Andrew's while he was out in LA. Both men were described by Andrew to be "flamboyant husky fanboys with black beards" and he couldn't resist creating a character in honor of them.

Gen. George Scott - The name says it all. Gen. Scott is based on George C. Scott as Patton. Not much else to say.

Drawing & Animation:

All motion in the film was hand drawn first to give it a feeling of weight. Once those sketches were done, they were scanned into the computer for digitalization. Sketched drawings were outlined in black using a Wacom Tablet and a custom-designed Adobe Illustrator cartoon brush. Later, each frame was colored and filled-in.

Backgrounds were designed in Photoshoped and Illustrator. The theme of chess throughout the film was suppose to represent something rigid and precise. The black and white straight squares of the chess board was supposed appear alien to colorful and squiggled world The Daffy Strut lived in.

Before After Effects Layering:

Once all elements were completed, the pieces were sent into Adobe After Effects and the individual pieces were layered on top of one another in their correct order.

After After Effects Layering:

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Conclusion:

After several months of the same process over and over, The Daffy Strut was Complete in late May of 2015 and submitted to several film festivals. It premiered in September of 2015 at the Milwaukee Film Festival in Milwaukee, WI. The Daffy Strut played at other film festivals such as the Central Wisconsin Film Festival and The Vancouver Golden Panda Film Festival and is continuing to be accepted nationally and Internationally.