NERRLOCK~ THE SOUP WARRIOR
It all started when…
Once upon a time in one of my earliest classes at LCAD (Laguna College of Art & Design circa 2008). Animation teacher, Wes Sullivan, asked us to create a character that was to be our project for the next few semesters until our final project was due, a fully completed twelve second animated film reel. I had created many ideas in other visual development and character design classes but this one had to be simple and full of depth. Rather than create something new and empty, which I had nothing at first, I dug deep into my sketchbooks and pulled out a page with a bunch of character heads on it that I was saving for a rainy day and what jumped out to me was a fat slimy toad looking lizard named Nerrlock.
Now once I nailed a simplistic enough design for a model sheet, that was refined down to the least amount of details as possible, I had another task of creating a world in which Nerrlock lived and grew up in. I had to ask myself tons of questions like, ‘What is his goal? Where is he from? What is his family like?' etc. That lead to me writing page after page of his background and eventually his place in the world and even me finishing my final film reel of animation and graduating LCAD 2009 with a BFA.
Although the storyboard reel never got finalized with voices and movement, it is still my finest example of animation draftsmanship work that encompasses all of my wit, ability and personality. A very special thanks to my storyboarding teacher David Pruiksma who supported, encouraged and laughed the whole journey. Long live ‘Nerrlock, The Soup Warrior!’
As it is always a work in progress..., feel free to interpret your own inner lizard voice and click on the thumbnails below and use the arrow keys to skip thru the frames, plus a demo version video below, enjoy!
Nerrlock ~the Soup Warrior (Cloe’s V.O.)