Maigo Arrives on Earth
Jayson Thiessen’s animation work first became known through a little short he created called ‘Stale Sale,’ (MOV) a fluid Flash-animation about a salesman named Chubby Dee.
But today we’re highlighting a short film that he and some friends created called ‘Maigo.’ It’s the beginning of a 7-minute short that they’ve planned, boarded and recorded. It’s intended as a series for children, and they’ve been nice enough to post it online for us to watch.
JAYSON THIESSEN: Besides myself, there’s Jamie Mason, Robert Watts, Andreas Ohrt, Kyoshi Kohatsu and Tai Keattivanichvily.
AARON: What’s the series pitch?
JAYSON: Its about Maigo, a little alien child who becomes stranded on Earth and struggles to understand Earth culture, which often gets him into trouble. It’s like discovering the world through the eyes of a child who is completely independent. I think a lot of kids would like that.
AARON: Who’s the little sun-shaped guy?
JAYSON: “Beebee” is a symbiotic parasite that lives in Maigo’s stomach. He acts as Maigo’s conscience and guide when he’s in trouble or faced with a problem.
AARON: Where’s Maigo from?
JAYSON: He’s from a distant galaxy somewhere in space. It’s a location not yet known to humans, they’re too busy watching TV to care.
AARON: How long did this take?
JAYSON: It took us about 6 months in our spare time creating the characters and story. I animated the promo in 3 or 4 months on my laptop and designed the characters, when I had time. Jamie did the backgrounds, storyboard and colour styling. We both did the animatic and voices. Robert produced, Andreas wrote out the pitch bible and some episodes, Kyoshi helped with concept and story as well as some design, and Tai edited it together and did all the technical stuff.
AARON: Do you design on paper first?
JAYSON: I work out the design on paper because it’s faster and there’s more control. Plus you can do it on a post-it note on the fly. Then I duplicate it in the computer using Flash. I try to design with Flash in mind, working with the program’s limitations, instead of fighting them. Like how Maigo is mostly round, so rotations can be easily achieved by sliding the features around and masking off the edges.
AARON: Why did you choose to produce this in Flash?
JAYSON: Well, what other program allows you to create 2D animation easily with colour and sound with little to no cost and is easy to learn? It was either that or pay hundreds of dollars to hire animators, clean up artists, cell painters, camera, audio engineers, and video transfer. You can make animation in Flash look comparable, if not better than classical, as long as it’s designed with Flash in mind. I wouldn’t want to animate a complicated realistic character in Flash.
Tags: Jayson Thiessen
April 10th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Excellent! I’ll be waitin for the series. I love Jayson’s Style
April 10th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Check out his blog: http://goldenrusset.blogspot.com/
April 10th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
Sweet!
I’ve been wondering what the guy who made that crazy Chubby Deets cartoon was gonna make next!
April 11th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Jayson has an impressive resume. His and animator Michael Hogue’s work on Michel Gagné’s ‘Insanely Twisted Shadow Puppets’ interstitials for Nick is brilliant. Shame about Maigo. I think the series would be a perfect fit for Nick, Jr. Thanks for giving the trailer a showing.
April 16th, 2006 at 12:58 am
AMAZING!!! ONE OF THE BEST FLASH ANIMATIONS IVE EVER SEEN!!! JUST AS GOOD AS FOSTERS!!!! -Steve
April 19th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
Additional Maigo Info…
(Hello All),
The Concept of Maigo was created by Robert Watts & Kyoshi Kohatsu but was later developed by all of us through out the year as we came on board.
Even though the idea was no more than an embryo, it’s important to state that this was established before any of us joined.
Kyoshi came up with the title/idea for “Maigo” as his name which translates as “lost” from Japanese.
All of us were involved in the brainstorming sessions for the storyboard and on Maigo’s design.
His Design was pretty much sussed out before Jayson later sprinkled his magic styling over top.
The same also goes for the Storyboard before I completed the board (minus the magic).
Andreas also gave a tremondous amount of imput with gags and ideas while simultaneously working on episode ideas for the show…
… And then Tai pulled us all through with the Post end of things.
Sorry Jay for being a stickler but I would hate for anyone to feel rebuffed that was part of the process.
Take Care,
Jamie (Mason)
aka Hobo Divine
September 15th, 2007 at 2:09 am
it’s cool how much “Casey’s Orbit” is so much like “Maigo”…alien crash lands on earth…into treehouse..et al….hmmm…