::BIG EDIT:: BOTH JULIAANDBRANDON WORKED ON THE FINAL DESIGN FOR BOXMAN JR!!!!
First off!!! Julia (baby form) and Brandon (MechaChair form) did such a great job of taking in how we (Haewon,Stevie,Danny and myself) all drew him in the boards and distilling it into the malevolent little stinker that shows up onscreen! Also, Kali’s colors for him were really great!
Since Haewon and I boarded the first part of the episode, we were tasked with coming up with his design! Here are the first passes i made for him:
the main thing in my head when drawing this was that i didn’t want him to be traditionally cute - i definitely wanted him to look like a gross, stinky baby. one that looked looked like it smelled a litte sour.
You might think he looks a bit…. familiar, and you’d be absolutely correct! When we started working on the episode, the main direction we were given for his design was…. unsurprisingly, Bowser JR. And it shows!
Buuuuut..!!! While one might think he was based COMPLETELY off of him… it was actually a subtle blend from a bunch of different sources!
Since he was a humanoid baby, and not a dragon-lizard baby, he was gonna need a nose, so I based his nose off of Olimar. Also, I’m a HUGE fan of the Breath of Fire series, so when i thought of making a strange stinky lump of a baby, Yohm (from Breath of Fire 4) immediately came to mind.
The MechaChair transformation was also really fun to make! I thought it’d be fun to make the chair an actual part of him! I wanted to highlight the fact that despite how bumbling Lord Boxman can be, he’s still a pretty capable scientist and robot engineer.
The design is partly inspired by a character named BABY HEAD COMMANDO, from an old arcade game called CAPTAIN COMMANDO!
His design has stuck with me ever since I played it, so when I thought of how Boxman Jr. would fight, I felt it would be cool for him to ride around in a weaponized high-chair version of Boxman’s desk. i mean, c’mon, what’s cooler than a baby controlling a mech??
As for his attacks, in addition to having baby-themed attacks, I wanted him to have elements of his other robo-siblings! giant fist a la darrell, razor blades a la shannon, and a giant soccer cleat a la raymond… let’s not forget he’s not just a romantic bot, he’s a romantic SPORTS-bot.
Siiinnnnnncccceee he’s a gross stink baby, it felt right for him to have an attack based off a tantrum… so I gave him a Tantrum Mode transformation! The beam that he launches is in the shape of an exclamation mark, since. yknow. it’s a tantrum!
That’s pretty much all I got for Boxman Jr! That’s not all of it, though! Stevie and Danny made a bunch of really cool weapons and attacks for him too!
Good night, sweet prince… at least, from me, you were loved and appreciated.
I love the commentary posts that Toby has been doing, so i wanted to follow suit and give some backstory to the episode! It goes without saying that there will be spoilers, so mute #OK KO SPOILERS if you wanna keep your eyes and ears unspoilt!
This was the first episode that Haewon and I got that addressed substantial main story points! It was a very intimidating episode to tackle, but it ended up being immensely fun and satisfying to work on! Since it’s about getting trapped in a video game, i decided to lean hard into my nerdy videogamey roots and paid a lot of homage to games that left a huge impact on me!
The Face Of Fear arcade machine:
The arcade machine was in Haewon’s part of the episode, but i couldn’t help making designs for it… and not only did she use it, she made it even better!! She designed the SUPER EXTRA HARD DIFFICULTY version that the machine turns into after Gar bites off more than he can chew!
Dendy’s explanation of how the game works:
I made a little video game overworld map segment to accompany dendy’s explanation of how the Face of Fear game works! This was a blend of three of my all time favorite games: I referenced MAGICAL DROP 3 for the general UI of the map because I love its aesthetics, I referenced the TURBO TUNNEL stage from the original BATTLETOADS N.E.S. game because that was one of the most terrifying and nightmarish stages i have ever played through as a child (a perfect fit for a game that is basically a nightmare given form imo), and i referenced EXOR from SUPER MARIO RPG, because that boss battle had such a huge impact on me when i first played it! Exor still looks really cool and badass to me, to this very day.
Enid’s Fear:
This is probably the most obvious reference, if you’ve ever played Chrono Trigger! It’s based on the climactic Magus fight, about a quarter of the way into the game! chrono trigger has been such a huge influence and helped me shape what my definitions of dramatic storytelling were, so i just HAD to give it a nod, even if its application wasn’t half as dramatic as the source material, hehe.
Rad’s Fear:
I can’t remember for the life of me if it was me or haewon that thought of having rad’s fear set in a room that was just a bunch of rad faces laughing and posturing (pretty sure it was haewon), but i DID draw this diagram of the room’s layout!
Some drawings from my storyboard sections in “Everybody Likes Rad?”! It’s an episode about being artistically misunderstood, storyboarded by me and Mira Ong Chua!
It was really fun doing a reversal episode, where we’re seeing a “villains come and ambush the heroes” story from the villains’ perspective. As far as KO, Enid, and Rad were concerned, it was just like any other episode where they had to kick some bad guys off their turf!
Lotsa new OK KO eps have been released recently, I gotta catch up! Here’s a bit of stuff from our Point Prep finale, Final Exams! This beautiful ep was boarded by @ryannshannonand@stevieborbolla - those trooper expressions are 100% stevie genius. Colors by @kalidraws and art direction by John Pham!
I drew so many pow cards for Dendy’s Power! Here’s a sampling of em. :) @scrotumnoseand@haewon-lee came up with so many fun customized pow cards for our characters! I also loved drawing the scary daemon shannons. Mutants and monsters are fun! Beautiful colors by @kalidraws and art direction by John Pham!
Here’s a chunk of my stuff from POINT to the Plaza! It was a huge collab and I loved working off @stevieborbollaand@ryannshannon ‘s beautiful boards! They put so much work into this ep. It was especially fun/a challenge to do the finished version of present day Foxtail, as well as getting a chance to redo my old Chip Damage design. @brandonwuart also did amazing concepts for the POINT ship, the troopers and the guns that I translated into finished designs! And @kalidraws killed it on the colors! & John Pham art directed!
Here’s some stuff from Be A Team! @scrotumnoseand@haewon-lee did a great job on Nick & Joff’s episode! Dave shared his influences & ideas with me for the final designs - he referenced Colin & Sonja from Advance Wars for KO and Rad’s outfit ideas, and Lucca from Chrono Trigger for Enid’s ammo suit! I hope he’ll make a more in depth post about his concepts and influences as well! I was also honored to get the opportunity to do a redesign of Joff and Nick based on Dave & Haewon’s boards, as well as their idea that each of their face shapes make up (roughly) half a yin and yang. :) Beautiful colors by @kalidraws and art direction by John Pham!
So many new OK KO eps! I’ll start w/sharing some stuff from our season premiere! Very fun to dress so many characters in their new lewks. :) Based on beautiful boards and ideas from @stevieborbolla&@ryannshannon , and @miraongchua did the awesome concept drawing for Red’s farm outfit! Art direction by John Pham and wonderful colors by @kalidraws!
I hope everyone enjoyed YOU’RE IN CONTROL! The whole crew put the hugest amount of love and sweat and tears into it and it was very moving to finally see it finished! It was a treat to do so many special poses based on @scrotumnose,@haewon-lee,@stevieborbollaand@dannyducker ‘s legendary boards - and s/o to the revisions team @jpolgar1,@maxcollins&@killapede for goin above and beyond with the action sequences. Dave came up with the idea for boxman jr’s crazy exclamation point gun head & I was honored I was able to do the final version! Boxman jr’s design was a true collab between all 4 board artists & I tried to do my best to marry all of their drawings into one design that could work for the whole finale. Art direction by John Pham and beautiful colors by @kalidraws - she had a crazy amount on her plate with all the palettes and highlights! congrats to everybody! <3
