Monday, February 01, 2010

"The Expando Machine" is done (in HD!)


After a long development process I'm finally done with my epic animated trilogy The Expando Machine (which is only about five minutes long in total). This weekend I made HD versions; I strongly recommend them (the 720p HD links) over the smaller movie files. Anyway more "cartoon Jordan" (as discussed).

http://www.jordanorlando.com/expando

14 comments:

HandsomeStan said...

This trilogy totally gets the LOTR High-Five of How To Be Great Over Three Installments. Brilliant stuff, dude! HUGE fan of the MGM "Cartoon" logo. I must have stared at that damn thing so many times with Tom & Jerry, it's like a mental tattoo...VERY nice callback.

There was nice resonance with Ralphie running towards he camera in each short, and the cat is just flat-out hysterical.

I really dig the "no eyeballs" approach to expressive facials, it totally conjures up Larson's "straight-line-as-eyes to connote pensive seriousness."

I am going to conference call you at some point with JSP to discuss ruling the world. Standby for that to happen...

Jordan said...

Dude, thanks. This is like my "Steamboat Willie" but sometimes it's been like my "mashed potato model of Devil's Tower."

Jordan said...

Anyway point being that I spent years (on and off) doing this and I was constantly afraid that after all the time investment it wouldn't work out right. But this is totally my new thing.

You can forgive the overblown comparison to "Steamboat Willie" in that "Willie" was Disney making a cartoon specifically to highlight a technology he was focused on (syncro music track) while "Expando Machine" is my attempting to demonstrate my "Pipeline" system for vector-based scaling animation artwork.

Jordan said...

Plus, I'm obessed with trilogy structure, so this is my creepy-obsessed-fan trilogy in that regard.

I consciously copied Star Wars by giving Part II a very warm blue and orange cast and then making part III very green and gold.

I also deliberately mimicked "The Godfather": "Lime House Cartoons Presents" on 1 and 3, but "A Lime House Cartoon" on 2 (just like Godfather II starts with "A Paramount Picture").

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Jordan said...

What the hell was that?

Catfreeek said...

Well Anonymous seems to want us to visit an invest blog so we can all be bazillionaires. Isn't that great!

Jordan I absolutely loved your trilogy. Of course I am biased to anything involving a cat, but still it's very funny and I love the no eyeball characters. Stan's right, you achieved expression without eyes or eyebrows.

JPX said...

Great job, Jordan! My favorite shot is when you peak out into the hallway as Ralphie runs away with the machine. I like how you muffled your voice to indicate that you were far away. I like the "clean" look to your art and I look forward to whatever you create in the future. Who did the Ralphie voice?

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Jordan said...

Wow, thanks, guys! I've been working on this thing forever and it's amazing to finally be done. It's based on a silent, black-and-white version I did about 20 years ago (which was in turn based on some strip cartoons), which people liked at the time, but that was, you know, 20 years ago. While re-doing the visuals and the animation I kept worrying that the idea wasn't good enough or funny enough. You guys are the first to see the new completed version.

The no-eyes thing goes way back, as does the Ralphie character, for which I "refuse to provide an explanation" (either in the fictional world or the real one). (I'm the voice of Ralphie, by the way, with the pitch altered. I considered trying to get somebody else and then figured, Mike Judge, Jon Kricfalusi, etc. you've got to do it all yourself.)

JPX said...

Holy crap, I didn't realize all 3 parts were there - I just finished them all. I like Ralphie walking through Central Park - is that a shot from Google Earth? Was that a "live" shot in the background of the Statue of Liberty? I also like your voice a lot, expecially how you remain completely calm no matter what's happening (also, you could totally voice Garfield if you needed extra work). Nice work all around, I hope you do more with it (at the very least you should create a comic strip).

Catfreeek said...

I'm all for more cartoon Jordan and I think a comic strip is a fantastic idea as well. I look forward to seeing more :)

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Excellent work Jordan! I watched it while rushing my way out the door to work but I intend on giving it my undivided attention later. What I did catch was hilarious. I love how cartoon Jordan is so readily willing to hand Ralphie over to the authorities.

Jordan said...

Aw, you guys are enjoying it! That's so great.

By the way, Stan, on the subject of MGM cartoons, the wildly spinning dials on that ancillary device in Expando Machine Part III is a direct rip from Tex Avery (airplane cockpit in a Droopy cartoon: a million dials and they're all just spinning clockwise at the same rate).

Octopunk said...

Well, that was just great. Here's a few details that struck me this time:

I love the way Ralphie's arms are moving while the FBI is doing their initial spiel, the agent's "inter-office envelope" with the little string-on-discs closer, and of course Jordan's "go ahead."

Actually, Cartoon Jordan's demeanor throughout all of this is pretty amusing. "So what? Who cares if he's big?"

The flight path of the biplanes is excellent.

I like the way Jordan's and Ralphie's heads just kind of move around all the time, even when they're not talking. That's almost like a "squiggle vision" touch.

And I loved the sign for "Mr. Scotch."

Bravo!

Malevolent

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