Background animation and design for Yo Gabba Gabba remix segments.

For about one half of season one Yo Gabba Gabba episodes I handled animating and compositing the remix segment at the end of each show. The idea was to create new animated backgrounds or new combinations of previously used backgrounds to have something behind every single shot of the characters dancing. They were especially fun assignments since the turn-around was always next-day and the pressure was on to whip up interesting and appropriate shots, sometimes fifty or more at a time depending on the rapidness of the cuts between shots.

Yo Gabba Gabba blue screen and green screen set-ups for Muno and Foofa.

Two of the characters were always shot on blue screen and two were shot on green screen, almost always individually so we could composite them together or separate whenever needed. I only had one screw-up: for the “Car” episode, all four characters were shot together riding in their yellow all-terrain moon-buggy seen at the top of this post. The set had a split blue and green screen directly behind the characters with them positioned respectively in front of their appropriate screen. The problem was that because the shots were wide enough to include the whole group, there was less detail to color key out, more shadows, and more complicated areas where the character’s limbs, antennae, and bodies kept encroaching on the opposite color screen towards the center division. I was taking too long struggling with the shot and ended up having to drive the results in a rush down to the studio. On the way I popped a tire on the 110 freeway and had to have Kevin the animation producer meet me at a tire shop outside of Disneyland to hand over the discs.