January 4, 2006

Kappa Mikey Animator: John Conning

Filed under: Animator Post — Administrator @ 2:20 pm

We’re having a great time making Kappa Mikey in New York. There are people here from all over the country working on it. New Yorkers have this strange sense of humor so the show is pretty funny and weird. I use my laptop to animate Mikey in the studio and also during my long commute on the train. All of the animation is done on computers. I use a program called Flash for drawing the animation. It’s an easy program to learn. People sometimes have the idea that Flash has a certain look. But the animators on this show all have fine arts training and go to great lengths to do their work in traditional ways. We don’t use tweens or the tricks that have become a cliché with Flash. The animators on Mikey are divided into two camps, since the show is a parody on Japanese Animè and also features an American style main character. We use different methods to show the difference between the characters. The animè is done with a beautiful thin line and fine detail, while Mikey uses bold shapes and broad action. By using Flash, an animator can cover a lot of ground in a day. It’s a wonderful way to work because you can see your animation grow as you create it. You could never get this close to your work when you animated with pencil and paper. Besides Flash for animating, we also use Maya to build props and background settings. Then the work of finishing the episodes is done with programs like Final Cut and After Effects. It’s pretty amazing to think that if wanted to, you could actually make an entire TV show on your laptop using this software.

People liked to draw animation even before film was invented, and this has always fascinated me. As early as 1832 you could find these discs that you would spin in front of a mirror which actually show the action of a series of drawings. The Mikey viewer that you can download here is a Phenakistoscope similar to the optical toys people played with in the 19th century, although nobody ever had discs with Mikey on them. The instructions are on the sheets that you download. You view the animation by cutting out the disc and the thin slits. Then you stick it onto a pencil or a chopstick and spin the disc in front of a mirror, viewing the animation through the cut-out slits.

Click on the SWF below to view all three :

You can create your own, click on the links below and then print them!

Mikey Phenakistoscope 1
Mikey Phenakistoscope 2
Mikey Phenakistoscope 3

I made this Mikey clock to show what else you can do with Flash. Download it and keep it on your desktop. Kappa Mikey has been really a great project to work on, and we hope you have as much fun with it as we do.

Download for Windows
Download for MAC OS X

Kappa Mikey Animator: John Conning
- John Conning

23 Comments

  1. say hi to jisuk for me

    Comment by a — February 3, 2006 @ 11:10 pm

  2. All of this is really cool.

    Comment by Alec — February 20, 2006 @ 12:33 am

  3. I love Kappa Mikey. Its the best show I’ve seen in ages. I want to see more episodes and learn more about it. my favorite so far is the one where he moves into lilymu apartment

    Comment by Sarah Wertz — February 27, 2006 @ 9:18 am

  4. I love the show.
    It’s about time we get more anime in cartoons.
    Kappa Mikey is a great show, I can’t wait to see more episodes.
    ^__^
    Keep up the good work~!

    Comment by Dana Jonson — March 2, 2006 @ 1:33 pm

  5. Guano is all ultimate… DON’T INSULT HIM! :-)

    Comment by Jacob — March 6, 2006 @ 8:24 am

  6. i like the mikey clock its awsome and GOOD NIGHT TOKEYO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Comment by Zolo — March 15, 2006 @ 8:32 pm

  7. This is like the greatest show I have seen in a while. I like how its made with Flash very impressive. And i love your theme song too

    Comment by Michael Svecz — March 26, 2006 @ 10:12 am

  8. I love kappa mikey it’s so funny!!! My character is Guano he’s so cute!!
    The funniest is Mikey like in the last episode when he was going to paint Mitsuki red that was funny. I laughed for hours. Keep it going

    Comment by Devyn — March 31, 2006 @ 11:55 am

  9. This is the greatest show that i have ever seen.I want to learn all there is to kappa mikey.

    Comment by Becky — April 3, 2006 @ 11:38 pm

  10. This the best show ever!^^ I’m so obsessed lol. They need to air this show more! I’ve taped episode 1-6 and watch it everyday lol ^^ well anyways I love the Mikey clock!^^

    Comment by Merica — April 10, 2006 @ 9:19 am

  11. you They Should make games kappamikey

    Comment by vitor — July 11, 2006 @ 12:06 pm

  12. I love how they come up with all these cool ideas!! I never knew you could come up with a show on your computer! So far, Kappa Mikey is the greatest show I have ever seen! I hope you guys make a movie out of Kappa Mikey and play it in theaters! { I also like when they show the sushi in the show too}. lol

    Comment by Krzysztof — July 12, 2006 @ 7:44 pm

  13. Super color scheme, I like it! Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing this wonderful site with us.

    Comment by James — July 20, 2006 @ 9:08 am

  14. mikey es el mejor el mas bkn te queremos mikey

    Comment by ami — July 26, 2006 @ 5:17 pm

  15. what name of the music the kappa mikey

    Comment by fefa — August 8, 2006 @ 6:49 pm

  16. This is a awesome show, its actally been my first anime show since I use to hate anime, but this anime and cartoony look is prefect you did a great job :)

    Comment by Andrew — September 1, 2006 @ 11:40 pm

  17. its true the show rocks and the stuff on this page rocks also the theme songs cool!!! :) if you anyone tried to make the tv show or this site bad it would be like running from the sun to pluto and back in three seconds without a rocket or getting burnt or cold

    Comment by the vague destroyer (de ja vu!) — October 22, 2006 @ 8:52 am

  18. Wow I love this show. I wish I was this good at flash :(

    Comment by Phyro — November 9, 2006 @ 4:51 pm

  19. I love the Kappa Mikey, because of the relationship between Mikey and Mitsuki.

    It’s funny, my best friend on myspace is a woman who lives in Tokyo. Just like Mikey and Mitsuki, my myspace friend is older and taller than me.

    Comment by Danny — November 22, 2006 @ 7:14 pm

  20. dudes, the show rocks in its entireity. i mean, come on, the theme song, the episodes, the characters, the stoyrlines and plots, they are so cool!!!!! and for the one who asked for the theme song’s title, it’s “Hey (2x), Look (2x)”.

    Comment by Emperor Angelo XXV — December 2, 2006 @ 10:03 am

  21. man i love kappa mikey and the pic are cool to.

    Comment by josh — January 11, 2007 @ 8:12 pm

  22. I am the number one fan of this show and so obsessed:)!!!! I have never missed an episode and i love the newer ones my favourite character would have to be gonard and mikey, since they’re so hilorus. One really unny time on the “splashmon” episode was when mikey was telling his story and he had a nuclear submarine in his shirt and when he was on the phone with the “prime minister” the second time and didnt know the name of the fish so gonard corrected him… lol anyway this is the best show ever keep it up:)!

    Comment by Mike — January 15, 2007 @ 11:07 am

  23. kappa mikey is the coolest show ever! its cool with the different animations and stuff. i love how there heads get big. my favorite epesode is the christmas one. guano is really funny.

    Comment by caleb — January 21, 2007 @ 1:07 pm

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