Laocooney Toons is a tale of two statues…and how much they hate each other. Museum attendance has been low prompting the removal of old exhibits with newer installations. We follow the shenanigans of two beloved statues as they come to terms with their imminent removal.
Damocles is a professional narcissist daylighting as a museum statue. Usually he’s too busy admiring himself to interact with the world around him which leads to accidents to his person resulting in damage. His breakable nature keeps him from embracing his rambunctious neighbor Jeffrey and sparks a grudge towards the other artwork.
Damocles is inspired by both Greek and Italian sculpture with a modern twist on his silhouette. The further we got into designing him, the larger his hair grew. When it came to animating, the team pulled references from various sources from bullfighters to pop stars to capture the right amount of snooty.
Jeffrey is all energy and no brains. He is a puppy and behaves like one too. Jeffrey’s favorite activities include getting Damocles’s attention, annoying Damocles, and playing fetch. He does not like the color pink, and he thinks he’s dark blue. No one tell him otherwise.
Jeffrey’s design is based off of Jeffrey Koons’s sculptures of various balloon animals. We strayed from the classic balloon dog silhouette and drew inspiration from German Shepherds. These influences are visible in his point ears, and slanted stance. When it came to animating him, reference for his movement was taken of a 9 week old German Shepherd puppy named Rex. Rex is not very bright and therefore completely embodied the character of Jeffrey.
Orion is the Octagon Museum’s janitor and caretaker. He is very old and very tired. With the museum coming to life around him he either doesn’t notice the sculptured moving or doesn’t care that they do. It would take the FBI’s finest interrogators to make him crack.
Textured in Substance painter and rendered with Arnold for Maya for the film Laocooney Toons.
Textured in Substance and rendered using Arnold for Maya, Damocles is a marble statue. His textures include normal maps to show wear and some cracks specifically around the damaged parts of his model.
Jeffrey is a steel sculpture. He’s a blend of Substance painter and Arnold and also has the option for higher reflectivity for promotional materials.
Jeffrey Character Sheet
Jeffrey is a character designed for the short film I’m directing entitled Laocooney Toons. I took the lead in his design and completed the model and rig myself.
Rig Guide
Rig Test Render
Artwork can be seen featured in the picture frames along the walls of the Octagon Gallery. Work was done in various mediums of various subjects. Multiple pieces are parodies of other famous artwork, each with their own little twist.
