Rimba Racer - The Making of… Transcript/Translation

Rimba Racer - The Making of… Transcript/Translation by anon

(brackets) = added words
[square brackets] = translation

1. The Making of: Animation

Animation is a process where it’s simply saying that we put life into our characters. So for the animation pipeline, we start with the layout. Layout is basically knocking down the position of characters and camera angles based on animatics.

After that one’s approved by the director only then we move to the next phase, the blocking pass. The blocking pass is where we animate the characters roughly, so we get the right timing, right poses without the facial expressions. After that one’s approved, we move on to refined animation.

Refined animation is where we apply those principles of animation, the follow through the arc, all that. This animation is what you will see in the final product. The animators will simply make the characters act like human beings, show the audience that they have thoughts, they have conscience, they have expressions, they feel happy, they feel sad, they feel fear, they feel anger. So that is the task for animators, so the audience will understand and feel just like how the characters (are) feeling like.

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2. The Making of: Audio

Hi, my name is Shaheir. I’m the guy who’s in charge of doing the sound effects, music, and the mixing.

The overall theme for Rimba Racer is rock mostly. I mean, for the first three racing parts was rock, but then as the story progressed to (a) much more darker route, I have to experiment with the style of music like electronic, metal, or orchestra. And what I find unique about Rimba Racer is that each track has its own different style of music. So I have to come up with fresh idea(s) like, the first episode is a different one, second episode’s a different one, and that goes on until the whole season.

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3. The Making of: Animatics

Once the storyboards and views are finalised, they’re compiled and edited into what we call animatics. This is so the animators and director may get a sense of the timing according to the dialogue and sometimes the action and the flow of the whole episode.

Once it is locked down, it can be considered as a rough layout of the whole episode. This is where also a lot of adjustments are being done. Sometimes we have to do a quick overhaul of the whole scene or the layout, maybe because it doesn’t quite fit with the whole episode. And sometimes we also check the layout and continuity, and also the transitions from scene to scene. Because sometimes we have different storyboard artists working on different scenes, so once you put them together, we see whether it works or not. And sometimes we also check the props, maybe sometimes the props are nonexistent, so we may have to refer to previous episodes or to the asset builders for it.

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4. The Making of: Concept Art

Nasrul: Hi, I’m Nasrul Hakim. I’m the lead concept artist for Rimba Racer.

Melissa: Hi, I’m Melissa Ismail Celestial, I also work on the character designs.

N: What we do as concept artists is basically designing characters, environment, environment art such as race tracks or general areas, and cars and also props.

M: The design of the Rimba characters, well, we tried to make them as simplified as possible. We also want to give them a sense of individuality, as in at first glance, when you see their silhouette and you see the detailings on them, we can get a sense of what kind of character they are.

M: Tag, who is based off a Malayan Tiger… Usually you see tigers as orange and black, so we don’t stray too far that. However, the little details on him, as in his stripes, they’re shaped like lightning bolts or lightning strikes because of his passion for racing.

M: And when we look at Sunny, everything about him seems gentle  from the way his design, his posture, his face…We know immediately that this is the guy we’d like to hang out with.

N: Other than characters, [one example is] environment. Usually what we have- what we do in Rimba, [we] separate into two. First is racetrack and [another one] is general area. General area is basically [like] stadiums, [places for normal characters to be, kinda]. And for the racetracks, [it depends on the theme of the episode.

N: For example, episode 2 is about trust, so we’ll make- we’ll] design the track based on the obstacles [that will] change the character. So that [the issue of trust will arise.] So basically [they want to solve their] trust issues, and then how they overcome the challenges. [For every] racetrack, for every single episode [there’s a] different theme, [there’s] different challenges, [there’s] different obstacles. For me, [to] develop the ideas, create the designs, create the world [all that], that would be the most fun. I think- I bet [all] concept artists [think the same way too], developing the ideas is the best.

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5. The Making of: Rendering Effects

Ikhwan: [My name is Mohd Ikhwan Marzuki, I work at Glue Studios as a 3D modeller and effect artist.]

Chris: Hi, I’m Chris. I handle the render process of Rimba Racer.

I: Okay basically [after the animators] finish their shots, [they’ll pass the file to me]. And then [I’ll] determine whether [which effects should be applied as required by the] storyboard. [At Rimba Racer, we use techniques that are usually used in games. More to style, [kinda]. [After we] simulate everything—[all the shots just now]—[we’ll start on] phase rendering.

C: Rendering is the process that comes after the animation is finished. And so what we really do is setting up the scenes and preparing layers of visual elements such as shadow, depth-of-field, angle location, diffused and how far. During the process of setting up, I think lighting is the most essential element because it will set the mood for the scene. In most of our shot(s) we use only one light source because we want to create the- we want to achieve the tone line effect.

The end result of the rendering is a bunch of image sequence(s) that will then be passed over to the post-production team. So all in all, our job will not be done until the final outcome is approved by the director.

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6. The Making of: Script

CR: Hi, I’m Chi-Ren Choong. I’m the writer of Rimba Racer and I also play the character of Sunny.

The process of writing the show, when I first came on board, there was already season one pretty much mapped out. So you have a barebone structure of where the show starts and where it ends up and the conclusion that we’re shooting towards the end of season one, but at the same time within that structure there’s still a lot of room to play and explore and experiment.

What I like writing about this particular show is it’s a combination of what I really love and just writing in general. There’s elements of comedy, there’s elements of action, and despite the fact that it’s a kids animated show, there’s elements of drama as well. There’s real character stuff going on there, which is a lot of fun to write.

But in the heart of it, it’s a story. Despite the fact that these are animated animal characters, they’re very human. A lot of the story’s about their relationships, about their friendships. The relationship between Miles and Tag is very much a father-son relationship, which you really play with it. You really get to explore what happens when people disappoint each other, or betray each other. Things that really happen in life, we’re doing within the context of crazy animals driving crazy cars, which is great.

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7. The Making of: Storyboard

I’m Melissa Ismail Celestial, I’m the lead storyboard artist of Glue Studios and also have a bit of a hand in character design.

Storyboard, in which it is a sequence of rough layouts of events, are actually blueprints or layout, which carries though for every layer of the pipeline. From pre-production, in which we may need new props, or environment required for the scene, and also to the production stage where the animation takes place and finally to compiling where it may be taken to it’s final and polished look.

Once we receive the final draft of the script, the storyboard team will hold a quick briefing and to highlight what should we pay special attention to in that scene. We work very closely with the director, the concept artists, and the asset builders around this time so we don’t stray too far from the boundaries of what we can or cannot do.

Once that is done, we also try to see it from the audience point-of-view. Can we actually follow this scene? Do we know what the characters are thinking? And in the process to help that, to aid that, to minimise the confusion, the storyboard usually includes a very detailed description and a rough layout for the animators, the layout artists to follow through. Because we don’t get that in the script, so once we look away, visually, how do we want the world to feel like.

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8. The Making of: Voice Actor

Steven: Hi, my name is Steven. I’m a full-time voice actor by trade. I play these two guys <points to Tag and Axle> in the show called Rimba Racer.

Chi-Ren: Hi, I’m Chi-Ren Choong. So, I play the character of Sunny.

Iain: My name’s Iain McNally and I’m playing Miles.

Assila: Hi! My name is Shila and I’m playing Meika on Rimba Racer.

Sherilyn: My name is Sherilyn Pang and I’m playing Tamira in Rimba Racer.

Kevin: Hi, I’m Kevin Barnaby, I’m the voice actor for two characters in Rimba Racer, Rex and King.

Tikriti: My name is Tiki, Tiki Shabudin, and I play the part of Meelo and Becks the announcer goat.

Azman: Hey guys, Azman here. I voice the characters of Krom, Cuckoo, and, the one who’s not in the picture is, Beaks.

Su Ling: Hi, my name is Su Ling, and I play Ms. Dira on Rimba Racer.

Nadia: Hello, my name’s Nadia and I’m playing Torres.

Kevin: How I got into Rimba Racer, well…

Iain: Heard about the audition on the Facebook post that they put up, that Glue Studios put up for the open auditions.

Assail: I decided to try, I mean why not.

Su Ling: A friend of mine also contacted me and said that I should go ahead and try for it, so I was like “okay”!

Tikriti: I got a call out of nowhere and they asked me to come in for an audition, and I did.

Chi-Ten: The interesting thing is that they were talking about casting me for this role even before I started working on the project. So somehow, they saw me as that character. And you can see why, we’re both incredibly attractive.

Steven: When I came in, when it was my turn to audition, they pretty much found most of all the other characters and word on the street was that they were just mainly looking for Tag. And I was like “okay, forget it, y’know, I’m just wasting my time here”. But who knew, I went in, I tried everyone else, and they say why don’t you give Tag a shot, and here we are today, and I’m voicing for Tag! When it came down to voicing for Tag and Axle, I do feel like I have that very extreme set of personalities where one is like the happy-go-lucky, unafraid, ambitious, “doesn’t really know what’s going on, doesn’t really know how to handle social situations, but they’ll just go for it” kinda guy, and that worked out for Tag. And the other side of me, y’know the deep, dark Batman figure I’ve always had in myself turned out to be Axle, because Axle was always the guy just show(ing) up and he’d be like “get out of my way”.

Chi-Ren: I really Sunny as a character. I’ve done some voice-acting in the past, and the characters I play tend to be evil, psychopathic bad guys. And Sunny, he’s a really sweet guy, he loves racing but he’s a loyal friend, and he’s just a decent human being, and it’s fun to play.

Tikriti: Meelo is actually a super genius. He’s a chameleon that essentially is capable of adaptable to his surroundings. He seems meek and timid, or more of like a nerd, not timid, a nerd. And in several episodes, you think he’s gonna get beaten up but he actually can hold his own.

Kevin: The characters that I play, especially Rex and King, I think a lot of the voiceovers that I’ve done, they kind of suited the role. And I like the fact that Rex was this big humongous imposing character that was a bit more of a bully type, and King was kind of like a businessman behind the scenes, and obviously businessmen when they talk and all that, they’re more of a sales-pitching kind of type. So I kinda thought that King was a pretty good role to play, and Rex of course with his imposing bullying attitude.

Azman: Krom is this huge bully and he’s such a rule-breaker and everything is…he’s just wanna pick on everyone.

Steven: It’s been a very interesting experience because…

Tikriti: I got to meet really great people, script is great.

Steven: The visuals completely blew my mind. The story, as I was going through the scripts for Day 1, was on a totally different level.

Su Ling: The way the animation looked.

Azman: Fast cars, all crashes and explosions, cool characters.

Nadia: So if you like racing and speed and adventure and excitement, I think Rimba Racer is the series for you.