“The Saga of Rex” promo by Michel Gagné

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Anything by Michel Gagné, even 30 seconds of new animation, is worth a post on Cartoon Brew. Here is a promo for his 2010 graphic novel The Saga Of Rex, his first time using Toon Boom, “done single-handedly in 3 weeks while learning the software”. Beautiful job!

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  • http://www.charactermentorstudio.com Tom Bancroft

    Michel Gagne’ is a master! I’m always inspired by his work ethic too! Go Michel, go- you crazy woodsman!

  • Jay Sabicer

    I’m going to get this book. Talk about an impulse buy. Michel, if you’re listening: think about adapting your story as an interactive app, with your characters in animation, it will rock the world.

  • Ryan C

    I dunno about you, but I saw a lot more of Michel Gagnés animation there than I did of the ToomBoom software. That’s a testament to the animator, not the software. The man can make paint on celluloid placed under a rostrum into a beautiful film, of course he can do the same today on a computer with an overpriced “all in one” (Hahaha) software package. Michel Gagné, enough said.

  • c

    A Touch of Deceit reference at the beginning!

  • Bud

    I hope the cartoon has some character animation in it. Cute little teaser.

  • http://www.danyboom.blogspot.com dany_boom

    bud – are you serious ? what is it with you people ?

    • CG Animator

      There’s always “that one guy”. Happens in almost every post.

    • Hank

      Although I’m a fan of Gagne’s videogames and some of his effect work, and although his animation moves “smoothly,” it all moves precisely the same and moves with the specificity of neither a fox or a fox with character or personality–it’s a cipher for plot and visuals.  That said, it’s only a teaser–and although character and personality in animation has been expressed in far shorter time, I’m willing to wait until the short is completed to make a final judgement.  

  • http://numynumynomnom.blogspot.com M.V

    Awesome. OK. now i want a Saga of Rex movie!

    If Michel is reading, was the animation done directly into Toon Boom paperlessly? or was it done in conjunction with another technique?

    • http://www.gagneint.com Michel Gagne

      The animation was done paperless, using a 21″ Cintiq tablet straight into Toon Boom. I will post a review of the software and my process in a few days.

  • http://jacquesdemiguel.com Jacques Demiguel

    Great artist and animator – but this time, a slow-moving teaser .

  • Matt Sullivan

    I had forgotten how beautiful non-flash 2d HAND DRAWN animation could be

  • Dan Kyder

    OH GOD YES

    I bought this book back when it came out, so its a little odd to see a promo for it now after having read it to such familiarity already.

    The book is a must- the suggestions of movement and flow in the drawings are so genius, it practically animates in your head as you read.

    Not sure what Gagne is currently working on (given the success of his brilliant xbox live game Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, probably more games…), but if he could somehow be given the oportunity to create the entire Saga of Rex story fully animated, it would be insanely awesome

    It gets thrown out a lot nowdays, so people are probably tied of hearing it… but. Kickstarter?

  • Daniel J. Drazen

    Watching Rex being picked up by the spaceship, I automatically thought of the tractor beams from Portal 2. Looks very neat.

  • akira

    so he could make a 25 minute movie of that same quality in a year, SINGLE HANDEDLY?

    if so, please make a movie starting NOW, Michel!

  • akira

    so he could make a 25 minute movie of that same quality in a year, SINGLE HANDEDLY?

    if so, please make a movie starting NOW, Michel! (you’ll make a ton of money!)

  • http://Www.johnbludwick.com John

    Gagne is such an inspiring animator. It’s always exciting to see what his next “thing” will be.

  • http://croovman.deviantart.com/gallery/ Stav Levi (croovman)

    Holy bejesus, I remember this from Flight! Did not expect this.

  • http://richbailey.blogspot.com Richard

    Nice little tease. Looking forward to seeing more.
    …and like has already been said, nice to see some hand-drawn animation. Toon Boom’s a great program to use to create paperless animation, not quite the same as rolling paper between your fingers, but pretty darn good.

  • http://jacquesdemiguel.com jacques demiguel

    I never wrote ” a slow moving teaser ” I wrote ” a boring teaser ” why did you change my opinion ?

  • The Gee

    It is a promo piece.

    It seems like some people believe that it is a teaser for a short film.

    It is an animated video promoting the the book.

    Surely, if he wanted to he could make do more with this but I hope people don’t think this is a teaser for more animation. It doesn’t seem to exist for that purpose.

    It does look great. And, after looking at the test animation for some possible FX for Brave, which is on his site under this promo short,

    I still say that Michel Gagne is a crazy so and so! Which makes anyone being hard on his character animation seem kind of harsh. Though, I’m sure no one is saying he isn’t really, really good at anything he does. It sorta seems like they just expect his own character animation to fit what they wish to see. I’m sure he would do a bang up job if he really wanted that fox to act though.

  • Andrew Kieswetter

    Excellent stuff! It would make a great animated feature.

  • http://www.gagneint.com Michel Gagne

    Here is my review of Toon Boom Harmony as well as a description of my process making the clip:
    http://www.gagneint.com/Final%20site/Animation/Saga_of_Rex/Toon_Boom_Review.html