It’s just wonderful to me how The 80s Detective truly came to be. I started doing an Animation on Pencil2D (Shoutout to Pencil2D). It took just 2 to 3 hours to complete. I called it “The 80s Detective” because the man that I animated had a sense of style and attitude to him that reminded me of the 80s decade. I chose that decade in particular because I adore the 80s style and aesthetic. I wanted this little tiny animation to exude all of those qualities in such a short amount of time. What happen next, was something that took me a little off guard.
Let me set the timeline for you, it was July, 2019. It has been a year since I started Color Me Geeky and I felt like I was on the right track when it came to animating. My skills were getting better, smoother and I felt great. However, The series was on a down turn. At the end of 2018, it took longer for me to get Animations out and in my opinion, it messed up the YouTube algorithm for me. People weren’t showing up for the new episodes and my channel wasn’t getting much traction. So, I felt like doing something new, a series of Animations that let me Animate in a sketchy, draft like form. The rest was history. I released this quick Animation called, “The 80s Detective”.
Originally, The 80s Detective was created because I wanted to test out my fluidity. At the time, the Animations I created were very stiff and characters stood in freeze frame for seconds. I didn’t like it. The characters and settings didn’t move as much as I’ve liked them to. It was mostly because of hardware limitations, but I didn’t want to make excuses. Especially from something that was so much fun to do and my passion project. So, I compromised and worked around it.
The animation had The 80s Detective throwing his hat into a running smiling goon. I animated the goon to dodge the hat in a parkor like a way. It was a simple idea. The challenge was to animate in 1s and show the action in a clear way. Also, to fluidly animate the two characters as fluidly as possible. The 80s Detective has to grab the hat, toss it, then the audience see’s the goon running towards it and dodges the hat. Every action has to transition to another smoothly and fluidly. The way I explained it was a lot better than what I actually did back then but it turned out alright. If I did that same animation now, I would have done some different things but I am proud of the result.
When I released the animation, from what I remembered, it didn’t do to well at first. However, in just 3 days to a week, it had almost 100 views. To put it in perspective, the only animation I’ve released that has gotten great views was just Color Me Geeky’s first trailer. That is another story for another day. However, to have an animation that took me just about 1 to 2 hours to make do so well in such a short amount time, it took me by surprise. In a good way of course. In a Month, it had over 100 views. The response on top of that was great. This was the cherry on top.
Some people really enjoyed it. It was my second fully original animation doing so well. One person said they liked the 80s Detective himself and stated that they can feel his charisma just by the movements alone. That’s when I knew, I did my job. As an Animator, I conveyed what I needed to and the viewers understood that. I am a full believer of signs and I took the views and the feedback as a sign to make this something more. Not just an 11 second long animation, I wanted to make this a series, a long running one, canon to the Color Me Geeky series. So I went to work.
It took me just a few months to understand what I wanted the series to be and how it can link with the Color Me Geeky series. That is also another story for another day, an even bigger story I definitely can’t get into right now. Though, I can say this, when I released the two short special animations on October 2019, the reception was incredible. People liked it, three times in a row. I took it as another sign to continue the series on a future date, permanently.
To conclude, It is just wonderful how the series has blessed my channel and myself. As an Animator, this series pushes me to be better much like Color Me Geeky does. To see all of your support and enthusiasm throughout the way has been beautiful. Thank you all for that because if it wasn’t for all of you who’ve watched and enjoyed it, The 80s Detective would’ve stayed as an 11 second short animation. You all were that push to make this little idea into something much more. For that, I give a cyber round of applause to you all. Trust me when I say, you have only seen a small piece of the series. In my opinion, while planning the story, there are a ton of plot twist, interesting characters and a ton of reveals. I can’t wait to scratch the surface with you all in this 80s Detective journey. Can’t wait for you all to see. There is a lot more I want to say but I’ll save it for other blogs in the future. 😉 Stay Animated Everyone.
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