A compilation of various character expressions drawn for my upcoming animation major at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. It was tough to make Santiago do anything short of scowling vehemently, but I tired.


--Sak
All characters © Myself, Shamine A. King
For LASALLE, College of the Arts, Singapore

A compilation of dynamic poses for Louis, James, and Santiago respectively, as part of my course requirements for my upcoming animation major. These are (presumably) the absolutely-final-I-am-so-tired-of-reworking-their-color-schemes versions of all three characters as they will appear in the animation next semester. Most of these poses were directly taken from the revised storyboard.

The animation will be around three minutes long in length, drawn frame-by-frame on TVPaint. This semester is entirely devoted to pre-production; production on the actual short will begin in January.


--Sak
Louis Despatis & Co. © Myself, Shamine A. King
For LASALLE, College of the Arts, Singapore

When Louis starts speaking with a tilde~ you know he's doing the "Gay Thing"; he does it to annoy me, like when I'm stuck trying to decide which color combination would compliment his personality the best.

... I like to have mental dialogues with my characters to pretend I have a social life.



--Sak
Captain Louis Despatis © Myself, Shamine A. King

The revised, edited, and cleaned-up version of the first draft of the storyboard for my upcoming animation major. This is by no means the finalized storyboard, but it is acceptable for submission for now.

The dialogue in the comment boxes are temporary and will likely be altered to flow better (also if someone can find me a better translation for the French equivalent of "he hell?!" than "de quoi" I would be most grateful, or if you could translate "Oh, hell, I am far too nice for my own good" for me as well that would be fantastic).

The establishing scenes at the beginning where Santiago enters, where we meet Louis, and where James is introduced will all be extended to make their personality and respective philosophies (religion/liberal thinking/government) clearer. The Spanish guard will no longer be begging to be let back in, but cursing at Louis in the name of God for his treachery (ironic, if you consider that Louis is a Catholic, the same as the Spanish). Hopefully Santiago's dialogue will be less stiff and consist of less growling, more actual words.

For those who noticed the changes, the painting sequence now has James correcting the slant on the portrait to drive home his incessant need for law and order in everything he does. The ending may also alter yet again, possibly so that none of them benefit at all from this little venture; the message is not that religion is a negative thing and thus should be overthrown, the message is about overcoming your initial misconceptions about a person in order to work together to achieve a greater goal. But as the representative for tradition and religion, Santiago's mindset is the most difficult to change, and Louis and James get the drop on him. There should also be a change in James and Santiago's perception of Louis from the beginning to the end, which is not yet clear. I'll have to work on that.

TL;DR: This is not yet finalized. Don't get too attached.


--Sak
All characters and art © Myself, Shamine A. King
For LASALLE, College of the Arts, Singapore

Some test storyboards from my sketchbook that wouldn't quite fit into Louis's character compilation. These were drawn to explore possible story options with a gay pirate as the protagonist: on the left he beats a merman at his own game because, frankly, kissing someone who smells like seaweed is just gross; and on the right he sends a rather loud message to Commodore Homophobe.


--Sak
All characters © Myself, Shamine A. King

... Also known as Commodore James Hunter, because he quite literally hunts down Captain Louis. You can't exactly blame the man; Louis does everything he can to excite the Commodore's temper and enjoys getting chased around. It's the attention, you see.


--Sak
All characters © Myself, Shamine A. King

Just when I thought Louis couldn't get any more glamulous ... I can't tell if this is a Talk Like A Pirate Day or a Gay Rights picture! _{In my defense I didn't think of that terrible innuendo myself!}

'Tis already the 19th where I am, so up this goes tonight. ARRRRR!!!


--Sak
Captain Louis Despatis © Myself, Shamine A. King

Some people have been asking about Louis's (ex)boyfriends and whether or not you'll get to see them. I'm holding back a lot of plot points and characters so that, should I get the opportunity to turn his story into a graphic novel, I've got at least some surprises for you all. But sometimes I get the urge to draw super-detailed semi-realistic Louis and so, for the time being, meet Sebastian: Louis's Spanish ex boyfriend, shaggy pirate, and loose cannon extraordinaire.

Contrary to popular belief, the relationship doesn't fall apart on account of "clingyness" from Louis's behalf, but because of lack of respect from Sebastian, who constantly attempts to exert his authority over Louis. Originally Louis's hair was supposed to be even more tousled and his clothes in disarray - besides his makeup being smudged - in the picture to indicate more of a struggle between the two of them. Sebastian is also not as tall as he looks, Louis is crouching.


--Sak
Louis Despatis & Co. © Myself, Shamine A. King

A compilation of several short storyboards I cooked up over the course of the week, exploring some of the possible mischief Louis might get up to in order to prove he's the better between himself and the Commodore. I have yet to discuss any of these with my professors; none may ever make it to appear in the final animation.

Louis and James's not-so-friendly rivalry takes place in and around 1701, during Queen Anne's War that pitted the French/Spanish against the English/Dutch. As such other characters like the "Spaniard" cropped up, but I didn't explore him in detail on account of not wanting to animate too many characters. By the time we get to the last storyboard we can see that I'm having trouble with this "keeping it simple" thing.


--Sak
All characters © Myself, Shamine A. King

Most of the drawings from my sketchbooks detailing Louis Despatis's character progression, also known as Captain Fabulous.

While his design is still likely to change (given how it's only week two of the first semester, and we aren't even supposed to be developing characters yet ...) I just have SO MANY pictures of this man I thought I should begin to upload them before I get completely swamped. While his design doesn't alter too dramatically from the original, long-legged-skinny-man concept, I thought it might still be interesting to show how he came to be.

About the concept: The starting point for my animation this year was actually set into motion by one of my professors, who joked that if I liked pirates so much I might want to explore the possibility of them being gay. This made me think about the lack of homosexual protagonists in Western animations, which then made me want to break that mold.

The story has since shifted to focus less on Louis's gender preferences, hinting at it in his behavior and dress choice as opposed to revolving the entire animation around it. This gives me more options for the actual story without sacrificing the original character.


--Sak
Louis Despatis and Co. © Myself, Shamine A. King