Category Archives: history of character design

Help mimushi achieve great things for those in need in this terrible crisis in Japan

Help mimushi achieve great things for those in need in this terrible crisis in Japan! Visit www.mimushi.com, browse and find your favorite mimushi, when prompted punch in code HELPJAPAN and 25% of your purchase will go to the Red Cross relief initiative for those in Japan.

"It wasn't me", so says, Tsunamushi

(if  you are not in the U.S., please contact us through our webpage contact form if you wish to purchase a mimushi, and we will manually help you out)

Translation into Japanese offered by Google Translate:

mimushi日本では、この恐ろしい危機で困っている人々のためにすばらしいことを達成するためのヘルプ! 、www.mimushi.com閲覧およびコードHELPJAPANのパンチをプロンプトが表示されたら、購入の25%が日本では人のための赤十字救援イニシアチブに行くお好みのmimushiを見つけるご覧ください。

(あなたはアメリカでされていない場合は、mimushiを購入する場合はウェブページ問い合わせフォームからお問い合わせください、私たちは手動を助けてくれるだろう

mimushi rendering in 3D

a very generous 3D artist -not affiliated to me or mimushi in any way- did a 3D rendering of mimushi, which came out spectacular • it was a real surprise to me, since she wasn’t commisioned by me; she just did it out of inspiration i guess, and i can only say i feel flattered • please check some of her other renderings at her blog

dancing mimushis by 3D artist TrangSanu

dancing mimushis by 3D artist TrangSanu

mimushi silent match

mimushi silent match

ficticious samurai swords on mimushi

ficticious samurai swords on mimushi

VinylAbuse gives mimushi a great review!

Read up on what VinylAbuse has to say about mimushi’s wooden figurines!

http://www.vinylabuse.com/

VinylAbuse likes the way we think!

VinylAbuse likes the way we think!

wax prototype 2

as you can notice, some changes were implemented and some were not · the mouth, although interesting and somewhat appealing is supposed to boast a wide grin, rather than a loud yelp ·

hey! i'm here!

honey! i'm home!

the nipples are also an issue than needs to be reduced, but sometimes communicating to the other side is difficult, for the most part changes were made, but some were lost in translation · we’ve informed our sculptor on the changes, so let’s wait and see what the near future shall bring ·

hey, birds! shu!

hey, birds! shu!

buddah-like mimulk

buddah-like mimulk

left side mimulk

left side mimulk

back side mimulk

back side mimulk

right side mimulk

right side mimulk

the prototype: wax before vinyl

the first wax prototype was finally made, completed around this week · you can admire its many details: arms, kick-ass 6-pack abs, full-grown chest, ripped diaper, and wide-open mouth · unfortunately we had to sacrifice all of these, as it had several issues that we needed to fix, because the mold would’ve been ruined for the rest of the characters · it would’ve been sweet, though, to be able to keep them! but there might be an enhanced version coming up later in 2009; you’ll just have to wait and feel ·

early stages

this is an imposing pose of the wax sculpture of this future vinyl: early stages

so we requested the changes, and let’s all wait and see what will come out of that · hopefully by next week we’ll know!

by the way we’re now collaborating again with pacman23 with some kick-ass designs! we don’t have a release date yet, but you can subscribe to mimushishop.com’s newsletter so that you can be informed with enough anticipation and the day that it will be officially released ·

early stages

this is a side view of the wax sculpture of this future vinyl: early stages

early stages

this is a front view of the wax sculpture of this future vinyl: early stages

early stages

this is a back view of the wax sculpture of this future vinyl: early stages

in search of answers

i joyously ventured on turning 2D into 3D · for that purpose we designed a little 2D amigo to test our might · after a strenuous search, multiple sketches, legalese, travels, inspiration, uncountable revisions & changes, and tremendous effort, we set out to search for a manufacturer overseas, and after much research, found several that could do the task ·

mimulk_attempt1_2D

mimulk_attempt1_2D

we submitted one of the older designs to one of the manufacturers · let’s wait and see as we exchange notes, e-mails, phone calls, etc. on what the future will bring ·

from character design to vinyl toy: preface

vinyl toy collection back in 2007 - it has expanded!

vinyl toy collection back in 2007 - it has expanded!

so, continuing with our effort, focus and love for this creation, on march of 2007, i was telling all this blabber jabber to my friend, long-time illustrator, painter and all-around artiste, jaime orozco, and in showing him some illustration books, namely pictoplasma, full vinyl and toys from mtv, among others, that i really enjoyed, he noticed all the collection of vinyl toys that i had here in the splace (space + place) ·

i told him that the ultimate goal in the creation of these characters was to make them into vinyl toys · fortunately, he agreed and that lead to a lot of things involving sculpey, sculpting, further designs, research -lots of research-, dealings with China, customs agents, customs brokers, etc. · so, i will attempt to retell the long and winding path to the final evolution from character design to vinyl figurine · check out our next post for details

animation storyboard

idea: provide a moral lesson -> boy (atti-dude) and side-kick (mimushi) are running and mimushi stops, whileatti keeps on running; then atti stops and looks back and asks mimushi why he isn’t running, and mimushi says, “because i just realized, were running to get nowhere; by going fast we are wasting time, instead of saving time ” ·

atti: “what do you mean?”  mimushi: “what i mean is, we are not savoring our present, our now, our only true existence; we are running to get old, instead of walking to stay young” · atti looks perplexed, and mimushi, sits down, picks up a flower, smells it, and savors it · end: “life little lesson # 1: you only live once & you only live now” ·

life little lesson # 2: the more you have, the less you’ll be
atti is collecting all sorts of things; pencils, pens, papers, stamps, mugs, etc; we see him in various places just buying and buying; he then goes home, where mimushi is waiting for him, and when he opens the door to his room, he’s just full of stuff · mimushi looks at everything amazed and asks, “why do you collect all these things?” atti (shrugging shoulders), “because i want to and because i can” · mimushi (still curious): “is there any other reason” · atti: “no, not really; it just has no meaning at all, i just do it and it fulfills me temporarily” mimushi: “and what do you do afterwards?” atti: “i just go and buy more” · mimushi looks perplexed · end ·

after this, not much else materialized · i setup the images in flash to try and accomplish a sketchy animation that would tell us what images we needed to get lip-synch, real life motion, etc. but all of us kind of got too busy · fortunately a few months down the road we were able to recollect our energies and organize our strategies to come up with a simple storyboard for sumimushi (his most important personality) · you can that animation here · and the rest of the animations for his multiple personalities, you will be able to see on its page ·

mimushi joins in

inspired by my 6-month-old daughter (at the time), on june of 2006, i came up with the idea of creating this sumo-wrestling baby that instead of having the sumo-wrestler garment would have some sort of diaper and

portrait of atti-dude and mimushi, done by local miami illustrator, juan patiño

portrait of atti-dude and mimushi, done by local miami illustrator, juan patiño

two japanese sticks that he would use as weapons –only if necessary– to defend himself from evil spirits ·

hence was born the legend of mimushi:
mimushi: (3 years old) – more innocent – he represents the innocence of life; our inner child – he is budda-like and thus his essence is pretty pure · in his young age he has learned a lot from his adoptive american parents, who are really as ignorant and innocent as he is and that is why they dress him like a little sumo wrestler, because that is the only thing they know about oriental culture · for mimushi everything is simple · there are no problems in life ·

we proceeded to write the script for the cartoon animation of atti-dude & mimushi, which was to focus on life’s little lessons · that comes in on our next post ·

brief history: atti-dude & mimushi

to understand mimushi, you would first have to understand the history of its creation as a fictitious character · and to do that we have to retrace to the steps of when atti-dude was created ·

the idea for atti-dude was born at some point in march of 2005, out of a realization that certain things are better drawn than done · and so I began to look for the right illustrator to develop this personification of interior emotion ·

atti-dude character design 1

One of the first sketches done by illustrator Victor Jurado

about a year later, the concept of atti-dude, was devised as follows:

atti-dude (referred to as atti): (12 years old) – he represents life’s intricacies – our external anguish and daily stress ·

atti is an angry boy who carries a constant angry attitude & mean mood in life · he is a negative character with a kind heart, who is living his pre-teen years (age 12), and is constantly confused about the world he lives in; his micro sphere · his parents are always traveling and thus, he is constantly alone and has to take care of himself · he really doesn’t understand why he has to be alone · he has no brothers and sisters and both of his parents are an “only child”, just like him · he despises school and cannot wait to get out, because the only thing in the world he really enjoys is being with his younger friend mimushi · he’s neither a vituperator nor a violent kid, he’s just angry at the world · he can be very sarcastic and witty ·

victor jurado, an excellent colombian illustrator, had the right idea about atti-dude’s mischievous nature, but we thought it didn’t look like a kid, but rather a neanderthal · he was too aggressive for the character that we wanted at this stage, and after several attempts, it still looked like a punk caveman who had eaten a troll ·

On the next post, I will expand on how pacman23 helped me improve the design and idea behind atti-dude ·