Phungus & Mowld
Sneaky Peek Production UpdatesMission: create an animated sci-fi Series with zero budget as a one-man operation. Script writing, narration, design, animation, and editing all done by the creator in his spare time – between day job and family.
Production Status
Ep. 1: Dead Angle
Phungus daydreams in his little bar in the middle of nowhere, when an escape pod crashes right in front of him. Mowld, emerging from the wreckage turns out to be a fugitive, and with the Imperial guard storming the place, both end up on the run.
Ep. 2: Astral Endeavor
When Mowld agrees to deal with the “ghost” infestation in Phungus’ engine room, they meet a fish called Gluk, have the trippiest space travel of their lives, learn the fate of the spaceship Astral Endeavor, and save the Universe from annihilation – all in a day’s work.
Ep. 3: Origins
Mowld is on yet another mission. Reconnaissance only he says. A Walk in the park he says. Dragging Phungus along, Mowld learns more about the Samosian species than he would care to know…
Ep. 4: Book of Zander
Phungus goes on a quest to find Zander – the greatest barkeeper in the Galaxy – to follow in his footsteps. The old adage “never meet your heroes” holds true, and Phungus will come to see his hero in a different light.
WHY IS THERE NO PROGRESS?
Because Shadywoods is coming…
- Script 100%
- Narration Recording 0%
- Storyboard & Animatic 0%
- Artwork 0%
- Animation / Post 0%
One-Man Animation Vlog
Production Blog
Character Design
Phungus Qabee
Phungus is an always anxious, but dangerously curios little yellow “snailien”.
Initially I envisioned him as an alien always wearing a full space suit, but the you couldn’t see his face and his ‘alien-ness’, so I took his helmet off. For inspiration I looked at the most alien species on earth, and molluscs (snails, slugs, squids) fit the bill perfectly and so Phungus took shape.
Mowld Schimmel
Mowld is the muscle of the operation. I made him into a stereotypical loudmouthed guy who’s not very bright, but has a good heart.
Initially I imagined him being more muscular, but I thought he’d come across as less imposing and more likeable if he had short legs and kinda skinny arms. As the second protagonist people need to be able to care for him, too.
ALIS
The ALIS acronym name was actually a backronym, because I wanted to include the line “Alice, Alice, who the f*ck is Alice?!” in episode one. We used to sing/shout that as kids in between the chorus of “Living Next Door to Alice” by Smokie. The line appearing in episode 1 turned out to be not very funny, but ALIS’ name stuck.
For the appearance of ALIS it had to be something convertible into a ‘spider’, and to make it iconic I had to keep it simple, so I made it a walking sphere.
Gluk Garglesplash
Gluk was originally conceptualized as an antagonist in episode 2 by the name of Otto von Katz. A catfish-like alien wearing steampunky German Empire paraphernalia. Don’t ask, it made perfect sense in the script. That antagonist morphed into Tricklefizz (all that remained, was the kind of but not quite German accent he had).
I kept Gluk a fish, his pickelhaube morphed into a hard hat, but he had to be a more likeable fish. I thought bright blue skin gives a more clean look. The blowfish gag was made-up ad hoc, when I animated the argument scene in cabin 315. It wasn’t even in the original script.
Gluk will only be having irregular appearances in future episodes.
My Setup
Hardware
Main Computer:
• MacBook Pro M3 Max 16″ (2023)
Narration Microphones:
• Maono A04 USB condenser mic
• Shure SM58
Studio Audio:
• SONY MDR 7506
• Yamaha HS5 Monitor Speakers
Drawing Gear:
• iPad Pro (M1) with Apple Pencil
• Maruman Sketchbooks
• Mitsubishi UNI 2B pencils
Software
Storyboard, Tasks, Wiki:
Notion
Animation:
Moho Pro 14
Editing, Compositing, VFX
Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion
Audio / Music:
GarageBand, Logic Pro, ocenaudio
Script writing:
Slugline 2
Artwork (Concept, Backgrounds):
Affinity Designer, Procreate