Shadow Machine

[upbeat rock] SHOW NARRATOR: Welcome to Hollywood, home of swimming pools movie stars and a famous horse named BoJack.

Hey, are you the horse from Horsin' Around?

Ah, you see, this is why I don't go out, amongst the not famouses.

ALEX: BoJack horseman, is an incredibly clever play, on the industry and it takes place, in a world where animals and humans coexist BoJack, you are amazing!

You're bright and you're funny and you're handsome and you're talented.

SHOW NARRATOR: And this is where BoJack came to life, the Los Angeles animation studios of Shadow Machine.

Shadow Machine, has been around since 1999.

I guess Shadow Machine is most known, for the various absurd and crazy productions that we've done.

Everything from Robot Chicken and Frankenhole.

How many monsters, does it take to change a light bulb?

ALEX: All the way into BoJack and onward.

SHOW NARRATOR: But Shadow Machine, was busting at the seams.

So, they opened a second studio.

This one, 600 miles north.

Right here in Northwest Portland.

We chose Portland for a lot of reasons.

[bright guitar music] You know aside from it being the coolest city on the west coast.

[bright guitar music] Portland provided a talent pool and a culture that is very attractive to series production.

I think this place provides that, sort of stepping stone to some great new looks, styles and aesthetics.

[bright guitar music] When Shadow Machine chose Portland to open up their studio, huge deal for all of us.

The fact that they bring in feature films and commercials, is great.

They're also doing series television and that is a big deal, in terms of that's the stuff that goes year to year, project to project.

And I think the talent base we have, is really gonna respond to that.

SHOW NARRATOR: Portland gave Shadow Machine lots of space to create costumes, props and characters, for some brand new stop motion, animation projects TIM: And coming out of LA, where the, property values are just kind of crazy for space, they couldn't expand the way they wanted to expand.

And thankfully they found it in northwest Portland.

So this is, the skull and the skin for the puppet.

The strings run through a head core and then they're attached in the back to, screws.

And when the animator turn the screws, the puppet smiles.

In stop motion animation, everything is, just done frame by frame, position by position.

Which means we can't go back and fix things, we just have to keep moving along.

So, just move it a little bit, take a picture, move it a little bit, take a picture but you know, move it right.

[Teresa laughing] [bright guitar music] SHOW NARRATOR: Shadow Machine's first big Portland project, is the new Comedy Central series, Jeff & Some Aliens.

[Jeff screaking] Oh, uh-oh, stop it!

Jeff and Some aliens, is about, the most average man in the world and one day, a group of aliens come down and they encounter Jeff and they decide to study him, to see, if based upon their studies, humanity gets to live or die.

[Isaac laughing] [bright guitar music] Today we're working on the scene where, Jeff is trying to get tacos, at a fast food taco place.

I'd like one king quesadilla, some steak tacos.

Two churros.

And he gets into an argument, with all the aliens who are hiding in the backseat of his car.

I'll take twos churros, too.

Shut up!

All right, I do the ordering, okay?

SHOW NARRATOR: Isaac starts with an animatic, simple sketches linked to the recorded dialogue.

Now he has to bring the characters to life.

We know that Jeff, at this point says some steak tacos.

JEFF: Steak tacos.

Some steak tacos, so we're gonna.

JEFF: Tacos.

Go into his head pack right now.

I think if somebody's ordering tacos, they should be happy.

So I'm probably gonna use, the happy mouth, but also, maybe incorporate a couple of devious and seductive mouths.

And just like the same process, with the mouth, we also have all these possibilities for eyes.

[air blowing] So after finessing all those little elements; the small body movements, the eyes, the lip sync, we end up with an animated scene that looks like this.

One king quesadilla, some steak tacos.

Two churros.

Hold on, man, okay, I got this.

A grande rice pudding taco with the chocolate shell of course.

And two churros!

You know what?

I'll take two churros, too.

Shut up!

All right, I do the ordering, okay?

[bright music] Working on animation feels awesome to me.

Sometimes I'm just super stoked, that I actually get to draw for a living.

[bright music] As a kid, I always wanted to, make these doodles and see them move.

And now, I get to do 'em for a career.

[Isaac laughing] SHOW NARRATOR: So while Oregon, doesn't have a whole lot of swimming pools or movie stars, it does seem to have just what Shadow Machine wants.

[bright music] ALEX: Being in Portland so far has just been great.

It's been really fun and really refreshing coming out of, Southern California.

To have that kind of environment around us to make these kind of shows.

[bright music]