I recently came across Roger Evans‘ web site via another toy forum. It was a thread on Jonny Quest which, of course, got me all curious. Upon reaching Roger’s web site, I discovered the stop-motion video he put together recreating the title sequence of the Jonny Quest animated series from the 1960s. It was hard not to be awe-inspired by Roger’s work. Awesome doesn’t come close to describing the kind of meticulous detail he put into it.

I had to contact Roger and give him proper kudos. I also requested his permission to host the video here so I can share it with my fellow action figure enthusiasts. So here it is in streaming .flv format.

According to Roger, the lack of Jonny Quest action figures is sort of the catalyst for doing the video in the first place. I took the opportunity to ask Roger a few more questions.

When did you actually start putting the project together?

Roger Evans: We started on it formally in October of 2009. I have a full time business at www.moviestuff.tv so my spare time was very limited. Because of that, I hired Brandi McAlister to assist me with the project right away. She had no formal film experience but she was good with craftwork and the such. She did a terrific job on all the sets and model building.

What inspired you to make this video?

Roger Evans: Well, in the beginning I wanted to do a live action version of the opening titles with stop motion used for the various effects. Also, I had always wanted a set of action figures from Jonny Quest but it was not on the air long enough to warrant a line of toy related products. And I had a huge passion for stop motion animation. Jonny Quest action figures and animation always seemed like it would make a dynamic combination. So I decided to drop the live action idea and just go with all stop motion. I think it was a good choice because it really helped to “sell” the idea of an action figure motif.

How long did it take from start to completion (maybe include the total # of man-hours)?

Roger Evans: Hmmmm…..There are 37 cuts but some share a common set up. So I’ll round that down to 34 set ups. Each set up required maybe 5 days of prep/model building; sometimes more. Brandi was kind of flying blind on some of the set ups because I wasn’t always available. There were some pouty lips on occasion when she would have to remake something because it wasn’t quite what I wanted, even though the quality of her work was first rate. So the set ups proceeded in fits and starts. But if you want to figure a week per set up, then you’ve got about 34 weeks of build time or 1360 hours. Animation time was mercifully brief on each set up since no cut ran more than about 100 frames, on average, and some of the action was cyclical ( I could just shoot, say, 10 frames and repeat them over and over). While no more than a day was spent on the actual animation of each cut, the compositing time in Photoshop afterwards would sometimes go for days on end as I could only work on it in the evenings. But it would be safe to say that I had a combined time of about 25 hours per shot, in terms of animation/compositing time, which comes to about 850 hours total. In all, we started in October of 2009 and I finished it this month, August of 2011. Between Brandi and myself, we’re looking at about 2,210 hours spread across maybe a little under two years because there was a time of almost two months where I had no time to work on it at all.

What was the hardest part about making it?

Roger Evans: In terms of animation, that would be Bandit running. He had a definite look and his movement was a very squash-and-stretch thing that could really only be accomplished with either CGI or clay animation. I didn’t want the CGI “look” -plus I’m not a CGI animator – so I had to sculpt a separate clay version of Bandit for each frame of his run cycle. Very tough to do and make it fluid. In terms of sheer time spent on a short scene with limited movement – definitely the cockpit shot. The cockpit build was a ball-buster of the first degree. Nothing about that build made any sense because of the weird geometry of the drawing and the need to build the set really, really big for all the detail required. Combine that with some of the figures being 1/6th scale and some being larger and smaller and you had a building and compositing nightmare. But it all worked out just great. Very satisfying.

Will you be making more similar videos? if yes, what?

Roger Evans: Well, the positive response to this has kind of re-energized me and makes me want to get back to some film making on a more serious level. I used to belong to a theater group in Houston called Main Street Theater and I miss working with a huge selection of talented people. So I think my next piece will be with real people and not 1/6th scale characters. But, who knows? I do love stop motion so maybe a combination of the two isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

My sincere thanks to Roger for letting us get to know a little about him, his work and for giving us the opportunity to share this video with the rest of the action figure community. Please visit Roger’s web site at http://www.rogerevans.tv/ and check out his Jonny Quest project page where he logged all the nitty-gritty on how this project was assembled.

Update 08/29/2011

The video is now available in HD on Vimeo. Just follow this link:
http://vimeo.com/28278839

About Roger Evans Roger Evans is an artist, author, photographer and film maker all rolled into one. A self-admitted science fiction junkie who loves the old West, Roger fancies himself an acclaimed scientist who rides a horse to his workplace where 1950’s style robots do all the work so he can paint and write. Visit his website at www.rogerevans.tv.

Jonny Quest and all related characters/elements are trademarks ™ of and copyright © Hanna-Barbera. Other related media rights are owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment.

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