S4 COMPLETES FIRST ORIGINAL FLASH-ANIMATED HORROR WEBISODE
Fraidy Cat is set in a rundown urban tenement apartment. An elderly woman is opening a can of cat food when her bully of a landlord starts wrapping on her door, demanding the rent. The piece takes a Twilight Zone-type of twist and the landlord is left to reconsider his actions.
S4 Studios had created a hugely successful series of horror-genre Flash Webisodes for the Sony Playstation title Twisted Metal: Black, which gave S4 partners Le Francis and Kater confidence in the genre's viability. "We knew the fan interest was out there, and we were looking to become a bit of a cartoon studio again," notes Le Francis, who produced the original Spongebob Squarepants and CatDog pilots for Nickelodeon.
Kater and his animation team, which included storyboard artist Dell Barras, gave much care to creating the mood for the finished piece. "That included the seedy ambience of Claire's apartment, the muted, monochromatic colors, the secondary shadows, and the lighting," he explains. "All were designed to keep the viewer from suspecting what was about to happen."
Kater was an early convert to Flash as a full-on animation medium, noting that the tool lends itself nicely to traditional-looking animation. "It gives someone who is primarily a designer the opportunity to animate and fully realize his or her designs," he explains. "With the way Adobe has been integrating all its graphics and animation tools, primarily After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere, Flash has emerged as a primary cross-platform animation tool. It's great because of the way you can tweak individual frames. At one point, we needed to add a can of cat food to a scene, so I just drew it and dropped it into the shot. You're using your training and experience as an animator, but you don't have to re-board and re-shoot entire scenes."
Sound was created by David Baron of Lightpost, Inc. in Los Angeles. Micha Lieberman composed the original score, and Keith Ferguson served as voice talent.