A secret must be kept from getting out, and all those who know it, will feel the wrath of the GODSLAP

Based on the graphic novel by Meatier Productions, Sakowski studios was tasked with adapting the first 15 pages into an animated sequence of what could be a whole series or a feature film.

The “Godslap” animation follows the tale of Darius as he fights his way through the gritty underbelly of a cyberdellic world the way God intended, with his slaps.

Made part time over the course of 6 months, It is the first production where Sakowski Studios has implemented full cell style character animation, combining various techniques developed on “Skynut” and pushing them further. Our small talented team infuses their love and passion for 2d animation into each frame, manifesting a rich and detailed world in which our characters reside in. With your support, we hope to continue developing this cyber-slap-fest into a larger form of media. The story has only just begun. If you want to see Godslap as a series or movie, let us know!

a SAKOWSKI STUDIOS animation

based on the graphic novel by MEATIER PRODUCTIONS

Produced and Directed by ALEKSANDER SAKOWSKI

Created and Story by CHARLIE WHITE, JACKSON CLARKE,

DANNY PALMER, MATTHEW PHILLIPS

Lead Character Artist and Keyframes by LINHAN YE

Character Art, Character layout and Keyframes by DANIEL ZHANG

Backgrounds by THAW NAING

Animation by DYLAN LI, ANDI BAO NGUYEN,

FRANS SCHENDELAAR, BRYN KETTLE, JORDON REAR

Sound Design By EVEN PAEA

3d Assets by CURTIS KEEBLE

3d Visuals by UON VISUAL

Music

"Danger Snow" by DAN HENIG

"Danger Snow" (Metal Injection) and "The God Hand" by TROY McKUBRE

Additional Animation by TAYLOR JUNG, ANDY CHRISTENSEN, TRAJUAN GERALD, RTFX

Storyboards, Compositing, Screenplay, Additional Animation, Additional Cleanup, Coloring & Male Voices by ALEKSANDER SAKOWSKI

Additional clean up LINHAN YE

We have shared a lot of art from the project below. If loading is slow, please be patient. Click on a still to see it in its full widescreen high definition glory.

When approaching the world of Godslap, Charlie gave us free reign. Sakowski Studios developed the world look over the course of a month, bringing the lush neon cyberpunk vibes. We took the foundations the graphic novel set and developed them for animation.

The concept art above was created as a mood setter. Thaw here was exploring the vibe and tone for how the rest of project might feel, it also reflects what a live action version could feel like.

We have presented the work here imitating the look of aged traditional animation cells from the 80’s and 90’s. Of course all our workflow is digital however the processes are all still the same. Presenting the work in this style reminds us that all the work you see, every single frame, is hand drawn.

Our lead character artist Linhan Ye designed all our main characters and their key frame poses,

Daniel Zhang designed and illustrated all our supporting characters.

⬅ When you see this toggle below. Slide it left and right to see overlays. ➡

For a 3 minute sequence, the project contains an immense amount of unique characters, and budget limits meant that we could not animate every single one. Select characters were animated for certain shots and art frames were used for other shot to make the world feel populated. Our aim for a larger format project would be to add more cell frame animation to both our main characters and the background characters.

The sets were roughly designed in 3d, allowing us to select camera angles before going into final layouts. This allowed us to cut sequences together quick to get a sense of how the camera would move around the environment.

Once the layouts and shots were all confirmed our background artist Thaw Naing Illustrated each shot. Many of these backgrounds contained multiple layers for compositing purposes. The first image here was our initial colour test. The name of the bar is “The Aviary”; We wanted to create a space that felt open yet enclosed. Much like an aviary; even though there is room to fly, you are still caged. The LED screens display birds flying towards the flora above, which gives a sense of a canopy jungle, while the darker rock pillars are reminiscent of an archeological temple.

Our epic sound design was crafted by Evan Paea. There are more than 1000 layers of SFX.

The music we began with was a clip from the YouTube audio library - “Danger Snow” by Dan Henig, it had the perfect vibe for the project. When I first went into storyboarding and editing the previz, I wanted to work directly to music first using it as a foundation to set rhythm of the cuts and hits. The next step was taking it up a notch. I got in touch with Troy McKubre (Solstate, The Gentle Men) who I have worked with many times in the past (Skynut, Atheums Way, I Am Truth) and asked him to take “Danger Snow” and inject a heavy dose of metal to it, intensifying the action sequences. Troy also carried this energy over to the final track “The God Hand” ending the project on an original metal rift.

Swipe left and right to see storyboard layouts vs the final production frames

3D Robotic Arms by Curtis Keeble