Tonight we welcome Illustration Director TJ Buford and the return of Katya to our Archer open thread. “Skin Game” has a helluva lot of work to do to stack up to chicken & waffles strip clubs and the chupacraba of dicks, but cyborg secret agent battles in ISIS headquarters is a good place to start. TJ — like our other guests — will be here to answer any and all questions, except for ones where you ask him to draw personalized naughty Katyas for you.
Quick bio from TJ:
“I’m a South Louisiana native who came to Georgia for school and got a job working on the short lived Freakshow for Comedy Central. After that I worked on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies, and other various animated projects at Radical Axis before getting the chance to join the rest of the 7030 crew when they came to start Season One of Archer. Season Two had me working as the Lead Illustrator, under the illustrious Chad Hurd, and Season Three I was fortunate enough to earn the Illustration Director position. It’s my job to make sure things stay on model and look amazing.”
More after the jump, including a photo with everyone’s favorite spoken-for staff member.
I’d also like to thank the Floyd County gang (especially Casey Willis) for letting me drop by their offices earlier this week and creepily look over shoulders, play with prop guns, and request tutorials on how Lana’s boobs are illustrated. You guys are the absolute best.
Pre-show talking points…
- “Archer faces a dilemma when his murdered fiancée, Katya, miraculously reappears. In Krieger’s lab.”
- Krieger is the re-animator? Ante = upped.
- Will Sterling still be discreetly pushing rope with Pam?
- Will he be distraught over Jakov’s death?
- Am I to understand it is now NOT OK to feel up cyborgs?
- Do I need to ask Barry permission to use “later, taters” for all exists for the rest of my life?
- Is part of TJ’s job description to be the Krieger face model…
For this episode, there was a lot of action that Neal had planned out in the storyboard phase of things and I was tasked with applying his vision to the body drawings so that they could be as dynamic as possible. We take photos, a lot like this one of me and our costume designer Kat (who coincidentally is modeling for Katya in this shot), and from this we use the photo as a base for the drawing. The drawing is then used by the animation team to bring life to the characters.
Open thread is officially here to party. Live blog with TJ Buford begins promptly at 10PM EST, but he may drop in beforehand if the conversation warrants. As always, everyone is encouraged to chat and GIF away well into the morning. I’ll put a cap on things in the AM.
Follow us @KDMaske, @TheCajunBoy, and @UPROXX for reminders. Images via FX and Floyd County.
Tonight’s Badge: Unlock “YUP” with active commenting and sharing via the Twitter and Facebook buttons on this page. You must be a registered UPROXX commenter.
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Thanks everyone for participating, especially TJ. Great job. The face models haunted my dreams last night.
Chet, as always, you f’n rule.
Krieger is so many different kinds of awesome.
HOLY SHITZOMBIES!
Oh God, get rid of Barry already. Seriously, he’s insufferable.
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
That must suck.
Titty flicker
Moar Bro
Gross and/or Ick
You are a king among men Chet.
I don’t how the tumblrs manage doing GIFs and a 9-5. It’s madness I say.
Longer ending in slightly less quality.
You’re doing the Lords work Chet.
Magical, Chet. Just magical.
Verified
Alright I’m out this piece. Good times, everyone. Watch out for the next two. They’re not the ones to sleep on!
Love hearing from y’all. We’re so involved with the process sometimes, it’s nice to know when things are working out there.
Night Night
Neil Peart joke FTW!
LOVE this.
And finallly, as TJ described, “This is some of the crap ppl do in their spare time with reference photos.” I honestly have no idea what’s going on, but I like it.
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Verified
Sanity breaks.
Thats so giffy!
oh, man, we better get the lemur watch tower in season 4!
Holy shit snacks. Lemur snipers
Verified
Dan, the man who was raised by lemurs until the age of ten, made what would become my desktop wallpaper for months.
hey, that first one is mine!
Does anyone else drink during “these” nights? I find it some of my best times…cause…shitsnacks…
Oh yeah. I try to keep it classy. Green Russians classy
Nice, I thought I was the only one.
Verified
Has anyone actually tried one? It just seems, to me, like it would taste like spoiled milk for some reason.
Just the thought of a cocktail with milk makes me wanna wretch a little
Milk? Heavy cream, the Pam way, is the only way to go.
Appreciate all your work and hangin’ out tonight TJ!
Verified
Yea! I had fun and I’m super grateful to be doing this with yall.
“Yeah, and even though it’s detachable, that vagina is, like, mind-shattering.”
+1
And it vibrates
And now for some mindhole blowing sh*t: “Archer” cast face models.
More Lana: [www.uproxx.com]
Ray: [www.uproxx.com]
Malory: [www.uproxx.com]
Woodhouse: [www.uproxx.com]
Cyril: [www.uproxx.com]
Krieger: [www.uproxx.com]
Sterling: [www.uproxx.com]
No Pam?
Verified
She was the only one I couldn’t find! I am shamed.
She’s retarded….in the good way.
cause everyone know’s the good way is the only wa
I think I may be the brunette Pam. Not that that is a good thing
Verified
Pam and Cheryl are my favorites. I couldn’t find either.
Cool. And by “cool”, I mean holy shitsnacks.
Verified
Don’t you worry, I’ll have this righted soon.
This may be the best “behind the scenes” basket of goodies any guest has brought for us. Thanks TJ!
Verified
Much appreciated, Cajun.
Awesome!
What time will this be on Netflix?
Time to finish off my Thursday ritual – fire up Netflix to rewatch some classic Archer episodes, then rewatch tonight’s episode before bed. 16-hour work days on Fridays are so much fun on next to no sleep, by the way.
YEH!
TJ was — of course — awesome enough to provide some behind-the-scenes images. First up, killer art from “Skin Game”. Click the links to check them all out.
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SPACE ARCHER NEXT WEEK
TJ, any bits of Space Archer info to share?
Verified
Get ready.
Verified
I can’t actually but we’re definitely gonna have some GREAT stuff to share next Thursday. I’ll make sure to include some goodies with Jon.
Wait, Jon, another contribute to the artwork?
Verified
Jon Bass our background director did some great paintings along with his crew. I’ll through some reference and Illustrations in there if yall would like.
I was hoping for a Kreiger placed remote bomb in Katia
Superbly well played Graduate nod at the end there.
Verified
Yea, that was in the script pretty much like that there. The little gesture Barry does with his hands nailed the scene. Great finish!
Phrasing.
Despite my limited and scattered participation concurrent with this airing, I am nonetheless seriously considering also doing my cricket-laden rerun rivebrog. Go Bulls!
Katya seducing Barry when she realized she couldn’t beat him to save Archer is the best thing ever.
Nah. She is just a dirty whore
TJ, your thoughts on Katya? Self-sacrificing cyborg or Dirty whore?
I like that interpretation… but I don’t think it’s correct.
Verified
A fool either way. Archer’s a dense, but surprisingly well read, buffoon. She has been stoked on him for a while though. That makes me wanna go with the latter. She bailed on him.
:slow clap:
BARRY!
Polo
Some nice Yoda-talk in this episode from the Archers.
She’s like the Watson of anal.
Called it.
You totally called it.
effin’ other barry man
Verified
It’s so hard not to spoil awesome shit.
If I ever meet someone named Barry, I’m henceforth calling out Polo every time I hear his name.
Phrasing. BOOM!
poor brett
And Brett is down!
come at me bro from katya is the most giffable thing of the night.
Verified
Excellent… make it happen internets!
Polo!!!
Verified
I think that was my favorite part of the episode.
I want Pam inside me.
Saying “Come at me, bro” in a Russian accent is my new go to phrase…..
so the cyborgs work like birdman?
katya, you should have locked up the triangle choke!
Verified
I think she slipped.
Well, ISIS is going to need a new interior decorator. Where are those flaming Cubans?
“Come at me bro” in two consecutive weeks, too!
AHHAHAHAHAHA RUSSIAN “COME AT ME BRO”
GOLD!
More like, “Come at me, bro.”
Phrasing, boom! … Inappropriate.
I think that was the best “phrasing” this season!
brett’s down!
Phrasing,,,BOOSH!
HE KILLED HIM????
barry, you ass!
Haha…came.
there are teams out there without any world series, but somehow the cubs winning a third one would be the most far fetched
TJ, What kinda car do you drive? I just saw a mazda ad and thought about that one…
Verified
What an oddly specific question. I don’t think the internet is ready for that sort of information.
haha! I have no idea why or where it popped into my head, but the commercial came up and I was thinking you were like a toyota truck kinda guy, more specifically the black toyota truck from Back to the Future….cause WHO doesn’t want that beast? oh wait…anyone born after 1988…
Verified
Oh man, that would be GREAT. With same clean black paint…. nice.
Bro, come on! I still at my age WANT a small, short bed, 1985, toyota pickup, so I can go camping…or whatever Marty was thinking…but come on! who wouldn’t want to camp with pre-elizabeth shoe-girl in a toyota? She was AWESOME!
Oh god this commercial just makes me sad
Katia wasn’t modeled on Kate Upton by any chance was she?
Verified
nah we used an amalgam of photo reference, as I remember. I don’t think Kate Upton was on the scene like she is not, when we designed her.
Verified
*like she is now
Is that the first time Brett appeared without getting shot?
Episode’s not over yet
the night is still young!
Verified
Yea I think it is, but to be fair, I don’t think weapons are Barry’s M.O. anymore. I’m not opposed to seeing some add-ons tho