About
The first designs of Lil 'P, Luther and Bell
From December 2018-January 2019. They have changed quite a bit.
The individual who writes and draws the Fairy Penguinos in Central Park, May 2022. I looked tired. NYC is an exhausting place
Briefly...
The Fairy Penguinos is an independently animated mini series animated by one individual, also the site owner, AC (aka Piya) from their studio, ACE Illust. This cute animated series tells the daily life of creatures called Fairy Penguinos living in the Southern Island of New Zealand. An underlying story among their earthly shenanigans is the fact that they have to get off of Earth and get back on the Mothership! But the Mothership hasn't sent any signals, so it's up to the Fairy Penguinos of the Southern Hemisphere to figure out a way to get into space and locate the Mothership to get back to journeying throughout the universe. More on the story can be read in the Story section.
A Puppet Show?
The Fairy Penguinos first started out by imagining a real, physical puppet show because I had plushies of penguins and thought they were cute. I drew their designs and set out to make my own puppets, but figured it would be a lot of work. You have to sew up the costumes, build the set, buy a nice video camera, and use stop motion in some parts. A lot of physical work. Then I thought, why not animate it? I had always wanted to be an animator but didn't have the patience due to immaturity, but after a major life event, my view on life changed instantly and I set out to really learn how to animate and began the journey.
To be brief, I initially went with Adobe's Character Animator so I could churn out episodes quickly, but the workflow proved to be negative with my workflow as I like free reign. I tried to avoid hand animating in the beginning, but in the end I've gained much patience doing animation and love it a lot, like it has become second nature to me (I turn off music when I get to challenging animating points, music can ruin the pace).
In the Heart
With every episode of The Fairy Penguinos I hope you can feel their emotions and appreciate the hard work put into it. The ultimate goal for The Fairy Penguinos is to make others happy and enjoy innocent, fun SCI-FI story and maybe believe in it too. Keeping a open mind about the possibilities in the universe. Hope the Fairy Penguinos have become true in your heart as they have in mine!
-Piya (AC) of ACE Illust.