The project
Back in 2015, we were contacted by Kimberly Gitzel, a creator from Hilo, Hawaii. She had been working on his original animated show pitch, and approached us to bring her characters to life. The Sirenz of Truth is a story about 5 teen girls from Hawaii, they’re all part of a roller derby team, as the story advances, the girls develop elementar superpowers thanks to the power of secret chinese medicine guarded by their tutor. These girls suddenly become the protectors of earth against an alien force trying to feed from the world’s negative energy and emotions.
Designing the Sirenz
At the very beginning, Kim shared her description for each of the characters and the world she was building, but she wasn’t sure if the animated series would be made in 2d or 3d. That is why we started our own style exploration, trying to show her how her characters would look in both mediums. Here’s a bit of that exploration:
Once Kim chose the style for her characters we proceeded to design each one of the girls, always with these rules in mind: we should include different body shapes, heights, as well as racial and cultural backgrounds. So after a some itterations, the appearance of the Sirenz basic super hero suits was stablished. The idea was to have their suits evolve with time as they grew stronger. The sirenz power source was their skates, which were dipped in a special substance made by their mentor. The substance would enhance each girls abilities and amplify each one’s essence. This meant that the girls would not be able to transform unless they were wearing their skates, which would lead them to different situations where they would need to use their witts besides their super powers in order to survive.
The Girls’ everyday life is also an important part of their personality, so we also designed their casual outfit.
Another very important part of the Sirenz story is Roller Derby along with their friends, mentors and of course, rivals. In Sirenz of truth rivalries are not always hostile, all of the characters learn from each other, and sometimes it’s this kind of lessons which lead the Sirenz to victory. Here are some of the Derby teams in the Sirenz world:
Besides the animated series’ pitch, we’ve drawn 4 comic books and 6 short comic strips. Here are some examples:
There are many other characters in this universe. If you’d like to know more about this project please visit: http://www.sirenzoftruth.com/