about the process
THE DAILY MOBSTER is an INDIE web comic and graphic novel project brought to you by industry studio-veterans with a vision and a story to tell. We decided to utilize our 40+ combined years of animation, vfx and 3d experience to bring a comic to life and follow a similar CG-Pipeline. The result is a highly detailed, immersive world that looks unlike any comic out there. It's detailed and polished enough that we have been mistaken, and even dismissed as AI generated, but the images you see are all painstakingly 3d modeled and rendered, just have a look at our complex process below:
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2d origins
It all started with Jack Kasprzak's blog of the same name and his 2d inked character designs. We loved the essence and character they captured so much we tried not to alter too much from the original look and translate into 3d. Each character was 3d-modeled, textured and rigged just like a studio animation pipeline would do.
3D scenes
After characters are modeled, sets are build, characters are placed in the scene, and we take advantage of real-time rendering Maxon RedShift, in Autodesk Maya to block realistic lighting in the very first phase of composition. This is most similar to a studio previsualization phase, but we take it all the way to the end and can essentially see the finished product from the moment we start a scene.
Left: Shows the wireframe of a 3d scene. Middle a working preview with character rig. Right: Final render
real time page layout
Because of the near real-time output we are able to iterate quickly and see our images in Adobe InDesign in order to begin designing a page layout, and gauge the pacing and visual composition of a scene. InDesign then allows us to format to the web and print!
about the team
THE DAILY MOBSTER team is a small team of super talented individuals with a vision and years upon years of industry experience. They bring you their best work yet, without big studio funding or story manipulation. While it is indie, it still has an amazing team behind it and it wouldn't be what it is without the talent behind it.
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roberto esquivel
executive producer
This project would very likely still be stuck in our heads and on the endless floors of pitch rooms across Hollywood and nothing more than a blog if it weren't for the guidance, generosity and support of Roberto Esquivel. The entire team truly thanks you, and we feel so lucky and grateful for your trust in our vision and enabling us to tell this story. It's an opportunity not many story-tellers get to have.
jack kasprzak
creator, writer, artist
slavik ia
co-creator, writer, artist
Director, Animator and Writer, Jack has worked on many of your favorite film and tv shows including Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Roald Dahl's The Twits, DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, Spirit Riding Free, and dozens others. He has primarily been an Animation Director as well as an Episodic Story Director and now looks to bring those skills from the animation pipeline to the graphic novel medium.
Jack has been obsessed with mobsters and the noir crime genre since he was a kid. Some of his favorite films and books growing up were Dick Tracy, the Fritz Freeling's mobsters in Bugs Bunny, The Untouchables, Miller's Crossing, and of course, The Godfather and anything by Raymond Chandler.
What began as a personal "journal" project during Jack's early film career (to keep his creative skills sharp, while he primarily digitally groomed Uma Thurman's hair) blossomed into The Daily Mobster blog (when Blogger and Wordpress were huge). It amassed a rather large following and he ended up with nearly 100 characters paired with short stories, poems, or articles about them. Most of these character designs are in this story, essentially, unchanged in a new 3d form.
A decade later, when Jack joined forces with Slavik, The Daily Mobster was resurrected and pitched as an Animated Series. However, in an increasingly indie-creator-friendly industry and another 5-10 years later, Jack and Slavik decided to retool it into the breathtaking, visually cinematic, noir epic that you see today.
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You have most certainly seen Slavik's work in many of your favorite films and countless commercials. He has twenty years specializing in primarily previsualization (which is effectively storyboarding in 3d space for film, tv and commercial) sometimes acting as the actor, cinematographer and director of photographer being the very first visual look from page to screen. He has worked on such films as Tron Legacy, Spiderman No Way Home, Free Guy, The Planet of the Apes series, and Black Panther 2.
Slavik is an avid film and gaming fan, with a long interest in the World of Warcraft games, Tekken, Street Fighter and also has always appreciated the mobster genre, particularly highlighting Casino, The Godfather and Goodfellas. His unique perspective from the game world adds even yet another layer to the user's feel of reading a comic that feels like an immersive experience.
After writing, directing and shooting several short films, music videos and commercials, Slavik joined Jack to write and develop several animated series, an interactive game called "Pirates ArrBCs", and ultimately began writing and developing The Daily Mobster for the graphic novel format.
Bringing his career-long experience with visual composition, cinematic story telling and work with award-winning directors, Slavik drives The Daily Mobster's unique cinematic look. He also co-writes the story and assists in overseeing asset development alongside Jack.
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liz chun
story consultant
Consultant, writer and show-creator, Liz Chun brings her extensive experience from projects that you may know like Madagascar: A Little Wild, DreamWorks' The Bad Guys series, Trollstopia as well as being the creator, writer and voice actress in (Not) Hero. Liz co-develops and consults on writing and dialogue for the issues along with Slavik and Jack and brings a new perspective and absurdist humor to ensure our world stays as unique and true to the source material as possible while introducing fresh ideas to keep the plot exciting and twisting.​​
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the visual team
Some said we were crazy, it's impossible, and it's overengineered, but The Daily Mobster follows a traditional animation production pipeline process. We've been mistaken for A.I. often. But it's CG, only eliminating the "animation/motion" task of the pipeline, meaning every character, prop, and set is drawn and designed, then 3d-modeled, rigged, textured, posed and placed in a set and then lit and rendered before going into a graphic design and layout phase. This gives The Daily Mobster a distinctly unique visual appeal and look, a truly deep cinematic and detailed feel that few other graphic novels would attempt.
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CHARACTER MODEL LEADS
Jean-Louis Schiller
Bryan Repka
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cg modeler
Joe Chang​
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CHARACTER RIGGER
Mike Gajga
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ADDITIONAL CHARACTER ASSETS
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ADDITIONAL CONSULTANTS
Meg Favreau
Robert Taylor
Anukul Kukade (Triodoxic Studios)
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​provided by
The Monk Studio​​
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Executive Producer Juck Somsaman
Producer Natnaree Pichetpongsa
Production Assistant Panna Ampairat
Production Manager Napassara Chaisukdamrong
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Asset Manager Palapas Nimawan
Head of Assets Tanoo Choorat
Character Modeler Pongsopat Totan
Character Modeler Saranchana Mekhaworanan
Character Modeler Viphada Karnjanawarit
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Lead Pipeline Sarinporn Pintusopon
Lead Technical Director Thanapat Tummati
Pipeline Developer Nuttapon Vanakittistien
Pipeline & TD Coordinator Danuphol Jongariyakul
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CREATIVE COMMON CREDITS
An additional list of models and assets is provided for under the fair use terms set forth by Creative Commons.
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