Calavera's Lab was a pilot I worked on in the first few months of this year. It was kind of okay as a way of practicing how to animate full sequences, but it's missing a couple of things. Among other things that's lacking, it didn't have a colorful cast of memorable characters to compliment the main and titular character.

While the name of the show is the same as the main character, I definitely need his personality to be contrasted and even foiled by other characters who are both important and antagonistic to Calavera. I've always had ideas of what kind of characters they had to be and what abilities they would need in order to become essential to the fabric of the series.

The loyal and silent little helper that I've already introduced was Homunculus. This little creature is an accidental creation of Scio Calavera while experimenting with the mysterious black goo that he calls "The Dark Stuff". It cannot communicate but it holds knowledge about the occult that can guide Calavera in the right direction when doing some of his spooky research. Since it's made completely out of Dark Stuff it can essentially morph it's body to convenient shapes with great elasticity coming in handy for quick combat maneuvers and mobility.

Zara, is a young girl who Calavera had to prove wasn't a witch through science and reasoning. He failed, because, she indeed is a witch. While Calavera was studying the natural world, Zara was studying the supernatural world, reaching similar conclusions but through completely different means and she provides insight into how big the universe they live in really is. Her greatest skills involve the summoning of creatures from betwixt planes whose anatomy is so hard to comprehend one might actually go insane just at the sight of one. She can also brawl. She prefers it.

Scio Calavera is the main character. He's a "Natural Philosopher" obsessed with unlocking the mysteries of life and the universe through the means of experimentation. His ethical code is essentially none, meaning that he will find the results that he craves by any means necessary. He is not averse to using humans as experimentation subjects or involving occult rituals in order to access Truth. He's also not what one would call "academically gifted", which makes his research process much less efficient and somewhat catastrophic. Failure is something that cannot stop this amateur scientist, and that might be for the worst.

Freja is a disgraced soldier of the royal guard. She has switched her allegiances from the crown and rule of Queen Ravenna to the betterment of the life quality of all humankind. Unlike the other individuals in this team, she does have a moral and ethical code. The only reason why she's stuck with such outcasts is because she firmly believes that Calavera's creative mind could lead humanity to a new era of understanding and progress. She will do whatever she can to both make Calavera survive the absurd and constant threats he faces and to convince him to follow a path of righteousness to use his talents in the service of his fellow men. She also has a big sword, and she's very good at killing people with it.

Samhain, is by far the strangest and in fact he's a literal portal to a world of gothic fantasy. He's a sentient Pumpkin of 3 feet in diameter who wears an enormous armor made of Black Iron that makes him stand at a terrifying 9 feet of height. He's what many local villagers have deemed a myth, but in fact is real and much more terrifying than any folktale ever told. After saving his life, Calavera made a deal with him to use Samhain's strength in life threatening scenarios that his research might take him to in exchange for refugee and escape from his duties in his original land. Samhain is not only a gigantic pumpkin monster, he also is able to use a traditional magic from his species called "Pumpkin Summoning" which generally involves summoning beasts to fight for him, but since he's a more hands on guy, he tends to use this in a creative way to create weapons and special magic attacks during fights. He's extremely strong, you don't want to fight him 1v1.

So this is the crew I've created to be the main characters of a future series and I hope to be able to work on them in animated format very soon.