Skip to main content

Featured Animator: Manta Team Studios - The Adventures of Dr. Metal and Mr. Robotix

Dr. Metal and Mr. Robotix.
Dr. Metal and Mr. Robotix.
Starting up a one person, independent animation studio, creating an original series, seems like a daunting task but this article's featured animator, Ray Hohnecker, shows that if you just keep the animation simple, and focus on story, you can still create something extremely engaging that keeps viewers coming back for more.

Originally Ray sent me the fifth (and latest) episode of his animated series, The Adventures of Dr. Metal and Mr. Robotix. I was so interested in the premise and humor that I went back to the first episode to see how things began, enjoying that episode so much, I watched the next, and the next. 

All you really need to know is that Dr. Metal is an evil genius and inventor plotting world domination.  Watch episode one below.


If you enjoyed the humor as much as I did you'll want to view further episodes right now. The full playlist is on Ray's Manta Team Studios Channel on YouTube. To find out more about Ray, Manta Team Studios, and how this series was made read my interview below.

TET: Tell me a little about yourself. Who you are, and why you started animating? 

Ray Hohnecker - Manta Team Studios
Ray Hohnecker
Manta Team Studios
My name is Ray Hohnecker. I have a small animation studio that I started called Manta Team Studios.

I'm currently am working on a cartoon series called The Adventures of Dr. Metal and Mr. Robotix. It is about a "mad scientist" type character who is fixated on world domination, and he has his trusty robot side-kick, Mr. Robotix. 

I am a video editor with my own video production business. I love to create things. I'm one of those people that have made things my whole life through every stage, from cartoons and stories growing up, to music with several bands once I was in high school and a little after. I even made furniture with a friend after college. 

I finally found video editing a few years back and didn't look back. 

I grew up loving cartoons and drawing, and I actually ended up going to school for Visual Communication Design, a mix of web design, graphic design, and animation. When the pandemic hit and the whole world stopped, I felt like I had all the tools I needed to create something but with no place to go. I didn't feel like I was ready to make the leap to become an on-screen YouTuber, and so I decided to try something completely new with an animation series.

TET: Can you tell me a little more about your Animated Series? 

Dr. Metal's secret lab.
Dr. Metal's secret lab.
The Adventures of Dr. Metal and Mr. Robotix is a comedic, witty series revolving around a "mad-scientist" character, Dr. Metal, and his robot side-kick, Mr. Robotix, inside their not-so-secret secret lab.

In the lab, Dr. Metal works tirelessly to create an arsenal of weapons to help him achieve world-domination. 

Mr. Robotix is, himself, a creation of Dr. Metal, giving him his own feedback along the way. This doesn't always go over well with Dr. Metal, which he is quite vocal about. The two characters' have a love-hate relationship that drives the plot of the story, and sometimes leads to almost destructive endings.

TET: Inspiration for the series? 

Dr. Metal
Dr. Metal
Funny enough, I actually created the character of Dr. Metal sitting in class in the 3rd grade. When I was entertaining the idea of making an animation series last year, I just kept thinking back to the character of Dr. Metal. Honestly, I trusted my creativity that I had in the 3rd grade more than trying to come up with an original idea altogether, and so I just ran with it. 

I actually drew Mr. Robotix as a fill-in character only a few days before I started any work on a script for the show. I just felt that he was the complementary piece that the show needed.

There's a lot of camera animation in the series but not so much character animation. I'm guessing the limited animation is a deliberate style choice? Is it one you made to save time so you could get the episodes animated quicker?

Yes, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. I realized that not having the mouths move might not be the most optimal for a cartoon series, but I felt that, as a single animator starting up an animation series/studio, I could spend my time more on getting the story done and making a series in a shorter amount of time.

I think further down the line, if there is actually some monetary income through the series, I would definitely transition to the more traditional animation of characters. I definitely want to work to get to that level.

TET: What applications do you use to make the series? 

I use the Adobe Creative Suite to make each episode. Adobe Illustrator to make all the graphics (characters and props). Adobe Photoshop for all of the background settings. Adobe After Effects to move the pieces and camera around for each shot, and I use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the whole project together. 

I record the voices using an H5 Zoom recorder, which I then bring into the project file. Sound effects I get mainly from SINGULARITY, which is an assortment of cinema-quality sounds that can be used for personal projects.

TET: Your biggest challenge(s) making the series? 

The biggest challenge for me right now is probably just finding the time and motivation to keep working on the animation. I do still run my own video production business, and so finding the time and also the motivation to work on a startup, animation side project on top of everything that needs to go into running a successful business is tough for me.

TET: Future plans for you and/or the series in relation to animation goals? 

I do want to continue learning and growing in terms of storytelling and animation techniques. I want to continue making more episodes of The Adventures of Dr. Metal and Mr. Robotix, and maybe even more cartoons in the future. If all goes well, I hope to create a fully operational, thriving animation studio someday!

---o ---o--- o---

Thanks to Ray for taking the time to answer my questions. If you would like to see more of Ray's animation process he has a great, behind the scenes video for how he animates a shot.

If you would like to see future episodes of The Adventures of Dr. Metal and Mr. Robotix, and more of Ray's animations, consider subscribing to his YouTube channel, Manta Team Studios.

Popular posts from this blog

Can You Learn Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5 for Free Using Their 137 Official YouTube Video Tutorials Sorted Into a Logical Learning Order?

Or you could just buy The Lazy Animator Beginner's Guide to Cartoon Animator . While Reallusion's Cartoon Animator is one of the easiest 2D animation studios to get up and running with quickly, learning it from all of the official, free, video tutorials can be more overwhelming than helpful. With more than 137 videos totaling more than 28 and a half hours of tutorials, spread across three generations of the software (Cartoon Animator 3 through 5) it's hard to know if what you're learning is a current or legacy feature that you either need to know or can be skipped. Many of the official tutorials only teach specific features of the software and don't relate at all to previous or later tutorials. As a result there are many features either not mentioned or are hard to find. To make your learning easier, on this page, I've collected together all of the essential, official, free video tutorials and sorted them into a learning order that makes sense. Simply start at

Artbreeder - Using AI created Character and Background Content in your Animations

A selection of User/AI generated images from Artbreeder. If you're looking for an endless supply of 2D character and background images for your animations then Artbreeder , an online Artificial Intelligence (AI) that generates image mash-ups you can tweak as much as you like, could be the ultimate content library. What is Artbreeder? Artbreeder is free to use though there are various paid plans, that give you additional features, such as higher resolution download images or more settings to play with. All images created on the site are Public Domain (CC0 License) and can be used in commercial projects. Using Artbreeder's online app you can generate head shot portraits, full body characters, landscapes, and other scenes simply by choosing two or more existing images to mash together then, using a series of sliders, to select which traits from each image you wish to lean toward in the final image. Photo Comparison - Top is my original uploaded photo. Bottom is Artbreeder's ap

Jarrad Wright, The Big Lez Show - Who Would've thought Animating with MS Paint Could Take You So Far?

A friend of mine recommended I should check out The Big Lez Show after I mentioned to him I make animations for living. He said the show's creator, Australian animator, Jarrad Wright , just makes episodes from his home using MS Paint. Somewhat shamefully I hadn't heard of The Big Lez Show, but the fact that it was being made with MS Paint absolutely hooked me into checking out. If you've never heard or seen the show then you, like I was, are probably thinking how good could it be? MS Paint has kind of a cult following of hardcore animators but no one would use it as their primary animation tool on a series, right? WARNING - before going any further, you need to know The Big Lez Show and its humor contains some pretty strong language. By strong I mean it's peppered very liberally with the 'F' and 'C' words and is very every day Aussie, blue collar speak. Unapologetically, all of that, is part of why it's so good. There's a good chance you've

AE Juice - Animation Presets, Motion Graphics, Templates, Transitions for After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Other Video Applications

Level up you video edits and animations with AE Juice's motion graphics and templates. Some days you just don't have the time to create flashy motion graphics for your latest video or animation. For some of us it's more a question of our own artistic abilities being a little less than the awesome we'd like them to be. Whatever reason a resource like AE Juice's animation presets, motion graphics, templates, and transitions packs for After Effects , Premiere Pro , and other video applications can really make your work stand out very quickly. AE Juice gives you access to an instant library of free, premade content elements and sound effects, which you can add to with additional purchases of various themed packs from their store. There are three ways to manage their content, all of which can be used in commercial projects . The AE Juice Standalone Package Manager makes it easy to browse previews of all your pack contents and to download and find just the elements yo

Eric W. Schwartz: Cartoonist, Animator and Amiga Die Hard

July 1992 Edition, CU Amiga Featuring Amy the Squirrel. American Cartoonist, Eric W. Schwartz , (whose unofficial Amiga Icon, Amy the Squirrel, is pictured on the July 92 edition of CU Amiga cover on the right) is my only real animation hero. Sure there are the big names like Disney , Chuck Jones , Tex Avery and even Preston Blair whose influences can all be seen in my own cartoons but Eric did what none of the others could. He showed that really great 2D computer animation was within my reach with little more than an Amiga Computer , a copy of Deluxe Paint and Moviesetter . This was at a time when computer based animation was in its infancy (outside of computer game animation) and Flash was something that lights did. There were many great Amiga artists but Eric was really the only one consistently making very funny, traditional style animations. His humor and drawing style is heavily influenced by classic Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons but he managed to build on this,

Make Disney/Pixar Style Characters with Reallusion's Character Creator and Toon Figure Bases

The Extraordinary Tourist Classic Coat outfit created using Reallusion's Toon Designer for CC3. I've talked before how I've wanted to get into 3D Disney/Pixar style character animation since I first saw the animated cutscenes for the very first Tomb Raider game back in 1996. It's why I initially bought Reallusion's iClone 3D studio app as soon as I could afford a computer that would run it. But then Reallusion released their 3D Character Creator (CC) for iClone and I wanted to create my characters with that (and I did try with Bat Storm ). But the focus of CC was realism, even with ToKoMotion's stylised body morphs . Now with Reallusion's Cartoon Designer bundle for CC3 which features two packs, Toon Figures , and Toon Hair , designing Disney/Pixar style 3D characters just got a whole lot quicker. The two packs are the bare essentials for creating Toon style characters. Five body morphs (2 male, 2 female, and one adolescent body morph that w

Eleven Mostly Free Comic Book/Strip Resources For Your Next Motion Comic

Created with Lywi.com Comic Maker. One really exciting use for Cartoon Animator and other animation software is to assist in the production of creating motion comics. If you're not familiar with motion comics just think of them as a kind of video comic book that typically features (but not always) all of the dialogue in each panel read by voice actors along with limited animation to make the still images more dynamic and visually interesting. Below is a demonstration motion comic I made many years ago when I reviewed Smith Micro's Motion Artist software (which has since been discontinued but, if you can find a copy, its entire purpose was to create motion comics and other motion graphics). Follow the link to the review if you want to see how this was made. The great thing about motion comics is that they're much easier to animate than an animated cartoon short. Often much of the animation will be moving a a static image of a character, panning the camera across a scene cre