![\"Wabie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Wabie-Friends-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCharacters use the names and likenesses of people he knows, including Rachel. Because he cares so much for the real people behind the characters, Velasquez found it difficult to place them in danger, \u201cSo I just put the onus on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a case of art imitating life. \u201cIn real life, I also have very bad luck.\u201d<\/p>\n
He tells stories about being mugged, getting beaten up, suffering skateboard injuries, and somehow becoming the only person in a crowded California beach to get stung by a stingray.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were like thousands of people in the water that day,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd then I was the only one that got stung by a stingray.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result is a protagonist who routinely absorbs the punishment while everyone around him watches in disbelief.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just easy to write,\u201d he says with a self-deprecating laugh.<\/p>\n
A Style All His Own<\/p>\n
The Wabie cartoons are instantly recognizable for their wobbly line work, textured characters, and painterly backgrounds that give the films a handmade quality that fans of digital animation can\u2019t get enough of right now.<\/p>\n
Part of that comes from the early internet animation of Velasquez\u2019s childhood. He cites Flash-era creators and remembers being fascinated by the old \u201cline boiling\u201d effect that made drawings appear alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out that Blender has a built-in modifier for adding that wiggle in,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I just like the way it looks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The backgrounds reflect a different set of influences. \u201cI use gouache, which is pretty much like watercolor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Velasques cites Classic Disney productions as major reference points for the shorts\u2019 scenery.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big inspiration for me is the backgrounds for Sleeping Beauty,\u201d he says. \u201cVery almost gothic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another especially influential piece of Disney history was the short educational film Four Artists Paint One Tree.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was huge in deciding the style I wanted to go for,\u201d Velasquez says. \u201cThe painted look for the background is so beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also points to hand-painted television animation.<\/p>\n
More Than Shorts<\/p>\n
What began as a collection of standalone skits has slowly evolved into something larger, although the underlying formula remains deceptively simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is something that all kids have done or can relate to?\u201d<\/p>\n
The stress of picture day, trading Halloween candy, playing in the snow, and a million other mostly mundane activities are all potential sources of off-the-wall misfortune for the Wabie character.<\/p>\n
More than that, those shared memories also create a familiar emotional foundation that viewers can relate to. It also leaves them wanting more. As the audience has grown, Velasquez and Rachel have started thinking more seriously about expanding the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been slowly gearing up to expand upon it,\u201d he says. \u201cLonger form stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenge is, expectedly, as much logistical as it is creative.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of expanding upon it is me just figuring out how to scale it up if I\u2019m doing all this stuff by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means painting backgrounds, animating scenes, recording dialogue, and managing production while maintaining the high level of quality that attracted viewers in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to figure out the most efficient way to do that without sacrificing on the quality\u201d is one area that Velasquez says he\u2019s unwilling to compromise.<\/p>\n
Student to Teacher<\/p>\n
One of the more surprising developments in Velasquez\u2019s career has been his emergence as an animation educator.<\/p>\n
As his profile grew, Velasquez was asked time and again to talk about his process and what it takes to make a Wabie cartoon. Initially, he was hesitant.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were asking me for a tutorial,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I was like, I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, he decided that wasn\u2019t a good enough reason not to share what he had learned, and wanted to pay forward the help that he got from so many tutorials while teaching himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I\u2019ve learned so much from YouTube,\u201d he says, \u201cI felt like I might as well. I did put a big disclaimer in the tutorial saying, \u2018I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing, so this is just how I do it\u2019\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
Unready for the eventual response from followers, Velasquez says the experience has been overwhelming and humbling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had people reach out saying, \u2018Oh, I started animating because of you.\u2019 That\u2019s the best feeling of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Indie Future<\/p>\n
Animation has increasingly become more than a side project, and, for now at least, even replaced music as Velasquez\u2019s primary creative outlet. He recently completed a lengthy music tour that he partly viewed as a transition point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was kind of treating it like a quasi farewell tour,\u201d he says. \u201cAnimation has just been so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
His enthusiasm has not gone unnoticed, with studios and networks joining the ranks of his fans and several reaching out to explore possible collaborations.<\/p>\n
For now, however, Velasquez appears less interested in speed-running toward a traditional career in animation than in continuing to learn, experiment, and build his audience organically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to rush into anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an attitude that mirrors the way he got into animation in the first place. There was no master plan, just a desire to develop a new skill he could do from the safety of his apartment, and one that could thrive alongside he and Rachel\u2019s music and storytelling impulses.<\/p>\n
So, for now, Velasquez sits in an enviable position. He has a small but extremely affecting body of work and a rapidly growing fanbase that desperately wants to support him. Suitors will surely continue to call, but in the meantime, Wabie and Rachel are going to keep doing things their way and at their own pace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He may not be a household name yet, but musician-turned-self-trained animator Wabie Velasquez is creating something magical online.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-535302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}