Category Archives: Illustration
PALM ROT POSTER IDEAS
Spent all day illustrating a poster of PALM ROT but I just can’t make the composition work. Or the colors. It worked so well in my head. The poster up top just feels kind of lazy. Right now I think the best option is still the stamp I designed 2 years ago.
PALM ROT PICTURE IS DONE – Trailer & Process
Finally finished with PALM ROT.
Minus some minor sound stuff, it’s good to go – so I’m already submitting to festivals.
Right now I’m cleaning house on some process stuff laying around the apartment, but before I toss it, I’m gonna digitize it.
I made this packet before I started production last June so that I’d be able to keep my head on straight over the next 13 months.
It’s interesting to go through this thing again, because after I got into the swing of production I stopped referring to it. I’d come up against problems in certain scenes and think I was real clever for solving them, but in almost every case I’d written down the solution a year ago.
And because I love behind-the-scenes featurettes, here are some gifs that show the progress of particularly troublesome comps:
A few of the last cool render-errors:
Last thing – when I was home for my birthday back in June my brother Phil gave me the original crate that inspired my thesis.
These jars were filled with flies that went to SPACE.
FISH TANK MEGA-POST_updated
Two Decembers ago I did some character design for a series pitch that a couple of friends of mine (Brian Brown and Michael Feld) were making to Cartoon Network.
I put some work in and they were generous enough to sign me up as a co-creator. Cartoon Network ended up liking the pitch and for a little over a year we’ve been wrapped up in a development deal.
The whole process was kind of like a video game. You keep working through checkpoints. If they pick up the pitch you move on to episode premises. If they like the episode premises, you move on to series mini-bible. If they like the mini-bible, you move on to pilot thumbnails. If they like the pilot THUMBNAILS, you move on to production storyboards. Then after that, ideally, you produce a pilot.
We got as far as the production storyboards before the network decided to pass. But the whole experience was exciting as hell, and now I get post all the work I generated for the project:
Here’s the series mini-bible-
Art by me, words by Brian Brown and Michael Feld.
I based most of the designs on different fish, depending on the personality of the character. DB we kind of hit on the first try, but here’s some of the process for the other characters:
Stats based on the puffer-fish. Final version is on the left.
We ended up changing Emilio’s name to Fayaz- and everyone would just call him Az. He was based on a beta-fish. His face took a while to get right. Final version is in the middle.
Patty is one of my favorite characters. I really like the original design I did based on a barracuda, but the other guys didn’t think it was the right fit. Final design on the left.
General Swift is in charge of the Fish-tank. Originally based on an octopus, we ended with the design on the left. I tried to inject some more of her personality with that drawing of her and the gator.
Tink went through the most iterations, but she ended up being my favorite design.
Todd and Maude are a brother and sister-duo, both based on sharks.
This here is Dean Dean, not featured in the mini-bible because he was designed after the episode was written. Also the host of the #2 rated Dean-related podcast.
Finally, here are the production boards for the would’ve-been-pilot, “Dance, Dance, Revolution!” -
Update!_7.16.14 -
I almost forgot. Throughout the whole development deal we were mostly dealing with one person. She was always really helpful and supportive, so around Valentine’s Day I drew up these cards as a thank-you.
STYLE FRAME
I’ve got 3 shots left on my thesis. It doesn’t feel real. There’s still a lot of fixing/massaging to be done after the animation is finished, but the biggest decision I have to make is whether or not I’m going back through the whole thing for a shading pass. I think it would look great, but it would add months and months of production to my thesis. Six and a half minutes of animation to pour through. Shading 4680 frames. DO I HAVE THE STRENGTH?
INKTOBER
I was inspired by my buddy Jesse James Dean to hop on the inktober train and draw some of my favorite horror movie icons. The month was supposed to result in 31 finished ink drawings. I think I only have 1 finished drawing, but a shit ton of doodles:
And finally, this is a drawing that might get incorporated as a single frame in the thesis film of animation overlord Simon Wilches:
