The Beehive

Two for One!

2006-01-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

Here's a springboard setup from the "Big City Birds" pitchpack. In this episode, the birds visit some friends at the zoo and end up on the run from a crazy zookeeper who thinks they're exotic birds that flew their coop! Hilarity ensues when Finch and Maggie unknowingly hide out in the giant rattlesnake pit! Mucho props to my Big City pardner Jeff on this one for roughing out the killer rattler. Ain't it cool?
edit - tried somethin' else with the BG.

Promo

2007-02-03T17:32:00.000-08:00

They're Sparkleicious!

2006-01-03T22:17:00.000-08:00

Happy new year. Here's another cereal box mock-up. The plan is to do up a bunch of these bad boys then send em to the big three - Post, General Mills and Kelloggs - in hopes it'll spark a flame in them to return to the super-cool retro stylings of yesteryear. Who's with me?!
Oh - the dragon'll probably show up in 'Buckshot Billy' as one of Billy's imaginary friends - sans the magician getup, of course...
01/18/06 edit - revised aging to look more like a box.

The Making of a Cereal Box Part V

2006-01-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

5. Aging & Fine-tuning: Exported from Flash as a high res jpeg and brought into Photoshop for some texturing, noise effects and desaturation. I made my other cereal boxes kinda look like the front of the box was gently ripped off and scanned. I wanted this one to look more like an actual box that was placed face-down on a scanner. So, I backed off a little with the rips and folds and focused more on what the edges of an old box would look like head-on. I also added a city silhouette to give the piece a little more depth and interest. And I couldn't leave out the big, bold message to moms about vitamins!
So there you have it! 5 (very condensed) steps to digital cereal box construction glory! Now onto the next one!

1/07/06 edit - Upon further reflection (and some quality critiques), I've decided to lose the cityscape (see above). It works better as a vintage style cereal box without it. Maybe I'll save the city version for the book cover ;)

Quaker Honey Puffs From Heaven

2006-01-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

Boy could I ever go for a bowl of this stuff. Here's the latest cereal box throwback. I didn't intend it, but the bear's a bit of a design mish-mash of Sugar Bear and Yogi Bear, ain't he? Oops! That tartan pattern on his scarf is a masked off image I found on the net. Cheesy as heck, but I love it. The hardest part of this one was that old skool Quaker logo. It took forever to get it right!

FIGHT!

2006-01-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a nifty Flash/Photoshop combo. This one took a while to put together, but it was so worth it! There's definitely a little Kirby/Timm influence in there. Based on another wicked rough by Rob Davies. I'll probably do a couple more of these over the next few months.

Wow.

2005-12-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

Finally saw Kong last night and came home inspired to do this little tribute. I was blown away by the action sequences in this movie. They were so well choreographed and executed. Kong's acting is like nothing I've ever seen before. Go see it.

Home Sweet Home

2005-11-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a page from the 'Big City Birds' pitch pack.

Buckaroo Revisited

2006-01-12T17:14:00.000-08:00

So I think I'm just about sold on the final design for Buckshot Billy's loyal steed Buckaroo. Here's the pencil sketches next to the finished model pack page - a great example of how rough sketches can be really pushed in Flash to be more dynamic. I'm playing with the idea of Buckaroo looking more like a toy when he's not in action - just to make it more obvious that when he is it's part of Billy's wild imagination. Maybe I'll do some sketches this weekend.

Sugar Wheats

2006-01-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Geez, Lawrence really seems to love this stuff! Okay - so I don't know exactly how they would 'individually dip' the flakes, but it sure sounds tasty, huh? No prizes in this one cuz I'm too lazy, but I have a killer one ready that's going in the next box! Check back for it in a couple days.

Test Flight

2005-12-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

Click birdie to see birdie fly!! Here's a quick animation test. I think it's a little overanimated for what I'm trying to go for with 'Big City Birds'. The animation would most likely end up a lot more limited than this in the end (think UPA). Still, cool to see little Finchy finally fly!

mmmm.... cerrrrreal....

2005-12-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

Don't you wish cereal boxes looked like they used to? Come on Kelloggs, Post, General Mills - please be cool again! Anyway, here's little Buckshot Billy Wylde of the in development Big City Cartoon "Wylde West" serving as a mascot for the mock Post (please don't sue me) cereal "Cowboy Crispies". Built and coloured in Flash, then aged in Photoshop. Yee-Haw!!!!!!
01/18/06 edit - revised aging to look more like a box, adjusted contrast.

Dessert!

2007-07-19T13:26:00.001-07:00

Been busy lately! Here's some more concept stuff.

Elephant

2007-06-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Here's another concept design of a rather wrinkly but overall pretty content elephant.

Something!

2009-06-17T22:35:00.000-07:00

Sure has been a long time since I posted something... so here's... something!

Oh and btw - Jimmy-Two Shoes looks aMAZing. Watching now and officially jealous

Big City Boat

2006-10-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Okay so we're finally starting production on a 3-minute animated promo for 'Big City Birds'. The storyboard and animatic are done and I've begun designing some new locations and props, such as this one here. One of the transitions between scenes is going to be a 'boat wipe', so I had to design a boat. Since it's only going to be on screen for like 2 secs max, I really should have kept it more simple, but no... as usual I got a little carried away and spent way too much time on it. Anyway. no harm done. I'm sure it'll be reused again in a few BGs (and hey- maybe even some other shows!). Here she is!

BLOOPS! Part I - Character Sketches

2007-02-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already, you should go check out Chris Savino's Adventures In Milk blog. He's putting together a short film about a boy obsessed with cereal. The film opens with a cereal commercial that harkens back to the old Jay Ward Cap'n Crunch ads of the 60s. Check out his blog for the animatic. Good stuff! Anyway, a while back Chris and I went back and forth regarding the Bloops cereal box that would be used in the film. I said I'd love to do it, and I'm finally getting around to it now. So, I thought I'd share my work in progress. First up, here's Chris' rough of what he had in mind for the box:

As you can see, Chris is looking for a throwback to the cereal boxes of the fifties and sixties we all love - a cereal mascot looking very eager to get his hands on the delicious 'real' pieces of cereal floating down from heaven. Because I'm a huge fan of these vintage boxes I got his idea right away, and I couldn't wait to get started! The first thing I did was start roughing out the character. Once I worked out the pose based on Chris' rough I started messing around with different expressions:

This first is a funny but fairly neutral expression. I was basically just getting into the groove of drawing the character. I knew he needed to look a lot more excited.

Next I tried the 'licking of the lips' expression. Fun, but Chris' character is too nutty and cartoony for this. Bloop needed something a little more crazy.

Getting closer. The old John K. biting the bottom lip thing. I do like this one, but perhaps he looks more like he's in pain than excited?

Here we go! I opened up his mouth and angled up his head a little. He looks like he just CAN'T WAIT to get his hands on those delicious fruity loops that are dropping down in front of him. I think I'll go with this one and push it even more in Flash. More soon.

BLOOPS! Part II - Design/Layout

2007-02-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

Alright here's the rough monochromatic layout of the Bloops cereal box. I made a couple of changes to the character, including making his tongue stick out in an effort to catch a Bloop. He just can't wait! (too much?) By the way, the 'Kelloggs' logo is just temporary until I know what the fake brand name of this cereal is. I'll probably tinker with this a little more before I send it off to Chris for his input, but so far so good methinks! 'Real' cereal & bowl photography up next!

BLOOPS! Part III - Prop Photography/Editing

2007-02-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

Picked up a box of colourful fruity loopy cereal today and took a few pictures. I'm no photographer but I managed to snap a few that I could work with in Photoshop. I'm now in the process of separating the images I want to use from their backgrounds, and adjusting the hues and contrasts to pop 'em out a little more (see image). Next I'll replace the drawn cereal and bowl with the real ones. Anyone hungry for sugary cereal yet?

BLOOPS! Part IV - Compositing

2007-02-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

I finished editing the cereal photos and positioned them accordingly on the box to see how they fit. They should work nicely! Next I'll do the clean-up of the character and submarine - probably by hand to keep the retro feel. After that, a few colour passes in Flash, then a final comp in Photoshop.

BLOOPS! Part V - Cleanup

2007-02-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

For the character cleanup I really wanted to retain the loose, sketchy feel of my rough and Chris' overall design style, so I dug out my Rocky & Bullwinkle books and DVDs for reference. If you've seen Chris' storyboard for the commercial, you'll know that this look is important to the whole retro style of the commercial. However, it's tricky to translate the roughs to clean without losing some of that wonderful life! Back in the day - whether intentionally or not -the artists managed to keep the same sort of wacky, rough style in the cleanup by keeping it fairly loose as well (see image right). That is, not worrying about lines being a little wobbly, intersecting corners, and perfect circles not being... well, perfect! The drawings were still tight and everything was there, but the artists weren't so concerned with a picture perfect cleanup. When I cleaned Cap'n Bloop here I kept that in mind, did it freehand and kept it quick and loose. I could have probably even been a little more sloppy! One example of what I'm talking about here is if you look at the little finger on his right hand, it overlaps his middle finger. That's not right, is it? Shouldn't his middle finger be IN FRONT OF his little one?? awww who cares!? Stuff like that is interesting, organic, and really lends itself to this wacky style of cartooning. For this kind of cleanup you must as Yoda says 'unlearn what you have learned'. There's a few other cleanup no-no's in there as well. Can you spot 'em?

BLOOPS! Part VI - Character Color

2007-03-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

Normally I'd do the cleanup on the little submarine now, but I want to talk to Chris before I do. Instead of a drawing, it might be cool to have a real picture of the sub he's going to use in the film. Maybe a CG model or something... So, I moved on to color for Cap'n Bloop. I wanted to give his head the painterly look so I broke out the brushes and guache! Not really. It's all Photoshop. I didn't paint his body though because I wanted to make it look like he's got a 'real' cereal head with a cartoon body. I may tweek him a little more still, but final box design is next...

BLOOPS! Part VII - Final Box Design & Color

2007-03-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I played with the colors on this thing for quite a long time before settling on a very fruity combo. By the way, if the colours are burning your eyes a little it's because I haven't adjusted the saturation and contrast yet. I want to print it out first to see what needs to be bumped up or down. The 'Kelloggs' logo will need to be replaced with something else, and the submarine still needs to be added, but I think this is it for now. At least for tonight anyway. Knowing me I'll tinker around with it a little more before really calling it final... Plus, I need to get Chris to have a look at it and get his thoughts. I really, really want to 'age' this like I've done with the other boxes but It wouldn't make sense to since in the film it'll be a brand new box of cereal. Alright that's it for BLOOPS! When the final box is complete I'll make sure to post it here.

Sweet Action

2007-04-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

This here's a title card for a little promo currently in production here at Atomic. I can't take total credit for this one though. Rob Davies did the character roughs and Pat Pakula the super cool painterly BG. Thanks guys!

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2007-04-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

Next week. Be there. More info? >> click here

* poster and show organized by Mike G