ADVERTISING
BRANDING
2D STORYBOARDING
3D STORYBOARDING
VIDEO GAME CINEMATIC STORYBOARDING
CONCEPT ART
CHARACTER DESIGN
ENVIRONMENT DESIGN
ORTHOGRAPHIC TURNAROUNDS
LICENSING
COMIC BOOKS
... as I'm completing my new website. I have a TON of blog posts to transfer over to this new site. So in the meantime, you can check out my old posts at the links below:
ADVERTISING BRANDING 2D STORYBOARDING 3D STORYBOARDING VIDEO GAME CINEMATIC STORYBOARDING CONCEPT ART CHARACTER DESIGN ENVIRONMENT DESIGN ORTHOGRAPHIC TURNAROUNDS LICENSING COMIC BOOKS Several years ago, I got to do some work with Green Grass Studios, an excellent animation company in Dallas, Texas, headed by Jesse Sandifer, Ryan Iltis & Brian Cole. I was asked to work on a very cool assignment: to storyboard for a one-minute cg-animated cinematic that was to be used for the looped video on slot machines in casinos, titled "2 Minute Warning".
In our meeting, we talked over the concept and agreed that the video should be about one dramatic play in a football game that ends with a touchdown. The deadline was rather tight, so this is one of those times I only did storyboards in a thumbnail form, which is a proportionately smaller version of what finished boards would look like, a time-saving measure. This worked quite well because there wasn't any dialogue to plan out in and amongst the action. The research was fun. I cobbled together every bit of reference depicting exciting football maneuvers, and started to flesh out the storytelling in broad strokes. Afterward, I did a tighter version that would fit as closely into a one-minute format that I could, from which Jesse Sandifer was able to have his team flesh out a fine looking piece of animation. Quite a successful collaboration, I think. In 2010, I had the great fortune to storyboard for Cartoon Network on episodes of Generator Rex!
Storyboarding for such mainstream shows like Gen Rex is quite different sometimes than working for other boutique animation studios, which many times are hampered by terrible budgets and timeframes. Cartoon Network is so very well structured in this regard. This is Episode 024: "Badlands". It was really great to see how closely the animation kept to the boards I did. Unfortunately for time constraints, they omitted a scene where a bad guy tried to run Rex over with his truck, which was cut in half by Rex's evo-morphed saw blade. I love working for great people like my director Rick Morales, along with producer Ryan Slater & Production Assistant Donna Lau. I learned a lot from them all. Storyboards penciled, then formatted and notated in Photoshop. You can see the storyboards to my entire sequence here. A couple years ago, my friend Josh Prikryl approached me to ask if I would come up with a movie poster concept for, of all things, a new Heavy Metal animated film. A former VP at Mike Young Productions, Josh has also been a production manager at the animation firm he and I both worked at, Reel FX Creative Studios. He's spent the last number of years as a Producer for animation film projects, currently running his own virtual animation studio called Wizard Studios Animation in Hong Kong.
Josh was able to pitch his concept for Heavy Metal 3 directly to Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who owns the Heavy Metal property. From the time Josh asked me start, to the time he actually pitched it to Mr. Eastman, I was able only to create this penciled version to compliment Josh Prikryl's presentation. I had my good friend Josh Lewis work up the logo treatment and credits, having fun with using names of actors I liked. Now that I think of it, to help the presentation, maybe I should have used Kevin Eastman's name as the director, eh? Sigh. Oh, well. Sadly, Kevin Eastman went in another direction with the movie, which left Josh Prikryl out of the running. However, I had a blast working on this piece! I keep trying to find time to go back and do a full color version of it. One day... ![]() Welcome to my storyboarding & concept design blog! I will be presenting my various work from storyboards to comic book illustration, from concept & character design to toy design, with a few other things thrown in along the way. I have been storyboarding for 2D & 3D animated feature films & episodic cartoon shows and DVDs for many years. I have also boarded for live-action films & television shows. Also, I have done storyboards for video-game cinematics presentations & for product commercials. In addition, I have done character, prop & environment design for each of the above category. I have also done toy & promotional premiums design work for many different companies. This blog is meant to showcase these various jobs I have worked on, with more in-depth discussion on the working process. I will be discussing the various ways in which I approached my jobs, and will occasionally write about the sometimes interesting and torturous deadlines that would determine how each job was executed. Why? Because no job is the same. Every job is different, as is every client's requirements are different. Sometimes jobs are requested to be in pencil only, and others require full-on color boards. The notation format requirements for some animation storyboards are very specific for one company, yet almost non-existent for another. Hopefully this blog will give some insight into the process of how storyboards are done. At the very least, this will be an extension of my online portfolio, which will allow me to present the full variety of the kind of work I do. Enjoy! |
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