Last week I went to the ABC network headquarters in Burbank, CA, to see a special industry preview of Disney Junior’s new Muppet Babies television show, and really enjoyed it! The team from Oddbot Inc. headed up by Tom Warburton did a fun job on updating the property into a computer generated (CG) show for today’s generation of toddlers.
The show debuted this past Friday on TV. I trust it was a smash and will continue growing and evolving. Tom and team hinted at other Muppet characters making appearances in future episodes, too, which can only mean the Muppet zaniness is sure to progress!
So, in my enthusiasm for all things Muppet (I actually tried to get a job at Jim Henson Productions before ever launching into a career in animation), I did this little digital painting of three of my favorite mini-Muppets.
There’s something to be said about childhood friends who wind up working together their whole lives.
A number of years ago before I got into the world of animation, I was a very busy illustrator. I illustrated many books whether of my own design, or sometimes with a team of other illustrators. Much of my color work back then was created with gouache – an opaque water based paint I would apply with both regular brushes and airbrushes. I absolutely LOVED this work.
After having worked for a number of years in the world of animation, and not having illustrated much anymore, the urge to paint more came bubbling up inside of me. While some of my colleagues who spend their days with cartoons want to create fine art, I wanted to create illustrations, even if they were just for me and not part of a greater project. But, I didn’t want to use gouache anymore. The erratic, organic quality of watercolors looked mighty attractive.
So, I bought some tubes of watercolors – Winsor & Newton – the same brand as my gouache paints, and decided to take a crack at ’em. The first serious attempt at using this medium resulted in the piece down below. Watercolors make up the bulk of the piece, finished with the sketchy lines that colored pencils provided.
The name “Slots Landing” was suggested by my brother.
I was hooked, and never looked back. At least 80% of my paintings since then have been with watercolors. Gouache still creeps in now and then, as does purely digital painting in Photoshop, but I absolutely love watercolors, and try to learn more with each new piece that comes across my desk.
Even though this was my first serious attempt at the medium, it remains one of the more popular pieces with viewers, likely due to the subject matter. There’s just something about the loss of innocence when tempted by something bigger and meaner that we all can relate to. The alligator seemed like a natural tempter to the sweet, innocent rabbit who he is coaxing down to the riverboat casino with his luring words and the push of his tail. It seems like the key moment of a book, doesn’t it?
The image was inspired by a verse in the Bible found at I Corinthians 10:13 where it promises to those who have given their lives to Christ that, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
Does that headline sound confusing? Well, it shouldn’t. Allow me to explain, and in the process you may learn something you didn’t know about character designing for animation.
In movies and TV shows, you always have your lead actors around whom the story is usually based. However, to make those stories work, the lead actors must be surrounded by a cast of characters who may have much smaller parts, but are key to the storytelling. These actors are called “character actors” and often breathe the soul into a story whether with their own lines or just by being catalysts in some way.
Character actors are often very interesting looking people, too. Our lives are not filled with perfectly chiseled faces everywhere we look – unless you happen to live in Beverly Hills. No, those that pass us by on a daily basis come in all shapes and sizes, various levels of face wrinkles, hair colors, and style of clothing. They are the variety of life! Character actors are needed to help us relate to a story as if we were living it ourselves.
Well, in animation, character actor characters are needed, too! (See! That title makes sense now, doesn’t it?) We need interesting looking characters to fill in the background. Some have lines, some are silent extras, but all are necessary.
A few years ago I was working on an animated project and was tasked to create a number of these background characters. Today I will be showing you some elderly people specifically. The assignment was that we needed an elderly couple wearing winter coats. So, I created two men, and two women for the director to look at and give notes on, fully expecting I’d have to go and make real changes to create a third or fourth version.
A set of four old people. I was actually trying to make the men look Japanese. The women could have gone a few ways ethnically depending on how they would be colored.
The director actually liked two of the people right away with no changes! However, the story now demanded they needed to be in life jackets. Easy fix! Life jackets they shall receive!
Although they looked buoyant already, life jackets were added to set a good example for the intended young audience.
Now normally after this, I would go in and create a clean line version without the blue tones because another artist would take them and give them their colors and textures. This was to be a computer generated project. I would also normally create turns to show the character all the way around, and create expressions or poses, or even mouth charts. But these two were mostly background, and so I was told these drawings were all that was needed for the finals to be made by others.
So, how did these characters look in the final film? Well, apparently they ultimately were scrapped from the scene for which they were intended. When looking at the final footage, only the man made it in, but he was made younger, and his clothes were changed. As you can see in the image below, he didn’t much resemble the original drawing at all, but the foundation was there. Thus is the nature of teamwork on a movie.
Who needs plastic surgery to look younger when CGI can take care of it?
This was a pretty low budget project. I’ve worked on low budget, and I’ve worked on big budget. For me the work remains the same. I try to do my best work in every situation. Smaller budgets often mean deadlines are tighter, and there is less time to refine something, but I don’t slack off in my duties. I say this because sometimes younger artists coming up will perceive a job to be less prestigious, and they won’t put as much of themselves into the work.
Even if budgets sometimes can’t quite get the final product to look as finished as one might hope when they were creating designs, one should always take pride in their work and give it all they’ve got!
This is my home studio as taken by Greg Preston for his “The Artist Within 2” book. That’s my great desk formerly located in the Disney Animation building upon which backgrounds were designed for many films. (Click on it to enlarge.)
It’s always slightly uncomfortable talking about oneself in this context. I love what I do for a living, and look forward to each new opportunity that comes my way to dissect the visual need, and come up with ideas and art to make those needs just right for clients. But to talk about oneself? You have to apply the brakes to sit here and contemplate who you are as an artist and put that into words.
Still, it is fun to show some art, and to reminisce about moments like the one below from my childhood.
Yeah, that’s me on the left with my brother and the famous singing cowboy from the movies – Roy Rogers. Click on the picture to read all about that story!
After three caricature posts in a row, perhaps it is time to return to the animal world. How about this Respectable Reptile?
A little over a week ago I saw the original 1960s Doctor Dolittle on the big screen (Rex Harrison was the star – not Eddie Murphy), and came away with animals on the brain. This dapper fella is a hand-inked specimen that came forth in my sketchbook, then colored in Photoshop.
Don’t get too close, or he may be puttin’ you on the Ritz cracker.
By the way, if you ever wondered what John Hammond from Jurassic Park looked like singing and dancing, do yourself a favor and check out that 50-year-old version of Doctor Dolittle. He’s the circus ringmaster. You’re welcome.
One of the highlights of the screening I went to was that the author of the screenplay and writer of the songs for the movie, the legendary Leslie Bricusse, was there for a Q&A along with Samantha Eggar, one of the stars of the film. It was so great to hear their tales from this film they spent a year making oh so long ago. Below is my favorite photo of the two of them that I took that day. What a treat!
Leslie Bricusse and Samantha Eggar photographed at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica on March 3, 2018.
“On the sixth day, God created Chuck Norris in His own image. On the seventh day, God rested.”
I don’t know, I may have memorized that passage from Genesis incorrectly. However, it IS Chuck Norris’ birthday today, so maybe just for today the quote is accurate.
Last week I had cause to look up my friend Paul Dooley on the internet, and was shocked to discover that he turned 90 on February 22! He has always seemed so much more youthful than that – well, he IS so much more youthful than that! So, I made him this card in celebration!
Paul Dooley – nonagenarian. (And yes, there are at least 90 flames on there – quite possibly 91 for good measure.)
Now, Paul happens to be an actor – one you may know. He played Dennis Christopher’s dad in Breaking Away, he played Molly Ringwald’s dad in Sixteen Candles, he played Julia Roberts’ dad in The Runaway Bride. He’s played a lot of dads.
Paul also has been in a lot of movies directed by the late Robert Altman, namely the part of Wimpy alongside Robin Williams in Popeye. And if you have kids, you know him as the voice of Sarge in Pixar’s Cars movies! (A little known item on my own rèsumè is a music video I worked on with Paul that is on FunnyOrDie.com.)
Yesterday was an exciting day. The short animated film Dear Basketball won an Oscar. That means the short’s two creators got to go home with the very limited edition gold statue that the Motion Picture Academy bestows upon those deemed the best in their category. That means Kobe Bryant and Glen Keane have something new and shiny.
Kobe Bryant and Glen Keane accepting their Oscars – an artist’s interpretation, of course. (Click on image to see their film!)
This was very exciting because animators don’t often get this kind of an achievement. Animation directors get them, and while Glen directed this film, he also animated it. Those are his hand-drawn pencil drawings on the screen. They weren’t animated in the computer. Pencil. Paper. That means all those camera moves whirling around a set had to be figured out with a pencil. There were no models with a computer camera spinning around. There weren’t computer models making sure the renderings of Kobe Bryant were “on model”. A man with a pencil was doing that, and filling every frame with powerful emotion through moving illustrations.
Kobe’s poem, so eloquently narrated by the author himself, was also part of that powerful emotion. It is one man’s feelings being expressed about a lifelong pursuit – a real passion. Rounding out the power was the music by none other than the great John Williams, who himself was at the ceremony last night with his 51st Oscar nomination for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Maestro Williams’ poignant music was the cherry on the top of what was a beautiful five minute experience for the audience.
Grateful to have worked with Glen in the past during my days at Disney, I’m particularly pleased to see him receive this. Hopefully you are, too. This man was behind characters you love such as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Beast in Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin in Aladdin, Tarzan in Tarzan, Pocahontas in Pocahontas, John Silver in Treasure Planet, and he conceived, developed, and produced Tangled. Now he has made a film through his own studio, and was rewarded in this way for his efforts. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
