Category: Development Art

Care Bears – SQUIRREL!

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date August 29, 2012

Back in the beginning of 2011, I was asked to help out a bit with the pilot for a new Care Bears television series. The director, Jeff Gordon (no relation to the race care driver, but he can manipulate a mean pencil) was developing it at a studio called Moonscoop for broadcast on The Hub channel. Yep, those of you with The Hub know that it has already begun to air just this past June.

One of the things Jeff asked me to do was to design a squirrel family – a mama, papa and baby squirrel. I got the ball rolling with some developmental designs for all three and took them as far as I could go before I moved on to begin working on another project for Moonscoop. The squirrel family made it into the show, and even appear in the opening titles of The Care Bears.

I thought I would show you some of my drawings of the baby squirrel. As you can see, the young toothy one went through a transformation over the four images here. I’m sure he changed even more from this to the final because the show is done in CG (computer generated).

Cuteness runs rampant in Care-A-Lot.

In case you are curious of how the squirrels turned out, you can see them in the opening title sequence of the show. Covered in turquoise fur, they only get seen from behind during the song, but make their presence known in some of the episodes. Perhaps another time I can show some other characters I drew during the development of the pilot.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date November 15, 2011

This morning, NBC’s Today Show gave a little sneak peek at a few of the floats that will be in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year. I was surprised to learn that there will be a Zhu Zhu Pets float based on our little animated Quest for Zhu movie that is currently on DVD. I was even more surprised to see that at least one of the characters, Pipsqueak, is based off of a drawing I did back in the development process of the movie!

Zhu Zhu Pets movie

While an annual tradition for New York City, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade was also a tradition in the Frye home. We always would watch it on television, but as Jersey people, we had also gone to see it live on the freezing city streets. (I remember fondly seeing the Big Bird balloon getting sucked down an alley by a gust of wind with all the balloon handlers being dragged behind it – good stuff that they never show you on TV.) To have a small influence on a float in this year’s parade is truly mind-bending for me.

Here’s the clip from today’s Today Show! I’ll be looking forward to seeing the full float on television on Thanksgiving day! Enjoy!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Animals Art: Preliminary Sketches Character Designs Development Art Videos Zhu Zhu Pets

2011 Monster Month: Day 18 – The Orange Puff

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 26, 2011

It’s bad enough when your left hand doesn’t know what your right hand is doing, but can you imagine if all your body parts had minds of their own?

Now THAT’s a face only a mother could love. Although, I’m a little frightened to see what SHE looks like!

Only a few more days left in this year’s MONSTER MONTH! Come see what tomorrow may bring!

Art: Inking Art: Watercolor Character Designs Development Art Monsters

2011 Monster Month: Day 17 – Zhusquashya

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 25, 2011

When you work in the world of animation, you have to be prepared to draw some pretty interesting stuff when the script calls for it. In the Zhu Zhu Pets DVD movie, The Quest for Zhu, we had to come up with a hamster based abominable snowman. Stephen Silver did some initial designs, and I proceeded to refine the character.

The following are some of my pencil drawings of the winter sasquatch creature we called Zhusquashya.

Our version of a winter Bigfoot was based on the general hamster design of all the Zhu Zhu Pets movie characters.

Early on I did this drawing of Zhusquashya getting shocked, and later I worked on some storyboards in which I got to show the beast interacting with electricity.

You can see that this creature was quite large in our story. Sure hope he was housebroken!

The mayhem continues tomorrow with another MONSTER MONTH creation!

Animals Character Designs Development Art Monsters Zhu Zhu Pets

2011 Monster Month: Day 16 – Plan B

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 24, 2011

Ever have one of those days when nothing seems to be going right? You wake up to a jack hammer outside your home, spill coffee on your freshly pressed cape during breakfast, head on out to work and you step in a deep puddle, and then horror of horrors, the little girl you are trying to scare actually fights back. That’s when you have to swallow your pride and implement “Plan B” by stealing her little pink tricycle and just peddling out of there as fast as you can.

Get some rest. Tomorrow is another day.

Plan B — When nothing goes right, you just gotta flee from danger even if it means the tricycle you stole sports handlebar streamers. (Click on image to see those streamers larger.)

I hear that tomorrow’s monster promises to be truly abominable. We’ll see.

Art: Colored Pencil Art: Watercolor Character Designs Development Art Illustrations Monsters

2011 Monster Month: Day 12 – Zhurassic Saber-Tooth Tigers

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 18, 2011

In the recently released Zhu Zhu Pets DVD, The Quest for Zhu, there are all manner of beasties ready to threaten the four hamster heroes Mr. Squiggles, Pipsqueak, Num Nums and Chunk. One such danger is a pack of saber-tooth tigers called Zhurassic Zhus.

Today I thought I’d share with you two versions of these growly striped kitties. Like a nature photographer, though remaining at my much safer desk, I was tasked with capturing the behavior of these creatures for inspiration to those that followed me in the creative pipeline. In our story, these fellas reside in the snowy mountain cliffs. Putting myself in the position of the hamsters, I imagined that the most frightening introduction I could have to this life-ending threat would be to perch them above on a cliff looking hungrily down while being framed by the blinding sun. So, I penciled out the pose, scanned it in and added some dramatic flare in Photoshop by including shadows.

Zhu Zhu Pets movie — Now THIS is something that could just ruin your whole mountain hike. (Click on image to see it larger.)

Usually when I did these kinds of character development drawings, they would be passed along down the production line just as you see it. This time, however, the director took a shine to the drama in this piece, so he asked my buddy Tom Cain to paint it in color as I moved on to do other drawings. I really loved how Tom handled the whole scene so I thought I’d share with you his terrific version of these snarling, drooling hamster nightmares.

Come back tomorrow to see if you scream, if I scream, if monsters scream for ice cream!

Animals Art: Drawings Art: Photoshop Art: Preliminary Sketches Character Designs Development Art Illustrations Monsters Zhu Zhu Pets

2011 Monster Month: Day 4 – The Reptilian Villain

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 6, 2011

Prior to this year’s Monster Month, I shared with you some of the art I created as a character designer for the new Zhu Zhu Pets movie, The Quest for Zhu, that came out on DVD last week. The drawings showed lots of cute little hamsters with their big eyes and button noses. What I didn’t tell you was that the movie also contains a few monsters, the most villainous of them all being the evil Mazhula!

Mazhula has a head inspired by a cobra, body of an alligator, and the personality of a jar of mayonnaise that has turned. My colleague Stephen Silver conceived her basic look, and I began to define her behavior and personality with the following drawings….

I wonder if she realizes she has two fingers pointing right back at her?

Early in development, Mazhula’s tail was going to have a perpetual blue flame, but who wants an eternal flame near their backside, especially on burrito night?

You wouldn’t catch ME licking a hamster like that. I’d have no idea where it’s been!

While the above were character study sketches, towards the end of production I did one more detailed drawing of the evil Mazhula that can be seen during the end credits of the Zhu Zhu Pets movie. Mazhula has this ability to shoot electric fireballs from the palms of her hands, but when she does so, she depletes her own power. To recharge, she plugs her tail into a spittoon-looking device that is an electrical outlet for reptiles of her caliber. The following drawing is based on a moment in the movie that was storyboarded by my friend Mike Kunkel (known for his comic book a few years ago called Herobear and the Kid).

Sleeping Mazhula — Click on the sleeping Mazhula if you DARE!

Return tomorrow to see how a monster deals with far-sightedness!

Animals Art: Drawings Art: Preliminary Sketches Character Designs Development Art Illustrations Monsters Zhu Zhu Pets

2011 Monster Month: Day 2 – Monster Tea Party

Post author By Chad Frye
Post date October 4, 2011

Back in 2004 I was contemplating getting into using the watercolor medium. For many years I created illustrations with colored pencil and gouache, an opaque water based paint. Watercolor paint started catching my eye to the point of inspiring me to give it a try. But what would be a worthy image on which to test this new medium? The first piece to drip out of my brush involved an alligator and a bunny rabbit, but then….. MONSTERS!

In the classic Frankenstein movie with Boris Karloff, there is a moment when this big lumbering beast comes across a little girl. As an audience, you know what this behemoth is capable of, and the little girl who is none the wiser just sees a potential playmate. What if some monsters got snagged into playtime with a fearless little girl who just would not let them go? Instead, she is the monster, and they are the victims. With that backstory in mind, I created this piece which turned out to be the launch of my interest in fun monster art:

Monster Tea Party — How DOES a monster politely excuse himself from a tea party anyway? (Click on image to see it larger.)

Some of you may have seen the above painting on my website, but what you have NOT seen before are some of the preliminary sketches from my sketchbook that were drawn in the quest for just the right combination of monsters to be tormented by this situation. An illustration doesn’t just fall into place with the first critters that come to mind. Below are a few beasties that didn’t make the cut:

Manny, Mo and Jack here look fun and all, but just weren’t the right tone for the final painting.

Kukla, Fran and Ollie here also were not quite what was needed for a tea party.

The six fellas above were just a few of the dozen and a half heads that came out of my pencil. Three faces were needed, and three faces were found, but not all in a row. Scattered amongst the many pages of exploratory monster drawings were the three you see below – the three that made it into the final painting:

Capt. Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters are the three that made the final cut.

So, there you have the genesis of my interest in monster art! I also happen to love the Muppets, so that might help explain a bit of the ol’ Henson influence that may come through now and then, too. Come back again tomorrow for another strange creation that’s a vision, but only an illusion – a monster that has nothing to hide.

Art: Colored Pencil Art: Preliminary Sketches Art: Watercolor Character Designs Development Art Illustrations Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook