I know, I know – today is Thursday. It’s not actually Tuesday, the day on which I isolate my comments about my short film TIM here on the blog. There was just too much to share on one day this week, so I thought I’d spread it out onto Thursday as well.
We only have 18 days left in our fundraising efforts over on Kickstarter.com, so we can use all the help we can get to spread the word about the cinematic joy my producing partner Brian Joseph Ochab and I are trying to achieve! In my post on Tuesday, I alluded to an ad that we created for Stop Motion Magazine‘s website. I wanted to post that same ad here and encourage you to download it and share it on any website, Facebook page, MySpace, and wherever else you can on the web to help us spread the word!
Click on the image to get a slightly higher resolution version of the ad.
In addition, Brian and I spent some time last week recording a special video update that was also briefly mentioned on Tuesday. So, it is posted here today for your enjoyment! I know it’s hard to believe, but we are completely untrained actors. Colin Firth better watch his back…
It’s Tuesday, so that must mean it’s time to share some more behind-the-scenes tidbits with you about my short animated film TIM. My producing partner, Brian Joseph Ochab, and I were recently discussing the need to have a logo that would appropriately communicate the vibe we are trying to elicit with TIM. It needs to be fun, whimsical, and maintain a creepy Burtonesque vibe that the film itself will have. In essence, something that can be the public face of our project. So, I broke out my sketchbook and started conceptualizing!
When I begin the visual thought process, often a flurry of very loose doodles tumble out of my pencil. My hand just whirls around the paper blorping out whatever it wants in the search for the right idea. You’ve heard of someone’s hand having a mind of its own? Believe me, sometimes it’s a challenge to get my actual mind to coordinate with the hand. My hand can go off on its own like a teenager who is handed the keys to the car for the first time. In this case, the hand was exploring lots of things that just weren’t working. It spent several hours involved in this pursuit until one sketch fell onto the page that caused my actual mind to say “THAT’S IT!”
This is the rough blue sketch of TIM that became an “eureka” moment.
After working out a more detailed pencil drawing, the next step was to create a nicely inked drawing. I do like inking by hand with brush on paper. I bought a really terrific brush pen a year or so ago and use it almost exclusively over my traditional paint brush/bottle of ink. It’s a Japanese brush pen sold by Pentel here in the States, and the ink in the cartridges is a nice solid and permanent black ink. That sucker really holds a point, too. Anyway, enough about my love for my brush pen. I also use permanent black ink pens like Microns or Prismacolor to supplement what the brush pen can’t do.
The fully rendered Timothy Todd as he appears on our “TIM – The Movie” Facebook page.
So, Tim was hand-inked, then scanned into Photoshop for some coloring. In this case, I did a kind of digital airbrushing to bring little Timothy Todd to life. The final art has all kinds of potential applications. We already made it the face of our “TIM – the movie” Facebook page (come join us by clicking here!), he makes an appearance on a coffee mug in a video update we posted on our Kickstarter page, he’s in an ad on Stop Motion Magazine’s website, and he’ll pop up in other places as well. In fact, we believe that a version of this drawing will even be the special limited edition collector’s pin that we are offering as a reward on Kickstarter!
This image may also become a T-shirt down the line. Well, it IS a T-shirt now, but only a one-of-a-kind at the moment. Just this past Saturday, Plaxico the dog featured TIM on his website. (If you’d like to take a look, CLICK HERE!) We’d like to eventually make shirts down the road, but for now am concentrating on trying to actually get the film made! But, if we do make it a shirt, it would likely look something like this…
The “TIM” logo reworked to be a cool white on black graphic!
So there you have it – the anatomy of logo creation. Come back again this THURSDAY where I’ll have a BONUS “Tuesdays with TIM” post for you. There was just too much to cram into one day!
And if you’d like to be a part of our film, come visit us at TIMtheMovie.com for more information!
Welcome to another fine addition to my Tuesdays with TIM posts showing you some of the artwork created in the development of this exciting short film project I’ve been working on with my producing partner Brian Joseph Ochab!
When trying to develop the visual style of TIM in early 2010, we didn’t wish to stray from the visuals of Tim Burton’s creepy animated films. We wanted to channel the look of Burton’s 1982 short Vincent while combining it with the visual sophistication of films like Corpse Bride and Henry Selick’s Coraline. Vincent was in black and white, and had a certain economy of scenery that was inexpensive to produce yet visually compelling. The latter films incorporated color and style to their imagery that just captures the imagination.
A close-up of Timothy Todd from the development painting below.
So, with visions of the macabre dancing in my head, I grabbed my sketchbook and started to draw various scenes based on lines in the script. We chose a couple of them to illustrate, and I got to work on this particular piece.
This is the rough sketch from my sketchbook inspired by a few lines from the script where Timothy Todd can only see ghosts and ghouls when channeling his hero.
Yes, the art below is a genuine old school painting in real life. I created it primarily in watercolor, and incorporated the use of colored pencils just a tad. I really love the watercolor medium, and use it often for my development art on this film. I think the uneven nature of it helps give a certain tactile feeling to each scene, and helps give the viewer a certain uneasiness with the creepy subject matter.
The final watercolor painting of Timothy Todd lost in the world of his imagination.
If you would like to hear Christopher Lee’s narration that goes with this piece, we feature it in our promo film over on Kickstarter. If you watch it long enough, there’s even a quick shot of me working on this very painting. You can go there right now by clicking on www.TIMtheMovie.com.
If you go to Kickstarter, please consider pledging some money to us so that we can actually make this film. We are in our final month of fundraising. I know at the $100 level, one of the things you’ll receive is a special limited edition print of one of my paintings. We have a few to choose from, so the print might even be of this particular painting.
Come back again next Tuesday for more revelations about TIM the movie! And come join the TIM Facebook page by CLICKING HERE!
Well, today over on the TIM the Movie Facebook page, we have just unveiled a contest to win the original art seen here! This drawing was inspired by something in our script that I was working on this past week with my pal and Director Brian Joseph Ochab. I created the 8.5×11″ drawing over the weekend with black and purple Prismacolor pencils on some nice textured paper, and both Brian and I signed it for whichever one of you may possibly win it!
Below the art are all the rules about how you can win this art! Enjoy!
Nothing excites a young goth lad like a shrunken zombie head I always say.
Welcome to the first ever TIM the Movie spectacular contest!!
The prize? We’ve gone all out to create a very special one-of-a-kind original pencil drawing by TIM’s co-Producer/Art Director Chad Frye signed by both Chad AND Writer/Director Brian Joseph Ochab worth $350!* It’s a drawing of our lead character Timothy Todd dressed as his hero while gleefully holding a shrunken zombie head.
To be entered into a drawing to win the, ahem, drawing, all you need to do is to make a monetary pledge of $10 or more to our film through Kickstarter between now and Thursday night, 11:59pm Pacific time on February 24th! The contest is open to ANYONE who makes a NEW pledge during the contest period, so the odds of winning the drawing are up to how many of you participate!!
And the best part of it is the drawing will be sent to the lucky winner NEXT WEEK – you won’t have to wait until our fund drive is over on March 29th like you do for the other Kickstarter rewards.
Here are the only two things you need to do to enter the contest:
1. Go to http://www.TIMtheMovie.com and make a monetary pledge to our film there on Kickstarter for $10 or more. You will be eligible for whatever rewards package you choose from the list, plus be entered in this special contest.
2. After making your pledge, you must send an e-mail with “TIM CONTEST” in the subject line to: WonderMotionStudios@gmail.com and tell us:
• your name
• your Kickstarter screen name
• and an e-mail address where we can notify you if you are the winner.
Keep in mind that these are just pledges. You are not charged any money right away. When you make a pledge on Kickstarter, you are only charged at the end of the pledge drive IF we have raised our total amount by that time.
The contest ends promptly at 11:59pm Pacific time Thursday evening, February 24th after which time one winner will be randomly chosen from among all the new pledges. The winner will be contacted to see where we need to send the original art!
Just wanted to let you all know that I do have a great Tuesdays with TIM post for today, but I have to post it a little later than usual. You see, today at 10am Pacific time the TIM the Movie fan page on Facebook is unveiling a contest in which YOU can win an original drawing of mine!
So, all I can do at this early hour is tease you with it, and encourage you to either visit the TIM the Movie page at 10am Pacific, OR come back here to the blog at that time to check out the art and the rules of play!
In the meantime, if you are a Facebook user, you can CLICK HERE to go to the TIM fan page where you can LIKE us so you can get our official progress reports!
Each Tuesday of late, I have been sharing with you some behind-the-scenes artwork and information about the short animated film I have been working on with my producing partner Brian Joseph Ochab called TIM about a young boy who wishes to be like his hero Tim Burton. If you need to catch up, you can CLICK HERE to see my previous posts.
Today’s TIM report is not so much any new info about our film as it is a celebration of our film’s narrator. You see, Sir Christopher Lee was just honored this week with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts highest honor, the BAFTA Fellowship Award. The Fellowship Award is bestowed upon those for their significant contributions to the art of film making, and as such has been bequeathed to worthy recipients such as Charlie Chaplin, Billy Wilder, John Barry, Alfred Hitchcock, Sean Connery, and Steven Spielberg to name a few.
And who presented the award to Christopher Lee? Why, none other than the actual Tim Burton.
Come back again next Tuesday when I’ll share with you some more art created in the process of making TIM the movie. And be sure to visit TIMtheMovie.com to see Christopher Lee talking about our film and more info about how you can be involved in our endeavor!
Last Tuesday I unveiled to you the news about a short animated film I am art directing and co-producing (with my friend Brian Joseph Ochab) called TIM. If you missed that post, you can CLICK HERE to get caught up. The short summary is that it is a parody of Tim Burton’s early stop-motion animated short Vincent in which a little boy named Vincent Malloy tries to emulate his hero, master of the macabre Vincent Price. In TIM, the young Timothy Todd wishes to be just like Tim Burton.
Today’s Tuesdays with TIM features a piece of visual development art I created of the star of my film, Timothy Todd, dressed as his hero, Tim Burton. I believe this is the first version of him in color, and he continues to go through changes as we proceed with developing the film. I painted him with watercolors, and a touch of colored pencil. And no, the website address isn’t on the actual art. We just want folks to be aware of where they can go for more information about the film. (If you click right on the image, it will take you there.)
“He was really quite normal, but longed to be odd…”
The other news since last week is that we now have a special fan page on Facebook for TIM, and it is growing strong! In just a week’s time, almost 1000 of you have “Liked” us! If you would like to get a steady stream of updates on TIM, come join the fan page! Click on www.facebook.com/Timthemovie and you’ll go right there!
And lastly, in order for us to see this film to completion, we need YOUR help! Come check us out on Kickstarter.com to see what kind of neat goodies we are offering you in thanks for your financial support. You can see our Kickstarter promo movie featuring our narrator Christopher Lee by CLICKING HERE!
Come back next Tuesday when I plan to show you more goodies!
For the past year, I have been working on a secret project in my spare time with my friend Brian Joseph Ochab. We have been so excited about this for so long, that our joy can no longer be contained!
Brian and I have known each other for quite a few years. We first met when I saw him performing magic at a local Los Angeles establishment. A wonderful magician who often performs at the famed Magic Castle in Hollywood, it turned out that Brian is also a filmmaker! He came to me with this wonderful idea to make an animated short film that parodies Tim Burton’s first short called Vincent.
In Vincent (narrated by the great Vincent Price), a young boy named Vincent Malloy tries to emulate the creepy Vincent Price. Over the years since making Vincent, Tim Burton has obviously become somewhat of a name himself. Our film TIM will be about the young Timothy Todd who wishes to be just like his hero Tim Burton.
While the late Vincent Price is no longer available, last July we were very pleased to be able to work with the legendary Sir Christopher Lee who lent his wonderful distinctive voice to the role of the narrator in TIM. Brian flew to London to record Christopher who also was happy to be a part of our behind-the-scenes footage.
My involvement in this project has been as Co-producer and Art Director. I’ve been busy creating character designs and development art, and soon will be diving into storyboarding Brian’s terrific script. So far the pre-production work has been done by just me and Brian, but we will need a crew to build our sets and animate the thing, and that can be expensive.
We discovered this great website called Kickstarter.com where people can go and donate money to help fund cool projects. Basically it is like a PBS fund drive – we promise you neat gifts for your various donations. Brian put together a great little promo film showcasing what we have been doing thus far and it tells how YOU can lend a hand! Check it out….
If the film doesn’t play here for some reason, you can access it directly by clicking on TimTheMovie.com!
Since our fundraising efforts on Kickstarter will be active for the next two months, I’ll continue to talk about it here on the blog where I’ll show you some of the art and behind the scenes moments from our journey thus far!
And if you dig what we are trying to do, please pass the word along to your friends about how they can also be involved in helping us bring this cool little film to life!
