Pirate Sketches

Just having some fun on a friday night while the kids are sleeping. Not really going anywhere with these, just searching for some shapes and ideas.

Story Department Gift

When I get involved with the design of a new location, one of my main concerns is making sure I accomplish the needs of the story department. So up front as I work , I meet with the board artist in charge of a sequence and try to accomplish his/her needs as best as possible. Since I am modeling in a development phase, when finished I prepare a packet of information to hand off to the story artist. In that packet I include main angle shots of the location, a orthographic top view with camera locations, then I go through and set up 40 to 50 cameras to supply other information that might not have been thought of yet. This really aides in the consideration of new places to place a camera, and how to set up a sequence. Later on after the boards are locked we can go through and make the necessary changes in production to accomodate camera layout, and the finished set. I have found the director and story artists to be really responsive to this early mode of thinking since we are not just working with one or 2 images of art. It helps open the possibility of what we can do with a camera in a 3d set. Where it can go, and should not go.

Int Store- Themepark

I wanted to thank everybody for stopping by and for the great feedback. Thank you!! I am new to the blog arena, and I appreciate the comments from everyone. This design is a interior of a store, I did for the overall Theme park location. My concern was the character animation, which I felt would be best displayed by moving in a circular path around a center, so I created a series of mini table shopping themed areas that you would find in a real theme park. Then layout could choose the areas they liked best. I wanted to make sure that there was some difference between each other, and they were not just duplicated models in every corner. (My youth of field trips to Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland was a help here.) So right from the beginning I thought of themes applicable towards a space theme: a general store theme of cups, a hats display, t shirts & clothing, ships, collectibles, and cars would be good to fill the areas for layout. Special thanks to my co worker Damian for his help with the car design during the deadline.

Teamwork- The Theme Park

Here are some designs of a Theme Park I did in pre production development, that aided us in making changes early before we hit production. Things changed later with the set in production to accomodate: certain sequences, camera moves, and character animation. I must give credit to my team at work: Ron Pagenkopp in layout who is a awesome designer, super Dave Schwartz in story, and my director the all talented Mucci Fasset. We have great meetings all brainstorming together coming up with ideas and solutions, which all contributes to the finished environment. I was pretty happy with this set because I had rough drawings to work from and a good portion of the detail came out of my head while I was in the middle of it. Not to mention the turn around time was fast. Overall I was hoping to get cool shapes and design that would support the story and theme. Luckily I have a great director who encourages us to go off on our own and place our own spin on things.

Out Of School

The other day at work a intern asked me what I was doing when I got out of school (and if I could share what I had done on my blog), and I said sure ...."I was trying to build a portfolio for animation so I could get a job ." Because working part time at the City of Yorba Linda as their event planner/wedding coordinator supervising weddings every weekend with a bunch of drunkards wasn't really what I wanted to do. But I could draw, and draw all night during every event, get free food from caters, and make money to take classes. I did these drawings in 1998 & 1999 after I got out of art school. At that time I was lucky enough to take classes on the side at Associates in Art in Sherman Oaks, (which is now gone). I took every layout design class offered with such ubber super duper talented artists such as Ed Gerhtner, Scott Caple, Paul Felix, Jim Schenkler, Sam Michlap, Michael Spooner, and Robert St.Pierre. While there I meet some really talented students that had so much passion in what they did it was inspiring; such as Stephen Silver, John Nevarez, and Joe Weahterly. And watching them grow into such nice and talented guys over the past 8 years has been awesome.
For those of you wondering where you can find such classes today- check The Animation Academy in Burbank www.theanimationacademy.com, and The Entertainment Art Academy in Pasadena www.enterartacad.com.
So here are some older images I did back when I got out of school. I like being able to look back and see what I did back then and what I am striving for now. Now I have been drawing to find that confidence in line and stroke that you only find with Hans Bacher, Michael Spooner, or John Nevarez. Drawing mileage.

Getting Started Part-II

Before I get started I wanted to thank two great and oh so super talented friends of mine, Simon Rodgers (Sim-R) and John Nevarez for helping to light the fire under my pants for me to get busy and get blogging. I have had the pleasure of working and taking classes with theses these guys way back in the day. Couldn't know nicer guys!! Thank you!!

Ok...the science garage, since the camera is going to be in closer rather than away in the establishing shot, I added some more props because I really wanted to push the silhouette shapes to frame around the main character. I did two rough lighting passes to search for the mood I liked....one with fog and one with out, then did some close up renders around the center to see what shapes I would get in the composition. The thing I love about designing in Maya is I can go ahead and arrange shapes to fit the best composition possible early in a development phase with the modeled set, then pass that information forward to help story. Finally, I had the chance to dive into some rough color. I don't get a chance to paint much anymore, but just as I learned Maya, I shall remedy that, and as I move onward in this blog, you might see some scary color combinations, but give me sometime to grow. Thanks for stopping by.

Getting Started

Finally made it!! My first step into the blog arena, trying to figure it all out. First thing I have to do is thank my awesome wife Kindra for her help and support with everything, especially watching the little ones, so I can slip away into my studio and work. Thank you!!!!
Thought I would start off with a new project I am working on with a friend.The story is structured around a childrens book idea that we are preparing for a publisher, but could lead towards animation. Anyway its just fun getting to create something fun for yourself. I only had a couple days to do the everything, and I decided to show some of my process here, that might not be shown in future postings. There are some quick thumbnails that took about 25 minutes each searching for some shapes based off what the story indicated, then some prop design roughs, then a render of the first pass of the set I built in Maya. Some revisions and changes will come, in the next posting, as I explore the set in 3d further to accomodate camera angles and story ideas that fit the composition we like the best, that might not really be represented in the concept art. It all sort of changes as the art gets moved into 3d.