hockey player notes

This was one of the earlier characters designed. As you can see, compared to the characters in the previous posts, this design is way off. I had the designers completely re-designed him, unlike the others characters which only needed tweeking. I hope my notes help anyone looking at my blog, as much as they helped the character designers on this production.

more notes

The designers were getting a much better understanding of the "stlye" at this point. This character needed very little tweeking.

mermaid notes

My notes again to the character designers, mostly stressing the importance of straight lines and curved lines.

my design notes

These are my notes to the character designers. The top image was not in the right "style" of the show. So I had the designer make a few tweeks and we have an incidental character design that fits with the look of the rest of the show. The designers told me that my notes were very helpful.

I'm on the cover!

Okay, well it's not actually ME....but it is my art. This is the cover of this month's TOON BOOM NEWS, a magazine circulated in the animation industry to promote Toon Boom software and the studios using Toon Boom programs. The cover is a design I did for Oasis Animation. There are several posts from this production in my blog archives, pretty much all of September and October 2007 archives are just from this project. Am I mentioned in the article on the inside? Nope. But there is a fascinating interview with the guy that signs my check.
My Girlfriend is also in the magazine, well it's not actually my girlfriend...but it is a caricature of her. I've highlighted her in the top picture. She is one of the incidental characters in the club scene. When I showed her the picture in the magazine she screamed and giggled like a 10 year old girl, so I think she was happy about it.

Scott mouths

Gilles mouths

gilles lip sync

Notice I gave him different teeth in the angry positions than in the happy positions.

express yourself

These were just some ideas to show the range of expressions and to help the animators, they were not meant to be used exactly, just as a reference.

Gilles rotation

poster

The idea I had for this poster was to make it look like the type of poster you might see at an actual comedy club. I think I captured the feel of a comedy club poster, and it is definitely better than the standard crappy promo pieces the animation industry usually turns out. Speaking of comedy clubs, just last weekend I saw JAMIE KENNEDY in a small comedy club. His stand up act was freakin' hilarious!

evolusion of a character design

A few tweeks and...VOILA! Finally nailed it.

They wanted him shorter, a cross between the too old version and the younger one. So I came up with this.

And with a bow tie.

So I knocked off about 40 years and made him taller.

This is Montreal comedian Gilles Latulippe. This is my first attempt at this design. I was told he was too old. They want him to look like a young Gilles, even though this is how old he looks now.

facial expressions

Seeing Scott Falconbridge perform his stand up act live was a huge help when it came time to create facial expressions. He's got the craziest facial expressions I have ever seen. It was a blast to recreate his psychotic expressions in a drawing.

SCOTT FALCONBRIDGE

Tweeked his hair a bit, and was requested to make him a bit shorter, which I did in this rotation.

Clean, vectorized, and colored.

SCOTT FALCONBRIDGE

These are the rough sketches of Montreal comedian, Scott Falconbridge. I even got to see his stand up act at a comedy club in Montreal. It was hilarious!

gamblers

This couple is always at the bar at the video poker machines.

I love this guy!

I love the BAR FLY character! These are just some locations of the interior of the bar. It looks empty right now, but the club and the seats will eventually be filled audience characters.

Oliver Domenchini

This character design is a based on a friend of mine, Oliver Domenchini. He is an animator at Oasis. Within hours of emailing this design to the studio, I got a call from the producer asking "The Assistant character looks like Oliver? Is it Oliver?" I had to laugh. I don't think anyone at the studio, including Oliver were expecting him to pop up as a character. Lots of cheats in this rotation too, especially in the arms. He is never going to rotate on the spot holding a cable like this, so it doesn't matter.

Happy and Angry lips

Some people designate their lip assignments as HAPPY LIPS A to H, and ANGRY LIPS A to H. I prefer to call the angry set by a double letter; for instance if angry mouth E is needed I would call it EE, not ANGRY E.

waitress lip sync