2023 Wrap-Up

I was immensely lucky this year to have two productions I worked very hard on released: Adam Sandler's Leo for Netflix and Lucasfilm's Young Jedi Adventures on Disney+. Both were/have been their own childhood dream to work on (Adam Sandler? Star Wars? C'mon, man!), and as always, my contributions were but a small portion of the uncanny talents that assemble to create these amazing stories.

If you haven't already, be sure to check them out as you relax and unwind with family and friends this holiday season. (And then very quickly decline the auto-play function so that you can see my name in the credits!)

And here are some behind-the-scenes process work-in-progress images of creating this holiday image:

Rough Concept

Line Art

Flat Color

Tone & Colored Line Art

Too much snow?

Have a Smurfy Day!

Still can't seem to get away from them...

Smurfs Storyboard-to-Final-Film Comparison

As a Storyboard Artist, I'm often at a loss to explain what exactly my job is to the people who ask. When you tell someone that you're an artist in "Animation", they assume you're an actual animator and that your drawings are what appear when they watch a movie you've worked on. It's difficult to explain to them that, before the final image is produced, years and years of development artwork is created to help shape that image they see on the screen. Storyboarding is the first step from going from the written word to the final image, but the final film never shows a single bit of the work a story artist does.

In hoping that a picture is worth a thousand words, and to give a brief glimpse into the process, I present a side-by-side comparison of my own storyboards to the final animation from the feature film Smurfs: The Lost Village.

[*Note that this clip has been reframed from the actual final piece of film.]

1st Birthday Card

I drew this up for a birthday card for my nephew/Godson. Happy 1st birthday, kiddo!

Artsy.net: A Cool New Site to See

Back in 2009, whilst at the Academy of Art University, one of my assignments was a replication of a Rembrandt painting (above). Thanks to the amazing omnipresence of The Internet, I was recently contacted by the people over at Artsy.net who found my blog and figured I and my followers might enjoy their website. For those like myself who are unaware of what Artsy is, Artsy’s mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. Artsy's Rembrandt van Rijn page provides visitors with Rembrandt's bio, over 250 of his works, exclusive articles, and up-to-date Rembrandt exhibition listings.

This is a very cool website that I will continue to explore in the future. Needless to say, I am a firm believer in the power of The Arts and of art study, particularly the Greats of the past. And Rembrandt was most certainly a Great. Go explore the site for yourself, and feel free to leave a comment or two linking to any cool stuff you find there!

And, for my followers from down under, The Art Gallery of New South Wales is set to open an exhibit on November 11, 2017 titled Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum. Sounds like quite the exhibit, so be sure to check it out and drop me a line about how it is.

My First Episode of Elena of Avalor Premiered!

I am very pleased to share that my first episode of Disney's Elena of Avalor aired today on Disney Channel!

I began working on the show as a storyboard artist last July at the start of the second season. My first episode was actually the second of the season, and my section of it was actually split between the opening and closing of the show. The production team on Elena consists of two episodic directors (Nate Chew and Robb Pratt) who rotate working with three story artist teams, each consisting of three storyboard artists. I was very lucky to be on a truly fantastic team with Jules Aguimatang and Arielle Yett, both of whom picked up a lot of my slack. Each director also has their own revisionist, and all episodes are overseen by Disney veteran director Elliot Bour for animation and series-creator Craig Gerber for story and overall direction.

Shows at Disney Television Animation are all drawn digitally on Cintiqs using ToonBoom Storyboard Pro, which was a new program for me to fully utilize (outside of some dabbling at AAU), so there was a definite learning curve on the first episode. Because of that and to be sure to meet the six-week production schedule for boards, I decided to thumbnail out the entire episode on paper first, then deal with the technology.

I am happy to share with you, for educational purposes, those very thumbnail pages for episode 202 of Elena of Avalor, Royal Rivalry...

And here are some of my very first drawings of Elena, trying to grasp how I would handle the character in my final storyboards.

Hopefully that gives a bit of insight into the process of making Elena! If you've seen the episode, please let me know what you thought in the comments below. I'll post more Elena stuff as The Mouse will allow.

More NERDI Sketches

A small collection of sketches for the ongoing NERDI comic series I occasionally work on. Bits and pieces come to me here and there over the years. It's a slow-moving process, but it keeps chugging along and getting better. When the time is right, it's going to be a great project. Stay tuned..