Project Review Wildstorm Productions GEN 13 Feature Film 1996 PART II

 Here is a final background I did using a tank designed by Shayne Poindexter a fellow ACCD grad whom I worked with @ Hearst Animation.

 

 In the final act the main airbase is decimated with craters and I helped develop the look of that destruction in this under-drawing layout I did. Final was a 16 field size.

The main Hangar inside as a vertical 12 field PAN.

Project Review

Wildstorm Productions GEN 13 

Feature Film 1996 PART II

Client: Windstorm Animation Venice CA.
Art Director: Kevin Altieri
Project Date: Summer 1996

I found a few added drawing that I did back in the 90's on the Wildstorm Productions GEN-13 Comic Book Movie adaptation, so this is my second post for the work I did.

I worked on some background layouts for the production, and did a few dozen layouts used in the film, and today we look at two under drawings and one final piece I have located. 

 

I have not located any copies of the finals for the other two, but the roughs show what I was going with, and this was a basic part of remote working for them, as I would rough out every shot fast as an under drawing first to get approval on view design and proportions. 

 

If approved, I would then move to the final overlay velum drawing final to deliver as seen in the top image above for Gen-13.

I am a huge fan of the designer J. Scott Campbell, so to work on this was a dream job for me, and I got to briefly meet him at the screening where I got these.

You can view PART I here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review The Phantom 2040 PART CXVII [117th] More Background Design Mini Layouts and Grids

 A rough layout move blocking that I did for Jesse Santos to complete of the African Jungle. I blocked the skull cave over on the right, with a tabletop mesa to the left.

 The Maximum Inc Rocket lands in a field out in the countryside outside of Metropia.

 An Exterior of the Lab blocked with foreground vines to part upon truck in.

 Here is the Maximum Inc Rocket in the cargo bay ready to lift off.

Project Review
The Phantom 2040
PART CXVII [117th]

More Background Design Mini Layouts and Grids

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

For my Tuesday 2D post this week, I have found even more of the small layouts I did to assist in production on the Television Animated Series from the mid 90's called The Phantom 2040.

I did these blocking grids to be used by multiple groups both in-house in the states, as well as for our overseas groups working in France and South Korea.

The background painters, Layout Artists, Storyboard Artists, and Animators all took advantage of these as they would provide that little bit of extra information to help them complete the work on model and quicker too.

I often did plan views, cut away drawings , and whatever detailed sketch was needed to help us make our production deadlines, and simple milestone goals each month, as we did put out 52 episodes in those hectic two years at Hearst Animation.

 If you are a FAN of The Phantom 2040, and on FACEBOOK, there is a group for that....  here.

There is a TAG on the list to the RIGHT for other Phantom 2o4o entry's, but you can click this as well.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review Conceptual Design: Un-Named Teaser Trailer Spaceship Conceptual Designs PART IV

 Here is the final I delivered to the client for the first Fighter design round "C".

 Here is the drawing still taped to the 3D Perspective Grid object I blocked out first.

 And here is the 3D render I sketched over of the base object.

 All small fighters were mocked up to show the "net" they made when all linked together.

 The alternate was smoothed out and not as geometric so " I put it in the Oven" , and old ACCD term when our clay models were too sharp edged.

 Here you can see the 3D-Perspective grid taped as an underlay.

 Here is the base 3D blocked object I built to sketch over for this second pass.

 Here is the Big Mother-ship for round C using the same softened hex shapes as the base proportion.

 Here is the sketch and underlay still attached.

 Here is the 3D blocking model I built for the ship design.I print it out and sketch over it, allowing me to design the look, not get hung up on an accurate perspective, which the grid assists you with.

 Project Review

Conceptual Design:
Un-Named Teaser Trailer
Spaceship Conceptual Designs PART IV

 

Client: Rock!T[ Now Method Studios]
Art Direction: Seven Viola.
Project Date: July 2011.

Today I am posting for my Thursday 2D post, part three showcasing my design project from just over a year ago in the Summer of 2011 that I did for Steven Viola at Method Studios designing spacecraft for a teaser TV spot.

I have already posted parts one and two in 2D, covering the first two concepts , as well as some 3D blocking models I detailed out a bit more, so for today I am posting the final in this series , with the round "C" spaceships for the gig, my last 2D post for this project. 

For this last round I went with a honeycomb six sided look, so when the little fighters linked up it created a mesh like fabric that would cover the mother-ship. I also blocked out the design for the mother-ship echoing the six-sided feel, though by this point it was softened up a lot.

You can review PART I here showing off Design A, and PART II here showing Design "B", and you can view the final A designs in 3D here as well. 

Cheers, THOM

Project Review The Phantom 2040 PART CXV [115th] Background Design Mini Layouts and Grids

I often included a plan-view of the scene to help set-up the action as I did in this little truck-in PAN shot from The Phantom.

 A double move shot focusing on a computer in a DATA lab.

Here is a grid layout for Sagan Cruz in her apartment. You can see the pedestal bed on the right.

 Here is that rough gridded out for inside the Phantom 2040s Lair at a Computer center.

Project Review
The Phantom 2040
PART CXV [115th]

Background Design Mini Layouts and Grids

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

For my Tuesday 2D post this week, I have put up some added background design drawings from The Phantom 2040, a TV Animated Sci-Fi show from the early to mid 90's that I Art Directed for Hearst Animation.

This is my 115th posting for the show, as I was responsible for the look of the show so I had my hand in a whole lot of designs.

In order to get a better perspective background "product' from my resources, I chose to grid out a huge amount of the layouts to give the artist a grid to build over for the finals.

Though I trained the teams in curvilinear perspective, we did not always get the desired results, so I did these mini velums for the background layout artists, painters, and storyboard artist teams we employed to get the look even closer.

I have mentioned this before but designing the production itself, is the legitimate job of the Art Director, and for me doing this little "assist' ,was a key part in our product to get the look we achieved, even though we had the lowest budget at the time for any TV series in animation.[ 1/3rd of BATMAN]

 If you are a FAN of The Phantom 2040, and on FACEBOOK, there is a group for that....  here.

There is a TAG on the list to the RIGHT for other Phantom 2o4o entry's, but you can click this as well.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review The Phantom 2040 PART CXI [111th] Perspective Grid Background Action Layouts

 Cyberville was a B.I.O.T. based city in the later episodes of The Phantom 2040, and this is a layout blocking I did for the team to follow.

 This was a fun shot to design, Mr Cairo was on an operating table looking up at the ceiling so I put some strong fish-eye on the shot along with a tilt-rotate pan of sorts as he looks up to his reflection.

 For this blocking I did this for the layout and the storyboard crews to help set up our truck in pan shot here.

A shot of the curved walls inside the space station where Sean One lived with a scaled blocking for the characters.

Project Review
The Phantom 2040
PART CXI [111th]

Perspective Grid Background Action Layouts

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

So today for my Thursday 2D post, I have here my 111th post covering the Conceptual Design and Art Direction work that I did for the TV animated series, The Phantom 2040 from in the early ninety's, and I am reviewing some episode Direction Scene Blocking that I did for the show.

As Art Director on the show, I blocked out in simple grid format a whole bunch of shots to assist the multiple teams with staging in fish-eye. Getting folks who have only drawn straight edge perspective to move over to curves was a difficult one, as most students I meet do not understand the concepts behind why we see in perspective in the first place[ parallel lines projected onto a sphere will converge]so they had difficulty with the fish eye, let alone just an accurate straight edged perspective, so I did these grids to help them.

They were all small sketches, so as to fit on the storyboards themselves, and we taped these originals to a board pages to give the animators a clear understanding of some shots along with the various other reference.

Trained in space planning at both CCS, and ACCD, this was a skill I never thought would be used in TV animation, but it was a great help in staging these shots.

If you are a FAN of The Phantom 2040, and on FACEBOOK, there is a group for that....  here.

There is a TAG on the list to the RIGHT for other Phantom 2o4o entry's, but you can click this as well.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review The Phantom 2040 PART CVII [107th] Mini Vehicle Design Perspective Grid Layouts for Storyboards

An Enforcer Hyper-cruiser from above, you can see the design here, and here.

An Interior shot of a generic vehicle

Another overhead shot of Maxwells Hyper-Limo. the grid helps them layout the buildings as well as a UL[ Underlay]

 A shot in action of the Phantom on his Hyper-Cycle with his Multi-Cruiser right behind him with Guran inside.

Project Review
The Phantom 2040
PART CVII [107th]

Mini Vehicle Design Perspective Grid Layouts for Storyboards

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

This is my 107th post covering the Conceptual Design and Art Direction work that I did for the TV animated series, The Phantom 2040 from in the early ninety's, and I've posted today these little storyboard layouts I did for the various shows.

On small budget shows, like we had on PH-2o4o, you do more front end work since it will get lost in production once they begin, so if you are diligent up front, you can get a better product with a bit of extra work.

These little layouts I did are just 2x3 in size, so about the size of a business card, and what we experienced on the shows was that in South Korea, they simply xeroxed up the storyboard frame and went from there right to production. So if the boards were vague they would be vague.

They almost never redrew the frame, which is the typical way it is done, so I decided very early on to put some perspective grids in these mini shots to help them even more, and it worked!

If you are a FAN of The Phantom 2040, and on FACEBOOK, there is a group for that....  here.

There is a TAG on the list to the RIGHT for other Phantom 2o4o entry's, but you can click this as well.

Cheers, THOM

Production Design: Raveonettes' Music Video: Heart of Stone The Greenhouse Exterior Design Development PART VI

 Here is the rough under drawing I did with a red grid in perspective and blue-lines as the blocking model.

 Here is the drawing done over the top of the grid and the comp rough, all still taped together.

 The clean Line art as I finished and scanned in to deliver.

A Close Up on the Greenhouse entry and elevator

The final as delivered to Blind.[ a re-post]

Production Design:
Raveonettes' Music Video: Heart of Stone
The Greenhouse Exterior Design Development 
PART VI

Client: Blind.
Art Director: Chris Do.
Project Date: January 2010

Today I have posted my sixth part, in a series on the Production Design work I did for the Music Video Heart of Stone, by the Raveonettes back in 2009-2010, and for todays posting I am showing the 'behind the process', in the creation of the exterior of the main Greenhouse Design used at the front end of the piece.

I had bout 4 hrs for each design and so for this one, I did a fast rough as seen above, and jumped onto the details quickly. I had an interior as well I designed too, so I made sure the two scenes matched up for continuity, a term used in Television Animation to ensure that the designs are logical to each other.

I had such a great time on this, even though it was a super fast work pace. Don't get me wrong, this is very stressful to design something that fast, I turn off all music and talk radio and focus something feirce to get this done in that timeframe, and I am exhausted once I am done.

It all paid off, and I will always be proud of the work I did for this fun music video.

Cheers, THOM

You can view the prior posts below:
PART I
PART II 
PART III 
PART IV 
PART V

The Music Video is here.

Project Review The Phantom 2040 PART CV [105th] Layout Design Underlay Sketches

A grid layout of an exterior area of an outdoor mall/arcade from the Phantom 2040 DVD Movie, and early episodes.

I very quick blocking I did up in Canada for the layout team to break down the design into its most simple forms for the Living Room where Kit Walker lives with his Aunt Heloise.

I simple blocked proportion of "tall and thin" in this little closet in the Phantoms Frank Lloyd Wright inspired Lair.

Here is my original rough pencil sketch on tracing that was used both in the show, and also as a part of the promotional package here.

Project Review
The Phantom 2040
PART CV [105th]

Layout Design Underlay Sketches

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

This is my 105th post of my work from the TV animated series, The Phantom 2040 from in the early ninety's, and I have scanned and posted up a few more underlay drawing from the many layout designs I provided the team.

Some layouts were full bore, completed to the end with all detials you would expect, but a large portion were done this way to get more blocking and camera angles into more shots. I would do one tight design and 30 roughs like these to help the layout, storyboard, and background painting teams to get the direction right on the first pass. This is key in a lower budgeted show, its all about the tricks to get a better product for the money, as far as Art Direction is concerned.

I teach, that you draw lightly on the first pass, and build up the design over and over until you have what you want, then do a clean overlay. These are those first pass sketches here.

If you are a FAN of The Phantom 2040, and on FACEBOOK, there is a group for that....  here.

There is a TAG on the list to the RIGHT for other Phantom 2o4o entry's, but you can click this as well.

Cheers, THOM

Behind the Art The Under Drawings PART III

 For the Men in Black attraction at Universal Studios Florida ALIEN ATTACK, this is inside Edgar the Bugs mouth, the finale.

 For Men in Black as well, this is inside Edgars windpipe.

 This was done for Michael Ninn for his futuristic City in Dark Justice here.

 The underdrawing I did for the Jungle Cruise Building sketch here.

Behind the Art

The Under Drawings

PART III

I have posted here PART III  in my series of under drawings for various 2D projects.

The under drawing is a vital part of the process I use, to get a speedy result. In advertising and in design work in general, it allows me to work faster, so my clients will get more work. I have developed a few techniques I use to create my designs in a timely fashion.

Today I have a few under-drawings from a variety of my projects to show, some from the Universal Studios Tour MIB attraction Alien Attack, one from the VMK,[ 'Virtual Magic Kingdom'] project, as well as the Futuristic City I did for Michael Ninn for the 3D series he produced Dark Justice.

I have linked a few finals to these as well, to get you into the process involved in the design a bit more so you can see the final results from these. I lock in at this rough stage then finish it up.

 I use a hand made perspective grid I make using ship curves,and I do most of these on copy paper, which is abundant and cheap for this. I overlay on Clearprint or 'Vincent' Vellum.

My Prior posts in the series:

PART I  here.
PART II here.

Cheers, THOM

Production Design: Raveonettes' Music Video: Heart of Stone: Torso Design Development PART III

 Here is the base 3D torso I built out for the perspective grid to sketch fast over.

  A 3/4 view showing the 3D base scene with the grids for perspective I built using a cone, and plane object.

 The first 2D Blocking over the copy of the 3D render, done on tracing paper.

 Here are all three layers, still taped together with the 3D render print first, the blocking, and ending with the velum final lines.

 Here it is scanned hiding what is under the velum for shading.

The final delivered Image[ re-posted].

Production Design:
Raveonettes' Music Video: Heart of Stone
Torso Design Development 
PART III

Client: Blind.
Art Director: Chris Do.
Project Date: January 2010

Today I have posted my third part, in a series on the Production Design work I did for the Music Video Heart of Stone by the Raveonettes, and for today I am showing the 'behind the process', in the creation of this piece.

To start off, I had just 4 Hrs total to complete the task, including designing it out, and sketching a single image accurate in 3D space so a team of 3D modelers could build off the one sketch. They did have a bigger budget, but I was brought in at the 11th hour to 'put out a fire', so to speak and delivered theses designs this way in the time allotted.

To do this fast I started in 3D and built out a quick torso with a few main elements in there and did a quick grid render. I use 3D Perspective Grids in the same way I use 2D ones. 

I printed the render out, and did a tracing paper overlay and blocked in the design. I then overlaid that with the velum, and proceeded to do the final line art. Once scanned in,  I added a bit of shading to finish it out in Photoshop and delivered the JPG.

I will be posting a few additional sketches in the next weeks to show the other design areas I covered, all in about 3.75-4.00 Hrs per design delivered to Blingd for production to build it out.

Cheers, THOM

You can view the prior posts below:
PART I
PART II

The Music Video is here.

Project Review:Virtual Magic Kingdom-Video Game-PART VIII: Main Street USA Curvilinear Perspective Sketches

 A better full scan of the first 360 Quicktime VR styled sketch that I did back at Disney Interactive back in the 90's.

 Here is a close up of the Left side of the sketch looking back at the entry and the train station.

 The Middle of the sketch is looking across Main Street USA at the Arcade. You can see Cinderellas Castle on the right there at the main Hub too.

 A close Up of the RIGHT side of the wrap with the Theater entryway there and a sandwich board I used as the 'seam' to link it together in a 360 like this..

Project Review: 

Virtual Magic Kingdom Video Game PART VIII

Main Street USA Curvilinear Perspective Sketches

Client: Disney Interactive
Art Director: Myself
Project Date: Summer 1996

This is my eighth post in my series on the Virtual Magic Kingdom [ VMK] project I did for Disney Interactive back in 1996-7, and with this post, I cover  last big HUB perspective wrap that I did in preparation for the project, Main Street USA.

I was originally hired as a freelance sketch artist and, Concept Designer, but after a month I was offered a 3D Art Director position on the project to direct the efforts to build this out, and happily took the offer and worked for them for just over a year.

This was also the first 360 sketch I ever tried, and the M.C. Escher technique I extracted from the books of his, definitely worked well. Here is the under drawing I did for this as a partial sketch.

I have this higher resolution scan for this hub, which was seen as a very small image posted early on, as seen here, but today I have isolated close up's of each part of the 40" wide drawing I did for Disney Interactive back in the 90's so you car review the details much better.

You may review my earlier VMK posts in these link-a-dinks:

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V
PART VI 
PART VII

Cheers, THOM