Puppet Boy

Are You Looking At Me?

A Tired Owl

Mudbath

"How are YOU doing?"

Mirror, mirror....

Monte Minions Commercial

I was preparing some work samples and found a few storyboards for a quick commercial I did last year. My son was very excited, that it featured the Minions characters and then very disappointed, that I did not have to draw the minions at all (clips from the original movie trailer were used).

My Lego Friends in Incredible India

Two years ago I spent a couple of month drawing and supervising the storyboards for an original LEGO friends movie (which is coming out on DVD in the US today). During that summer the project brought me to London in the UK and Mumbai, India. London actually seemed to me much more crowded and busier than Mumbai.

We had a small Preproduction Crew over in Mumbai, where we did the first draft of the movie. Looking at the trailer I can see that a few of the early shots have made it, although lots of the story changed (you can see the trailer here http://bit.ly/1P2mrxI )

I also got to see a tiny bit of the surroundings and culture while I was there despite being in Mumbai during the monsoon season.  I will never forget all the happy faces walking through the rain.

On my last day the in-house story-board crew gave me a this framed picture. It shows my indian Lego friends. Very cool!!!  We had a great little crew over there. And there were many more artists and story-boarders helping out also during the tight preproduction schedule. Thanks again for all your hard work and hope to see you again soon!

The 7th Dwarf (2014)

This is an early version of my story board pitch for the opening of the motion picture "the 7th dwarf", directed by Harald Siepermann (RIP)

(IF THE VIDEO MIGHT  DOES NOT PLAY ...CHECK IT OUT HERE: WWW.STORYARTIST.DE ) 

 We started storyboarding with a detailed story outline and fleshed out the storypoints from there. Working as fast as possible to get an idea of how the outline would play out visually. Then pitching them in this form digitally to the producer and director.  Harald really wanted a dog in this opening. We tried to make it work in many different ways, but nothing seemed to stick. Finally we went with an alternative idea from one of the (many great) story boarders on the team, which represents the final version that you can watch in the film.

Crocodile sighting

After our latest move I was unpacking my office boxes. It always takes me some time to pack and upack my office and to get organized again. As you do as an animator, I have collected countless stacks of flip books, drawings, tutorials (not to mention the boxes of art supplies, animation paper and books, books, books....) over the years. Ususally I have kept the odd drawing here and there from most films I have worked on in the past. Mostly scribbles, thumbnails and so forth. For some reason I have kept my originals paper drawings of this runcycle of a crocodile, designed by my colleague and friend Len Simon. I actually never kept a line test of the animation. We used to create run and walk cycles for new characters as a way to explore the model and design. Also to start defining the character a bit more, usually going from concept drawings. Sometimes we would take a piece of dialog from an actor and animate a short scene to get an idea of how the chacrater would feel (or to use the animation to convince the ctor to sign on to the project)  They rarely represent the final design of the character or animation style, but it is one place to start. Also, with a run cycle you only need a couple of frames of actual animation compared to a full acting scene with dialog .

Late last year our printer (yet another one) needed to be upgraded and we got an A3 one including a scanner. So I tested the automatic scanning function with this little stack of 15 drawings that make up the run cycle (The animation drawings are on 16 inch paper), importing the scans to Photoshop, adding some "color" and finally created a little comped scene with After Effects.

you can see a little scene on my vimeo site here: Crocodile sighting !

update

I have been such a lazy blogger this year. Lately I have been wrecking my brain how to create a new website. It is on its way now...at least the main design theme and coding is done. Have a look at www.storyartist.de.  and let me know of any issues or suggestions, cheers!

here are some more ruffs of my storyboard work from the just released Laura film.  I did post more panels on the new site.

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firefly: attempting a short film

These are a couple of panels of one of my latest storyboard work. I was recently asked to do a story test for a studio abroad and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to use it as an exercise to work out a story-board for a short film. Since the narration has to take place in only a 100 panels, the story itself is kept very simple. It’s a story about a small boy and unexpected encounter. I am pleased with the results and we are editing the animatic right now. I am hoping we can eventually proceed to making it into a short film. This process of creating a story and its visuals under a very tight time frame really teaches us to be humble. It is so easy to criticize a finished film and see all the faults, but soooo hard to create one (even a tiny one). It’s a lot of fun though.  

Once every little while I escape my little studio space and visit the big cities. Last weekend we drove to Berlin with an invitation to see the premiere of Laura`s Stern with family and friends. I think it ended up being a cute little film. Especially for little kids. I especially loved the art direction. Vancouver based colleague Matthias Lechner art directed and features some of his beautiful artwork on his personal website here. Also Hamburg based Manu Arenas created many of the designs for the film. I am a huge fan of his work. Besides his blog: Yaxin the Faun, you can see his artwork on his personal website here.  

While in Berlin we took in some culture… - film culture that is of course! We visited the German Kinemathek . It is located just opposite the cinema at the Potsdamer Platz and showed a rare exhibition of storyboards. Samples from Hitchcock`s “Birds” (check this link for more of Hitchcocks storyboards), Spielberg`s “Raiders of the lost Arc”, Ben Hur to name just a few (the exhibition will move to Toronto next year. So if you are in the vicinity and have the time, I recommend you go visit it). It was great to see the original artwork up close for a change. (I have to admit I was also really hoping to see some of Ridley Scott and James Cameron work as well, but unfortunately none of their work was on display) I nevertheless purchased the exhibit catalog for future reference J. We could also caught a classical exhibit during our short trip. We went to see the “Renaissance Faces” exhibition, organized by the Bode Museum Berlin and the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Over 50 famous museums have contributed with unique loans. Allowing a great display of portraiture and busts from fifteenth century Italian Artists. The Exhibit shows the evolution of early portraiture, giving a great insight into the different Schools of Art and their main focus. Such great artwork, we spent hours looking at the paintings.    

Lauras Stern : Traumonster

I have just watched the trailer for the upcoming feature film Lauras Stern und dieTraumonster (Lauras Star and the Dreamcatcher) by Rothkirch/ Cartoon Film. Directed by Thilo Rothkirch and Ute von Münchow-Pohl. Storyboarding for the film wrapped about two years ago. I have not seen any of production since, as I have been busy with  other projects.  It was a great experience working on the story, working with the other story artists and the directors . I cant wait to see how the final film turned out. The first shots in the trailer are part of my first sequence that I had worked on at the start of the picture. You can watch the trailer (in german language only) here

Also ...I am just wrapping a different film today: Rusty Knight, trying to give my brain a few days rest before starting on another script. I have been working at the studio in Munich for long stretches and I am already missing everybody there. Its gonna be another long wait to see how the film will work out (and to share any of my work) My daughter (9 years now) did a little arts and crafts project one day, while we were all in Munich (And we hauled the heavy sculture back with us)  I finally took a Foto. You can see Rusty Knight on the right and Lady Bo on the left (Coke the Dragon is on the back)

Kinder Surprise

March is almost over. How did that happen? Life is busy, spring around the corner.
These are the pitch boards for the Kinder Surprise spot I uploaded a few posts earlier. Only a few of the ideas made it into the final version.

Actimel Boards

These are some of the boards I drew for the Actimel spot I posted before.
The concept works  a bit like a mini feature told in 40 seconds and sometimes cut down to much less.
I start my boarding with thumbnails which I discuss with the director. This pitch was presented as an animatic, but more in the ways of a traditional production animatic,  so there were  quite a few panels which I had to  finish in order to make the story work and give the editor enough possibilities to try some different versions. Considering the time constraints I am usually given on these types of  commercials I usually try to avoid the use of color. But I thought it helped a bit on this one.

Kinder Surprise Looney Toones

Just out...Kinder surprise...
I got the chance to board this commercial including the looney toones last autumn.

Team Actimel Action Discs

...another team actimel commercial I boarded last year, at least the first pitch. It came out quite nice I think.


I really want some of those action discs now.

Guppies

...great to see the trailer from the BubbleGuppies...it brings back some memories from working overseas a couple of years ago.  I believe the show currently is airing in North America. I am glad Nick had the strength to pursue their vision and hoping the show is looking as good as all the clips I have seen so far.

Speaking about trailers. I just watched the 2 minute preview of Blue Sky´s RIO. Really nice!!! (almost as good as Bubble Guppies) (click here to watch it)

I should get back to posting some artwork again soonish...

Little Big Panda

Just found this via Paul and Alex posts, who both worked on the animation. Too bad I cannot understand what they are saying.

Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings to all of you. Thanks for following my artwork throughout the year!

On this side of the pond everything is covered in freezing snow in time for Christmas. 2010 was an exciting year for me and all the signs promise more good things to come in 2011.  I feel very lucky to be part of so many interesting projects, also to have the pleasure working with amazing artists all over the world. Two of the projects will finally be aired in 2011. "Bubble Guppies" from Nickelodeon  I worked on the TV show almost 3 years ago and it now seems to be scheduled for 2011. The second one is Lauras Stern und die Traumonster, which is scheduled for theatrical release later on in 2011 on which I boarded a few sections.

I particularly enjoyed working with students in 2010: I learned A LOT  from you, thanks to all of you in case you make it to my blog. If the airports will be open for business again I will do a little talk in Dublin about the industry on the 8th of January at the ISA. My first time back in Ireland since 95. Hope to see some of you there.