Thursday, October 24, 2013

ARL Caricature Show Panel

(Top Row:  Kevin Deters, myself, Mike Gabriel, not sure, Gale Musker
Bottom Row: T Dan Hofstedt, Bill Matthews, John Musker, Jeff Ranjo)

Today I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in a panel about the annual Disney Caricature Show. The program was taped at the Animation Research Library in Glendale.  The program went over the origins and history of the show, up until today's shows which is where we came in.  It was pretty surreal to be a part of everything , sitting next to these legends, listening to John Musker tell all of these old school Disney stories.  Reminded me of all those behind-the-scenes DVD specials I used to watch!  
Speaking of caricatures, here's one of my last art director, Mike, who is to my left in the picture.  Mike really took me under his wing and mentored me to create my best work.  Which ultimately transitioned me into the vis dev dept.  Everytime I would walk into his office there were sketches everywhere, on his desk, all over the floor (I'd be stepping on them and he'd say No No thats fine step on them come in), on the walls, and usually of the same character, or attempt at a character.  I always took comfort in that and it reassured me that , even for these guys at the top, it took drawing after drawing after drawing to get there.  He would do it over and over and over until he found something he liked, and it never came easy.  And that's the way I started to work.  He'd say , "We're throwing up ideas, that's all we're doin'.  To have a great idea, have a lot of ideas."

Sunday, October 13, 2013

My book o' caricatures!

CTN is almost here!  I'll be selling this big book of caricatures, and Katia will be selling a handful of beautiful original art and prints.  We'll  be at booth T108, stop by and say hi!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Elsa shirt design


A design I did for one of our "Frozen Animation" Crew shirts!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Some updates!

Hey everyone!  Thanks for checking in.  Just wanted to update the ol blog before it gets too rusty.  The new Frozen trailer's out!  This image is from one of the shots I got to do...
You can check out the trailer in it's entirety Here.  Which, if I'm honest, isn't the *best* representation of the movie, but it's something.  We'll just have to wait for the international trailer=).  Can't wait for you all to see it!  THE FEELS. 

In the meantime, I've been lucky enough to be doing some character designs for a future release ( I don't think Diz has officially announced it, so I can't say which yet sorry!)  But I've been getting to work with and learn under some of the best in the biz, it's been surreal.  Thank you Mike G if you read this (probs not) but I'm forever grateful!

After this stint wraps, I'll be then training under Cory Loftis and Jin Kim to help out on this movie, Zootopia!  Which is slated for a 2016 release.

Concept Art World was kind enough to showcase some of the work I've been doing this year 
HERE.  Thank you so much guys!  I'm honored!

It's been a productive, fruitful year, and I'm very grateful for every opportunity that comes my way.
I'm never one to preach ,  but the single biggest thing I've learned here, is that if you're stubbornly persistent and are good to people, amazing things can and will happen for you!  Don't stop now!

Cheers guys!  See you at CTN!