Story samples from the PAN sequel...

SunsetTunnelMountainTrail

Posted by Arna.

Just came back from Banff where I was lucky to spend 4 days in the fresh air, and experience an amazing story conference. Got my head clear and came back to Toronto to finish a board that is keeping me very busy for the next three weeks. I'll post more about the conference in the next days.

Thanks to Warren Leonhardt who encouraged me to go. Thanks to Chad Kerychuk and Ken Bautista who put the conference together.

Big thanks to speakers Ronnie Del Carmen, Kris Pearn, Josh Staub, and George P. Georgeadis for your energy, insight and inspiration.

This photo was taken on the way up Tunnel Mountain Trail. I am now walking hills in our neighbourhood to get in better shape so the next time I'll make it to the top of that trail!

Through a funhouse mirror...

Posted by Arna:

While flipping through some older material earlier today, I found a few designs from a feature film project John and I both worked on years ago. These are sketches I did originally in pencil and xeroxed to 'lock in' the line, so's I could render some tone with marker. These days I might just scan and do the tone with photoshop, but I still like to work with a pantone warm grey.

Storyboard goodies...

Click on the swordplay to go to fellow board artist Warren Leonhardt, speaking about his recent experience creating boards on the television series Jane And The Dragon. We think this one covers the subject very well, with plenty of personal anecdotes and Warren's typical energy. If you haven't already done so, go there now!

Wayback machine: Family Dog boards...

Posted by Arna.

Story artist Jenny Lerew, who writes clearly and with much insight on animation, posted this recently: A short rant on mediocrity

Jenny's post generated a lively debate and a plug from Cartoon Brew. The series THE FAMILY DOG featured fairly prominently in the discussion. THE FAMILY DOG special, created for Spielberg's Amazing Stories series and directed by Brad Bird, was glorious! However, the short lived television series that followed was less so. Since I worked on said series I decided what the heck, I'll post a sample of my boards, done approximately 1993. The episode title is HOT DOG AT THE ZOO.

Looking at these boards, I'm struck by how square and small the panels are compared to the wide screen format we're working in these days. The closeups look much too close! However, I remember that I really enjoyed working on this sequence. Tim Burton was consulting designer and he did some moody inspirational designs for the zoo. Three artists split the 21 minute show. The other two-thirds were handled by uber-talented story artists/directors Alan Bunce and Robin Budd. The thing I liked about the storytelling was that as much as possible it was from the dog's point of view. However, this was also the tragic flaw of the series, since it was often hard to tell what was happening and what the canine hero was thinking.

Well anyways, here's some of it. Hope you enjoy! And thanks Jenny for the great discussion.

A little Sci~Fi Skyland...

Posted by Arna.

A few panels from the Sci-Fi series Skyland, a motion capture show that I storyboarded on in the fall of 2005:

And here's a bit of homemade leica reel that I assembled in Flash, from the opening sequence of the same episode. SKYLAND is a sci-fi series and a France-Canada coproduction. The designs were done in France and have an elegant quality you don't always see in television animation. This sequence was much revised after my turn on it (as can happen), but I have no complaint about the way it turned out. It ended up even more dramatic! Although my version is unpolished, I had some fun importing it into Flash and doing this quick edit. John and I set it to a piece of music by Sweet. Heavy rock seems to suit the action. I didn't have access to the dialogue tracks so I used subtitles, which gives the clip a comic book feel, and that's all right with me.

The episode starts with a flying chase and a firefight as two children in a stolen airship try to evade the bad guys. The kids' parents were the leaders of a rebellion against 'The Sphere', which is an evil (of course) organization that runs things after the world is blown up.

Please click here to see this excerpt of Flash leica posted on our website.

Updated with a new link, July 3_06. If you want to know more about Skyland you can:

click here to go to the Skyland TV Website. Looks like some interesting stuff on this site.

click here to go to the Nicktoons Skyland page.

storyboard all done!

John and I have been busy! I hope that this picture speaks for itself. We'll post some more soon, and reply to comments ASAP.

sailing towards Neverland...

Two images from Arna's rough storyboard for Return To Neverland (Sequel to Peter Pan)

Created for Walt Disney Canada, 1998 ( studio is now closed)

Director: Robin Budd

I'm still fond of these little drawings, though it's been a while since the rough sequence that they were part of hit the cutting room floor. You can see a longer portion of the board on my portfolio site if you wish to go there. It's part of a song sequence in which we re-introduce Peter and his band of lost boys as they make their way back to Neverland after capturing Captain Hook's pirate ship. One of the boys wears Hook's coat (which is too big for him) and swashbuckles about on deck pretending to make another boy walk the plank.

Thief Of Always

We're just back from Ottawa Animation Festival. Coolman! did not win a prize but we got some very good feedback at the screening. The winner in our category: 'Animated Television Series For Adults' was the hilarious Harvey Birdman. We were honoured to be in the competition. More about the weekend in a future post.

We recently saw Uli Meyer's lineup for The Thief of Always on his blog and thought we'd post these rough development sketches of Mr. Hood that John did in 1994. He was the AD for director Robin Budd on this feature animated film which unfortunately was never completed.