Headless Productions Interview

Headless Productions: Character Designer
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE THEIR GALLERY
Headless Productions Is Independent Animation Studio Founded By Adrian Garcia, Alfredo Torres and Victor Maldonado.

Taylor Krahenbuhl Interview

Taylor Krahenbuhl: Character Designer
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Faber-Castell PITT Pens, Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop

The Character Design Blog is back!!!!

After a 4 month or so Sabbatical, the Character Design Blog is back. I have been doing The Character Design Blog for 5 years straight, and I didn't have much of a break from it.  There is a lot that goes into it, even though it might not look like it. Mentally it's always in the back of my mind.  But enough about my time off... There are a lot of great interviews and art coming, and starting this week in fact.

But first I want to share this animation Ryan Woodward did called Thought Of You.  You can read his interview I did with him awhile ago here  http://ryan-woodward-interview.blogspot.com/

Thought of You from Ryan Woodward on Vimeo.

Thought of You - Behind the Scenes Preview - ROUGH CUT from Cambell Christensen on Vimeo.

Teddy Newton’s Day & Night

 

I just got a copy of Teddy Newton’s Day & Night, and I have to say I really like it.  It's a perfect book to read to my children and they love it. Below, is a quick video about the creation  of the book.  I thought you would all like to see.

Cory Loftis Interview

Cory Loftis: Lead Concept Artist for Carbine Studio
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and Wacom Cintiq

Scott Wright Interview

Scott Wright: Animator at DreamWorks
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Pencil, Ink, on Bristol board and Corel Painter

Chris Battle Interview

Chris Battle: Character Art
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Pencil and Adobe Photoshop

Blacksad Gallery Update

I updated the Blacksad Gallery with some pictures from the new Book called Blacksad L'Enfer, le silence.... Click on the picture or link to go to the Gallery

http://blacksad-gallery.blogspot.com/

Jonathan Miller Interview

Jonathan Miller: Illustrator
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Red or Non-Repro Blue Pencil, Adobe Illustrator

Jason Deamer Interview

Jason Deamer: Character Art Director at Pixar
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Black ink, Adobe Photoshop, Gouache, and Colored Pencil.

Colin Jack Interview

Colin Jack: Character Designer and Children's Book Illustrator
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Autodesk SketchBook Pro.

Pascal Campion

This wonderful video was directed by Anthony Vu. I wanted everyone here to see it and hear all the wonderful things Pascal says about drawing, storytelling, and the fear of sharing your artwork.

If you plan on attending the San Diego Comicon 2010, please stop by and say "Hi!" to Pascal Campion at his booth at G03. Thanks Anthony for doing such a great video.

Aurore Damant Interview

Aurore Damant: Character Designer, Art Director and Illustrator
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HER GALLERY
Media: Traditional Mediums, Adobe Photoshop, and a Wacom Cintiq.

Rob Laro Interview

Rob Laro: Freelance Illustrator
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Adobe Photoshop,and a Wacom tablet.

Andre Medina Interview

Andre Medina: Character Layout Artist
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Traditional Mediums and Adobe Photoshop.

Simon Loche Interview

Simon Loche: Comic Book Artist and Illustrator
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Traditional and Digital.

How To Train Your Dragon Week Round 3

How To Train Your Dragon Week Round 2

How To Train Your Dragon Week Round 1

Here is the first batch of Nico Marlet art... I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

How To Train Your Dragon Week

I had a blast watching How To Train Your Dragon with my son.  If you haven't seen it you're missing out.  I want to go back and see it 3D.  I want to congratulate all the talented artists who worked on this film. Last November I got to tour  DreamWorks thanks to Gabriele. What a beautiful place they have there in Glendale. I felt like I was in a wonderful Mediterranean town.  While I was there, I was able to see apart of How To Train Your Dragon. From what I saw back then, I could tell that it was going to be a great film. I was also able to meet a lot of the artists that worked on the film.  The artwork that I saw was amazing.  They could have filled up multiple art books with the stuff that I saw.  I was able to see a lot of the design stages for many of the characters. I also saw some artwork on the walls from some of their upcoming projects which I sadly can't talk about.  I was in heaven!  What a wonderful experience.

Anyway...  I can honestly tell you that How To Train Your Dragon is one of the top animated movies I have seen. I hope everyone gets a chance to see it.  The story, animation, and artwork are fantastic.  I wish they could sell it on Blu-ray as soon as you come out of the theaters. I would have bought it right then.

To help celebrate such a awesome movie, DreamWorks has allowed me to show you some of the artwork that I saw there. So for the rest of the week I will be posting some of the artwork that is not in the art of book. Make sure you do yourself a favor and go see the movie.  Come back here tommorow to see some amazing art.

Antonio Santamaria Interview

Antonio Santamaria: Designer / Story Artist
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Adobe Photoshop and Wacom Cintiq.

The Art Center

The Art Center is a brand new place where Artists will share Ideas, Tips, and Tutorials. It will quickly grow both in content and artists from all the different art mediums. The Art Center will be a sister site to the Character Design blog.   I would like to thank Rad Sechrist, and all of the artists that are and will be posting at The Art Center.   There are some great posts up already, and there is a lot more to come. So go there now, and have some fun learning from some of the best talent out there. http://www.theartcenter.blogspot.com/

Ben Camberos Interview

Ben Camberos: Designer
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Wacom tablet.

Rad Sechrist Interview

Rad Sechrist: Storyboard Artist at DreamWorks Animation, Comic Book Artist, Illustrator, And Designer
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Adobe Photoshop.

French Roast Nominated for Best Animated Short

Congratulations to Fabrice O Joubert, and all the talented artists that worked on French Roast for being nominated for Best Animated Short. You can now view the entire short in large QuickTime at http://www.frenchroast.fr/fyc_watchfrenchroast.html

If you would like to view the interview I had with Fabrice about the making of French Roast, follow this link at http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/2009/06/french-roast_06.html

The Story of Walls

I want to tell everyone about this wonderful, funny, and great looking short by Pete Oswald and written by Sandeep Sood.

Here's a short synopsis

The Story of Walls is an absurdest history of trade protectionism. 
We made this short film so that we could point out the obvious: protectionism is absurd.

In ten minutes, our film takes you from ancient civilization to the modern day. Despite its breadth, we succeed in providing the viewer with a thorough education and understanding of our world’s economic history. We describe events that are intriguing, insightful, and mostly falsified.




Pete, when did you start creating The Story of Walls?

My partners and I came up with the concept in May 2009.







Where is your studio located?

Badmash Animation Studios is located in Los Angeles, San Fransisco and Pune, India. We did most of the preproduction here in the states and all of the animation in India. We are a global production.














Who were the artists that help create the film?

Directed By: Pete Oswald

Written By: Sandeep Sood

Storyboard Artist: Andy Suriano

Art Director: Pete Oswald

Background Layout: Chris Reccardi

Character Layout: Vikram Athavale

Animation Director: Noor Mohammed

Music Composed By: Chad Seiter

Sound Design and Mix By: Alex Levy

How long did it take to create The Story of Walls?

The entire production of this film took 4 months.







What types of media did you use?

We animated mostly every scene in Flash. There are a few scenes that we composited in After Effects. I really wanted to explore using two dimensional characters in three dimensional space.



What type of design style where you going for?

I have always been inspired by Disney's short films from the 1950s, specifically "Toot, Whistle, Plunk, Boom." Ward Kimball became the major inspiration on how I directed and designed the film. Also, we looked at many UPA shorts for inspiration.








How many different versions of characters and designs did you go through?

I took a few weeks in the beginning to explore different styles for the film. Due to the tight production schedule, there were very few versions of character designs. We didn't have a lot of time to explore each character. Andy Suriano's storyboard was very tight. We kept pretty close to some of his original sketches.



















Being the Director, did the final look and feel of the film meet your expectations?

The final look of the film totally exceeded my expectations. We were fortunate to work with many talented people so I was able to trust everyone. I am a firm believer that when you hire talented people and allow them to do what they do best, you will get a successful outcome.










Have you been able to received some awards for the film?

We just recently got nominated for an Annie Award in the "The Best Animated Short Subject" category. We just started the film festival submission process. We are hoping the attend many festivals in the upcoming year.









What film are you planning to do next?

I have a few ideas brewing, but I need to find funding first.










Is there a way to buy The Story of Walls on DVD or Blu-ray?

Not yet. We will Hopefully have a DVD available to buy soon. I will keep everyone posted.





Thank you so much Pete for talking about your amazing short as well as letting us see the production art. The Story of Walls is one of my favorite shorts that I have seen. The mixture of Pete's art direction, the comedy, as well great storytelling makes this short, one to see. I hope everyone can get a chance to view it. I'm looking forward to see what Pete comes up with next. To see even more pictures, go to Pete's blog at http://peteoswald.blogspot.com/