The Slappy Picture Show

Happy Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-23T18:47:00.000-08:00

Pencil Test Studios On Cold Hard Flash!

2011-11-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

Check it out. Pencil Test Studios' animated spots for Public Storage are featured today on Aaron Simpson's Cold Hard Flash. Click on the image above and it'll take you directly there.

Pencil Test Studios Site Update

2011-11-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

Another website update: we just launched the redesign of our Pencil Test Studios website. Lots of new samples... check it out here.

Website Update

2011-10-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

My illustration rep, Shannon Associates, just did a big redesign to their website. Check it out here. I have a few new pieces up -- if you want to see my pages you can go here, here or here.

Doodlin'

2011-04-27T19:28:00.001-07:00

TAG Sketches

2011-01-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

Here's a bunch of sketches previously posted over on the TAG blog

Community Stop Motion Special Airs Tonight

2010-12-08T23:55:00.000-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to work on a special Christmas episode of the NBC show Community where we shot the entire show in stop motion. The episode is called "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" and it airs tonight, Thursday, December 9th at 8/7c. Check it out if you can. I only animated for part of the production, but it was still a fun gig with a really great crew. Here's some info:

http://www.animateclay.com/index.php/news/262-community-holiday-episode

http://www.nbc.com/community/

Run baby!

2010-10-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

TuesdayArtGroup

2010-10-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've got a new sketch posted on the TuesdayArtGroup, a blog I've recently been invited to join as a contributor. The TAG blog has been around for quite a while, and I've been following the likes of Davis Chino and Mr Goodson there, two hot snot artists I've had the pleasure of working with over the years. You can check it out here.

Sega-16 Interview

2010-03-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

Here's an interview I did recently with Ken Horowitz at Sega-16, a website dedicated to documenting the history of the old Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and 32X video game consoles and the games made for them. You can read it here.

Disney "Parachutes" TV Ad

2010-03-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

Pencil Test Studios, the new animation house I opened with Ed Schofield (mentioned below), recently finished work on a commercial for Disneyland Paris. It was a fun project, combining live action, CG and hand drawn animation all to great effect. The main production company was Motion Theory, who directed the spot and handled the very challenging compositing work. The hand drawn animation was provided by Duck Studios and we handled all the animation of Woody and Buzz. All the other CG Pixar characters were created by pulling existing animation from Pixar films and compositing them into the spot.

We don't have the spot up on the Pencil Test Studios site yet, but Motion Theory just posted it on theirs. You can check it out here.

Pencil Test Studios

2010-03-18T00:23:00.001-07:00

Ed Schofield and I recently opened a new animation shop, Pencil Test Studios, located in sunny Irvine, California. Ed and I have worked together on and off for years now, collaborating on numerous projects like Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, the Neverhood, Koghead and Meatus, The PJ's, and many many more. Ed's an extraordinary animator who keeps a low profile and as a result never gets the credit he deserves. Trust me though, he's a workhorse and is the backbone of any project he works on.

So far PTS has completed contract work on a couple game projects as well as two TV commercials for Disney featuring Pixar's Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. We're also working on an iPhone game and an animated short, both slated for release later this year.

You can check out some of our work here and read our latest press release here.

The Making of Earthworm Jim

2010-03-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to last week's EWJ post, here are some scans from an old Sega book that included a section on the making of the first Earthworm Jim game. There's also a lot of concept art from other Sega games of that period, including Eternal Champions and Jurassic Park. As far as I know it's out of print, but used copies are readily available on Amazon and elsewhere.

Earthworm Jim Sketchbook Pages

2010-03-03T23:19:00.000-08:00

Recently I've had several requests from video game journalists, students, fans, etc. for development art from the old Earthworm Jim games, so here's a big batch of pages from some dusty old sketchbooks. Enjoy.

Earthworm Jim Animation Thumbnails

2010-03-03T23:12:00.000-08:00

More EWJ Sketches

2010-03-03T23:04:00.000-08:00

Earthworm Jim Game Art

2010-03-03T22:54:00.001-08:00

Digital art from the development of the first Earthworm Jim game:

YouTube Animation Lesson: The Elasticity of the Human Form

2009-10-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

I don't think enough animators (or character TDs for that matter) realize just how plastic and pliable the human form can be in motion. Study and learn - there's a plethora of information and inspiration here:

New Post for Marty

2009-07-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

More Kim Possible World Showcase

2009-01-30T08:39:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple more Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure links:

MiceAge

Mouse Planet

Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure

2009-01-27T11:20:00.000-08:00

This is what I've been working on for Disney Imagineering over the past year or so. It's an interactive attraction for EPCOT in Florida -- it's very cool. The grand opening is tomorrow, but there's already a lot PR going out about it. Here are a bunch of links:

WDWMagic

Orlando News

Orlando Sentinal

L.A. Times

BBC

Disney Blog

WDWMagic Reviews

Doodle

2008-12-29T10:25:00.001-08:00

Gettin a Smog Check

2008-12-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

Hey! Over Here!

2008-08-25T19:19:00.001-07:00

Sculpture-Head

2008-08-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

This guy's head looked like it was made of marble, hair and all.

Deep Thought

2008-08-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

Feeling Stressed

2008-08-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

Sketches

2008-08-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Brush Pen Breakfast

2008-05-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

Check out my pal Marty's new blog, Brush Pen Breakfast. Someday I hope to draw as well as Marty.

Ratatouille Game Concept Boards

2008-03-29T17:31:00.001-07:00

Here's an assortment of concept boards from early in development of the Ratatouille video game (which won an Annie Award last month for Best Animated Video Game, by the way).

I'm Still Here...

2008-02-23T11:38:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T14:52:00.001-08:00

More Ratatouille Game Thumbnails

2007-12-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

Here's another load of animation planning thumbnails from the Ratatouille video game.

Another Thumbnail Page

2007-12-09T01:08:00.000-08:00

Another Batch of Thumbnails

2007-11-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

Here's another set of thumbnails. These are a little tighter, especially the written notes, because I was offering suggestions to another animator for a sequence he was working on.

More Thumbnails

2007-11-05T09:54:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up to my last post (and in response to munchanka's comment), here are some planning thumbnails from a shot I did last week for a friend's short film. As you can see, they're pretty rough and crappy, but they did the job of helping me think through my shot in advance, which is all you need.

Thumbnails

2007-11-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

A large percentage of the pages in my sketchbooks are filled with animation planning thumbnails, most of which I can't post while the projects are in production. Some are tighter than others, while some even I can't figure out a day later. Here's a set from some preproduction animation done early in the development of the Ratatouille video game. You'll notice this rat bears little resemblance to the characters in the movie. That's because when these we're done Pixar was months away from nailing down their character designs, and we were working from very limited reference.

Mouse

2007-09-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Cat

2007-09-27T20:04:00.001-07:00

Dog

2007-09-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Little Man

2007-09-14T21:30:00.001-07:00

Random Kid

2007-09-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

Old Guys

2007-09-10T20:47:00.001-07:00

Just a couple of phone doodles.

It's Been A While

2007-09-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while -- I've been stupid busy lately. Here's a quick sketchbook page.

Ratatouille Flash Game

2007-07-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a Ratatouille-themed asteroids Flash game I did a couple years ago -- I originally threw it together during preproduction for the XBox 360 game as a proposed style for the mini-games, but Disney ended up using it for the game website. Go to http://www.ratatouillevideogame.com/, click on "Downloads and Activities", and then click on "Remy to the Rescue". It was my first attempt at action script programming and I never really intended it to be released publicly, so please forgive it's wonkiness. I originally had sfx of Patton Oswalt's voice in there reacting to hits and completing levels, but they got pulled out for what I assume were legal reasons.

Neverhood Feature

2007-06-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

This deal has been in the works for a while, but the Neverhood feature film has now been officially announced -- you can read about it here. Financing and distribution still need to be lined up before anything moves forward, but with Fred Seibert and Kevin Kolde getting behind it I'm confident it's going to happen.

Sketchbook Pages

2007-06-18T23:53:00.000-07:00

Some random sketches, mostly from meetings and airports.

Another Neverhood Link

2007-05-27T22:39:00.001-07:00

Here's a link to a movie where somebody somewhere took the time to compile some clips from the Neverhood as well as a few sections from the "making of" movie. You can view it here.

Squirly Town Screening

2007-05-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

ASIFA-East is screening some of the new Random! Cartoons shorts in NYC tomorrow night, and included will be Squirly Town, the short I worked on last year with my pal Douglas TenNapel. The screening is free and the cartoon is hilarious, so if you're in the area you should check it out. You can find the info here.

Neverhood Posters

2007-05-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

As long as we're on the subject of the Neverhood, here's a set of posters we did way back when. I still actually have a couple of these tucked away in a corner of the studio somewhere.

The Neverhood -- The Franchise that Time Forgot

2007-05-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an interesting article about The Neverhood that Ed Schofield sent me yesterday. The author has almost all of his facts wrong concerning the making of the game and the history of the company, but I think his opinions about the games are dead on.

The Neverhood -- The Franchise that Time Forgot

And while we're at it, here are some old shots of Klaymen being animated in the "green room"

Okay, Last Hand Post, I Promise

2007-03-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Here's one last page of hand sketches, along with two pages of hands I sketched while watching my Gorillaz DVD.

Are We Sick of Hands Yet?

2007-03-25T22:50:00.000-07:00

Still More Hands

2007-03-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some less cartoony hands, drawn from life when I was trying to get better at hand anatomy. You may notice influences ranging from Bridgman to Mort Drucker. These are also up in the life drawing section of www.mikedietz.com.

Even More Hands

2007-03-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

You may notice a few sketched from Milt Kahl's Sword in the Stone hands. Great reference.

More Hand Sketches

2007-03-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hands

2007-03-16T23:29:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy drawing hands. Next to the eyes, they're the most expressive part of our bodies. Not only are they fun to draw, but no matter where you go you've always got reference to draw from. I used to find them intimidating and complex, but I spent several months in life drawing concentrating on hands, and after a while it started to click. I learned a lot from studying Mort Drucker, Jack Davis and Milt Kahl, three guys who have their cartoon hands grounded in solid anatomy. More recently I've been heavily inspired by Jamie Hewlett's Gorillaz (me and a lot of artists) and my pal Doug TenNapel's graphic novel work.

Squirly Town Color Model

2007-03-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

Here's one of the color models I did for Doug TenNapel's Squirly Town short. Still no word from Nick when they're going to air the cartoon, but they released this image as part of a publicity card, so I figure it's cool to post it here.

Okay, I'm Off My Soapbox Now

2007-03-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

Just in case my last post came off a little too serious and preachy, here's a sketch I did yesterday while waiting for a file to upload. Hopefully this will even things out.

The New Phone Book is Here! The New Phone Book is Here!

2007-03-02T12:23:00.000-08:00

Obviously I'm not exactly what you'd call a celebrity, far from it, but I do get the occasional fan mail. Not a lot, maybe 2 or 3 a month, and to be honest, they're not my fans, but fans of projects I've worked on. Still, I do my best to answer everyone who writes -- in fact, there are several people who I now consider friends and colleagues who first contacted me as fans.
Anyhow, I've been putting in a lot of hours in the studio recently, lots of solitary late nights, and sometimes I start to wonder if it's really worth it. Well, the other day I received the following e-mail from a high school student somewhere on the other side of the country -- and yes, it is worth it:

"Hi,

My name is (name removed), I'm a senior, and I have always wanted to go to art school. This past fall it was time to register for college and I felt myself being pushed towards an engineering path and forced to let my dreams go. However when I opened my Spanish book I found some animations you had drawn for the En Espanol! series, they made me fall back in love with art and I am now going to live my dream and go to school for art. So, thank you so much for your animations."

I'm posting this here not as a gratuitous pat on the back to myself, although you could accuse me of that, but as a reminder to all of us artists and creators that even though we don't always see it, our work can have a profound effect on others, and we should always remain grateful for that opportunity.

Squeak

2007-02-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

Shiny Entertainment c.1995

2007-02-23T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here's an old magazine photo someone recently e-mailed me of the Earthworm Jim team outside our Laguna Beach studio. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the one in front with the obvious sense of high fashion.

Self Portrait

2007-02-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

This is how I'm feeling today.

Doodling Hands

2007-01-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long between posts. Here's a quick sketchbook page of hand doodles.

Squirly Town Pencil Test

2006-12-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

This past summer I had the pleasure to once again work with my pal Doug TenNapel, this time on one of his latest creations, Squirly Town, an animated short he's producing for Frederator and Nickelodeon's Random Cartoons. I did storyboard supervision and a bunch of preproduction work including model sheets, mouth charts, color models, etc. It won't air until next year sometime, but once it does I'll post some of the artwork I created for the project. In the meantime, check out one of the pencil tests that just came in from overseas:

Sketchbook Page

2006-12-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

More random doodles.

2006-12-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

I See Bored People
I spend a lot of time in production meetings, which can sometimes get pretty boring. Fortunately, it gives me a room full of captive subjects to draw. Unfortunately, I end up with lots of drawings of bored people.

2006-11-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

Portrait Studies
Here are a couple rough portrait sketches, one in conte pencil and one in vine charcoal. If you want to see more life drawing, check out the life drawing link at mikedietz.com

2006-11-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

Online Interview
Animation Block, sponsors of NYC's Animation Block Party festival, recently interviewed me for the editorial section of their website. You can check it out here.

2006-11-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

Woodchucks

2006-11-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

Doodles -- Some Quick Horse Heads

2006-11-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

Gecklund
I recently traded caricatures with animator/illustrator/game designer Gregory Ecklund. Greg is a fantastic artist who's best known for his Lloyd's Lunchbox shorts, which ran in the Spike and Mike festivals a few years back. Check out his website at www.robotzombie.com.

Here are a couple sketches I knocked out during a production meeting with Greg:
And here's Greg's take on me:
And for extra credit, I did one more of Greg, who had his hair uncharacteristically combed that day:

2006-11-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

Sketchbook Page

2006-10-31T10:09:00.000-08:00

Slappy Halloween!

2006-10-29T09:36:00.000-08:00

New Book: Caffeine for the Creative Mind
The other night I attended a mixer celebrating the release of a new book, Caffeine for the Creative Mind, by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield. Stefan and Wendy are part of a small, hot-snot ad agency called The Brainyard, which has been a client of Slappy Pictures for several years now (click here to check out a fun cartoony flash piece I did for them a while back).

Caffeine for the Creative Mind is a huge collection of short creative exercises designed to get your brain working and keep you thinking outside of the box. I've seen a lot of books on creativity over the years, and while most of them are a load of hooey, this one is actually pretty darn good. Peppered throughout the book are interviews with assorted creative types, and I was one of the people they interviewed. I'd love to paste the text of the interview here for you to read, but then you might not buy the book and Stefan would come over here and pound me. Stefan is 6' 8". If you want to find out more about the book, check out the website, http://www.creativestretching.com/.

In the back of the book, they had each of the interviewees complete a simple drawing exercise, which was to take a doodle and create whatever image that doodle sparked in your brain.
Here's the doodle they gave us: Here's what I came up with:

I contributed some other stuff to the book as well, from caricatures of the authors to artwork used as raw material for a couple exercises. It's always fun working with Stefan, and overall I think he and Wendy did a great job with the book.

2006-10-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook Pages

2006-10-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

More Dusty Old Neverhood Stuff...
Here are some of my storyboards for the Weasel Chase movie, the first long cutscene in the game, which was directed and animated by Doug T. It's a shame he doesn't animate anymore -- his stop-mo work was always so funny and full of life.

2006-10-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

Neverhood Fans -- Here's a Couple From Long Ago
Seems many of the first people to stumble across this blog are migrating over from Doug TenNapel's site, so here's something for you fans of the Neverhood, our stop motion PC game.
These are the first drawings I ever did of Klaymen, from a 1995 sketchbook. Doug T had just shown me his concepts, and I started drawing to get my head around the character for the first animation tests.

These are a couple Polaroids (that's how long ago it was) I took after sculpting the original Klaymen in plasticine over his stop motion armature. The mold from this sculpt was what we used for all our Klaymen puppets over the next few years, so this was where we locked down his final look. The colors are irrelevant, since the plasticine is destroyed in the mold making process -- I just used whatever colors we had handy.

2006-10-23T01:33:00.000-07:00

More Sketches

2006-10-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

More Random Sketchbook Doodles...

2006-10-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Blogging...
If you're actually reading this blog, then more than likely you have at least a passing interest in something that has to do with animation and/or illustration. Either that or you're my mom. If the former is true, you should check out these two blogs:
500 Toons
ANIMITE!
These are two artists that I admire, both for their love of their craft and their work ethic. They draw for the joy of it.
If the latter is true... Hi Mom.

2006-10-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

Some Sketchbook Doodles
I had westerns on the brain.

2006-10-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm giving the blog thing a try. Let's see if I manage to post more than twice a year.