John wastes paper

These are a few random storyboard panels from what would have been the opening sequence to an educational Albert & Einstein cartoon. Einstein obviously has a very vivid inner-life :) These were drawn with ball point pen and prisma color pencil on color copy paper, 8.25" x 4.25". And here are some test renders of the in-progress models of Albert and Einstein. When the project was cancelled I never bothered to finish and rig them - poor Einstein never even got any hands! Maybe one of these days for fun :) 

MORE OLD STUFF DEPT: These are probably from around 2000 or 2001. This is what started the Albert & Einstein line of educational materials that the California Department of Water Resources provides to the public. Its goal is water safety education and has been very popular since it was first published – probably because it's FREE :)  It's been reprinted and updated several times over the years; and the character drawings have been updated as well, as I've gained more skill delineating funny, cartoony animals. These are the production boards, which in themselves tells you how long ago the book was produced. No one does paste-up on boards any more, and the last time we reprinted I digitized the whole thing. These drawings were all done slightly oversized on bristol board and inked with a felt tip marker. I'm still not happy with a lot of this and will probably revise some of it the next time it's reprinted :)

OLD STORYBOARD WORK DEPT: No, that title is not a dig at the client. Just an acknowledgement that, years ago when I took on this freelance assignment, I really did not have the time in my schedule for it and the work suffered. And for that I apologize to Todd Popple of Plus Plus Productions, who graciously hired me for this project and many others before it. Todd's client wanted a computer animated television spot for their pesticide business, and I was hired to build the 3D assets and animate them. I suggested that a good starting point for production would be these boards; to define what needed to be built and to have the camera work and compositions pre-approved by the client. Unfortunately, by the time the boards were approved I had run out of free time to animate the spot. My day job was taking up too much of my evenings and weekends for something as ambitious as this. At the time I assumed that Todd and the client would move on to another animator to take over, but I'm

COPY WHAT YOU ADMIRE DEPT: ' Just going through some old sketchbooks and thought I'd post these notes on characters and animation I made from observations of Brad Bird's Family Dog episode of Amazing Stories. I've always loved its quirky character designs and fluid, cartoony animation. These next two sketches are character studies for a short scene I was going to animate. Like a lot of projects, I never got around to finishing this one :) And this last one – heh, I just like Flash Gordon :)

PUMPKIN POSTER PHUN! So, for two years in a row now we've had an office pumpkin carving contest that we refer to as "The Great Graphic Services Pumpkin Carving Contest" – in homage to Linus Van Pelt's annual fruit-deitie obsession.  For each I created a poster to advertise the event throughout our building, and each built on the Peanuts strip connection. Neither is very original, but they were fun to do and a nice exercise in layout, color, and composition. Here are some of the entries. The snowman is mine – it won "Most Freaky" :)

GET THIS BOOK! I've been reading Tod Polson's book "The Noble Approach" about famed animation designer and illustrator Maurice Noble and really loving it. It is a gold mine of illustration wisdom. If you are interested in that subject or Warner Brothers animation history, stop reading now and  order this book!