the CROODS post 06 (the guy before Guy)

In the Croods, “Guy” was not always “Guy”, his original name was Wimmit. And he was not always a human, but was originally conceived as an awkward, yet more advanced intermediate species.Chris and kirk wanted him to have a Dobie Gillis, hippy, beatnik vibe as well. I got the ball rolling on this guy, and would end up taking him quite a ways through production. Later on Carter Goodrich joined the team, and we started working back and forth like mad. You will see me imitating his technique in several images as we worked to hone the overall look for the Croods. The pencil drawings you'll see at the end of the post were, at one point, the final Guy. But the studio decided they wanted a more conventional, human Guy for the final film. Below is just a small sample of my design and development work on who would eventually become “Guy”. (note some of the reference and inspiration included on some pages. There were many different influences along the way). Also, the very informative Croods Blog just posted an interview I did for them. Check it out.

the CROODS post 05 HAPPY EASTER!

Happy Easter! Here are some prehistoric bunnies I designed very early on for the CROODS. The first one makes a brief cameo in the film.







The T-Rex bunny above makes a cameo on the back inside jacket of the Art of the CROODS book. A generous amount of my development work is represented throughout that book, but as happens in many art of books, I was mis-credited for several pieces that my Croods colleagues were actually responsible for. Here is a list of those images: Pg 12 image 3 is Shannon Tindle's / Pg 35 image 4 is Shannon's / Pg 39 image 6 is Carter's / Pg 102 images 1 and 2 are Shannon's. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. Happy Easter

the CROODS post 03

Originally, The CROODS was not a story about a literal family, but a community, a tribe. Each member of the tribe had a duty, depending on one another during a hunt or within the cave...etc. Chris and Kirk were also playing with the idea that the Croods would be a musical society. Even when hunting, sound could be their tool. The story was always set in a volatile, prehistoric time between time. An ever-changing, chaotic, world. So the question of what characters would look like in this strange, non-recorded time turned into an exciting challenge. Would they just look like us today? Or would they be some "crude" intermediate version of a human. The initial drive was to go away from literal human and make a more abstract statement to reflect the story's setting. We were referencing nature (Rocks, trees, water) as well as ancient cave paintings and sculpture as inspiration for the characters. Also, in the original story there was a neighboring tribe of even less evolved and more animalistic creatures called the BOGS. The Bogs were supposed to be both stupid and terrifying. The Bogs wanted the Crood's cave and were a constant threat. Things would change as the story would change, but here is a small sample of my first explorations for both the CROODS and the BOGS.



_______________________________THE BOGS.

the CROODS post 02

I had been working with directors Chris Sanders and Kirk De Micco on all the main characters for some time (more on that soon), when we all sat one day to start discussing the creatures of the film. It is a time between time, a non-existant prehistoric era, so what kinds of ridiculous creatures would exist in this volatile world? Below is just a fraction of the creatures I created after that meeting. See how many you recognize from the film. MUCH more to come. This guy eventually became "BELT". More on that later. Stay posted for much more of my work on the CROODS.

the CROODS post 01

A complete change of gears from Guardians, I was responsible for developing and designing a great deal of the creatures and characters you will see in the CROODS. Myself and Shannon Tindle were the first artists on the project back when Chris Sanders started at Dreamworks in 2007(before Dragons). After a quick detour onto Dragons Carter Goodrich, and Takao Noguchi joined the design team. Over the next few weeks I will show much of my development work from Croods, but I will start with one character that you will not actually see in the final film. This is a little prehistoric proto-pony that was at one time Guy's pet. She actually made it as far as an early Croods teaser poster, but in the 11th hour Belt became his pet and the pony was changed into the little reptilian guy you will see in the final film. Stay posted for much more, and enjoy.

RISE of the GUARDIANS post 06 (Pitch, Entity or Human?)

I was brought on to Rise of the Guardians to help explore the potential of the concept as a story for feature film. But due to my character design background, I was asked to explore the look of these guys from time to time as it concerned the ever changing story. I did a great deal of development on the character of Pitch(See my previous Guardian's posts), and I had a lot of opinions on his overall character and look. Here is another small sample of some of my exploration: Below I was playing with more ghastly and ghostly forms for Pitch. Made up of strands and fumes of darkness. More of an entity than a human. A nightmare in physical form. I pushed hard to not just make Pitch a guy in a suit.

Below I was playing with a more refined and noble vibe to Pitch, while also trying to keep him feeling ancient. In fact I decided to use ancient sculpture as inspiration for these sketches. More “humanistic” here but doing what I can to not just make him a guy in a costume.

But there was a prevailing push to make Pitch more visually humanistic. So If that was going to be the case I proposed that maybe his eyes and features could look slightly more animalistic or "other worldly".

But all the while I would still explore the more supernatural aspects of Pitch. More of a force of nature. He is Nightmare, and fear. He is supposed to terrify children in order to gain strength.

I created these beat boards(below)to support the idea of Pitch truly becoming an absolute force of nature during the climax of the film. The fear of the children in the town below feeds this beastly tornado. Jack, losing his strength, hangs on to this swirling mass for dear life, as North, Sandy, and Bunny bravely charge towards the imposing tower of darkness(Via North's Sleigh):

In the final film Pitch ended up a very humanistic character. There was much debate and discussion, but I miss some of the more supernatural aspects that were explored. More from Rise of the Guardians down the road. But I will have many other things to share from other projects over the next couple of months. Stay posted.