Cheetah Development

Whoa! This is a big post! OK, so here's a quick look at the development of the cheetah's design over the years. Again, it goes from earliest drawings at the top (a couple of years ago), to more recent ones (a few weeks ago). It's only a small sampling, because it would be ridiculous to post the hundreds of drawings that I have.
Suffice to say, the cheetah has been really tough to design. Maybe you're thinking that most of these drawings look the same, but to me there's a world of difference between each. I can draw a million times better than I could when I came up with the idea, so a lot of the early sketches are pretty bad. But every now and again I'd hit upon something charming, and I always look back and try to retain those qualities.

Another dilemma I have lies in the way I draw. I naturally draw really flat and growing up and throughout school I have been attracted to more flat, stylized designs. But recently within the last couple of years, I've begun to have a growing appreciation for more volumetric drawings trying to better my construction skills. And I'm realizing that the best stylized animation, like UPA, Tom Oreb, or Ed Benedict, is based on solid construction. So recently I've been trying to construct my drawings all the while trying to keep nice, graphic qualities. It certainly aint easy.
Man, these are bunch of weird doodles. Here's something interesting. Look at the above drawing, paying close attention to the dude in the bottom left corner. Now CLICK THIS. It's a drawing from a couple of months back. And look, there's even another cheetah to compare!
I really like this drawing.
This is drawn on a white paper bag. I drew it while I was working at Roundtable Pizza. I didn't want to work there forever, so of course I snuck in some drawing time whenever I could.
I don't like looking at these green ones, but they're part of the process.


Pants, or no pants?
As weird as it may seem, these were some great breakthrough drawings for me.
Here' s a doodle based off of some drawings Fred Osmond did for me. That's always a good way to get some new ideas, describe your character and ask a friend to interpret them.
M. Sasek anyone? Oh how I love his books. He's a huge influence on me as well as this film. Also Ronald Searle!! I can't get enough!
Another awesomely strange breakthrough drawing.
Now we're getting somewhere. I love this one.
I hope you can make this out. It's a great scribble of a drawing on an LA Weekly.
And finally the most recent versions. I only recently returned to the idea that he would be introduced as a regular cheetah, so it's been tricky trying to get a design that both works on four legs as well as two. I'll probably just cheat it anyways from scene to scene.
I guess I still haven't even touched upon trying to make the design look like an actual cheetah. That's a whole other issue. How cartoony do I want to go? Can I get away with a slightly different headshape than a real cheetah? Should I stay true to the animal? I mean, Chester Cheetah doesn't even look anything like a real cheetah, but people still buy it, right? But a cheetah's features and body shape are so distinct! I constantly ask myself these types of questions. I guess it's just part of the process. Oh yeah, and as for animating all those spots? We'll have to wait and see how that goes. But computers can make that sort of thing easier these days... hopefully.
Stay tuned for the development of the boy character, as well as the introduction (and soon tossed out idea) of the ghost of the human millionaire, based on the real-life Edward Gorey!

I AM 8-BIT

The I Am 8-Bit art show opening at Gallery 1988 was last night and it was a blast! So many people showed up and there was a line out the door the entire night. There was so much great artwork, it was insane. Here are the two pieces I contributed. Above is Mario, and below is Luigi, of course. Don't be confused by these thumbnails though, the Luigi piece was actually much bigger than the Mario one. Which do you like better and why? I was asking people all night and everyone had a different answer. This question started because at first, the gallery was only going to be able to fit one piece, and Jon Gibson, the curator, picked the Luigi one because he felt it was stronger. But to my luck, when I showed up at the show, they were both up! So thanks again Jon! I think the show's up for a month, so get yourself to the gallery and check out all the amazing artwork.

Another Film

So why decide to make another short film? It's a daunting task in animation, as many of you may know. I've had an idea in my head for close to 4 years now, and it won't go away. The spark of the idea came during the early part of my senior year at CalArts. I was trying to come up with ideas for my final film and this is the idea I came upon; a millionaire cheetah who was lonely. I worked on it for a bit, but soon scrapped it and came up with another idea which became this ice cream film. Over the years since, I've been trying to develop a form of the cheetah idea as a series for tv, but I finally started to realize that I always envisioned it as a stand alone short film. I also realized that the only way I would get it made, and made how I wanted it to be, that I would have to make it myself.
These are the very first drawings I did, back in 2002. They are pretty much in chronological order starting from the top, as much as I can remember anyways.

The main idea started as just a lonely millionaire cheetah alone in a mansion.
I had an immediate segue idea of a cheetah chess champion, but that didn't go very far.

I soon added a boy into the mix. Above is the first drawing I did of them together.
I explored the idea of the boy having a cheetah as a pet, but slowly steered away from that idea.
My goal for right now is to post basically all my "concept" artwork from over the years as I start working on the film. I started with these very first drawings and in the next post will continue with the cheetah's development over the years to the present, and then the boy's development to the present. I haven't really given myself a schedule or timeline really of when I want this film done by. I don't want to rush myself because I want to put the best work I can into it. But I do have a fulltime job, so I have to work on it during my free time.

Right now I'm writing an extensive outline, almost a script, just because I can write down my ideas faster than I can draw them. Of course I will explore different opportunities once I start boarding it. I probably won't divulge too much of the actual story on this blog, just because it'll make it more enjoyable when the film's finished. I'm going to actually animate the film in Flash, but don't start groaning yet. The process I usually take when animating in Flash is very similar to what I would do on paper. I like using as many new drawings as possible. Also, I will probably do layouts on paper for every scene.

So that's the plan so far! I'll try and update as much as I can along the way, and hopefully people find interest in the process. Wish me luck!

Long Time No Bloggie

So I was being taunted by my friend Gabe Swarr this weekend on my lack of posts, so I thought I'd stick it to him and post something. I have my excuses for not posting as of late, but really, there shouldn't be any excuse, right? So I'm not gonna whine about it. But having said that, today's post consists of scans I found on my computer that I hadn't posted yet. That's the only thing that links them. In other news, I recently started working at Six Point Harness. They do great work there and host some awesome parties to boot! So with that out of the way, let's get blogging!
The guy in the drawing above walked in front of my car at a crosswalk some weeks ago. He was so cool lookin, that I was drew him at every red light I could for the next couple of blocks. It's just a rough sketch, but I think I captured his essence.

These next two drawings are of my friends Morgan and Bailey. They both are great artists and are both really fun to draw.
This sketch is on a napkin, as you can see. If I remember correctly, it was drawn during the Annie Awards dinner after the awards show.
Here is my brother-in-law Jeremiah holding my nephew Preston. Aint he a cutie?
And finally, these sketches are probably over a year old. This was a old lady in Poquito Mas. It was fun to sketch her, and then draw some more stylized designs based on the first sketch. I should try that more often.
And now for something completely different. I've decided to make another short film. It will be an arduous task and I plan to follow the production on this here blog. So stay tuned for the next post!