Video Art Show

Howdy folks! Hanging out and having fun putting together some short videos showcasing art demos I've done in the past. Taking a thematic approach. Click on the image below to watch it on YouTube. It's a little less than a minute long.

Spyro the Dragon Portrait Time Lapse Video

Hello there! I created this in 2019. It's a portrait of Spyro the Dragon painted in acrylics while jamming at my school. At the time I posted this on my blog. After each phase I scanned the image and have recently edited the pictures in a time lapse video with music. It's interesting to see the metamorphosis starting with the pencil sketch on to the final work. The video is a minute long. Click on the image to watch it on YouTube. Thank you and I hope you enjoy it.

Zenibeasts Art

This is a commissioned illustration I created in May 2021. It's for the Molly Heady-Carroll's "Zenibeasts" project which debuted on YouTube a few days ago. This was the art for the board game  and is now being used to promote the video. Molly has been a long term student and has completed an animated pilot for her fun project which is doing very well view wise. I recommend watching it as it's very enjoyable and only a couple of minutes. You can see it at this link ... 

Zenibeasts: Kaiju Cutie - YouTube 

Crash Bandicoot on McDonald's Happy Meals

Hello friends! It's a happy month for Happy Meals at McDonald's as Crash Bandicoot is featured for December. Imagine my joy! This is at least the second time and maybe the third that Crash has been on Happy Meals for kids. Spyro the Dragon is also in this latest nationwide campaign. Here's a video of the commercial ...

Super Mario Bros Director Aaron Horvath - My Student

It's a blockbuster!

Super Mario Bros has grossed $782,452,239 worldwide as of this writing. After 21 days in release it has remained king of the box office with 3 consecutive weekends at number 1. The film has nearly 60% of total box office revenues. Broke the record for a 5 day release for animated features.

And my student Aaron Horvath directed the movie!

He was a student at my school The Academy Academy in 2002 - 2003. Super talented artist. He was great even then. He went from student to character design instructor and got his break in 2003 with Comedy Central's animation department. He went on to become the Producer / Director / Executive Producer of Teen Titans Go! on Cartoon Network for many years.

Then came the Super Mario Bros Movie and astonishing success!

Click on this link to see samples of his student work when he was enrolled with me 20 years ago.

Beyond proud!

Great things happen when you Keep Creating!

Bandicoot Valentine

 

The Animation Academy is 25 Years Old

The Animation Academy is a school I launched 25 years ago today. 

On this day in the evening of January 19 in 1998 we had our first session in the back room of the Coral Cafe in Burbank California with 20 students. It was the flagship class of the Academy. I started the school with a small mailing list and $15 for stamps and envelopes to send flyers and enrollment forms. All available seating sold out.

Today after a quarter of a century I'm happy to say that the Academy is still going strong.

Thank you to everyone who has ever been a part of this great experience. My affectionate gratitude for these past 25 years and what they have meant.

KEEP CREATING FOREVER !!

Christmas 2022

 Merry Christmas friends and Happiest of New Years !!  :)

Montgomery Thump - Chapter 5

Things get sinister in the latest episode of Montgomery Thump and Timbuk Too! Follow the link to the Canvas section of Webtoon Comics to see what's up. 

If you're new to the series you can start from the beginning and get caught up...

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/montgomery-thump-and-timbuk-too/list?title_no=690071

Spyro the Dragon on January 30 1997

These drawings are from the original development of the character that would become Spyro.

It had been a little more than 2 weeks since I started to create the very first concepts for Insomniac Games. I was in the process of refining and defining. Insomniac was very excited about the character and the images I was coming up with. At this point in the creation of Spyro I was directed to really push his expressions.

This is the way it works. You dig and explore through concept sketches then as the character emerges a commitment is made towards the final design. Once you've nailed the look then you test it out and see how it functions through expressions and action / attitude posing as the personality emerges.

Note for historians and archivists: The pages are sequential but they're numbered incorrectly.