CrocPond: The Dream Job that Lasted for a Moment

Lately, I’ve been reminiscing about old projects from the course my career. One project for which I had the highest hopes was the ill-fated world of CrocPond. Originally, it was intended to be a direct-to-DVD film series aimed at teaching life lessons to children. But as all too often happens in this industry, the project ran out of funding and was eventually abandoned. (I will refrain from commenting on specific events, controversies or conspiracy theories surrounding the demise of the project or the closure of FatCat Animation – I have no dog in those fights. For this blog, I just want to focus on the artwork).

In early 2005, I was contacted by someone from FatCat Animation, a studio founded my Len Simon in Tempe, Arizona. Initially, the job involved cleanup animation on the Curious George movie, but when I enquired about layout work, they said they would need to send me a test. Not long after, a package arrived by FedEx. Inside was the test: a couple of penciled line drawings for which I was asked to provide tonal renderings. I had seen no other CrocPond material, and I was given no reference or direction for the lighting – I just had to invent the lighting myself. So, I put my whole heart into it, and the result was the pencil rendering you see here, as well as the one at the top of this blog post. Needless to say, this test got me the job.

As I child, I loved the animated film Secret of NIMH, as well as the laser disc video game, Dragon’s Lair, both created by Don Bluth Entertainment (or its various incarnations). Fatcat was staffed with artists who had worked for Fox Animation Studios, which in turn, had absorbed talent from Bluth. While CrocPond was stylistically distinct from NIMH, I couldn’t help but feel excited to be working with people who had some connection to one of my favorite childhood films. In my mind, CrocPond was an opportunity to create environments which had the kind of atmospheric, mysterious, magical quality that reminded me of Secret of NIMH. For me, it was the dream job. I was very disheartened when the project came to an end.

I worked at FatCat Animation from about mid-2005 to mid-2006, the first part of that time doing cleanup animation on Curious George, the rest of that time spent drawing backgrounds for CrocPond and Rindin the Puffer. This was still the age of traditional pencil-on-paper animation, and so all of the drawings here were created with graphite pencils, kneaded eraser, and blending stubs. For many of these scenes, I was provided a rough layout (usually just a line drawing with no tone - so I had to invent the value pattern and lighting myself).

For others - such as the next two drawings here - I designed and rendered the background, so both the composition and finish are my own.

The last two drawings (below) depict the “House of Knowledge”. The exterior was initially designed by the amazingly talented Filipino artist, George Villaflor. George gave me a line drawing of the exterior, and a very rough line drawing suggesting the interior (for which I was to provide the finished renderings). Another artist had made a drawing of the interior, but from a different camera angle, and not all of the room was visible in his scene. So I had to design the rest of the room and match the desired camera angle. The script called for a room crowded with objects from every continent, representing every culture around the world. This assignment had my name all over it – a job perfectly suited to my tastes, skills, and artistic ambitions. I spent days researching reference material for everything that needed to be drawn. Needless to say, it was very time consuming, but I genuinely enjoyed the work.

While I am disappointed that Crocpond never reached the screen, I have fond memories from my time working on it. It was a moment in my career when imagination, craftsmanship, and opportunity aligned – however briefly – and I am grateful to have been a part of it.

By the way, I recently found some clips from FatCat Animation on YouTube (thanks to WorkOfZen for posting these!) This one provides a sense of what CrocPond might have been, if the funding had not dried up. 

Eye Update: One Year After My First Cornea Transplant

One year ago, I underwent my first cornea transplant (lefteye). Four months later, I went in for my second transplant (right eye). I really hoped that by now I would be enjoying crisp, clear vision. That hasn’t quite happened – but there has been real progress.

On the bright side, the thick fog is gone. My vision is dramatically better – especially when viewing things close up: fine details, textures, small print, all things that eluded me a year ago. Distance vision, however, is still a problem: street signs, grocery store isle markers, café menu boards remain difficult to read. I still see strong halos around lights, and there is a persistent double vision effect (especially in my right eye).

At my last doctor visit, my cornea transplants were healthy and working perfectly (no problems there). However, cataracts have developed in each eye at a faster pace than my doctor anticipated. The doctor recommends holding off on cataract surgery for at least a year or more following the cornea transplants. Also, my doctor believes another issue may be impacting my vision: dry eyes (i.e.: when the surface of the eye not properly hydrated, it can cause a scuffed, hazy effect). Actually this is good news, since the solution is non-surgical; the doctor recommends artificial tears for now, and these do seem to help.

Despite the ups and downs, I am feeling grateful. Of all the eye problems one could have, Fuchs dystrophy and cataracts are more manageable, especially compared to more serious issues like glaucoma or retinal detachment. Still, it does feel like I am living in a holding pattern: my vision is currently hovering around 20/40 in my left eye, and worse in my right eye; good enough to pass an eye exam at the DMV, but not quite good enough for me to catch the subtleties of someone’s facial expression across a coffee shop. I was hoping to resume my practice of café sketching, but alas… the café sketches will probably have to wait until after cataract surgery. 

In the meanwhile, I am happy to be drawing with pencil on paper again (in previous posts, I noted that my vision had deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t even see well enough to draw in a sketchbook). Here below is my most recent sketchbook page. I used the Blackwing 602 as well as the Tombow pencils (both are favorite pencils of mine), plus blending stumps and kneaded eraser. For the airbrushed version at the top of this post, I scanned my drawing and painted it in Photoshop. For the future, I am thinking of doing a lager, airbrushed version of this drawing, maybe using it as the basis for a finished painting.

Memories of the "Amazon Project"

Recently I put together a short video featuring some of my background work for the "Amazon Project" (actually, we called it "Amazonia" or something back when we were developing it, but for some reason, I kept referring to it as the "Amazon Project", and the name has stuck in my head).  

I've written about the Amazon project on my website here. Basically, it was to be an animated film featuring the character designs and animation of my good friend, the insanely talented Sandro Cleuzo. And it would have been an opportunity for me to develop a bunch of backgrounds loosely inspired by the art direction of Disney's Jungle Book (a film which Sandro and I both love). As happens all too often in the animated film business, too many great projects end up getting shelved.

On my website, I also wrote about The Last Days of Traditional Background Painting. By the time we were working on Amazonia, the animation industry had pretty much moved away from acrylics or gouache paints to all digital painting. I was one of the lone hold outs trying to work in traditional media. Here is a photo of me working on an Amazon background from way back (circa 2012 or so). Since this was a dev/dev piece rather than a production BG, I could use any media. I actually used oils on canvas for this one. 

And since I recently found these old photos, here is a look into my working process. For this next background, I started with a graphite drawing. After rendering out everything in graphite to establish the composition and value pattern, I airbrushed over my drawing with acrylic ink to darken the darks.

In this next step, I begin airbrushing thin layers of color over the black and white rendering. I like to work with a solid drawing under my painting - since I have already resolved the lighting and atmosphere, now I can focus on color. 

Slowly and patiently, I build up the layers of color so they become more intense, while trying not to lose the feeling of atmosphere established in the drawing.

Here the painting is coming along, but still a ways to go towards the finish. At the bottom of the photo, you can see paints laid out on my palette. I used a damp paper towel under the paints to keep the acrylics from drying out too fast. A spritzer bottle also helps to keep the paints moist. I still have the old butcher tray which I used as a palette in art school. With the painting progressing this far, I've put away the big brushes and brought out the small brushes for detail work. 

The finished painting is displayed on my website, as well as in the video above. Even though the film was never made, I am forever grateful to Sandro for the opportunity to collaborate on his film. And it did provide me with the opportunity to make some great portfolio pieces which helped me to land a number of jobs later on down the road.

Christmas at the Haggin Museum

It’s Christmas time at the Haggin Museum, and the galleries are dressed for the season: red, green, gold and white woven through banisters like festive ribbons. I haven’t been to the Haggin in quite some time. As my vision deteriorated from Fuchs Dystrophy, I stopped visiting museums altogether. One of the first things I longed to do after my cornea transplants was to return to art museums and see paintings in person again – not photos of paintings enlarged on a computer screen, but real canvases, real brushstrokes; I wanted to stand in the presence of real paintings and see them in their physical form.

Now that I’ve had transplant surgery in both eyes, my vision is better - not fully recovered, but definitely much better than it was. So, for my birthday, my dad drove me down to Stockton and we spent an afternoon wandering though the Haggin.

For those who don’t know, the Haggin Museum might be one of the best-kept secrets of the art world. Some even argue that the Haggin is the finest art museum in Northern California – surpassing the San Francisco Bay Area museums in the strength of its collections. A bold claim, I know. The Haggin is a mere fraction of the size of the De Young or the Palace of the Legion of Honor. But what it lacks in square footage, it makes up for with astonishing depth: Renior, Gauguin, Rodin, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William Merrit Chase, Thomas Moran, and the region’s largest collection of Albert Beirstadt landscapes.

On my first trip to the Haggin, I was stunned to find myself standing in front of Bouguereau’s Nymphaeum - a painting I have pored over in books, never imagining that I would see it in person. The last time I stood in front of this painting, my vision was weakening - but not yet to the point where I could no longer appreciate the subtle variations of color, the brushwork, the details... Fuchs Dystrophy impairs vision, and not just the ability to see detail - value contrasts are diminished (e.g.: darks appear grayed out rather than fully dark), colors appear washed out. Cornea transplants have restored my ability to see strong contrasts and vibrant color. Edges are still fuzzy, but at this point, I will happily take whatever victories I can get.  

The Haggin also houses the largest public collection of works by Golden Age illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, one of my artistic heroes since my student days at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Honestly, this exhibit alone would have been well worth the trip.

A gallery dedicated to the works of J.C. Leyendecker

My father viewing illustrations of Leyendecker

 

A section of drawers holds drawings not only by Leyendecker but also by other famous illustrators such as Charles Dana Gibson. To protect the drawings, each drawer is covered with glass. Here my father examines a drawing displayed inside a drawer.

In addition to its art collections, the Haggin also features artifacts from early California history. From Gold Rush exhibits to Native American baskets, to fully recreated Victorian era rooms, to19th century industrial technology... I could spend days wandering through these halls. I was particularly fascinated with these antique fire-fighting machines (these would have been very helpful as reference when I was designing steampunk elements for my last video game job). 

So much more could be said about the Haggin, but I won't try to describe it - you have to see it for yourself. I can't recommend this place highly enough. The Haggin would be a great place to visit any time of year, but so near Christmas time, with all the festive ornaments - and to see it after my recovery from from cornea transplant surgeries - to me, this trip was priceless. 

Explorations of Hand Lettering

I fell in love with calligraphy and hand lettering techniques at a young age when my aunt gave me a Speedball calligraphy set for my birthday. The ink bottles from that set were used up many decades ago and the original pen nibs have long since been replaced, but I still have the original included Speedball booklet. It survives in tattered, ink stained form, but I cherish it still. It was my first introduction to lettering techniques. Since I made my own cartoons/comic strips in grade school, lettering seemed natural to me. 

However, by the time I went to art school, the art field had become highly subdivided and specialized. Whereas earlier generations of art students chose between "fine art" and "applied art" (sometimes called "graphic art" or "commercial art"), my generation had to choose from a variety of majors: illustration, graphic design, advertising art, product design, fashion illustration, etc. The lines of demarcation between these majors were not always clear to me, but as an illustration major, I focused specifically on drawing and painting (usually the human figure and environments). Hand lettering techniques were excluded from my course of study, the rationale being, I suppose, that lettering for any book cover or movie poster would be handled by a "typography expert"  - you illustrators stay in your own lane! Nevertheless, I collected books on calligraphy (including all the Speedball lettering books) and admired works of skillful lettering.  

In recent years, as my vision became too weak to draw portraits or sketch very much from observation, I turned to digital techniques, working on a Wacom Cintiq. I also revived my interest in lettering, since I could enlarge letters enough to see on my screen, and letters tend to have bold graphic shapes that are easy to see. I am not a professional letterer, typographer, or graphic designer, and I'm sure the shortcoming in my work are evident to the trained eye, but I did have a lot of fun working on the samples show here. All of these were executed in Photoshop on my Wacom Cintiq (although many began as sketches on my iPad). The "We the People" at the top of this post was my attempt to take the original lettering found in the Preamble of the United States Constitution, and push it in an edgier Gothic script style. I attempted the same approach with "1776" below.

For "God Bless the USA", I used the Photoshop pen tool to create each letter. I wanted to juxtapose formal, geometric letters against a more organic, cursive style. For the American flag, I actually drew and painted a perfect (straight edged) flag, then worked back over it to break up the edges and add the distressed effect (perhaps symbolic of the state of our republic today). 

"Fear no Evil" (based on text from Psalm 23:4) was my attempt to work in a brush script style. I used the Photoshop pen tool to keep the edges clean. I so wish I could skillfully paint each letter the way professional sign painters do, but I am limited to drawing out each letter in line and then filling in the shapes.

In this next version of "Fear No Evil", I aimed for an edgier, heavy-metal style. A splatter brush was used to create the texture effect.  

I was happy with the heavy-metal version, but wanted to take it a step further by adding an old rugged cross. I chose the blue and tan complimentary color scheme which seemed harmonious to me.

For Psalm 8:9, I used the Photoshop pen tool to create each letter. I juxtaposed bold geometric letters with the flowing hand written script of "Majestic". I used the polygon tool in Photoshop to create the background geometric pattern. A splatter brush effect adds a splash of energy.

I'll end with my attempts to create hand lettered titling for my website. In early versions, I really liked the idea of letters formed out of dragons or dragon scales. The thorny textured look was fun to draw. However, I realized that while the individual letters look good closeup, as a title design, the layout is uninspired. The letter forms don't overlap or interlink in a way that would create strong visual impact.

Eventually I scrapped the idea in favor of a flame effect with letters constructed from burnt embers. This version utilizes overlapping shapes, variety of size ("The" and "of" are kept small to better emphasize "Art" and "Starnes"), and strong directional lines (such as the contrasting horizontal strokes of the "T"s). I used a thick & thin brush to create the letter forms, and the airbrush tool to create the flame effect. You can see the final version overlaying the Amazon background on my website. Perhaps I'll come up with a better idea later, but for now this is my title design.   

As my vision heels, I am getting back to drawing portraits and other things, but I do not wish to neglect lettering - it's an art form unto itself, and one which fascinates me endlessly.

The Story behind my Christmas Illustrations

Some of my fondest memories from the animation industry revolve around Christmas time. For instance, I remember a DreamWorks Christmas party where one of the layout guys mixed daiquiris using dry ice. After a few drinks, someone had the bright idea of dumping a large brick of dry ice into the DreamWorks central fountain. The fountain was illuminated after dark, so the dry ice created a cool “glowing fog” effect (I suppose you could argue that this was “research” for artists seeking to create believable fog effects in animation).

Ah… but I cherish these memories: studio Christmas parties, artists decorating their workspaces, studio contests to see who could develop the most creative Christmas ornaments, and the general feeling of positive vibes that everyone seems to have during this time of year. One of my contributions to the holiday season was creating illustrations for Christmas cards that were given out to animation folks (this was back in the day before e-cards replaced actual physical cards).  

Most of my card designs began as pencil sketches on animation paper and developed into pen and ink drawings. Sometimes I painted with watercolor or gouache (opaque watercolor) and colored pencils on hot press watercolor paper or illustration board. Usually, I tried to work in a technique and style that was distinctively different from whatever production I was working on at the time. It was an opportunity to hone my skills while celebrating the Christmas season. I did many of these over the years, but I'm posting just a few of my favorites here. 

In recent years, I digitally retouched some of these illustrations and started printing them on coffee mugs. For this year, I added new captions and have been selling them on Etsy. If anyone is interested, I’ll add links to the images below, or you can check out my Etsy shop.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

DreamWorks Memories

Since I’ve been cleaning house and rediscovering old photos, I’ll post a few more. These photos are from my time in the layout department at DreamWorks, circa 2000-2001 (back when DreamWorks still had a layout department), when I worked on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. The first photo (above) is a layout crew meeting in late spring, 2001. So much incredible talent assembled together in one room! I count it a great honor to have worked with these folks. I learned so much from them and all of my work since has been better for having applied the lessons they taught me.

The next photos (below) are shots of the “DW Breakfast Club” – a group of layout folks who arrived to work bright and early. The DreamWorks cafeteria opened about 7am or so, and we were there each morning for coffee and muffins. I remember this time very fondly; I really enjoyed working with these people!

DreamWorks Spirit was in production for a number of years, although I only worked on it for the production crunch from 2000-2001. I remember this period as an incredibly exciting time for me personally - I was still a relative newcomer to the animation industry, but I was rapidly advancing my layout skills and my career seemed to be on the upswing. However, it was not the best time for DreamWorks: the company was burning through mountains of cash without big box office success. The traditionally animated 2D films were not doing so well, and folks were speculating that DreamWorks might not survive. Then a 3D film called Shrek became a box office smash. On the one hand,  DreamWorks not only survived, but thrived for the next decade. On the other hand, DreamWorks pivoted to 3D CGI animation, and this was more or less the end of hand drawn, pencil-to-paper feature film animation. The next film, Sinbad, was a sort of 2D/3D hybrid (2D animation mixed with CGI) and everything after that as pretty much all 3D CGI.  

Whenever my employment with DreamWorks comes up in discussions, people assume I must do 3D animation. This is not the case. I only worked on the hand drawn 2D films (by the time Spirit wrapped up, I was leaving DW for Rough Draft Studios, where I would draw with pencil on paper for the Futurama show). People forget that DreamWorks began as a 2D pencil-on-paper animation studio. Sadly, that golden era of big budget hand drawn feature animated film is long gone.

If you are interested in what I did in the layout department at DreamWorks, I wrote about my experience here on my website: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

Also, Chuck Green wrote an article with some examples of my DreamWorks layout work here: Idea Book 

Special thanks to the amazingly talented Ed Li for taking these photos and sharing them with me!