BigFoot n' Friends

These three hooligans' are fun to draw. I tried to give each character their very own distinct personality and think about how they would react in various scenarios and adventures in a fun way. 

This was inspired by listening to many youtube channels that present stories about cryptids and odd phenomenon. (I do need a break from the news.) Some of the material about these beings can range from curiosity and benevolence to out right terrifying and deadly. I chose to take the material in a whimsical fun way that is reminiscent of the amazing old Warner Brothers cartoons from the distant past. So no disrespect to anyone's experience is intended. 

If you want get a book for yourself or any of my other titles from Twin Pine Productions please check out your local amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Twin-Pine-Productions/author/B0DSPWDK2B?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1758520906&sr=1-3&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

This isn't everyone and in no particular order, but I wanted to include a list of links for some of the channel hosts and those that have shared their stories that have inspired the artwork. Thankyou All. 

Cryptids Canada: Check out the animation I did of these characters on her Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@cryptidscanada6884/videos

The Inbetween:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheInBetweenTales/videos

How to Hunt (Steve has amazing cinematography of animals and nature on a side note):
https://www.youtube.com/@proguide66/videos

Here is some animation of the 3 hooligans' that was inspired by Steve having a bit of fun:

David Paulides Can/Am missing 411- Bigfoot playlist and Missing people:
Note: David has some great documentaries and books on the subjects listed above at his webpage.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTlMjWa5VXHsq5xVm8hW4C9iwLbfw-zZr
https://www.youtube.com/@canammissingproject/videos

Buckeye Bigfoot:
https://www.youtube.com/@BuckeyeBigfoot/videos

Dixie Cryptid:
https://www.youtube.com/@DixieCryptid/videos

Cabin in the Woods:
https://www.youtube.com/@cabininthewoods517/videos

What Lurks Beneath:
https://www.youtube.com/@WhatLurksBeneath/videos

Sasquatch Chronicles:
https://www.youtube.com/@SasquatchChronicles/videos

John Allen - Mr. Ballen- The Strange Dark and Mysterious:
Check out the Mr. Ballen Graphic Novels as well- really great stuff. 
https://www.youtube.com/@MrBallen/videos

Coast to Coast:
https://www.youtube.com/@COASTTOCOASTAMOFFICIAL/videos

ThinkerThunker
https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkerThunker/videos

Vic Cundiff:  Dogman Encounters and My Bigfoot Sightings:
https://www.youtube.com/@DogmanEncounters/videos
https://www.youtube.com/@mybigfootsighting/videos

The Critical Drinker

I get a kick out of The Critical Drinker and his caustic Scottish humor. He gives his honest reviews from the perspective of someone that genuinely loves movies and wants to see the best films and stories told. For the films that The Drinker does feel fall short of the quality mark,  he does offer constructive suggestions on how to improve upon them from a writers perspective. I have observed that he also engages with his audience and colleagues in a genuinely decent respectful sincere way. He maybe crusty and drunk, but I have to say, I did met him briefly and he really is a great guy.  He had to be, he loves dogs.

During downtime between jobs, I try and explore things with TVPaint and different aspects of animation. So I thought about doing a comical animated shot of The Drinker. The character design is mostly mine with a little input by my colleague Tim Watts (check out the his stop motion short film "the Big Story" and Spittin' Image caricatures).

My buddy FX Animator Raymond Pang did a tone suggestion on one drawing of the Drinker. I Then asked another friend Animator Seti Erfan if she could help me by doing a one frame shadow set up  based on Ray's image following the Robert Valley tone technique. With that guide I then animated the tone shadows for the entire shot.  I can tell you the whole procedure is a massive complex pain in the backside. In short, its multi layers of FX work to keep track of per drawing.

It's so important to keep learning the various aspects in any business so you can understand and empathize with colleagues down the pipeline. From all my past 2-D animation experience, I have a huge respect to the animation assisting teams.  Especially the crews that work on Robert Valley's jobs doing these difficult tone FX shadows under extremely challenging deadlines.

Thanks to Editor Daniel Budin for his SFX suggestions.

Check out the Critical Drinker's youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/@TheCriticalDrinker/videos

Click on the link below to see the animation:

The History Squad

I really enjoy Historical Education and I happened upon the History Squad YouTube channel sometime ago. I binged watched episodes and it quickly became a favorite channel that I have been following ever since. It's hosted by Kevin Hicks and edited by his wife Julie.

Kevin has a really interesting and engaging way of relaying historical events, individuals and even some of his own adventures from the past. He uses props, models and location walk throughs to make his educational lessons really retainable. And wow, can he ever shoot a longbow.

I've got to know Kevin and his wife Julie over some time, and we have had some great discussions One of our chats lead to some artwork for the History Squad channel which I was very happy to do.

Check out the History Squad here:

https://www.youtube.com/@thehistorysquad/videos

The Metatron

The Metatron has a great History Channel on YouTube with very well presented and insightful Historical content that I enjoy listening to. Some people agree with him, some people don't. Regardless, he does encourage a respectful discourse which is a good thing. One of the things in his videos I do find amusing is his use of the term "Muppet". So here is the resulting bit of animation of the "Number one Muppet." 

Thanks to Gary Dunn for his design suggestions.

Click the image to check out the animation:

Link to his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@Metatronrealhistory

Love, Death + Robots Vol 4: The 400 Boys

Blur Studios asked Robert back to direct this episode of the LD+R series. I have worked for Rob off and on for over 20 yrs now, and I can say a lot of complimentary things about the guy.  One of the most outstanding things I've noted these past decades is his loyalty to the crew. On Rob's productions, he has a preferred group of hard working skilled individuals he continues to call back. The schedules might be challenging, but its a good work environment with solid folks.

Recently I was working on some personal animation and I wanted to apply some of the techniques of tones and highlights that Robert uses on his productions. So I asked Seti Erfan (who did some great animated shots on 400 boys) to help me with a one frame tone set up on my own work. On past jobs I directed, I'm used to one tone, one highlight and occasionally 2 tones/highlights on jobs incorporating animation and live action. When I got my animation file back from Seti and reviewed her instructions, I was blown away, as I had no idea the complexity of this technique. Its extensive, multiple layers of tones and some highlights per character, per frame. 

Robert is quite particular on how things look in the end, and what the Animation Assistants do on all these jobs to get the desired "Robert Valley Look" is amazing. Especially on how fast they do it. Sending so much respect to everyone in that department.

I'll post some stills of my shots in the future.

Bond, James Bond

Who was the best iteration of James Bond? Well it's the one you like the best. I was introduced to 007 when I was a kid  by my mom, so I grew up with Sean Connery and Roger Moore. But I think all the actors brought there own flare to the role, and they did the best they could with the scripts given.

This Bond opening sequence was inspired by Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan. I wanted to mess about and educate myself on applying animation to multiple camera layers, mattes and fades with TVpaint. I then promptly forgot how to do any of it. 

Click on the link if you want to see the animation: (click on the lower right to see it full screen)

Dr. Squatch

While searching for things to listen to while I'm working,  The Dr. Squatch adverts would pop. I thought, ok that's a fun logo, which inspired the rough animation below.

Click the image to watch:

Mr Ballen - Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories.

I've been listening to Mr. Ballen for some time now.  John really has an engaging way of telling stories and I enjoy listening to him while I'm working. It was around 2022 that I noticed he had a logo representing his content which inspired me to do some rough animation incorporating that design. It's only just recently that I have had some time to have been able to finish off those concepts.

2-D FX animators like the very old school Disney bunch, guys like Michel Gagné and my friend Raymond Pang I've always held a great deal of respect for.  But after messing about with hand drawn FX myself, I now have an even greater admiration for those artists. I'll be keeping to the character stuff from now on.

Speaking of respect, Mr. Ballen who is also a Veteran, gives a lot of support to the Veteran Community, people with mental help concerns and many other groups in need. Such as those affected by violent crimes. Check out the Ballen Foundation:

https://mrballen.foundation/

https://ballenstudios.com/

His YouTube Channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/@MrBallen 

And here is the animation I did with his logo, Thanks to Editor Daniel Budin for adding the SFX.

CanAm Missing Project

David Paulides is a retired police officer that has a great channel highlighting the cases of individuals that have gone missing often under very peculiar circumstances. Dave has published numerous books and produced a few great documentaries on the subject that you can find at his website.

https://missing411.com/

https://www.canammissing.com

https://www.youtube.com/@canammissingproject

I don't get much time to read due to my extremely challenging work schedules. So I very much appreciate the time Dave takes with his presentations talking about these cases so I can listen while I'm working. In my opinion he really makes a sincere effort to bring factual context and more importantly a face to these missing individuals.

Often Dave will discuss mental health topics on his videos and is a huge advocate for the support of that broad subject. He is also a proponent of treating people with general decency and kindness. Which I can personally vouch for that he does. 

Dave also loves his dog Huck. She inspired this bit of animation based on the MGM Lion and Mary Tyler Moore logos. Her cheeky side eye at the beginning of most of Dave's videos cracks me up.

Click on the image to see the animation:

Conan O'Brien

I've always really liked Conan, he is fearless with his absurdity.  His old school awkward sense of humor I can relate to and his sincere decency towards people I really respect.

I have observed over the years that Conan has the ability to converse with anyone from anywhere in the language of humor. He combine's the interaction with his quick wit and improvisational skills into something fun and entertaining for everyone present... most of the time. I do get a kick when situations really go awry resulting in his deadpan self deprecating look to camera.

This design is my take based on one of Conan's own drawings of himself.

Click on the space below to see some animation incorporating this design with dialogue from Conan's podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend"

Have a listen to his pod cast if you need some cheer. 

https://teamcoco.com/

Coloring Books

When I worked at various studios I occasionally would do fun drawings of and for coworkers, and if their kids and family stopped by the studio I'd do some drawings for them to color as well. So I thought why not take it step further and do a few proper coloring books.

Here is the Amazon link if you want to check them out: 

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Twin-Pine-Productions/author/B0DSPWDK2B?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1758520906&sr=1-3&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Thanks to everyone that has supported, Its much appreciated. 

When Hackers Run a Blitz, the NFL Relies on Cisco

This was a job that came in right out of the blue thanks to my friend Alan Barillaro. He recommended me to his friend and colleague Producer Marc Sondheimer, who was looking for someone to supervise the 2d animation and art direct this spot. So after the introductions and me learning about what the job expectations were, I agreed to gather up a small crew to get er done. Robert Milne helped me animate, in fact he did the majority of the shots.  Ron Chevarie and Eleonora Quario to do the animation assisting. There work would create the initial final chalk line look based on my rough art direction. Then the team at Logan.tv took all the completed animation artwork added their backgrounds and pieced it together in the final composite.

This was an enjoyable job for a lot of reasons. The creative team from Cisco were a super nice bunch of folks to work for. I enjoyed the opportunity to try a different artistic look in animation than what I'm used to. Working with talented  animation colleagues is always a win for me. But, one of the best things though, was getting to know and work with Marc.  He's a real professional top notch guy and great to chat with.

Marc actually was a lifesaver, his knowledge of American Football was such an asset to help me out on this job. Hopefully we can work together again in the future.

Here is a link to the 15sec spot:

https://video.cisco.com/detail/videos/latest-videos/video/6361448780112?autoStart=true

Peter and the Wolf

I had worked with Exec-Producer Adriana Piasek-Wanski on a previous job and she kindly invited me to animate on this short based on the character drawings done by Bono of U2. Visually speaking, I thought the hybrid mix of hand drawn animation and the building of background model set pieces is a very cool look. Yes, it has been done before in the past, But this is the sort of creativity I'd like to see more of in animated short films. 

One of the highlights of this job was meeting and working for my supervisor Robert Milne. What an excellent guy, we still have great conversations to this day.

The Day I Became a Bird

Andrew Ruhemann of Passion-Pictures directed this short based on the book of the same name. I contributed some boarding and hand drawn bird animation here and there. This was a fun project to be part of by having the opportunity to work with some old and new acquaintances. I also enjoy working in  various looks and styles that are different from the usual animation norms.

Cryptid animation and story channels I listen to while working.

I listen to all sorts of material when I'm working. Music, news, audio books, youtube channels, snow storms etc. There are a few youtube channels that discuss various topics from historical or even paranormal events which I find interesting. And it's such a nice break from the news. 

I had some extended unpaid down time and wanted to sharpen up on my preferred animation software TVpaint. It was also a great opportunity for me to mess about with other aspects of the program I usually don't utilize as an animator. Color processes and the FX stack for example. So I had a run designing these guys and thought I would do some simple animation of them as well. And why not do it for a purpose? Hopefully something fun for a channel I enjoy listening to. (not sponsored by the way)

These characters were inspired by the old Warner Brothers cartoons I loved as a kid. 

Click on the screen below to check out these guys moving.

If the news gets to much and you are looking for something a bit different to listen to, (off the top of my head) check out, Cryptids Canada, Buckeye Bigfoot, The Inbetween, Dixie Cryptid, CanAm Missing Project, HowtoHunt.com, Les Stroud, Sasquatch Chronicles, Dogman Encounters, What Lurks Beneath, ThinkerThunker and there are many others to search out, but all have great material I listen to on a regular basis.

Oh and Edward French has an excellent youtube story channel called Fiction Fantastique. (fantasy, horror, sci fi) Edward does some amazing narration of classic stories from the past in my opinion.

The History Squad with Kevin Hicks. Is another youtube channel I thoroughly enjoy. It's a favorite actually. Kevin is a fantastic storyteller and excellent history teacher. And an impressive shot with a longbow as well!

Last but not least is Mr.Ballen's Strange Dark and Mysterious stories.

And for any young animators out there. I mentioned TVpaint. I absolutely love it. Even a luddite bone head like myself managed to pick up the basics in a couple of days on the job- it was a Gorillaz job in fact. The program is a bit chunky cost wise though. So before spending a lot of money, I recommend DigiCel FlipBook while learning animation.

FlipBook is a fantastic program and extremely cost friendly for those starting out. With really great customer support. I used the program years ago for shooting my hand drawn line tests and later for draw over notes while supervising animation. It was a life saver. 

The Boy Who Woke the Sun

My colleague A.T. Woodley asked me to storyboard out this sequence from a chapter of his new book "The Boy Who Woke the Sun". It was a challenging but fun little chapter to illustrate. Speaking of which, all the images are inspired by Mike Deas beautiful illustrations from the book. And Composer Robert Duncan does a wonderful job with the accompanying subtle magical score. 

The book is in stores now.

Check out the video of the chapter here if you are curious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rucv7_SkqCc

Robert Duncan's Music:

https://www.duncanmusic.com/

Mike Deas Illustrations:

http://deasillustration.com/blog/

Here are a few shared images that are not included in the animatic. These pictures were all removed in the edit to make sure the story pacing kept moving forward.  Its unfortunate to lose the work, but cutting shots out to benefit of the narrative is all part of the process.

Chicken advert

I have worked for Director Paloma Baeza a few times now. Paloma is one of very few directors I really enjoy working for and respect. These are some rough designs she asked me to do for a commercial pitch involving Chickens.

The House

 Director Paloma Baeza asked me to do some early concept design work for her segment in the animated short "The House" for Netflix and Nexus Studios. Paloma is one of those rare directors that knows what she wants, she communicates very well and is really respectful to artists. Not only is she a great director but a really top notch person in my opinion.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse

I did a few shots on this short directed by Peter Baynton, who is a good guy. Tim Watts whom I have had a great deal of respect for many years was my supervisor.  He and I always have a few good laughs and rambling rants when speaking. Regarding the BMFH, I have to say the Background department did some beautiful work on this project. But the real Star of the show was Head of Assisting Seti Erfan. Seti and her crew did an incredible job achieving the cohesive illustrative ink style of the original artist all done with digital brush sets.  

Seti has an instagram showcasing some of her great work. Check out the link below. 

https://www.instagram.com/setierfan/

Many of the animation artists that actually did the work on the short are not allowed to post shots for some reason(s).  However, this is one of my shots on the cover of the book so I reckon it can't upset the animation powers that be too much.... 

Age of Blood

This was a really challenging but enjoyable pitch due to the extremely tight schedule back in 2017. Six weeks from concept to completion if I remember correctly. Directed by Andrew Ruhemann, Design by Tomer Hanuka, Boarded by Brendan Houghton, Anim/Rendering/Comp at Red Knuckles Studio (Rick Thiele and Mario Ucci) and I assisted the folks mentioned above. Additional comp and titles by Johnny Still. 

I thought it was a real shame this was not picked up to be produced for a series. It really could have been a great way to integrate storytelling and history with an edge.

check out the spot here and the rest of the great work done at Red Knuckles Studio.

https://www.redknuckles.co.uk/work/nat-geo-age-of-blood