The Pet

This is a story about a monster boy, who lives in a monster house, who takes his monster pet out for its first (monstrous) walk…

https://youtu.be/ZZsBT1Bbatc

Some fun stills below...

The Pet

This bit of Story Art came about once we put a tadpole tank together in our daughter's room.  I got to thinking, what if there were a Monster of a pet, sort of tadpole-like, that had it's heart in the right place...but its appetite was ALL over the place?  This is "The Pet...A monster pet with one scary appetite."

Man -THAT one went by fast!

Annie way we go again!!!

We just found out today both McDonald's commercials "Apple Tree," and "Suzy Von Zoom" are up for Annie nominations! We didn't get it with Spaceman Stu last year, but it's always nice to be...oh, just win, please dammit! Thank you again, John Montgomery and Keith Hughes and Susan Credle for bringing me in to help out! And thank you Leo Burnett - you never forget your first...ad agency.

Apple Tree

The third in the new animated McDonald's series, this began as a simple idea (spanning the life of an apple tree) from Leo Burnett, Chicago. I worked with them on the original storyboard, and the spot was produced by Kompost animation in Sweden as an even more beautiful (yet still very simple) idea. Justin Roberts, the singer who performed this song, is an established singer of kids' music, and his work can be found here, but Apple Tree is on this album.

Small

Going snow-where?

IPad Animation creator, Red Software, put my "Snowman" animation up on their site. Fun stuff to have up there, as any time I can virally become shamelessly, self-promotional - I'm a happy guy.

Small Threat

We are not alone...

"Stu & Annie Sitting in a Tree..."

That's the tune that came to mind seeing Spaceman Stu just getting nominated for an Annie Award. Stiff competition, but not bad for a little guy with a fishbowl plopped atop his head?

Snowman

"Fun with an iPad While Waiting (and Waiting) in an Airport," or what I WAS going to call this until it ended up our flight was cancelled, then another was cancelled...and then a whole day later we realized we were going nowhere. But in the 30 minutes or so it took me to do this animation, I had every intention of making this a nice, heartfelt, and charming piece for the holidays. So I was about to have the snowman pop a cute carrot on for a nose, but once they announced that our second flight was cancelled, I knew the cute bird had to die!

Oh, and happy holidays!!!

Bebe Bao's Birthday

This was the second commercial to break in the McDonald's animated campaign on which I worked, Bebe Bao's Birthday. Leo Burnett produced these first two spots with Duck Studios, LA. We had a fun time with the number of characters here, eventually done up in a stop-motion, 3-D looking environment. For high-def, go here.

Spaceman Stu

One of the fun McDonald's animated commercials that broke recently is Spaceman Stu. I was thrilled to be a part of bringing this little guy to life with the first ad agency for which I ever worked, Leo Burnett. His initial design simple enough, we had him look like a normal little boy, only he seemed to defy gravity by severely leaning back so as to get a better view of the stars. For high-def, go here.

Animation Reel

Some commercials/animation I've either concepted, animated, helped animate &/or storyboarded, etc.

Yes, MeTube...

And now for something completely, well...I'm now up with a different way to get some work out there. Trip Park Productions is YouTubing it. Here you'll find where I seem to have jumped into animation, character design, and illustration all with the convenience of one stop. Too bad I can't offer anyone a Mountain Dew Slurpee with each visit!

Animation Reel

Here are a few commercials and animated pieces that I either created and storyboarded, for which I did character design, or created and animated entirely.