This was a video I worked on back in July of 2010-- I never heard what came of it but I found this video recently. Here are some snippets from the shoot day.
It was not only an amazing circumstance that let me work with the famed drummer of the band Yoshiki who directed, but also meet comics legend and personal hero of mine Stan Lee. He recently attached his name to an amazing event-- now "Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo" in L.A.
As an exhibitor at a table, I didn't get too many chances to see his talks/appearances, but did enjoy an amazingly successful event. More on that here.
Photographic evidence!
I later sent him one of my comics (a medium I would not be in if not for creations by "The Man"~) and had the amazing fortune of receiving a letter back!:
Most young folks with a bassdrum heartbeat know deadmau5-- This was a rare opportunity to do a music video for the electronic music sensation.
Featuring Gerard Way of "My Chemical Romance" (though comicbook guys like me know him from "Umbrella Academy"~), this high-octane music vid was a treat to see come to life.
Drawing out a Thunderdome-like structure with thousands of fans and a giant robot battle is much easier to sketch out than actually build and make it happen. The main mau5 himself indeed brings it-- great to see all these moving parts come together to smashing effect. A monumental task with great direction provided by directors Paul Boyd and Jeff Ranasinghe.
[EDIT: Found this neat behind-the-scenes clip which has a glimpse of the boards at 2:58~]
Director Nima Nourizadeh (whose Adidas/ Star Wars Cantina mashup was stellar) put together this spot featuring all manner of crazy party shenanigans. Scouting locations and casting took us to many a picturesque and lavish places.
These frames were kept pretty frenetic to keep with the party vibe (also to accomodate the quanity, timeframe, and drawing in the scout van~). Party on.
Posts have been delayed since starting a very exciting set of projects for Disney's Imagineering's (WDI) Blue Sky department. There will be nothing posted here since they're all 'black ops' (non-disclosure) projects, but save it to say it's been fantastic to contribute to this talented team of creative folks.
New projects I still have to post/ awaiting release:
•Deadmau5 music video •Usher music video (feat. Rick Ross)
•KFC commercial (Dir. Jeremy Konner) •American Greetings birthday e-card •Bud Light commercial •Drunk History series
Talk about rockin gigs-- Director Jeremy Konner had me jump in on this celeb filled music video featuring none other than Tenacious D through Partizan.
Signed by the D ! (+Kyle drew me back a doodle)
This video had a lot of locations and setups to work with and a great cadre of cameos including Val Kilmer, Maria Menunos, Dave Grohl, Josh Groban, Yoshiki, Jimmy Kimmel-- many of whom weren't confirmed yet at the time of boarding. Hence, Val Kilmer looks nothing like my stock "celebrity friend" rendition at Jack's mansion.
Location scouts help quite a bit for reference, scale, and blocking in shots--
interspersed here with storyboard comparison:
This was a promotional for Pergo XP laminate flooring-- akin to their series where they face off against many floor destroying foes. Director Jeremy Konner and the actual robot makers (whose workspace was quite a mechanical wonderland~) gave some great notes and direction for this project.
I had a little more involvement than usual for this production since I was also part of the robot concepting process. Sketching possible designs that would be both fun to watch clash, and present a scuffy challenge to the floors, was the challenge. I drew out about three dozen concepts that got whittled down to the 6 champion contenders. Here they are!
(Pencil and grey tone Copic Marker):
This was the most fun to see come to life. The terrifying mechanical K9 known as:
Working under director Henry Hobson was great, especially since I'm a fan of his work on movie titles. I've admired quite a few featured on Art of the Title. Some of the coolest treats come out of sticking around for the credits to "Rango" and also the sequence for "Sherlock Holmes".
Not to mention the great and eerie "Walking Dead" intro too.
For this spot, it starts off all mysterious slightly dark until it takes a turn to make the viewer...hungry. I think we did have some good burgers for lunch working on this project.
Stayed pretty analog for this one-- ketched in pencil and Copic Marker Neutral gray makers:
Recent promo commercials for MLB2K12 from 2K Sports.
There were a few of spots in this series showing what it takes to play a perfect game and make it into the "Perfect Club". Cy Young Award winner and MVP Justin Verlander takes center stage in most of these, with appearances by players CJ Wilson, Jay Bruce, and DavidPrice. Jeremy Konner directed (of "Drunk History" awesomeness) and gave great notes to knock these all out fast.
This first one features Kate Upton-- recently featuring on some magazine called Sports Illustrated Swimsuit's cover... I think my rushed drawings of her are likely to be met with disapproval by the throngs of her oggling fans, but quite a fun one to board out though~ Will post more when the longer "Perfect Club" spot featuring disguises and panthers airs.
[Today is the release date for the debut album--! See superheavy.com and order it thru Amazon.]
A true a meeting of legends and musicians at the top of their game-- my geeky self would compare it with something like the Avengers Assembling or the Justice League team-up of musical talent.
The supergroup that composes SuperHeavy are Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, A.R. Rahman, and Damian Marley. It was the most diverse and talented pooling of folks I had ever heard of and a real pleasure to be a involved in this first release single.
I met with the director Paul Boyd and Dave A. Stewart of Eurythmics fame and worked out of his offices to knock these boards out in a big hurry. Again, more comics related references-- but I had heard of Dave's work in comics (not the also talented colorist 'Dave Stewart') but as scribe for the quirky black comedy graphic novel, "Zombie Broadway". I still have to check out his other her dip into comics with "Walk-In" which I was recommended. I gave him one of my 'Sunless Circus' comics I tend to have on hand.
Perks to working on-site--
Dave Stewart strumming live awesomeness
The SuperHeavy logo was a design by Shepard Fairey and that indeed was a real tattoo of it that Dave was getting in the vid. Now that's dedication to the project~ Here I was complaining about getting non-toxic marker ink all over my hands at the art desk...
Since the video required a crowd on set, a pal and I got treated to a free concert as extras and met a couple of the legendary performers. The violinist Ann Marie Calhoun was also amazing to hear perform live.
I also got a copy of my hastily drawn storyboards signed by Sir Mick and Ms. Stone, which was quite fantastic.
If you do a search for it on eBay...... you won't find it~
All the talent and crew were a fine class of people and great to work with.
[Drawing Process]
Though I usually use digital color/toning, this one was rushed through (totaling 100+ frames of drawings in about two days) so I opted for my quick-and-speedy COPIC marker rendering. You can kind of see where I ran out of cool grays to switch to a warm tone in some of them. I've found this much faster and a better indicator of how to improve more confident linework. I personally like using the chisel tip Sketch markers that can handle both details and wide shadow areas. Especially for on-set sketching, I should really have a set of gray values handy for storyboarding on the fly.
The director was stellar and seemed happy with probably some of my most rushed drawings. It was a treat to see what parts of the sketches made the final cut. See here--
