SpongeBob Jelly Hive: Process

(click to view larger image)

I have a comic in SpongeBob Comics #17, now available on the shelves of your local comics shops. It's a great issue, with a choose-your-own adventure comic, so be sure to snatch yourself a copy.

Now for some process, for anyone who's curious. It all starts with a pitch. This time I was invited by editor Chris Duffy to pitch a 2-page spread related to jelly-fishing. I write in pictures, so below are some of my early ideas for gags and the layout of the illustration.

My thinking was to use a large jelly hive to contain cutaway-view panels—so that you could follow SpongeBob's journey room-to-room, reading left to right. Once the concept was approved, I started to block in shapes and forms, keeping in mind important restrictions like the page fold. I drew right on top of a print-out of the page guides.

And then I did an additional refined sketch on paper. I worked in enough detail to get approval on the drawing before I started inking.

At one point I was going to do it all brush-on-paper, but I'd inked a lot of my recent SpongeBob comics in Flash, and decided that would be the best route. (These days I'm doing most of my inking in Manga Studio.) I'm pretty sure I worked in Flash MX, even though this screenshot is CS3. I work on a layers for different items (separating characters from the background, just to organize things for any adjustments). I keep the sketch layer on the bottom.

And below are my final inks. (You can click this one to view large)

At this point I bring everything into Photoshop, where I do all my coloring. I archived an early color step, blocking in the characters and basic color ideas.

Then I go in and polish everything up. I used colored lines, which is an added step of work. The printed version includes dialogue panels and labels for each room of the jelly hive—added after I deliver my final file.

One of the wild things about publishing is that sometimes it can take a year for what you draw to make it to print. I started working on this comic in January of 2012, so it's great to finally see it in crisp printed form. Nothing beats it! Though, it's admittedly looking pretty old to me. Thanks for reading!

i heart you

gas powered stick

Meet Impossibear, this Thursday, on Bravest Warriors.

mushroom color study

Merry Christmas

All dressed up for the holiday season.

Biomimicry

At FableVision, I often get to work with museums, which is the best! Even better, when I'm given the chance to work with museums directly engaged in teaching the public about Science. We were recently approached by our friends across the channel, the New England Aquarium, to help develop an app on Biomimicry. The project is part of a larger initiative on Global Climate Change and Ocean Education.

The New England Aquarium, collaborating with other aquariums across the country, is leading a national effort to enable aquariums to effectively communicate the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on marine animals, habitats and ecosystems. Our goal is to build on visitors’ emotional connection with ocean animals, connect to their deeply held values, help them understand causes and effects of climate change and motivate them to embrace effective solutions.

What is biomimicry, you ask? It's when we look to nature for inspiration, examining systems and organisms to find ways to solve challenges and improve technology. An example you've probably heard of is Velcro, the hook-and-loop fastener system inspired by the tiny hooks on sticky burrs.

The app in development will be used by staff interpeters to get people thinking about the importance of our relationship with nature. We're still doing early testing, but in this post I've included a series of illustrations I created to introduce each topic on biomimicry (in a fun way). The above image of the whale shows how wind technology is looking to the contour of humpback whale flippers to improve the energy effiency of wind turbines. Seriously, look it up!

Below are other examples...

involving solar technology inspired by trees (this one is a mangrove),

fuel efficient cars inspired by the design of the boxfish,

cement production mimicking the way coral uses CO2 to create their skeletons,

and a coating for ships which prevents barnacles from attaching—inspired by sharks!

Like I said, we're still in the testing phase, but you'll soon be able to see this activity playing on iPads on one of your upcoming visits to the aquarium. Cool, right?

Memory Donk

Okay, as promised, here are the remaining designs I created for the latest episode of Bravest Warriors, "Memory Donk", which you can watch over here. Fair warning, possible spoilers ahead. This is the hulking form of the Memory Donk. Below is the 2-step turn I designed (click on the smaller images to view large).

One of the things I like about drawing for the show is that it's forced me to really consider that back-3/4 view. When's the last time you drew the back of one of your characters when you were doodling it? In practice (say in comics), I bet you draw it all the time without even thinking. It's a pretty common angle for showing a character looking at something. I use back-3/4 way more than profile, which is probably my least favorite angle because you only get one eye and it can flatten a drawing.

But, I ramble. Below are various other memory donks that appeared at the Memory Donk Convention.

Next up, the old lady on the bus. Appearing with her purse.

We eventually gave her a floral pattern. Below is a 3-step turn. You can obtain most of what you need to know about a character from these three views. I mentioned profile, before. A proper front-view can also be hard to nail, in terms of flattening features (foreshortening) and avoiding the human tendency to get all symmetrical.

Finally, the ship's Pilot. Three eyes, three collars. Seen below, frozen. 

More drawings.

I'm realizing my blog is beginning to look like a coloring book. The colorist on the episode is normally the one responsible for adding color to the designs before they get sent off to be animated. I promise more color (and images with backgrounds!) again, soon. —Thanks!

Jelly Kid and Ballerina Man

I have a bunch of designs to share with you from Episode 4 of Bravest Warriors, "Memory Donk", which you can watch on YouTube as of this afternoon (right here!). I've been the lead character designer on a number of episodes...this was a big one, requiring a bunch of little dudes, and a bunch of big dudes. It's one of my favorites, too.

We'll start little. Above is probably the cutest of the bunch, Jelly Kid.

And this little guy is Ballerina Man.

To help the animators, I roughed out a set of poses that I referenced from actions in the storyboards—to demonstrate how he'd move around and dance from various angles.

He's a lot of fun to draw.

Here's a Hobo alien that plays the accordian (which props made high tech).

And then there were a bunch of passengers on the ship. I created some, and I believe Phil Rynda designed the rest. You can click this one to view larger.

Okay, I'll post more designs from this episode another time. Again, if you haven't already, watch and subscribe to Bravest Warriors on Cartoon Hangover. There are already 4 episodes free for you to watch. GO!

Early Color Memory

I just remembered something incredibly specific, and thought it was worth writing down. When I was a kid, maybe 5 years old, I recall waking up too early—likely when the sun was just about to rise (5 am?)—and being rather surprised by the visual appearance of my riding fire engine toy. I wish I could find a real picture of the thing, but I don't have it handy at the moment, and the internet isn't turning up the exact toy.

Regardless, the fire engine would've been mostly primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. The early morning light in the dark room shifted the way my eyes (and brain) perceived the colors in a way that I'm not sure I could ever experience again. Because I believe it was the first time I consciously recognized that the colors of my toy (and the world) could change. It seemed unreal, almost shocking—so much that I remember waking my tired brother to show him.

I can almost visualize it now, but I have a biased brain that knows that lighting changes colors. The image above is my best guess. At the time, I was surprised to see what was normally yellow become something closer to white. Also, that the blue seemed brighter than usual, and the red... very very dark. All my stuffed animals looked different too. I'm probably not exaggerating it enough to match the impact of my experience.

Whenever I woke up too early like this, I would bolt up excited to see all the weird colors. Over time, the effect wore off. I'm guessing my brain (as all of our brains do) has caught on to the fact and understands that the color RED changes in different colors of light—that I can still see RED as RED no matter what light I'm in, for the most part.

Odd post, but I'm wondering if anyone else has a memory like this. Color continues to be very important to me, so it's funny that the memory has stayed with me.

The Professor and Gayle

The first episode of Bravest Warriors premiered today (as I'm posting, yesterday) on Frederator's Cartoon Hangover channel. That's right! These are the first two characters I helped design on the show: Professor Fartsparkles and Gayle the Glendalien. I happened to help color them, too. I've been working on the show since April, so it's pretty exciting to finally see the animation go live. Massive congratulations and thank you's are due to show creators and friends Pendleton Ward and Breehn Burns. And to everyone on the crew! These shows don't happen without a TON of effort.

But wait, you haven't seen the first episode "Time Slime" yet? Then hop on over to YouTube and subscribe here. New episodes on Thursdays! For free! On the internet! Crazy, right?

I've posted before about Bravest Warriors here and here.