Cars 2: The Video Game Storyboards

Here's a few of the story sketches I created for Cars 2: The Video Game.  They're out of order and missing a lot of frames, so you'll still have to play the game to enjoy it to its fullest!

It was a fun project to work on.  The premise of the game was a sequel to the film, and it featured all the characters you'd expect a Cars franchise game to include.  Sadly, these boards do not feature my very favorite Cars character - Holley Shiftwell.

These images are copyright Disney/Pixar, so mind your manners!

Graphic Novel Sneak Preview

Okay, so some of you may be aware that I'm in the very slow process of producing a graphic novel. It's been in the works long enough now that I've decided to share a (tiny) taste with you.

Of course, as you may have expected, it features penguins. I've removed the dialogue from this half-page of art, as it contains key plot points. As it stands now, the graphic novel will consist of 120 page and a cast of about thirty, most of which aren't penguins. I'd originally planned this as an animated feature, but I think I have a much better chance of realizing this as a printed adventure first. Since I work on this in my free time, there is no telling when it will be finished. It's really a labor of love and I don't plan on rushing it.

Doohickey Dilemma

Last year a group of us animated a 12 minute short for a company called Our Children's Friend. "The Doohickey Dilemma" follows the story of a little goldfish and a crab, and is geared toward the younger crowd. (It's a story about telling the truth.)

We recently made it into the 2009 International Family Film Festival, so I thought I'd highlight one of my favorite images from the film here. (This one's during the song number at the end.) All in all, I think it turned out pretty good and I'm excited to see how it's received.

Remember Me?

So... It's been a while. Between three very involved projects, the holidays, and my incessant need to get at least four hours of sleep a day, I'm afraid I've neglected my poor little blog. I'm hoping to start posting tons of new stuff starting next week. (Yeah, we'll see, Ropp. You've done this before, you flake!)

In the meantime, I do have a couple of exciting announcements. The fourth Faux Paw the TechnoCat book and film are completed and currently being duplicated/printed for February. Here's a few images from the book. Layouts, pencils, and color by me. Backgrounds by the irreplacable Bryan Beach and inks by the indomitable Ken Chandler.

I have more news, but I'll wait until tomorrow to post it so there'll be two posts in one month!!!

I Told You I've Been Busy! Part One

At long last, the t's have been crossed and the i's have been dotted, and this project has been finished. I have eluded to the fact that I have been busy lately, and here's why... (Well, there are other things still pending, but this is ONE reason. I still have another MAJOR project that will be done this month that I'm excited to share with you.)

Anyway, this project is called "Faux Paw Goes to the Games", and it's a book and DVD that are now being sold by iKeepSafe.org, a great organization whose mission is to teach kids and their parents and teachers about being safe on the Internet. This is the third book, and it takes place in Beijing, China during the "Great Animal Games". I think it turned out just great, and I'm proud to share it here. Make sure to check out the iKeepSafe website when you're done here so you can see what they're all about!

The real reason to show you these images isn't to highlight my work, but rather to showcase the talents of two wonderful friends that are the real art superstars on the book. Ken Chandler patiently cleaned up and inked my chicken scratch character art, and Bryan Beach added amazing depth and value with his unbelievable background work. My hat goes off to them for their skillful work. Thanks, guys! I couldn't have done it without you!

Additional thanks needs to go out to Sally Linford for writing such a fun story, to Chad Erekson and Kelly Loosli for developing the original Faux Paw short film, and Shane Lewis for the artistic influence he may not even realize he had on this project.

Production Orphans - Buy One, Get Six Free

During the production of the "The Velveteen Rabbit", there have been many changes in character designs. In fact, my pal Shane Lewis and I used to have a "Horse Orphanage" section on the cork board wall where we compiled all of our unused drawings of the Horse character.

In the past three days I have redesigned several woodland creatures, and I decided to compile the unused ones here, with hopes of placing them in a good home. I like them enough that I couldn't bear to put them under a pile of papers on the Bermuda Triangle I call my desk. So here ya go... Homeless bunny rabbits and such. Remember, for just a few pennies a day, you, too, can feed a cartoon rodent.

Black and White

Here's a panda I designed for a freelance job that recently wrapped. All in all, I'm fairly happy with how he turned out, and it's always fun to work on something different. I'll post more from this project when I get the all-clear.

Sigh.. It's great to be blogging again.

I'm Back?

Well, I've been out of commission and out of the country for about a month now. Thank you to all of you who continued to read my blog anyway. :)

I still don't have something new to post here, so I, with great hesitancy, will post this instead. It's some character art I did earlier this year for a book called "Faux Paw Meets the First Lady". Faux Paw is the darker orange cat, and her cousin, Ernie, is the lighter one. I designed Ernie.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I promise I'll start posting less irregularly now that my jet lag has ebbed. To all those who wondered where I've been, I say "Thank You , Seth."