Things That I Hear

Penguins Of Madagascar

Before I was even a student of Animation, Madagascar was one of the most visually stunning CG films I've ever seen. The designs were so graphic and solid and full of appeal. Years later I was lucky to join the talented team of Artist at PDI/Dreamworks on the production of Penguins of Madagascar. 

The film was already well into development when I joined, but as always there was plenty to do. It was a crazy ride, and here is some of the work I got to contribute to this fun movie!

One of my favorite assignments was working on Dave's (the octopus) flashback. We played with many different ideas for how to portray this moment. These are some of later explorations. After I was already off the film, my friend and fellow artist Carlos took some of these ideas and pushed them forward to the beautiful keys that were the final images.  

More to come!

Things that I hear

I'm starting this new little series based on bits of conversations I hear around the city. seems like it’s going to be fun

The Gate Keeper

Boba gal

4th of julyers

Expiration Date

It's been a while since I've posted one of these, but finally got to finish this one! new story HERE

The Best Baristas!

Every morning, around 7:48, I stop at Tazza d’Amore to get my cup of coffee for the road. It’s a small little kiosk at the train station, and this is must be the busiest time of the day. But no matter how long the line is, and how cranky the commuters are, these guys always welcome you with a smile, and serve the coffee super fast. Thank you for a bright start!

Baseball Season

This is pretty much how my commute feels like during Baseball season… 

I was visiting NYC over the weekend, and had a pleasure of bumping into this statue of General Sherman on 5th ave. I had to caricature it during my work on Mr. Peabody & Sherman. I wish I could see all the locations and my references in real life more often.

Peabody Art part 3

I really enjoyed working on this one. I had the the first and last stages of baby Sherman and older Sherman, designed by the our great Art Director Tim Lamb. My assignment was to figure out how the middle stages of the toddler and younger Sherman would look like. it was a great exercise in proportions and design where I had to learn how to age a character. 

I spent a lot of time in Egypt on this show. These are some keys, and prop pages from this sequence.

Peabody Art part 2

Here are some color keys I did for the Troy sequence in Mr. Peabody and Sherman. I must say it's probably one of my favorite sequences in the film.

*All images are copyright Dreamworks Animation

Designing characters and caricaturing are two of my favorite thing. Peabody and Sherman has some great designs in it based on historical figures, and I was lucky to work on some of those characters. 

Confucius

Alexander Fleming

Amelia Rinehart

Galileo Galilei

Designing the cakes for Mary Antoinette's party was a lot of fun. It was not easy staring at beautiful dessert reference for a few weeks, but it was all worth it when the studio actually baked a REAL cake following the design, for the wrap party. mmmm...cake...

Peabody Art part 1

7 years ago, I moved to the states to start animation school, with the hope of one day I'll be working as an artist on a feature film. at the time it seemed like a far away dream. A couple of weeks ago the film Peabody and Sherman came out!

I am very honored to have worked on this film with an amazing team of artists, and couldn't be more happy to see it finished on the big screen!

When the first Mr. Peabody and Sherman trailer came out

I was really excited to send it to my parents.

I wanted to see their real-time reaction

After months that I couldn't show them anything,

they were anxious to see what I've been working on

They were really excited!

And full of pride!

But my Mom didn't fail, and being a good Jewish Mom, the pride immediately transformed into guilt:

"Now... tell me EXACTLY what did YOU work on!!"

So here it is!! some of my development work on Mr. Peabody and Sherman. More to come!!

(All artwork below in this post,  is copyright Dreamworks Animation)

I spent a lot of time working on Designs for the Da vinci workshop. it was super fun adding all the tiny details to his inventions and notes.

Some development keys for the Troy sequence. The final  sequence ended up playing a little differently/

The Trojan horse was one of the most fun props to work on. I developed it with the amazing Bryan LaShelle

The best part was when we built an actual one!! it had a secret compartment to store a cooler, and served as a beer cart that was going around the studio on Friday to treat all the artist working long hours in the weeks of production.