Nelvana - Blog Posts

One more BEETLEJUICE for the pile.. BJ shreds on a Tuesday Afternoon!

Haven't been drawing - inking - coloring (or Posting) in quite some time now.. So, here's BEETLEJUICE in one of his classic poses!

Re-familiarizing myself with a couple of old acquaintances.. Traditional drawing, pen-and-ink finish, and digital coloring.

“Scarilyn” chills on a Neitherworld beach.. A 29 year-old layout from the 12th episode in Season One of “Beetlejuice”, entitled: "Quit While You're a Head".. This was my first real Animation job, back in 1989. 

The other day, I unearthed 3 pages of Storyboard Cleanup, which I had zero memory of. Not only couldn’t I identify the series, but the time period escaped me, as well. After posting it to my Instagram, a few kind souls volunteered that it was actually from: “My Dad The Rockstar”, which aired in 2003..

The only thing I knew for sure, was that I did the Storyboard Cleanup job for my friend: Rob Walton. I’ve only ever done cleanup for him. Usually, at times of extreme deadline crisis.. I thought it’d be fun to lookup the episode online and make a few screengrabs to compare the finished broadcast shots to the initial storyboards..

The episode was entitled: “High Infidelity”, and was the 4th show of the 1st Season. I recall making the storyboard panel grid myself, and the underlying blue rough drawings were mine too, based on pencil roughs Rob provided. Looking at the finished shots, I was a bit surprised to how graphic the interpretations were.. I didn’t have any model sheets to work from. And simply did my best to glean volumes and construction of the characters, from Rob’s roughs..

This was a Nelvana cartoon series, co-produced with Gene Simmons of KISS fame. The Layout Supervisor was my late friend from Sheridan College: Kevin Klis.. I recall that some of the layout work was also farmed-out to George Elliott’s studio. But I don’t know the extent of that arrangement..

A keen eye will spot a few bad Layout tangents that managed to slip thru.. On the 2nd page of screengrabs, the first few shots almost appear to have the kid bully (“Buzz” Sawchuck) reaching into the van. Who’s arm is it?  it’s really supposed to be the arm of the bald tropical shirt dude, leaning on the van window.. On the 3rd screengrab sheet, you can see that there is a bad leveling error of that same bald dude, sandwiching the bulk of his body BEHIND the actual van seat he’s supposed to be sitting in?!.. I think the unfinished rough of the bald dude falling out of the van was simply a gag that Rob suggested, that was not even in the script..

Like I say, I can’t recall. But it was a fun job to work on. Thanks!

Been a long while, but I’m finally back with an update.. I was digging thru some old work files on my HD, and thought I’d put together a brief post..

Back in 2015, I worked at Nelvana on Nick Jr.’s  “Fresh Beat Band of Spies” cartoon series. A lot of the front-end creative work was directed by ‘6 Point Harness’ in L.A., including some of the Design work; usually establishing the look and style of: characters, props, and locations. Full turnarounds and additional views of those designs though, were done at Nelvana in Toronto.

Early in the production, I spent most of my time creating rotations and additional views of Props. I didn’t have any real experience drawing directly with vector lines. So, I was allowed to draw them in Photoshop on a cintiq, using very clean bitmap lines. I'm guessing another artist may have converted my finished work, later on?..

One of my favorite episodes to work on was: “Band Of Pirates” (ep.14).. There were a lot of very nice design elements in that one. Plus, a fun storyline that featured “Captain Arrrgh” stealing half of a Treasure Map. He does so, using a flying robot and a Steampunk-inspired JetSki. For which, I drew some of the additional views..

The Fresh Beat crew makes a quick pursuit using their elaborate Tour Bus, which could conveniently transform into a kind of hydrofoil speedboat! The Bus was  based loosely on the handful of Art Deco “Futurliner” trucks that GM produced in the 40′s. And I felt like the speedboat itself, also gave off a bit of “Thunderbirds 2″ vibe? Creating the fuller rotation, was something of a drawing challenge, as I had to make hard decisions about the overall dimensionality and how each of the surfaces and corners attached to each other..

About halfway thru the production, I took over the Layout Supervision from my friend: Terry Lenko. This may be the only show that I’ve ever worked on, where my End Credit designation changes across the episodes arc?! Again, I have zero experience (or interest) in vector-based art. So thankfully, all I had to do was “direct” a very talented Layout crew, rather than contribute to the production art directly..

But there were always Layout issues with the storyboard animatics, that would require attention. And Terry taught me the valuable lesson of creating quick Layout thumbnails for each entire episode. Not only did these drawings allow me to identify where the Master and Reuse BGs existed.. But I could also spot and correct all of the continuity, cutting, and staging problems, too!

Enjoy.

Toon Talk Sessions - Rich Dannys

Welcome to the first episode of Toon Talk Sessions, a Toon Talk Weekly interview series!

Listen above of download the MP3 (67.4mb).

For some time now, we’ve wanted to sit down and interview the people that work behind the scenes on bringing our favorite cartoons to life. It’s no secret that animation is no small task and it requires a large team to create these awesome shows.

On this episode of Toon Talk Sessions Jake had the chance to talk with Canadian artist Rich Dannys about his work in cartoons.

Rich Dannys is a freelance illustrator and cartoonist, based in Oshawa, Ontario. He is an experienced Layout/Design artist, that has worked at many of Toronto’s finest animation studios. His style ranges from work featuring: animated cartoon & comic-book sensibilities – to vintage/retro motifs, with occasional ‘classical’ overtones.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

How he got into the cartoon industry

His early work on Beetlejuice and the time he fired himself

Stories and the coolest scene from the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs series

Rich’s education and teaching experience in Canada

The extraordinary pipeline on his latest project, Welcome to the Wayne

His love of comics and where he finds inspiration

His advice for getting into the cartoon industry and improving your art

For more about Rich Dannys and his work you can find him at the following:

Tumblr - richdannys.tumblr.com/ Instagram - www.instagram.com/richdannys/ Portfolio - www.coroflot.com/Attezarf IMDb - www.imdb.com/name/nm2147403/

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Was surprised to see this animated gif from the “Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.S” cartoon series.. This was an old Nelvana show I did design work on, back in 1994 or so. All of the pre-production was done in-studio. With the animation work farmed out overseas.. I remember being disappointed that the production schedule and budget were roughly half the size of the “Cadillacs & Dinosaurs” cartoon, we’d all worked on a year earlier. Small surprise that it didn’t get past it’s initial season of 13 shows!

I recognize a lot of these images from episodes that I’ve worked on.. But it’s been so long, that I can’t really remember anymore. Part of getting old, I guess?.. I have a bunch of Layout lists stored downstairs somewhere, and one of these days I’m gonna catalog what I did and where!

1990 Beetlejuice Valentines

Lookee what I was able to snag at last weekend's 'Toronto Comic Show'.. A copy of "GAMUT #3"!!  This was a fanzine produced by Sheridan College's now-defunct 'Comic and Cartooning Course' in Oakville.. It was designed to showcase talent attending the school..

Apart from the rare (and funny) Berni Wrightson cover art,-- the main reason I bought it was for a comic story inside by: Bob Smith.. A very talented guy I once worked with at Nelvana, on a number of their action-adventure cartoon shows.. Later on, he went on to do storyboards for Bruce Timm on the WB cartoons..

I recently bought the new book on Maurice Noble: "The Noble Approach", covering his thoughts on Animation Design & Layout.. It's an excellent read! Put me in a nostalgic mood,-- so I thought I'd post up an old 'BEETLEJUICE' Layout of mine..  Back in January of '91, I did 14 scenes for the episode entitled: "Fast Food".. Can't recall too much about it. But I'm amused that I felt the need to use a half-size Field for this specific shot!