Harrowdown Hill and SmallGantics

Recently I developed a style which I have dubbed SmallGantics and was asked to incorporate the technique into director Chel White's new video for Thom Yorke titled "Harrowdown Hill". I was originally inspired to pursue the technique by tilt lens photography stills, but I wanted to take it one step further and treat moving footage to make full size imagery appear small with short DOF. Here are a few stills from the final video.

Go HERE to see the video and HERE or HERE to read the story of how we managed to pull off this technique.

Lux Provocateur Spot

We recently completed the new LUX Provocateur spot directed by Chel White and co-directed by Ray DiCarlo of Bent Image Lab. I was responsible for production design, supervising character design and set construction, as well as solving the technical challenges of combining live-action performance with stop-motion puppets. The project challenged us technically and creatively and turned out to be a beautiful commercial.

Go HERE to see to the finished commercial on the Bent web site.

Regarding Firehouse Tales...11.08.06

To the best of our knowledge, it appears that our animated program, Firehouse Tales, which was picked up and developed by Warner Brothers and aired on Cartoon Network, is no longer being shown in the US and the Bandai line of toys is leaving the shelves of Toys-R-US stores.

We have also received word that the show is playing in Europe and as many as 20 countries worldwide, but the toy line has been discontinued until further notice. So for our FHT fans, we have launched the official FHT fan site at www.firehousetales.com to provide all FHT fans with the latest news, air times, toy and book availability and DVD distribution(Coming Soon!)

If you cannot find Firehouse Tales or licensed products in your neck of the woods, please visit the site, send us an email and we'll help you get the FHT stuff you want!

Jim Clark

"LUX Provocateur" concept art

I really enjoyed working in this new technique in Photoshop. I used a custom brush with images of flowers and leaves in a random setting.

Click image for larger version

"LUX Provocateur" character concepts

For a recent, challenging commercial done at Bent Image Lab, for the agency Santo-Buenos Aires, I was contracted to provide character designs and develope techniques to capture live facial performance that could then be manipulated, distorted, match moved and finally composited onto stop-motion puppets. Below are a few interesting results I came up with; part photo manipulation and a lot of hand painting in Photoshop.

Click any image for larger version

Katie Holmes

Natalie Imbruglia

Natalie Portman

Selma Hayek

Ward Kimball response...

I'm very pleased that there is such a positive response to the Kimball painting. In response, I accept the millennium old animator vow to take good care and share it with all.

For those who have inquired(Many of you!), I stumbled across the painting at an art auction of Illustration work. Amazingly, nobody but I apparently knew who Ward Kimball was. It is a miracle to find such an amazing piece of animation history. Better yet, I was doing research on Ward's styles and that specific era when I discovered it. Now what better piece of art to stare at and ponder my own creative vision!

For all those interested, I may pursue the rights to recreate the painting as a limited edition print so that others can enjoy the image on their wall too. If you are interested in a print, please email me: jim at animationwerks dot com.

Jim

Ward Kimball original work

I recently had the fortune to purchase an original, personal painting by Ward Kimball titled " The Committee". I want to share the image with the rest of you because I really feel like a proud parent of a newborn and I feel that this painting captures an era of creative discovery from one of the dominating influences at Disney and in animation in general. I see this piece as basically the "Rosetta Stone" for Kimball, with the inclusion of the famous masters work and his fascination of inventing unique styles. Ward painted this image in the prime of his career, just before he directed the innovative and beautiful films "Melody" and "Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom". I am very excited to be the caretaker of a piece of ark work that hung in Ward's home and even though he is gone, I know his style and personality will influence animation forever. It has influenced me from the start and I can only aspire to the level of creative vision Ward has shown us.

On a personal note, I had the honor of spending a long afternoon with Ward at his home just over 10 years ago (Thanks to my talented friend of more than 12 years Joel Brinkerhoff) and remember seeing this painting hanging on the wall. Ward was a generous man and inspired me with his crazy outfits, imaginative artistic skills, amazing collections of model trains, full scale trains, old Mickey Mouse memorabilia and pre-1900's wind up toys. Ward Kimball was the proverbial child grown older and he really never grew up. I hope his legacy encourages the rest of us who endeavor in this fickle business to do the same and keep that childish fascination alive. After all, isn't that what drew us all to animation in the first place?

Take care Ward and thank you for your contributions to the art form.

The Committee, 1949
Ward Kimball 1914-2002
Oil on Masonite
24in. x 42in

click image for larger version

A Tale of Two Fish

These concept images are for an animated film I wrote "A Tale of Two Fish". Because of Nemo, we shelved the project, but I'm itching to dust it off and get back to work. I always intended the film to be shot on elaborate-moody miniature sets with CG fish.

Click any image to view a larger version.

Another Monster

Another concept image for Sylvester from my book "Amanda's Monster." Painted in Alias Sketch Book.

Read the book online at www.amandasmonster.com

Please Don't Feed the Bears

These are the initial character designs for a 3D animated feature "Please Don't Feed the Bears". I wrote the screenplay several years ago, but have had litte time to pursue the development. Like most films it takes time to get them off the ground. Bears is a fun film and it would be a blast to make!

Character designs by Jerry Mahoney.

New monster concept

Another concept design for Amanda's Monster, Sylvester. Painted in Alias Sketch Book.

Read the book online at www.amandasmonster.com

Digger Dan

Bummer...I have been developing a kindergarten program for several years titled "Digger Dan's Heavy Haulers", but we recently received bad news - we could not trademark the title and there's a program that's very similar by Henson Studios that airs overseas. Soo, the project is dead and we have canceled further development. Sorry to see this one die, but that's the risk you take in this business. Better now, before a lot of money was spent...

Character Design by Jerry Mahoney

Amanda's Monster

Here is the first piece of concept art for my book, Amanda's Monster, painted in Alias Sketch Pad. This is the basement door leading into the monster's cell(Sylvester's). I will eventually make this story into a short film and possibly develop a feature length film at a later time. We plan to do the CG fur with Cinema 4D's amazing new hair module and as soon as they release their advanced rigging tools, we'll begin production of the short.

Read the book online at www.amandasmonster.com

Click the image for a larger version.

Assladdin

Characters from my short film "Assladdin" - The name says it all!

Character designs by Jerry Mahoney.

Firehouse Tales

"Firehouse Tales" is the first big project I developed, in partnership with my business associate Sid Bailey(creator). We were fortunate to partner with a great agent, Lisa Brause of Golden House Ent.; she found us good favor with Warner Brothers who further developed the program and built the project into a huge licensing property. Firehouse Tales currently airs daily on Cartoon Network in the Tickle-U line-up, with toys produced by Bandai, books by Scholastic and products by Hallmark just announced in stores March '06.

If anyone has a question about developing an animated series and getting it to air, I'd be happy to share...

11.07.06 - Please read the updated news regarding the status of FHT at www.firehousetales.com. If you have any questions or comments, please visit the site and send us an email. We'll put you on the mailing list and let you know when DVDs will be available.

Amanda's Monster

Concept art of Amanda and Sylvester, for my first children's book "Amanda's Monster"

Read the book online at www.amandasmonster.com

Illustration by Gary Bialki.