animated movies
The Marvel/LionsGate animated film franchise was conceived by Marvel to bring to the screen the lesser known Marvel super heroes in preparation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We were given the task to explore ways in which to tell the stories of these characters that would help to bring attention of them to the viewing audience. Thus, The Ultimate Avengers were brought into animation. Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Thor, Hulk, Wasp, Captain America and a host of others. Below are the movies that I directed, designed, and generally brought to life. With a lot of help from some of the best artists and writers in animation today. They stand unique amongst the myriad action adventure animation, for their colorful art direction as well as their refined sense of drama and storytelling.
"PLANET HULK" A Marvel/LionsGate animated adventure. This adaptation of the acclaimed comic-book series "Planet Hulk" brings the series to life in this fully animated movie of the same name. Hulk has been banished from the Earth and finds himself marooned on the desert planet of Sakarr. Battling in gladiatorial matches The Hulk and his allies are pitted against other super powered foes for the amusement of the Red King. As the Hulk battles for his freedom he must learn to trust others again and in so doing becomes a savior for a desperate people and reclaims his humanity.
I consider "Planet Hulk" the best of the Movies that I directed, and the best of the LionsGate animated movies both in the texture of its story and quality of its animation. It is a beautiful film to watch and you quickly lose yourself in the unfolding story of Hulk, Ciera and the "War Bonded" as they fight to reclaim their freedom from the Red King.
One of the highlight on directing "Planet Hulk", aside from adapting it from the long running comic-book series, was being able to integrate the use of cgi into the picture in a much bigger way than I would normally do. For most of the series work and the DVD's as well, cgi was used primarily for vehicles and such, color, layers, effects are all use these days to help supplant much of the 2-d aspects of such projects, but with "Planet Hulk' for the first time I was allowed to integrate it into the design of the film. I am of course talking about the coliseum scenes.
I was able to convince Marvel that we visually needed the stadium shots to look big, lots of people and plenty of moving cool shots to sell the spectacle to the audience. The trick was to work the 3d Stadium designs into the 2d design of the film so that it would not stick out and look like a different film. The other aspect was to fill the coliseum with thousands of spectators. Not just unmoving images of people, but moving acting images of fans having a great time watching all the aggravated mayhem.
with the people we created four basic types. 2 female, and two male. With these as our platform, we were able to "stretch' the characters, shorten the characters, even "widen the characters to diversify them and then to diversify them more by introducing multiple color scheme on the clothing and the skin. So now the coliseum was now inhabited by a wide range of people varying in size, shape, and race. For the close-ups we stayed with the traditional 2-d characters but everyone else was 3-d. but they all blended in beautifully and added greatly to the effect we wanted for these giant action sets.
I consider "Planet Hulk" the best of the Movies that I directed, and the best of the LionsGate animated movies both in the texture of its story and quality of its animation. It is a beautiful film to watch and you quickly lose yourself in the unfolding story of Hulk, Ciera and the "War Bonded" as they fight to reclaim their freedom from the Red King.
One of the highlight on directing "Planet Hulk", aside from adapting it from the long running comic-book series, was being able to integrate the use of cgi into the picture in a much bigger way than I would normally do. For most of the series work and the DVD's as well, cgi was used primarily for vehicles and such, color, layers, effects are all use these days to help supplant much of the 2-d aspects of such projects, but with "Planet Hulk' for the first time I was allowed to integrate it into the design of the film. I am of course talking about the coliseum scenes.
I was able to convince Marvel that we visually needed the stadium shots to look big, lots of people and plenty of moving cool shots to sell the spectacle to the audience. The trick was to work the 3d Stadium designs into the 2d design of the film so that it would not stick out and look like a different film. The other aspect was to fill the coliseum with thousands of spectators. Not just unmoving images of people, but moving acting images of fans having a great time watching all the aggravated mayhem.
with the people we created four basic types. 2 female, and two male. With these as our platform, we were able to "stretch' the characters, shorten the characters, even "widen the characters to diversify them and then to diversify them more by introducing multiple color scheme on the clothing and the skin. So now the coliseum was now inhabited by a wide range of people varying in size, shape, and race. For the close-ups we stayed with the traditional 2-d characters but everyone else was 3-d. but they all blended in beautifully and added greatly to the effect we wanted for these giant action sets.
"HULK VS." A Marvel/LionsGate animated adventure. Two gigantic tales on one feature told as true to the comic origins as never before. The first pits Hulk against the might of Thor the Asgardian God of Thunder. Loki abducts Bruce Banner bringing him to Asgard to separate him from his Hulk alter ego so he can use the pure primal power of the Hulk unfettered by human conscience to kill his half brother Thor. Featuring just about everyone from the classic Jack Kirby comics, Asgard comes to life as The warriors three, Volstag, Fandral the brave, and Hogan the grim, Brunhilde the Valkyrie, Amora the Enchantress, the goddess Sif , Odin, and the Queen of the Dead Hela herself is pulled into Loki's scheme. It is action unparralled in Mavel animation.
"HULK VS WOLVERINE" A Marvel/LionsGate animated adventure. Something is killing small towns in the Canadian Northwest. It is described as large and powerful. The Government believe it is the Hulk on a killing spree, and what do you do when you when there is a monster on the loose...You send in your own monster to find, and stop it. Long before he was an X-Man, the mutant known as Wolverine worked for Project H. A highly clandestine Canadian department that dealt with stopping extraordinary events such as the Hulk. Wolverine soon finds himself in over his head as he fights more than just the Hulk. He finds his past and ALL the monsters that inhabit it.
"HULK VS WOLVERINE" A Marvel/LionsGate animated adventure. Something is killing small towns in the Canadian Northwest. It is described as large and powerful. The Government believe it is the Hulk on a killing spree, and what do you do when you when there is a monster on the loose...You send in your own monster to find, and stop it. Long before he was an X-Man, the mutant known as Wolverine worked for Project H. A highly clandestine Canadian department that dealt with stopping extraordinary events such as the Hulk. Wolverine soon finds himself in over his head as he fights more than just the Hulk. He finds his past and ALL the monsters that inhabit it.
"DR STRANGE" A Marvel/LionsGate animated movie featuring Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts "Doctor Strange". This is the Doctors first time in his own animated adventure. Bringing together much of the magic and mystery of the Marvel Universe, we tell the origin of the troubled surgeon who loses everything, only to find his true destiny and redemption as he battles the mystical entity the Dread Dormammu for the salvation of the universe and claims the mantle of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme.
I came in late into this production and piggy backed it while I was still prepping "Invincible Iron Man" for shipping to the overseas studio. The good news is I was able to institute things I learned from that production onto this, that lead to a more streamlined and effective production. Stylistically "Doctor Strange" is closer to my "Gargoyle" designs. The characters are streamlined more than the Iron Man film and much of the coloring in the characters and backgrounds were modeled to achieve a more "dreamlike" feel to the movie. Particularly to the Magic action sequences. My fellow directors were able to storyboard these sequences with a slight "bend" to the action that helped the viewer feel a little out of their element. It was always a blast to work with films where Marvel encouraged us to be creative in our thinking and stretch what we were capable of.
I came in late into this production and piggy backed it while I was still prepping "Invincible Iron Man" for shipping to the overseas studio. The good news is I was able to institute things I learned from that production onto this, that lead to a more streamlined and effective production. Stylistically "Doctor Strange" is closer to my "Gargoyle" designs. The characters are streamlined more than the Iron Man film and much of the coloring in the characters and backgrounds were modeled to achieve a more "dreamlike" feel to the movie. Particularly to the Magic action sequences. My fellow directors were able to storyboard these sequences with a slight "bend" to the action that helped the viewer feel a little out of their element. It was always a blast to work with films where Marvel encouraged us to be creative in our thinking and stretch what we were capable of.
"THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN" A Marvel/LionsGate animated movie featuring Marvels armored Avenger Iron Man. The origin of Iron Man as ford by the crucible of the Mandarin, Magic and science come together as Tony Stark the egotistical industrialist battles against an ancient evil intent on the destruction of our world.
I wanted to take a very retro feel to "Invincible Iron Man" and still maintain an anime edge to it. The film needed to break away from the standard TV designs. We had a feature, so we wanted it to look like a feature. The characters needed to be deep and complex and the action had to be over the top. We liked the angle of science vs. sorcery that the comic-book played so well with some of its "Mandarin" story lines. At the time "Terra Cotta" warriors were big and we wanted to utilize that in the story. (Interestingly enough Universal had the same idea for "Mummy 3" with an ancient Emperor rising in modern times to subject mankind. About a year after we started our little production.) Still It gave us a chance to push the story and visuals to an extreme most american cartoons shy away from. Thank dvd for that.
I wanted to take a very retro feel to "Invincible Iron Man" and still maintain an anime edge to it. The film needed to break away from the standard TV designs. We had a feature, so we wanted it to look like a feature. The characters needed to be deep and complex and the action had to be over the top. We liked the angle of science vs. sorcery that the comic-book played so well with some of its "Mandarin" story lines. At the time "Terra Cotta" warriors were big and we wanted to utilize that in the story. (Interestingly enough Universal had the same idea for "Mummy 3" with an ancient Emperor rising in modern times to subject mankind. About a year after we started our little production.) Still It gave us a chance to push the story and visuals to an extreme most american cartoons shy away from. Thank dvd for that.
animated television series
Animated series are much different than doing animated movies. There is never enough time nor budget, we are always looking for ways to stretch our schedule. Finding available talent is always a chore, getting them to turn it in on time is an even bigger chore. etc, etc. The big difference though is story. With a series you have time to flesh out characters over multiple episodes, you can expand action over multi-parters to tell more effective stories. (Well, some studios prefer that, some prefer single contained stories) It's a more "shoot from the hip" type of production, but just as rewarding as their bigger screen counterparts.
"NFL RUSH ZONE" Based on a popular web series of the same name, we worked very closely with the NFL when re-creating the series. Keeping the basic idea, we gave everything a complete overhaul, giving everything a more polished look and and creating stories with a strong linear style. This was a great experience with dealing with such a complex corporate structure . The toughest part however, was the blending 2-d and 3-d animation. This was a very complex process that effected the way in which we traditionally tell stories, particularly when 2-d elements interacted with the 3-d with the 3-d process. To help achieve this we worked very closely with the overseas animation studios throughout the production. (Lots of travel) The end result was a very popular and entertaining show that airs for Nick Junior.
"AVENGERS EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES" Was spearheaded by Marvel Supervising Produce Josh Fine and head writer Chris Yost. The Supervising Director was Ciero Nieli. The original concept was Hulk centric "Hulk and the Gamma Corp", and was later changed when the Marvel Motion picture "The Incredible Hulk" did not do as well at the box office. The series was then changed to the "Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heros" and much of the Gamma Corp designs were later incorporated into the new series.
It is perhaps one of the most well received of all the Marvel animation productions. with strong complex storytelling and character arcs that play out across many episodes. It is a wonderful homage to the silver age heroes of Marvel and adheres strongly to the characters and stories of that time. I came to work on the series during the early part of season one and took over duties until the end of it's 52 episode run adding much of my own design and storytelling techniques to the production. It should be noted that a great deal of credit should go out to Ciero Nieli and his crew, particularly season one directors, Vinton Heuck, and Sebastian Montes. When Vinton and Sebastion left at the end of season 1, I was joined by my fellow "X-Men Evolution" directors, Boyd Kirkland and Steven Gordan as well as Roy Burdine.
It is perhaps one of the most well received of all the Marvel animation productions. with strong complex storytelling and character arcs that play out across many episodes. It is a wonderful homage to the silver age heroes of Marvel and adheres strongly to the characters and stories of that time. I came to work on the series during the early part of season one and took over duties until the end of it's 52 episode run adding much of my own design and storytelling techniques to the production. It should be noted that a great deal of credit should go out to Ciero Nieli and his crew, particularly season one directors, Vinton Heuck, and Sebastian Montes. When Vinton and Sebastion left at the end of season 1, I was joined by my fellow "X-Men Evolution" directors, Boyd Kirkland and Steven Gordan as well as Roy Burdine.
"X-MEN EVOLUTION" A reinvention of the classic Marvel Comics super-hero group. For this the creative team, Boyd Kirkland, (producer) Steve Gordan, Gary Graham, Frank Paur, (directors) Took the X-Men back to their origins as teen-agers at Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Adding back some of the humor from Kirby and Lee's original books, we made them, well we made them teenagers (We actually made Scott likable). Just beginning to understand their powers and how to use them. The more advanced students we put in regular high school so they could actually learn to cope with regular humans. Eventually during the course of the four years of the production we introduced many of the characters that would make up much of the more adult version of the X-Men. It was perhaps the best looking of the Marvel animated series and the best animated and timed, with spectacular character designs by Steven Gordan.
TODD MCFARLANE'S "SPAWN THE ANIMATED SERIES" Dark not adequately describe Spawn the animated Series. This phenomenal series was created with a more adult mindset. I took over the reigns as Supervising producer at the beginning of season three. Dark not only in story but in style as well. Season three brought stronger more linear story lines with a more refined look to the animation. The stories were fresh and inventive and allowed us to push the design and story telling in more creative fashions. These episodes explored some of darker emotions of human behavior, and still greatly entertain. It was great storytelling in an an animated program that won HBO a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for One Hour or More.
"Men In Black the Animated Series". I was approached by Sony Animation to come in and help breath life into this animated spin-off from the live action movie. I was given 6 months to spearhead a production crew that would take the project from development all the way through to air. It was not an easy task. They had four drawings that had been done, and scripts. It had to air in 6 months, the standard time a production needs is 9. We had a lot of time to make up. We made the schedule, (with more than a few frayed nerves), and although I left after the first season the series continued on for 3 more. It was a fun, witty, intelligent and very quirky series, blending comedy, drama and a lot of imagination. It was a difficult but very satisfying accomplishment.
"GARGOYLES" Following the success of "Batman the Animated Series" The Walt Disney Company decided to launch their own original dramatic action series that would be known as "Gargoyles". Heading the project was creator Greg Wiseman. Intended originally as more of a comedic take on action comedy, Gargoyles began shifting to a more dramatic turn thanks in large part to the success of "Batman the Animated Series", because of my involvement with that series I was approached by Disney to helm the production of The new project.
This was the first large project that I produced and it is still one of my favorites. I was given a very liberal hand in the creative process particularly in Art direction and especially in story direction. Traveling overseas I worked directly with "Walt Disney Japan" in creating the look of the series. I received a lasting impression of the wonderful work that the Japan studio lavished on production utilizing the best of both western storytelling animation and the best of Japanese anime. It was an insanely creative time on a very complex and engaging series.
This was the first large project that I produced and it is still one of my favorites. I was given a very liberal hand in the creative process particularly in Art direction and especially in story direction. Traveling overseas I worked directly with "Walt Disney Japan" in creating the look of the series. I received a lasting impression of the wonderful work that the Japan studio lavished on production utilizing the best of both western storytelling animation and the best of Japanese anime. It was an insanely creative time on a very complex and engaging series.
"BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES" This is the series that changed the direction of television animation in America. Bold, creative, and exciting, Batman redefined the super-hero genre and proved that animation is not just for kids. Stunning in it's visual style and the graphic simplicity of it's animation. Series producers Bruce Timm, Eric Radomski and Alan Burnett pushed the envelope of what a cartoon could do, and spawned a cascade of adventure animation that still continues.
Directing was a joy on Batman. Many of the techniques and skills developed in the making of this landmark series have contributed greatly to much of my success in animation. Many of the talented crew that worked with me on this series have successfully continued on in animation and have often assisted me on later productions.
Directing was a joy on Batman. Many of the techniques and skills developed in the making of this landmark series have contributed greatly to much of my success in animation. Many of the talented crew that worked with me on this series have successfully continued on in animation and have often assisted me on later productions.