STORYBOARDISTA!

... And now the AWARD winning GS Junior 454 campaign!

2012-02-06T00:44:00.000-08:00

Just as I come back from another 2 weeks teaching at the wonderful Viborg animation workshop in Denmark I'm informed that the B-Movie style shorts made for TBWA London have now become Award Winning B-Movie shorts made for TBWA London.

Best Digital Campaign 2012

I never knew the pharmaceutical marketing industry had an award ceremony for its advertising, but apparently they do. As do the society for milkmen and cream delivery services, cowbell manufacturers of England and Welcome rugs and matts weavers and makers!

There's an award for everything these days but this one I am most proudest of, and I can honestly say that I say that all the time, so there you have it.

Off to polish my cow-bells.

The Future Of Mankind {part II}

2011-12-06T03:33:00.000-08:00

Hello science friends...

As promised here is the development work for the TBWA London virals inspired by 1950's Sci-Fi B-Movies.
Once again I loved researching reference for these projects as for one I love the genre and have always been a big fan of Sci-Fi, especially the A-Bomb generation of science fiction films.

First of all I put together some images I presented to the agency along with some sample storyboards of the ideas I had going on, which myself and Ben Campbell (producer Rampage Studios) pitched.

As usual I wasn't given a lot of time at this stage and produced some reference boards and original boards to go with my written pitch in about a day.
I wanted the films to seem as if they were produced and presented by a classic 1950's film studio, and although the original concept called for these films to appear as if they had been made in a garage by one individual with very low-tech, I was permitted to design an animated logo which started each film.
I took inspiration from old RKO, classic Paramount and Films Incorporated title cards.

The agency liked the direction we took and allowed us to elaborate our storyboards for a few more days before we started designing all the graphic elements contained within each film.

Here are two of the storyboards I presented to the agency in order to give them a complete overview of what I had planned to film and animate.
Coming from an animation background I always tend to storyboard in a rigid manner, imagining on paper what I aim to film. Once on set though I find the storyboards can be quite restricting at times as other elements come into the fray: the limitations of the set, the lighting, technical elements I did not foresee or consider, what the actor brings to the performance.

I had some time to work with the actor (Boris Hiestand) prior to the shooting day yet what he brought to the performance on the day was hilarious, and the energy he put into it, considering the weight of the jet-packs and costume under the studio lights,
was amazing.

The storyboards had to be produced swiftly as not only we needed approval from the agency at every step of the production, but we also needed to source all elements I wanted as well as designing anf animating all the ideas I had conceived.
You can see some examples in these two storyboards of some of the ideas which Daniel Thomas from Rampage Studios then took and designed and animated for the final films. Great guy and great work!

For the third and final film in the series though I wanted a very home-made, classic B-Movie monster moment and hired puppet maker Magdalena Bieszczak to build a scary looking bee based on the design below.
The effect of a puppet with its mandibles dripping in vaseline and KY gel flying at the camera lense hanging by a very visible wire was exaclty what I was looking for... I feel Ed Wood would have approved!

I hope you enjoy the films as much as I enjoyed making them!

THE FUTURE OF MANKIND

The Future Of Mankind {part I}

2011-12-06T02:36:00.000-08:00

Hello again science friends!

At the end of the summer your truly directed 3 shorts for TBWA London, for which we used as inspiration Ed Wood and 1950's B-Movies.

Shining a light on the science facts of Roche's generation sequencing systems (yeah, we know!) we also poked fun at the fantastic concepts of early science fiction.

This is the third (and my favourite!) film produced by Ben Campbell of Rampage Studios and directed by myself...

I'll post storyboards and development work in the next few days to show the progress from concept to finished film.

Hope you all enjoy watching it as much as I had in making it...
And please leave a comment or a thumbs up if you do!

THE FUTURE OF MANKIND

'Su un muro sporco c'e` scritta la storia dell' Italia'

2011-11-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

"On a dirty wall the history of Italy is written"

I had trouble explaining and coming to terms with my feelings this past weekend at the exit of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

I have not lived in Italy for 17 years yet although I have made my home in England, have traveled considerably for work and resided in countries as far afield as the Philippines, I have always considered myself Italian.

In heart, mind and spirit.

For the past years the figure of Berlusconi has haunted me, as it did to many Italians abroad, with his inane remarks, his gaffes, his cavalier attitude towards his own countrymen's misfortunes, his incompetence in leading his country and his relentless ability to become embroiled and be the centre of scandal upon scandal... Corruption, sex, political.

To have such a pantomime of a man at the head of your home country is a joke you're willing to share with others in the pub, but smarts deep inside you.

Last week, with a minority of 308 parlamentarians, Berlusconi was asked to leave with immediate effect 'For the good of the Country'.

The defeat, tainted by last minute betrayals and made bitter by a string of new allegations about his private life, must sting. Berlusconi will try to remain at the head of his party but he'll discover that for every sinking ship there are a vast number of men who have no interest in protecting him anymore.

I realised as I was drawing this piece that I was becoming angry with each and every brush stroke, incensed by what one man could do to his fellow countrymen out of greed.

Yet one man alone cannot drive a whole country into an economic distaster of European proportions, others have helped him achieve that power, reach those postions; more still are responsible by doing nothing, their apathy and inertia posing no obstacles to those who are greedy for power. Each and everyone of us, responsible in one way or the other.

Perhaps part of my anger was also directed at myself for becoming so detached with the country I love so much.

To me he is now this old syphillitic, perma-tanned sleezeball, his hand firmly squeezing out whatever life there is left in his rancid ball-sack, cloaked in the stained remains of a flag he helped tear to pieces, flashing that famous corrupt smile through even faker teeth.

Good riddance!

We will now have Monti to lead Italy, elected not by the people, but placed there to save the country's economy.

Previously at Goldman Sachs and the Bilderberg Group, Italy will have a banker at the head of its state, just like Greece will.

Before it was the politicians who did the bankers bidding, as Ezra Pound said "Politicians are just the bankers' waiters", but now the bankers are stepping into the light and taking actual control.

Will a banker ever hold the people's interest above all else?

This we'll have to wait and see as Italy enters a new stage in its tumultuos history, one finally without Berlusconi.

“A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him.”
― Ezra Pound

ps. I don't usually do long political posts but I just had to get this one off my chest... Next week normal service will be resumed!

First look at FRANKENWEENIE

2011-10-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

Halloween approaching and what best way to celebrate than to take a first look at Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.

All rights of the images are property of Disney & Tim Burton

Disney has released some images and Tim has done a little interview with Entertainment Weekly ahead of the All Hallows Eve weekend.

Although the film is not going to be released for a while yet it's great to start seeing some images out there.
The animation should be in the can in a few weeks and personally I cannot wait to see the finished thing.
I missed out on a crew screening a few weeks ago due to my work commitments in Paris for the Cartoon Network show Angelo Rules, but nothing is going to stop me from the next one.

As you can see by the first pics revealed of the film Frankenweenie is going to be released in glorious Black & White and in 3D.
Working on a film with such a classic horror movie look was an immense pleasure and trying to work out shots and storyboard scenes with the notion that these would be in 3D and have some lush black areas was a fantastic challenge.

In the EW interview Tim explains the origins of the Frankenweenie story and his love for dogs in general:

“It’s such an unconditional relationship. A lot of kids have that experience – I certainly had that experience with a first pet. You’ll probably never have it again in your life in that way, it’s so pure and memorable.”

For the full article go to Entertainment Weekly

What a nice chap!

2011-10-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hello people!

As mentioned in my last post I was on my way to the Pixel Vienna Festival, and what a wonderful event.

I had the chance to chat about the good 'ol days with Roger Rabbit animator Al Gaivoto and attend the talk by Andreas Deja about the grand masters of Disney animation, which he accompanied with a mountain of great pieces from the Nine wise old men as well as some old clips.

I also had a chance to catch up with my buddy Florian Satzinger who did the artwork for one of the festival posters (the best one!)

http://paperwalker.blogspot.com/2011/10/pixel-6-poster-artwork.html

I also had the pleasure of being interviewed by a thoughroughly nice chap, Martin Lorenz for his fantastic blog/site.

As well as animating, illustrating, visual content and workshops, Martin documents events and interviews industry professionals for his site... Where does he find the time?!

Anyway, here is the link to his site and my interview...

www.martinlorenz.at

Once you've done reading mine check out the one from Andreas Deja!

Christian gets PIXELATED!

2011-09-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hello lovely people...

Hope all is well as another season of festivals and events is upon us.

This time I'm jetting off to Vienna for the Annual Austrian Conference on
Computer Graphics & Animation: PIXEL

Aside from being excited at the prospect of taking in so much from the the games industry and the talent behind it, it will be a great pleasure for me being at the same event as Andreas Deja.
This guy has animated some of the best Disney villainsof the past 20 years... Gaston, Jafar, Scar as well as designing and animating Lilo.

Really looking forward to catching his presentation!

If anyone is in town come by as I bore yet another audience with a talk on story and storyboards and then come enjoy one or three local beers!

All the best to you all

Christian

Bienvenue a` PARIS

2011-09-06T01:44:00.000-07:00

Exciting news this week as yesterday was my first day on the new series of Angelo Rules, the show produced by TeamTo.

Indeed I have been invited to Paris to supervise storyboards for the Cartoon Network show and the lovely people from the studio have already made me feel very welcome.

Awesome!

One Hand Clapping brings ED WOOD to the digital age!

2011-08-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hello science friends... And welcome to our latest funny little film!

Thanks to the great guys at TBWA London we were able to channel our inner Ed Wood and direct 3 marvelous gems in the style of 1950's B-Movies.

Shining a light on the science facts of Roche's generation sequencing systems (yeah, we know!) we also poked fun at the fantastic concepts of early science fiction.

This is the first film produced by Ben Campbell of Rampage Studios and directed by myself...

Hope you all enjoy watching it (and the two that shall follow shortly) as much as I had in making it...
And please leave a comment or a thumbs up if you do!

THE LONGEST LEAP

(just click on the title to open the YouTube page!)

best to you all

CARTOON FORUM 2011... Poland here we come!

2011-08-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post but it's been busy busy busy as aside from working on a number of little projects (more on these another time!) I've been working up to this years' CARTOON FORUM.

ONE HAND CLAPPING has been developing one of our concepts which has been accepted in this year's forum, to be held in Sopot, Poland.

My business partner and good buddy Paul McKeown and I will be pitching our show CHEESE TOASTIE BRAIN MONSTER to a room packed with the elite of European animation and broadcasters.

Will post more about this in the coming weeks AND during the event itself, and if there are some of you attending then come by and say hi.

Ciao

A few more...

2011-07-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

been away to see the Foo Fighters' kick it in Sweden so apologies for getting these on so late...

Here are few more pieces I'm selling.

Enjoy!

Fox on the Run!

Water colours and black ink on white bristol paper. Size is 42cm X 30cm.

Town Square.

Inspired by the showdown between the animals and the farmers in the town square on Fantastic Mr Fox.

Black ink on white bristol paper. Size is 42cm X 30cm.

Rat. Study #1

My favourite character in the film.
Black on white guache on brown sketchpad paper.

38cm X 28cm

Foxy. Study #1

A rough sketch of the charming hero.

Guache on brown sketchpad paper.

38cm X 28cm

All pieces will be on a first come first served basis and delivery will be by secured post unless a courier service is requested which will be added to the price.

Email me if you see something you like.

...................................... ................................... .................................... ..................................... ..............

These pieces were made once I had completed my work on Fantastic Mr Fox and I came back to these characters while working on my next film.

Artwork for SALE...

2011-06-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

so as promised here are the initial few pieces I'm selling here first before they go onto a store.
These and the following are sketches, comic pages and studies of characters I've worked on or have inspired me during my time on the last 2 films I've worked on.

All pieces will be on a first come first served basis and delivery will be by secured post unless a courier service is requested which will be added to the price.

Email me if you see something you like.

...................................... ................................... .................................... ..................................... ..............

The first is a page of a comic based on the White-Cape concept.
Here he's facing off to a knife-wielding Rat.

Black ink on white bristol paper. Size is 42cm X 30cm.

£210 including postal charges.

The second piece is a little bit of fun based on my time on Fantastic Mr Fox.
I was dying to go back to Rome to recharge my batteries, eat some good food, drink
some wine and see some friends and I roughed out this escape scene involving Foxy
in one of Rome's alleys.

Water colours and black ink on white bristol paper. Size is 42cm X 30cm.

£210 including postal charges.

The final piece of the day is rough sketch of Rabbit, the chef from Fantastic Mr Fox. I loved the idea of catching him on a break, or after the big banquet scene in the film where he's busy cooking for all the other animals in Badger's flint mine; I based this on a quick pose I drew of a bud of mine who works in a tip top restaurant.

White gouache and pencils on grey bristol paper. Size is 42cm X 30cm.

£170 including postal charges.

These pieces were made once I had completed my work on Fantastic Mr Fox and I came back to these characters after a period of a few months.

Listerine Mouthguard commercial Mach .2

2011-06-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here's the second of the Listerine Commercials I storyboarded recently...

SPRING SALE... coming soon!

2011-06-07T05:48:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

just a quick one to let you all know that I'll be posting some pieces I've worked on in the past couple of years which I've decided to put up for sale... Time to clear out some of my studio before I succumb under a mountain of artwork, books and comics!

Anyone interested these will be first come first serve pieces, but if anyone would like one to order just drop me an email.

All the best

Christian

Frankenweenie... End of story

2011-05-23T02:20:00.000-07:00

It is with great pride, yet tinged with emotion and melancholy that I announce the end of my involvement in Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.

It has been a great privilege to work with one of the great visual directors working today and after my collaboration with Wes Anderson I was indeed blessed with another great challenge.

It is almost 2 years that along with a small group of extremely talented story artist we embarked on visualising Tim's charmingly dark tale of a boy and his dead dog and I feel there's some of our best work in there.

What is left to do in story will be completed by the marvelous Rob Stevenhagen in the next couple of months while the rest of us take some well deserved rest and begin the anticlimactic process of seeking new challenges and new projects.

The past four months have been extremely tasking, working long hours out of Tim's own studio in North London, prisoners of his attic and our work, yet they feel rewarding and fulfilling.

I sincerely hope to work with the man again and that you all enjoy the film when it's out next year.

Cheers

Christian

WHITE-CAPE the comic... By Wes Anderson & Christian De Vita

2011-05-10T01:25:00.000-07:00

Hey,

just a quick note this morning to show you all the pages of the comic that appear in one of the scenes in Fantastic Mr Fox.
If you've seen the film, it's the scene in immediately after Fox and his family are dispossessed from their tree house and dig their way to safety.
Fox, his family and Kiley are resting in a cave and cousin Kristofferson confronts Ash as the little nerdy Fox is reading his White-Cape comic, 'White-Cape vs. The Black Dog'.

We generally referred to that scene as 'Beagle Ticks' (or SQ0170_002-0032-01 if you work in production!) because Ash is spreading rumours around school that Kristofferson has Beagle Ticks and Pelt Lice.

Incidentally the titles of each White-Cape cover reflect the mood Ash is in, tracking his emotions throughout the film, and the title 'White-Cape vs. The Black Dog' comes from a little in-joke Wes and I had after a particularly hard 70-72 hour long working week.

The artwork is produced in inks on standard A3 drawing paper. I went for a sketchy Underground Comics style or something similar you'd find in Tales From The Crypt as it suits my lazy hand and I enjoy getting lost in fast, rough linework.

A friend of mine happened to find an interview Wes did last year in which he talks about the possibility of producing a White-Cape comic... Not going to happen.

But if you'd like to see the interview go here

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/11/16/exclusive-wes-anderson-reveals-possible-fantastic-mr-fox-spin-off-comic-book/

Hope you enjoy viewing these pages as much as I enjoyed drawing them.

More WHITE-CAPE

2011-05-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

As promised, folks...

Here are a few covers from the White Cape comic which appears in Fantastic Mr Fox.
I've singled out Alone in the Arctic Circle as this was one that Wes had me change at the last minute as he wanted the titles of the covers to reflect Ash's mood throughout the film, tracking his emotional state.
My original title Ice Madness was more a nod to 1950's horror comics like Tales from the Crypt, but also an in joke I had with someone on the production about Ren & Stimpy's Space Madness episode.

In the next few days I'll post some inside pages from the comic book I drew which was then taken by the props department, scanned and printed to a size that would fit the puppet of Ash for some scenes in the movie.

All artwork for the covers and comic pages was done in inks on paper by the way, all the text written by hand; the colours were added later in Photoshop.

Comments are always welcome!

Little BIG Panda storyboards

2011-05-06T01:08:00.000-07:00

Immediately after Fantastic Mr Fox I was asked to storyboard the opening sequence to the film Little Big Panda, a Chinese-European production headed by Benchmark Entertainment Picture Productions.

It's the very first Chinese hand drawn 2D animated feature film to be produced for a 3D screening and although I was not on the project for long as I had other commitments with my own company One Hand Clapping, I thought I'd share with you some of my storyboards for this cute little Panda adventure.

Hoep you can tell I love to drawn clouds... Must be because I have my head stuck in the clouds most of the day!

Wes Anderson's WHITE CAPE.

2011-05-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

It's about time I post some of my White-Cape work I did for Fantastic Mr Fox.

For all of those who haven't seen the film, White-Cape is the comic book character created by Wes and designed by myself that Mr Fox's son Ash reads throughout the movie.
At the time I was given freedom to design the character in my particular comic book style and create a number of covers and posters as well as some pages of the comic to be included in some of the more salient scenes of the movie.

Like the scene in which Ash forces cousin Kristofferson to sleep under his train set.

So for the next few weeks I'll be posting some of the White-Cape artwork I produced for the film, included some which never made it in the final cut of the movie and some which was designed for an intended 2D animated section of a White-Cape cartoon that the animal children were meant to be watching.

Hope you all like!

CINEMAGIC 2011 Dublin Lecture

2011-04-29T02:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

I wanted to let you all know that on the 12th and 13th of May I'll be in Dublin for the wonderful Cinemagic.
The International film and television festival for young (and not so young) people has attracted great audiences in the past years and in 2010 delivered festival events in New York and Los Angeles to mark the Festival's 20th Anniversary.
This year the organisers have kindly invited me to present Fantastic Mr Fox and deliver my lecture on the story process of the award winning film and discuss techniques and methods used in storyboarding for feature films.
This will be one of the last chances to get my Fantastic Mr Fox lecture as I am now in the process of developing a new lecture for future festivals and master-classes.

If you happen to be in Dublin come by and catch my presentation on the 13th, or catch me in one of the local watering holes on the 12th... It happens to be my birthday!

SHOWREEL 2011... It's here!

2011-04-07T01:17:00.000-07:00

Finally had a little time to edit our new One Hand Clapping reel...

Enjoy!

For any promo, commercial or short go to One Hand Clapping...

Go on give it try. You know you want to.

SWEDBANK commercial storyboard

2011-04-04T01:51:00.000-07:00

A quick post for a Monday morning...

I produced this rough storyboard for Passion Pictures in one evening as they needed some panels to use in a pitch to their client.
I worked on a 21inch Cintiq tablet using ToonBooms' Storyboard Pro, the same system we use on Frankenweenie, which although more limited in drawing tools than say Photoshop, is a far superior tool for storyboarding. It's so time saving I managed to produce all the work in under 3 hours.
The gig ended up going to Aardman Animation who created a sort of Fantastic Mr Fox style commercial, but with no real fur.

You can see the commercial here, Swedband: Under the Oak Tree.

DYLAN DOG... But where's Groucho?!

2011-03-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

It's happened again.
You know that feeling you get in the pit of your scrotum when one of your childhood or teen memories gets urinated upon from a great height?
First Spiderman, then Dare-Devil, The Hulk, Star-Wars... Now Dylan Dog.

For those who have yet to come across the Italian comic book, Dylan is a beautifully rendered black and white monthly from the Sergio Bonelli publishing house that stars a London based detective who deals with the occult and paranormal.
Each issue was pencilled and inked magnificently by different artists and written with a vein of poetic melancholy which stemmed from creator and writer Tiziano Sclavi.

It all started in the Autumn of '86 on a particularly dreary October day, when one of my regular trips to the newsagent produced the first issue of Dylan Dog, L' Alba Dei Morti Viventi... The Dawn of The Living Dead.
From that very first hundred page issue I was hooked. Falling in love with the dark subject matter; the gory black ink scenes of flesh being ripped of the bone by hungry zombie teeth; the foggy London setting which reminded one of times gone by in which Jack the Ripper, Doctor Phibes and the Werewolf may have co-existed; and the characters.

Those wonderful characters that had so much depth and life for a comic.
Dylan with his Rupert Everett features sitting on his favourite chair playing The Devils' Trill on his clarinet.
Inspector Bloch who's hang-dog sad face reminded you of a depressed Alfred Hitchcock.
Abraxas, Dylan's arch enemy.
And last but not least Groucho. A man who looked like Groucho Marx, sounded like Groucho Marx, told endless jokes like Groucho Marx, but couldn't possibly be the real Groucho Marx... Or could he?

Although vampires, ghosts and the undead were real in these stories, in the end of each issue you were always left with some doubt, a shadow clouding your beliefs, and most ghouls turned out to be misunderstood as the most evil monsters of all were in effect humans.

I bought and still own every issue up to 200.

Although Sclavi has progressively become less involved in the series Dylan Dog has reached wider audiences with it's publication in the UK and the US by Dark Horse comics.
This new found fame has prompted Hollywood to take notice... And produce a film.

Now, I haven't seen the film. It could possibly be a worthy adaptation of the original source material. It could even be one of the best horrors of the decade.

But I doubt it.

Judging by the trailer alone the action, like in Constantine, has been relocated from London to the States. Dylan seems to have become a smug self-confident investigator-scientist-adventurer that deals with the crimes of the undead, rather than be the romantic loner he is in the original comics.
Worst of all Groucho appears to have been replaced all together by a fast-talking, nerdy, twitchy side-kick which ironically I suppose is there for comic relief.
It all seems to lack the surreal tone, black humour and melancholy of the comics and looks to be much more light-hearted and action-orientated.

The film is due for release April the 29th and I think that on that day I'll reach up to the top of my bookcase, take my copy of the first edition of Dylan's L' Alba Dei Morti Viventi and relive one of my teen loves.

R.I.P. Groucho

The ever so cool Tim Roth

2011-03-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

I watched The Hit again last night.
Hadn't seen it in ages so I had me some wonderful Pinot Noir with some equally wonderful Penne al Radicchio e Gorgonzola, cooked by yours truly after a long & hard days' work on Frankenweenie, I retired to my bed and fired up the film on my laptop.

It was gorgeous seeing the young Tim Roth going head to head with two stalwarts of English acting such as John Hurt and Terrence Stamp.

So today, in between my work on the Weenie, I quickly sketched this while the film was still fresh in my mind, especially the bar scene where a cocksure Tim takes out a bunch of beer drinking spaniards.

Dos cervezas por favor!

BERGAMASCO!

2011-03-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

Another Six Nations ends with my beloved Italy taking the wooden spoon one more time.
For all the strength and grit and determination and pain and sweat and tears, Italy regrettably underperforms
on a number of occasions and at decisive moments of the game.
Lost line-outs and un-scored penalty kicks will haunt the team for sure, but we will always savour the idyllic joy of beating France for the first time in Italy's Six Nation's history.

Italy 22 France 21

Andrea Masi's try made me jump out of my seat and shout so loud I made my son run for cover.
And Mirco Bergamasco showed nerves of steel after the disappointingly missing the second kick of the game, to take the crucial final two penalties which gave us the winning points.

The tearful and joyful scenes in front of a Rome home crowd meant so much to players and fans alike, it looked like we'd won a World Cup.

I always thought many of the Italian, and also French, players had fantastic faces, the sort of faces you see in pirate movies, or in swashbuckling period adventures.
Mirco Bergamasco would be a marvelous Picaresque bandit from the 17th Century...

So here he is, my homage to one of our heroes from a famous victory over the French...

BERGAMASCO!

Dental Superheroes fly in defense of your mouth hygiene!

2011-03-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, it doesn't really roll of the tongue and I don't really think that these superheroes are going to take off in the way Spiderman, Batman, Green Lanterns, Iron-Man and co. have...

But it was fun drawing them for Lumiere Studios for a Listerine commercial they're working on.

Something I splashed out on a Sunday evening ready for a Monday morning client pitch.

Read them from top one first to bottom... And remember kids, good oral hygiene is the first line of defense in pursuit of a super-smile!

Valentina Mon Amour {I love this floral pattern}

2011-03-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

I found this fantastic floral pattern today as I was surfing the WWW, and wanted to use it for something fun, so I based my homage to the Italian icon Valentina, by Guido Crepax.

Just taking a little break inbetween Frankenweenie scenes by drawing something different...

A little bit girly I guess considering I spend most of my day drawing dead dogs and monsters and would consider a job on a superhero project or sci-fi the best thing in the World.

But I do love this pattern!

FRANKENWEENIE

2011-02-23T03:33:00.000-08:00

Birds tweet and chirp outside the small window, hidden in trees and beckoning Spring, as London's unrepenting grey skies pour their cold melancholy onto swift stepping passers-by, as I continuously draw the Dead Dog!

You guessed it. I'm still trapped in Mr. Burton's attic working on another particularly tasty scene from Frankenweenie.

I've been dying to put something on this blog for ages, but as I'd probably be hunted down by Disney hired Ninja Assassins sporting Mickey Mouse ears if I do, it's best to wait until the film's actually finished.

In the meantime I've quickly roughed out a tribute to Tim's original live action short from 1984 and stuck as closely as possible to a realistic drawing of the Terrier featured in

the film.

Heeereeee's Sparky!

RELAUNCH!

2011-02-23T03:14:00.000-08:00

Or is it reboot?!

Hard to know in these days of re-imaginings and new beginnings and sequels and prequels and interquals.

Anyway here it is... A fresh look to my blog!

I'm taking this moment to dedicate a thought to my grandfather Douglas Pearce who passed away in December.

I've been wanting to sketch something for a while but stuff simply got on top of me.

I drew these from memory rather than a photo as I wanted to keep the lines fast and have some raw energy running through to the finished piece.

I added some race-horsing imagery as a backdrop as the old man was an avid fan of the sport and often had a little flutter.

(flut·ter- n. British Slang: A small bet; a gamble).

Love to you all!

SOUNDTASTIC!

2011-02-18T06:37:00.000-08:00

A Disney Remix of Snow White.... Think it sounds awful?

Think again!

This is the latest work of Nick Bertke, better known on the web & music scene as Pogo.

Come to people's attention a couple of years ago for his remix of Alice in Wonderland using sounds, chords and vocals from the film itself, he has now re-cut Charlie &The Chocolate Factory, Toy Story, Terminator amongst a few...

Check out his take on UP!

Nice!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron?feature=mhum#p/u/2/qs1bG6BIYlo

Dark Shadows in the attic!

2011-02-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

Go to doodling today while waiting for my next scene to do on Frankenweenie and was inspired to do my take on the vampire Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows simply by being in the attic of Tim's studio.

At the moment there are four story artists, including myself, working away on the wonderful dead dog brought back to life story, in this attic with sloping ceilings and creaky floors right above Mr. Burton's own room, who's also busy working on his take of the marvelous
television series Dark Shadows.

Anyway... here's my doodle!

Bored...

2011-02-10T07:17:00.000-08:00

... I'm waiting for new story notes on Frankenweenie to do.
Pretty cool though as we're working in Tim Burton's attic...

What better place to work on a Burton film than his attic!

Came across this...

2011-01-31T04:32:00.000-08:00

... I really like this photo.

I think it was taken @ the Edit Filmmaker's Festival in Frankfurt last year.

Hurray for BLACK SWAN!

2011-01-28T09:53:00.000-08:00

I found out just yesterday that Black Swan has been nominated for a handful of Oscars, one of which is for Best Editing by our bud from Fantastic Mr Fox, Andrew Weisblum. We spent many a nights in Paris working late on Fox and I took it upon myself to be mother and feed everyone some good wholesome Italian food.

I'm immensely happy for Andy and his achievement and wish he and Aronofsky all the best on the night as I saw Black Swan last week and thought it was just grand.

Good luck!

ps. This is something I clapped together in under an hour to go with this post. I purposely made the character more bird-like with her beak nose and kept the style quite rough. I added some other versions as well... Quite like the one bottom right where we can't see the character's face.

Watch the trailer here:

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/blackswan/

Or go watch the film at the cinema!

Spot of skinny dipping in Viborg!

2011-01-20T08:17:00.000-08:00

Woke up early this morning after hearing of a local student tradition of taking a dip in the town lake. Myself and another teacher, Fredrik Fottland,headed down to the lake's shore accompanied by the towering presence of Thomas and, after a brief introduction to Bo and Morten (the dude chipping away at the ice with a pitchfork!), we whipped our clothes off and dove in.

Bracing yet invigorating is how I would describe the experience although I don't think I shall ever forget how painfully cold my fingers, toes and other appendages felt.

Another wonderful experience from my time in Viborg!

Premio Arte Animazione... I won an award!

2011-01-17T05:20:00.000-08:00

Since 2009 ASIFA Italy - Italian Association of Animation Film - established the ANIMATION ART award recognizing the commitment of those people who have contributed most during the year in Italy to the growth and enhancement of ' Italian and international entertainment, artistically, professionally, culturally and informatively. In this second edition, the members honored:

CHRISTIAN DE VITA-

Hired by Fox as a Lead Story artist for the film "Fantastic Mr. Fox" directed by Wes Anderson (2 Oscar nominations, two BAFTA winner at Annecy 2010 Crystal Award and Audience Award), De Vita has worked for two years Paris with the director, becoming the principal author of the storyboard made in inks, which brought to the screen Anderson's inimitable style. In the period of 2010, Christian has participated in several festivals in Europe and the United States: Dresden Film Fest, Stoke-Your-Fires (UK), Stuttgart Tricksfilm, Frankfurt Edit Filmmaker's Festival, Zagreb Animafest, Red Stick Baton Rouge (Louisiana) .

http://www.asifaitalia.org/?page_id=2424

VIBORG here I am! (The Animation Workshop part I)

2011-01-13T06:36:00.001-08:00

Viborg. Denmark. January 12, 2011.

I've been invited to teach storyboards at The Animation Workshop here in the quietly quaint town of Viborg.

The first year students I'm teaching are wonderfully attentive and have taken to their first storyboard assignment full guns blazin'.

Perhaps I'll post some of the resulting work in the coming days!

In the meantime here are a couple of photos taken from my desk... Feels totally weird being on this side of a teacher's desk!

Found out more about the courses here....

http://www.animwork.dk/en/

KRIMINAL is back!!!

2010-12-08T08:51:00.000-08:00

I've become totally obsessed with 1960's Italian comic book character Kriminal.

It was even adapted for the big screen several times with various degrees of success.

The original comic was created by the great Max Bunker and Magnus who were prosecuted several times due to problems with censorship. The comic was dripping with violence and erotic scenes. Luckily the artists were never condemned.

To see an interview with the great Bunker himself go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyPd4CRtSJE&feature=related

It's in Italian of course!

PANINI don't just do stickers!

2010-11-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

We did this over the summer for Panini and their recording artist Senit, who wrote a song for the World Cup.
They wanted something colourful that combined many national flags with children playing all cut into a performance by the singer.

Not so happy with the overall promo but the animation is nice.
I designed a whole bunch of flags using splatter patterns and droplets which I animated in Photoshop and were composited in After Effects.

If you want to see the finished thing go to...

http://www.youtube.com/user/panini

Red Stick 2010

2010-11-30T09:15:00.001-08:00

Was in the States in November so I decided to accept the kind invitation from the organisers of the Red Stick Animation Festival to do a lecture at this year's event.
I was made to feel so welcome by everyone I met in Baton Rouge, Louisiana...
I won't easily forget the experience!

http://www.redstickfestival.org/

Something different...

2010-11-30T08:41:00.001-08:00

Wanted to try something different for a concept I've been writing recently... Need a new style but I'm not sure this is it!

'Green Grass' promo for I Am Arrows

2010-08-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

http://2pause.com/#/item/334/green_grass

here is my latest directorial effort for I Am Arrows, the new band from ex-Razorlight Andy Burrows... And they're great!

Enjoy

some stills from the promo...

2010-07-29T04:17:00.000-07:00

I love working in inks!

Barnacled Warship

2010-07-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

Here is the promo I did for Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit.

Done in 3 weeks.... I need some sleep!

http://2pause.com/#/item/333/barnacled_warship

Fox wins at Annecy!

2010-07-07T03:41:00.000-07:00

I'm really proud to have worked on this film.
It was a great experience,
lots of hard work and it's nice
Wes and all the crew get recognised by the jury and by the audience for all the time, effort, skills and talent.

Nice one!

ANIMAFEST... Zagreb 2010

2010-07-07T03:36:00.000-07:00

Really enjoyed Zagreb and the festival.
Wrote a piece about it this month's Imagine magazine... Will post something about that soon!

Another festival... Another lecture

2010-07-07T03:23:00.000-07:00

Stuttgart's International Trickfilm this year was a total blast.
A great big thanks to those who made my stay a fantastic experience.

Fat-Boy!

2010-07-07T03:07:00.000-07:00

My 'cartoony' homage to one of Spidey and Daredevil's recurrent villains.

Dresden FilmFest 2010

2010-04-28T09:25:00.001-07:00

I'm back from the Dresden short film festival where I was member of the international jury and where I gave my lecture on my role of lead story artist on Fantastic Mr Fox.

I had a fantastic time and the festival is wonderful, I would highly recommend it to all film lovers.

After deliberating for many hours myself and the other members of the jury awarded prizes for best animation to Parade by first time director Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet, and for best short film to My Poor Head by Adrian Panek.

But a big thumbs also to Mr Foley (D.A.D.D.Y.) Vivre Encore Un Peu... (David Lambert) and M (Felix Dufour-Lapierre) all great shorts and nice guys to have a drink or twelve with!

I AM NOT AN ARTIST

2010-04-16T02:28:00.000-07:00

I came across this today...

A great collection of GIFs,

webcomics and designs.

Enjoy!

http://www.iamnotanartist.org

Mrs Fox...

2010-04-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

... She's an artist, don't you know!

Ambulanza!

2010-04-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

something silly I was messing around with while waiting to pitch my next scene.

Roma... per sempre

2010-04-12T03:47:00.000-07:00

... I miss home sometimes!

Fantastic Mr Fox...

2010-04-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

... A page from some of my Fantastic Mr Fox storyboards from my portfolio.

Weird Victoriana

2010-04-12T03:37:00.000-07:00

I love ravens and crows...

Oscar nominations...

2010-04-12T03:36:00.000-07:00

Rat & Foxy

2010-04-12T03:35:00.000-07:00

McDonalds Animatic

2010-04-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

And here's the finished Animatic done in Final Cut...

McDonalds

2010-04-12T03:18:00.000-07:00

And so I am responsible for one of those ghastly Happy Meals/Movie tie-in commercials also... Gotta pay the rent, man!

Bacardi

2010-04-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

A storyboard page for a Bacardi commercial we pitched for... We never got it but the concept would have been a good one to produce and the stark chiaroscuro Zen quality of the photography with flashes of colour in the shots could have the look of it quite interesting to achieve.

And for the perfect Mojito...

12 mint leaves

15ml freshly squeezed lime juice

2 heaped teaspoons of caster or cane sugar

Crushed ice

50 ml Bacardi Superior RUn

Splash of Soda water

A sprig of mint to garnish

enjoy!

Roma...

2010-04-12T03:06:00.000-07:00

... Been looking for photos of my home town and found this on the Web.

2010-04-12T03:05:00.001-07:00

Idroscalo

2010-04-12T03:04:00.000-07:00

How long...

2010-04-12T03:02:00.001-07:00

The Doctor will see you now!

2010-04-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

Hotel D'Angleterre... Attic

2010-04-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

I was waiting for the latest batch of panels to be cut into the edit and started doodling what was around me... Then added Fox!

This was in room 51 of the Hotel D' Angleterre in Paris where we were working.

http://www.hotel-angleterre-paris.net/crbst_21.html

They also have a room called the Hemingway where the famed author and drinker stayed.

5 minute break

2010-04-12T02:47:00.000-07:00

I started working inks on Fantastic Mr Fox pretty much from the beginning but was rarely able to clean many of the drawings as Wes preferred a more sketchy style...

This is one of the cleanest.