STORYBOARDISTA!

FRANKENWEENIE

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!

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!

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!

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...

... 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...

... I really like this photo.

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

Hurray for BLACK SWAN!

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!

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!

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)

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!!!

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!

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

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/