A cartoonist drawing cartoons, cartoonily for Nickelodeon. Creator of Zokie of Planet Ruby on Amazon Prime. Earmouse and Bottle. Director on Spongebob.
Going through old storyboards and found a ton of stuff I boarded for the third Spongebob movie that was never used. But this one panel is a good one to stand on its own.
A clip with my storyboard from "Goons on the Moon". When I pitched this scene and the moon blew up Stephen Hillenburg, who was usually pretty quiet in pitches except for laughs, yelled out "Holy sh*t!".
Don't tell anyone but I snuck my wife, and daughter in tonights special "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout" (7pm). I've never seen my daughter more excited to be a fish.
#SpongeBobSquarePants
#cameos
Fun fact: my art teacher in HS wanted to start an animation class. He built it from the ground up. He created these light boxes so they could sit on desks. Created an easy way to shoot animation on video tape (the 90s). Then outsourced all of this to schools across the country.
Here is my FIRST animation desk, purchased in 2009. From what I was told, this is the same series of desks they used in the first season of SpongeBob 🧽. Not sure if that is true, but if it is, that’s awesome! On the wall was storyboards from a short animated film I was making
Here's an early version of Ruby. Loosely based on my oldest daughter who is always on youtube. I wanted a character that was free and silly and expressive and showed curls can be fun.
#zokieofplanetruby
For all you aspiring board artists out there, don't wait around for permission to start boarding. Like getting into school or getting a job. Just dive in and do it. Do a lot of it. Be sloppy and messy and get your hands dirty. Don't worry about clean drawings. Just draw a story.
It’s been a quiet couple of days at the office. It has been great to see so much love online for Steve, and see everyone’s take on spongebob. Also neat to hear everyone’s stories about making friends through the show or developing their sense of humor because of SB.
I don't know if anyone on this website has heard, but Kamp Koral is a show about a young Spongebob and friends. I board directed on it including the first EP which premieres on Paramount + March 4th.
Grateful people are finding our little show. It can only spread by word of mouth because it's impossible to find on Amazon unless you're searching for it. Link 👇
I remember when this ep aired. It was all over the news because 3 eighth grade girls DID write the script and sent it in, and the studio produced it. They’re at the end of this clip w/ Spielberg.
I boarded this Ep, and can't imagine it airing until all of this covid stuff is behind us. If at all... It was completely conceived and produced before covid19 was even a thing.
So I'm just gonna make this tweet to inform others about the existence of what is now the closest thing we have to a "banned episode" of SpongeBob. Not only will this *completed* episode probably never air on TV (at least for a long while), it's also not going to be on the...
I boarded this episode and drawing the realistic versions of the characters was a challenge. Especially to make entertaining with no expressive features or acting. Stephen Hillenberg gave me very detailed drawings of each sea creature. Calling back to his marine biologist days.
This is from my board for “The Haunting of Star House” from the Patrick Star show. Judging by the comments we might have traumatized some people. Whoops!
Once upon a time I made a short (Earmouse and Bottle-In my pinned tweet) at Nickelodeon, and it came close to being a full on show. I came across the pitch bible recently, and always liked this Earmouse page.
Hey I'm Brian, a storyboard director on Spongebob. I cut my teeth as a revisionist on Penguins of Madagascar. Boarded on the Monsters vs Alien tv show, and directed on Breadwinners. I also created a Nick short called Earmouse and Bottle, and more fun in the works
#Thisisanimation
In my rough board for "Goons on the Moon" I was supposed to be in this scene. Roger Bumpass the voice of Squidward ended up starring in the scene and saved the world from looking at my face. With
@adampaloian
desk filling in for my own..
My draw over notes from the first batch of animation on Earmouse and Bottle. He's a tough one to get right even for me. Strong clear poses and fewer tangents can make any animation stronger.
#earmouseandbottle
#animation
#nickshorts
@meganroseruiz
I liked “you will use these books as your inspiration”. Because that’s how inspiration works. Anyways gotta go- drawing a whole book for 20 bucks.
So if you had an animation class in high school it was Nataha Lightfoot that kicked that off and taught your teacher how to teach it. The. Supplied them with the supplies, including this desk. Found here
Here’s a sketch I did for the pitch/promo art for The Patrick Star Show. It was later inked on painted by not me. The show premieres tonight on Nick along with my ex office mate
@JohnTrabbic
show
#middlemostpost
!
Some people are taking this as a dig at the CG. Quite the contrary! The cg team and the animation studio did an amazing job. The fact they can break the model (multiple times in an EP) and get anywhere near these poses is a huge feat that is unheard of in tv animation.
Digging though old hard drives and found this chunk of boards I did from the Monsters vs Aliens tv show on Nick. I’m sure the five people who watched this show will be thrilled to see this peek behind the curtain.
I have to say his show is going to look great and have the same absurd wacky humor as the original. Made by the same people making the 2d show. cg people had to work super hard to make this nonsense work in a reality based in logic and math without losing what makes it sb.
There's something very on brand about Wile E Coyote trying to make a movie only for it to blow up in his face. Let's give the guy a win
#SaveCoyoteVsAcme
Last night I drew Spongebob stuff at the Vanity Fair “10 animators to watch”. I forgot to take pics of my good drawings but I got a few towards the end.
Hey planet Earth! May 6 'Zokie of Planet Ruby' is coming to Nickelodeon and Paramount+ around the world (minus Canada for now). If you're in the US you can watch now on Amazon prime video.
It was added on to over 3ish years. Some of those drawings eventually made it into the show, a few of them were actually used in packaging for SpongeBob meme vinyl toys.
The mob has spoken. Animation audiences today dont want simple bean shaped mouths knonw as the "
#calarts
style" of
#Thundercats
. Since I was rejected by calarts I thought I'd make official non calarts style mouths to be used by all shows hence forth. The audience demands it!
Animated series that has been removed from Paramount+ today:
- Big Nate
- Blue's Clues & You!
- It's Pony
- Middlemost Post
- Ollie's Pack
- Rugrats (2021)
- Santiago of the Seas
Got to draw Sandy Cheeks for a thing at work. I don’t get to do “finished” color pieces too much anymore so this was a nice change of pace.
#spongebob
#sandycheeks
10 years ago I was broke. Moved back in with my parents two earlier. Drawing caricatures at Sea World. Making comics, and applying to every animation studio I could. Today I'm Storyboard directing on Spongebob, Ive got two kids, a house, and personal projects in development.
The show I created at Nickelodeon, and have been working on with lots of talented people got a mention in Variety. Also we are finally able to share the actual title -ZOKIE SPARKLEBY (previously ZJ Sparkleton)
Also crazy to see just how big and far reaching Steve's creation is in one snap shot. I was reading tweets about how important the show is and literally said to myself "I could never work on that" forgetting that its already my job. It's easy to forget when it is your day to day
If you are in the UK or know any kiddos in the UK, Zokie of Planet Ruby premieres on Nickelodeon/Paramount + April 16th. If you are in the US, you can watch it NOW on Amazon Prime. It will be rolling out in other countries soon!
@BroccoliVA
Steve was around for the start of development of this and involved in the last movie where this spun off from. You still don't have to be excited for this show, but it was made by all the people Steve worked along side of to make regular SB the last few years.
Digging through old hard drives and finding some fun old work. This is Kowalski avoiding spotlights and trying to break into a water park in Penguins of Madagascar. My first job in animation.
The new decoration on the wall outside my office. With drawings from me
@JohnTrabbic
Fred Osmond,
@SprinkleM0nster
and others. Inspired by me John and Fred’s office door.
Hey all! Is there any experienced Canadian comedy board artists looking to freelance on a board? It's a show for Nickelodeon. It's very character driven, cartoony and fun. Let me know!
If you want to work in animation, fill up as many sketchbooks you can. Take plenty of life drawing. Study classic cartoons but learn to invent. Then maybe you’ll be able to match the kind of quality it takes to work in this industry.
#protips
#quality
I worked on this at Paramount over the summer. Not sure what (if anything) of mine will be in the final movie, but the finished cg stuff they had looked REALLY good.
You have a few hundred terrible storyboards inside of you that you need to get rid of as fast as you can before you can start getting to the gold. Get them out! This goes for a lot of other art goals.
Big shout out to everyone at Nelvana where we produced this thing, and
@atomiccartoons
who did an amazing job animating it. I'm sure we crushed some people with how much work this was to make. Also I had
@mikegeiger
and
@optimusscotto
,
@mollfrylock
helping guide this thing.
Yesterday I had to pitch some ideas to some execs regarding my top secret project. Everyone was in a hurry out so I had to pitch on the go, and in the elevator. A literal elevator pitch. I had 5 floors to get my idea across. It really happens!
Following up on my previous post about the origins of Zokie of Planet Ruby, here are some sketches when trying to find the character designs. Originally I wanted a care bear type sandwich symbol on Zokie's belly.
This is the first thing I drew that would eventually become 'Zokie of Planet Ruby' 2017(?). Just drew one panel after the other without knowing where it was going. The story is different but the personalities are there. I'll be posting tons more art work soon.
People aren't taking the "everyone will be filmmakers" seriously enough.
I made this 20s trailer in 15mins with an OpenAI Sora clip, David Attenborough's voice on Eleven Labs, and sampling some nature music from Youtube on iMovie