Columbus and beyond

Getting set-up for a big push in both Knock Knock Cartoons land and other ventures.  Knock Knock Cartoons which has laid dormant but active for a number of years, will once again be reintroduced to the Ohio and national market.  Both Knock Knock and Horrendous will be active but will work on different ventures in animation market.  KKC will focus on traditional and corporate markets and HFC will push the old animation envelope.  Look forward to updates.

Chicago

Went to Chicago for longtime creative partner, RPM's 20th Anniversary.  Very nice party and a very nice way to celebrate some longevity in this ridiculous business where there are many failures and few successes.  RPM has been a loyal agency and I hope that I have provided the highest quality work I could achieve, they deserve it.

Request

Out there in cyberspace, I have had a request to post, "Where There is Smoke...There is Bob",  the second pilot of the "Longhair and Doubledome" series.  I just found the Master and will try to get a quicktime made soon.  Sorry for the delay, at first I thought I had it somewhere, but it doesn't look that way, hope to have it up in a couple of weeks.  Thanks

Longhair and Doubledome's Cave

Background for "Good Wheel Hunting", a pilot for the Cartoon Network.

Remembering Knock Knock

Here is a picture of many of the people who worked at the Cleveland studio of Knock Knock Cartoons. I was fortunate to work with and know some incredibly talented people during our 12 years there. Pictured from the top left, L. Todd Myers (Todd, Todd, the Ink god, great designer, director, this guy was crazy good), Big Gav, Dave Fedan (Dave, Dave, the Inking Knave also crazy good at everything), the great Tom Parker, Melissa Heltzel (the best writer and assistant ever), Cody Wood (Great talent), Anthony Judge (Frans Hals), Ed Zimmer (of the black nail polish), Sarah Curry (of the red lipstick), and Mike Chipchak (one talented guy). Not pictured unfortunately, Valerie Totire (Ms. versatility), Ben Smallridge (a phenomenal digital artist and animator) , Bev Chiara (one of the best cel painters I ever knew), Bridget Ginley (wonderful watercolors), and Pants Sechrist (this dude rocks, big rocks).

Spy Illustrations

Here are some illustrations I did for the Spy Museum in Washington DC and a book they were publishing. I did many illustrations for this client from 2000-2005. The initial design style was created by L. Todd Myers and the rest is history.

My Design BUT

Rendered by the amazing Dave Fedan.

Is 2D dead?

No, it's just starting over. It's a whole new animation world out there. The days of inking and painting cels are gone, and that is not a horrible thing. Cels were extremely difficult to work with, organize, and keep clean. I was lucky to have some remarkable people working for me over the years, thank you, oh powerful universe. Knock Knock could produce some very innovative styles even with the limitations of an acetate world. Todd Myers and David Fedan were master inkers, Bev Chiara, one hell of a cel painter. All those talents are still valuable, but there are thousands of styles to be explored now due to that digital thing that seems to be happening everywhere. The digital age that gave birth to 3D animation, that has changed photography forever, and that has now changed 2D production as well. 3D had to innovate since it's inception and now it is 2D's turn. Programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects are all getting more sophisticated. It would have been impossible to create the image above in cel work. Well, maybe not impossible but would have been a huge pain in the ass. It probably would have taken most of the day instead of ten minutes. As 2D artists, we must continue to innovate, create new images and styles , we are at the beginning of a whole new art form and even though old production techniques still have some value, we now have the tools to finish without limitation.

A Knock Knock Memory

Beautiful Background by Todd Myers.