Occassionally you get extremely lucky and a dream job lands in your lap. This happened for me when I got to work on designing a park of robotic dinosaurs for a casino in Macau.
I was contacted by Studio Cassells in HongKong and was asked to help design poses, colour schemes, storyboards and costumes for the exhibit.

Though I never managed to get over there to see the finished result, here’s a video of some excited people frolicking in a similar way to how I would have:

Leaving Mechanic Animation is such sweet sorrow.
I’ve been able to try my hand at a multitude of new things including Matte Painting, UI Design and even leading a storyboard team through a full season of kids TV.
Excellent people one and all.

Here’s a teaser of the adorable new show, Kiddets, that I have been working on for the last year.

I  led a storyboard team through a season of drawing these cute aliens as they learn about Earth in preparation for the big invasion… (okay, that last bit might have been something we came up with ourselves).

We basically took the supplied script for each episode, broke it down (and sometimes acted out key moments) then took to our Cintiqs to bring these little guys to life in 2D.

One challenge was to make sure everything worked in 3D as the previs team that came after us would then have to arrange everything for the animators which meant if our drawing and staging got too flat or we didn’t keep track of the backgrounds – we would hear about it!
All part of the process… and pretty stoked how it came out – lookit dem colours!

Big thanks to Mechanic Animation, Pukeko Pictures and everyone we worked with on this – especially my team of indefatigable story artist!

This years Industry of Imagination was a blast and I was fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to contribute pieces to the exhibition for it. This included the shows Pretty Ugly, Creature Creature and White Cloud Worlds. 

Hello! Long time no update. Here are some pieces I created for this years Chromacon Indie Art event. 

Here’s just a small range of the projects I had the chance to work on during my time at Pikpok. A promo image and concept work from the game, ‘Into The Dead,’ and some fun styles for ‘Doomsday Clicker.’ Thanks for having me Pikpok!

Cool, couple of things to update everyone with:

I’ve had two of my Saurian Era stories published in Faction Comics and was asked to contribute a piece to their new Climate Change issue. Its coming out in a months time and (shock horror) my piece isn’t all to do with dinosaurs! (though I did hide a dinosaur in there…)
Its a great read and done in a beautiful hard-cover, cloth bound with ribbon. Top stuff – I feel like a bloody lucky bloke to be included with so much raging talent. Go order a copy!

And if you’re in the Auckland area next month the second Chromacon is about to happen. I’ll have a table there along with some really rather ridiculously talented people. Come say hi and be sure to check out the kickstarter and take advantage of some great rewards 😀

News for the new years! I have recently started employment as a concept artist at Pikpok, here in Wellington. They did a write up on me (and my dinosaurs) here:

Check ’em out. They make some pretty mean games 😀

Buongiorno! Italy was incredible. My month spent at The Florence Academy of Art was invaluable – I learnt so much and made so many new friends in such a short time. Highlights had to be getting up in the early morning to sketch outside, the food, and how everything is seeped in so much rich history. Until next time, Firenze 😀

I’ll be spending some time in Italy – studying at the Florence Academy of Art, and doing a bit of exploring on that side of the globe. Back in Septemeber!