VeggieTales ‘Noah’ Concepts

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The latest VeggieTales DVD “Noah’s Ark” (Amazon link) recently hit store shelves. It’s the first DVD to feature the updated character designs which coincide with the brand new Netflix series “VeggieTales In The House“. It’s a fresh, energetic new take on the characters. (EDIT: Credit for the new designs goes mostly to the amazing Elena and Olivia Ceballos).

I was asked to help with designing some costumes (sometimes from scratch, other times polishing existing designs). I also did a lot of concepts for a new character, Shem, who was ultimately voiced by Wayne Brady. At the beginning of the “Noah” project we were still using the old, classic VeggieTales style but eventually the decision was made to try and match the updated look of the “refresh”. The final Shem design is pretty close to one of my concepts.

The evolution of this story also took some twists and turns. At first they wanted to go with a traditional biblical setting, then a few other things were tried before eventually settling on something more modern. Hence, the variety of costume designs below:

VeggieTales Noah Rough Concepts

VeggieTales Noah-Costume Turnarounds

VeggieTales "Boy Shem" Rough Concepts

VeggieTales 'Shem' Rough Concepts

VeggieTales 'Shem' Color Turnarounds

VeggieTales 'Sadie'-Costume Turnarounds

Here’s a trailer for Noah’s Ark:

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Concept Art for “Celery Night Fever”

The new VeggieTales DVD “Celery Night Fever” (Amazon link) has just been released. It’s a story about forgiveness with Bob and Larry playing 70’s-era disco stars. I had the really fun job of coming up with costumes for Bob and Larry, both as young celebrities and as old modern-day grandparents:

Bob and Larry-"Celery Night Fever"

Old Bob & Larry-"Celery Night Fever"

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Young Bob-"Celery Night Fever"

Old Larry-"Celery Night Fever"

Grandpa Bob-"Celery Night Fever"

Here’s a screen shot of the final animation:

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There’s even a plush version of Disco Larry based on my design. Cool!

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I also got to design a fun little frog character. He’s only on screen for a moment but we still had to figure out what he would look like so the animation studio could build him:

Frog Turnarounds-"Celery Night Fever"

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I almost forgot…the villain is voiced by Terry Crews (the Old Spice guy)!

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Celery Night Fever is available now in stores or for digital download (iTunes, Amazon, etc.). Here’s the trailer:

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Concept Art for ‘Veggies In Space’

Last year I was hired by Big Idea to help develop some character designs, costumes,  and misc. artwork for their new DVD Veggies In Space. Now that the DVD is available for purchase I’m allowed to show a bit of the artwork I did. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet but it was a lot of fun to work on.

Here’s a few of the characters I worked on. The costume designs for the main characters were inspired by Star Trek. For the villains I thought it would be fun to do something reminiscent of the cheesy Flash Gordon serials of yesteryear.

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T-Bot-Turns-v5VIS_TBot2I also got to illustrate some misc. background signage. Here’s a billboard and the cover of a brochure:

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Veggies In Space is now available from Amazon, iTunes, etc. Here’s the trailer:

[youtube_sc url=34RxF1nu_KQ width=450]

 

VeggieTales Concept Art for MacLarry and the Stinky Cheese Battle

A new VeggieTales episode recently landed on store shelves, MacLarry and the Stinky Cheese Battle (Amazon link). The story is built around a battle of escalating practical jokes between two rival tribes, sort of Braveheart meets Gladiator but with cream pies. I was hired by Big Idea to do some character and costume design for the episode, including designing two new characters: Chog Norris (who plays Larry’s dad) and some Turnips.

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Concept art for VeggieTales episode "MacLarry and the Stinky Cheese Battle"Veggietales-ChogNorris-TurnsVeggietales-Turnip-turns

I also did a few illustrations for the episode. For example, this map:

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Here’s a trailer for MacLarry and the Stinky Cheese Battle:

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New VeggieTales Narrator: Uncle Si from ‘Duck Dynasty’

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There’s a new VeggieTales DVD coming out this Christmas, and Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty is the narrator! Wow, those bearded guys sure do get around.

I did some concept work on this episode – I designed a new character as well as some costumes and background signage, some of which you can see quick snippets of in this trailer. I also did some concept and current work on the current VeggieTales DVD, MacLarry and the Stinky Cheese Battle. I’ll be posting some of that artwork once the dust settles on my Kickstarter.

More Concept Art for VeggieTales

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Last year I did some work on the new VeggieTales DVD that’s just now hitting the shelves, called “The Little House That Stood” (Amazon link). My comp copy came in the mail today. It features two stories: The first combines the Three Little Pig with the biblical parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders. The second story is a goofy retelling of Humpty Dumpty.

I was hired to do a smattering of concept art for this episode: I roughed out some early costume concepts; illustrated a few pieces of texture art for some signage and misc. props; and designed a cartoon goose that Larry calls “Mother”.

First, here’s the turnarounds for the goose I designed and a screen shot of the final animation:

VeggieTales character design turnarounds by Cedric HohnstadtVeggieTales character design turnarounds by Cedric HohnstadtVeggieTales Screen Grab

In the first story Larry, Bob, and Mr. Lunt appear as construction workers. Here’s some quick, rough thumbnails I whipped up of possible costume ideas:

VeggieTales rough costume ideas by Cedric Hohnstadt

Finally, I created several pieces of texture art for the show. Here’s two of them: A backdrop for a weather forecast, and a fold-out map for use as a prop. (I slipped in a reference to the original “Superman” movie on the map. See if you can spot it.):

VeggieTales background texture illustration by Cedric Hohnstadt

VeggieTales texture art by Cedric Hohnstadt.

 

(Click to enlarge.)

You can order the DVD “The Little House That Stood” from Amazon or from your favorite Christian retailer.