As a character designer I'm fascinated with product mascots. A good mascot, when combined with a strong ad campaign, can be an enormous benefit when promoting a product or service. My favorite freelance projects are when clients hire me to design a mascot or character, either for advertising or animation. To help illustrate the power of a mascot I thought...
One of the drawbacks of freelancing is the financial insecurity. Your income can vary wildly from month to month. You may have to wait a long time between paychecks while the bills continue to arrive with military efficiency. I've been bucking this wild financial roller coaster for eleven years now, and it never gets any easier. But it has one...
Here's an interview with Disney animation artist and legend Bill Peet. The interview is rather long and I haven't had time to read it yet myself. But my friend Dan sent it to me and he's usually pretty good at passing on interesting sites related to art and animation....
Continuing yesterday's post...
On Saturday NBC aired another episode of 3-2-1 Penguins! for which I did some character designs. The plot centered around a malfunctioning time machine that sends the penguins' space ship into the future where they meet their future selves. (The lesson for kids was about respecting the advice of our elders.) The original penguins were designed several years ago when...
Here's an interesting article from the LA Times about Deborah Gregory, an author who created "The Cheetah Girls" and sold the property to Disney. Her characters have appeared in two TV movies, sold millions of CDs and DVDs, and have toured in over 80 cities. Her contract with Disney gave her 4% of the gross revenues. She hasn't seen a penny. It's...
