More “3-2-1 Penguins!” Character Designs

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Last Saturday NBC aired another new episode of 3-2-1 Penguins! Here’s some of the character design work I did for that episode.

In this episode the Penguins and the kids land on a planet inhabited by alligator-like characters. This guy was the Emporer. The script described him as an Elvis fan and director requested that he wear an Elvis-like jumpsuit with a soul patch. This is what I came up with. Probably one of the most fun jobs I had during my work on the series.

Here’s two of the palace guards. Because television production is so fast-paced there isn’t a lot of time or budget to build extra background characters in CG. The entire palace was populated by one of these two characters.

At one point various characters get splatted with a marshmallow gun. My job was do develop concept art to show what that might look like.

I also got the chance to do a little prop work. Here’s my sketches for a pair of blue suede shoes (worn by the emporer) and some suction cup devices that allowed characters to scale a wall. Both props figured into the story.

3-2-1 Penguins! Can be seen Saturday mornings on NBC. Check your local listings.

More “3-2-1 Penguins!” Character Designs

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This past weekend NBC aired another brand-new episode of 3-2-1 Penguins!, an animated series on which I was a character designer. I’m not sure but I think this was the premiere of season 2. The episode, titled “12 Angry Hens”, required me to design (among other things) some robotic hens with holographic heads and a robotic scarecrow. Here’s some of the concept art I submitted.

“3-2-1 Penguins!” TV Series Now On DVD

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Last year I had the privilege of working as a character designer for 3-2-1 Penguins!, a Saturday morning animated series currently airing on NBC. Penguins began it’s life on VHS back in the 1990’s with several episodes being produced by Big Idea (the company that gave us VeggieTales). Last year NBC warmed up to the property and ordered an entire season of brand-new episodes for their Saturday morning TV block.

3-2-1 Penguins! could best be described as Star Trek meets Looney Tunes. Four zany penguins (Zidgel, Fidgel, Midgel, and Kevin) travel the universe in their space ship, taking along two kids (Jason and Michelle) to help them on their missions. Their main enemy is Cavitus, a melodramatic villain who is really just a hamster parading around inside of a giant robot suit. Each episode involves a run-in of some sort with aliens, robots, and other wacky interplanetary creatures (one episode takes place on a planet inhabited by lawn flamingos and garden gnomes). In the course of each episode Jason and Michelle learn a biblical lesson from the book of Proverbs.

This week the series began its rollout onto DVD. “Save the Planets!” (Amazon.com link) is a one-disc DVD containing three episodes from the TV version of the series:

  • The Green-Eyed Monster
  • More is More
  • Give and Let Give

Special features include:

  • Audio Commentary on all three episodes
  • How to Draw Kevin and Chancellor Gutt (one of the character’s I designed)
  • Animation Progression Reel
  • Pearls of Wisdom
  • Make Your Own Planet
  • Video Trivia
  • Discussion Guide
  • DVD-Rom Fun!

As I mentioned above, I designed misc. characters (and a few props) for about half of the episodes in the series. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that all three episodes chosen for this DVD were episodes I worked on. Hopefully more episodes will make it onto DVD in the near future.

3-2-1 Penguins!: Save The Planets! is available at your local Wal-Mart, in Christian bookstores, or on Amazon.com.

EDIT: Here’s a review of the DVD from Past The Popcorn.

Jelly Telly

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Yikes! It’s been almost a week since my last post. My apologies. Things have been pretty crazy here. Earlier this week I even had to pull an all-nighter to meet a big deadline. (I must be getting older. Those all-nighters are getting a lot more grueling than they used to be.)

Fans of VeggieTales might appreciate this: Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, is starting a new venture called Jelly Telly. The ground work is still being laid, but the plan is to create a launching pad for quality Christian entertainment for kids. You can read all about it on Vischer’s blog. Click on the “What is Jelly Telly?” button and you can read a fascinating 5-part post about the current state of children’s entertainment and specifically Christian media. It’s long but well worth the read.

To get things rolling, Jelly Telly is looking for Flash animators and motion graphic artists to create bumpers using the Jelly Telly logo. They can’t pay for the work, so you’d be signing away all rights for nothing but a little exposure. Still, if you are excited about the possibilities Jelly Telly could provide you might want to take part.

Or, if you just want to share artwork and ideas or follow the goings-on, join the Jellyfish Labs online community site. Here’s my page. However, before contributing be sure to read the Terms of Use. They basically state that any artwork and ideas you submit become the property of Jelly Telly. I wish that wasn’t the case but I suppose that’s the only way they can effectively prevent themselves from getting sued down the line.

Normally I strongly urge artists to avoid contests, promotions, and other gimmicks that require them to give away their work and ideas for nothing. However, I really believe in what Jelly Telly is trying to do. Besides, this is not the normal “give me artwork for free and maybe you’ll get some (worthless) exposure” scenario. Usually when someone wants free artwork it’s because they are looking to take advantage of young up-and-comers who are desperate for a chance to get a little experience. Vischer is different. He acknowledges that there’s a lot of poor-to-mediocre Christian media out there and he’s looking to raise the bar. The sense I get is that he is primarily interested in contributors who have a lot of talent/experience and who can afford to give a little free work because they are already established. So as distasteful as it is to me in this case I’d say if you want to give it a try, go for it.  I enjoy dabbling in Flash and might even try to develop a bumper myself, under two conditions:

1. I come up with a simple but clever idea.

2. I find a little free time.

Right now it would take a minor miracle for the second one to happen, but here’s hoping. In any case, I’ll be watching the progress at Jelly Telly closely and hoping it takes off.

“3-2-1 Penguins!” Character Designs (part 2)

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Continuing yesterday’s post…I also designed a future version of Zidgel, the ship’s captain. He’s big on vanity and low on brains. As an old man, er…penguin, at first he appears to have retained his youth and vigor. Then, through a series of gags we find that he is actually wearing a truss, false teeth, and a toupe. It was a lot of fun to design both versions.

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Finally, there’s Kevin. In this episode the malfunctioning time machine has a reverse effect on him. Instead of growing older, Kevin actually regresses to a young penguin and eventually an egg:

youngkevin.jpg

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There was one last misc. alien character I designed for a brief “talking heads” scene on the ship’s monitor. Here’s the turnarounds and an expressions chart:

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“3-2-1 Penguins!” Character Designs (part 1)

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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 the series premiered on DVD. I don’t know who came up with the original designs, but I’ve always admired them. The characters have great personality, contrast, and appeal. It was a real treat to take three of the four characters and create an elderly version of each one. Here’s the first two:

futurefidgelclrv1b.jpg

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futuremidgelclrv1b.jpg

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I was also asked to design a generic alien character, a veeery old war-weary soldier. The director suggested he have three eyes and one of them be covered with an eye patch. The character only has a couple of scenes (no dialogue), and while he is held up as someone for the kids to revere he’s also played as a comic character. I wanted the design that was both respectable and a little silly:

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I did a lot of art for this episode, so more will be posted tomorrow.