Clive & Ian’s Wonderblimp of Knowledge

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wonderblimp

VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer has just released a new DVD called Clive and Ian’s Wonderblimp of Knowledge. The series features two popular puppet brothers from Phil’s ongoing series What’s In The Bible?.

The purple monkey puppet in the background was designed by yours truly. Here’s the final design (you can see my concept sketches in an earlier post):

Monkey Puppet Design

Clive and Ian’s Wonderblimp of Knowledge answers six big questions kids have about God, such as:

  • How old is God?
  • How strong is God? Is he stronger than a Superhero?
  • If God is so busy with the whole universe, can I count on Him?
  • Who made the world?
  • Why do parents sometimes let us down?
  • Is God truthful?

 

I can’t figure out how to embed the trailer for the DVD but you can watch it here. Here’s a free sample episode Vischer has posted on YouTube:

[youtube_sc url=u6mhuvgW39g width=430]

 

Want to order a copy of the DVD? Just click here. (Full disclosure: I don’t get any extra money or royalties if you buy. I just like the series and want to promote it.)

Animation for “What’s In The Bible?” Vol. 8

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For the past couple of years VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer has been working on an ambitous new project called What’s In The Bible? It’s a 13-part DVD series that uses puppets, live action, and animation to educate children and adults alike about the contents of the best-selling book of all time. It’s an entertaining blend of Bible stories, theology, church history, and answers to tough questions, with equal parts silliness and reverence.

I’ve had the honor of animating a few short segments for the series, and it’s been a lot of fun. Volume 8: Psalms, Proverbs, and the Writings has just been released. I  animated a short segment on Proverbs to help explain the difference between being smart and being wise. Unfortunately I can’t post the animation here yet, but I do have permission to show a few screen shots:

Here’s a trailer for What’s In The Bible Volume 8. You can order the DVD here.

EDIT: The client has posted a portion of the animation I did for them on YouTube. For your viewing pleasure:

[youtube_sc url=Ynq1evqeKmg width=430]

Animation for “What’s In The Bible?” Vol. 6

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A new promo has just been posted for volume 6 of What’s In The  Bible?, an ongoing project from VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer. It’s a terrific series that uses a combination of puppets, live action, and animation to walk through the Bible step-by-step re-telling the stories, explaining their significance, and answering tough questions. There’s a good balance of humor and depth that should appeal both to kids and adults.

At the end of this promo is a cartoon singing choir which was designed and animated by Yours Truly.

What’s In The Bible? is available on DVD or as digital downloads (full episodes and smaller bite-size segments). More info at the official website.

Monkey Business

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Monkey - Wonderblimp of Knowledge

Last year I designed a monkey puppet to join the cast of characters on JellyTelly.com, a multimedia website venture from Focus on the Family and VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer. There’s lots of terrific educational video content on the site and several of the characters have also crossed over into the DVD series What’s In The Bible?

The new JellyTelly site is now live and, for the moment at least, free to watch. It’s a beta site and the creators are considering some sort of subscription model for future content but at the moment the site’s primary source of revenue is donations.

The monkey character is part of a new segment called “Clive and Ian’s Wonderblimp of Knowledge”. Unfortunately I’m not able to embed a clip but you can watch the Wonderblimp segments on this page of JellyTelly.com.

Animation for “What’s In The Bible?”

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Recently Phil Vischer, the guy who created VeggieTales, partnered with Focus on the Family to launch a new DVD series called What’s In The Bible? In it he uses a combination of live action, puppetry, and animation mixed with some humorous-but-reverent writing to educate both kids and adults about the content of the entire Bible, book by book and story by story. It’s an ambitious project but one with a lot of potential. Volumes 1-3 are currently available on DVD. Volume 4 is on its way with several more volumes yet to come.

I was hired to animate three segments for Volume 2 (“Let My People Go!”). The client has graciously given me permission to post one of those clips on my website and blog. It’s a short bit designed to explain one of those big church-y sounding words, “Redemption”. They provided me with some scratch audio and a rough stick-figure animatic. I animated over the top of that using Flash, and then the What’s In The Bible? editorial team laid in the final audio.

Unfortunately I’m not able to embed this particular clip directly into my blog. The closest thing I could rig up is this: if you click on the image below a Quicktime version of the animation should (hopefully) play in a new window. Or, you can go to the “Animation” page of my website to view this as well as other samples of my animation work.

You can order DVDs of What’s In The Bible? or purchase selected clips for download here. Or just check your local Christian bookstore.

Monkey Puppet

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JellyTelly.com is a fun website project from Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales. He’s partnered with Focus on the Family to create online daily episodes combining animation, puppetry, and live action to present Biblical concepts to kids in fun and entertaining ways. Sort of like a Christian Sesame Street. It’s really fun stuff!

Much of the site’s content is populated by puppet characters. Recently Phil hired me to create a new monkey puppet for a bit he was working up for the show. He sent me some rough thumbnail doodles and photos of the two puppet characters the monkey would be interacting with. My job was to work up a final design for the puppet, one that would look good next to the other two puppets and feel like it came from the same “puppet world” that they inhabit.

I started with a round of rough thumbnails, playing with various shapes and proportions without deviating too far from the rough design I was given:

Phil picked a design he liked and I sent him some possible color choices. After a few emails back and forth I worked up this final turnaroud for the puppeteer:

Phil recently sent me a photo of the final puppet, and with his permission I’m posting it here:

I don’t know when the episode will go live. When it does it will likely only be available to Jelly Telly subscribers. But if I can get permission I’ll post a screen shot or two.