Monday, March 18, 2019

A full colour opening


Animated by the very talented Brian Grzech.
Music by Erica Procunier

Friday, March 1, 2019

Art Director vs No Art Director

The short story...

Don Gauthier is my Art Director. He helped expand/create the visual world of Mr. King from Genevieve Cote's original illustrations in her books. Currently Don has been pulled away to work on establishing a style for another production. This is a problem. I still need my Art Director.

Long story...

Genevieve's illustrations were what drew me to Mr. King right from the beginning. However, moving from book to series meant we needed to expand her world while staying true to her style. Although I had a pretty good idea of what this world would look like I needed an experienced Art Director to help bring it out. This is where Don came in. We were able to work back and forth, honing what I refer to as the stylistic language of the series. Moving into production Don has been able to provide Keys for settings indicated within the scripts. Keys providing our background artists a guide to ensure the locations indicated in the storyboard are on style and adhering to this stylistic language. 
However... Due to studio requirements, and perhaps an assumption that he had created enough momentum for our BG artists to continue on by themselves, Don was moved off Mr. King and on to another production. In my opinion, this has been too early and his guidance is still required. 
You see my opinion is that an Art Director is a full time job on a production. It is an immense responsibility to oversee all BG artists interpretations of the Art Directors keys. A mentor to facilitate the language and to interpret how the Director may be reacting to their work in order to keep the production on style. Since he has been gone I find 90% of my time looking at designs for approvals has been spent on backgrounds. Not very efficient from a production point of view. I have voiced my concerns with my producer and am hopeful that I will have my Art Director back, at least in a 50% capacity, in the near future.

But lesson learned...Do Not underestimate the value of a good Art Director.