Animal! ! ! !

[Reevz1977]

Oh cool. How did that come about?

I work for the UK's largest privately owned company and he came in for a milestone celebration. I'm also lead to believe that he's a friend of the family that owns it. Amidst the doom and gloom of the recession it was a pleasant change!

Your perfectionism is swift. I thought it would take longer, but I'm glad it won't require that kind of patience.

Please don't hold me to that timeframe as I have been wrong in the past

I have seen so many "professional" Muppet montages like this mash of characters that tries too hard or this poorly Photoshopped one and neither are compositions I can look at without getting a headache. I nominate you for Muppet graphic designer. I don't see why Disney and even Henson haven't used better skilled artists like you.

You know what, I'd sign the petition to get me to work on the Muppets As a huge fan it would be a life long dream to work on such a project - as you well know Mr. Palisades! How did you come about working on the Muppets? I absolutely envy you for that experience! The examples of the Photoshop comps really gets my back up - I genuinely believe the Muppets deserve better than those

How big would something like your Kermit's head be in real life at 300 dpi?

The main cast are about 60 - 80cm in height at 300dpi, with some of the background ones about 50cm. All of them are done separately so I can make them bigger, otherwise the file would be colossal

Excellent work.

Why, thank you very much

 

[frogboy4]

I'm just surprised that your target timeframe is so soon considering the quality of work. I really did expect 6 months or more.

It's cool that you met one of the most influential people of the future - and that he's a nice guy. My family's friendly with two former first families. I give them a lot of grief about it. Thank frog there's no longer such a need to apologize for being from Texas.

The Palisades story is a funny one. I kind of fell into that from the forums. I didn't believe Ken was legit at first and gave him a little bit of grief that led to some interesting discussions and eventually I was part of a few fans advising him for some free swag until one day he asked me to comment on his Gonzo sculpt. He really wanted to get it right so he sent some hi-res turnarounds of the prototype. My notes resulted in starting over with a new head. It also led to my submitting head to toe drawn turnarounds for Polly Lobster and they hired me to fix Johnny Fiama and provide the graphic design for his accessories.

[The figures I worked on (released and unreleased, credited and uncredited) include: Gonzo (series 5 and beyond), Bernice, Polly, Johnny Fiama, Usher Scooter, Classic Sam, Marvin Suggs, Van Neuter, Tux Fozzie, Classic Rowlf, Pops, Lips, Uncle Deadly, Sweetums, Scout Kermit, Animal exclusives, Super Beaker, Tutu Pepe, Tux Statler & Waldorf, Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy and some of the minis and megas. Some were hits, some misses. Some had factory issues, some were elegant. Some interpretations were received well, others were roasted. I really wanted to provide a classic starlet Piggy and a revised Dr. Teeth. They never got those two right. You can also see some of my Photoshop work for the puppet image on the Adventure Kermit box pieced together from the cover of The Works book and the figure prototype image on the back of the box. It turned out okay.]

Anyway, I just kind of fell into that right after graduation because I was in the right place at the right time with a can-do Scooter-like attitude. I can't fathom the depth of work for this piece of yours.

Disney is using a variety of artists to create product images for them, but most of the DVD art is pieced together by clip art monkeys rather than artists and it is rather last-minute-looking. I don't know how you'd campaign for that position, but I'd support you. I have heard that they are in a sort of limbo right now in defining just how they want to market the characters. It seems that they want to go back to the classic look.

I really would submit this piece when you're done. The Boom people have been receptive, maybe the rest of the company would be too. Your work is amazing.

 

[Reevz1977]

The Palisades story is a funny one. I kind of fell into that from the forums. I didn't believe Ken was legit at first and gave him a little bit of grief that led to some interesting discussions and eventually I was part of a few fans advising him for some free swag until one day he asked me to comment on his Gonzo sculpt. He really wanted to get it right so he sent some hi-res turnarounds of the prototype. My notes resulted in starting over with a new head. It also led to my submitting head to toe drawn turnarounds for Polly Lobster and they hired me to fix Johnny Fiama and provide the graphic design for his accessories.

[The figures I worked on (released and unreleased, credited and uncredited) include: Gonzo (series 5 and beyond), Bernice, Polly, Johnny Fiama, Usher Scooter, Classic Sam, Marvin Suggs, Van Neuter, Tux Fozzie, Classic Rowlf, Pops, Lips, Uncle Deadly, Sweetums, Scout Kermit, Animal exclusives, Super Beaker, Tutu Pepe, Tux Statler & Waldorf, Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy and some of the minis and megas. Some were hits, some misses. Some had factory issues, some were elegant. Some interpretations were received well, others were roasted. I really wanted to provide a classic starlet Piggy and a revised Dr. Teeth. They never got those two right. You can also see some of my Photoshop work for the puppet image on the Adventure Kermit box pieced together from the cover of The Works book and the figure prototype image on the back of the box. It turned out okay.]

That is a genuinely amazing and TRULY COOL story! Are you permitted to show some of the work here or is it confidential?

P.S Keep checking for updates on Flickr soon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23001839@N02/

 

[frogboy4]

That is a genuinely amazing and TRULY COOL story! Are you permitted to show some of the work here or is it confidential?

P.S Keep checking for updates on Flickr soon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23001839@N02/

Much of my work is locked away in one of my old fried hard drives, but I hope to get my IT friend to retrieve it for me. Here's the only bit I could find online from Ken's Blogzilly. It's a really rough sketch of the Dancing Cheeses from Muppets Tonight that were to be packed with Rizzo until they went with the punching glove and table. We had no puppet reference except the show on grainy VHS. The cheese never got beyond the conceptual phase. I think it would have been a bigger hit with fans.

I might post some of this stuff later on this year. It is my intention to clean up all the work and create a little production book for the Palisades work down the line.

I really want to locate my old Suggs turnarounds with the Henson notes. They changed my eccentric frilly bellbottom pants and platform shoes to a Ricky Ricardo slacks and loafers look. I wanted his variant to have clear-healed platform shoes with goldfish inside. That was unlikely, but it would have been more fun than the silver and black look. Anyway, by the time another Henson licensor wanted to change it back (not knowing that it was another employee that scratched the frills and platforms in the first place) the figure had already been tooled and legally approved.

What character are you working on now?

 

[Reevz1977]

I might post some of this stuff later on this year. It is my intention to clean up all the work and create a little production book for the Palisades work down the line.

MORE! ! ! MORE! ! ! MORE! ! ! Thats really cool, Jamie - you got me hooked now, I need more! ! ! ! !

What character are you working on now?

Sweetums