About: The Bug Diaries is an animated comedy series for preschoolers based on the witty children’s books by best-selling author Doreen Cronin and best-selling Illustrator Harry Bliss. The show follows a comic trio of slimy, crawly, and buzzy bug friends whose tiny world offers up huge adventures.
Production details: This was my return to the Animation industry after a long break during which I washed dishes by hand in a Portacabin Resturaunt for 200 Hangry Macho Builders while learning to Paint in Oils. I studied with Owen Rohu in return for teaching him some Photoshop technique. Owen is an extraordinary Artist in oils and went on to work on Spiderman -Into the Spider Verse as a Matt Painter.
I was a Lead Bg Artist on this project as well as helping out on Episodic Color Design. The project was designed to emulate the look of Gouache with some really tricky brushes that ranged rom a loose Water Color Shadow pass to thicker Mid Tones up to a almost of goopy Transluscent Highlight. They were sensitive to gesture and so really difficult to get on style. The wonderful Dommie Fox lead us in reducing these brushes to a core 4/5 which allowed us to manage such a heavy work load. My self and a couple of senior Crew became really good friends while working way way way too much to achieve the level required. I don’t recommend this. Better to be trained at Illumination like our stand out lead artist Ludo Gavilette. Thanks to the likes of him we really improved our foundational knowledge and knocked this project out of the park.
Awards: Bug Diaries was nominated in 3 categories at the IAA awards including Best Animated Preschool Series, Best Director (Gilly Fogg) and the Kids Choice Award
Review: Imdb audience reviews..
You can watch the episode Dump of dreams for which I did the Color Design (above) here..
part 1:
A quick pick of some of my other favorite bgs.
