Animation art from Arshad Mirza Baig

Deep-Rooted Evil

2012-02-21T20:44:00.000Z

A piece of development art based around an evil growth.

A letter from a Genie - us! - Mr Eric Goldberg!

2012-02-19T23:02:00.000Z

I was browsing through some old emails and came across amessage I saved in a folder from none other than one of my animation Heroes thegreat Eric Goldberg -A man whom I classify as a modern day Ward Kimball and agenius of Cartooning and animation. He can be as harsh and dynamic as ChuckJones and as subtle and goofy as the legendary ward Kimball. Goldberg hascreated some of the most influential characters in the history of animation –most notably the Genie - A character that in my opinion sparked the appealfactor for the fast talking adult wit in the modern medium of animationstorytelling. Many years ago when I was working primarily as an animator andhad never even contemplated a storyboard panel I was commissioned a task ofanimating a test with the Genie character for a bid to ‘The make a wishfoundation’ (The test is below). Naturally I jumped at the chance and pickedout a random piece of dialogue from Robin Williams (Hook) and thrown my selfinto it. The job ended up being animated by the master Eric Goldberg him self,and rightly so as my feeble attempt bares no comparison!

A few years later when Traditional animation was so far indecline that I was contemplating a career change I decided to write a messageto Eric Goldberg and ask his opinion of my test. I had no delusion that I wouldobtain work at Disney from it - I sent it more in a ‘could I have been acontender’ spirit as I had always dreamt of animating on a traditional Disneyfeature but as traditional appears to be virtually dead I knew it was a dream Ihad to cast aside – yet I still just had to know what would a master such asGoldberg or Glen Keene or Andreas Deja etc… have made of my work. So I takenthe plunge and sent Mr.Goldberg a message asking him to pull no punches andbreak me down as he would any animator working for him. Of course I knew it wasa long shot and did not expect a response. However it was of great surprise anddelight that Mr.Goldberg responded and it brought a huge smile to my face! Hisresponse along with my test is below!

DearArshad-
You have learned well, my son! Your Genie animation is very fluid and funny,and yes, with that quality, you could easily have been on the Genie unit. If Iwere working with you personally, I’d probably have you push the eye shapes forgreater expression and quirkiness. Also, I probably would have pushed for evensnappier timing in a couple of places. That said, you should bear in mind thatthese types of comments are the same as I would give to any animator on theunit, so you should feel proud that you got so close on your own. I’mparticularly impressed with your handling of Hirschfeldian shapes in movement,particularly shoulder and spine reversals throughout the piece.
I hope this brings you some closure, and by the way, don’t give up on 2D yet...It’s coming back!
Best,
Eric Goldberg

Horrid Henry and the Silly Siblings

2012-02-15T16:38:00.000Z

Here is a section of the board that I did for 'Horrid Henry and the Silly Siblings' I had a lot of fun with this episode as the characterization in the script by Lucinda Whiteley was very amusing. It's always good to have a nice script to work with because it inspires me to really get into the characters and make the process of storytelling extremely pleasurable!

Character Design - 'Sokator 442'

2012-02-08T03:45:00.000Z

Along with my role as Head of Story I was also credited as the project designer on the movie Sokator 442.The role involved designing all the major characters and incidentals for the project as well as developing concepts for location and environment design. Everything had to be done so fast that initially I would often have to develop rough designs whilst storyboarding. Later when concepts were approved The characters would come into their own on the boards. I found the whole experience quite exhilarating as I was not given the time to play and experiment as I would normally do so.

ANIMATIC: Rat world - My Edit!

2012-02-03T15:49:00.000Z

Whilst working on Universal’s ‘Tale of Despereaux’ I wasassigned the task of developing a sequence that had to introduce the lifestyleof the Rats to the audience. The sequence had been in development for some timeby other artists but the directors Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen and Gary Ross werenot entirely satisfied with the direction it was going in - so I was assignedthe uphill task of trying to hit the right note!. I spent a good many months tinkering withideas in manydirections ranging from ideas such as a dark Nazi-like regime to a light-heartedyet macabre song and dance number until they decided on the song and dance number called ‘It’s great to bea rat’. The final cut of the animatic never made it in the movie and justsections of my sequence was used to introduce the primary villain Botecelli. Aboveis a cut that I edited together in my spare time after the production was finished. I have Incorporated drawings from many varying versions I boarded and utilised all the relevant images I could find. The flow is a little patchy at times but it gives a sense as to how I originally envisaged it.I temp tracked the music composed by the late great Jerry Goldsmith for themovie Gremlins to my edit as when I was boarding the sequence I was imaginingeverything going along to the eccentric music and often humming it to myselfwhilst drawing. I have yet to see how the actual final edit looked in theanimatic form, though apparently they have released the animatic as a deletedscene extra on the Blue Ray edition DVD which I have still not seen! So it wasn’tall for nothing then ;)

Progenitor Tree

2012-01-31T23:53:00.000Z

A Location concept based around a maternal looking Tree.

More SOKATOR story art

2012-01-27T23:25:00.000Z

Another scene from the animated feature Sokator 442. I boarded a lot of this Movie on paper but there was the odd occasion when I chose to go digital in Photoshop because I wanted to convey a certain atmosphere and it was quicker for me to do this via Wacom Tablet. I resisted boarding digitally for a long time but it was this project that relaxed my attitude towards digital boarding and I actually ended up doing a lot of fixing and re boarding via the machine purely for speed. Not all boards could be art worked in the manner of the examples above. There were times I was required to work at breakneck speed and re board entire sequences in a matter of a day or two. Though I attempted to retain some quality due to the demand of there being no layouts - I did resort to a much looser and rougher approach - I will post examples soon!

Evil Tree

2012-01-23T23:28:00.000Z

A Location concept based around a sinister looking Tree.

SOKATOR 442 - STORYBOARD ART

2012-01-18T21:38:00.000Z

Here is a sequence from the animated feature film Sokator 442 Which I was both the head of Story and project designer for. The film was produced at Zoo films, London for Galleon entertainment and has recently aired on Nickelodeon in Australia and New Zealand. The project was a lot of fun but extremely challenging as along with overseeing storyboards, character and environment design I had to make sure that the boards were to a standard to double up as layouts as the project was animated in traditional 2d by Sandman animation in China and there was not enough budget for layout. 75 percent of storyboards were done to a tight standard and effectively blown up and traced as layouts. For this particular sequence I also had to suggest environment design and mood lighting to aid the art director in getting the BG’s out in time. I will upload more from this feature soon!

Poster concept: The battle for the bloodstream!

2011-11-09T02:15:00.000Z

Some more development art for a forthcoming project.

An Apple A Day...

2011-11-02T02:51:00.000Z

This one has intentions to keep the doctor away!

Banana Blitz

2011-10-31T22:41:00.000Z

An especially potent potassium punch!

Power Boost!

2011-10-30T23:34:00.000Z

Experimenting with the all mighty Ananas!

Sweet, Red and Ripe!

2011-10-28T21:03:00.000+01:00

I always had a thing for strawberries!

Vitamin C - KICK!

2011-10-27T16:54:00.000+01:00

More Ascorbic Acid based character art!

Super Villian concept

2011-10-24T15:47:00.000+01:00

Pretty much as the title of the post states! I had fun with this one :)

More Storyboards from Horrid Henry and the Climbing Frame Clincher

2011-10-23T19:26:00.000+01:00

Here is another scene from the episode of Horrid Henry that I boarded. I especially enjoyed this sequence as it involved the boys doing a military style assault on the frame and of course the girls win out in the end.

Traditional Animation in The Tale of Despereaux

2011-10-20T22:30:00.000+01:00

Here is a short piece of traditional animation I did for the Universal pictures release. One of the directors Rob Stevenhagen, a man who I greatly admire, was keen to include some traditional animation in the film and I was assigned the task after completing my storyboarding duties. The test above is the version that I like best - the movement is simplified a little in the final cut with Despereaux's shadow just raising his sword without the little swivel into the raise. As this is my blog I can use the version I am happy with :P !

Character Concepts

2011-10-13T16:15:00.000+01:00

Some character development art for a forthcoming project. More designs, development art and info to follow soon!

More Traditional Animation samples

2011-10-05T15:05:00.000+01:00

Here are some samples of a short piece of traditional animation I am doing for my self. Whilst I am now a storyboard artist I like to keep my traditional animation muscles working, as it’s a skill I do not wish to let go of. I have been doing this piece on and off for a year now its not very long but I pick it up and drop off it between jobs. I am posting some choice frames and an example of what the end result in the BG will look like. I will post some tests and hopefully the finished piece when I get the time to take it to that stage.

Old Pencil Test from Kid Samurai pilot

2011-10-02T03:11:00.000+01:00

I found this line test I did around 4 years ago on my role as lead animator at Trocadero studios in London UK for the ill fated project 'Kid Samurai. Unfortunately the project was halted and the studio closed - but it left me with lots of nice work to reminisce over! The piece consists only of keys and Break downs so is only about 50 percent complete before it would go of for assisting. I miss doing Traditional animation and have now focused my abilities towards storyboard and design - anything that enables me to draw for my keep basically! I may get back to animating in 2d if only for personal pleasure..

Horrid Henry and the Climbing Frame Clincher

2011-09-28T21:55:00.000+01:00

Here is a scene from 'Horrid Henry and the Climbing frame Clincher'. I storyboarded the entire episode of this recently aired adventure on CITV for clients Spider eye and novel entertainment. I plan to upload scenes from other episodes after they are screened and may be a few more from this one to keep my blog varied - enjoy!

A SPOT OF DIGITAL PAINTING

2011-09-04T15:29:00.000+01:00

A portrait of my beautiful Niece Sara.

FIST CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ART

2011-08-23T21:40:00.000+01:00

An exploration of the title character for a personal project 'Wandering Fist' owned by A.M.B Animation.

GOLDEN AXE FAN ART

2011-08-22T17:33:00.000+01:00

Whilst storyboarding episodes for Jungle junction I felt like doing some more finished drawings. I was lost for a subject so I decided to pay tribute to my favourite characters from the classic Sega game.
I may do more at a later date!

POSES FOR HORRID HENRY STORYBOARD

2011-08-17T01:59:00.000+01:00

Whilst working on Season 3 of the popular Horrid Henry TV series I was given an episode that really excited me as it involved a superhero that was well versed in the martial arts. Being a keen martial artist myself I jumped at the chance to make his moves authentic and as the show was 2d I could have an input in the actual animation as well. There was a particular manoeuvre that was unique to the character involving a flipping action. I decided to base it on the Butterfly twist or B-twist which is a popular move in the tricking scene. I my self can do a basic version called the butterfly which gave me a good understanding of the execution but the B-twist is a little more complex so I decided to make some sketches from some youtube sources to aid me in my posing.Above is an example of the original sketches and how I adapted them for the signature move.
I will post the actual boards once the series is doing the rounds on CITV!

MY GIRL!

2011-08-07T20:20:00.000+01:00

Being a huge Disney fan (in traditional animated feature sense) I used to swoon over the Disney Princess's created by the likes of Marc Davis, Glen Keene, Mark Henn, and James Baxter in my youth...Princess Jasmine was always my favourite and I always used to dream of having my very own Princess Jasmine one day! well miraculously in true Disney tradition I got what I wanted! Though I am far from the calibre of the legendary artists I sighted above I thought id fashion an image in the manner of a Disney princess of my girl! This one is for you princess!

Fist Storyboard Concepts.

2011-07-26T13:23:00.000+01:00

These are a short collection of panels for a personal project.

Sokator 442 trailer (Head of story / project designer )

2011-07-24T21:47:00.000+01:00

Here is the trailer for the movie that I was head of Story and project designer on. I designed all the central characters, developed some of the key locations and was responsible for boarding around 75 percent of the film whilst over seeing the rest. The movie was developed at Zoo group London. Probably the most fun I've had in my career thus far!

Mad Crab!

2011-07-24T17:20:00.000+01:00

This is a concept for a character developed for Zoo group.

Pencil concept artwork for animated feature Sokator 442

2011-07-24T17:16:00.000+01:00

My role on this project was primarily as the head of story and I will release the boards when it is possible to do so. I also was the main character designer and project designer. My good friend Luke Mandie was the art director and we worked closely together on designing environments and key locations for the film. These drawings were pencil sketches I did for the Swamper stadium where the climactic final match takes place. The final design maintained some elements from these sketches such as the pitch resting on the back of two giant mechanical frogs and the substitute benches being the hands of those frogs...I always thought that it would make a great toy!

More Storyboard Artwork from Universal's Tale of Despereaux - Ratworld

2011-07-24T17:02:00.000+01:00

This selection of panels is from my time on Despereaux developing sequences for the Ratworld section. I was on the movie for around a year but spent around six months with the rat world section. There was a song sequence called 'great to be a rat' with a macabre dance sequence which never made the final cut and in the end the thousands of panels I did were condensed in a few small scenes. I am grateful that some did indeed make it to final cut and I had a great experience working on the entire thing.

NINJA GIRL

2011-07-24T16:53:00.000+01:00

A fun concept of a character I am developing for a personal project. She is a homage to all those ninja babes from video games and comics I grown up with. Totally impractical and completely fantastical...but hey that's the beauty of animation!

Storyboard artwork for The Tale of Despereaux The knight battle sequence.

2011-07-24T16:48:00.000+01:00

These are a selection of panels from my sequence from the movie Tale of Despereaux. I did these boards for the Universal pictures release. and they appear pretty much exact in the movie which was very satisfying for me as my other key sequence the troubled 'Ratsong' was cut from the film. I had a great time working on this project - the directors Sam Fell and RobStevenhagen were always very encouraging towards my work and as it was my first venture into storyboard from a life of traditional animation that really helped a lot. Thanks guys I have never looked back!

Conceptual Art

2011-07-24T16:38:00.000+01:00

This digital painting is an exploration of a character I have been playing around with since I was 15 years old...One day may be he will see the light of day but for now he shall continue to keep me busy when i am between projects!.

Icarus

2011-07-24T16:32:00.000+01:00

Character experimentation influenced by the styling of the movie the crow and the anime characters from 'King of Fighters'

Witch Indian style!

2011-07-24T16:24:00.000+01:00

A concept of an evil witch with a dash of Bollywood thrown in!

Police Chief

2011-07-24T16:21:00.000+01:00

A concept for a hard nosed cop!

Mad Scientist!

2011-07-24T16:18:00.000+01:00

This is a character concept I developed for a personal show. As his expressions show he is a maniacal megalomaniac with a little too much brain for his own good!

Old Charcater designs from my days at Trocadero studio

2011-07-24T16:13:00.000+01:00

This selection of drawings are around six years old now. and were done when i was a senior animator at Trocadero Studios In London. The project was titled 'Kid Samurai' and was going to be the flagship production of the new studio. Sadly the studio closed due to lack of funds or some other similar reason. I very much enjoyed my time there, the studio was located in the County Hall building and was literally right next to the London Eye.