Superman/Batman: Apocalypse:

These designs were done for one of the five DC direct to videos that I contributed to while at Warner Brothers.

Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

I've always felt that the interior of Superman's Fortress of Solitude should feel more like a place of sanctuary as well as reflect more of his Kryptonian technology. Maybe you'll disagree, but having a space dominated by giant angular crystals isn't my idea of the ideal place for retreat and relaxation.

Darkseid's fortress.

The open air battle arena on Apokolips.

One view of Wonder Woman's paradise homeland island.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

I only worked at Warner Brothers for a year, but had the opportunity to work on projects that involved my childhood comic book heroes. A lot of fun...

In my initial sketch at the top left, the interior of the Crime Syndicate headquarters lab originally started out as a vertical space with all the equipment located at the top of this space. I thought it would be cool to have the larger elements suspended from the ceiling, allowing the showdown battle between the Justice League and Crime Syndicate to happen below and above the platforms. However, in the design review process Bruce Timm suggested we flop the design 180 degrees and open the staging area for the non flying super heroes. All subsequent revisions were a result of script issues.

This typical corridor in the Crime Syndicate headquarters is an example of an uneventful space that becomes interesting only by utilizing strong shapes and avoiding tunnel vision. I liked how the background framed the very awesome character designs by Emmy award winning Phil Bourassa.

A high security vault. Simple strong shapes help create visual interest.

Jackie Chan Adventures

The TV Animation industry is a pretty small community. And anyone who works in this industry will tell you that it's filled with a lot of characters funnier than the ones that we make cartoons about. At some point you'll inevitably end up working with the same people on another production. I worked on Jackie Chan Adventures in 2003 and currently find myself working on Transformers Prime with a few of the same people you might see below.

Some of the crew members on Jackie Chan Adventures included, Dave Hartman, Therese Trujillo, Jose Lopez, Jeff Kline and Duane Capizzi.

Halloween store from episode 406. Design guidelines for the background style include:

• A controlled freehand line

• No texture

• Maintain proper rules of perspective

• Minimize detail and emphasize shape

• No variation in line width

• Combine shapes as elements recede into the background

• Controlled compositions manages the color that is applied in unregistered blocks of color, creating graphic backgrounds that read casual without being chaotic.

The Boondocks...

I worked on this series for two seasons before preproduction went overseas. Still outrageous and still in production.

In early development for the first season, it was planned that Huey would spend a lot of time reflecting under an old oak tree overlooking the city. As it turned out, this background really wasn't written into the scripts that often.

Exterior of Uncle Ruckus' humble abode.

Site planning diagrams are part of the background design process. It provides clarity for everyone involved in the design process. It allows directors, storyboard artists and the animation studios to better visualize the set and ultimately create a story that flows naturally within this make believe world. The above is a typical diagram that I often try to provide directors and board artists after design meetings and before storyboard handout.

Personally I think designing residential backgrounds is one of the most challenging things to do in animation background design. It may seem pretty straight forward, however everything easily becomes a target for scrutiny because everybody is inherently familiar with correct residential proportions and even details. The above is a close up detail of the Freeman family home driveway.

A typical street view of the fictitious city of Woodcrest. Anybody familiar with this show knows that this idealized suburb is intended to provide a stark contrast to the street wise Huey, Riley and friends. The Freeman house can be seen in the background beyond the tree.

More recently, The Spectacular Spiderman...

With cool character designs by Sean Galloway and great scripts, I think this was the best interpretation of Spiderman to date.

These are very early background designs generated during development. Again, because this is an action adventure show, and Spiderman does interact with the environment; perspective and scale once again become a major consideration. But to soften the look, the overall envelope of shapes will adhere to the correct vanishing points, but incidental details will be less rigid. These color passes are also my effort to introduce a simpler, more graphic background.

Green Goblin battles Spiderman here...

Venom and Spiderman showdown...

Regardless whether I'm working in traditional or CG animation, I will create a floor plan to help me design, help the story board artist visualize and help explain designs to our animation studios overseas.

Cityscape style guide

Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles

Wish I could find more artwork from this very ambitious, ill fated but surprisingly good CG production from 1999...

This was one version of the Valley Forge interior. The characters are based on early rough designs by the prolific Eric Canete.

Klendathu bug nest.

Extreme Ghostbusters. Really old stuff from 1996!

In the beginning, before photoshop, the internet or cintiqs... just Pigma Micron pens and whiteout.

Basement Lab

XGB truck with ghost cannon

Kitchen

Dining room with living and kitchen areas beyond