Story Sketch Buffet
While the focus of this website is to showcase my recent work over the past dozen years, I thought it'd be fun to share a few bite-sized samples of paper boards from earlier projects. These pencil/ink sketches will undoubtedly look crude compared with modern boards created in Photoshop or Storyboard Pro, but that's part of their charm. There were no digital tricks to hide behind. We drew quick and rough, committing to the etched line, imperfections and all.
DreamWorks Feature Animation
Seq. 300 - "Enter Tai Lung"
DRAMA
After the contest to determine Master Crane's replacement in the Furious Five, our team goes back to the temple and laments the lack of viable candidates. This is the calm before the storm, as villain Tai Lung is hidden among the stone carvings of past master, unnoticed by our heroes.
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DreamWorks Feature Animation
Seq. 2500 - "The Muffin Man"
DRAMA
This was a fun sequence where Donkey (Eddie Murphy) has been turned into a majestic stallion and Wolf is seeing him for the first time, as the fairy tale characters look for Dragon to help them out in saving Shrek.
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"The Muffin Man" Script Pages
Ultimately this sequence played out a bit differently from how I boarded it based on this early draft of the script. In the final film, this moment where the gang of fairly tale creatures show up takes place where they rescue Shrek and Donkey from a prison.
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Warner Bros. Feature Animation
Seq. 11 - "Nose Dam"
ACTION
Frank (live action Bill Murray) gets the sniffles, but it's tidal wave size to white blood cell Osmosis Jones and antihistamine pill Drix as the mucus dam breaches inside his nasal cavity. Jones surfs the tsunami of snot, dodging tree-size nose hairs while trying to avoid being dripped out Frank's runny nose.
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"Nose Dam" Script Page
As is often the case with animated feature scripts, big action sequences tend to be minimally written with only vague descriptions, relying on the story artist's imagination to fill in the blanks. With only a couple sentences of direction, I boarded the Nose Dam moment as a life threatening surf for survival.
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DisneyToon Studios
Seq. 31 - "Race Against Time"
ACTION
My assignment was to come up with various modular shots of Cinderella frantically riding a horse through the outskirts of town trying to reach the castle before stepsister Anastasia, disguised as Cinderella, marries the Prince. These were then separated & edited throughout the finale sequence where needed.
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"Race Against Time" Script Pages
With minimal description in the pages, I had to come up with a library of shots depicting Cinderella riding a horse briskly through various terrains. Compared to modern digital storyboards, these ink sketches look rough. But that was the charm of hand-drawing boards, committing to the line, mistakes and all.
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DreamWorks Television Animation
Seq. 0900 (Episode 112: "Rehabilitation")
COMEDY
This one-season primetime show about Sigfreid & Roy's white lions in their Las Vegas revue was DreamWorks' first animated television series, airing on NBC. The timing of this series premiere was unfortunately right after Roy's mauling accident, but the show was a lot of fun to work on.
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Walt Disney Television Animation
Seq. 19 - "Lumpy's Spirit Sag"
DRAMA
After spending the day together, Roo and Lumpy find themselves alone in the forest searching out the mother Heffalump. This sequences was draw with pencil on small Post-It Notes, then Xeroxed up to normal size.
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Meatball Animation/Happy Madison Productions
Seq. 3 - "Patch Song"
SONG SEQUENCE/COMEDY
A fun musical number featuring Adam Sandler singing all three parts: Davey, Whitey, and his twin sister Eleanore. While the full sequence would be too large to display here, I'm providing the beginning and the end sections to give a sampling of my story sketches.
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Seq. 6 - "Technical Foul"
SONG SEQUENCE/COMEDY
A fun musical number featuring Adam Sandler singing all three parts: Davey, Whitey, and his twin sister Eleanore. While the full sequence would be too large to display here, I'm providing the beginning and the end sections to give a sampling of my story sketches.
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"Technical Foul" Script Pages
With minimal description in the pages, I had to come up with a library of shots
