Story Sketch Gallery
While the focus of this website is on showcasing my recent work over the past dozen years, I thought it would be fun to share some samples of paper boards from earlier projects. These pencil and ink sketches will undoubtedly look simple compared to modern digital boards, and that was the point. The panels needed to read clearly from across the room during a pitch. With no Photoshop tricks to hide behind, we drew quick and rough, committing to the etched line, imperfections and all.
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DreamWorks Feature Animation
Seq. 300 - "Enter Tai Lung"
DRAMA
After the contest to determine Master Crane's replacement in the Furious Five, the team goes back to the temple and laments the lack of viable candidates. The way we storyboarded on a lot of DreamWorks productions was to draw thumbnail size and then enlarge the panels on the Xerox machine for the pitch.
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Seq. 425 - "Po Returns Home"
DRAMA, COMEDY
A battered-and-bruised Po makes his way home from martial arts training as Master Shifu inserts acupuncture needles in his back (changed to Master Mantis in the final film). These are the kinds of sequences I love to board: engaging dialogue punctuated by physical humor that underpins the character's emotions.
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DreamWorks Feature Animation
Seq. 1200 - "Fiona Gets The News"
DRAMA
Staying at the castle in the Kingdom of Far Far Away, Fiona awakes to discover Shrek has left after reading about her teen crush on Prince Charming in her diary. Meanwhile, King Harold hopes Fiona will come to her senses and leave Shrek for the more suitable Prince. This is an early version of the sequence that I boarded.
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Seq. 2500 - "The Muffin Man"
DRAMA
An unrecognizable Donkey (Eddie Murphy), having been turned into a majestic white stallion through a magic potion, arrives at the castle lair of his wife Dragon hoping to recruit her into helping break Shrek out of prison. Instead, he and the fairy tale characters find the Wolf housesitting and Dragon gone.
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"The Muffin Man" Script Pages
Ultimately this sequence played out much differently in the film than in this early draft of the script. The "Do you know the muffin man" moment now takes place when Pinocchio rescues Shrek, Donkey and Puss from the dungeon after lowering himself down by his strings in a spoof of the iconic "Mission Impossible" stunt.
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Warner Bros. Feature Animation
Seq. 11 - "Nose Dam"
ACTION
Frank (live-action Bill Murray) gets the sniffles, but it's a tidal wave 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 of Frank's runny nose.
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"Nose Dam" Script Page
Often in animated scripts big action set pieces are written with minimal stage direction. That's when the story artist's imagination fills in the blanks. For the Nose Dam sequence, I boarded "Ozzy and Drix run down the massive tunnel of the nostril" as a breakneck surf for survival. Cowabunga Dude!
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DisneyToon Studios
Seq. 31 - "Race Against Time"
ACTION
Anastasia steals Fairy Godmother's magic wand and reverses time in order to undo the events of the first movie by deceiving Prince Charming into marrying her disguised as Cinderella. In this sequence, the real Cinderella frantically rides a horse into town to try to stop the sham wedding and set things right.
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"Race Against Time" Script Pages
My assignment was to come up with kinetic moments depicting Cinderella racing her horse through various rugged terrains. While the script only briefly describes this action, director Frank Nissen wanted to have a library of modular shots to choose from while in editorial to weave throughout the film's climax.
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DreamWorks Television Animation
Seq. 0900 (Episode 112: "Rehabilitation")
COMEDY
This primetime series about a family of white lions in Siegfried & Roy's Las Vegas revue was DreamWorks' first animated TV show, airing on NBC in 2004. Here Kate discovers Larry has been slipping her grumpy father Sarmoti his pain medicine wrapped in meatballs, causing Sarmoti to be euphoric and sweet.
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Walt Disney Television Animation
Seq. 19 - "Lumpy's Spirit Sag"
DRAMA
After spending the day together searching for the Heffalump mother in the Hundred Acre Wood, Roo and Lumpy end up playing in the mud as a diversion. Little do they know Pooh and Piglet are laying a trap for the Heffalump creature, which they incorrectly believe to be a horrendous monster. Oh, bother...
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Meatball Animation/Happy Madison Productions
Seq. 3 - "Patch Song"
SONG SEQUENCE/FANTASY
While this sequence does appear in the movie, it was greatly shortened for time. It's Whitey's "I Want" song, and was
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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
Storyboarding song sequences always demand a higher level of planning. On Eight Crazy Nights I boarded several songs, but "Technical Foul" was the most complex, particularly when Davey, Whitey and Eleanore all sing different choruses simultaneously as the camera rotates 360 degrees around them.
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Hanna-Barbera Cartoons
"I Am Franken-Weasel"
COMEDY
I Am Weasel is the first television series I ever worked on, and is a great example of the types of storyboard-driven shows that came out of Hanna-Barbera in the 90s. Creator David Feiss put a lot trust in the storyboarder's comic sensibilities, and mine are spewn all over this episode.
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I Am Weasel – Cemetery (Final Episode)
Fox Television Animation
"Failure is not a Factory-Installed Option"
COMEDY
This episode, paired with "Scaredy Pants", made up the very first SpongeBob Squarepants Halloween show in Season One. I storyboard the first half and my partner Chris Mitchell storyboarded the second half.
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Nickelodeon Animation Studios
"I Was A Teenage Gary" (original working title: "Critical Condition")
COMEDY
This episode, paired with "Scaredy Pants", made up the very first SpongeBob Squarepants Halloween show in Season One. I storyboard the first half and my partner Chris Mitchell storyboarded the second half.
Click Storyboard Grid to View Split-Screen Sequence PDF
Click PLAY to View Aired Episode
"I Was A Teenage Gary" ("Critical Condition") Outline Pages
SpongeBob SquarePants was a storyboard-driven show (as opposed to script-driven), meaning that our two-person storyboard teams used the writer's original outline pages as a jumping off point, reworking and rewriting the episode premise until series creator Stephen Hillenburg gave his seal of approval.
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Click Outline Pages to Enlarge
