Team Zissou & The Princess Aurora

Here's a post about two of my favorite films. Last week we went to Disneyland and I got a picture with my favorite princess from one of my favorite Disney films - Princess Aurora. I dunno, I think I like her animated better.... and I don't remember asking her to make that strange arm gesture.


Also, a couple of months ago, I became obsessed with finding some authentic Team Zissou shoes from my favorite Wes Anderson film, "The Life Aquatic." I quickly realized -THAT was not gonna happen and decided to make my own. Finding any Adidas ROMS at a decent price is impossible, so I settled for ITALIAS, and with very little altering, came up with my own. I made a pair for Pam for Christmas too, I think they turned out pretty good.

Righteous! Music

Here are some audio files to enjoy from the new Righteous! Game as recorded by The Bryan Beach Quartet. I arranged some jazzy numbers based on a few LDS primary tunes as well as writing some original content for the main menus of the game's DVD.

1. B.O.M. Stories

2. Nephi's Courage

3. Search & Samba

4. Bachelor Dad

Righteous!

In May of 2006 my friend/co-worker Dave Thompson and I concepted and designed a DVD board game similar to that of Scene It. Ours is an LDS themed game based on The Book of Mormon. We were able to license it to Deseret Book and a year and a half later it is finally on the store shelves. - or rather - will be on Monday Oct. 22 2007.

We're of course excited to see some fruits of our labor. The concept was basically Dave's idea that I ran with. There's an adjustable game board, game pieces, dice, cards, and of course, a DVD. The DVD has music, animation, picture puzzles, animated word puzzles, etc. etc. This was a huge undertaking for the two of us, especially considering there's no guarantee the game will sell well. But I had a lot of fun developing and creating aspects of the game.

I illustrated/designed the box, game board, characters, cards, and all of the illustrations for the DVD puzzles. I composed and recorded the theme music for the DVD, playing all instruments and arranging LDS Primary standards in a jazz combo style. And I even did a bit of character animation of the Nephi cartoon in the main menu. Animation is definitely not my forte, but it was fun to do a little of it. Here's a little Low-Res sample of the DVD menu:



Dave concepted most of the interactive DVD games as well as programmed and designed them. He did all of the effects and 3D animation. He and his wife, Natali, wrote and figured out all of the DVD questions, and he designed all of the DVD menus and how the DVD would actually work (that was a headache).

We even got Pam to record the music for the "Name that tune" section and her brother-in-law Mike Moore to write all of the questions for the cards (no easy task). They all did a really awesome and top notch job!

Anyway, the game will be on sale on Monday in any Deseret Book brick and mortar store for about $35. It has already been on sale through their website for the past month or so and think they're offering it for %15 off.

Here is some of the artwork and multimedia I did for it:





The company we formed is Peculiar People, here is the logo I designed - Yes - that's me and Dave respectively.

Take that Wells Fargo!

Circles & Squares Animation is working with Mark Swan Animation on a commercial for a local St. George Bank. They're doing a little spoof on Wells Fargo and I got to design the western backgrounds and stage coach. This was a lot of fun. It'll be exciting to see the finished animation.

Something for a Friend

Here's the latest article I illustrated for the Friend Magazine.

The Secret Evening

Here's a series of pieces I started called "Secret Evening," there's actually supposed to be 10 pieces, but I only managed to finish 7 before something else came up.......so I guess it's a cliffhanger.

These ones are entitled: The Players, The Plan Hatch, The Crime, The Interruption, The Briefing, The Counter Attack & The Confrontation.

More Pig Places

I've been working on a bunch more backgrounds for the second season of Pig Tales lately. These are from an episode called "RobinHog."

Beijing Backgrounds

Here are some Backgrounds I've been working on for Circles & Squares Animation. They are doing a cartoon short about Faux Paw the internet safety cat at the "Animal Games" in Beijing. I believe this is the third Faux Paw film they have worked on.

Another Friend

Here's another illustration I did for The Friend last week.

Running on Empty

Yeah yeah, stupid puns are just lazy writing, but I'm not very clever. I'm really falling behind on this blogging stuff. I've been extremely busy over the past month as well as going out of town. I have been working on lots, just not posting it. Here's something I did for The Friend last month.

I've been kinda busy 5

I've also been doing some freelance work for JDH group. Last year they did some stuff for Xango's big annual event and they had me do a bunch of illustration for them. This year, they are trying to get a jump on the project and are in the process of bidding for it. They had me prepare some stuff to use for their pitch. Xango's theme this year is "Invasion" so I came up with a bunch of retro themed britsh invasion type stuff as well as space invasion ideas. I used some of JDH employees' heads for some of the characters here rather than the actual characters from shows like: Lost in Space and Star Trek. This was a lot fun, I hope they get the project so I will have a chance to do more for the event.

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Last weekend, our neighborhood wanted to do a block party. I organized my old college band to perform for it. We called the event: The Annual Block Rock. Hopefully we will actually do it annually, it was pretty fun.

When I was in college, I had band called Jogan Janes. We performed fairly actively for about 4 years and recorded two albums. The first incarnation included a female lead singer named Becky. She decided she was ready to move on after a couple of years and we decided we were interested in playing a bit more aggressive music that she didn't quite fit. I think she's gone on to be in a number of acoustic, electronic, and experimental bands.

It was fun playing with her, but we really hit our stride after she left. We had a good time performing in lots of clubs and bars around the Salt Lake area. Evetually, everyone got married, had kids, started careers, moved away etc. and we basically broke up. I decided to concentrate on piano and really got into jazz music for a couple of years and decided it was time to start performing again. I formed a new jazz band with my old college drummer Corey and new bass player Van, who ended up marrying my sister in law. We are called the Killjoy Trio and perform pretty regularly for weddings, art shows, and upscale gigs around the valley. It's been a lot of fun getting into jazz and learning new things and having the simplicity of a trio, but it's also fun to rock every once in a while. Jogan Janes is all back in Utah now, so we get together to jam a couple of times a year for fun, and when this gig came up, we thought it would be a good chance for a rock reunion. We invited Van to play with us as well and all had a great time- even our old buddy Drew came to mix the sound! We played about half Jogan Janes originals and half covers. Here's the lineup: John Barnard-Guitar/Vocals/Keyboard, Corey Hyer-Drums, Bryan Beach-Vocals/Guitar/Piano, Van Hoover-Guitar/Bass, Ryan Buttars-Bass/Guitar. Here's some photos of the event, some of us are a little fatter and a little balder, oh wait, that's just me.

I've been kinda busy 3

Cirles & Squares Animation is working on some stuff related to the Beijing Olympics. These are designs for the Beijing Background and a Rickshaw. I think I know a guy named Rick Shaw. I also think the cultural specialist for the project was frowning upon the use of a rickshaw, so it probably won't get used, but it was fun to design anyway.

I've been kinda busy 2

Here's an Illustration The Friend had me do, I believe it's for a poem.

I've been kinda busy 1

The last month or so, i've been kinda low on "freetime" mostly being extra busy at work, several freelance projects, and organizing/playing band engagemnets. I haven't had much time for Toon Club, but things have settled down for a bit, so maybe I can get back into it next week. Here's a bit of what's been going on.

Pigs wearing clothes. We're doing a new season of Pig Tales at FFFF and I've been designing and art directing it. The first episode has to do with fairy tales and so the characters will be dressed in costumes. Here's some designs.

Long Distance Romances

This week's Toon Club topic is "Ancient Egypt." I wanted to portray the long distance romance of Marc Antony and Cleopatra. Back in 1999 my wife and I were dating and partying like it was 1999. One of our first dates was to a Halloween party when we dressed up like Marc Antony and Cleopatra. Just like the real couple, we had our own long-distance relationship. Although we didn't travel from Rome to Egypt to see each other on the weekends, (more like several hours) the distance didn't seem so far because we were in love. Aaaaaahhh.





Here's a picture of our date! As you can see, we were MUCH better looking than the real Marc Antony and Cleopatra..... We're even MORE attractive now!

A cleaner, simpler, more mono-toned time.

Here's some illustrations I recently did for a series of short stories about a kid growing up in the 50's and his Idahoan experiences.

Zions Bank Jr.

Last year, Richter 7 had me do a bunch of illustrations for Zions Bank. It was an online animated flash game called Cash Back Boulevard. Last week they wanted a matching bumper page for a website called Zions Bank Jr. This is the outcome. It has the same feel as Cash Back Boulevard, but is not animated, not a game, and is a bit brighter. What a boring explanation that was.

Pile of Posts

Here's some of my Toon Club posts from the past few weeks. You've probably already seen them, here they are again. The topics were: King Kong, Water, & The land before time.