Bad People

My old schoolmate, Michelle Meeker, asked me to take part with 11 other animation artists in her short film "When I Grow Up."

Michelle interviewed young people aged 7-10 years-old about what they would like to be when they grow up, and then interviewed elders to find out that they dreamed of being when they were younger and where life took them. She then gave short sound clips from the interviews to individual animators. Each animator had artistic control over their own piece. The film shows what we dream about becoming as children, and where life really ends up taking us.










I called my section "Bad People", the old woman in the interview talked about her dream of becoming a doctor. But her dreams were taken away by "Very Bad People". She wasn't specific about who the "Bad People" were... but from her accent, and her age... I guessed it to be the Nazi's during WWII ... but in fact I never knew for sure.

Above and Below: My design keys from Michelle Meeker's short film "When I Grow Up."

I wanted to be as vague in my design as the woman had been in her interview. Some of the other artists in the project became upset because of my seeming "lack of research". In fact, I did a lot of research on the uniforms, medical instruments,and architectural style for the piece. But instead of being literal... I chose to create a nightmare. Uniforms that might remind one of SS troops... without being specific. I also wanted the art style to be reminiscent of WWII poster art... but again, to give only a hint of the style... without being too specific to the period.









Ironically, most of these design keys were created at the old Nazi headquarters in Viborg, Denmark. The old fire station the SS had commandeered during the war... which also served for a time as the "The Open Workshop".

"Bad People" was animated in "After FX" at my pal P'Nat's studio...
XHabition

... and here is the official trailer for "When I Grow Up."

Birds Of Thailand

I have wanted to do a series of bird paintings since first coming to Thailand. But I have always been too busy with animation projects to just sit down and do something for "me".
Thus I've decided to give myself a reason to paint, and am putting together an art show called "The Birds Of Thailand." Inviting both local artists, and bird lovers to participate.

It's quite amazing how many different bird species exist in southeast Asia. I am hoping the show will help raise awareness of Thailand's birds, and their shrinking habitats.

All images copyright Tod Polson

Escape Of The Gingerbread Man

Above:Some early test renders and lighting set-ups from Aaron Schmidt, and some of the gang at the Monk Studio.

I was approached by Juck Somsaman, founder of Monk Studio to help develop and train his team in Bangkok through the creation of a short film. As it so happened my friends in Ireland at The Cartoon Saloon approached me at about the same time to create an "Irish themed" short to open "The Secret of Kells" feature they were making. Just seemed meant to be...






































































Above: A small section of the "color script". This board is a combination of quick color sketches, rough 3D renders and more finished backgrounds. The more 3d looking scenes are keyed by going over frames from maya in photoshop.

The main focus of the color script is really making sure the characters read on the backgrounds... and making sure that there is a artistic progression in the film... making sure each sequence and place feels unique from one another... yet still tie together in some way. One of my former students Susanne Olesen came to Thailand for a few months to help paint backgrounds. I've worked some of those back into the script.

"The Escape of the Gingerbread Man" is a personal short film, and the third installment of the "NobleTales" short film series. A series of original stories from around the world... created by my mentor, Maurice Noble, and the group of us fortunate enough to train under him.



















Above: An early sketch by me... inspired by the work of that talented Dub, Barry G. Reynolds.

The short has been funded in part by "The Open Workshop", and the "West Danish Film Fund".

To see more artwork, and go behind the scenes, visit:
Escape of the Gingerbread MAN!!!

The Secret Of Kells

Above: The trailer for the "The Secret Of Kells"... The film was directed by my pal Tomm Moore, co-directed by Nora Twomey, Produced by Paul Young, Art Directed by Ross Stewart, with additional design excitement by Adrien Merigeau.























-Above: A few of my development sketches for Brendan

My main job on "Brendan" was helping set the color... and to a lesser extent help out with development. Originally I was slated to be head of backgrounds... unfortunately there was a scheduling conflict... so my stay in Kilkenny was shorter than expected. But I was able to get through the rough color script, and Tomm and I were able to get in a few good work outs.

I have to say the Brendan team was different than any other I have worked with... they were all "artists" who happened to be doing animation. For example, Producer Paul Young was heavily involved in theater, and writing a comic strip. Art director Ross Stewart could as easily be off painting canvases... or playing music ... as designing film.

Click here to visit: Ross Stewart's Site!

So the approach to making Brendan was totally different than I was used to... the art team wasn't referencing Disney, or UPA, they were just splashing color... blowing paint around... creating textures... looking at ancient illuminated manuscripts... just trying to create something new that fit the story. It was totally refreshing... and in my short time in Ireland... I learned a lot! I couldn't really rely on shortcuts... I actually had to draw! And I have to admit... I was more than a bit rusty. But the approach to the art was simply a reflection of Tomm, and the crew making the film... honest, real, and direct.



Above: More development sketches. I tried to keep "color themes" to the various sequences of the film. For example... the vikings represented death and destruction. So I thought it would be good to use more "primitive color"... the kind of colors a caveman might use... for those sequences.





















Above: A section of the color script for "Brendan and the Secret Of Kells". All the sketches here are based on the storyboard, painted after talking to Tomm, and Ross about the mood and feel of each sequence. The color script is a rough guide for the crew... a sort of "map" for the background artists... fx artists... compositors, and so on. These sketches were completed very early in the process... and you can see how they were used by watching the trailer. It is interesting to me to see what changed, and what stayed the same in the final film cut.

I feel very fortunate to have been a small part of "The Secret Of Kells" ... a very special film, made by some special people... who I am lucky enough to call friends. -tod

The Blog Of Kells! The Cartoon Saloon!

Khan Kluay

Khan Kluay- TV teaser from Tod Polson on Vimeo.

Several years ago Kantana Films asked me to help develop a t.v. show project called "Khan Kluay". The stories were about the adventures of a little Thai elephant that would go on to save Thailand from outside forces.

Being short on time, I designed something very simple and graphic that would be easy to animate in Maya. I decided to make the end of the teaser a series of illustrations... showing less animation, and more of the world of "Khan Kluay".

Above: Early character and color sketches for the t.v. show pitch. Several of these designs are inspired by doodles by the famous Mark Oftedal.

This pitch generated a lot of interest in the project in Europe. Thus the studio asked me to develop "Khan Kluay" as a feature film.

Khan Kluay- Early Test from Tod Polson on Vimeo.

We got some seed money to develop the feature. I was able to bring over writer Ariel Prendergast to help develop the script, and "super artist" Aaron Sorensen, as my co-director. Above is the first test we did with a more 3D look.


I wanted to keep a soft, artsy children's book feel. The studio wanted to make the film look like a Pixar movie... but without Pixar's budget, or experience. This test was my compromise. The rigs weren't finished... and we were still figuring out the background styling... but it was enough for the studio to push forward with production.

I worked closely with Aaron Sorensen on the story and character design, Aaron's style is really graphic and fun... translating well to 3D. It's Ironic that Kantana "let us go" because the character designs were too "western"... after all, the studio hired us to help make the film "international". The designs remained virtually unchanged after we left... and can be seen on t-shirts, cups, and other products throughout Thailand.

In this video clip I explain our basic development process, and present an early trailer to the movie. The trailer at the end of the presentation is "unfinished". My co-director, Aaron Sorensen, and I were only able to make a "first pass" on the animation, texture and lighting... as the studio felt it was "good enough". The sound on the trailer was re-dubbed after Aaron and I left the project.

The two years I spent as the creative director of "Khan Kluay" was a real joy. A small crew of us working together, writing, designing, and researching. The team spent a lot of time "outside" the studio, researching how wild and domesticated elephants live, working with "Mahuts", and animal experts. We also worked closely with historical experts, and even members of the royal family to make sure that we got everything just right.


Here are some samples of the key artwork we generated based on the script. A big thanks to Patchanu Noree and the crew for doing such a great job! Patchanu is an amazing designer, and a good friend, who was able to help translate my vision to the screen. We made dozens of paintings like this describing each major story beat. Spending months designing trees, grass, Thai huts, insects, clouds... trying to give the film a unique feel... mixing Thai and western design. After I left, the studio opted for "realism" in styling... but I think some of the spirit of what we made still remains. Until next time - tod

The Pumpkin Of Nyefar

"The Pumpkin Of Nyefar" from Tod Polson on Vimeo.

"The Pumpkin Of Nyefar" is a personal hand animated short film I wrote with Maurice Noble (Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century and What’s Opera, Doc?) in Turkey, and co-directed with Mark Oftedal (Toy story, A Bugs Life) at the "Wang film studios" in Taiwan, and Bangkok. The film is narrated by June Foray (the voice of Rocky in Rocky and Bullwinkle).




Prince Abadaluh... Named after Maurice's surgeon


The Palace of Nyefar, complete fantasy, but inspired by trips to Turkey and India


Above: Some stills and color keys from the film. Character designs and character layouts by the amazing Mark Oftedal.

In 1994, Maurice Noble began training a group of young designers at Chuck Jones Film Productions. A lot of us were working on our own personal short projects, several of them based on ethnic folktales. Maurice thought it would be a great idea if the group of us could develop a series of shorts inspired by stories from around the world. We called this series “Noble Tales,” and we, his trainees, became known as the “Noble Boys” (which also included a few girls). Many of us traveled around the world and developed and together designed several dozen idea.

“The Pumpkin Of Nyefar” was one short idea Maurice and I wrote while visiting Turkey. Our first morning in Istanbul we came downstairs to the dining room and around the table were twenty belly dancers and a lot of pumpkin dishes. All the girls of course were smitten by Mr. Nobles charm. Ha ha… I can still see him grinning from ear to ear.

Afterwords we talked things over, and decided to write a story about a prince who could marry any beauty in his kingdom, but instead chooses to wait for true love. As fate would have it, the prince finds true love in the form of a pumpkin. While I was supervising a TV show in Thailand, James Wang (Wang Flm) invited Maurice and I to use his Thai studio to make our short. Maurice underwent surgery so that he could make the flight to Bangkok. Unfortunately he died a few weeks later. I came to Thailand a few months later to work on the short myself. But my friends didn’t leave me to do the film alone.

Soon after, my pal Mark Oftedal, came to town for a visit. His short vacation, turned into a several year working holiday. He became so involved with the project, re-working designs, storyboards, editing, setting the animation style, that he became the co-director. It was very much a partnership and it was fantastic working with such a talented fellah. Other friends from America helped out too. June Foray donated her voice to the film. Ben Jones, and Lawrence Marvit both did short stints in Bangkok to help get things going. Sue Kroyer did a lot of inspirational character design as did Roman Laney. Jules Engel looked over a lot of the early design and color. Aaron Sorenson, Dave Marshall, Dave Thomas, and Mike Polvani all donated time to the project. It was really a great collaboration of friends, just the way Maurice had dreamed about: doing a short film together, everything donated, just because they wanted to do it.

Please visit the link below to see the Pumpkin website!!! with more information and artwork! Put together by my friend p'Nat, and her company xhabition -tod

The Pumpkin Website