Animation Development
Between 1993 and 2005 I worked in Hollywood at Klasky-Csupo Animation company as a lead design development artist by heading up as VP of the Creative Services Department. Many projects were made but many more stayed on the shelves.
Here are some…
The Wild Thornberrys
TV series 1998 - 2004, 6 seasons 102 episodes on the Nickelodeon channel. Received 7 awards (Daytime Emmy, Genesis Award, etc.)
These artwork has been the initial development designs for the series. At that point it was called the Animal World.
Brothers Flub or Plex
1997-1998 Created by David Burke and Laszlo Nosek. This project is an exception, it happened before I started working at Klasky-Csupo.
Sunbow Production bought it from us and produced 20 episodes for Nickelodeon Networks. The show's title characters are a pair of alien rodent brothers named Guapo and Fraz, both of whom work as couriers, who travel throughout their universe to deliver packages to a different planet in each episode of the series.
Psyko Ferret
This project became an animated short, that received a Pulcinella Award at the Cartoons on the Bay Festival in Italy, for the design.
It was a plan to do a series, but that didn’t materialize.
Bukowski project
Around 1998 Klasky-Csupo animation studio started developing a feature film dedicated to the memory of Charles Bukowski. Paul Yamamoto represented the Bukowski estate. Bruce Wagner wrote a script based on Bukowski’s short stories and I started developing a visual world for the hero of these novels, Hank Chinaski. I have even met Linda Bukowski a couple of times.
Around the year 2000 when my contract ended with the animation company, my main objective and drive was to renew to work on this feature film. We have created 5 animated shorts entitled The Way the Dead Love. Unfortunately the feature film never materialized. In 2005 Klasky-Csupo went out of business.
These images are some of the development art.
Gesar of Ling
Gesar of Ling was a feature film project initiated by Arlene Klasky for Paramount Pictures. (2005)
I prepared several presentations, it started out to be traditional animation, and later I did 3D animation designs. Unfortunately during this time Nickelodeon Studios already developed Avatar: The Last Airbender, so they passed on this project. (2005)
The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald
A joint, direct to video project with the McDonald’s Corporation in 1998-2003. Redesigned the characers and art directed this project. 6 x 40 minutes episodes were made
Big Rig
A piece of Americana by Arlene Klasky, about two truck drivers who live next door. It was an idea that never flourished.
Journey 2 the West
Another Arlene Klasky project designed to be a 3D animation. It never went to production.
Prison
Another Arlene Klasky project. It never went to production.
Night Crawlers
Another Arlene Klasky project. It never went to production.
Egg Heads
Another Arlene Klasky project. It was planned as a 3D animation. Didn’t happen.
College Town
Another Arlene Klasky project. It never went to production.
Untitled Project
Another Arlene Klasky project. Only the principal characters were designed, it never went to production.
