DAVE NEEDHAM

Weird Shit!

2012-02-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

It feels like ages since I last posted anything on here.

In fact, I've not really drawn anything for myself except bizarre doodles

in meetings and during phone calls.

This creature started life in one of those meetings..

In other news, I've recently moved to the States!

After a couple of months in LA, I'm now living in San Francisco
and drawing penguins for Dreamworks.

It's pretty great.. I'm boarding on a film starring the penguins
from the Madagascar movies. That's probably all I can say right now,
but so far it's been great fun to work on.

AFX

2011-08-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Mucking about with doodles in After Effects.

Much of this same image was used for Tristan Eaton's 3D book.

Boy and Bear pilot animatic

2011-07-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

This is the full length pilot animatic I directed at Cartoon Network in 2010. It was based on the short film 'Elliot's Zoo' I made the year before.

The premise is that Elliot (boy) shares a cage in a zoo with Alan (the bear)

which they've had to run ever since Elliot's Dad turned feral.

Had it been made into a series, each episode would have been 11 minutes long. The pilot is 13 minutes because it takes an extra couple of minutes to set up the main two characters.

A big thankyou to Tom Parkinson, Matt Layzell and Will Crook for helping me make it.

Here are some of the pages from the show bible showing the character designs:

The design style is 'lumpy', and almost everything has lips.

Cartoon Network recently (finally) put a channel on youtube, where the original short can be seen.
I hadn't looked at it for ages until today, but it was good to see so many positive comments about it on there.

You can check it out here: Elliot's Zoo - Youtube

The reason it wasn't made?

Focus group feedback tells us kids 'have seen talking animals before'.

Yup.

Spirou advert no.2

2011-05-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here's another illustration for Belgian comics magazine 'Spirou', advertising their forthcoming albums.

An ideal opportunity to draw a gnome with a long beard and spindly legs..

And put noses on insects.

Animators Vs Earthquakes Exhibition

2011-04-26T03:45:00.000-07:00

My friend Sylvain Marc is helping to organise an exhibition in aid of 'Artists Help Japan', a charity created by Pixar's Dice Tsutsumi. The opening night is on Saturday the 7th of May at Cafeand, 77 Redchurch St, Shorditch, E2 7DJ, from 7pm. You'll be able to bid on prints and original art from a plethora of fantastic artists.

You can check out all the work on the exhibition blog here.

Naked Panda!

2011-04-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a packaging design job I did for New Zealand based company, Dow Design.
They wanted a character designing for a new product called Naked Panda.

Naked Panda likes to eat noodles. Naked Panda does not like to wear clothes.

The Naked Panda is in stores across New Zealand now.

Spirou Spring Books Advert

2011-03-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here's an illustration for this months Spirou magazine, advertising some of the new titles available this spring. Below are some images from the process of making the final illustration.

This was my first rough

Next, Etienne the art director made his thoughts clear

Then I sketched out my version

I got started on the background

A bit more colouring in

And the final illo

Bibendum

2011-03-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

A few years back I was asked to take a look at reinterpreting the Michelin Man, Bibendum. One of the aspects of the brief was to imagine Bib as if he was being designed for the first time today.

The reason the Michelin Man looks the way he does is that back in 1898, bicycle tyres
were white. My reasoning was that if you were designing a character out of tyres today,
he might look more like this..

You can check out Tristan Eaton's 80's Hip Hop version of Bibendum here.

Ey up, lad!

2011-03-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

This is based on the area where I grew up. Near Bingley in West Yorkshire..

(click for larger image)

LEE MOFO

2011-03-06T05:09:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, my friend Lee asked me to design a business card for him.
Lee's a photographer. He mainly shoots girls. I said 'ok'.

I started off making a graphic version of Lee's tag.

Next I had a go at drawing over one of his photo's; A pair of stripy legs
Then I inverted the drawing, and added a clean font.

I added the 'Tag' lettering to one of Lee's photo's, and made a drawing over it in photoshop on the Cintiq.

Finally I made this one just cropping in and re-using bits I had already made:

When I showed them to Lee, he said 'It looks like I do drawings.'

I agreed.

Then, if I remember rightly, we went to the pub.

Spirou 'Le Petite Gazette De L'Insolite' Cover

2011-02-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

This months Spirou has just been released, featuring a pull out section with work from Chris 'the Hobbit' Garbutt, Sylvain 'the Elf' Marc and Alan 'the Maiden' Kerswell, all former work pals at the Cartoon Network Studio. A big 'Merci' to Etienne Gilfillan for allowing us total freedom to produce the images and comics we wanted. The theme was all things Fantasy.

Here's a few close-ups:

And here's the full cover

Elliot's Zoo Short

2011-01-31T06:49:00.000-08:00

Elliot's Zoo from Dave Needham on Vimeo.

Here's a short film I directed when I worked at the Cartoon Network's European Development Studio. This was made late 2009, and I went on to make a full length animatic based on this idea. 6 short pilots were made that year, but none of them were ever aired or put up on the web.

Now i've left CNW, I can finally show it to people! A big thank-you to everyone who worked on the project, including - Tim Bjorklund, Kwok Fung-Lam, Rich Wake, Matt Layzell and Lee Gingold

Copyright Cartoon Network 2009

3D Art Book

2011-01-26T01:01:00.000-08:00

I was asked by Tristan Eaton to contribute a piece for his 3D Art Book project.
Tristan is the founder and creative director of Thunderdog Studio's, and the designer behind the Dunny and Munny vinyl toys. There's work by 100 artists from Jon Burgerman to Shepard Fairey all turned into retro 3D - the type you need the red and blue glasses for, and it's just gone on pre-order at Amazon.

Godspeed

2011-01-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

Must be really really fast..

Fortean Times

2011-01-19T04:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a cover I did toward the end of last year for Fortean Times Magazine. Nice chance to do some photomontage of an old haunted house.

Monsters Inked!

2011-01-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

These guys were created for an exhibition called 'Monsters Inked' at IG gallery in Shoreditch, London.

His Imperial Majesty the Great King Wah-Wah

Mick Yeti

Cyclopzilla

Krab King

Sid Lizzard

Monster Battle

'SURVIVE'

2011-01-17T03:48:00.001-08:00

This is a print I designed for an exhibition up at Leeds Metropolitan University last March. The theme was 'Survive', and the exhibition was to support a conference on making a living out of illustration.