I'm an Emmy-nominated Writer, Director and Storyboard Artist whose works include SpongeBob SquarePants, Samurai Jack, Minions, and The Mighty B! I'm currently a Writer / Director / EP on the upcoming Netflix series Sonic Prime.
I'm an Emmy-nominated Writer, Director and Storyboard Artist whose works include SpongeBob SquarePants, Samurai Jack, Minions, and The Mighty B! I'm currently a Writer / Director / EP on the upcoming Netflix series Sonic Prime.
I’ve started a public account on Instagram so come and follow me @erik.wiese.creative I’ll be posting a lot more in the coming weeks as we get closer to the Sonic Prime premiere. I’ll post some of my storyboards and animation and even some behind the scenes photos. As well as some work from SpongeBob, Samurai Jack, Minions and many more. I hope you’ll also follow me there too.
As threatened, here’s an old Danny Phantom board I found. There may be more in the garage, but this is what I’ve got for now: the first episode, “Mystery Meat.”
I vividly remember boarding this pilot because I’d been over at Cartoon Network doing Samurai Jack, and this project brought me back to Nickelodeon where I met my wife, who was a writer on The Fairly OddParents. (She asked for one of my drawings, I gave her the one below, and then we went on a date.)
My board process for this was very much like what I did on Samurai Jack—I drew small which kept me from getting too detailed while on a deadline.
*(PAPER, PENCIL AND SCOTCH TAPE.)
Well, Emmys season happened and, in true Charlie Brown style, I didn’t win. I didn’t even get nominated. But I’m posting my submission because I’m proud of these boards for “It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown.” By the way, if you haven’t seen this special, directed by Raymond Persi (Extinct; Zootopia, voice of Flash) check it out on AppleTV+.
This sequence, which is the emotional peak of the episode, requires Charlie Brown to chase after Sally, apologize to her, and then reveal the transformation of the baseball field—which Sally learns she herself inspired with her protection of a single dandelion.
The setting drove the staging. I was inspired by a real-life baseball field near my home. Standing on the hillside that surrounds it, I could imagine the grand reveal of the transformed baseball field with Charlie Brown having brought a dejected Sally back to the hilltop for the final scene.
Working back from that, when Charlie Brown accidentally kills the dandelion and a very hurt Sally walks away holding her dead flower, we stay with Sally as she walks down a street under a canopy of beautiful trees; however, as she walks further down, we lose the pleasing green and go darker to reflect her emotional state.
As for Charlie Brown, when he chases after Sally, I shot it so that the audience always sees the light at the end of the tunnel behind him. I wanted to show that behind him is where happiness lies. It’s as if he’s going into the darkness to rescue Sally and return her to something happy and light.
While running for Sally, his hat falls off. He doesn’t stop to grab his hat because Sally is more important to him than baseball. His priorities have shifted.
When Charlie Brown catches up to Sally, she refuses to face him. He has to apologize to her back. I deviated a little bit from classic Peanuts staging here and shot the conversation more like a drama—a two-shot where we’re looking at Charlie Brown over Sally’s shoulder as he tries to explain himself. I wanted the audience to clearly see his effort as well as her move toward understanding in this tense sibling moment.
When they return to the hill looking over the baseball field, I wanted it to feel sort of magical. The sun is setting, the field looks idyllic, and Sally’s dead dandelion opens one more time, completing its transformation and releasing its seeds, the cycle of life up close.
This called for a wide-open shot to get a sense of something larger at stake and to suggest emotional growth for brother and sister as we wrapped up our story.
If you haven’t seen it yet go check it out on AppleTVplus. It’s a beautiful special with a great musical number composed by Ben Folds. You’re gonna love it.
It’s The Small Things, Charlie Brown, Directed by Raymon Persi, Written by Josh Saltzman, Bryan Schulz, Craig Schulz, Cornelius Uliano. Produced by WildBrain.
My TV animation career pretty much started with the SpongeBob pilot, so now and again, I like to stop by Bikini Bottom to see what’s going on. On one of those visits, about ten years ago, I storyboarded an episode called Kenny The Cat, written by my pals Zeus Cervas and Casey Alexander and produced by Paul Tibbit and Vince Waller. Guest voice by Biz Markie (RIP).
After a few inquires on Twitter, I figured I’d upload it for anyone who wants to check it out. Keep in mind that it’s an old-school storyboard that’s transitioning to digital. The panel BGs are a desaturated yellow because we used to draw on Post-It notes and I found it comforting.
You’ll see on the boards some animation and timing notes, which is a little unusual—that’s usually done during charactor layout—but because I started out as an animator I can’t help myself. Does this sometimes alienate people? Oh yes.
Although this particular episode was my first digital storyboard, I drew it traditionally: three panels to a page as we had always done on paper. It had only been a few years since Storyboard Pro came out but I didn’t have the time to learn it and also meet my deadline. Fortunately, the show hadn’t changed over to STBpro yet either, so I did the whole thing in Alias Sketchbook Pro. I really liked how simple and easy the application was to use, and I still use it a lot today.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE BOARD.
It’s over 90 degrees here in Southern California this weekend, the perfect moment to post some refreshing beach scenes from a few of the promotional 2D shorts I directed for Minions: The Rise of Gru, out July 1!
I got to do a range of really cool projects at Illumination, between co-directing a theme park ride (something I’d never imagined), directing international commercials and doing a ton of these 2D Minions shorts, where you’re executing one central gag, a ‘classic’ format I love. I think we made close to 25 of these–I lost count!
The shorts that were released here in the US didn’t include the title cards, so I wanted to share of few of them here. For many of these, I drew the layout with Tidawan and Sophie Crowley, both hugely talented, doing the final color.
Most of them were made back in 2018 in preparation for the Minions: the Rise of Gru release, originally slated for…2020. They were mostly for the Chinese territories, specifically their Migu Internet Cafes, but were later repurposed for the Illumination YouTube channel, where you can watch almost all of the shorts. Some are still to be released.
And because many of the shorts don’t have credits, I want to list them here.
BEACH BALL, Written and storyboarded by Tom King. Backgrounds by Sophie Crowley and me. Title-card by Sophie Crowley and me
CASTAWAY 1, Written by Derek Drymon and me. Storyboard by Jay Lender and me. Backgrounds by Tidawan T. Title-card by Tidawan T and me.
CASTAWAY 2, Written by Derek Drymon. Storyboard by Tom King and me. Backgrounds by Tidawan T. Title-card by Tidawan.
I was cleaning out my dungeon this weekend and I found a small stack of my Samurai Jack thumbnails for the episode “Birth of Aku.” What you see here is old technology: pencil on paper. That’s how we used to make cartoons, kid.
I drew these in 2002. I believe this was my last board before leaving CN to head back to Nickelodeon. It’s a first pass at a sequence when Jack’s father, The Emperor, is held captive in Aku’s dead forest, forced to hear his village being destroyed. His primal scream is heard by the gods, who free him and then extract his spirit to forge the sword that will defeat Aku and later belong to Samurai Jack.
The thumbnails here are not what’s in the final version. What you see here was an idea where the monks from the opening title sequence are gods who can take different forms.
Because the thumbnails are small, I made a quick animatic for you to see. It doesn’t have audio and the timing is rough.
July is right around the corner, which means we’re starting to see the second phase of marketing for the premiere of Minions: The Rise of Gru. So I thought I’d post a short commercial I did in 2017 for the Despicable Me 3 marketing campaign. This one is for the OFO public bikes that used to be in several major cities. This commercial was for a campaign in China; you can see the Beijing skyline in the background.
It was important to the client that we see the skyline, but we didn’t have time to generate Beijing CG environments. Instead, I combined stylized 2D environments with the CG character animation, and I think it came out pretty well. Six Point Harness (6PH) did all the 2D and final comp while MacGuff in Paris did all the CG.
As part of this marketing campaign, thousands of Minions bikes were made and distributed all over China.
Ofo has since gone out of business.
KICK BUTTOWSKI - THUMBNAIL BOARD “SNOW PROBLEM” (PART 1)
Here’s another sample board from Kick Buttowski. This time, it’s the first act of “Snow Problem,” (Written by Derick Dressler & Eric Rivera, Directed by Clay Morrow. Created and Produced by Sandro Corsaro.)
I had such a blast working on Kick Buttowski. It’s not often that you get to work on an action show that has a cartoony look to it with really high standards for animation. Plus you get to draw things like Kick getting chased by an avalanche or riding a flying jacuzzi through a forest! Things like that are usually relegated to anime or feature animation.
It’s The Small Things, Charlie Brown — Official Trailer | Apple TV+
Hey, Peanuts fans! Check out the trailer for Snoopy Presents: It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown coming out on Earth Day, Friday April 22, 2022. I’m so proud to have been Head of Story on this special, which was directed by the incredibly talented Raymond Persi.
We strove to keep the DNA of the classic Peanuts episodes and comic strips, but it was also important to us, the Schulz family and Apple+ to reimagine these new specials for today’s audience. We were heavily influenced by Hayao Miyazaki and Wes Anderson, in terms of composition, staging, and editing, and those influences worked well with the Peanuts aesthetic.
Additionally, our Art Director and Production Designer, Pascal Campion, who’s known for his impressionistic New Yorker covers, gave Small Things a dreamy quality and brought the total look together.
I’ll post a few of my boards soon. In the meantime you can watch the special on AppleTV+ https://apple.co/3NP856T
One last little thing, a wonderful review: https://bit.ly/3aDNQuP