Sunday, March 05, 2006

CORPSE BRIDE

Some of the storyboards I did while working on the film in late 2003/early 2004.







































Thumbnail boards.




Below are some sketches & studies that I made from films & paintings I thought were appropriate reference.


27 comments:

Boris Hiestand said...

positive:
you've got a sweet sense of composition man- also, the simplicity of the drawings(the shading helps) makes it all very clear and beautiful to read- leading audience's eyes to where you want.
negative: so many close ups!
I actually remember the film had way too many close ups resulting in strange cuts and some things difficult to follow. I thought it was because they wanted everyone to see all the amazing detail of the models(?) would be nice to hear some stories from your time on the picture.
Animated films these days are so dialogue driven that it's difficult to know what's happening without the sound. I have no idea what's happening here story wise.
I remember the old disney storyboards were always so clear to read- you knew exactly what was going on, even if it was a dialogue sequence. Remember that bit in the jungle book where baloo is talking to bagheera about having to let go of the kid? I think that was Bill Peet- feckin amazing stuff. All the body language was there. Now a lot of times all you see in boards are cool 'poses'.

I'm going on too long- would be nice to get some drinks this week and talk about that.
This is some nice looking stuff though! I'm jealous of your experiences!

Miras said...

Nice work. I won't discuss the "film side" of this storyboards, cos' (hard to believe even for me) I haven't seen it yet... But drawings for drawings sake are great. And story telling isn't bad too. Even without the dialogues. I just follow the pictures as I do watching silent movies. Actors always move their lips for ages and ages, and then you get one screen with two lines of dialogues on it. :-D And I don't mind it.

Elliot Cowan said...

On my return I will provide comments and critism on every single panel, starting with the last and working my way up the list until the middle, whereby I return to the top drawing and continue my commentary back down to the middle.

Unknown said...

Yeah...beauties!!! In some way i prefer the thumbnails.
Ill be down soon, been busy on my reel...hence the inability to draw or blog anything new. I want to get a batch together rather than just a sketch here ot there, so i hope that SLIGHTLY excuses me....and im still in the club!!! haha...see you soon.
one lazy bastard.


p.s...seen dream on yet? Ordered my copy last week.

Unknown said...

THanks for posting these!! WOW!! SOOOO great to see these developement arts!

Luca Tieri said...

Tnx for sharing your work. Cool! The thumbs are awesome!
-L

CosasEnEstereo said...

wow u are so great thx for post those pictures.... i really a big fan or your work...:P

J said...

Awesome Matt. Loving those thumbnails.

Jenny Lerew said...

Nice work! I love the thumbs best as well. Can't help it--I always respond to the roughest stuff. : )
Did you by any chance do the finished panels on a Cintiq tablet(it's what I'm using now, and it looks as though you are also working on one)?
We've also had Carlos design on the film I'm on now, and we have Alex McDowell as production designer--small world!

MikeS said...

Matt, great compositions in the panels. Nice to see your work from the film, seems like it would have been a great project to work on.

I have to admit that like everyone else, I do love the thumbnails the best; that's where the ideas start forming, isn't it? I love thumbnailing and getting out those gut feelings down on paper, only to scrutinize them later and make the sequence work better. It seems (and I know you didn't post all of the panels) that you made some changes from the thumbnails to your final board (angles and compositions). Subtle ones.

Thanks for sharing them, Matt.

Daswell said...

Lovely stuff you got here. Cant wait for your next entry.

Unknown said...

Great stuff, Jonesie!

I think I saw some of those sequences being filmed when I went to the set... Woo!

Carlos Ruano said...

Mr Matt I'm one of a lot of fans that you must have. I'm so glad to see this blog, thankyou.

alberto mielgo said...

Oi man! Great to see you yesterday.
I'll go to Candem one of those days to meet Boris, so it could be great to see you again.
The little thumbnails deserve a close up for sure!They are great.

Oscar Grillo said...

Dear Matt...It was great to chew the fat with you yesterday! Great and estimulating conversations and oodles of passionate ideas. We should met with the gang again as soon as possible!

Oscar Grillo said...

Please..Ignore the "e" in "stimulating"...My dago mind in action again!

the doodlers said...

Holly mackarel it's been too long since we dropped in, look at all this neat stuff to see! Beautiful Corpse bride work. I did however have some issues with the film- kinda agree with Boris about the close ups... but I'm getting the feeling that this is not the entire seq. that you posted... did you leave out some of the connecting shots?

The roughs are classy. Looks like you had a ball doing these.

yoborob said...

thumbs.........up!

Matthew Cruickshank said...

So is this the standard of execution that you had to hand in, or were there rougher versions? I mean, were the thumbnails approved and then you worked back over them, or have you taken some personal time to finish them off to this exceptionally high standard?

I really like them by the way.

Matt Jones said...

OK everyone, thanks so much for the interest & thanks to DRAWN! for the heads up. Some of you have realised that the seq. I've posted isn't in its entirety - there are linking panels missing, hence the abundance of close-ups. This seq. was particularly tricky as it has almost all the main characters in it, all talking in a pretty dull, Victorian interior. It had already been boarded when I did my run then it was re-worked after me too. It was quite a challenge to keep this sequence interesting.

The STORY was changing so much while we worked on it that we were instructed to leave our boards simply as blue-line sketches. Those I've presented here were jazzed up after the fact.
Working on the film for the brief time I did was a mixed experience - seeing the impressive sets first hand was a dream come true for me as 'Nightmare Before Xmas' is my favourite animated film. Also seeing Carlos Grangel's amazing sketches & designs for the characters was inspiring. There are many that didn't make it into the film, there could be a book just on Grangel's drawings alone. He draws them all on the back of folded out cereal packs - & ONLY one certain brand apparently. His model sheets would even show the folds & the sides of the boxes flattened out.
However, the film's story was never really resolved & many artists were thrown at it over a 2 year period of boarding. The finished film is indeed gorgeous but I felt it was let down by the story. It certainly didn't have the charm of 'Nightmare'.
Highlights for me were Christopher Lee as the Pastor & the scene near the end where the camera tracks along the long banquet table as the dead rise up behind the living - stunning shot.

Matthew Cruickshank said...

Jesus, just answer my question............

bla said...

AWESOME...just AWESOME!
Man, thanx for sharing, I really like seeing this stuff! I'm linking it to my page ;)

Ale StopMotion

Gary Cherrington said...

Hey matt nice to see your panels at last, richard told me you'd worked on corpse bride when i was working there. Especially like your version of finnis, somewhat more sinister.

Ben Mantle said...

great picture of victoria looking out the window, lines are beautiful, so simple, but she looks so good, the shading is a thing of beauty!

Matt Jones said...

Thanks fellas, I believe I was at 3 Mills just before you guys? Hope all is well down in Brighton & keep blogging. Good luck with the next Eurovision theme

bessynews said...

Wow you did that drawings it is amazing! I am a film student at Calarts where Tim Burton is an alumni as character animation. It would great to meet with you if you in california:)

Jamie Iles said...

I really enjoyed viewing your storyboard as I am an aspiring storyboard artist myself, and am studying animation in Bristol.

I'd love to have a chat with you one day about some of your storyboards in person as I noticed you work in Bristol.