Here’s a fun ad I did a TINY bit of work on. I only animated two shots: the one where the Elysian brewery is constructed, and the one where the dude lights the jack-o-lantern and then falls into it. It was amazing to see what the paper-craft artists created for this spot.

A few years ago Dlala Studios hired me to do character design on their new Battletoads game. My favorite part of the process is the initial exploration where you just sort of let it fly and see what comes out. I’ll often do 50 to 100 quick designs at this point. Here are a few.

A few more early Battletoads designs. #battletoads #characterdesign #videogames #microsoft #xbox #dlalastudios

Following up on my last posts, these are the model sheets I created for the main characters in Battletoads. These are used to insure the animators and are able to draw the characters consistently no matter what they're doing or what angle we're viewing them from.

Following up on my last post, these are the turnarounds I created for the main characters in Battletoads. These go with the construction model sheets to insure the animators can draw the characters consistently from any angle.

I worked on the stop-motion trailer that kicked off Fortnite Winterfest ‘22 yesterday. I came on toward the end of photography so I only got to animate one stop-mo shot, but I was responsible for all of the hand-drawn vfx throughout the entire piece. youtu.be/kF6KNXODqcw

If you haven’t watched the stop motion animated “It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!” go watch it now. I believe this was the first project I animated on for the Screen Novelties guys. The puppets were super fun to animate and worked well for cartoony action like multiples on the limbs.

Following up on my last post, some behind the scenes pics from "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" #spongebob #christmas “stopmotion #animation #BehindTheScenes

Happy Holidays to all! #happyholidays #merrychristmas

Here’s a little orc dude I recently rigged and animated for a mobile game that unfortunately didn’t get the green light. Characters for mobile are always a fun challenge because they’re often low-poly and the number of joints you can use in the skeleton is limited.

This is another little orc I rigged and animated for the unpublished mobile game from my last post. Super fun to animate even with the limited bone and poly counts required by mobile. #animation #maya #videogames #mobile #creaturedesign #zootoolspro #create3dcharacters

A few somewhat recent drawings from live models. As much as I enjoy life drawing, especially quick-sketch, it does keep you humble. Need to keep practicing… #lifedrawing #practice

A few somewhat recent drawings from live models. As much as I enjoy life drawing, especially quick-sketch, it does keep you humble. Need to keep practicing… #lifedrawing #practice

Here are a few more life drawings with some longer poses thrown in. My proportions do tend to get a bit funky… I definitely much prefer the quick sketch! #lifedrawing #practice

I was hired by a now-defunct game studio to do some superhero character designs for a video game they were considering for development. I’m glad the game didn’t go forward because the concept was feeling too close to the Incredibles universe, but still, these were fun to draw.

Following up on my previous post, here are some more superhero designs. I should note these were all done well before Incredibles 2 came out, where Pixar was clearly having fun with goofy superhero designs and names too. All in all we busted out about 100 of these characters.

These are a few character designs I did for the unpublished mobile game I've mentioned in previous posts. Sadly none of these made it as far as the cg modeling stage… I would have loved to rig and animate some of these! #characterdesign #mobile #videogames #characterart

These are a few character designs I did for the unpublished mobile game I've mentioned in previous posts. Sadly none of these made it as far as the cg modeling stage… I would have loved to rig and animate some of these! #characterdesign #mobile #videogames #characterart

Storyboard - Pencil Test - Final by Mike Dietz ✍️ Not as simple as 123, but we do love a side-by-side comparison! Obsessed with the final animation & we can't wait for you to watch MikedAnim8r's short film. Tickets available at bit.ly/nounsfest while they last ⌐◨-◨

Here's my weird little micro-short that premiered last night at Nouns Fest 🍿 ⌐◨-◨ in L.A. Mine was just one of 50 amazing animated shorts we got to see on the big screen. Big thanks to my collaborator Johnny Knittle for the music and vocals!