odds and ends

tiki torches


graphic that i did some magic voodoo to for the wampa gas station skit


i would like to know where this prop ended up... there was quite a bit of activity going on around me when i was painting it in my computer. i tell ya man, i work with the BIGGEST nerds <3


guitar hero guitars for the seth green and george lucas puppets. made out of that material that is like styrene but is thicker and softer. ack! i can't remember the name. anwyay, both were meticulously carved and sanded to look as identical as possible. YES the whammy bar animates!


got pictures of the paint job only after the shot was animated. only one pictured because the other wandered off to seth's office and didn't make it back, so i was told.

inside the sarlacc pit

this one was a buddy effort between me and teresa. we got skillz and we know how to represent, yo.



the back wall of the pit had soft spots made from stretchy fabric. the set designer made an animateable mechanism that pushed into these spots to give the effect of something moving or being digested behind it. as you can see it was super effective. it actually digested teresa.


you can sort of see the mechanism below. the top is all me and teresa, well what was left of her anyway. lots of chicken wire, fabric, glue and latex made this monstrosity come to life.


i got the BEST photographs of this set.

tatooine set

first set i made for the robot chicken star wars episode III special. this is uncle owen and aunt baroo's house on tatooine. the house started as a salvage from a previous r.c.s.w special. it was just the large dome and square base at first. i added the sections that stick out as well as had to hollow out the inside of the dome which was a solid piece of styrofoam.



the house actually goes below ground so we had to do a few special things to get everything functional such as cutting a hole in the main floor of the set and adding another floor below that for the puppet in the house to stand on. you can't see them in the shot but there are stairs that lead down to the door. that little hole to the right of the door is a control panel of some sort that i made a graphic for.


finished set with a coat of paint from the scenic artist. props (most of them) and side structure are mine as well.


and that concludes the pics of the r.c.s.w III build. i hope you had as much fun looking as i did building :]

the best gift ever

in the spirit of the holiday season! (you'll have to click on it for the larger view)

another diorama. this one was for a friend's birthday. didn't really have a master plan for this one, made a few of the little guys out of extra propoxy i had mixed for things at work and things just organically started to take shape. the case is an old tupperware container :]

a plumbers tale makes it to festivals

unfortunately i don't have any animation stills to upload right now as i am away from home and my external hard drive but the animated short film i was lead animator for, a plumbers tale, has been accepted into two festivals. one in los angeles called the new filmmakers and another in new york i haven't found the name of yet. not bad for a 15 minute film with no sound! or maybe sound was finally put on? i'm not sure but it looks like i'll find out when it screens here in los angeles on january 19th.

tube dudes

first piece of concept art for a new freelance project i am animating. LOVE it when i get to have full creative control :]

robot chicken star wars III

TONIGHT on adult swim! made some sets and props and graphics for this. SUPER PROUD TO HAVE BEEN A PART OF THE PRODUCTION! best cast and crew ever :]

Hoppy Bunny Thanksgiving Dinner Diorama

over the thanksgiving break my grandma, vo, turned 80 and since i thought this was such a grand age to be i made her something a little extra special.

I made the little bunny warren inside an 8.5 x 11 inch wooden frame i got on discount years ago at a wal-mart. i meant to make many different things in this frame at one time or another but it seems the frame was waiting for these little bunnies all this time.

the bunnies are baked super sculpey that were later flocked. the little props were made using super sculpey, wood or styrene. the warren itself is carved hard foam covered with texture and glue. the whole piece took me about 24 hours in total and i couldn't be happier with it :] and my grandma vo loved it, of course. she's my grandma!



























took a pick with a dime in there so you can see just how small the bunnies are. TINY!

los angeles comedy festival I MISSED IT!

FIRST i miss seeing No Naked at the downtown film festival and NOW i find out that i MISSED SEEING IT AT THE LOS ANGELES COMEDY FESTIVAL! UNGH! these festivals are in my neighborhood! i can go to these! but the good news is that No Naked is still touring, and people are still loving it. i discovered it had already screened last saturday morning when i woke up and had an email from someone who really loved it. it's a bittersweet sort of thing. i thought i was going to get an email from the festival people telling me when it was playing. maybe i got it... i do get a lot of emails...

but sitting in a theatre full of people watching something i made makes me all nervous anyway. i know i'm not the only one who feels this way!

anyway, haven't put any links up to it on here in a while so might as well embed it for those who haven't seen it yet, or have seen it and want to watch it again :]

everything is coming up ewok

not so long ago, in a los angeles town not so far away, a drunk letter "T", a short stack of pancakes, a space bear and a wrinkled testicle crash landed their spacecraft into an animation studio. and had an interview.

it was awkward. it was weird. maybe even a little inappropriate at times. but it was good. and with a little luck it won't be cut from the dvd special footage! wuuuu!



being an ewok isn't something you wake up and all of the sudden decide to be. you are born this way. maybe you don't have a fuzzy body and greatly surpass the 3 foot 7 inch height limit, but deep down inside you feel it. we call it "the yub".



sure, i get made fun of sometimes. some people call me the space beargirl, yeah, some call me the gangster of yub. some people call me wicket ~woo wooooo~ cause i speak of the pompitous of space love. and also probably because i dress up like an ewok.



ewok lifestyle! yuuuuuub! ewok 4 life!

fuel tv set elements

had a few more things from those fuel tv spots i wanted to post.

i didn't make all these buildings but i made some of them.


computers for the inside of the spaceship. the set designer laid the groundwork for the set.


i didn't paint the set but here it is all gussied up with my pride and glory, the anal probe


beginnings of the pool for the desert set


it took the better part of a day getting the pool filled out with small pieces of cardboard to make it this shape. tedious but the results were very nice.


cardboard lettering.


the whole set all done and painted up (again, not by me). the set designer did most the work on this one, i just did some of the detail work like the boarded up wall and stone detail in the middle. and the pool, of course :]


didn't manage to take pics of a bunch of the other things i worked on but you get the idea :]

props for fuel tv

here are a few of the props i made at shadow machine for those fuel tv commercials. this first one is a motorcycle. the production designer made the initial frame (mostly from brass tubing. it has to be sturdy for the puppet.) and i did all the fleshing out with cardboard. the wheels and handlebars actually turn!



another cycle with the initial frame built by the production designer that i covered up with cardboard. this one also has moving wheels and handlebars.



a dumpster with an animateable lid.



some sort of space alien table/gurney thing that pinto was tied down to. the table part pivots up and down. that hole in the middle is there for tying the puppet down.



firehydrant with a removable top pipe. in one of the commercials pinto smashes into it and the top pipe opens and water shoots out. i also made the paper cut-out replacement series for that.



bad ass skull.



drum set with animateable cymbals.



animateable gong.



here's a fun one, it's the anal probe! lots of animateable stuff on this guy. the front mechanism rotates and has four claw-like pieces that move, there are some dials and knobs on the side that move and the whole unit is able to pivot on these three jointed arms i made (held up with the help of some armature wire). i was happy to see that the animator was able to get some good results out of all these movable pieces i incorporated.



i am not sure what to really call these. title cards? tags? either way they have the fuel tv name and logo and were placed at the end of each commercial. i made a few different variations of these.

fuel tv commercials

after the production for frankenhole finished up shadow machine had me back to help with a smattering of commercials for fuel tv. we made all the sets and props out of cardboard. it's a really fun medium to work with. i think there were ten commercials in all but all i found online were these five posted by the director. they're pretty fast paced.

CHECK THE LOCKS: FUEL TV ID from Jeff Gardner on Vimeo.

In this FUEL TV ID Pinto locks his keys in the van and smashes a window to get back in.

Created By: Jeff Gardner
Client: Fuel Tv
Production:Shadow Machine Films
Music:Jeff Gardner

ACUPUNCTURE -FUEL TV ID from Jeff Gardner on Vimeo.

This Fuel Tv Id follows Pinto to an acupuncture session, where he gets stuck in the back by his nemesis Santo instead.



Created by:Jeff Gardner
Client:Fuel Tv
Production:Shadow Machine Films
Music:Jeff Gardner

SNOW DUMPING: FUEL TV ID from Jeff Gardner on Vimeo.

In this Fuel Tv ID, Pinto attempts some urban snowboarding and ends up dumpster diving instead.

Created By:Jeff Gardner
Client: Fuel Tv
Production: Shadow Machine Films

SHOCKED & PROBED: FUEL TV ID from Jeff Gardner on Vimeo.

In this Fuel Tv ID our action Sports hero Pinto gets shocked by an electric fence, torn up by a cactus, abducted by a UFO and probed in outer space. That's how he rolls.

Created By:Jeff Gardner
Client:Fuel Tv
Production:Shadow Machine Films
Music:Jeff Gardner

POOL SKATE- FUEL TV ID from Jeff Gardner on Vimeo.

A 10 second Fuel Tv ID of Pinto skateboarding an abandoned mid century modern motel swimming pool then getting torn up by a cactus when he loses it coming off of the vert ramp.

Created By:Jeff Gardner
Client:Fuel Tv
Production:Shadow Machine Films

p.s. downtown film festival I MISSED IT

"No Naked!" totally played at the downtown los angeles film festival ON THE SAME DAY AS THE SHADOW MACHINE ART SHOW and i totally didn't get to go. i could have rushed down there and then rushed back but i wouldn't have had time to shower or put on clothes that were somewhat presentable. sometimes you just gotta let something go. i really wanted to go, too :[

also, i am officially no longer submitting my little short to any more festivals. "No Naked!" has had a good run and now it's time for something new! already got something in the works. need some time to decompress from all this art show and two job business though. this will be the first weekend i have to do whatever i want in a looong time.