Saturday, August 22, 2009

Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, pt.1

As you may have noticed, a movie called Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs came out this summer and seems to still be doing very well at the box office. It's animated by the truly incredible Blue Sky Studios and typical of them, they have raised the bar once again. They simply get better and better with every film.
This is now the third in the Ice Age series for which I designed all of the characters and I can honestly say, I never get tired of the process. The thrill of creating these characters begins at the very beginning of pre-production when I am handed a rough outline of the story. I begin thinking about how I might portray the new characters being introduced. This really is the most exciting time in the production for me. Basically, I'm given a blank page and am let loose. So little has been decided upon at this point that there is plenty of room to suggest whatever comes to mind. I spend a few weeks just spitballing. I pore over my books and go to the American Museum of Natural History here in New York and look for inspiration. In the case of the dinosaurs for instance, I simply used the fossil record as a menu and chose my favorite saurians, a la carte. For a character designer, this is pure joy. Essentially my assignment is to have fun and doodle. And that's exactly what I did. At this stage, a character might be chosen by the director (in this case, the great Carlos Saldhana) to develop further and things will begin to move more slowly. Much time will be spent trying to bring that little offhand doodle to life in three dimensions, but more about that in a later post.

Below are some exploratory sketches you may not have seen before , some of which will be included in A Sketchy Past.
I hope you like them.














41 comments:

  1. I love these drawings, Mr. DeSeve! The designs in Ice Age 3 are one of my favorite parts of the movie. Great work.

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  2. Thank you for sharing your process, sir. Your works are really inspiring to me :D Look forward to seeing more of your posts.

    All the best!

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  3. Wow. congrats. your work is an inspiration to all of us.

    Ivan

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  4. Those are great Peter! Nice work my friend!!

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  5. What a great job to have.And from looking at your drawings you certainly earned the right to have it.Excellent,appealing work!

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  6. Yay, you have a blog now! Always a huge pleasure to look at your work. Thanks for sharing, I'll definitely be back for more:)

    -Hans

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  7. wowwowow huge fan of your work, glad you started a blog! these sketches are great! thanks for sharing.

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  8. Welcome to the blogs! Beautiful, outstanding work! Hope you'll continue to update often!

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  10. Hey Peter!

    Thanks for all the inspiration over the years and thanks for posting!

    You're the best! Around!

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  11. Woohoo! It's awesome to see this stuff, those sketches are great!

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  12. I'm so glad you started a blog!! Such inspiring work.

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  13. Mr De Sève, you are my hero.
    Thank you for all your wonderful drawings !

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  14. I discovered you started a blog just now and I'm very glad there will be a chance to "click on" one of my favorite artists once in a while:)
    Ciao
    Francesca
    ps I'll buy the book

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  15. always a pleasure viewing your work Mr. de Seve. Welcome to the blogosphere!

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  16. the master is here...and am a Big fan! i would love it if you could pass through my blog in your free time. :)

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  17. Grats on the blog! Great to see you online posting, I can't wait to see what you share with us. The sketches look great!

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  18. Peter ! Peter ? Why did you burn the Sketchtravel's sketchbook !! whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !

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  19. Peter, you're one of my favorite artists. I've got in my room the New Yorker's cover with little racoon following furry lady...stunning!

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  20. Thanks for sharing those hires drawings, so impressive!

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  21. When you came to my school and showed your drawings as a kid, it was hilarious. I just wanted to thank you for posting!

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  22. Pete, So we are allowed to post our IA3 stuff? Finally got a blog. I'm going to link this one up as well. Fantastic work as always!

    Pete

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  23. I've just heard that you've burned the Sketchtravel book... why would you do such a thing? It's not like you need publicity so there must be something else, right?

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  24. It's great to see your work on a blog, thanks for sharing :)

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  25. Thanks alot for Sharing Pete, You´re the best!

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  26. lucky guy! what an amazing job to have. Thanks for posting this, your work is amazing..

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  27. Ahh great, enegetic lines! Nice to see you're blogging now :D

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  28. I've always been a great fan of your work..glad to see a blog!!!!

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  29. Peter,
    Wonderful start to this new creative endeavor, which features some pretty skillful and heartfelt writing on its own in addition to your always beautiful, unique and extremely accomplished art. Your siblings are proud of you, again, (and of your gifted wife as well!) and, doubtless, so are Mom and Dad.
    -N

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  30. Those are Wonderful!!!
    welcome to blog!!!!!!
    CONGRATULATION!!!!!!!!!!

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  31. wow!!!!!!!! i love your work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!! thankssssss!!!!! you`re the besttttt!

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  32. Peter, it's so great to have you here within the blogging world!! I hope you will all treat us and keep us up to date with all your wonderful masterpieces and process. Always have been inspired by your work--keep it up!!

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  33. From spain, I´m an admirer of your work. I knew you from the Society of Illustrators. Great see your blog!

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  34. Awesome stuff. I like how you include some Background in some of these- different from the animation work that I have seen for so many years!

    I can't wait for your books to come out!

    It was great sketching with you and sharing techniques at Comic-Con his year, I hope to see you soon in NY or at CTN-X.

    Craig Elliott Gallery

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  35. Wow, that Kentrosaurus is one helluva drawing.

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  37. Usually I never comment on blogs but your article is so convincing that I never stop myself to say something about it. You’re doing a great job Man, Keep it up.
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