After completion of "Batman: The Brave and the Bold", I worked on the animated adaption of Frank Miller's classic, "The Dark Knight Returns". The DVD movie will be released in two parts. This is a first for the Warner Bros DTVs. My part of the production was to color script the entire movie. This (I believe) is also a first for the Warner Bros DTVs. I think fans of the book will be very pleased with the finished product. And no, I case you were wondering, the character on this door sign is not from the new DKR DTV, but from an old "New Adventures of Batman" episode
The project I worked on after that has yet to be announced, but I can say that I'm working again with Brave and Bold producer James Tucker. When it's announced I will post it on my new blog:
billdunnanimationpaint.blogspot.com/
It will have animation backgrounds and development art that I did for other shows and DTVs.
This is the "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" background paint blog. I will be posting at least one background painting I did for each episode of the series in chronological order.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Post show thoughts.
I hope this blog was able to give you an idea of what it was like on the production and that it was at least a little interesting and/or entertaining. Also, I hope the fun we were having was apparent on the screen.
The benefit I have from doing this for awhile is you can recognize when you're on a show that is going to be something special, you can enjoy it - while your in it. Two months into Brave and Bold, I remember saying to another person on the crew, "Enjoy this. Know you're having a great time now, instead of looking back on this time and wishing you realized what a great time it was". It was a tough gig, but one of the best ones I ever had and I think the rest of the crew pretty much feels the same way. We were/are all very proud of work that was up there. When people would tell us that they watch our show with their kids and how much it meant to them that they can share the characters they grew up reading with their kids, there was/is no better feeling. One of the things that James Tucker said when we were finished with the show was, "I can't wait to see what kind of shows that the kids who grow up watching our show make" . I just hope by that time, they'll give a broken down old man like me a painting gig.
Anyway, the last line in our final episode is as close as the crew gets to talking directly to our audience (and also to the next crew that is going to make the next Batman cartoon). So with that:
Thanks for letting us in to your living rooms for the last three years!
P.S. - Even though the show has ended, I will post any future updates that may come up about Brave and Bold (DVD releases etc.). Who knows...maybe in a few years we'll make a comeback? Teen Titans did!
The benefit I have from doing this for awhile is you can recognize when you're on a show that is going to be something special, you can enjoy it - while your in it. Two months into Brave and Bold, I remember saying to another person on the crew, "Enjoy this. Know you're having a great time now, instead of looking back on this time and wishing you realized what a great time it was". It was a tough gig, but one of the best ones I ever had and I think the rest of the crew pretty much feels the same way. We were/are all very proud of work that was up there. When people would tell us that they watch our show with their kids and how much it meant to them that they can share the characters they grew up reading with their kids, there was/is no better feeling. One of the things that James Tucker said when we were finished with the show was, "I can't wait to see what kind of shows that the kids who grow up watching our show make" . I just hope by that time, they'll give a broken down old man like me a painting gig.
Anyway, the last line in our final episode is as close as the crew gets to talking directly to our audience (and also to the next crew that is going to make the next Batman cartoon). So with that:
Thanks for letting us in to your living rooms for the last three years!
P.S. - Even though the show has ended, I will post any future updates that may come up about Brave and Bold (DVD releases etc.). Who knows...maybe in a few years we'll make a comeback? Teen Titans did!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13 "Four-Star Spectacular!" Directed by Ben Jones.
Well, this is it. The 65th episode of "Batman: The Brave and the Bold". By the end of most shows. The work load usually tapers off a little because of the amount of "reuse" that has been accumulated by the end of that shows run. That...so didn't happen on B&B. In fact we were probably more busy on episode 65 than we were on episode 1.
There were a couple of things that made this episode different from the others. First, instead of having an opening teaser with a main story after the title sequence, this episode was all teasers. This was an idea I remember James Tucker talking about in season 2 and it looked like we were never going to get the chance to do it until we heard we got a pick up for a 13 episode season 3. The second thing that made this episode different was that episode was going to be written by the storyboard artists.
These backgrounds were for the Adam Strange segment of the episode. This segment was written and storyboarded by Matt Youngberg.
NEXT WEEK: Post show wrap up!
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13 "Four-Star Spectacular!" Directed by Ben Jones.
The Adam Strange segment generated the most amount of new backgrounds since the Kanjar Ro character kept zapping from one alien planet after another. Most of these backgrounds were on the screen for a few seconds each.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13 "Four-Star Spectacular!" Directed by Ben Jones.
More new backgrounds for the Adam Strange segment of the episode.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13 "Four-Star Spectacular!" Directed by Ben Jones.
Yup. You guessed it, even more backgrounds painted for the Adam Strange segment of the episode. I didn't even post all of the ones we sent here.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13 "Four-Star Spectacular!" Directed by Ben Jones.
These backgrounds were for the 'Mazing Man segment of the episode. This segment was written and storyboarded by Stephen DeStefano who co-created the 'Mazing Man character. I think this is probably the first and only time a creator of a character got to write their own character for a Brave and Bold episode.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 13 "Four-Star Spectacular!" Directed by Ben Jones.
These backgrounds were for the Creature Commandos segment of the episode. This segment was written and storyboarded by Adam Van Wyk.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 12
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 12 "Crisis: 22,300 Miles Above Earth! " Directed by Michael Goguen.
Ra's Al Ghul's secret mountain hideout.
We're now at the home stretch of this blog.
NEXT WEEK: paintings from EPISODE 65!
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 11
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 11 "Mitefall!" Directed by Ben Jones & Lauren Montgomery.
Yeah, I know this is from the final episode of Brave and Bold, but I've been posting these in production order instead of air dates. Well what can I say about these backgrounds? First off these two were originally done for a commercial for the "Batman: The Brave and the Bold - The Video Game":
youtu.be/qx2j0usUc8k?t=15s
Some of the posters in this room were originally seen Jamie Reyes' room in the very first B:TB&tB episode. Other posters were from promotional shots we did during the production of the show.
Click on the image for annotations.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 11
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 11 "Mitefall!" Directed by Ben Jones & Lauren Montgomery.
Neon Talking Super Street Bat-Luge! Just a glimpse of how bad the show could have gone. B:TB&tB was always a "meta" show, but the final episode really pulled out all of the stops. Hey, we even had Henry Winkler doing a voice in the very same episode that Batman jumps over a shark! I think this is one of our best episodes and I'm glad we got a chance to send Batman off in style.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Monday, April 2, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 10
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 10 Directed by Michael Goguen.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 10
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 10 Directed by Michael Goguen.
"The Batmen of All Nations" headquarters.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 9
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 9 "Bold Beginnings!" Directed by Ben Jones.
"Spaaaaaaaaace Ghoooooost!". I remember many an afternoon watching the original Space Ghost cartoon on T.V. The late, great Alex Toth designed sci-fi superhero was a favorite of mine and I was pleased to hear that the Brave and Bold was going to get a chance to resurrect the character for an episode. The original voice of Space Ghost, Gary Owens, even reprises his role for the episode.
To set the tone of the episode, we open with the familiar Space Ghost title card. Shown here is a side by side comparison of the original and the recreation I did.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 9
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 9 "Bold Beginnings!" Directed by Ben Jones.
I really love the backgrounds for the old Hanna - Barbera action cartoons. We didn't totally change the style to match the original Space Ghost, but I tried to match the color pallet to make it feel like an old Space Ghost adventure.
One of my only regrets with the series, is that we never got a chance to team Batman up with "The Herculiods". That would have been fun.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" Season pt 2 DVD
The "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" Season pt 2 DVD is out today. Get it if you missed the show the first time around!
Episodes:
1. The Siege of Starro! Part One
2. The Siege of Starro! Part Two
3. Requiem for a Starlet Speedster!
4. The Last Patrol!
5. Menace of the Madniks!
6. Emperor Joker
7. The Criss Cross Conspiracy!
8. Plague of the Prototypes!
9. Cry Freedom Fighters!
10. The Knights of Tomorrow!
11. Darkseid Descending!
12. Battle of Superheros
13. Bat-Mite Presents: Batman’s Strangest Cases!
14. The Malicious Mr. Mind!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 8
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 8 "Triumvirate of Terror!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
The "Hall of Justice" had already appeared in The Brave and Bold:
braveandboldbackgroundpaint.blogspot.com/2011/09/btb-seas...
so it was only fair that the "Legion of Doom" made an appearance before the series had ended.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 7
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 7 "Sword of the Atom!" Directed by Ben Jones.
Background painting from "Sword of the Atom!" episode and the cover of "The Brave and the Bold" # 77 that inspired the scene.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 7
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 7 "Sword of the Atom!" Directed by Ben Jones.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 7
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 7 "Sword of the Atom!" Directed by Ben Jones.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 7
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 7 "Sword of the Atom!" Directed by Ben Jones.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6 "Time Out for Vengeance!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
Prehistoric Batman's "Bat-tree".
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6 "Time Out for Vengeance!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
Interior of the Bat-tree.
Click on picture for annotations.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6 "Time Out for Vengeance!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
Batmanicus' ancient Rome.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6 "Time Out for Vengeance!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6 "Time Out for Vengeance!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 6 "Time Out for Vengeance!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5 "Battle of the Superheroes!" Directed by Ben Jones.
Superman's X-Ray vision.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5 "Battle of the Superheroes!" Directed by Ben Jones.
I remember James Tucker saying that we almost went with Superman's "Secret Citadel" instead of the "Fortress of Solitude" in this episode.
Click on picture for annotations.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5 "Battle of the Superheroes!" Directed by Ben Jones.
Click on picture for annotation.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5 "Battle of the Superheroes!" Directed by Ben Jones.
A bridge victimized by "Superdickery".
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 5 "Battle of the Superheroes!" Directed by Ben Jones.
Jimmy Olsen's Superman clubhouse.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 4
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 4 "The Scorn of the Star Sapphire!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 4
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 4 "The Scorn of the Star Sapphire!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
Color scripts.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 3
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 3 "Night of the Batmen!" Directed by Ben Jones.
Two views of an alien planet. On the bottom right, you can see what the layout drawing (drawn by Fedja Jovanovic), looked like before it was painted.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 3
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 3 "Night of the Batmen!" Directed by Ben Jones.
Kanjar Ro's ship.
Only a few years ago, props like this used to be handed over to the color key department for color because it was an element that was usually on cell and it would be difficult to animate the textures. Now that a lot of the vehicles are built as CG models, we can render the models like this one and have the textures "texture mapped" on to the finished CG model.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 3
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 3 "Night of the Batmen!" Directed by Ben Jones.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 2
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 2 "Shadow of the Bat!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 2
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 2 "Shadow of the Bat!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
Martian Manhunter's home world.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 2
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 2 "Shadow of the Bat!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 1
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 1 "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!" Directed by Ben Jones.
So here we begin the third and final season. At the time we were beginning this season, I looked at this season as a "bonus round". We weren't counting on a third season, but luckily we got one and we were able to send off the series with some really unusual episodes and some appearances of DCU characters that, quite frankly, wouldn't work in any other animated show.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 1
This episode even had a title sequence that was "Jokerized" which you can see here:
http://youtu.be/EAu8A7-39PE?t=3m10s
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 1
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 1 "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!" Directed by Ben Jones.
A laboratory in Atlantis. For some reason in this episode the writers wrote Atlantis as if it's inhabitants breathed water instead of breathing air under giant domes. I have no idea why they did that just for this one episode.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 1
B:TB&tB season 3 episode 1 "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!" Directed by Ben Jones.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 26
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 26 "The Malicious Mr. Mind!" Directed by Michael Chang & Michael Goguen.
This "held cell" shot reminded me of the ones I did when I worked on "Fairly OddParents". Now that I think of it, Tara Strong did voice work on this episode (Tara Strong did the voice of Timmy Turner on Fairly OddParents).
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 26
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 26 "The Malicious Mr. Mind!" Directed by Michael Chang & Michael Goguen.
Drawings Batman has done after he is zapped with a ray gun that regress his age to a toddler.
Next Week: Season 3 backgrounds!
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 25
This was originally going to be final episode of "Batman: The Brave and the Bold", but the toy company came in towards the end of the second season and gave money for a third and final season. Ironically, we gave the toy company a playful jab in the final episode of season three (all jokes aside, we were thankful for the chance to do another 13 episodes).
Since this was originally going to be the final episode, the show was to "go out weird" and do some homages of lesser known Batman appearances. We did a Mad Magazine one, and a Scooby Doo one, but what was the third one going to be? Towards the beginning of production of season one of B:TB&tB, Chip Kidd's awesome collection of Jiro Kuwata's Bat-manga came out called "Bat-Manga!". A few of us color xeroxed some of the pages and had them hanging up around the office. "Wouldn't it be cool if we got to put some of this in the show"? A season later we did just that.
In between the segments, Bat Mite is featured in a live action environment. The book seen here was keyed by Craig Cuqro and I added texture to it. This was handed off to be texture mapped on to a CG model. This what it looked like when it was all put together (if you blink you will miss it):
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 25
These were some of the keys for the Bat-manga section. James Tucker wanted the segment to feel like they actually made an anime based on Jiro Kuwata's Bat-manga back in the 60's. We looked at "8th Man" that was based on a Jiro Kuwata manga seen here:
We didn't want to go totally black in white with our segment, so we stuck to the colors that were in the manga in Chip Kidd's book. There were subtle dust and scratches added in post to the final animation of the Bat-manga segment to make it feel it was lost anime from the 60s.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
Monday, January 2, 2012
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 24
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 24 "Darkseid Descending!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
Batman's hidden Batcave entrance at the Lincoln Memorial.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 24
B:TB&tB season 2 episode 24 "Darkseid Descending!" Directed by Michael Goguen.
If we were short on time (which seemed to be almost always) and we had an especially heavy background count (which was often), I would occasionally do color comps like these and let overseas finish the rest. I would choose backgrounds that were not on screen for very long. The reason for this was that it would not make sense for us to invest that much time to painting full backgrounds. The backgrounds here were probably on screen for probably three seconds each in the final episode.
"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" ™Warner Bros. Animation.
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