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.
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