Paul Rivoche's Animated Gallery:
WARNING!!  The following pages are © 2001 WARNER BROS
DO NOT USE THE IMAGES SHOWN HERE WITHOUT PERMISSION


- STORYBOARD PAGES

First sequence --from Rebirth Part One:



     

   

   

   

   

   


I never did very many board pages on BB..I worked mainly as a designer. They wanted me to do the opening city sequence shown here, because they knew I love doing cityscapes. As I recall, they wanted it to look very "Syd Mead". Also Glen supplied us with some color marker roughs of approaches to stylizing the city. He also gave me models he had done for "generic" city dwellers, which we could use wherever they were needed. I used a bunch for the passengers inside the vertical elevator shown in this sequence. Glen also supplied sketches for the police hover-bikes. I took it from there and built my designs (ie city scenes/elevators/etc.) directly into the board pages.



Second Sequence --from Rebirth Part Two:

   

   

   

   

   

    



The hoverlimo model shown here was my design. They hadn't given me one, and I had to start boarding, so I went ahead and did my own version. They didn't use it--as I recall the one in the actual show was much simpler. I think mine was too complicated to animate properly without using a computer...


Of course, what is shown here are my "raw" board pages. There are often changes , done later at Warners, before the board is finalized and put into production. So what you see here probably doesn't quite match what you'll see in the finished episode...

I like to do very clean boards, and to put in the backgrounds clearly. The theory is that this will make the latter stages of production go more quickly. Sometimes board artists make the backgrounds very ambiguous/vague. It causes headaches, later, for the layout artists, because they find it hard to figure out exactly where the figures are
supposed to be in any given "set" or "stage".

Looking back on these, I think I should've made them less "clean", but I always had trouble forcing myself to do that. Personal quirk-I want to have it look "finished". Also I love comics and that probably shows too.

My method for most of these was to lightly draw "structures" and "masses" only for the figures and backgrounds, to determine staging, pose, etc., using light blue pencil. After that I drew the final cleanup directly and spontaneously in marker (Fountain Pentels and Pilot DR). Then I'd go back in with a chunky black marker and spot the blacks. I don't like to nail down the drawing too much in the pencil stage---it reduces the fun and effectiveness of the inking stage, which then becomes more like tracing. I like the surprise of being more adventurous, going directly in with only a light preliminary, and trying to have the drawing survive...




- BACKGROUND DESIGNS


        

       

These show the stage before "toning"(adding grey tones). I do the linework with markers, scan into Photoshop, then flood the blacks using the paint bucket---for speed. Saves all that time filling in blacks with a marker!
Then I'd print out the design, xerox it onto Bristol card, and add the grey tones with marker and black Prismacolor pencils. Nowadays I usually keep it on the computer and add the greys there too.


Lazarus-- The 1st design ("Lazarus Chamber") wasn't used...it was an exploratory sketch, trying to figure out how the thing should look. I just did a few rough ideas in the "brainstorming" phase of design, this was one of them. They never were quite happy with it and so, as sometimes happens, the design passed on to someone else. I never actually saw the final show so I've no idea what the final version looks like.



The Watchtower --That's the only design I did. I just sat down and drew it, fast. It's like that sometimes--the ideas come almost finished and you just have to trace them from your mind's eye--other times it's a long and lonely struggle to get anything at all.

Extra backgrounds:
   
   

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