Sunday, March 09, 2008




Last February 2007 I was hired back at Disney Television animation to redesign the second season of the Replacements, The first season had already be designed and is still showing on the network and I believe the second season starts airing today. The objective for the redesign of second season was not to completely change the main characters so that they weren't recognizable as first season, but to streamline the look of the characters so that there weren't so many angles which made it hard ro animate and of course simplify them more. I have seen a few shows already and must say that they look alot different from first season and I am pretty happy with what we did. Alan Bodner the art director had a hand in changing the backgrounds and color styling of the show as well. Alan and I worked together on Clerks the animated series and Kim possible. he was also the art director on Iron Giant. So as a designer for this show we are given 2 weeks to design an episode, we first get a script and then a breakdown of all the characters that need to be designed. So during the first week I will rough out all the characters the way I want to draw them. once there approved by the director, I will then clean them up on the second week. I prefer to use a Mars graphic 3000 duo brush pen. that is my favorite. it is made by Staedtler. Anyway, here are some of the new designs that will be appearing.

27 comments:

Jono Doiron said...

Wow, what interesting shapes. I have not yet seen the show, but am now very curious. Thanks for explaining the process as well.

Joe Karg said...

This is so interesting. I never knew that shows did this sort of thing, but it totally makes sense when I think back to so many shows whose looks evolve while holding the same flavor.

Great stuff as always,
joe

Brian Gleine said...

The one thing that threw me off on this show originally was the somewhat distracting character design (plus it took many episodes to get into the swing of things.) It's nice to see that they're doing this to improve their shows, since American Dragon improved eighteenfold when they gave it a facelift. Were you behind that one as well, or was it someone else from KP? There's certainly a similar "flavor."

James Sugrue said...

Your stuff is the best. I remember seeing you two times at New York comic con. I hope to see you again this year! Peace.

http://jimgrue.blogspot.com/

SEILER said...

Whoa, these are sooooo cool! Awesome!

juanito said...

Love the dragon. :)

Howard Shum said...

Nice designs, Stephen!

Shawn Escott said...

Great stuff! You rock man!

Lee-Roy said...

Fun designs, Stephen. It was good to meet you at caps this evening. Just wanted to drop by and say hello. I really enjoyed looking at your new book. Very entertaining and I will not get the image of that button wiener out of my brain. Thanks for that! :P

Kelly Light said...

Hi Stephen.. I Like the evolution of these designs! I received my "Life" book today. I was so excited to crack open the cover and then, before I even noticed it, my 8 year old daughter said over my shoulder, "Cool! He signed it!" - She's still monumentally impressed that the guy who draws Kim Possible was my teacher. Since the class, every time I draw; I'm surprised and thrilled by how much I learned and how much I've improved ! Thanks a bunch! LOVE the book, Kelly Light

Diego Greco said...

Wow, Genial tu blog!!!!!!

Stephen James. said...

Hello Mr. Silver, I'm not sure if you remember me or not but I was a student at CSUN that time in 2006 you gave a speech there. I asked you alot of questions, and you looked at my portfolio (you thought I was weird because your first and middle name are Stephen James.)

In any case these are nice redesigns for the cast of the show. If you don't mind me asking did the art director ask for you specifically or did you have to send in the old portfolio?

Nice work.

Brian Growe said...

wow, very nice!

StudioRisingStar said...

Wow man I didn't know that it was you that designed the characters for this show too steve! Great work as always!

-SRS

Anonymous said...

Wow! So many shapes, cool. Really love those designs.

cristian said...

Awesome work, sir, as usual. Today, I've received your last book 'Life' at home, and it's just brilliant. Not only your designs are great and inspiring but your words about the fact of drawing from life. Thanks so much, and congrats for such amazing work!!

DeJarnette Designs said...

Nice designs

Mukpuddy said...

Awesome job dude, these look great. We were lucky enough to meet Alan on trip to the states and he's a really cool guy and really talented artist!!

Algoine said...

Hi.
Your work is really incredible.
The designs of your character has something retro really cool
Don't you use toonboom software ? If it's the case, do yous first draw on paper or directly on tablet ?

Unknown said...

COOL!!

Stephen Eusebio said...

I love the shapes that you use. Amazing work.

Stephen

Tatevik Avakyan said...

Amazing work!

Keelan Parham said...

Funny story, Steve....

I knew you were working on this, but hadn't seen any of your stuff on it yet. My daughter Brady knew as well. She's got a real eye for art herself, and is a huge fan of your work, like we've talked about. She recently told me "I think Mr. Steve's drawing the Replacements now". I told her I hadn't talked to you in awhile, and didn't know, but to show me the show the next time it came on. She did, and now seeing these designs, I can tell she was RIGHT. She told me the art looked better, so that was how she knew.

Great designs, as usual, buddy. See you at the NCS!

Andrea Bowman said...

awsome work, I love this cartoon

Dipak Sawant said...

great work sir........

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Raymond Santos said...

amazing work, really love the style of the show.