More Thesisingg !!!

      My senior thesis is a re-adaptation of the popular 1960’s children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster in the form of still images from a stop motion feature film.  I have redesigned each character, working from pre-production digital sketches to a finished fully poseable stop motion puppet. My artistic goal for my thesis was to challenge my skills as a sculptor/puppet maker, push  my character and environmental design abilities, and most importantly experience the process of visually translating a literary classic into film form.

               In The Phantom Tollbooth a boy named Milo goes on a dangerous quest to save a world that has lost “Rhyme and Reason”, personified in the story as two princesses locked away in a castle in the sky surrounded by demons of ignorance, negligence, and procrastination. Along the way Milo befriends various characters that teach him the importance of language, numbers, perspective, and above all a sense of humor. Amidst the modern confusion of our world I feel Rhyme and Reason are more needed than ever, and the relevance of Juster’s story has only grown in the past decades.       

"Eat your words " 

Dictionopolis concept painting for thesis

Map of the Kingdom of Wisdom

"The sounds of silence... " 

Soundkeeper character laoyout

The castle in the air concept sketches

Whether Man Zbrush sculpt

I did a rough little animatic of the whether man meeting Milo .

show setup

Senior Thesis Puppets , Preview

More Thesis Preview

                                      

"Milo receives a strange package "

Dictionopolis rough sketch

For my senior thesis I decided to re-design Norton Juster's classic children's book "The Phantom Tollbooth" in 3D with  posable stop motion puppets and photograph scenes "as if "they were still frames from a stop motion film adaptation of the story. 

As a child the Phantom Tollbooth was  my favorite book so building and re-designing all of the characters has been a real labor of love. 

Attack of the 47 Cougars !

 

I was fortunate enough to be selected this year to be part of the ringling Megacon team . 

We're chosen to collectively make a comic called "Meanwhile'  , a collection of 2 page short comics from each member of the group . 

 My comic  centers on a strange cast of characters i created sophomore year called the "47 Cougars' . They're basically a deadly street gang of old ladies that drive their cougar mobile ( the sourpuss )  around the U.S. searching for young teenagers to capture and make into slaves. 

Some characters etc... :)

Megacon backcover

Rough sketch of composition

there may be a few more touch ups done to it , but this is basically extremely close to final. I'm happy with how it's turned out . This has been the largest scaled 3d illustration i've ever done , i enjoyed doing it a lot :)