My Work on
Pound Dogs
Pound Dogs is a double TARA Award-winning animated property developed as a culminating practicum to showcase industry quality work. As the Lead Designer, I was responsible for all creative development, including character design, storyboards, background assets and props. These elements all contributed to a completed pilot episode that won the 2022 Award for Best Practicum. Pound Dogs also won the 2022 TARA Award for Best Marketing Campaign, which I was actively involved with, creating personalized caricatures to garner funds and audience engagement. Using the links below, you will find a comprehensive content gallery from my time spent working on the Pound Dogs project.
Teaser Trailer & Pilot Episode
I played a large part in bring these videos to life. Much of my specific work on the project can be found farther down this page but here can be found the end result of everything put together. All of the planning and asset creation done by me and the Pound Dogs crew over the course of a year culminated into this TARA Award-winning episode.
Character Core Design
As the Lead Designer for the production, I had the pleasure of not only designing every single one of the background characters seen in the show but also translating the original designs of the main three characters into established, dynamic figures that could be easily placed into any shot or scenario. Each character is designed with different eye shapes, expressions and body proportions that add to unique personalities that shine through, even as silhouettes.
Fundraiser Caricatures
In order to help fund the Pound Dogs Animation Project, a marketing campaign was conceived that offered caricatures as a reward for donors. They or their pet dogs would be drawn in the art style of the show. I was single-handedly responsible for the illustration of each and every drawing in this TARA Award-winning campaign that netted the animation team over $2,000 to work with. Some of these designs can be seen hidden in the background of the pilot episode.
Full Episode Storyboards
In addition to editing a number of the script drafts for the overall story of the Pound Dogs' pilot episode, I was also solely in charge of planning and storyboarding the entirety of the action and animation. With the director regularly communicating their revised visions for various scenes, much of these boards were updated and changed on the fly to meet deadlines. I've gotten quite good at getting them done as efficiently as possible and I'm excited to become even faster.
Background Illustrations
After finishing all of the storyboards for the Pound Dogs pilot, I had developed a keen understanding of how the settings and background details should be constructed. With a dwindling art team on call due to various personal circumstances, it was up to me to colour and shade all backgrounds seen in the finished episode. Some were single layer images and others were constructed with multiple moving parts for the characters to interact with.
Prop Design & Asset Dev.
Even the smallest moving parts of a TV-length animation can pile up as a huge responsibility. There were many required props throughout the pilot episode's run-time and very little time for error. As the Lead Designer, I headed our team of artists on keeping the continuity and feel of over a hundred background / foreground objects consistent. Featured below are just a few of the assets made by me in particular.
