U Can't Stop The Rubber Rocket!

It’s been a long road, but the music video for U Can’t Stop The Rubber Rocket! by Rubber Johnson is finally out in the world, courtesy of Respect Music Records. I served as the director, animator, story artist, and character designer on this project, while also kicking in a few backgrounds here and there. Shouts to my production crew, Robert Pendleton (compositing lead), Jonilyn Ly (environment designer and background painter), and Naomi Meyers (environment designer and background painter). Thanks for putting up with my endless notes. I think the video is looking pretty decent, guys. 

I also worked on a comic adaptation of the music video, which is available as a free download. Writing credit goes to Rubber Johnson's Chief Creative Officer, James Canning. It dives into the world of Rubber Johnson in greater detail and allows the reader to see what the characters are actually saying to each other underneath all that music. Click on the cover image below to download. 

Finally, here’s a bit of production art from the project. I'll probably post a few more in the future. 

Tilt BG from the video's opening shot. 

Another tilt BG, this time from the scene taking place in
the abandoned arcade.

'Colored' version of the arcade background, once the band bursts
 out the machine into the present day.

Initial design for the 'mindless masses', who were later
dubbed "The Enslaved"

The band insisted that I make a cameo in the video, so here's
 my avatar who ends up getting STOMPED by The MAN. 

Falling In Flames

About a year ago, I worked on a music video for indie hip-hop icon, Murs, and his Yumiko, Curse of the Merch Girl graphic novel project which he co-created with Josh Blaylock. I've been a fan of Murs since picking up his album, "The End of the Beginning" back in 2003, so I was honored to get to work on this. We actually wrapped just before Comic-Con 2012, after which it seemed to vanish off the face of the earth. To my relief, it finally surfaced online a year later, in conjunction with the digital release of the Merch Girl graphic novel.

I worked on this project as the lead storyboard artist and lead animator. I happened into the lead animator position by virtue of being the only one on the crew without anything else going on his life; the rest of the animation team was mostly made up of students from Cogswell College and San Jose State. Our crew on this project was actually pretty big - apparently too big to completely fit into the youtube video description. For the lead animator position, I'm simply credited as "Leo" because that's where the cutoff point happened to be, meaning that the other animators aren't credited at all.