Hero Heights

Hey Folks!

Things are going great at Hero Heights! Our deadline is looming closer and closer each day, but fortunately we’re right on schedule. Right now Bill is working on model sheets while I’m preparing my notes for when I time out the x-sheets. The animatic should be ready for me to view on Friday so I’m real jazzed about that!

Who is that group of ne’er-do-wells in the photo? Why it’s the Hero Heights crew! We’d like to welcome some new talent to the Hero Heights bullpen, Serge Michaels and Taik Lee. From left to right are Co Creator Bill, Serge, Yours Truly, and Taik.

Serge ‘The Shadow’ Michaels has done Backgrounds at Disney Feature Animation, (Lion King anyone?) and most recently the Art Director for ‘Fatherhood.’ We brought him on as Background Designer as well as Color Key. Folks, let me tell you, this guy’s work is exceptional. Serge is also very enthusiastic about Hero Heights. Serge has been a comics fanboy since way before the term was invented so helping design a super hero universe really got Serge excited.

I wanted a background style that really created an interactive and interesting environment for my characters to play in. Hero Heights is about a town where everyone is super powered. I want to transpose the fantastic with the mundane. How I spent my summer vacation reports about time travel. Also I wanted objects to sit in space following the rules of perspective. Don’t get me wrong! I love the current trend in animation that has flat graphic looking backgrounds. These can be extremely powerful and effective, but I just didn’t think that style fits with the comic book feel I want for Hero Heights. I asked Serge, what would suburbia be like for Supers? Serge came up with a fantastic series of rough sketches based on our storyboards that blew me away. He nailed it. They were architectural, but whimsical at the same time. Check out Smart Alec and Strikeout’s Treehouse base of operations up above! I couldn’t ask for more! Bill and I feel very lucky to have Serge on the team.

Hero Heights would also like to welcome mutant draftsman Taik Lee. Like Serge, he also did some time at Disney Feature Animation and most recently worked as a designer on ‘Fatherhood.’ We brought Taik in to clean up our characters and layouts. It’s Taik’s job to take our primitive scribbles and redraw them using a slick clean line. The moment I saw Taik’s portfolio I knew he was our man. He demonstrated an expert understanding of drawing and anatomy. Animals, people, robots, and monsters, were no problem for Taek. His attention to detail and delicate linework combined with solid draftsmanship made Taik the natural choice as our Clean-up artist.

Taik has been doing a magnificent job on Hero Heights. His line is so crisp and clean, but it doesn’t look labored. The drawings retain the feel of the roughs and remain solid and fresh. Taik really has a great knack for balancing thick lines against thin lines. The Olympia turnaround was cleaned up by Taik from Bill’s and my roughs. Isn’t she sweet?

Thanks for stopping by!

Raul