Last year I was invited to partake in an interview for a book called Secrets of Digital Animation. I discussed a few things such as the early creative process in pre-production, thoughts on character design, and the differences in my experiences as a designer and an art director. The book really runs the gamut of techniques, 2D as well as 3D digital animation, and the countless steps between starting and finishing a project from the perspectives of many different artists of diverse backgrounds. The book just hit store shelves a couple weeks ago. Check it out!

Well, in my defense, I’ve been keeping busy with Ice Age 3 up until a couple weeks ago, but now that that’s no longer a valid excuse, I thought I’d share something I did for a very special project a friend of mine is putting together…

It’s called The Picture Book Project: Monsters and it’s a coloring book illustrated by many fantastic artists who work primarily in the animation industry which will help send money to orphaned children across the world who need financial help. The topic, of course, is monsters and each artist did a black and white sketch for the kids to color as well as a colored version of the same image.

It was refreshing to be able to work on such a fun and simple project. Definitely needed something simple after wrapping up Ice Age 3. Here’s my contribution…

Mike's Monster pencil drawing

Mike's Monster in color

Here’s a little preview of the book. Click here to take a peek…

Keep an eye out for this one. A lot of great artists and friends have contributed to this project, and it’s certainly for great cause. It’s a really fun book. Hopefully they’ll have publishing dates/info soon.