Black Panther

After Milt Khal's Baghera it is really intimidating to come up with a new design for a black panther. But here I go. I hope you like it.

Country Girl 2

Wizard and Pets

The Swordsman - part 2

The Swordsman

I like a lot the humor and the style of the old Italian spaghetti westerns. Developing this character I was thinking of Terence Hill in the movie "They Call Me Trinity". Some of my colleagues at the studio (Munich Animation) liked the idea and helped me to developed it. Claudio Acciari did some nice color sketches and Andrea Blasich did some interesting location development.

Oh beautiful Chel!

Here is a little homage to my favorite Rodolphe Guenoden's character: the exotic Chel.

Two Friends

Bill Peet's stories about impossible friendship between different animals always touched me.
What about a story with an old lion and a huge snake?

People of Munich

Some drawings from my sketchbook.

The Three Pigs

We had this board here in the studio that was left blank for I don't know how long.
So, one day I did a little pig on the corner of it. The next day Andrea did a little pig and the day after Jakob did one too.
After three weeks the board was full of pigs.
We took this picture and then we realized that in the middle of all these pigs there was a bar tender. Now the question here is: who is the artist behind the mysterious bar tender?
The Three Pigs are (from left to right): me, Andrea Simonti and Jakob Jensen.

Blue the Shaolin Dragon

In 1999 Munich Animation was looking for a tv series idea.
I pitched "Blue the Shaolin Dragon" together with other two ideas that I developed with the help of my brother, Sauro.

Jester Till

These are the first drawings that I did for the character of Till from "Till Eulenspiegel".
They liked the one on the right but they wanted him less skinnier.

Modigliani

An homage to Amedeo Modigliani. To his graceful elongated women.

Don Bluth influence

Andrea Simonti (a colleague of mine here in Dreamworks) told me that the design of this characters shows a strong Don Bluth influence. What do you think?

Greek Vase

Back in Munich I was use to visit the Glyptothek in Konigsplatz. They have a huge collection of Greek Vases. The design of some of them was a real inspiration for me.

Help I'm a Fish

I helped to design the Shark in "Help I'm a Fish".
The animated movie was produced by Munich Animation/A-film.
I suggested that it could be white and fortunately Stefan Fjeldmark and Michael Hegner (the directors) liked it.

Country Girl

This country girl was done when I was in Munich.
Big hello to all the people from the old Munich Animation!

Marvin

Marvin is one of the characters inspired by Frank Capra's "A Pocketful of Miracles".

Lion Tamer

This was an idea for a short movie about an old lion tamer in the ancient Rome.
As you can see the lion can't wait to perform.

Sinbad Maquette

In 2002 I was in London working as lead animator on "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas". I sculpted this head of Sinbad that we used as reference for some difficult shots. The head was pretty small, about 4 centimeters.

Frank Capra

Frank Capra's movies had a big infuence on me. Here are some characters that were inspired by Frank Capra's "A Pocketful of Miracles". Instead of apples the old woman sells black roses.

Me and Sargent

The Huntington Gardens is one of my favorite places here in L.A..
Here I am at the gallery in front at one of the Sargent paintings.
Who doesn't like Sargent?

First post

Hi everybody and welcome to my Blog.