Cartoon Network Animation Academy

 I was contacted by TBWA/RAAD to design and illustrate characters to appear
on a series of advertisements for Cartoon Network's Animation Academy.

The characters are in three separate groups (humans, monsters and superheroes)
and all are in unfinished states, bored and waiting to be completed by animators at the school.

Character development and exploration below the ads.

 

Zombiekins Animated Book Trailer

Yes, Virginia Animated Holiday Special

This summer I was hired to design some background characters for an already-in-production animated Christmas special of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

I'm not sure if any of my creations (below) made the final cut, but if you watch it, be on the lookout for any of these unsavory characters lurking in the background crowd scenes. It was a good exercise for me to keep my usual cartoony style to a minimum and try to keep clothing and facial features closer to realistic proportions.

The special is showing on CBS in the States on Friday, December 11th, , 8/7c. Sponsored by Macy's.

Directed by the talented Pete Circuitt.

Featured on Drawn!

My animation work on Kurfood and Leadwire has been featured on the awesome illustration and cartoon art blog, Drawn!

Check it out HERE!

Thanks Leif!

Leadwire Animation

What's green, white and moves at 25 frames per second?

These three spots I designed and animated for Leadwire- a search marketing company! Music by the talented Sepia Productions.

You can view them larger here, on Vimeo.



Leadwire Spot- "What is Search?"




Leadwire Spot- "Tracking"



Leadwire Spot- "Time to Talk"

Wooha!

I've been recently hired to do a series of character designs and illustrations for Denmark -based, Wooha!

Wooha! is a new kind of media company offering people advertisements on your phone- but only for brands you are interested in! No spam, no annoying commercials, AND you get paid for every one you receive. You can keep the money or you can donate it to charity!

You can see my illustrations here-

WOOHA.DK

I've also animated the Wooha character for their first TV ad-



Buy your fitness cow today!

Translation- The first part of the commercial is a fake, annoying advertisement for Fitness Cow. It is interrupted by our man hammering down a sign saying "NO RIDICULOUS ADS". He then pulls out his friendly phone which pays him for receiving an ad he wants to see!

Commercial Produced by
Sweet Creative of Copenhagen DK

New Kur Animated Short

Hee Haw! We just wrapped the new cartoon for Kur Organic Superfoods! It's to promote the new Morning Glory Muesli that's hitting the shelves over in Denmark.

Again, the entire design is based on the Kur brand seed shape and style created by super talented Copenhagen-based design studio- Sweet Creative. Michael Adler Miltersen of Sepia Productions stirred up the knee slapping, toe tappin' tunes.

If you're on Facebook- check out Kur's Group or my Illustration Page.

Intitial character designs for the short-

World of Kur!

Here's a new animated extended commercial I recently designed and animated for KUR- a Danish organic superfood company.

I had tons of fun working on this simple and sweet cartoon. The entire design is based on the Kur brand seed shape and style created by super talented design studio- Sweet Creative. Michael Adler Miltersen of Sepia Productions concocted the fun, upbeat music.

There's more Kur animation to come in 2009. See you there!

Join Kur's Facebook Group or the Aaron Blecha Illustration Fan Page!

Sir Fartsalot vs The Dragon

Sir Fartsalot

I just wrapped up a cartoon for Penguin Books to promote their launch of their Sir Fartsalot book series. "Sir Fartsalot vs The Dragon" is a cartoon featuring ol' Sir Fartsalot and his quest to slay a dastardly dragon.

The book, "Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger" by Kevin Bolger was released last month. You can read more about it at the Sir Fartslaot Website.

I was encouraged to put my own spin on the Sir Farts design and the characters in his smelly world. It was a lot of fun designing the Dragon and tirelessly researching perfect fart SFX.

Voices were generously done by super talented ol' chum, Brad Mossman.

Check it out-


Sir Fartsalot vs The Dragon from Aaron Blecha on Vimeo.

The Fiery- Tempered Dragon

The Peasantry

Dragon Design Sketches

WebbliWorld!

Extreme Makeover

The Waste Receptacle Edition

Happy Holidays! Sorry for the two month delay in posting on this crusty blog.

Here's some character designs and accompanying animation I worked on a few months back for a nicely designed kid's website called WebbliWorld. The site and all of its inhabitants were designed by the all-mighty Aardman Animation. (Wallace & Grommit, Chicken Run)

It was fun working with such a cool existing style and putting my own spin on some new characters. It was for a game titled- Wiji's Polar Peril- that teaches kids about global warming effects on the world and what they can do to help out. Zap that stinky trashcan and turn it it into a recycling bin!

Monstersquid Reel

Click the image below to view my
Animation & Design Reel-Animation & Design by Aaron Blecha
Music by Gnarls Barkley

All characters are copyrighted. Reel for demo purposes only.

Back in the Day Video is Out There!

We've completed the music video for Danish indie band, Figurines and it's worldwide! Friend Brad Mossman created and directed this fine piece of sad weirdness and I just moved things around a little. It was a great experience putting it together (in under three weeks) at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, DK. It aired on Danish national TV last night and will hopefully get into some festivals. I'll keep you posted on further developments. Until then, please enjoy it on a bevy of these fine online establishments-

Metacafe
YouTube
MySpace

UPDATE-
Back in the Day is featured on DRAWN!

Further info-
Back in the Day Production Blog

Back in the Day

Alien Armpit Sniffers at Work

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the blog suckage and delay in posting anything brand spankin' new for awhile. I've just returned from two and a half weeks in Denmark working on a fun project. I was animating a music video for the Danish band called Figurines.

Brad Mossman, the video's director, is an old friend from San Francisco who now lives in northern Denmark. He is a wacked musician that does frantic theme songs for cartoons on Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network. All of the jingles for the cartoons and video games I helped create a few years back were also brain-stormed by him.

Brad drew the cover character for the Figurine's album, Skeleton. So everyone thought it was a good idea to have these his characters come to life for the video of "Back in the Day."

The video is partially funded by the Animation Workshop, in Viborg, Denmark. You can check out our progress, see where we were working, and laugh at our pale, sunlight deprived faces at the official Back in the Day Blog put together by Brad.

After a chill weekend in Copenhagen (visiting more old friends), I'm back in London. Although I'm working without Brad's tasty veggie cooking, I hope to have the remaining 10% percent of the animation done by Christmas. I'll let you all know when it's available for your viewing pleasure.

When Belly Button Lint goes Unchecked