Episode 011: Mother Color

Some of the episodes mostly take place in established locations, which means that there are less new locations to design. However, the color of new locations must enhance the overall story, and work well with more established locations.

Episode 010: Late Manny Color

Above: A sketch by art director Roman Laney.
Sketches like these would help both the storyboard artists, and the art team about the area that the story would take place. This is really useful when planning color and light.

Episode 09: Old Money

Above: A first pass on "Old Money."

When working on a t.v. show, it's important to establish a look and feel that translates from episode to episode. If you're beginning to see a bit of repetition of color between episodes; you would be right!  The worlds were pretty much defined by this point... My major concern was making sure characters read, and that the color truly followed the emotion of the episode.  I got more latitude to play when new villains, locations, and sequences were added.

Above: One of the panels from this episode was later turned into a poster (which I have yet to see) Here is the rough color pass on that particular panel.

08: Zebra Donkey Color

Above: Zebra Donkey was a fun short to design, lots of different locations and moods.

Above: For "El Tigre" I almost always worked off of director Dave Thomas's beat boards. Dave's stuff is great, because everything is always so clearly drawn and staged.  Once I got the beat board, I would go over it shot by shot with creator Jorge Guttierez, and art director Roman Laney. We would discuss mood, and emotion. By episode 08 I was beginning to get a clearer idea of what Dave, Jorge, and Roman were looking for as far as color.

I feel very fortunate to have worked with this creative group. They are all the very best at what they do... and I think it shows in the final episodes.

Episode 07: El Jefe Color

I kept the color palette of episode 07 pretty simple, playing with the idea of red vs. green. Using complimentary colors is a simple way to get exciting color compositions. This sort of scheme is often used in advertising... one must be careful not to overdue it though. As you can oversaturate the audience!

Episode 006: Adios Amigos

This episode was a fun one to work on... lots of action as usual. Laser canons, lava inside a volcano.
Above: A few of the characters for this episode, designed by show creators Jorge Gutierrez, and Sandra Equihua.

In most t.v. shows, the character colors are usually final BEFORE the color script has even been started. Usually these colors are "locked"... because of production reasons. Meaning, you have to use the colors given you, and you can't change those colors. One of the biggest challenges in making a color script is getting the characters to read clearly on the backgrounds. This usually doesn't mean a single background, it usually means an entire sequence of backgrounds. Imagine designing a room for the lineup of girls above... each one of these characters has to read clearly. Sometimes as a compromise you have to design backgrounds that aren't so nice to look at color wise... just so that all the characters can read. Even with careful planning, I would sometimes miss a character, or a spot of action, and have to rework things a bit. It's a lot of work... but it's a nice challenge... and it's satisfying when you pull it off.

Episode 004: Boots! Sole of a Hero

Another super saturated, exciting adventure of El Tigre!

This episode had a lot of elements... so to make this easier for Jorge, and Roman, I gave a few variations of each scene. Which by this point in the production was sort of the standard way I was approaching the show. One of the disadvantages of not working in house was that that all of us couldn't look at the same computer monitor. The colors, and values, appear different on every screen. I found it easier to get approvals when I gave a range of things to pick from.