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Geico turtles character development

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I am very proud to have been responsible for the current character design and Animation Direction of the GEICO Gecko. I worked closely with the Martin Agency and Client to get to the heart of what they needed from their character and evolve him both physically and emotionally. We took an annoying aristocrat and made a lovable foody, introvert who loves his job!

Here is a collection of my 12 years as Animation Director of the GEICO Gecko - Highlight Reel

This was before I started in 2004 

Finished work

In 2014 Xzyal came to me to create them a brand icon. Here is the initial exploration of who he could be.

Here is the final lineup of options.

He had to eloquent, well dressed and sophisticated! Please let me introduce you to Nigel, The Most Interesting Owl in the World! 

Finished work

In 2013 I worked with the team at BBDO NY to create a character for Lactaid. She was an unapologetically shapely yet elegant spokesperson for their lactose free milk product. 

Then in 2015 the decision was made that we were going to make her 'human size' and give her a nemesis! A fully annoying character to represent regular milk. I started where I always do by finding well known references to help everyone get on the same page with character traits and elements that we can use to guide the design process. Here are the first three concepts:

Alongside the the different archetypes we also started to explore general posture and shape. 

It's always important to explore the area around where you think you like to be with a character design. Sometimes slightly too small eyes or a long neck can give you that extra laugh even when it's still a static drawing

As an Animation Director you don't have a Wardrobe or Hair stylist and so you have to quickly become experts in the strangest things!

This page of expressions is the genius work of Zack Lydon. He has worked with me on many character creation projects and brings a wealth of classical artistry to the process. 

Whilst we were designing Regular Cow we ended up giving Lactaid Cow a little makeover in order to maintain a better contrast between them visually.

And here she is being wonderfully annoying in the final spots!!

Click here to see the characters in action.

BBDO and Birdseye came to me to create a pair of brand spokesmen for a TV campaign. I wanted them to have the character and personality of more traditional animated characters. Beakman and Bill were their names!

View the final spot here

Speedy was created back in the 1950s but I was approached to bring him back to life in CG. I really wanted to try to keep as much of the stopframe personality alive as I could.

The original 1950's stop frame character reference