May 16, 2011
Voice Actor - Richard Horvitz
Granted not all film actors do a bad job of doing cartoon voices for big budget animated films, people like Jack Black and Bill Hader did amazing jobs in my opinion. But when you have trained voice artists that have taken decades to perfect their craft, you have talents like Mr. Horvitz.
Richard Steven Horvitz is known for his work as the the title character Zim from the show Invader Zim. He was also the voice of the original Alpha 5 in all the Power Rangers series, as Raz in Psychonauts, Billy in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Daggett in The Angry Beavers and as Orthopox in the Destroy All Humans! series. He continues to provide the voice of Zim, albeit in mostly video games as the series was canceled in 2002.
He began voice acting in 1993, starting with voice of Alpha 5 on the live-action series Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. This is one of Richard's often-forgotten roles that he has performed. From here, he expanded into several other regular voice roles on such animated shows as The Angry Beavers (Daggett), Invader Zim (Zim), Kim Possible, Dave the Barbarian (Ned Frischman), Zatch Bell! (Kanchomé), and more recent shows like The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (Billy, Billy's dad), Ben 10 (Grey Matter), Squirrel Boy (Rodney), and Shorty McShorts' Shorts as Dudley.
He also played the main character Razputin in Psychonauts and Orthopox in Destroy All Humans!, Destroy All Humans! 2, and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon, in a voice that closely resembles that of Zim (rather, what would happen if Zim adopted an English accent). He has voiced various NPCs in Everquest 2. He also does the voice of the Berserker Darklings in The Darkness. He also had a minor part as a grocer that Sophie buys potatoes from in Howl's Moving Castle. Observe his credit list here.In a behind-the-scenes style interview on the first Invader Zim DVD collection, when questioned about how hard it was to do Zim's voice (meaning all the screaming he did), he simply stated "Did I find doing the voice of Zim hard on my voice? How do I put this?...yes." He also claims his favorite line from the entire series is "You! Obey the fist!" from Career Day but his favorite exchange was in Rise of the Zitboy, where Zim angrily yells out "Why was there BACON IN THE SOAP?!"
See a sample of his work with this collection of clips from Invader Zim.
Selected Voice Credits:
| Angry Beavers, The (1997, Animated Series) | Daggett | |
| Otters | ||
| Ape Escape: On the Loose (2005, Video Game) | Child | |
| Spike | ||
| Ben 10 (2005, Animated Series) | Boy Nerdy Kid | |
| Grey Matter | ||
| Sublimino | ||
| Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix (2007, Animated TV Film) | Grey Matter | |
| Lepidopterran Alien | ||
| Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures (2006, Animated Series) | Scott | |
| Brütal Legend (2009, Video Game) | Jack the Lift-Op | |
| Kabbage Boy Guitarist | ||
| Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall (2009, Video Game) | Billy | |
| Chimp Channel, The (1999, Live Action Series) | Timmy Briar | |
| Crash of the Titans (2007, Video Game) | Koo-ala | |
| Dave the Barbarian (2004, Animated Series) | Ned Frischman | |
| Destroy All Humans! (2005, Video Game) | Crazy | |
| Orthopox | ||
| Destroy All Humans! 2 (2006, Video Game) | Orthopox-13 | |
| The Freak | ||
| Duel Masters (2004, Anime Series) | Fritz | |
| El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera (2007, Animated Series) | Dr. Chipolte Jr. / Diego | |
| Dr. Chipolte Sr. | ||
| EverQuest II (2004, Video Game) | Cog Burn | |
| Farmer Walcott | ||
| Gerbard the Snitch | ||
| Geredo | ||
| Guard Tanglor | ||
| Gubbo Chaley | ||
| Jubbs Tagglefoot | ||
| Ogobre | ||
| Shadowman | ||
| Skeleton | ||
| Snorgle Filthwallow | ||
| Turtle | ||
| Grim & Evil (2001, Animated Series) | Billy | |
| Harold, Billy's Dad | ||
| Monsters | ||
| Soap Opera Guy | ||
| Zombie | ||
| Howl's Moving Castle (2004, Anime Film) | (additional voices) | |
| Invader ZIM (2001, Animated Series) | Zim | |
| Johnny Bravo (1997, Animated Series) | Dr. Pencilneck | |
| Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil (2010, Animated Series) | Mouth | |
| Kim Possible (2002, Animated Series) | Aviarius | |
| King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (Video Game) | Ice Orc Foot Soldier | |
| Skeletons | ||
| Swamp Wisp | ||
| Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008, Video Game) | Enemy Soldiers | |
| Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993, Live Action Series) | Alpha 5 | |
| Monsters vs. Aliens (2009, Computer Animated Film) | (ADR group) | |
| Nicktoons: Globs of Doom (2008, Video Game) | Invader ZIM | |
| Osmosis Jones (2001, Live Action/Animated Film) | (additional voices) | |
| Pom Poko (1994, Anime Film) | (additional voices) | |
| Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue (2000, Live Action Series) | Smogger | |
| Power Rangers: Time Force (2001, Live-Action Series) | Mantamobile | |
| Power Rangers: Turbo (1997, Live-Action Series) | Alpha 5 | |
| Power Rangers: Zeo (1996, Live-Action Series) | Alpha 5 | |
| Prototype 2 (2012, Video Game) | (Voice) | |
| Psychonauts (2005, Video Game) | Raz | |
| Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (2009, Video Game) | Battery Bot | |
| Pollyx | ||
| Zoni | ||
| Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction (2007, Video Game) | The Zoni | |
| Shaolin Soccer (2000, Live Action Film) | (additional voices) | |
| Team Gangster Leader | ||
| Shorty McShorts' Shorts (2006, Animated Series) | Dudley | |
| Guard | ||
| Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (2011, Video Game) | Kaos | |
| Squirrel Boy (2006, Animated Series) | Rodney J. Squirrel | |
| Static Shock (2000, Animated Series) | Jimmy Osgood | |
| Zatch Bell! (2003, Anime Series) | Kanchome | |
| Zatch Bell!: Mamodo Fury (2005, Video Game) | Kanchome |
Voice Actor - Casey Kasem
He has provided the voice of many commercials, has done many voices for Sesame Street, was the voice of NBC, helps out with the annual Jerry Lewis telethon, and most notably, provided the cartoon voice of Robin in Super Friends, Mark on Battle of the Planets, and a number of characters for the Transformers cartoon series of the 1980s. In 2008, he was the voice of "Out of Sight Retro Night" which airs on WGN America, but recently was replaced by rival Rick Dees. After 40 years, Casey retired from his role of voicing Shaggy from Scooby Doo in 2009, instead voicing Shaggy's father in the 2010 TV series, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
His most famous role was the voice of Shaggy in the Scooby-Doo franchise, beginning with the first series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969. He has done work for many other animated series, such as the voice of Robin, The Boy Wonder in the 1968 Batman cartoons, three 1970 episodes of Sesame Street, and various versions of SuperFriends, the drummer Groove from The Cattanooga Cats (1969), Alexander Cabot III from Josie and the Pussycats (1970, 1972), Merry from the animated The Return of the King (1980 film), and television specials such as Rankin-Bass' Here Comes Peter Cottontail.
See his voiceography here.
May 14, 2011
The Art of Anton Emdin
Rough and Sketch
Tight rough drawing.
My wife, Ash, also flagged the girl’s tongue as looking a little strange. I agreed – it had niggled at me till then, so I revised it.
I also tried a quick colour gradient (below), which was looking a bit better, but still not what I had in mind.
And then I thought that black and white would be better, so I gave that a go as well.
Colour crisis! Working freelance from my home studio is great, but you do miss out on interaction with fellow artists. Luckily, the internet makes things a lot easier, so I emailed the super-talented Dave Follett to ask for a bit of advice on the colouring.
Dave, like me was being a sad, sad person… drinking and drawing late on a Friday night, and he looked at these with fresh eyes, made a few quick adjustments and sent these suggestions back:
Dave’s advice was to differentiate between the planes, and force the eye into the middle. He suggested that the last one (above) worked the best, and I tend to agree, but I felt like I was cheating on my original vision for the piece and struggled along trying to get the technicolour look to work. I ended up incorporating this theory into the next stage of the illustration.
I started by using his background colour suggestion (below), but I felt it made the illustration feel a little too dark. I wanted to keep it a little less sinister… well, as much as possible considering the ominous underglow and subject matter! It also felt a little claustrophobic – I wanted the scene to take place outdoors from some reason.
So I lightened up the background and made it a dull green (below). I also made the border weathered, but later changed this, too. I have also darkened the foreground to push your eye into the centre. I’ve also started to colour the linework on the characters to make them a little softer.
And below, the final art, again. I added clouds, made the glow a little more subtle (I used one of Chris Wahl’s great brushes – straight hatching, I think) plus finessed the colour and shading, adding many small details.
Inks
Colour
Thumbnails
Sketches
Tight rough drawing.
Inks
Colour
‘Schmaltzed to Death’ illustration
I originally started sketching it up for paper and ink, but halfway through I realised I could better achieve the look I was going for by doing it digitally, in Photoshop. My brush and ink is a lot looser these days, and I wanted to keep this a little tighter.Roughs
I tried taking some photos of myself and my wife for head angle reference, but I just couldn’t get the right look. I found this one online, which was pretty close, so I used that as a rough guide.
Rough 1
Rough 2
Rough 3
‘Finished’ sketch
Because this was just for me, I didn’t refine it too much – just enough for enough detail to ink it properly.
Sketch
Inking
Well, digital ‘ink’, anyway! Still drawn the old-fashioned way – by hand – just using a Wacom Cintiq tablet display. I take the opacity of the sketch down and also add a blue/green background as a base. This is not only good for adding colours to a more neutral background, but is easier on the eyes when settling down for a few hours of inking. White screen can really burn into the eyes!
Inking progress
Colour Areas
Next I block in the rough areas to separate the planes. I do each on a separate layer, so I can Cmd-Click them to easily select that area later when adding more colour and shading.My wife, Ash, also flagged the girl’s tongue as looking a little strange. I agreed – it had niggled at me till then, so I revised it.
Block colour areas
Base Colours
Next I carefully colour each element so I can use the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop to select the areas if need be. In this illustration, I actually wasted a little time by doing this, as I ended up going in and colouring without selection for the most part.
Base colours
Colour work
At this stage I started playing around with colours. My initial vision for it was for a multi-coloured sea of cute characters (below), but it wasn’t gelling.
Work in progress - colour variation 1
Work in progress - colour variation 2
Work in progress - black & white
Dave, like me was being a sad, sad person… drinking and drawing late on a Friday night, and he looked at these with fresh eyes, made a few quick adjustments and sent these suggestions back:
Dave's colour work-up 1
Dave's colour work-up 3
Dave's b&w work-up 1
Dave's colour work-up 2
I started by using his background colour suggestion (below), but I felt it made the illustration feel a little too dark. I wanted to keep it a little less sinister… well, as much as possible considering the ominous underglow and subject matter! It also felt a little claustrophobic – I wanted the scene to take place outdoors from some reason.
Colour and shading 1
Colour and shading 2
'Schmaltzed to Death' final art
See lots more samples of his works and the process behind them here.
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