Lost LucasArts

I worked on a lot of projects during my time at LucasArts that were announced to the public, but later cancelled or changed before being released.   This has generated some interest from some hardcore LucasArts fans in some of these discarded materials.  Going through my old files, I recently dug up some old animation I did on some of these games.  I put together some of them into a reel, and have included some descriptions of these materials.

1. Herc's Adventures
These are "clean" versions of some of the animation I did for this game.  Sometimes you can't always appreciate the animation as well with all the backgrounds, scrolling and activity going on during gameplay.  Also--especially with sprite-oriented games, sometimes things can be lost in the translation during processing.  These clean versions give you a better look at the original feel of the animation.

By the way, if the flame in the Hades animation looks familiar, it may be because I pretty much used the same animation as when I animated the flames in Ben's motorcycle exhaust in Full Throttle.  That in turn may look familiar because I pretty much copied it frame by frame from the flames from the dragon in Disney's Sleeping Beauty!

2. Full Throttle
Here's a clean version of the run cycle used in a cutscene in Full Throttle where Ben tries to escape from a big ball of flame on an airplane (if I'm remembering correctly)

3. Ghoul Patrol
Raw animation from Ghoul Patrol.

4. Loom
This was animated for a cutscene in the 256 color version of Loom.  I don't remember for sure if this version of the animation appeared in the final version of the released game.

5. The Dig (Brian Moriarity Version)
Here is some animation from the Brian Moriarity version of The Dig.  The first shot is a walk cycle of the creature that is reincarnated for this early version of the skeleton puzzle.  The second shot is a death-by-electrocution animation cutscene of a sea creature.  Somewhere, there exists an animation I did of two of these creatures ripping one of the characters in two.  The third shot is the reincarnation shot of the creature in the skeleton puzzle.

6. The Dig (Noah Falstein Version)
Here are some walk-cycle animations I did of some creatures for the Noah Falstein version of The Dig. The premise in this version of the game was that the world was inhabited by a dying race of six-limbed creatures.  Because of this, much of the technology could only be operated by the surviving natives, or by the cooperation of two human characters (it was to be a multi-player game.)  The most feared creature in the game was the Terrabat, a creature with a pair of claws and two pairs of wings.  A couple of Terrabat animations are shown here.

I have another reel here of animation from various LucasArts games (as they appear in the released product).  There are also some animations from the Moriarity version of The Dig and a test animation from the unreleased Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix.

Geek Squad Interview

While tabling at San Diego Comic-Con, I was interviewed by The Geek Squad. Egads, why is my voice so squeaky in this interview?!

Ah, The Olden Days...

Here are some samples of my animation work for LucasArts Entertainment. These sample reels were originally assembled for an old, old version of my portfolio website. There are shots here from Full Throttle, Herc's Adventures, unused versions of The Dig, Curse of Monkey Island, an aborted Indiana Jones project, Sam and Max Hit the Road and Mortimer and Riddles of the Medallion.

Anson

A Goy Named Who?

Yes, Jew is my real last name; the one I was born with. Don't bother with all the Hannukah jokes, I've heard them all. The first name is Anson with an "A", not to be confused with my twin brother Benton (with a "B"), who also has a blog and works in the same profession. His blog is located at http://bentonjewart.blogspot.com.

I am an illustrator based in the Los Angeles area (in the hipster neighborhood of Los Feliz) and primarily work on storyboards and concept art for the entertainment industry. Some of my credits include the movies The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Inheritance, The Cat in the Hat, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I also do stuff for TV: commercials, music videos, series and such. I did a little work on a kids' cartoon called Growing Up Creepie and an upcoming X-Men cartoon called Wolverine and the X-Men. Some of you may have seen a series of music videos I worked on for the Black Eyed Peas called Instant Def.
My storyboard portfolio can be found at http://ansonart.tripod.com.

I also do a bit of comics work, primarily self published, although I've worked for other publishers before. Some time back I received a Xeric Foundation Grant for my comic book Saturday Nite. I published two issues with distribution in the US and abroad to a reasonable amount of acclaim from the comic book press, but more recently, most of my comic book activities have been in self-distributed minicomics and anthology titles. I have a website for my comics you can visit: http://www.satnitesite.8k.com.

Hardcore fans of PC adventure games may recognize my name from the nine years I worked as an animator at LucasArts. Some of the titles I worked on there include Full Throttle, Curse of Monkey Island, Herc's Adventures, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine and Force Commander. I continue to work in the gaming industry with recent titles like Midway's Gauntlet:Seven Sorrows and did a little work on the upcoming A Vampyre Story by Autumn Moon Entertainment (http://www.vampyrestory-game.com) and Insecticide by Crackpot Entertainment (http://www.insecticidethegame.com).

I have lots of personal projects in the works at any given time and plan on posting sketches and reports here at least once a week. Feel free to stop on by and check in every once in a while. To start, here's a drawing of Nora Drenalin: Teen Space Ranger, a character I created a while back for the anthology Babes in Space. The plan is to have a new Nora publication ready for the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 2008.

-Anson