From My Archives: Visual Development Sketches for Lilo and Stitch

 Lilo's house.

Thumbnails showing spacecraft carrying Stitch enter earth.

©Disney

Lilo & Stitch Layouts

Digging the archives again, I came across my old Lilo & Stitch BG layouts which I'd like to share. Above is a shot of Lilo's house done in prismacolor and velum. Notice the tape mark I used to stretch the bg dates the artwork back to the pre-photoshop era.

Above is one of my favorites. The simpler the shot, the more challenging to make it interesting since there's litttle to play with. I was asked not only to lay this one out but also to design the the book cover. This is the only time this book is going to be seen on the screen so it has to be very clear for a one second shot. I did a couple of designs and this was the one I was happy with. Remember, this was pre-PS days so I have to do do the fonts by hand. Done in graphite on paper and the same goes with the rest of the artworks below.


Again, above are two layouts that were simple but challenging. For those of you into 2D, the front door was a 24 fld vertical pan setup. The 5000 peg mark can still be seen on the left hand border.

This is a layout of a street corner from a deleted scene. The painted bg turned out so nice that the directors decided to include it in the Wynona Judd song montage sequence at the end of the movie.

I never expected this one to be a favorite of mine when I was working on it because of the shot's "simplicity". This layout was painted by the "master", Xiangyuan Jie (Check my link to his site, it's amazing). Click here to see the painted version online.


A couple of my warm up design sketches before production kicked in. All images in this posting are ©Disney.

Workbook Series #4: Lilo & Stitch "Aloha 'Oe" Sequence Part 1

©Disney.
Schedule has been pretty busy so Im posting a workbook series for now. This is the most tender moment and probably the longest sequence in Lilo & Stitch. I'll save the other half for next time. You may notice that some of the shots has been modified. Nani is bidding farewell to Lilo by singing "Aloha 'Oe". Originally, we have Cobra Bubbles pull up into the driveway. He saw this emotional moment and decided to leave to come back the next day. So here is the original workbook version that I did and it's easy to follow along with the story. Also posted is the rough layout for the establishing shot of the hammock.

Workbook Series #3: Lilo & Stitch Prologue

©Disney.
Greetings and yes, I'm still alive. Schedules has been hectic due to work, family visits and start of school. Haven't done any artworks other than work related so I decided to continue on my workbook series. Here's the Lilo & Stitch prologue that I did in 2001 and a bg layout for the sequence. I think I'm missing a few panels but you can still follow along with the story.

747 in Honolulu

©Disney
I would like to supplement my friend Marcelo's posting on his blog regarding the 747 on Lilo & Stitch. The whole sequence was just completely done when 9/11 happened. Then the directors called for a layout meeting. They announced that we have to redo all the city shots and skycrapers and turn them into mountains. We have to abandon the first part of the sequence where Stitch is suppose to climb on-board the 747 cockpit and scares the pilots off the plane. Instead, we added a shot of Jumba reactivating his spacecraft "parked" in the jungle. Brian Jeffcoat, (which in fact, the one who patiently taught us how to do Maya in layout and one of the best I've worked with) redesigned the plane and turned it into Jumba's spacecraft keeping the prominent shapes and size of the 747 in order to reuse the existing animation. The challenge for us in layout is to make the new mountain bgs work with the existing 747 animation. So next time you watch the chase sequence, replace the mountains with skycrapers and the spacecraft with 747. Even the shot of the guy with the ice cream come is the same. But he was supposed to be crossing a busy street in downtown Honolulu with towering scycrapers around him when the plane comes by and hits his ice cream. They promised that this sequence would be in a special boxed DVD which until now we're still waiting to happen.

The artwork I have here (fig. 1) is when the 747 already landed and settled on the beach. It was a key backgound layout for the beach sequence with the aliens. The second one (fig. 2) is a screen grab from that sequence.

Praying Lilo

©Disney
Seldom we see prayer being shown especially in animation. Well here's a favorite shot. It was a very quick drawing for a camera test. There's a big pull back starting very tight on Lilo then revealing the open door of the room with Nani listening just right outside. Lilo was praying for an angel then the next shot we cut to Stitch coming out of the big crater. The size of the sketch for the test fits on an 8.5x11 paper but the original layout ended up a 16 fld set up. Note the date at the bottom. That's already seven years ago... can still remember that day vidly.

Lilo's Bed Design

©Disney
Being assigned to do the bed design for Lilo & Stitch, rather than going on a field trip to Hawaii, I ended up driving myself to a Rooms To Go Kids along Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. I went straight to the bedroom showroom and started sketching. The idea of a messy bed full of stuff came from our Production Designer Paul Felix. The bed reflects Lilo's personality of being playful and different. Here are my five bed design sketches Bed 2 was the one approved.

The Culvert

©Disney
It was last March I believe that my good friend Marcelo posted on his blog about a development art he did of Lilo and Stitch standing in a culvert (fig. 1). He thought it never made it into the film. Well, it did. Back in 1999 right after working on Tarzan, I was being launched to work on Lilo and Stitch when I came across a development art that for me one of the few that really stood out - Lilo and Stitch in a culvert. It could be the scale of the culvert, the childish fun or both that attracted me to that artwork. Since the idea was not associated with any particular sequence it was put aside. But somehow I always had it at the back of my mind just waiting for the right moment for me to use the idea in my workbook. Then comes the perfect opportunity. I was asigned to do the workbook for an Elvis song sequence titled "Dysfunctional Angel". It's a series of events introducing the mischievousness of Stitch. On the opening shot for the sequence, Chris Sanders didn't suggest any location for the characters in his storyboard. It was even framed originally very tight on the characters. Then the culvert idea came back! I quickly designed the first shot on my workbook with the elements from Marcelo's but toning down a bit specially on the size of the culvert in order not to divert attention from the characters and even on the scale of the bridge in order to make it more "playskool"-ish. I took out the water drop from the concept art so it can just be painted and not be animated by efx anymore. By the way, Chris' character drawings on the storyboard has so much charm that I kept them in my workbook panel (fig. 2). Chris and Dean bought the idea and the design and eventually made it into the film (fig. 3). That was the one and only time the culvert was seen in the movie. In a small way, I hope that gave justice to a well thought and well designed concept art.

A Take on Lilo's House

©Disney
Here's probably one of the most famous shots of the house in Lilo & Stitch. The scene has Nani running into frame in perspective from the left towards the house. She has to make it in time before the social service guy, Cobra Bubbles, arrive. I did the rough layout for this shot and originally I designed the scene with a tree and their mailbox in the middle foreground of the scene for interest (fig.1). Then the directors suggested to move the objects to the left. I kinda like where the mailbox is so I suggested to keep the mailbox and just move the tree (fig.2). But of course when the actual animation was done, I have to say bye bye to my beloved mailbox to give more 'stage' for Nani's action (fig.3). It's all good as long the scene works. Photoshop wasn't being used that much then so I have to use the good old reliable 'gumby'. You can still see the 'ghosts' of the the tree and the mailbox in the original layout drawing.

The Lost Street Scene

©Disney
This layout is from a deleted scene on Lilo & Stitch where a car driver stops to ask direction from Lilo (if I remeber it right). The driver then speeds off making a turn on the distant intersection. It's a layout that is so simple and yet I like how it turned out. The atmosphere is very tropical and island-like specially the combination of dark clouds (as if there's a storm coming) and sunshine. I remember I enjoyed designing the shops at the end of the street and the foliage on the right. This was also done in graphite on smooth 16 fld animation paper.

Lilo's Dog Pound

©Disney
Welcome to my new blogsite. Finally I was able to find time to set this up. My first post is this layout that I did for Lilo & Stitch and probably one of my favorites. What makes this layout so special is aside from being huge (actual size is approx. 19" x 44"), it's one of those shots where you spend a whole week (with overtime) designing background and character layouts and figuring out camera mechanics as well then eventually the whole thing ends up barely three seconds on the screen. But that's alright. I had so much fun with it and very rewarding. If you look closely, the fun drawings that I put on the wall was originally designed by my very talented friend Marcelo Vignali who did an amazing work as a freelance visual development artist for Disney at that time. This is for the scene where Stitch was coming out of the pound. Jumba fired some shots from his blaster then Stitch jumps from the door on the right to the sign post (there's an animated sign hanging there), then to the branch, then finally ends up behind the rock on the left. This was done with B and 2B graphite pencils on smooth 24 fld animation paper.