I had the pleasure of Directing the animation segments in this inspiring episode. 17 sequences, totaling more than 4 min of animation.

The full film, cutting between live action shots of John narrating his story,

and the animated sections we created.

I was lucky to get to bring on a handful of talented animators to work alongside me.


They brought their shots to life beautifully.

This film attempts to accurately portray John Furniss' real story, experiences, and pain.

In light of this, it is clear our style starts with getting John's character and likeness correct, while balancing achievable detail against a 5-minute animation ask.

The solution was to extract key identifying details, while keeping other portions of our character simple, 1 color, clean shapes.

⏤ Key identifiers:

Once Character was signed off by Freethink and John, I was free to explore the surrounding visualizations and dream-like scenarios from John's Story.



Specific to John's Style, we went with imperfect edges, sharp corners in place of perfect round geometry, and cut-out like linework/edges.



These choices speak to John's journey in discovering a new life through deep trauma and darkness, and specifically to the imperfections of hand-crafted woodwork.



The imperfections make them perfect.

Big projects need lots of hands. This comes with unique challenges when striving for a singular voice film-wide.


This is an example of forwarding a set of notes early in the film's development, animation had barely begun, and there was a need to closely examine John's Character model.

This job had a unique pitch, which required 'visualizing Danny DeVito' as if he were a character in this ongoing series.


I couldn't pass up an opportunity to draw Danny....a legend.