I met Mike back in 2017 when he hired me to be in charge of Character Design on "1979". It is, as Mike describes it, "a nostalgic view of young love, from meeting as children, falling in love as teenagers, and drifting apart as young adults - all told through stop-motion."

Five years later he has finally released it, and I can't be happier with the result.

· Early Sketches ·

Trying to get in the mood of the 70's, we mainly used Mike's photos and illustrations from those years as references and inspiration.

· Line up ·

The evolution of Jake and Ashley as time passes by and other characters cross their path.

· Action sketches ·

To visualize the main pose, so I could have a better understanding of how the pieces would work in action.

· Expressions ·

We needed to have one "head" for every expression to make the stop-motion animation work and represent the emotions of the characters.

· Final pieces ·

Making the final look of the characters. While the color was not the definite one (as Mike colored the printed pieces by hand) I used it to make sure the design made sense.

· Stop Motion animation ·

Final result!

More info at: wickedtaylor.com/1979