Cars 2 Graphics
Street-level graphics for a variety of international environments, character graphics featuring original brand emblems, and pit graphics for racers from around the world. The film takes audiences on a round-the-world adventure through "carified" versions of Tokyo, London, and a picturesque Italian village. The most graphics-intensive film Pixar had conceived to date, upwards of 4,000 graphic assets were contributed by four designers.
Tokyo
Known for being one of the most ambitious environments in Pixar history, the Tokyo sequence was a collaborative effort shared with fellow designer Ellen Moon Lee. To help streamline production, I developed an Adobe Illustrator system that used the Offset Path feature to convert flat sign graphics into realistic fields of rounded-tip strokes, creating layered geometry that the modeling and lighting departments brought to life on screen.
A selection of publicity stills from the film's Tokyo sequences.
A sample of the many neon and backlit signs I created for the Tokyo sets.
A behind-the-scenes look at the graphics placement map created to guide the layout artists in positioning each sign in order to create visual harmony within the shot, alongside the finished publicity still from the Tokyo race sequence.
London
Even though all the London graphics were written in English, the art department still enlisted several British Pixar employees to review the authenticity of the language, slang, and spelling feature on the city's signs and placards.
A publicity still from the London portion of the film.
A sample of the business signage, sandwich boards, and other environmental graphic assets created for the London sequences.
London pub graphics.
Italy
A selection of distressed posters, business signage, and other graphic elements created for the fictional Italian village of Porto Corsa.
Publicity still from the Italy scenes.
Character graphics, original car emblems, and accessory designs created for the Porto Corsa sequences.
Racing Pits
Original and collaborative graphics and racing motifs created for the racing pit sequences.
Panel graphics and signage featuring existing automotive paint motifs, reformatted, extended, and refined for the racing pit sequences. I also had the opportunity to help polish and refine Lightning McQueen's iconic on-character flame decals, originally designed by legendary custom car artist Chip Foose.
Ramone’s Body Shop
A variety of interior set, prop, and packaging graphics created for Ramone's House of Body Art in Radiator Springs.
Publicity still from the sequence at Ramone’s House of Body Art.
A sample of the body shop graphics applied to flat prop renderings of bottles and cans, together with a layout rendering showing how the graphics were mapped and dressed into the set.
A park guest's video captures the set graphics I designed for Ramone's House of Body Art in Cars Land at Disney California Adventure.