This section of my blog documents some of the professional and personal work that I have produced over the past twenty years. The nature of animation is such that one project can sometimes take a very long time to produce. Each of these larger scale productions can represent many months or over a year's worth of work. My professional work is posted first, starting with the most current pieces. My personal work is located below, closer to the bottom of the page.
*The link to the 1/2 hour animatic is directly below.
Link to Christopher Pop-in-kins Animatic (PASSWORD PROTECTED)
*The link to the 1/2 hour animatic is directly below.
Link to Christopher Pop-in-kins Animatic (PASSWORD PROTECTED)
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Professional Work
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Current Examples of Cut-Out Style Animation Using Toonboom Harmony
I've taught animation using a number of programs over my past twelve years of teaching. However, Toonboom's animation software has been one tool I've used consistently over the years. The animation below was created using a cut-out style animation rig which allows for the completion of a large amount of work in a relatively short amount of time when compared with traditional techniques. The rigs are primarily hierarchical rigs with some deformation tools and cutters to allow for the bending of drawing layers as well as the sliding of details over elements such as a logo over a shirt or a hat.
The first two shorts below are animations that premiered on Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die website as 'Exclusives' videos in December of 2015. The series is entitled 'Greg and Charmaine' and follows the lives of a family living in the south. The series was written by Dan Ewen, a Los Angeles based screenwriter and designed and animated by myself.
The next video was a recent animation produced for a financial group in Dublin, Ohio as a tool to pitch their services to potential clients. I executed all stages of production on this project with some freelance help on the backgrounds.
GAVBX Fund Summary from Brian Bookheimer on Vimeo.
The final video below was produced for Progressive Insurance and released online. I worked as an animator on this project, animating about :30 seconds of this piece.
The first two shorts below are animations that premiered on Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die website as 'Exclusives' videos in December of 2015. The series is entitled 'Greg and Charmaine' and follows the lives of a family living in the south. The series was written by Dan Ewen, a Los Angeles based screenwriter and designed and animated by myself.
The next video was a recent animation produced for a financial group in Dublin, Ohio as a tool to pitch their services to potential clients. I executed all stages of production on this project with some freelance help on the backgrounds.
GAVBX Fund Summary from Brian Bookheimer on Vimeo.
The final video below was produced for Progressive Insurance and released online. I worked as an animator on this project, animating about :30 seconds of this piece.
Flo's Best Day Ever from Sean McBride on Vimeo.
Christopher Pop-In-Kins Animated Special
In 2014, with the help of a team of artists, I produced, directed and also drew a quarter of the storyboard for an animatic for a half-hour animated special based on Christopher Pop-In-Kins, a holiday elf doll and book set produced by a company out of Canton, Ohio which pre-dated Elf on the Shelf.
**Directly below is a link to the entire animatic (which is password protected). The running time is twenty-five minutes. We received an Ohio Film Tax Credit for this production; however, we unfortunately haven't yet been able to take the next step into full production. We incorporated some 3D animation throughout and engaged with a musician who composed original music for us throughout the entire film. This was a huge undertaking and, even though it's still an animatic, I am extremely proud of what we were able to accomplish.**
Link to Christopher Pop-in-kins Animatic (PASSWORD PROTECTED)
The next video is a short documentary of the voice recording session we had with our actors over a weekend in March of 2014. A film crew joined us for a few hours one afternoon and documented the process.
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| A still from one of my scenes in the Christopher Pop-In-Kins animatic |
Link to Christopher Pop-in-kins Animatic (PASSWORD PROTECTED)
The next video is a short documentary of the voice recording session we had with our actors over a weekend in March of 2014. A film crew joined us for a few hours one afternoon and documented the process.
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| Click on photo above for the Facebook Page. The above image was part of a holiday promotional campaign that I created for the company. |
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UCF Animatic (2012)
Below are two clips from a nine minute animatic I created for a possible short animated film. The story was about a giraffe working as a fireman-in-training, who is called into action and must save someone trapped at the top of burning bridge on the Cuyahoga River back in the 1960's. A tremendous amount of time and energy was dedicated to this project; however, it ultimately wasn't brought to completion for various reasons.
Below is the opening dream sequence to the film. In this clip, the lead giraffe dreams about being the hero of the revolutionary war in a fun, over-the-top battle sequence. In his real life, he feels the pressure of living up to the legendary fire chiefs who came before him as shown in the video clip above.
UFC Animatic Intro: Dream Sequence from tom richner on Vimeo.
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Christopher Pop-In-Kins Animated Commercial (Dec 2010)
I've
been involved with the production of a few local commercials over the
years. This one was also created for the Christopher Pop-In-Kins company.
This commercial aired regionally on ABC Family, Nickelodeon, Hallmark,
Oxygen and Wen. The commercial won two Bronze Telly awards and utilized
the talents of a number of CCAD faculty including Andy Friz, Dwayne
Marley, and alumni Mark Fitzpatrick (’07) and Steven Umbleby (’08). I
was responsible for directing and storyboarding the commercial and also animated the last
half. Below the video is a link to a detailed breakdown of the
pre-production work on the commercial.
Link to detailed breakdown of the commercial production
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Television Pitch (2008)
Over the years, I have remained involved in various pitches for televisions series. This is an example of one show that was pitched to The Disney Channel in 2008. I did some artwork throughout but acted more as a producer and art director on this project in conjunction with the writers. The artists are credited below each image. Though I have been in the room and involved in pitch sessions over the years, this particular pitch was delivered to Disney by the writers, Dan Ewen and Eric Garcia (Matchstick Men), in Burbank, California.
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| Character concepts by Barbara Benas |
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| Storyboards drawn by Rafael Rosado |
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| Storyboard Clean-up by Barbara Benas |
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| Backgrounds by Steve Umbleby (former student/ currently a storyboard artist at Disney TV) |
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The Simpsons Game, Electronic Arts (2006 - 2007)
Above is a video of the in-game cinematics I consulted on for EA Games.
Property of EA Games and Fox.
I worked with EA over the course of one year on the layout and timing for the in-game cinematics (IGCs) in the 2007 EA release of 'The Simpsons Video Game' as well as concept art for the main character's actions and idles, creating and revising many dozens of sheets, like the ones below, as guides for the game's animators. I spent some time on site at the studio in Redwood City, CA in January of 2007 to work directly with the EA artists.
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| Property of EA Games and Fox |
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| Property of EA Games and Fox |
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| Property of EA Games and Fox |
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The Simpsons Television Series (1998 - 2003/ 2017 to present)
During my initial time on the show, I worked on over twenty-four episodes of that series as both a layout artist (responsible for drawing the key poses to the animation for all the characters in that scene as well as the backgrounds) and as a sheet timer (writing out detailed instructions on how the scenes should be animated by the overseas animators). My time at The Simpsons was like a second gradate school experience were I further honed my drawing skills for both character and environments and learned from and was challenged by some of the most talented animation artists in the industry. It has been an honor to return to the show recently. I've worked as both a layout and storyboard artist since rejoining the show. The first episode I boarded will air this fall sometime. Below is a link to my IMDb.com credits as well as some samples of my work.
Tom's IMDb profile
Tom's IMDb profile
Below is a video clip from one of my final episodes on the show, The Margical History Tour, where I worked as both an animation timer as well as a layout artist where needed.
Below was a short promo piece we did earlier this year in about two weeks. I did layout on a number of scenes throughout.
Link to complete list of my episodes
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Personal Work
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140 Hour Cardboard Millennium Falcon Project
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| After 140 hours of work, this cardboard model went viral on November 17, 2014 |
I began construction on a cardboard replica of the Millennium Falcon ship from the Star Wars films in September 2014. 140 hours later, I completed the six foot long ship, which ended up being larger than the largest model they used in the films. I uploaded a series of production photos on Imgur that have been viewed over a quarter of a million times and has been shared thousands of times over on over 80 blogs around the internet. I've been approached to participate in some podcasts, including a U.K. based Star Wars group, and some articles also ran in print, like the one in Make Magazine. A google search of 'Richner Cardboard Millennium Falcon' will pull up most of the online articles.
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| Detail of the top of the model |
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Self-Published Book The Saga of Captain Cheeseball Volumes I and II (2012)
In 2012, I completed two books based on a character I developed with my kids. The stories came out of silly bedtime stories I had been telling them and turned into two 180 page graphic novels. The books are both available through Amazon and CreateSpace. The books are intended to be colored by kids and there are some interactive elements sprinkled throughout the stories that children can complete as well. There are four additional volumes already written that I intend to produce in the future. Below are the covers to the first two volumes along with some sample pages.
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Self-Published Book The Taking Tree
My long time collaborator Dan Ewen and I have produced on a couple of self-published books and PDFs that we've released online over the years. In 2011, Dan and I developed this adult spoof of the classic book 'The Giving Tree' ingeniously entitled 'The Taking Tree'. The book is available HERE for download online and can be purchased in hardcover at Lulu[dot]com.
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Sketchbook Drawings
These are sample pages from some of my sketchbooks. This phrase has stuck with me since I started in the industry and something I constantly tell my students: In animation we don't push lines around the screen, we move volumes. As animators, we're trained to think in terms of volumes and to see our drawings as plastic, three-dimensional things, not flat lines on a paper.
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Story Development and Character Concepts
These are some samples of character concept line-ups I've developed for various projects over the years.
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| Secondary character concept art for an animated film about gladiators set in ancient Rome. |
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| Secondary Character Concepts for UCF animated film set in the 1960's |
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| Secondary Character Concepts for UCF animated film for a colonial period flashback |
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| The founding fathers cheering during the Revolutionary War |
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| Redcoats |
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2008 Faculty Show
In 2008, I produced an experimental animation which screened in the CCAD Faculty Show. This was an over eight minute film which showed objects piling up and eventually filling the screen. The objects at the bottom of the screen which fell first were from the first decade in the 1900's and went up through the decades so that the top images were of present day objects. It was an exercise in hand animating objects falling and interacting with each other, but also a comment on how all the human-made things we've produced over the past century occupy a space in our world, space that is precious and quickly filling up.
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Graduate School Film
Below is a short clip from a seven minute traditionally animated film entitled 'The Christmas Gift', which I produced while working towards my MFA at the UCLA Animation Workshop. This film was animated over the course of my first year in graduate school. Animation cels were then inked and painted the following year, and the film was shot under an old fashioned ACME animation camera stand on 16MM film over the course of two weeks. The process of shooting on film was an invaluable experience and taught me the importance of having a clear cut vision and detailed plan for your production. Going from start to finish on this film prepared me for my professional work and allowed me to pass along the knowledge I gained in this production to my students today.
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