Shane Prigmore

Shane Prigmore is an artist who has participated in many films. On Rise of the Guardians, he worked as a development artist, story artist, and designer, among many other capacities.

Film and Television[]

Films[]

Mr Peabody & Sherman (2014) - Visual development artist
The Croods (2013) - Character designer
Rise of the Guardians (2012) - Story artist, visual development artist
Megamind (2010) - Additional story artist
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) - Character designer
Coraline (2009) - 2D facial animator and character designer
Curious George (2006) - Character designer
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) - Animator
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) - Animator
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - Animator: / Weta digital
Eight Crazy Nights (2002) - Animator
Osmosis Jones (2001) - Animator
The Iron Giant (1999) - Animator: addtional animation, rough inbetweener)

TV[]

The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!! (TV Movie, 2008) - Character designer
Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends (2005-2006) - Character designer for 14 episodes
The Proud Family (2002-2005) - Character posing: main title for 2 episodes
House of Mouse (2001-2002) - Character designer for 5 episodes and character clean-up for one episode)

Shorts[]

Boy's Night Out (2003) - Additional Animator [1]

Art[]

Shane Prigmore also worked on illistrating a children series, Spaceheadz written by Jon Scieska and published by Simon Schuster Children's Publishing. The story reveals how three aliens from the planet Spaceheadz disguise themselves as 5th graders in Brooklyn in order to sign up 3.14 million and 1 Earthlings to Be Spaceheadz and save Earth. The extensive online storytelling is managed by Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg.

"Spaceheadz Book #1!" Illustrated by Shane Prigamore with Francesco Sedita - 2010
"Spaceheadz Book #2!" Illustrated by Shane Prigamore with Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg - 2010
"Spaceheadz Book #3!" Illustrated by Shane Prigamore with Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg - 2011
"Spaceheadz Book #4!" Illustrated by Shane Prigamore with Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg - 2013

Concept Art Work[]

Throughout the early production of Rise of the Guardians, before there was a script or even a director, the team only had William Joyce's illustrations to work from, and Prigmore helped contribute towards the concept art for the scenes, including the final battle, and the characters designs, particularly for Jack and Pitch.

Early Jack Frost Designs[]

When originally presented with the task of designing the Guardians and help drafting the story, Jack was already a full fledged Guardian and also an adult. Early on, the team quickly noticed that Jack seemed out of his league amongst the other "superstars of childhood mythology". So, the tone was shifted and Jack was turned into a neutral outsider, who had to earn the title of Guardian, and ultimately became the main character. Prigmore proposed pushing the idea further by making Jack younger than the other characters, and being a kid himself, would naturally understand kids even more than the adult Guardians.

The character was given a more casual, but still supernatural, costume and he developed a more free, fun loving attitude. An early character design for Jack Frost consisted of a "Tom Sawyer meets Lost Boy" [2]. As the character continued to evolve, they kept him young, but turned him into a teenager so he could act as an older brother to the children. Prigmore explored more ranges of ethnicity for Jack, and when the character became more rebellious and given a more modern day look, Prigmore thought about various hairstyles and what clothing Jack would have to fit the time period he was in. This all contributed towards Jack's final designed in the film.

Early Pitch Black Designs[]

Prigmore originally came up with the idea of Pitch having to manifest/pull himself out of the darkness to take a brief, and eerie "human" form. He pushed hard throughout the entire development process to not just treat Pitch like a man in a costume, but only have him take a somewhat "human" form when needing to coerce or deceive. [3]

He also experimented with ways to make Pitch refined and noble, yet ancient, drawing Pitch more humanistic without losing his original intent of creating a character that was a force of nature, made entirely of dark fumes. [4].

To further emphasize Prigmore's original idea that Pitch truly was a force of nature, he created two storyboards for the climax of the film, showing how the fear of the children feeding this beastly tornado. Jack, losing his strength, hangs onto the swirling mass for dear life, as North, Sandy and Bunny bravely charge towards the imposing tower of darkness, via North's sleigh.

"Jack and Pitch"[]

In early 2008, Prigmore did some rough sketches for the exploration of Jack and Pitch in a proposed sequence where they would meet for the first time, although the scene never made it into the film.

The sequence follows Jack sitting in a tree, staring at the moon, contemplating where he belongs. A mysterious figures arrives and Jack plays a game of cat and mouse as he accesses the dark entity's motives. The figure is Pitch, currently weak, unable to take solid form and losing power because of fewer kids believing in him. He has a proposal for Jack and attempts to lure the other spirit to his side, for physical help and because Jack has a connection to children. A fearless Jack laughs at Pitch's proposal (Prigmore proposed that laughter would have a physical affect on Pitch), causing Pitch to draw back.

"First Time Out"[]

In early development of the scene where the Guardians help Tooth collect the teeth, Prigmore produced a few illustrations, showing North helping himself to milk and cookies, Sandy having trouble entering a room, an early version of Bunny trying to navigate through one of the bedrooms, and the fairies trying to get everyone back on task, as Jack spots a few of the "Nightmare men" (before the Nightmares had been invented yet).

Another illustrations shows Jack chasing after the Nightmares and into the woods, and Tooth heading after another group that stole a child's tooth, telling the others to keep collecting the teeth. Prigmore proposed that the reason Tooth could get to so many places in one night is because she is actually made up of thousands of smaller fairies that would disperse and regroup as needed (similar to her book counterpart). The idea did not make it into the film, but the "Little Tooths" did.

The last illustrations shows Tooth catching up with her smaller selves, chasing after the Nightmares. Meanwhile, Bunny, North and Sandy do their best to do Tooth's job, but they are short on quarters, and morning comes sooner than expected.

"What if...?"[]

While coming up and developing story ideas Shane Prigmore, Shannon Tindle and Chris Appelhans started construction a series of Blue Sky "WHAT IF" events. Asking themselves hypothetical questions; "What if this happened, or this?" "What will the tone be?" "Who are these characters?" etc. Each of them were inspired to create visuals that reflected their conversations and ideas. Prigmore in particular was intrigued by what the climax of the film could be, so he created images dealing with the third act.

One of the early ideas explored the idea since Pitch needs to work in dark, he would harpoon the moon in order to lock it in place and block out the sun, and also because there would also be a literal Man in the Moon who Pitch would want to destroy. The image portrays Jack running up the harpoon chain in order to help the Man in the Moon.

Another idea shows North on board the flying Nightmare Galleon (similar to the one in The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie), trying to keep Pitch at bay in order for Jack to focus on making it snow in every child's bedroom below. Thus, inspiring the children and weakening Pitch.

The third illustrations depicts Bunny and the Tooth Fairies coming to Jack's aid as well.

Prigmore, wanting to portray Pitch as an absolute force of nature, showed him growing in strength and size, as the children in town below grow more and more fearful. Pitch's "Nightmare Men" swirl and multiply to add to his horrific form.

The final image Prigmore created was inspired by an earlier discussion by the team, asking how Jack would prove he is worthy of becoming a Guardians. What would he sacrifice for the children and for the team? No one was sure what would happen in the final act, but Prigmore created this exploratory image to help inspire potential answers.