After designing bears for Walt Disney’s Brother Bear, Harald Siepermann continued with visual development for the human character Tanana, the shaman of the village.
Tanana from Walt Disney’s Brother Bear
After Kenai is transformed into a bear by the Great Spirits, Tanana helps him understand his transformation and instructs him to travel to the mountain where the light touch the earth, where he can transform back into a human.
Below is a selection of Harald’s first round of design for Tanana:
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
And here is a second series in which the design becomes more defined:
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Tanana from Brother Bear
Throughout the development of the story, at one point was Tanana was dropped from the movie, but once the story reached its final state, she was resurrected into the movie to state the rules of Kenai’s transformation as a bear. Therefore, later in the project Harald would create another series of design for Tanana with a more extreme approach. Some of these designs can be found here in an earlier post, but more will come later as well.
In November 1998, the Visual Development stage for the Walt Disney project Treasure Planet was reaching its end. Harald Siepermann had worked for 9 months on that project and when he wrapped up his work, he could immediately move on to another project that was in development at Walt Disney Feature Animation, called Brother Bear. The project was in development at the studio in Florida, and was produced by Chuck Williams, and under the direction of Aaron Blaise, who was joined by co-director Robert Walker in the spring of 2000. “This project was haunting around the studio for a while as ‘King Lear with Bears’, before Aaron Blaise took it under his wing,” reflected Harald Siepermann. “I was asked to do some PreVis on the bears based on what I had done to the gorillas in Tarzan and the llamas in Kingdom of the Sun.”
Brother Kenai transformed in a bear
At the end of 1998 Harald Siepermann went to the Walt Disney studio in Florida to get familiar with the project and the other team members. Although Harald worked several weeks in Florida at various times throughout his involvement for Brother Bear, he mostly work from his home in Hamburg, Germany.
Cave painting of a bear.
“Since the movie was playing in the time when the first Asian nomads crossed the Behring passage into the Americas (at least at that point of development), we started with looking at cave painting of bears,” continued Siepermann. “I found a lot of very good reference and shapes in particular. I was amazed with the way those artists treated the straights and the curves for example. A lot of the reference we collected found its way into the movie without change.”
A bear toy Harald bought in Russia.
“Of course, there had been many Disney (and other cartoon) Bears already. I wanted to stay away from them as far as possible. So I started my sketches based on this little toy, which I had picked up in a monastery outside Moscow and which I always had loved for it’s nice proportions. Now, I finally knew, why I had bought it…”
Bart the Bear.
“And of course Bart the Bear was a great inspiration, I watched and studied a lot of his movies and I was lucky to even find a documentary from National Geographic on him, what a great guy, rest in peace, Bart…”
“Look at the size of this guy, the head and the paw on the shoulder, the sheer ‘presence’ of this wonderful creature, you easily forget this if your used to – and think in terms of – cartoon bears. I also visited the two Kodiaks in the Hamburg zoo, and time and time again, my first thought was: ‘My god, they are huge!’ I wanted to capture this feeling by all means. But how do you draw ‘size’ and ‘weight’, without having a chance to give a relation on the same sheet, use an upshot camera-angle or just a part of the body??? If you gotta show the whole body, even a whale looks like a herring.”
“I found the lower lip very helpful for this purpose, it always hangs down, makes a great tool for a follow thru, always looks kinda numb and there’s spit and saliver dropping from it. It gives a great feel of size and weight to the drawing.”
Harald’s bear design with a pronounced lower lip
Below are a series of bear designs by Harald Siepermann:
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for bears from Brother Bear
Today, February 16, it has been nine years since Harald Siepermann passed away at the age of 50. Harald has always been a leading figure in the world of animation as a character designer. Also before his passing he was still very active with new and exciting projects. It remains a shock and a big loss that such a talent has passed away so young. Thoughts go out to Harald’s family and friends that were close to him.
The picture below is of Harald when he was in his early twenties:
Harald Siepermann
During these years – when Harald was still a student at the Folkwang University in Essen – he actively maintained a sketchbook. Below are a series of illustrations taken from his sketchbook:
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Harald Siepermann sketchbook drawing (early 1980's)
Whenever Harald Siepermann was assigned with a new project for Walt Disney Studios he would receive material to help him get familiar with the story, characters and art direction for the project. The same case was for Treasure Planet, for which Harald Siepermann received a binder that included story treatments from 1985, 1993 and 1998, descriptions of character, location, props, etc., visual development artwork, and transcripts from meetings that took place before Harald entered the project. Below are images of Harald’s visual development material for Treasure Planet:
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann's visual development material for Treasure Planet
Throughout the project Harald would have a meeting with the directors Ron Clements and John Musker on a weekly basis, to critique his work and assign new characters. In Harald’s case this usually took place on Friday’s at 18:30, a convenient time for both parties considering the time difference between California and Germany.
As always throughout Harald Siepermann’s career, also 1998 was a busy year for him. There was the Walt Disney project Treasure Planet, ongoing merchandise work for Alfred J. Kwak, and many other side projects. In addition, Harald Siepermann was also moving the summer with his family from his apartment in Essen to a new apartment in Hamburg. On this picture Harald is installed behind his working desk, and again with the wall fully pinned with clippings from famous faces as inspiration.
Harald Siepermann behind his working desk in Hamburg
Harald Siepermann behind his working desk in Hamburg
The last character Harald Siepermann worked on for Treasure Planet was Hands. Hands is part of John Silver’s pirate crew, and in the script described as a hulking alien swabbie who is as mean as he is stupid.
Hands from Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet
“Israel Hands is the most brutal of the pirates,” commented Harald Siepermann. “I wanted him to be a cockroach, with his knifes and daggers being part of his actual anatomy, like the clamps or a lobster.” Below are very rough copies of Harald Siepermann’s visual development for the character:
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Hands from Treasure Planet
Harald Siepermann did all his work for Treasure Planet from his home in Germany, and periodically he would send the originals to the Walt Disney studio in Burbank by FedEx, and made copies for his own archive. However, as Harald Siepermann commented, “I was way behind, had to send the stuff over in a hurry and with FedEx knocking at the door, I only had the time to copy my favorite one on the fax machine.” Therefore the copies above are the only surviving drawings of Hands in Harald Siepermann’s archive. And unfortunately none of Harald’s designs for Hands were featured in the book Treasure Planet A Voyage of Discovery. Let’s hope Disney will publish them someday, so we can have a more clear and colorful view of Harald’s design for Hands.
Harald Siepermann made his last sketch for Hands, and also for Treasure Planet, on November 16, 1998. A few weeks later Harald went to the Walt Disney studio in Florida to start on visual development for a new project called Brother Bear.
When Harald Siepermann was working on Mr. Arrow in September 1998, the visual development stage of Treasure Planet was reaching its end. For the few remaining weeks, the directors Ron Clements and John Musker wanted Harald to work on the characters Dr. Doppler and Sarah, the mother of Jim Hawkins. Eventually Harald didn’t work on the character Sarah, but he spent some times creating visual development for Dr. Doppler.
Dr Doppler from Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet
In the script he’s described as nerdy and dog-like. Doppler was Jim Hawkin’s astronomer friend. Thanks to an inheritance, Doppler is the most wealthy of all the locals on the planet. But he is an eccentric recluse, overflowing with theoretical knowledge, yet nearly devoid of personal experience.
Although it was clear that the character would have dog-like features, it seems that Harald neglected that part in his designs. It is not really clear why, since Harald never elaborated much on his design approach for this character, despite that he described this for the other characters from Treasure Planet on his personal blog that he kept active for several years. Below is a series of his designs:
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet
The final design for Doppler was created by Supervising Animator Sergio Pablos.
Since the visual development stage was reaching its end, the directors asked Harald to leave the character Doppler, and work for the remaining 15 days on the pirate Hands.
Once Harald Siepermann wrapped up his work on Captain Amelia, he continued his work on Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet with the character Mr. Arrow, the first mate of the space galleon RLS Legacy, during time of production called the Starfinder. In the script Mr. Arrow is described as a creature of molten rock, with a courtly manner and stiff upper lip, who is totally loyal and devoted to Captain Amelia.
Mr. Arrow the first mate of Captain Amelia from Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet
“I was hoping to come up with something really special,” commented Harald Siepermann. “I didn’t want to do just a human with a skin-problem, to avoid the human form as much as possible. The problem with a stone is, as soon as you move it, bent it, squash it, stretch it, it looses it’s ‘stoneyness’ and becomes soft. I thought, maybe it should stay firm and float, or stand in the corner on the bridge, like a real stone, his voice coming from a chasm in his ‘face’, if it had any, why not.” Below are some of Harald’s earliest visual development for the character.
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
“He could also have had a robot-arm or walking device, that would help him to move, but that was too close to Silver and his cyborg-arm,” continued Harald Siepermann.
“Anyway, there’s always that one drawing, that you do to illustrate, what you don’t want, and in Arrow’s case, it was ‘The Thing’. I wanted to avoid that solution by all means, unfortunatetly it was what Ron and John liked the most, so there you are, a stone thing in a uniform…”
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Below are more of Harald Siepermann’s explorations for Mr. Arrow:
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet
The final design for Mr. Arrow was created by Supervising Animator T. Dan Hofstedt.
In continuation of the previous post about Captain Amelia, about working on the character Harald Siepermann commented, “If there’s one thing I wanted to avoid on this picture and it’s animal/aliens, it was ending up with humans with animal heads. Funny enough, it’s exactly what happened most of the time. Also in this case with Amelia, the captain. I tried many ways to incorporate the catlike attitude, I looked at Egyptian art and lots of other things but eventually she turned out to have a cat’s head on a human body.”
Below are more design by Harald Siepermann for the character Captain Amelia from Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet.
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
The final design for Captain Amelia was created by the Supervising Animator for the character Ken Duncan.
On Treasure Planet, Harald Siepermann also worked for several weeks on visual development for the character Captain Amelia.
Amelia from Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet
Amelia is the captain of the magnificent space galleon the Starfinder, that takes Jim and Professor Doppler on the expedition to find Flint’s treasure. In the script she is described as a clear leader, educated, well trained, highly experienced and extremely competent. She’s competitive, projects overconfidence, and can seem a little arrogant, though underneath this there is some vulnerability. Physically she is described as tall, imposing and beautiful. And she is cat-like and moves gracefully.
Below are some of Harald’s early designs of Captain Amelia, the alien creature with cat-like features:
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Amelia from Treasure Planet
After working on Long John Silver, Harald Siepermann continued with visual development for the character Jim Hawkins from Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet.
Jim Hawkins from Walt Disney’s Treasure Planet
“He was a lot younger in my version of the script, than in the final movie, maybe 13 or 14, and he wasn’t a surfer either,” commented Harald Siepermann about the character. However, the backstory and the characteristics of the boy in the script were similar compared to the final movie.
Jim Hawkins is untested and unsure of himself. He helps his mother Sarah run the Benbow Inn, a lonely space outpost on a small planet tucked away at the far reaches of the galaxy. Jim’s father, a renowned space pilot, died before Jim was born, leaving a hole in the boy’s life that has been difficult to fill. It left him with a feeling of abandonment, what caused him to become a little withdrawn and slightly rebellious. Jim is longing to become a space explorer like his dad. His space adventure is about to begin when Billy Bones hands him a map that indicates the location of the treasure of the notorious Captain Flint.
Below are some of Harald’s designs of Jim Hawkins:
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet
Visual development by Harald Siepermann for Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet