Woops.

Forgot to post this one!
I meant to do one of these a week, but finals likes to change things.
Almost out of the forest here at CCS. God I have such a backlog of emails!

Pa pa pa preview

In productioooooooooon:

Stuuuuff

I'm piddling about with a new concept. Webcomics anyone? Don't get too excited, there's a whole script to write :b
But you can see these:



And a preview of the next one :)

Look Mam! I'm Paintin!

Like I need another mission.

Sorry for the lack of film work. The sound is a struggle. The good news is I'll be working on the film for a class next semester, so I'll have a lot more time to devote to it.

In other news, I've taken to trying to teach myself digital painting during my work shifts. It's a good four hour block where I'm fairly un-bothered, so I can usually get about three hours of work done. I've started painting Worry Monsters in traditional portrait setups. Heh I should probably try something a bit more complicated eventually.

But here is Greg. A Gentleman.

Oh Mr Sun!

My friend Rob Aird used to talk about this awesome 30's animation tribute film he wanted to make called "Mr. Sun Comes To Town", and I always told him, "Rob if you don't start making that film, I will." Well Rob, it's been 2 years. I'm totally gunna build off your concept for my final project in Experimental Techniques if you don't get on that.

In the mean time, have some beautiful concept art I took a photo of with the iSight camera on my mac. Classy.

Giraffetaur?

This little concept I've been playing with was actually inspired by some really bad anatomy I saw. :b

I Think We're Getting Somewhere

Some know, some don't, but I finished my first pass for the animatic of my film back in the wee hours of Monday morning. There's already one revision I really need to make, and I'm just starting to work on audio (considering I also just figured out what eede sounds like) but I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere. It's like I've been pushing and pushing on this great heavy door and just realized it says "pull".
But anyways I put it up on vimeo under a password: http://www.vimeo.com/7269830 . If your interested in watching, and giving me some feedback please email me for the password.
I'm a bit leery of this since the audio really does play a role, but I think just trying to understand a story in only visual is the strongest test of any film.
Best Wishes!

That kind of horrible beautiful moment.

Another frame from my animatic.

I think this drawing quite easily sums up my whole film.
My friend and mentor Steve commented recently that the subjects I always seem drawn to and animate the best are ones that are unhappy, uncomfortable, or awkward about something in that moment. I don't know what that says about me, but I've come to agree that's true. To me they're the most challenging things to animate and the hardest thing to capture honestly and sincerely.
Figures I'm working on a film about all that times 10.
In other news, I'm steamrolling ahead on this animatic again. Cut out the rendering, hell I didn't even draw the background into this scene. I just want to get done with it! I want to start the keys already!

About Damn Time.

Well I'm back. People keep asking me if this years OIAF was better than last year. I honestly can't say. On the one hand I have this years great new friends, contacts, opportunities, playing with a Coraline puppet's hair, and a very entertaining drawing from Eric Goldberg. But on the other hand I met Richard Williams last year...

I'm gunna say equal.

Other then Ottawa, this post is about me finally putting my demo reel on the you tubes.

OH GOD IT'S OIAF.

Heeeet guyyyyyys. I've been incredibly busy keeping up with school, student government, and prepping for the Ottawa International Animation Festival. And part of that prepping is a new (properly done this time around) portfolio!
Also, I noticed I've never posted any figure work here, so I'm posting the figure pages of my Mini-Ottawa-Portfolios. Enjoy!

Glorious Tights.

I used to have stirrup pants like these. I was So. Damn. Cool.
Anyways, just playing around with Flash, lineless, characters I haven't hung out with in a while, and noses that aren't noses. Enjoy!

Business and Birds

Hey I never posted these! Before Noel Night last year, I took some *gLaMoUr sHoTs* of the worry birds:




Now-a-days they've all flown the coop to live with the wonderful people who bought them. The only ones still with me are Prototype and Oswald II Who-Has-No-Legs.

In other news, new business card. This is the backside

I < 3 Music.

You hear it all the time, but music really is incredibly inspiring sometimes. Sufjan Steven's Greetings from Michigan is one of my favorite albums right now. The songs just FEEL like Michigan, and as a resident of this state for 13 years, the familiarity is a wonderful muse. The song Romulus is definitely my favorite. It's a hauntingly sad and simple story about a poor mother and her children. I got completely stuck on it, put it on repeat, and happily doodled this piece. It was nice to do something and not give a damn about it's final quality.

And now for something completely different.

I've been posting a lot! of animation work, so here's something from a different vein. I did this tattoo a) for a character reference and b) because in a perfect world I'd alter the composition to fit my back and get it! It's from 2007. Man, that seems so long ago!


It's based on traditional irezumi designs. The dragon, curling around the eddy of water, surrounded by the koi fish, tells the legend that if a carp swims all the way up the Longmen Falls, it turns into a dragon. It represents struggle, perseverance and then successes in all aspects of life.

I lied. Here's some art.

Here's the layout to scene 3:

Another Art-Free Post. :(

They closed the 24 hr labs at school! I couldn't work on my animatic for a whole month! THE HORROR.
School's just started. It's going to be a busy year. Two studios, three liberal arts, jam packed afternoons, and Student Government. I've never noticed just how little time I get to spend drawing anymore. Looks like i'll be hitting up Saturday figure clinics.
Plus Ottawa is fast arriving! It needs to be a strong year for me, what with spreading the word about my little film and that I'll be roaming the internship market soon! Gotta get my name out soon, eh? That means a proper portfolio, new biz cards, a demo reel, ACK! I need to pause time! October, don't come to soon!
On a side note, my sister is getting married in October!

Ugh.

My Wayne State art history classes are wrapping up, so there hasn't been a lot of time to work on art, but expect to see some more frames from the animatic soon, and possibly some *gasp* animation!
The little Capri Drive In film that will Never End has reared it's neglected head again, so I might finally be finishing some animation I did a whole year ago.

Here's the layout for the opening scene of the film, ganked right from the animatic. I like how the colors are turning out in the animatic, and I hope I'll be able to emulate that in the final film. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of paper shopping!

Ka-Ka-Ka-Concepts

Here's a bunch of concept sketches for the main character of my film. I'm still not solid on Eede's design. Just when she's tall enough she's too tall. Just when I draw the neck right it's too wide. Whelp, it's not like I don't have time, eh?

This blog is about to be TAKEN OVER by film production work.
I'm working on an independent 2d short right now. However, I feel leery of posting too much film work, in light of what happened to Javin's Stratastencil technique. I've developed my own experimental final look, and I'm quite proud of it, but I'd hate for my technique to be used before I even get the film done.
However, I did post one final look test on my youtube account. If your interested in what I'm doing, email me. :)

So as my first offering, the sloppiest pan-shot in the world.