Another Preview (and it's more than just one second this time)

Here's another little sneak peek at my short. It's Shot 17 (out of about 65) all roughed out and ready for cleanup.

It's a dialogue shot. One of many. The dialogue shots are usually the ones I hold off on, but nonetheless, this was one I really was looking forward to doing because of how juicy the dialogue was. Maybe I went a bit over the top with the physical acting, but I enjoyed doing it.

All the rough animation was done in Flash, and all my cleanup is being done in Toon Boom, which is a really great program. I'm gradually switching over to it from Flash, and for the better too!

Randy's voice was done by my friend Joshua Tomar, and he did a really spot-on job. Check out his website and take a listen to his voicework: http://tomamoto.com/voice/.

Movie Bar Codes

Ever since I've started using Tumblr, I've come across some cool art/film blogs. A really neat one I recently found is called MovieBarCode. Each frame from a movie is stretched and compiled into one long "barcode". You can see the entire movie's continuity as a whole, like a color script.

Some movies look pretty uniform and it's hard to pinpoint certain scenes, but some are really easy. Looking at them all, the easiest ones to point out always seem to be the animated films.

Can you tell what movie this is?

Give up? Look again:

The key scenes really stick out, and in some instances, there's a noticeable flow into a new color scheme.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - Overall pretty uniform color scheme. A lot of earthy colors.

Dumbo (1941) - A lot of contrast. Definitely a circus film! Scenes really do stick out here, especially "Pink Elephants", "Roustabouts" the scenes where the clowns are behind the tent, etc.

Alice in Wonderland (1951) - Very colorful. I don't know why, but this Alice one feels almost like paint dripping down a canvas. It has a very surreal feeling to me, which fits the movie perfectly. A lot of pinks and magentas.

I've noticed a more uniform "banding-like" effect in these two, which are both very recent animated movies. The sequences and their colors are more defined here:

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Whoever makes these barcodes is really creative. Sadly, it's hard to give proper credit, since the creator's name isn't up there to see. There's a lot more on his/her site, and an index to make things easy to find. I suggest you seek out the ones for The King's Speech, The Matrix, and Speed Racer. http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/

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Also, I don't know jack about color, but Oswald Iten sure does! He makes very thorough studies not only about film color, but on filmmaking in general. He just did a really neat series of posts about Fantastic Mr. Fox that's definitely worth reading. Go check his site out too: http://colorfulanimationexpressions.blogspot.com/

A Bird in Someone Else's Hand is Worth Every Penny

My Canadian friend Audrey Kare did a commission that was so amazing that I had to share it!

First the lineart:

Then the flats:

Throw on some shading:

And some extra bits and VOILA!

The best part about this was I watched her make this completely, from initial sketch to final color (except the shading, which came the next day). I definitely got a lot for my buck.

Audrey's artwork is simply astounding. Go check out her deviantArt gallery HERE. And while you're there, consider commissioning her for a few bucks. It's totally worth it!

THESIS SNEAK PEEK!!!!

Sorry folks, that's all you're getting.

:P

A Small Serving of 'Tideyouoverings'

A jazzy swamp critter:

An excuse to draw a dodo in turn-of-the-century driving clothes riding a vespa:

My explanation for Pooh's peculiar head shape:

And a perennial favorite; Pooh as a big, fat n' sweaty dynamo.

Patching things together...

Some time ago, I commissioned a friend, Kevin McKenna, to make a 3D sculpture of my rotund dodo, Randy. I gave him this to use as a guide:

A few months later (he was busy with schoolwork, so I told him to take his time), he sends me this:

FREAKING. AWESOME. Especially when it's spinning around in a circle like this:

Kevin is an amazing 3D modeler, and a damn good traditional artist to boot! Go ahead, see for yourself: http://cc-5052.deviantart.com/.

At first glance, some people that I showed it to thought it was a real vinyl figure. That got me seriously thinking about the idea of having him made into a toy. Jeff Pidgeon did it with his neat Happy Beaver toy, so why couldn't I? Unfortunately, getting a figure sculpted, casted and mass-produced costs some pretty serious bucks, and as a college student the last thing I want to think about is spending money (especially hefty amounts of it). Luckily, there's another option.

PatchTogether.com is a website where you submit a toy/shirt design and if it gets enough votes, they'll actually make the toy, which they will sell in their store and the designer gets a percentage of the money it makes! A capital idea (especially for one with little capital). So I did a little write up and submitted a few images to PatchTogether a few days ago, and last night it was finally put up on their site.

Like I said, the only way they'll make the toy is if I get enough votes, so that's where I need your help! Help me out by going to Randy's page (HERE) and vote on him! You gotta sign up on the site to vote, but that literally takes a teensy-2 minutes to do, and it's FREE!

Thanks in advance, blog-visitors!

Without the mud, it's kinda suggestive

Instead of a sketchbook (which I should use more often) I do all my drawings on a clipboard, and after a while, old drawings get shuffled in the back and get lost. I came across this unfinished one that I put off because I needed to adjust the legs, but then thesis production came in full swing and I never got around to it. Because of my thesis, I haven't had much time to draw much of anything else.

Luckily, that's where college humanities classes come in!

One of my classes is a Jazz History class. We listen to all the early greats: Leadbelly, Bix Biederbecke, and, of course, Louis Armstrong. When the teacher speaks, I take notes. But when the music begins to play, so do I! I re-found this sketch during class and decided to finally get it done. I screwed up on the stripes around the feet and hands, so I added some drippy bits and made it like his hands and feet were covered in mud that he threw at the cub. It added a whole new side to the image. Definitely a happy accident. I'm not very happy with how the lion came out, but I'm pretty satisfied the tiger's expression. It captures that panicked plea-bargaining look.