Stone walls

So I've been doing a lot more painting for the show and I needed to take foam carved walls and make them look like ancient temple stone walls. After priming them white, I have them a base layer of warm grey. After that it was just a matter of dirtying then up and throw on some highlights. I had loads of fun doing it. Hope you enjoy.

What I've been up to: RC7!

I've been busy. Busy both artistically and professionally. Thankfully they overlap. I've become the art department coordinator of season 7 of Robot Chicken. And besides crunching numbers and filling out forms I've been able to paint for the show. Here are some examples of the work I've been producing.

Hidden Danger

A quick animation that I just did. Just trying to remind you that YES I still animate. On occasion. Enjoy.

Character Animation

I did this with a digital camera and no Stop Motion capturing software. In a way this was old school, like film, where I hoped that my timing was right as I was shooting it since I wouldn't know until after the fact. No onion skinning or toggle cheats for me. As you can see it's still really fast, but even with "mistakes" like this one I can learn a lot.

My latest animation

This is another quick animation that I did a couple of days ago. I used the only 2 puppets that I have finished (the others if you recall are in various stages of creation) and decided that having them fight wold be a lot of fun. Other than that though, I really had no set plan as to what exactly they would do. I love it when puppets decide on their own what they will do and truly come to life. I hope you enjoy it to!

Puppet Head Take 2

So I kept fiddling with the eyes and the head, and making small modifications to this that and whatever, and when I started making the clothe covering for her head, something kept nagging at me. It took me a week to figure out what that was. What was bothering me and making me feel like something was wrong? Take a look at the picture above and tell me if you can figure it out.

Did you figure it out?

The head is half the size of the body! It is huge and would be really difficult to animate as a full puppet. So I decided she will be my close-up head to practice lip synch. AND I've started on another head, more proportional than the original. Her features are off a little, but I like that. I have a personality already, so now it's more like a sculptor figuring out what the physical being looks like to match that personality. I'm having fun again (is that a requirement? Yes if it's your personal project I think) and it feels like she is really being born. Growing.

I have her first scene decided already in my head, just have to time it out, see where my accents hit and finish her. She will be interacting with the spider from the previous animation, so you can count on a cameo of him.

Oh, and if you say that the 2 heads look completely different its because they are. The bigger head will NOT be the CU of the smaller puppet: more puppets, more people to play with, don't you think?

The body and head con't

Here is the body that I started last year. The reason that that this particular puppet was put aside for so long was because of the way I had wanted to do her eyes. I and now building her hair and will be adding the eyes and eyelids soon. The funny thing is that I can't seem to find the sketchbook that I designed her in, so she is really in a way a redesign. All I remembered where her eyes, which I guess were very important to me. I think originally i was going to give her a movable mouth, but that has been scrapped. I like her being silent and really emoting with her eyes. Hopefully I'll have her finished soon, and you will all be able to see her act soon. Still no suggestions for names? So sad to see a person come to life without a name....

New puppet being born

I started to finish (funny no?) a puppet that I designed over a year ago. Especially since she will now have playmate with my spider. More pictures as she progresses, as well as more animation, coming soon.

This picture is the head and eyes in progress. I think they are sufficiently creepy.

Anyone has suggestions for names?

All 6 Seconds as one Movie!

As promised, here are all 3 dailies in 1 film. A grand total of 6 seconds! Enjoy.

Spider End

So this is the last part of this animation. I may do more next week, depending on my schedule, but either way I will try to splice this together over the weekend. Enjoy!

Spider Nest Take 2

Here is the spider taking the egg (did you get that last time? What with all my lighting and aperture changes and whatnot). The legs again get a little jittery, but I think they sorta work here. So far I'm pretty happy with what's coming out. I can't wait to see this thing all spliced together!

Spider Walk from the Beginning

I started over today. Using the auto-toggle button, and the spider walk cycle research ( I was on the right path, just not quite getting it). It still slides a little (missed a couple of movements with the back legs), but I think it is a vast improvement from yesterday. At the rate I'm going I may have my full scene shot today! I'll post as soon as each 50 frame segment is complete.

Oh, and I fiddled a little with the camera settings through Dragon (nice feature), added some white dry brush and a soft spotlight as well. This way you should be able to tell what the spider is grabbing. Do you know what it is?

Spider Nest

So I switched from shooting on two's over to ones with this one. I thought I had the walk down better, but I think I was wrong. I found the Auto-Toggle button on Dragon and I think my animation improved. Can you tell when I found it?

Dragon Trial is only 50 frames

Why am I telling you this? Because I now have to limit how I shoot, shoot multiple takes and then try to string them together afterward to get proper continuity.

Here is my first 50 frames:

I really didn't know how I was going to make the spider walk. And well I am not 100% happy with said walk, especially not the beginning, but it's movement and animation and I'm finally starting to get things done. I may start over to get proper movement down, and I may have to switch some of the lighting since some details are missing. Hope you enjoy.

Really quick Animatic/Beat Board

So I've been working on a quick practice animation and ended up designing this spider and background. I wanted to start full animation today, but realized that I really had no clue as to what I was gonna make it do. So here is a quick beat board type thing to help me figure out movement, layout and "story". Hope you like it. You'll get full dailies tomorrow.

Enjoy.

UNC: Minds on a Mission

So this is the spot that the globe was created for as well as various other props.

UNC: Minds on a Mission.

I also helped the animator out by being his hand model and all I learned from being animated myself was amazing. I had doped that this year I'd have some of my animation on this blog ready for you all to see, but alas that has not come to pass. I have a week off, so that i may animate, and i will be posting an "End of the Year" post soon, with a lot of interesting insights into this past year in art.

For now, enjoy some animation.

The 72 hour script...

About 2 weeks ago i gave myself an ultimatum....

Well actually it was an idea i got from watching TV. I was watching some really bad horror movie on the Chiller network (which by the way i didn't even know i had) and realized that they had a budget of about a buck twenty, and a weekend to film it on a school campus. This was low budget filmmaking to a "T". And as i saw this, and thought of my armchair critic friends, with their "I could make a better film with my left pinky... if only i actually had the will to move from this chair...", i said to myself: I can do this! I will do this!

And so an IDEA was born. This was a late Friday night, after a long day at work, with 2 more to come. I said i will give myself until monday morning to write a script. Whatever i am left with at that time i will storyboard, design, create and animate in the weeks to come. I knew i would be working on this late at night, working 12 hour days and finishing it in a rush. But in a way that was the point. Don't give yourself time to over think, over design, or procrastinate. By the time i could get bored/distracted with writing it'd be finished. Like the nike ads always said: JUST DO IT!

And so i did. the script is done. I wish i had more time to tweek things here or there. Maybe had more time to embellish or flesh out a couple more scenes. but it is done. The first stage of SB are done. I need to finish designing my characters, so that i can better draw the second draft of the SB. I have most of their personality down, but i am still plugging away. Maybe in a week, i can show you the boards. But for now i have taken to the habit of skating to my local park. Listening to kids play, and i draw the life of these characters, that you will soon one day see.

I encourage you to do the same. Create your own buck twenty mini movie. Don't think big. don't think it can't be done. And even if its animation (which makes people think that it requires massive amounts of time and effort), don't think that we can't make low budget horror/action/love/dramas over a weekend.

The stage is set!

So after much hair pulling and hand wringing, I have finally built my
stage. It's not pretty, but definitely practical. Motion tests soon to
come. Any suggestions for simple actions?