Figure Drawing

I haven't had as much time as I would like but I've managed to get some figure drawing in. I'm building that wall one brick at a time.

A Few Pictures

I've been working and playing hard over the last couple of weeks. Here's some pictures from my adventures. I should have another animation workout posted up soon.

But Don't Talk Back To Darth Vader

Faces

I have taken some contract work with Walsh Family Media on a short which is a lot of fun. The contract sort of fell into my lap and I had it before I realized it. So with my new status as a professional animator, finishing up at Eden Bicycles, racing my mountain bike last Sunday (I felt like I raced well but I finished pretty low in my category), and life in general I haven't made progress on Louie. So far I've got 22 pages of 200. Here's a page from my sketch book that I doodled in yesterday while Lisa and I babysat my niece and nephew.

Animation Work Out 3

Things are moving along with the job search but until I have any news on that front I show you this test I've been working on. Spacing has been a difficult thing for me to really understand. A lot of times my spacing suffers from being a bit two harsh. Especially my transitions from pose to pose pop a little too much. It's something I've been trying to improve and something I've been trying to remedy during my 2D practice time. I recently had a revelation when looking over my notes from AM when I saw this...


I found this neat spacing trick on some animators blog but I can't remember where it was from. If somebody knows who did this let me know so I can credit them. Anyways I believe my spacing problem might be occurring during the blocking stage and not during the transition from blocking to splines. So I pulled out the old wacom tablet and did this test. For those non animators out there the bottom circle/ball thingie has slightly different spacing when it starts and stops which feels much smoother to me. And if these drawings where cleaned up you could see and feel the difference even more.

Louie Progress 16 / 200ish

To prove to you all that I'm making progress on my first graphic novella here's page 5 of Louie the Space Rancher. I call it a graphic novella cause it's over 48 pages which you could still call a comic or a floppy but it is under 100 pages so it isn't at graphic novel length. Although I have to say graphic novella sounds pretty snotty. I got 16 pages drawn and inked so far and it has been a lot of fun and a great learning experience so far. I'd like to start posting the story by June, but who knows what my schedule is going to look like this year.

Ape Lad: Pappy and the Cryptids.

I wish I had a Pappy with a robotic hand.

Animation Workout 2

Here is my next animation workout. It is still on 2's and I'm more trying to focus on the principles than getting a polished piece of animation to show off. I love the way 2D doesn't allow you to be lazy. It forces me to think before I draw and not just start moving things around like can be done in 3D.