Narnia

I'm in the middle of watching The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe here's some images from my sketch book.

Victorious Viking and boogers

I needed to get some more of my animation in a presentable format so I thought I'd show that off here. It's all stuff that I've shown before at various stages of the creation process. But most of it is at least six months old. Searching through my school stuff I've discovered that a lot of it isn't useful because I've learned and grown a lot since I finished it. I guess it is a good problem to have.

Louie Progress 29 / 200ish

Here's page 29 of my Epic comic adventure Louie! OK so maybe it isn't so epic but it's an epic undertaking for me to finish it. It is coming along nicely if not a little slowly, but that's ok it isn't my highest priority for now.

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.

Animation Workout

I'm finally at a place where polishing my demo reel isn't consuming my life so I thought I would get back to working on my animation skills. Ever since I seen the Jason Ryan tutorials I've been wanting to work on some 2D animation. Actually this is something that I've been interested in since I saw the famous Jason Ryan work flow video at Animation Mentor. I love his work flow and how he uses 2D animation to plan out his 3D work. Computers are great and they do some awesome things but sometimes they just get in the way. Like my grandpa taught me you gotta use the right tool for the right job.

The funny thing is that it is easier to do a bouncing ball in 3D than in 2D! But I got to learn 2D somehow and the classic bouncing ball exercise is a great way to do that. I'm still using the demo version of Plastic Animation Paper which is a great free program but it is difficult to get smooth lines with my current set up. So enjoy my scratchy/rough bouncing ball.

Drawing, Drawing, Drawing

Here's some practice drawing that I've been doing. I've been trying to do more of this stuff to improve my drawing, rendering, and perspective skills. I didn't get to do much of this stuff when I was at CSUH. If I remember right they only required us to take two or three drawing classes. Which was a shame, I remember trying to take more but I could never fit it into my schedule. I'm planning on taking more drawing class in the future at Chabot or online or something. For now I'll keep on doing this sort of stuff.

New Drawing Table!

I'm super excited about my new drawing table. I got it as a Christmas gift from my parents (thanks Mom and Dad) and I just finished putting it together today. Ok, I know this image is pretty crumby but I can't find my camera so I had to use my web cam. There is a bit of a story behind this table. My parents bought me different table that while it was great it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I'll admitt I'm pretty fussy when it comes to things like this. If I'm going to spend hours at a time drawing on this thing I don't want a table that I'm not happy with. So I returned the original table and did a bit more research. I found a couple of tables I really liked but they were way too expensive. I could only spend around $200 but I didn't want something cheaply made. After a lot of debate I decided on the Alvin CraftMaster II Deluxe Hobby and Drawing Station from Utrecht for $179.

Before I made that purchase I wanted to see the table in person just to make sure it was a solidly built table. I didn't want another wobbler. You can only buy the CraftMaster II online but Utrecht had the slightly smaller CraftMaster I in there store. I decided test driving the Craftmaster I would be good enough so yesterday Lisa and I took a trip to Berkley to check it out. But fortune had another plan for us.

As we drove up University Avenue in Berkley we decided to drop by Dick Blick and see what they had. We ended up buying a totally different table at Dick Blick and Utrecht didn't have the CraftMaster in stock. I'm really happy how things turned out. My new table, the Alvin Workmaster Drafting Table, has a large drawing surface and is sturdy too. I love it!

Stan The Man

Check this out.

http://www.1988stantheman.blogspot.com/

Here are some of my favorites.

"Louie: Space Rancher" Character Roll Call

(Click to view larger)

Here's most all of the character's from my up coming comic titled "Louie: Space Rancher". It's a working title for now but it is one that I like. I've been fiddling with this story on and off for over a year and I think I finally got all the bugs ironed out. There are a couple more characters that appear but these guys carry most of the action. That is Louie on the far left and his nemesis the pirate on the far right. I'm planning to first publish "Louie: Space Rancher" on the web and then try Ka-Blam the print on demand printing house to publish a book. But it will probably be awhile before you I start posting the first pages. I want all the pages to come out in a quick and organized fashion with no breaks in the action. I'm thinking of this a learning project so I'll be testing out a bunch of things. It's already been a lot of fun.

Demo Reel and Stuff

Hey there true believers!

I thought I'd post my in progress demo reel. It is the same thing that is under the My Work link to the right but after talking to a couple of you people I don't think anyone ever clicks on the link to check it out. I understand completely. So I thought I'd save you some work and show off my reel. This is the practically the final reel! As soon as I hear back from AM this reel will be sent out to fend for it's self in the big bad world that is the animation industry.

Excelsior!

Editors Note: I just noticed that I left out the credit to Animation Mentor for the creation of the rigs. Oops!

Louie Practice

Here's some practice sketches of Louie the main character in my next comic. I've been practicing inking and just getting a hang of drawing Louie. Some of these sketches are more successful than other but I learned from each one.

Updated walk

Here's the latest on my walk cycle. I really haven't worked on it that much since I last posted it up here. I've been sick and have been working on my other demo reel pieces. I've also been doing some drawing. I'll post some of that sometime soon.

Happy New Year

And a belated Merry Christmas.

I've realized I forgot to post my progress on my walk cycle. This isn't done yet but it's getting there. Some of my favorite people from my animation mentor days gave me some critiques that I haven't addressed because of the busy holiday season. I hope you like it!



Otis Frampton the author of the Oddly Normal series of graphic novels has just started auctioning of some sketch cards on ebay. The first auction if for a pretty sweet King Leonidas card. I like it.