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.

Sequential Exercises #4

Click image for a larger view

Here's my latest sequential exercise. This month I focused on the words and word balloons. In the past this has been a real weakness of mine so here's hoping this works better.

My Terrible Dilemma

You see I have this terrible dilemma. Racing season is coming soon and it's time to replace my mountain bike. So I journeyed across the globe in search for the perfect bike. And by globe I mean Eden Bicycles. I narrowed it down to two bikes, the Scott Spark 15 and the Giant Anthem 1. The Anthem was the best dual suspension race bike on a budget and the Spark 15 was the best bike money could get me (well not really but I'm not going to pay $10,000 for a mountain bike). What am I supposed to do!

Line vs Shape

Red vs Yellow

Good old fashioned chicken racing, enough said.

Walk Cycle Test

I'm working on a walk cycle for my demo reel. Here's a little test I did to get me thinking walk cycles and to plan out some things. 2D animation is hard!

Land Narwhals Rule!

One of my favorite bloggers Mr. Andrew Fulton over at his blog mumblier called upon his mutant ability to create awesomeness and drew a Land Narwhal. How cool is that? Go check it out!

http://mumblier.bundle.com.au/mumble/2007/dec/land-narwhal-eats-some-heads

Blog Stats

Last week on a whim I installed a free traffic counter on this blog and I got some interesting results. Of the 35 unique hits I got 2 of them were from Egypt! Of the 35 hits 15% of them came from countries that don't speak English as their native language. That's pretty cool. Most of my traffic comes from the Flight forums. People read one of my posts and then check out the link in my signature that points the here.

	19	54.29%	United States
	4	11.43%	Canada
	3	8.57%	Unknown	-
	3	8.57%	United Kingdom
	2	5.71%	Egypt
	1	2.86%	India
	1	2.86%	Australia
	1	2.86%	Bolivia
	1	2.86%	Lithuania

Some times when I'm throwing stuff up here I don't really think anyone reads it except maybe my family. But I guess people do read what I'm posting. Not that 35 people is that much, but hey its something.

--I just updated my demo reel. You can get to it by clicking on either of the two "My Demo Reel" links on the side bar to the right. Or just click here to view the QuickTime version. There's some more polishing I need to do but there where a couple of studios that I wanted to send a reel to before it was too late. If you are reading this in the year 2008 or later. I'm sure the link will be dead and a newer version will be available somewhere else.--

About My New Blog Tittle Image

So I finally put up some of my own art behind the title. Honestly I'm not too happy with it. Originally I thought it would be cool to have some of my sketches up behind the blog title. I don't think it was a bad idea but I don't like how it turned out. I'll probably change it later on.

Here's all the images I started with. I just selected a bunch of images from my sketch book that I thought where fun. Not necessarily my best art but images that I thought had the most appeal to them. Appeal (at least in the animation world) is kind of a nebulous term. It encompasses good art but it also covers things that are just fun, interesting, or engrossing to look at. A super simple cartoon character, a beautiful woman, and a rotting corpse can all have appeal. They just have different kinds of appeal. Any who, here's the image. Your probably going to have to click on it so you can see it better.

YouTube Dump

I was going to post about four Youtube clips on Ira Glass talking story creation. But then in the process of watching the videos I found this. . .



I can’t believe people actually get together and do this! I’m jealous. Oh in case you wanted something not so goofy, here are the links to those Ira Glass storytelling clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7KQ4vkiNUk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qmtwa1yZRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9blgOboiGMQ

Ape Chase

Click the comic for a closer look.

I've been a little slow in getting this one out. It has been done for a week or so but with Thanksgiving and everything well . . . Thanks Amy for giving me a little push.

10-12 with 71Paul2

Last night I went a ride-a-long with my brother Joe. According to Joe it was a quiet night. But is seemed like non-stop action to me. I got to see a domestic disturbance call where a son and father got into a shouting match, but everything ended up cool. I saw a bunch of Vietnamese gang members that who had 10 machetes, a couple of samurai swords, and baseball bats in their trunk get to go scott-free cause they knew the system. I saw the aftermath of a drunk who flipped his car getting off 101. I also saw a crazy old Mexican slum lord lady who charged a family of five $800 a month for a 15x10 room with no kitchen and only a communal bathroom that was shared by all the other tenants. I got to watch as my bro with the help of another officer cleared a Grocery store with guns drawn. I also got a little lesson in prison tattoos from an 20 something ex-con (I mean parolee) who Joe pulled over for a broken license plate light. My sketch above is from my two guys who Joe stopped outside a motel. One of them was on probation (which means he could be searched at any time), a quick search of their room only revealed the stench of marijuana but no actual drugs so they got off free too.

It was a busy night. By the time 6:30am rolled around I was really tired but had a new appreciation for cops and a new understanding of how hard police work is these days.

Eekeemoo Fan Art

Here's some fan art that I did for Eekeemoo.

Eekeemoo is the silent web comic that I've been following on the Flight Forums by Willy MJ about Eekeemoo the Eskimo and his ogre friend. It is in a different format than most web comics which makes for some fun reading. The art is unique and fun and adds a nice flavor to the story. All in all it is great read that I've been following for about six months now. The UK comic artist Willy MJ is just finishing up with the second part of the three part series that I believe he started at the beginning of the year. Eekeemoo has slowly grown on me till I can't wait to find out what happens next. But come on, how can you go wrong with an epic adventure with an Eskimo, ogres, singing rocks, a giant octopuss, and dragons creatures?

More Playing With Inking techniques

Still playing with inking techniques.

I liked how the second one (the blue one) turned out. I think I could have pushed it a bit farther but I liked the results. I drew it with a non photo blue pencil and then "inked" it with pencils. The only problem was that it was really time consuming to scan it in and prepare it for coloring.
The other drawing (green tentacle guy with flower) was one of the fast methods I've tried out yet. It didn't take long to ink or prepare it in photoshop for coloring. I've been looking at a lot of Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes) and Sergio Aragones (of Groo)art for inspiration. I really like the loose feel to their work even though their styles are very different. After studying those two I came up with this approach. My drawing style can't be called loose by any stretch of the imagination but I'm hoping to loosen up a bit for speed sake and for the look and feel that approach achieves.
I'm trying to speed up my inking so I can create my comics faster. That's why I've been trying out different inking methods. I've got a longish comic book (50 pages) story thumb nailed out/written and I don't want it to take a year for me to draw it in my free time. I also have been playing with an graphic novel series idea that if I'm ever going to finish I would either have to work at it full time for 7 plus years or get really fast at drawing and inking. Now realistically I probably won't start drawing my graphic novel epic for several years. But the worm of that idea has been burrowing in my brain for more than 4 years now.
I don't believe fast inking and drawing is something to strive for in and of itself. If I can't find an efficient inking style that I like the look of I'll just have to do with a slower style. The art should serve the story not the clock. But even so its good to have a reasonable production schedule.

Happy Boo Day

OK this isn't Halloween related at all but it's a inspiring video none the less.

Playing With Inking Techniques

Both these guys were inking digitally but with different style. Inking digitally takes me about the same amount of time that inking with real ink pens, but inking digitally allows me to correct my mistakes. I like the top inking job (Godzilla type lizard) better but the lower inking job (hairy monster thing) was a much faster style.

The Humans Are Dead

--language warning--

Stewie The Merciless!

Here's a little animation that I'm planning to use for my demo reel. I'm still in the process of polishing it but I feel it's coming along nicely and is ready for public critique. It was originally an assignment from Class 2 at Animation Mentor. Which was completed in June of 06. I've learned a lot since then and going back in and massaging the animation was difficult at times because of the funky way I animated it. Hopefully this will be the least strongest piece on my reel. I'm including it mainly to to show off my knowledge of body mechanics. I'm thinking about ditching the Viking helmet. I think two "Viking" pieces (this one and my short) on a demo reel is one to many.

Hagrid

Here's a digitally colored pen and ink drawing of Hagrid. Although now that I look at him he kind of looks like Saddam Hussein.

Gimbel Lock Villain

The AM weekly sketch club topic was Gimbel Lock Villain, this is my interpretation. There's nothing more scary than a cross eyed monkey in underpants with a wrench. For you non 3D animators out there let me explain what gimbel lock is, gimbel lock happens when . . . uh . . . well lets just say its a very frustrating problem 3D animators run into now and again.

Long over due

Sorry the blog's been quiet for a while. But I've been busy as always. I've finished AM. That's me over on the far left side about half way up.


I've been working on my demo reel and short. I bought an Nintendo Wii and have been playing tennis till my my shoulders ache. Who would have thought you could get tennis elbow from a video game. I've been riding my mountain bike. I've been painting. I've been spending time with my wife. I've been working on some comics and drawing.


That bottom doodle is of three characters from a online comic I've been working on and off again for the past year. The story is almost done. I'm taking it slow and I hope to start drawing in January. The story will be in black and white but I've been playing with different methods of coloring and inking things to see what works for me.

I also decided to be a Peer Buddy at AM this quarter. Peer buddies are like student tutors at Animation Mentor. This enables me to stay in touch with all the great students still enrolled at AM. It also helps me work on my critiquing skills and animation eye.



It's been great! I'm getting to do all the things I didn't have time to do with all the deadlines and homework that go along with school. In a couple of months I should have my demo reel ready and then hopefully I'll get a job. Then I won't have time to do all the things I can do now. So I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Monkeys are funny

Lunch Time Fan Art

At lunch I whipped up a quick sketch of some of the characters from th web comic Bug and Worm. It was of those rare comics that is made to be seen on the computer screen and it is really funny too. I laughed out loud many times as I read through the archives. I found the comic on the Flight forums and when the creator, Al B Moore was looking for sketches. I think this might get posted up on the Bug and Worm site as well.

AM Class 7 week 9

Now that blogger supports video a little more easier I'd thought I'd post some of my homework. This is the first third of my short. This is by far the most challenging third but it's coming along.