Emmett Animated

Tucson Comic Con 2012

2011-11-07T12:06:00.001-08:00

I had a great time this weekend at the 2012 Tucson Comic Con hanging out with my bro David Rivera! And while I've been to a few comic cons in the past, this was my first time on the vendors side of the table! It was a fantastic chance for me to absorb some of the local art, hang out with talented artists and really get my finger on the pulse of comics today.

I really want to thank every one who came by and purchased items from my table. It was quite an exhilarated feeling seeing people excited to buy my stuff. It was all so surreal actually. Every artist I talked to at the Con was amazing and so incredibly nice. People like Brian Garvey, Andy Carreon, Ben Glendenning and family, Travis Hanson, and Ken from CFN were truly a pleasure to meet and chat with.

I want to especially thank my table-mates, Jason, Autumn and Jared. Jason Worthington is an inker/artist working on the comic Cheerleaders vs Zombies with writer Jared (sorry I don't have his last name). These three were instrumental in explaining the ropes of how to handle a con from the other side of the table. Jason had a ton a helpful hints and marketing ideas I could use based on my current work. Being new to this, I was lucky to be sitting next to these three. I look forward to hanging out with them at the Phoenix Comic Con in May!

Furniture Connextion TV Spot Blow Out Sale

2011-10-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

I had two days to put this spot together. It was pretty challenging.

New American Openings Commercial I put together

2011-09-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Fashion Show

2011-04-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

This was done pro bono for a charity event, so I only had a limited time to work on it. Took about 4 hrs from start to finish. Longest part was designing the fancy logo.

More Elastek

2011-04-22T23:21:00.000-07:00

Here is another piece I worked on.

Where have I been?

2011-04-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to share some of the work that I've been producing over the past few months. I won't throw everything out there at once (because holy shit, there's a lot), instead I'll gradually release them over time. So without further delay...

Here's a 15 sec spot I did for Elastek. Aired in Tucson about two weeks ago.

Great News!

2010-12-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

I know it seems like I've not kept up with my previous agenda, but some fortunate things have come my way. A week and 1/2 ago I applied for a motion graphics job here in town. Since I have no experience the firm decided to give me a series of tests. After completing them, I received an email stating that I passed and now have a job with Tucci Creative! SWEEEEEEET!

Digital Painting

2010-12-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

As I stated a few days ago, I just finished a major revamp of my portfolio site. And in doing so, I've come to realize that my site is sorely lacking when it comes to content. So, in order to rectify that issue, I've planned to do two digital paintings a week, for the next 31 weeks and I'll be using this site to keep myself accountable. That's roughly 8 months and 72 new digital paintings. At that point I plan to apply for jobs in the industry again. I've been spending so much time and energy trying to find work that I forgot the most important thing related to my search... perfecting my craft!

I'll be following a number of tutorials, some purchased (Gnomon) and some free (Feng Zhu's Design Cinema) to round out my technique. Currently my portfolio is lacking in several areas; vehicles, props, environments (indoor and outdoor) and human characters. My two main focuses will be speed and quality. After a few months of this, I'm sure my speed will increase and I'll be able to produce several paintings per week, which I will post here. However, no matter how fast I become, my original goal of at least two paintings a week will remain the same. This will help to keep my stress level down, just in case I can't produce more paintings due to work, life or whatever.

I don't want to create a specific schedule that tells me what to draw on any given day, but I do want to follow some sort of guideline. As I stated above, my portfolio lacks vehicles, props, environments and characters. Coupled with that is the fact that I want to work in either the game, television or motion picture industry. I'll float from topic to topic designing what I want, when I want, for whatever I want. So for example, I'll design props for games one week and human characters for an animated television series the next. Or maybe an environment for a live action movie one day and a few vehicles for a game the next. These designs will have to vary greatly depending on their needs. Lets face it, a 2D television prop will vary greatly from a live action motion picture prop.

Stay tuned.

Portfolio facelift

2010-12-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

I finally purchased my domain name and updated my portfolio site which not only looks more professional, but is easier to navigate. I'm working on new content to add and will be posting WIPs in the near future.

Getting Animated... the Finale!

2010-12-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

After an entire month of working on my animation for the 11 Second Club’s November 2010 competition I have to say… I’m spent! It was a long month of boundary pushing and self discovery. In the end, it was a valuable lesson in self management. In all, I spent 10 days putting the animation together. That’s everything from character designs and story ideas, to blocking and animation. And as an added bonus/torture, I decided to do the entire animation old school. That’s right, 2D animation!
But not new, cutting age 2D animation using cool programs like Flash or Toonboom! Oh no, I went OLD SCHOOL using paper and shooting my work with a camera. A CAMERA!!! What was I thinking!? Shooting takes forever and trying to align the many uneven animation bond peg holes was a nightmare, not to mention a colossal waste of precious time. In hindsight, I now realize that paper animation is probably not an option I should pursue for future animated pieces. Next time I do something like this, it will be done with a WACOM in a program like Flash or Photoshop.
The competition ended last night and in typical Hollywood bomb-diffusing fashion, I submitted my entry with literally 14 seconds to go. Seriously! Yesterday, of all days, was a day chock full of frustrations and setbacks. After nine days of relative ease, the 10^th and last day of my animation was a bizarre twist of events that I’m sure took a few years off of my life. However, after all was said and done I successfully accomplished the task I set out to achieve. Not even crashing programs, choked renders or unsuccessful uploads could stop me. Let’s face it, any one who knows me knows I’ve never been one to give up when faced with a crisis.
And after pushing myself, again, I can honestly say that this was an incredibly positive experience for me. It was kind of like a crash landing that you live through. What’s that saying “Any landing you can walk away from”? So… what will I take away from this experience? Work faster! Plan better! And export your files at least a week before the end of the competition!
As far as animation goes, my submission is by no means complete, but its done and that’s saying something. So for your viewing pleasure I give you… my animation.

I placed 99th out of 295in the competition.

Getting Animated Log 11/28/10

2010-11-28T20:33:00.000-08:00

I'm still here! Been working on the short and I'm almost done. Only two days left to get it finished and I'm a little behind. I'm putting the finishing touches on the first guy and still hammering out the second guy. If I spend all day Monday and Tuesday working on this I should be able to get it done.

Getting Animated Log 11/17/10

2010-11-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

Here are the keys for skinny guy.

Getting Animated Log 11/10/10

2010-11-11T10:36:00.001-08:00

After the first week of working on my animation for the 11 Second Club competition, I realized that I may not have given enough thought to my schedule. Well at least my blogging schedule. Originally, I planned to blog about my process every Monday, Wednesday and Friday which seemed feasible; however, I realized this Monday that I spend absolutely no time over the weekend working on the project, because I’m with my family.
So my conclusion? No Monday blog. And besides, between my job and tutoring, I only have Tuesday and Thursday to really work on it.
And to add to this, while rearranging my studio this weekend I somehow knocked out my scanner. It still prints, but for some reason it will not scan. It's a shame too because I have so much stuff to share. So as a work around I've decided to use my digital camera to photograph my drawings. I'll be attaching them toward the end of the day.
Update:
Okay here are some more drawings.

Getting Animated Log 11/5/10

2010-11-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

After a few dozen drawings, I've narrowed down my character designs to these two. I still like the elves and the snails, but I think these two will do just fine. This is a different type of style for me and I think animating them is going to be a blast!

Still working on blocking, but its pretty much done. Moving on to key frames and timing.

Getting Animated Log 11/3/10

2010-11-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

I spent the greater part of yesterday morning acting out the sound bite which, for me, was a ton of fun. I then began working out my staging and found major poses in my performance that should be pushed further and made some notes. I’m aiming for exaggerated, but strong silhouettes here.

Here are a few stills from my performance.

I then began fleshing out character designs based on my original thoughts after hearing the sound clip for the first time. At the time, I didn’t realize this was a clip from “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”, but I still pictured a skinny guy yelling at an overweight guy. More than likely, it was an Abbott and Costello memory working its way into my thought process. It’s weird how the brain works. Anyway, I came up with everything from anthropomorphic animals like snails, cats, birds and buffalos, to robots and less creature oriented characters like elves (the Santa Clause variety) and people. With every incarnation, I created a new gag to support the character design. The snails were fighting over a shell, the cats were fighting over a bowl of cat food, the elves were arguing about a present in the factory, etc. Currently I’m not happy with any of the designs, but I’ll be posting them on Friday anyway. I really like the elves so far and may develop that a bit further.

I’m shooting for completed character designs by Friday and finished blocking by this weekend. Since I work all week, Friday’s blog probably won’t be up until later that evening.

Stay tuned!

Getting Animated

2010-11-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I’m an animation graduate from the Art Center and life has been good, but sometimes life comes at you sideways. Lately I've been so preoccupied with concept stuff and freelancing that I've almost forgotten the joys of making pictures move. And while illustration is my first love, I've been dying to get back to my scholastic roots. It’s time to animate something!

Admittedly it's been a while since I’ve had the pleasure of animating. And because of this, it would probably be prudent of me to ease back into animating; however, those of you who know me know that I never ease into anything. If I'm not jumping in feet first, it's just not worth it. So I thought I'd throw myself in by entering the 11 Second Club’s competition for November 2010. Sound bite can be found here. For those of you unfamiliar with the 11 Second Club, check this out...

"The 11 Second Club is a monthly character animation competition. Animators from all over the world participate, animating a character speaking a line of dialogue provided by the club. Throughout the competition, participants can share their progress with each other and critique each other's work. At the end of the month, everyone votes for whose submission they consider the best for that month. The idea is to give animators a chance to practice their skills in a fun, challenging environment.. " - via http://www.11secondclub.com/home/FAQ/

This is going to be a huge undertaking, so I'll use this blog as a way of documenting this journey and keeping myself accountable. I'll include updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and plan to be finished by Monday November 29th. Time is important, and after reading dozens of posts on the 11 Second Club's site, it seems that most people need at least 40+ hrs to complete their animations. I have no idea how long it's going to take me, but 40 hours seems appropriate for 11 seconds of animation. That gives me 10 hours per week, at the very least, to work on my animation. Sounds like fun, huh? So why don’t you join me?

I challenge you other animation students out there to take up your pencils, or other preferred medium, and enter the contest too. If you have a blog to document your production, send me the link and I’ll include your process here.

For those of you curious, here's my planned schedule below;

Week 1- Character designs, filming my live performance, key framing

Week 2- Key framing, animating (lip sync, timing, etc)

Week 3- Animating and editing

Week 4- Finish animating and editing

I plan to do a 2D piece and since the contest is based on performance, I can forgo color and turn in something that’s a bit rough. That will give me more time to concentrate on my acting which, by far, is the most important thing. Hope to hear from you and stay tuned for the next update on Wednesday.

Please feel free to leave any suggestions or comments. Thanks for stopping by.

Style Test

2010-09-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Some quick sketches, trying out a different look. Thanks for stopping by.

Frozen Tundra

2010-09-08T01:28:00.001-07:00

Abstract faces

2010-09-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

Searching

2010-08-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

Gun Final

2010-08-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the final render. Not a whole lot added since the last, but it took me an additional 40min to render. Even added some functionality with the extension in the butt of the riffle.

Created completely in Photoshop CS3 using a 4x6 WACOM Sapphire.

Gun part 2 WIP

2010-08-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

This render took about an hour and its not done. Since this is my first gun, I'm not as confident as I am with other paintings so I'm experimenting a lot. Because of this, the painting is taking longer than anticipated. oh well. Going to bed. I'll do more tomorrow.

Created using Photoshop CS3 and 4x6 WACOM Sapphire.

GUNS!!

2010-08-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

So here's my first attempt at some firearms. Just some quick silhouettes.

I'll pick a few of them to render and post them as I go.

Video of my process pt2

2010-08-01T22:15:00.001-07:00

And here's the second part.

Video of my process pt1

2010-08-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

It took a bit, but here's the video. I want to apologize for the first 2min of the video. I saved in parts and didn't realize that the video settings were off. I fixed it later, but the first 2min are horrible quality.

Final Stage complete

2010-08-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

Another couple of hours and here's the final piece. In all it took me 4.5hrs from concept to completion.

Created using Photoshop CS3 and a 4x6 WACOM Sapphire.

Stage 2 complete!

2010-07-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

Okay it's been 2hrs and this is what I have to show. Not quite done yet, but it's not looking too bad. I've still got some work to do on the eyes, and the skin isn't quite right. I also captured this 2hr session on video and will be putting it together and releasing it here in a little while. After that, I'll continue to add some final touches on my newest creature then it's on to another painting.

First stage done

2010-07-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

Okay here they are. I designed 10 different creatures, but only felt comfortable with 6 of them. My youngest son really likes #6 and so do I. Next I'm going to take a couple of hours to render this guy out. We're going to eat lunch right now and I'll be back @ 1:30pm to start. Which means I have until 3:30pm to render this guy.

Sketches done completely in Photoshop CS3 using a 4x6 WACOM Sapphire.

Portfolio Update

2010-07-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

Check out my new and improved portfolio! Boy did I really trimmed the fat this time. It seems so empty, but I'll be adding more work as the weeks progress.

Just finished teaching at Teen Camp and, coincidentally, all of my freelance projects are officially done. Gonna take some much needed time off from freelancing to draw and animate... starting today.

I want to round out my portfolio by adding some character concepts, production paintings, matte paintings, props, robots and vehicle designs. Oh, and of course some more creature designs!

I'm gonna start with my favorite subject, creature design, and go from there. First I'm going to challenge myself to come up with as many concepts as I can in half an hour. When I'm done I'll arrange them on one page, post it here and start with the second stage. See you in half an hour.

How Emmett got his groove back

2010-06-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

Man, I've been away far too long. With my new and improved job (which comes with more hours) and all of the freelance I've been getting, it's really hard working out a good time to maintain the blog. To be honest with you, this stuff is really killing me inside. It pays the bills, but I need to get back to my roots. I really miss concept art. So to remedy my creative blues, I've set up a series of activities to further explore concept art and to push my style in new and exciting directions. Stay tuned, new events or on the horizon.

Zombie revisited

2010-04-19T09:59:00.001-07:00

Color version of the zombie I did a while back. Added some more detail to him too.

Color version rendered in Photoshop CS3 using a small ass 4x6 WACOM Sapphire.

Thanks for stopping by.

I vant 2 sux ur blood foo!

2010-02-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

Not something I normally draw but it disturbs me how infatuated little girls are with these guys. And what's even more disturbing is the networks and movie houses casual attitude toward promoting these relationships. The guy looks like a teenager but he's older than your grandpa! Eeew! I'm 37 and looking at a 16 year old is just gross, but apparently once you reach 200, 16 is the new 30. lol

And while this may be a departure from my typical style I rather like it! Hmm... I think he needs some company.

Development process

2010-02-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

Quick look at my process.

Woodviper finished!

2010-02-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

Finished this up, again right before work. Total time from sketch to finish about 5hrs.

Done using Photoshop CS3 and a 4x6 WACOM Sapphire.

Woodviper WIP#4

2010-02-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

On my way to work, but wanted to post progress on Woodviper. Enjoy!

Woodviper WIP#3

2010-02-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

Color breaks I did yesterday before work and I hate them all. lol
Back to the WACOM board.

Woodviper WIP#2

2010-02-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've cleaned up the rough outline. Now for the hard part.
Color breaks. ARRGH!!
I always find the process before and after color breaks to be the easiest, because that stuff is all about technique, but trying to figure out color is always tough for me.

Woodviper revisted (WIP)

2010-02-01T10:45:00.001-08:00

Working on further developing the Woodviper I created a while back. I decided to make them a tribal culture instead of animals like originally depicted here.
A work in progress all done in Photoshop.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

2010-01-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

I feel very much like Bill and Ted right now. It seems that in my excitement to produce more work, I decided to work on more than one drawing project at a time. That, my friends, had to be the dumbest idea ever!!!!

So now, after wasting a couple of weeks, I have almost 10 paintings/drawings in various stages of development. And the best part, is that not all of them are good. ARRRRGH!!! WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!

Needless to say, after some heavy self-evaluation I had to pull the plug on all of them. I may revisit them one at a time in the future, but for now I'm going to move forward. It was a positive experience I think because they were kinda' like exercise and all of them can be used as inspirational pieces at some point in the future. I have things under control now, and I'm back on the right path again.

WIP "Oh C'mon!"

2009-12-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

Work in progress.
I always picture him saying "You're killing me Smalls! You're killing me!" lol

Faces #2

2009-12-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

Just some quick doodles of faces.

Dancing Queen Color

2009-12-28T01:23:00.000-08:00

Damn this is really girlie. Moving on.

I see...

2009-12-26T14:58:00.000-08:00

So glad this one is finished. Took a little longer than usual, but on to the next.

Fun with faces

2009-12-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

Just some doodling goodness.

Shake your grove thang!

2009-12-16T22:42:00.000-08:00

Nothing's more adorable than watching your girl dance around in your boxers and her bra. NOTHING! :)

I got something in my eye!

2009-11-19T11:09:00.000-08:00

Here's another creature portrait and I have to say that this one is kinda' scary. I really love creating creatures, but I think I'm going to change gears for my next piece. It's really hard to believe that the above pic started out like this

Original concept. Crazy!

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Big Smile!

2009-11-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

Been working on a lot of paintings lately. Here's my latest creature concept. Done in Photoshop in 6hrs. Also included WIP of this painting, to document my process.

Zombie Family

2009-10-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

A family that eats brains together......

Friends?

2009-10-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

Geraldine meets Tombaugh.
A quick 2 1/2 hour sketch. Done in Photoshop.

Bride of Zombie!

2009-10-16T16:33:00.001-07:00

Now my guy zombie has a girl zombie to hang with.
Aw... it's zombie love at first sight. Would it be weird to make a whole zombie family? You know, a dog, two and half kids, LOL! I see it now, one kid walking and one kid dragging only the top half. Wow, that's really disturbing... even for me.

Zombification

2009-10-15T13:04:00.001-07:00

Brains are tasty... so I'm told. I've been obsessed with zombies lately, so I thought I'd paint one real quick. Two hours from silhouettes to final. You know, I think I'll kick this up a notch and create some little playmates for him.
BWAHAHAHAHA!

Moleskinery

2009-10-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

Fun times again! While working on my new creature concept I decided to get some much needed penning out of my system.

Finished Creature 3

2009-10-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, gave myself a deadline and had to be finished by 1pm today. So here's the finished piece. Took 5hrs from silhouette to finish.

New Creature Concept WIP

2009-10-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a brief look at my process for creating a creature/monster. All drawn with a mechanical pencil and a prismacolor pen.
I want to apologize, up front, for the crappy quality. All my pics are taken with either my camera phone, because its convenient, or my Sony digital camera. One day I'll get a scanner that works with Vista, until then....

Sketching is food for the soul

2009-09-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some random pics from my sketch pad. Last one was colored in Photoshop.

Pima West Campus

Monster concept

Dee sleeping

Ayesha concept

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Skinned!

2009-09-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

Throughout my life I have owned several drawing pads, ranging in size, surface texture, weight, etc. Recently I purchased my very first Moleskine drawing pad. OMG, it's the most amazing thing ever! I've had people tell me about them before, but I really had no idea it would be this awesome. It's like discovering gold in your own back yard, or the one unifying equation that explains the variations in string theory. Okay, maybe its not quite like the latter, but its definitely up there. Here are a few of my scribbles.

Boarding Party! Argh!

2009-09-18T12:41:00.001-07:00

So I've been working on this project with Animux called "Prince Harming to Prince Charming". More info on the project can be found at their site http://ph2pc.animux.org/

The guys over at Animux requested that the boards be done in GIMP. I've never used GIMP before, but its turning out to be a really cool application. Here are a few of the boards I've been working on. All of these boards, as well as others, can be found on their flickr site.

Progressive Painting pt 6 FINAL

2009-08-30T13:21:00.001-07:00

Finished painting. Started to nit pick and that's when I knew I needed to step away from this.

Progressive Painting pt 5

2009-08-30T13:17:00.001-07:00

Flipped it back and adding the elements.

Progressive Painting pt 4

2009-08-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Turn it 'round, flip it , and reverse it!

Progressive Painting pt 3

2009-08-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

So here are a few color concepts.

Color issues

2009-08-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

I forgot how horrible my monitor is at home. Everything looks awesome because the monitor is so old and dim, but when I get to school and look at my work there I notice how blown out the colors are. Arrgh! I'm just looking at my progressive paintings and they look horrible. The color is waaaaaaaay off. I have a newer monitor, but it's really small compared to my old one. Oh well, I'll have to sacrifice space for quality. Guess I'll fix it once I'm home tonight.
Won't post again until issue is resolved.

Progressive Painting pt 2

2009-08-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the next part.
A city underground might be fun to paint.

Progressive Painting

2009-08-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd display my process for this next painting. So I'll post new images as I go. I won't have another day off until next Sunday so I'll work on this at night after I get off work.

Here's the first. Just laying down value. I have an idea in mind so I want to explore light composition.

Dee suggested I do some type of cave environment, and I thought it would fall right in line with my next concept which is suppose to be some type of volcanic environment.

Cell tested and approved!

2009-08-21T12:24:00.001-07:00

test from mobile!
Well it looks like I can txt straight from my phone to my blog. Awesome!
I can be anywhere snap a photo of something I'm working on and send it to my blog. Now that's innovation!

Stay on target!

2009-08-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's finally finished! On to the next. Think I'm going to work on a volcanic (hot) scene next.

SIGGRAPH 2009!

2009-08-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

I just got back from SIGGRAPH 2009 and it was a blast! Unfortunately it was much smaller than last year, but on the upside it took place in my home town of New Orleans. I got to see some very familiar places, as well as view the destruction of Katrina (I haven't been back since the hurricane). I met some new friends and hung out with some old ones I made at SIGGRAPH 2008. Overall, I have to say that it was an incredibly positive experience (despite the heat lol). I had my portfolio reviewed by Disney and got some positive feedback. There are a few things I'll need to change, but I'm confident I'll be able to crank out a nice flatbook in a few weeks. Already working on my next piece and it's nearly finished.
I have to say, I'm going about this next project the wrong way. COMPLETELY the wrong way! lol No thumbnails, no idea, no planning. And because of this, I've already spent over 7hrs on it. Definitely not the way I work, but I have to stretch my legs and try new things from time to time. Anyway I've posted a preview. Should be done by tomorrow. Have to work tonight. :)

SIGGRAPH bound!

2009-07-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't blogged in a while. Things have been a little crazy lately. Found out that my school/job is going to SIGGRAPH which is flippin’ awesome. But even better was the fact that they wanted me to help out with preparation of the booth and school demo reel! So for the past few weeks that’s all I’ve been doing. And because I’m helping out the school is going to send me to SIGGRAPH, so I get to go again this year! Some of you may know that SIGGRAPH is in my home town of New Orleans this year (and if you didn’t, now you do). I get to go home! I haven’t been to New Orleans since 98. How sad is that? Going to crank out some new work this week but probably won’t post it until I get back. YAY!

Concept Creature Up Close

2009-07-12T03:14:00.000-07:00

So I took my creature concept and did a color version of her head. All done in Photoshop CS3 in about 4hrs. I love what I do!

New creature!

2009-07-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

My next creature concept. This one took slightly longer to complete, roughly 6hrs. Had some issues trying to figure out his musculature. Overall I'm happy with it. Erased and redrew a ton of times. :)

New creature concept

2009-06-27T00:50:00.000-07:00

New creature I banged out today. Feels really good drawing on paper again. I've gotten so used to drawing on my WACOM that I forgot how awesome it is to draw on paper with pencil. More to come.

Back from vacation!

2009-06-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

Finally back from my vacation!! I've spent the past few weeks lounging and relaxing with my family, but now its time to get back to work. I have plans to crank out new digital paintings at least once a week and I'll be drawing like mad everyday. Did some drawing last night and it felt good!
A new day begins!

Demo Reel May 2009

2009-05-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

My current Demo Reel.

Business Card Goodies

2009-05-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Some examples of my business cards. I've designed 10 different cards so far and the number is always growing. Handing out cards with different drawings on them is always fun!

The image below is my logo and appears on the back of each card.

Flat out craziness!

2009-05-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

Here are the pages from my (current) Flatbook. Of course this is due to change over time. :)

FIN!

2009-05-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

So it's all over! I've graduated and decided to take a short, but much needed, vacation. Well I guess seven days in California isn't really all that short. Or is it? Guess it depends on how you look at it.
Anyway, I'm going to be posting some of my flat book work soon. Only have hirez versions of my pages, so I have to resave them all. That should only take a few minutes then I'll upload them.
I got some great feedback on my final flatbook, demo reel (which will be up here soon), and my business cards.
Well I should get going, I promised myself I wouldn't work until 5-26-09.
Peace!

Hark! Is that animation I smell?

2009-04-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

Tue Apr 28, 2009, 2:30 PM

I have some yummy animation for you!!! Okay, it's only one shot, but it's finished animation!

Home Stretch!!!

2009-04-28T14:22:00.002-07:00

Thu Apr 23, 2009, 11:13 PM

Only 16 shots left! OMG its almost over! Well sort of, let me rephrase that. Only 16 shots of rough animation left! Then I have to start working on the final color animation.

I graduate in 2 weeks and I'm stressing about this short. I haven't even started my website, demo reel, or my business cards. My flatbook is nearly finished though. Small comfort compared to all that needs to be done in a weeks time. AARGH!!

Where did this semester go?

Merry Movement

2009-04-28T14:22:00.001-07:00

Thu Apr 9, 2009, 12:21 AM

Just finished 27, 28, and 32 today. Not saying much though, 27 and 28 are just pans. But I got the timing down on shot 32. The movement is pretty fun too. Jack tosses his second barrel at Emma and steps back slightly after the toss. Not sure why I added the rebound though. I got to the end of the animation and was adding the settle when I thought a little bounce at the end might give him a little more oomph! Well it worked and I love the finished rough. You can check it out here

[link]

Tomorrow's my big working day. Going to concentrate on finishing up the majority of the 20s. The cool thing is that I have 3 more shots until I hit my halfway point! Really excited about that. On top of that I have about 4 more pan shots to do. Easy shots.
I gotta say, this project is exhausting. It's a little after midnight and I'm tired as hell. Well going to bed. Night!

Hit the 20 mark!

2009-04-28T14:21:00.001-07:00

Mon Apr 6, 2009, 9:39 AM

Okay I've roughed 20 shots so far and I'm pretty happy with the process. Wish I could show you the results of my rough work. Tried posting some on Youtube, but it's a pain. And for some reason, Youtube cuts off about a second of animation on the back end. Oh well.
Really good weekend though! Spent time with my son!

Shots roughed so far;
shot 1
shot 4
shot 5
shot 6
shot 8
shot 9
shot 10
shot 12
shot 13
shot 14 **deleted**
shot 15
shot 16
shot 29
shot 30
shot 31
shot 33
shot 34
shot 35
shot 36
shot 48
shot 49
shot 52

Cranking it out! (no not that kind of cranking)

2009-04-28T14:20:00.002-07:00

Fri Mar 27, 2009, 11:40 AM

So as of today I have 13 shots of rough animation done! Three of which have been finished with color. Amazing! It's mind-blowing just to think that people get paid to do this! I'm having so much fun and professionals make a really good living out of stuff like this. It's true, there are careers out there you can love.
With only two months to go, I found myself restructuring my animation. Basically I've been trying to kill off shots that are useless. And that's hard too, because some of the shots are really cool! But I've been told countless times that falling in love with something in animation is death! Some shots have to go for story sake, time sake, and overall continuity. So far I've removed 2 shots, but I'm sure that will change the more shots I animate. lol

Sandpaper animation

2009-04-28T14:20:00.001-07:00

Mon Mar 23, 2009, 11:57 PM

So lately I've been reading "Character Animation Crash Course!" by Eric Goldberg. It's a fantastic book! A must have for all animators.
Anyway, it's amazing how much stuff I had been overlooking in my animations lately. After reading that book it was like someone switch the lights on and everything began making sense. Epiphanies are funny little things.
I rough pencil tested 6 shots in 2 days! AMAZING! Well, amazing for me, considering it took almost an entire day to do one shot. lol
I did
shot 10
shot 14
shot 5
shot 4
shot 9
shot 6
and I just finished shot 30

So all together I did 7 pencil tests in 2 days. Not bad!

Animation All Around

2009-04-28T14:17:00.001-07:00

Sat Mar 14, 2009, 9:09 AM

So I started testing shots 35 and 37. Used my handy dandy video camera and wall mirror to act it out. Looks pretty cool so far. I'm trying a new pipeline for my short. I'm working on all pencil tests during the week, and on the weekends I'll work on finished animation. So today, after work, I'll work on the final color for shot 36. Tomorrow I'm taking the day off and going to do some incredibly nerdy things with my loved ones as a family unit. Hussah! lol!
Peace!

Cranking out animation

2009-04-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

Sun Mar 8, 2009, 3:34 PM

So it took me roughly 6hrs (over a two day period) to crank out a pencil test for shot 36. The shot isn't even a second long.
*sigh*
At this rate I'll be done by 2010.
The good news is that I got some great feedback on my flatbook! I still have a ton of work to do, but I'm very grateful for the feedback. Here's a peek at one of the pages

It Starts!

2009-04-02T17:53:00.001-07:00

Fri Feb 6, 2009, 12:06 PM

FIRST JOURNAL/BLOG EVER!

So my instructors and fellow animators at school keep telling me that I should blog. Blog, blog, blog, that's all I hear.
Honestly, I'm not a great typist, so doing this takes a great deal of time on my end. Time I could be devoting to animation. But regardless, I've decided to give this a try.

I'm going to start keeping a record of my production on The Holy Order of Magdalene, which is a 2min animated short I created. I started this production last semester around Sept of 2008. The character designs are located on my deviantArt site. Check them out. Well, let's get started.

As of today I have completed 19 shots of rough (and we're talking REAL rough) animation. And three shots of finished colored animation. So far, I've been able to finish about two shots of rough animation per day, which equals out to roughly 4 to 5 seconds.

Yeah I know it's not much, but this is what you should expect to see on a regular basis. Overall these past week has been great. Probably won't be back until Monday.

Peace out.