Some Drawings

Waiting for the bus, riding the bus, shopping at the outlet mall and getting my oil changed...

Hand Gestures

Hand Gestures
I came across this today and had to pass it along. This is an amazing video analysis of hand shapes and gestures. She (Emily Maynes) goes through lots of gestures and variations. It's very interesting how doing the same gesture but at different heights or distances can mean so many different things.

Wrapping up...

The blog has been quiet lately, partly because of moving, partly because of learning and adjusting, but mostly because of the project I'm wrapping up on at the end of this month. As some of you may know, the movie is called Drag Me To Hell and it has been a great experience for me. I've learned an incredible amount in a short period of time and I'm excited to see something I've worked on in theaters. I have a new-found respect for movies and their creators. The process is very interesting to me and it seems that I learn something new almost everyday. This film is close to wrapping up, but I'm still in the thick of it working on some final shots. One of my shots will be unmissable if you watch the movie (hint: it involves an anvil)

But the Quest is still going strong! I'm still drawing and animating in my free time, just haven't found time to scan and organize for the blog, hopefully I will remedy that soon.

The Steel Dragon (aka the city bus, or how I learned to draw on bumpy roads....sort of)

As in all quests, there has to be a dragon, and this quest is no different. Fortunately, this one feeds on compressed natural gas and quarters. So I summon the dragon a few times a week to get me to work. These are some other local folks getting to and from work on Metro line 14.

...sorry for the bad drawings, i'm a little rusty... more to come from the bus...

The Quest Goes On!

Sorry for the lack of posts. moving, working, acquainting, etc..has kept me very busy, but I've managed to do a couple quick animations on the DS to keep the mind limber.

I've been taking the bus to work a few days a week, which has given me time to draw. So stay tuned for some bus drawings. Things are going well out here and the future is definitely looking bright for the quest.

The Animation Quest Continues in Los Angeles

After years of practice, drawing, animating, researching, planning, pondering and patience....I'm officially making the move to Animation Town (Los Angeles). Tons of new challenges, adventures, struggles, and achievements lie ahead. I've got a VFX and animation job lined up and I start right away. Now, I feel is a time to celebrate the little victory of making the big leap and thank everyone who has a been supportive and helped me get to this point. (Which is probably everyone reading this blog) So, THANK YOU!

Bombingscience did a great interview with a friend of mine. Known as "6Cents", his graffiti is top notch, so if you aren't familiar, check out the interview and familiarize.

There will be plenty of posts to come, but in the meantime, here is a drawing I did a while ago that I thought looked like Andreas Deja, Disney animator extraordinaire. I also wanted to expand my color palette and try to get away from the typical colors I usually go for. So, to do this, I sampled colors from a really vibrant illustration with a broad color range, done by Sylvain Marc, and applied them to my drawing. It's rough, but just wanted to mix up the way I think about color.

bowling pencil test and reflections on the different methods of animating

I had some time to kill on Friday and decided to brush up on the hand-drawn animation skills. I have a tendency to use Flash as a crutch sometimes because of it's quick and constant feedback, but I think that can create bad habits. This time I forced myself to guess at the timing and just start drawing. I pretty much got all of the keys and most of the breakdowns drawn before ever scanning them and checking the timing.
The more experience I get with Hand Drawn Animation, the more I realize how truly unique it is. You get so much more control and chance for expression since it's pencil on paper. But compared to computer animation, you're really animating in the dark. You really don't know what you have until you do that first pencil test. And even then, you're still speculating because everything is roughly drawn and it's choppy(on 4's or 5's). From start to finish, hand-drawn seems like it starts out sorta shaky and rough, but it just gets better and better from there, continuing to mold it.
Compare that to animating in Maya, where it starts out great with thumbnails, looks good in stepped mode, all of the poses seem to be working, but then when you switch to splines, it get's really watered down, and then you're wrestling with the computer to do what you want it to do, but can't seem to get it to do quite right.
Ultimately, I find traditional animating so much more personally rewarding, BUT until I get an assistant to do my clean-up and in-betweening, I'll probably stick with the computer.

The Poles Are In!

Now in Color!

Could you please pass the punch

The creature render is still in the works, I promise. 'til then here is a drawing I did during a meeting today. It is not an actual depiction of the meeting... but there was a lot of tension and agression in the room.

Glow Finger

The Creature is Looming

Some fellow coworkers and I have created a character in our free time at work. I have recently just finished animating it and is currently in the process of rendering. Here are some screen-shots until the animation is properly rendered.

More Character Designs

Different client, 50-60's style.

character designs

Here is something I've been working on for the Sauce. These are character designs for a farmer, wife, and his daughter. Since it's still in progress, I've only posted a small jpg teaser. These drawings are copyright Mediasauce.

I'm watching you

Here's a (real) drawing I'm working on, don't know if it's done, but I like it.  Any suggestions??

Jump, Clap, Hell yeah on the DS!

I thought I'd try some straight-ahead style animation, working on turning people around in 2D. Used Animanatee, again on the DS. Don't know where the premise came from, perhaps influenced by the upcoming Olympics and the fact that it's Friday. Enjoy the weekend!

Thanks Coach

...sitting in my grade school classroom, learning and practicing how to write in cursive, I thought to myself, this is lame, why would anyone want to write like this, I wanted to say the classic, "When will I ever use this in the real world?!" but I couldn't do it, because for some reason, I knew that I would use it for something. So this drawing is dedicated to all of the 3 lined paper out there feeling the neglect of children everywhere. This one's for you!

Oh, and also to all of those coaches out there who have a solution for any injury.

DS Drawings

I was watching the Bachelorette last night with Stephanie (not by choice) and couldn't help but draw some of these characters.

Meeting time = Drawing time.

I had some fun with these drawings. This meeting was perfect. People kept talking and expressing their personalities, but they weren't moving a lot.

People at the Indiana Fever game

I brought my sketchbook with me to the game last night. I saw many candidates, but never found the time or space to draw. So, I memorized and then drew them when I got home. Kind of a fun way to draw from life and from your own ideals. Good memory excersize, too. Here is a "security"dude that I bumped into coming out of the bathrooms and a kid that sat next to us with an undying passion for the Fever. The last one I found in the moleskin that I forgot about, drew that a while ago waiting for band rehearsal on Mass Ave.

I've been trying watercolors lately

I've got these watercolor pencils and crayons and they seem to allow more control than the traditional kind, which used to frustrate me because the lack of control, or experience on my part. Anyway, these pencils and crayons are challenging too, but fun to work with. Here are some more of my first attempts.