Wine Commercial - Layout

 These are some process images from a new commercial.

 This is my initial concept sketch of the shot. At first I wanted to have a giant  "Middle Man" in the center of the page who would grab these huge dollar bills from the customer, eat them, and spit out some small change at the winemaker. Once I began layout of the shot, I realized I wouldn't have the time needed to animate the shot in that way. So, I decided to go with more of a crowd scene to represent the "Middle Man". I figured it would be less complex to animate, and would illustrate the point just as effectively.

Below is the shot developing from a rough sketch to the final image.

When I create a crowd scene, when possible ...given the time ...I like to make sure it is made up of a variety of characters. Different faces and body types.

 

Background Sketch

Final Image

Linetest progression.

Bug mugshots

These are some characters I created for a commercial I am working on. Rough sketches and final art.

 

Mosquito...

 

 Bedbug...

 

Ant...

 

 ah you know...

Cockroach...

This Nick Nolty mugshot (from www.thesmokinggun.com) was my reference for the last character - The Cockroach. Nick's lookin' like a animator in his Pixar issue Hawaiian shirt.

I wonder if there is a noticeable increase in ones animation skills while wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Just a thought - I notice a lot of animators wearing them. Does anyone out there have experience animating with and without a Hawaiian shirt?  Are they awarded after a certain level of achievement in animation?

John Lasseter thinks I'm on to something - thumbs up!
John Lasseter images are from here and here.

What the...!

When I create a character, I spend a lot of time sketching on paper. I keep the drawings very rough - at times working in an almost fast scribbling fashion. I'm just searching for interesting lines that will be the foundation of the character.

It doesn't always workout  - for this sketch I was actually attempting to come up with a really awesome design for a kid character.

Animatic - Steve the Super Hero

A little rough in spots, and includes some tests for things that never made it into the final video.

STEVE THE SUPER HERO – Storyboards

As promised …more from the process.

Originally, I had Eric (the singer) as a floating head. I thought this would have been pretty funny. Also, creating walk cycles for a floating head is incredibly easy. I always throw this idea in mix when discussing a project with a new client - telling them it looks “magical …you know like Harry Potter”. However, the consensus was to give Eric a body. 

Steve the Super Hero - music video

Just adding STEVE THE SUPER HERO to the blog. Also, here is a link to the post on JERRY BECK's & AMID AMIDI's Cartoon brew. HERE.

Music by Eric Herman
 

More from STEVE THE SUPER HERO

This is another image from the STEVE THE SUPER HERO music video. I kept putting off animating this shot because I wasn’t completely sure what I wanted these BAD GUYS to be doing. I had a lot of elaborate ideas, but they were all too time consuming and I was beginning to run out of time for working on the video.

Then along comes the film, DREAMGIRLS. I had never seen it before - but when I saw this sequence I thought “Hey! That’s what I need for the BAD GUYS”, – so I created a simple cycle for the BAD GUYS, trying to give them a little bit of “Dreamgirls” mixed with a little “HEY! SOMETHING REALLY STINKS!” … So this is what I came up with….

This is a pencil test from the shot.

Character Design - Finding a character

Here is a character I created for a children's video called STEVE THE SUPER HERO. ( I’ll post the video later in the week )

The first image is a rough pencil sketch the other images are from the final video.

I had done a lot of sketches before finally drawing this one. It seemed well suited for the video and would be fun to animate. I do a lot of drawings….most of them CRAP! ….some not as much…before I eventually settle on a design for a character.

There is a lot of fun and life in the pencil sketch - I think the biggest challenge is not losing that with a clean line and colour.

Is it Blogging or talking to yourself?

As I reflect on starting a blog and the importance of getting irrelevant information across to my readers in an effective dialogue, I have become aware that no one reads my blog – That’s ok - Really! In fact this is key for me in my groundbreaking blog strategy. You see over the past years I have noticed some of my best conversations have been with myself. So this blogging to no one will definitely put me in my best element for meaningful conversation and writing. Another important point is that I have a natural and keen interest in my own animation so I will naturally be a great audience.

Update: At the time of this posting I have gained a single subscriber. I may no longer be talking to myself. However, I will still tackle this blog in the same sort of talking to myself blog vacuum.

Hello out there! ….Any one???

Welcome to my new blog!

My background is traditional animation ….I love animating pencil on paper. I hope to post projects here through the various stages on development. I am a self taught animator and divide my time between various commercial projects and my ever growing list of independent productions which are in various stages of …well… non-completion.

I will start things off with this illustration. He is a character I designed and hope to use for an up coming project. Sort of a mafia character. I seem to have a lot of mafia characters show up in my work….this will become evident as I post more stuff.