Doodle bugs

HRA: short films ahead

2011-10-13T15:41:00.002+10:00

Alma
Produced and directed by ex-Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas.
Website

This one I was more interested in the making of.

And lastly
my new favorite Simon's cat.

Broken animatic update

2011-10-05T09:36:00.001+10:00

Updated animatic for Broken.
- all the rough animation is in place.
- Backgrounds and effects are still WIP.

The Secret of the Stage

2011-10-02T23:37:00.002+10:00

The entry I did for the 2011 Sixty40 ProtoNinja awards is now available online for your viewing pleasure :)

14-9-2011 Website Update

2011-09-14T21:45:00.003+10:00

Couple of updates to the website:
- Updated the About page
- Updated Illustration and Animation galleries
- Added content about current projects to the Projects page
- Culled a couple of out of date pages
- Reworked some of the CSS

Animatic update

2011-09-12T13:11:00.002+10:00

Updated animatic for Broken.
- 45 seconds of rough animation.
- Backgrounds and effects are still WIP.

Also a handy video I found for rendering out of After Effects.

Rough animation - Broken - SC05

2011-08-30T16:42:00.003+10:00

More rough animation for my student film :D

Rough animation - Broken - SC04

2011-08-28T21:24:00.003+10:00

I didn't quite do what was asked of last monday, however here is the rough character animation of the 2 scenes I've been working on this week.
The second one is just the first pass at the animation. Still gotta go through and do a detailed pass.

Run cycle test

2011-08-15T15:40:00.001+10:00

4 frame run cycle test
BAMF!

Eye darts

2011-07-19T11:53:00.002+10:00

Eye darts.
I like the 3 frame dart more than the 4 frame dart. 4 frames feels to slow.

Head turn turn turn turn

2011-07-18T16:55:00.002+10:00

I'm not good at writing reflective stuff.
Holding for 6-12 frames before and after the EAP (the last 2 turns) is definantly eaiser to figure out what's happened.

Eye blinks

2011-07-12T11:31:00.002+10:00

The first is my usual blink. Animated on twos.
The second is the first one on ones.
The third is on ones and has slight differences in the eyelid position to the first two.

Mytho Logique

2011-07-11T21:32:00.002+10:00

Stumbled upon this beautiful little french student film quite by accident.
The website is full of concept stuff. Including designs, storyboard samples & color script.
mytho-logique.com

Mytho Logique is a full-cg animation short film, directed by 5 students during their last year at ESMA (Montpellier, southern France) : Jessica Ambron, Amandine Aramini, Alexandre Belbari, Guillaume Poitel et Yannick Vincent. The short film was finished in september 2010.

Below are the film and behind the scenes.

Directed by J. Ambron, A. Aramini, A. Belbari, G. Poitel and Y. Vincent.
ESMA students short film, originally made in stereo 3D.
More info on mytho-logique.com

Lighting test

2011-07-09T22:46:00.004+10:00

Lighting test of my set.
I've had alittle trouble getting the lighting to work how I want. Found a way around it by rendering 2 backgrounds (one light and one dark) and editing them together in post. Gives me the effect I'm after :)

I'm having alot of trouble leaving comments on peoples blogs (blogger thinks I'm not logged in and has me going in circles to trying log in), anyone else having this problem?

youTube finds

2011-07-07T20:47:00.002+10:00

Just a couple of Youtube finds. Enjoys.

Amination part 2.

2011-07-03T19:49:00.004+10:00

Finished this scene to full colour last Wednesday.

Calculated the entire character animation (from sketch to full colour) took about 18hrs. Wowzers.
I was showing some online friends and they didn't believe me when I said that. So I made a breakdown of the process to show them how much work went into it.

On the upside I finished a second scene on Friday and I've almost finished a third. I'm getting faster at this. 4 scenes left to go :)

This isn't for my major either by the way. I should do some work on that.

Amination! Feel the burn.

2011-06-28T08:58:00.003+10:00

Over the past few weeks (since holiday break started) I've been trying to be creative... and doing a lousy job at it. I mean I want to draw! I want to get these ideas out of my head but I found I just couldn't focus and my head felt very fuzzy.

Turns out I burnt myself out creatively. After a week of sulking I talked to my flatmates and they suggested trying to do something else creative to get out of my rut.
So at their recommendation I started writing. And lo and behold 2 days later I'm back feeling creative as ever! Huzzah!

So my point. What do you guys do when you're feeling in a rut, burnt out or just not at all creative?

With my creativity back I'm animating like crazy. I'm behind schedule.
Here's some rough animation I did yesterday. Got a few bugs to fix, but otherwise I'm very happy with it :) on wards final cleanup and colour!

I also won acompetition a week back. It was more a 'make a creative video' comp than and animation comp. Anywho this is what I came up with:

Please ignore the horrible lip-sync. I messed up and uploading it pushed it even more out of sync. I loved doing the swirls though, maybe I'm better suited to special effects animation rather than character animation.

All animated in Photoshop. In my opinion regarding the animation tools in Photoshop... If Adobe just made a version of flash that animated with the raster tools from Photoshop life would be so much easier. Animating in Photoshop the way it's presently aid out (and I'm talking CS5) is clunky and a pain in the bum.

Cars 2 & Kung Fu Panda 2. The review.

2011-06-27T21:44:00.006+10:00

So a couple of days ago, I was fortunate enough to go see both Cars 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2. I was quite surprised by what I saw.

First Cars 2.
This was much better that I ever expected.

While I do love all the PIXAR films, Cars is towards the bottom of my list in terms of favourites. I was not excited about the idea of a sequel when it kept us away from the new ideas (and lets face it, nowadays most movies are either remakes or sequels). Part of it may also be the fact that since the release of the first movie it's easy to say that Cars has been the most solid of the PIXAR films to secure its own franchise.

Moving on. In terms of the film as I've already written it was far better than I could have hoped. Before it's release critics were calling it as one of PIXAR's weakest films. I disagree.

In terms of it being an animated sequel, well the bar just keeps rising. I believe that PIXAR have done a good job on keeping the film at as high a quality as any other non-sequel movie they would produce.

Now in terms of story; the original Cars was very much the story of Lightning McQueen. Cars 2 is very much Mater's story, while also still keeping with the cast we fell in love with in the first film.

Something I was very pleased to see was how they handled the passing of Paul Newman and his character Doc. This was something I was worried about in terms of there being a Cars sequel because Doc was a very important character to the first film and to me it didn't feel right without him. Would they just have him absent or silent, would they simply recast him? No. Very early in the film they explain his absence in a way that's believable and to me respectful to the character. He doesn't just drop off the face of the earth or prowl around in the background. This made me very happy.

Now as an action/spy movie as it has been dubbed, you would not think that in a world where the dominating species are cars it would be possible. But no PIXAR have pulled the rug out from under out feet again with some spectacular action sequences and very creative ideas.

The soundtrack is quite enjoyable, including a couple of international tracks and a pleasing score.

Overall This movie held my attention for the entire duration, which in terms of an animated feature is a big thing for me (so many films I feel don't do that any more). I laughed long and hard through the funnys and felt for the characters in their hardships. I'd give this 10/10 and see it again.

Oh I should also mention, the short Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation was awesome too and left us going awww.

My only complaint, that isn't even really relevant to the film is that we didn't see the teaser for PIXAR's next film BRAVE.
But youTube fixes that :D

Scotland. Princess. Yeah!.

Now, Kung Fu Panda 2.
As with Cars2 I had very little to expect from this film. Yeah it's a DreamWorks sequel; please lord let it be decent. It's no secret that I don't hold DreamWorks Animation very highly but usually that's because their films are so full of pop culture references I want to gag.

The first film, I quite enjoyed and kinda had me at a point where I could see them as making good movies. Kung Fu Panda 2 has left me again with that same feeling, only this time it's we can also make a decent sequel.

Immediately you're immersed in the characters you came to love in the first film and very quickly it's into the thick of the story.

Part of the film sees you exploring Po's back story, and why you don't see any other pandas; the rest is full of action and character development (particularly for Po and Tigress).

Something that caught me off guard, but I was really happy to see was the amount of 2D animation that surfaced throughout the duration of the film. I though it was beautiful and makes me wonder if DreamWorks will do more with it in the future. I certainly hope they do.

While there were many laugh out loud moments through this film, there were also moments that left me rolling my eyes going, ' did we really need that DreamWorks? Really?’ Asides from these few cheesy moments the film is overall very entertaining and proves in my books, that DreamWorks can make a decent sequel. I’d give it 9/10.

Again, I was disappointed to not see the trailer for DreamWorks next film: Puss in Boots. YouTube hasn't disappointed me; however I don't know how I feel about the story from what they've revealed. Mind it's all about Puss, so I know I'll see it anyway.

Title goes here

2011-06-14T20:09:00.003+10:00

Just a bunch of videos/shorts/trailers I've been meaning to share for ages. There's some E3/game trailers at the end.

Sometimes the Stars from The Audreys on Vimeo.

TIJI "COLOUR" HD from AKAMA on Vimeo.

E3 was on a week or so back, out of it came some nice looking game trailers

Friday exercises

2011-05-29T20:17:00.002+10:00

The exercises we've done with Ian on Fridays.

Max: 3 point light

2011-05-26T10:56:00.003+10:00

Walk contact pose

2011-05-19T11:28:00.003+10:00

Networking - the blog entry

2011-05-17T09:10:00.000+10:00

Rather than have a print out for todays presentation about Networking, I thought it would be fun to instead post all the links in a blog entry instead. After all, I do talk about the importance of online networking.

Australian Cartoonists' Association
cartoonists.org.au

Illustrators Australia
www.illustratorsaustralia.com

Paperwings Podcast
www.paperwingspodcast.com

Facebook
www.facebook.com
Nickelodeon Animation Studios Careers - Facebook Page
www.facebook.com/#!/NickelodeonAnimationCareers

Tumblr
www.tumblr.com
Australian Cartoonists' Association - Blog
australiancartoonistsassociation.tumblr.com

and that last site I talked about...
Rooster Teeth
www.roosterteeth.com

Walk planning

2011-05-16T15:49:00.004+10:00

I don't know what happened to the post I did of this on Thursday, but here it is again.

The emotion of the walk is a hard one for me to pin down. The first time we did this I put it down as somber (which it's not really), this time as a glum resolution/acceptance.
It's the walk when the little girl gets off the chair and slowly walks over to the ball. Almost like she's not quite with it/in a daze/numb because she's finally accepting that what's happened is not the fault of the ball.
I see it that below her core, it's a steady slow paced walk and everything above her core sways to the rhythm (like it's all secondary action).

I don't know if that makes any sense.

1. contact
2. down
3. passing
4. up

Walking EAPs

2011-05-05T10:18:00.003+10:00

Character Energy: Low
Emotion: Somber
Thumbnail Pose:

Shorts and stuff

2011-05-04T19:03:00.003+10:00

Been a while since I posted anything. Anyways here's abunch of shorts (and what I think are advertisements) that I found by randomly surfing through tumblr.

Vigour from Chang Dai on Vimeo.

Hollow from Oliver Franklin Anderson on Vimeo.

Perspectives. Freely inspired by the new Moleskine collections from Moleskine ® on Vimeo.

Amongst Giants - Turn from lwz on Vimeo.

Method Virgin "We're All in this Together" from three legged legs on Vimeo.

Apache from oneedo on Vimeo.

The Pirate - With end credits from Meindbender on Vimeo.

Animator video blog - week 9

2011-04-10T20:02:00.003+10:00

10 minutes to film. 15 minutes to edit.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm still debating if I want 3D in my major narrative. I don't really, I only made a model of my set to help with the perspectives. I'd rather draw my backgrounds :/
Maybe I can work on making a 3D show real instead (walks, runs, ect.). I'll be needing one of those for my portfolio if I want to work at my dream studio and I'd rather produce something worth while instead of something that I won't use, particularly considering what I'm currently doing involves modeling (BLAH).

Oh yeah and for your enjoyment here's last weeks blog. I recorded it but was too sick to edit it; so here it is, a week late.

and some bonus JumpFails for your enjoyment

1-4-2011 Minor Website Updates

2011-04-01T21:49:00.003+10:00

Few minor updates to my website:
- Updated the illustration gallery
- Removed the design gallery completely (let's face it. It was out of date)
- Updated the awards and installed gallery of winning entries

I ♥ coding.

3D catch up

2011-03-31T15:42:00.003+10:00

This is me trying ton catch up with my 3D work

First, I finally finished my seahorse

I never want to do modeling again.

And second, my 3d environment

badda bing badda boom!

HRAnimation: stop mo, slow mo, youtube and ponies!

2011-03-27T14:20:00.006+10:00

No video blog this week. Instead I'm going to write up about the interesting things that I have been meaning to write about.

First up is MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON. A very cute stop motion short that I stumbled across.

Next is an interesting channel I've been watching over on youTube called The Slow Mo Guys. As their name suggests they film stuff in slow motion. I find it all quite fascinating to watch and a great resource to study.

Now for some Disney.
Claire Keane, one the artists that worked on Tangled (and Glen Keane's daughter), got to paint a mural in the Disney art department.
What's even more interesting? She's also the artist that developed Rapunzel's mural paintings on the inside of her tower ;)

Now for my last thing I ask that you read on with an open mind and not just roll your eyes.

So what is this next thing?

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
(don't cringe, just read)

Developed for television by Lauren Faust (who is famed for her work on The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends) MLP:FiM is a refreshing take on an existing franchise.

Not only is is enjoyable animation to watch, but I was quite pleased to see that it hasn't been dumbed down for a younger audience; so us big kids can still enjoy the story without getting bored. MLP:FiM has even generated a large internet fanbase.

Oh and here's what their animation studio looks like too. Source.

Anyway watch it for yourself. Here are my favorite clips and the first episode.
My favorite pony would have to be Fluttershy ;)

Art Contests - I win at arts

2011-03-22T19:06:00.006+10:00

So I entered an art contest back in early January, simply because I could.
Well it turns out I won.

"Scheree had a beautiful portrayal of the last scene of the season that was really mind-blowing." - brandon

Wow. I did not think I had any chances at winning.

The first years might remember the drawing, I showed it in my photoshop talk :)

I think as artists and animators, participating in competitions is a worthwhile venture; and I don't mean simply for the sake of winning. They're great practice for deadlines, give you something to strive towards and if the right people see it, it can even open doors. Not to mention be a great addition to your portfolio.

And you never know, you might be surprised and find you win.

He Mele No Lilo

2011-03-21T22:20:00.004+10:00

So my favorite Disney song of all time would have to be He Mele No Lilo from Lilo & Stitch. Besides the movie being one of my very favorites of all time, I very much love that it's sung in hawaiian and the authenticity in the hula. If I remember right the animators had to keep it as close to their referance footage as possible with the dance because straying away from it was disrespectful (I think. I can't remember exactly. Note to self: rewatch L&S special features)

Let us make a trend and post what your favorite Disney song is in your blog. Don't forget to tell us why.

BTW Nick started it.

And because I can, my second favorite.

Snappy animation and tons of visual jokes. Not to mention it being a great song.
Sadly I can't see them trying to pull any of the visual gags they did here anymore. Like when Abu yanks the sword out of that guys throat or when an axe gets thrown at Aladdin with fruit.

Actually now that I think of it, Aladdin was chuck full of things like that. I must rewatch that movie.

Storyboard improvements

2011-03-17T11:30:00.003+10:00

So I just presented the storyboard for my major narative project and I got a few ideas to improve upon it.

- Change the greens/colours of the jungle to help show emotion. Maybe even insert more shadows vs light.
- make first entrance to the jungle more menacing

News Stuff: 2011 Proto Ninja Award and the PaperWings podcast

2011-03-16T22:45:00.003+10:00

Hey guys, just a few things to report that have popped up over the past few days that people might find of interest.

FIRSTLY
The Sixty40 Proto-Ninja Award is back. They have revealed yesterday on their Facebook page this years theme "the secret". Full details are to be released soon. Keep an eye on their website or better yet their facbook.

If you have no idea what the Proto-Ninja award is go check out their Website. It's still showing all the details (and winners) from last years competition. I don't think too much will change.

SECONDLY
Back in February I wrote about an upcoming podcast called Paper Wings.
Well they released their first episode on monday. I highly recomend that everyone checks it out. It's rich full of information that anyone wanting to work in the creative industries will find useful.

The first episode is the first part of 2 episodes that go over making a winning portfolio. Presently it can be found at their website. They're still waiting for it to connect through iTunes but that should be up soon enough.

They also have a twitter if you use that social network.

AND LAST
Is an interview with John Lasseter discussing PIXAR's upcoming film Cars 2.
I want to know where this man gets all his awesome shirts.

Animator video blog - week 5

2011-03-13T21:45:00.003+10:00

10 minutes to film, 45 mintues to edit.

Lessons learnt this week: Don't edit film while doing laundry. Laundry gets forgotten very quickly; A 3 minute video at 17mb takes about 12 minutes to upload on a good connection; remember to empty memory card before filming. It will always run out of space while you're on a roll; Mobile phone equals big distraction. Particularly when it's family.

I was going to try have my photoshop talk up tonight but I have to go back and cut it up again into smaller pieces to my computer/internet connection/youtube can handle it.

Animation environment

2011-03-11T16:09:00.001+10:00

My animation environment. Havn't decided if I want a floor yet :/

Stop Motion Bounces & Max

2011-03-11T11:17:00.003+10:00

BAMF!!

and Max

Narrative Storyboard

2011-03-10T12:30:00.002+10:00

Portion of my colour script/story boards produced today in class.

HRA: upcoming animated features and more LoK news

2011-03-09T17:35:00.004+10:00

As time passes we get closer and closer to release dates for the highly anticipated animated features. Anywho, a couple of trailers have been released this week. Now I'm excited for their movies.

ALSO
With the topic of Legend of Korra still abuzz creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko had and interview over at the Wall Street Journal.

There's some interesting tidbits in the interview. My favorite is that Nickelodeon has ordered another 14 episodes on top of the 12 already in production. Good times :D

News Stuff: This week in the world of cool things 02

2011-03-08T07:16:00.011+10:00

So in the last 24 hours there have been alot of buzz around the 'The Last Airbender- Legend of Korra'. First the Wall Street Journal Released some exclusive artwork(above) and then during the night another article was released about the voice actors and which roles they'll play.

Janet Varney as KORRA
Kiernan Shipka as JINORA
Daniel Dae Kim as HIROSHI SATO
David Faustino as MAKO
Seychelle Gabriel as ASAMI
Lance Henriksen as LIEUTENANT
P.J. Byrne as BOLIN
JK Simmons as TENZIN

Exciting stuff, isn't it :D

SOURCE |SOURCE

This next bit isn't really news, more a cool entry about Spirited Away that I found on tumblr of all places. It's some interesting insight regardless.

I’ve noticed that several of my followers are Miyazaki fans, so I thought I share this little tidbit of information with you about Spirited Away.

I always wondered why the symbol “ゆ” (said “yu”) was on the door to the bath house. I asked my Japanese teacher, and he wasn’t too sure so I did a little research.

The symbol is used on the entrance to 温泉 (onsen) and 銭湯 (sento), or Japanese bath houses. The word “yu” is translated to “hot water”. So, makes sense to be on a bath house, yes?

Then I did more reading. During the Edo period, these public baths became popular for men because of women who started working at these communal baths, washing men and selling sex. These bath houses were called “yuna baro”. The woman were known as 湯女, or “yuna”. This directly translates to “hot water woman”. So basically, they were brothels. Guess what the woman who ran this bath house would be called?

ゆばば。

Yubaba.

(translates directly to “hot water old woman”)

Yubaba is the name of the woman who runs the bath house in Spirited Away. If you watch Spirited Away in Japanese, the female workers are referred to as yuna.

Chihiro was forced to change her name to Sen. Kinda like how strippers get names like “Candy”.

カオナシ/No-Face keeps offering Chihiro money. He “wants her”.

THEN I read interviews with Miyazaki. This was all put in intentionally. As we all know. Miyazaki’s stories are weaved with different themes and metaphors. He said he was tackling the issue of the sex industry rapidly growing in Japan, and that children being exposed to it at such early ages is a problem.

To me, this makes me respect Miyazaki even more as a film maker.

And also, frustrates me because so much gets lost in translation, and people see it as this cute childrens movie and this “master piece of animation” (which it definately is) instead of the real statement that it is.

Thought I’d share :).

SOURCE

Animator video blog - week 4

2011-03-06T21:16:00.004+10:00

I've been so out of it this weekend, I nearly forgot to do this.

5 minutes to record, 40 minutes to edit.

Lessons learnt this week: I had wanted to take some footage to show the progress of my letter but according to my Maya the files are corrupt; we need screen capture programs on the class computers. Because that would be awesome; recording after a long nap my voice pitch go all over the place; according to youtube I have people viewing my stuff from Europe and the US (whaaat?!); Somehow I manage to bring home files for the video blog except for the one I want; Remeber to face the camera when talking

Jumpfail :D

2011-03-04T12:18:00.001+10:00

This feels abit weird to me :/
I think I've done something wrong. Just can't put my finger on what.
I enjoy watching myself stack though :D

*sqeak*

Animator video blog - week 3

2011-02-27T17:40:00.004+10:00

Lessons learnt this week: remember to charge camera battery before setting up to record; remember to bring extra files home to be put into video; I say yeah! a lot; I have really poor memory so recounting the week is a lot harder than it looks; specially when I forget words that I knew five seconds ago; over half of the recorded video (that's now on the cutting room floor) is me staring silently at the camera, or at a random wall in my room or me coughing.

15 minutes recording, hour for editing.

I ♥ video editing.
funfunfun

2011-02-25T16:55:00.001+10:00

Screenshot of my modeling progress.
Sorry Frank. I neglected to render this properly.

Walk cycle

2011-02-25T12:08:00.002+10:00

Walk Maxie boy! Walk!

Animator video blog - week 2

2011-02-20T13:03:00.002+10:00

Lessons learned this week: uploading a 14mb file on a dinky dialup connection takes forever; how to balance ones camera; inserting one clip over the top of another; did I mention that the upload to youtube took over an hour?; props are good and bad at the same time. At least when I'm involved; while I love learning all this editing, I'm already sick of seeing my face;

The letter t

2011-02-18T15:55:00.001+10:00

concepts and the unfinished character sheet for my seahorse letter t :)

The moment of contact

2011-02-18T11:55:00.002+10:00

Monsterzzzap

2011-02-17T11:24:00.000+10:00

Stopmotion power!!!!

Ukraine's Got Talent - Storytelling sand

2011-02-16T13:07:00.002+10:00

That's all real time. Yes, she works that fast. Amazing stuff.

She's got her own YouTube Channel with more videos like that, but some of them you can't tell if they're real time. I think it's bothersome that they've edited out bits. Still fun to watch though.

Animator video blog - week 1

2011-02-13T22:18:00.003+10:00

Done because I'm a silly girl who wants to learn video editing and all that.
And because it was ridiculously fun.

An hour worth of filming. Hour and a half for editing.

Lessons learnt: if can't think of what to say remain silent because it makes it easier to edit; I say fun an awful lot; Write some notes beforehand about what is being covered because chances are I won't remember them; enthusiasm dies quickly when you have to repeat yourself several times; clean bedroom.

News Stuff: This week in the world of cool things

2011-02-11T20:39:00.009+10:00

So a number of things have popped up over the last week or so that I've not only found interesting but find myself rather excited about. So lets start from the top shall we.

So first off the news bat, offical word has come that Nickelodeon and Dark Horse are releasing a series of comics revolving around Avatar: The Last Airbender. These tales will contain previously published yet presently unobtainable stories as well as new content that picks up after where the animated series left off. Exciting news huh?
Here's some of the speal from the original article.

"The Last Airbender — The Lost Adventures will be released TK. This all-new 240-page comic book contains over 70 pages of never-before-seen material in addition to long-out-of-print comics previously published in Nickelodeon Magazine. With 26 stories set in Airbender continuity and created by a host of top-notch talent, many of whom worked on the original animated series, this is an essential addition to any fan’s bookshelf.

Additionally, Dark Horse will create all-new Airbender stories that will be published as digest-style original graphic novels—conveniently sized paperback collections—in early 2012. Picking up where the season three finale left off, this new series will follow the further adventures of Aang and his friends, as they help to rebuild a world torn apart by 100 years of war.

“We had a great experience collaborating with Dark Horse on Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Art of the Animated Series,” series co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino said. “We are excited to work closely with them once again to bring the further adventures of Avatar Aang and his friends to the comic world.”

SOURCE

Second in my prattle of news comes the announcement of a new podcast begining next month called Paper Wings.

Hosted by Lora Innes (creator of The Dreamer) and Disney artist Chris Oatley it will cover "all aspects of visual storytelling. Chris brings an animator’s perspective and insight into the movie and film industry, and Lora brings experience in comics–both for print and web."

Acording to Lora's blog: "The show will post new episodes twice a month–each a 30 minute segment, one episode focusing on art, the other on story."

I'll post a reminder when the show starts up, in the mean time check out Lora's and Chris's websites. They're both fantastic artists and it's well worth the poke around.

For more details about the podcast check HERE, HERE or HERE for more details.

After dicovering that last piece of news I found a few gems over at Chris's blog. My favorite being the release date for another animated movie that I didn't know was coming.
Hoodwinked Too - Hood vs Evil.

Now if anyone remembers the original Hoodwinked you should notice that this one visually looks a little different and a couple of the voices have changed. Expected to realease in the US at the end of April (there's no confirmed release date for Australia yet), I think it'll definantly be funny if anything.

Mah world

2011-02-11T16:52:00.001+10:00

Mah world. The first sightings.

Maxie boy

2011-02-11T12:15:00.002+10:00

Max starring as The Thinker.
Experimented with some dynamic lighting

Time capsule: where I want to be?

2011-02-11T08:59:00.002+10:00

Where do I want to be? What do I want to do? That's a hard question and one with an answer that's constantly changing. If you had asked me that a few years ago I would have said PIXAR but things change as time flows.

Presently I kind of have a list of things detailing where I'd like to be and what I'd like to be doing. They're a bit jumbled but they're still in the raw form that spilt from my head. Some are general life, others are art related. All in all it's my list of wants and dreams :)

- I want to be producing webcomics (at least 1) on a regular basis (TEAM ZiNE)
- I want to have gone to Auckland and have met the folks from a Texas based studio
- I want a steady income
- I want to write some new tutorials
- I want to have a MacBook pro laptop
- I want to be ready and rearing to travel
- I want to have a high quality student film to submit to 2012 film festivals
- I want a new business card and a cool looking portfolio to hand out so that the awesome studio from Texas will hire me
- I want to improve my people/social skills
- I want get even better at drawing and backgrounds
- I want to have some story ideas in planning/scripting stage

But most of all
-I want to be working doing the things that I love

Wait a minute. Scratch that. I want should be I will ;)

Song of the Sea

2011-02-02T10:54:00.002+10:00

From the creators of the Secret of Kells comes "Song of the Sea".
More details here

This looks so pretty.

Wicked animated adaptation

2011-01-25T07:51:00.004+10:00

Ex-Disney employees made a video “animation” of a storyboard for a scene from a potential “Wicked” animated adaptation. This would be an adaptation of the musical or course, not the book per say. First off, I love this video and this idea. “Wicked” the musical had a very Disney-esque quality to it (despite the storyline itself being more the type of scenario Dreamworks would pick up). This would make a great animation. And the people who did this story board clearly know that. The tracks used are from the “Hunchback of Notre-Dame” and “Wicked”.

Pleaaaaase please please please Disney dooo iiiit.
Wicked has to be one of my all time favorite musicals, second only to the Copacabana.

SOURCE / ORIGINAL SOURCE
Heidi Jo Gilbert's Artblog (One of the artists blog. It's so worth a peek at)

Inside Glen Keane's thinkerbox

2011-01-22T20:04:00.002+10:00

Glen Keane. Forever an inspiration. I love watching him draw.

If you're the kind who's into Twitter, I recomend following Disney.

Magic Paints

2011-01-13T21:25:00.008+10:00

So if you havn't noticed by how pretty and pink my blog has suddenly become, it's because I'm integrating it as a part of my website; which I'm in the process of relaunching.

Actually technically it's already launched, seeing as it's online. Just working out the kinks now. (If anyone would care to take a browse through, I'd love some feedback.)

This is the first time I've used so much CSS in codeing. I learnt to make websites just as it got big so we didn't touch much of it. After four years of tinkering, trying to understand and a vodka shot it suddenly all made sense and had me up into the wee hours of the morning because everything making sense was exciting.

So yeah check it.

Anyway also, purdy picture. Drawn today. For the website. And cuz I could.

"Magic colour changing paints. Bringing inspiration and magic to everyday lives.
Available in colours of the rainbow and purdy pink sunset."

Tangled. The review.

2011-01-06T13:45:00.006+10:00

So Tangled came out today, saw it and well I was blown away.

Not only is it simply beautiful to look at but Disney have managed to achieve a beautiful story. Before seeing Tangled, I was unaware of the tale behind Rapunzel. I knew she was the girl with long golden hair locked away in a tower and that was about it, I had no desire to look into it any further. After seeing the movie I hunkered down, did some reading and read the original origin of the fairy tale. Much to my surprise, a lot of things in the movie are much like their fairy tale counterparts but at the same time a lot of things are also different.

I remember reading, in the Art of Tangled that at one stage of early production they had wanted to modernize the story, but that the idea was squashed. Regardless, I feel that there is a little modernization however the film still pertains that classic story telling feeling; and while you may be able to guess how it ends you still want to stay and see how it comes about.

This has to be one of the few movies that the forms of expression have really stood out to me (The only other from recent animation that comes to my mind is Toothless from httyd). From Rapunzel, whose hair acts as an extension of her body, to the animals Maximus and Pascal, who only rely on body language, and Flynn, who has some wild facial expressions, the way each character expresses themself is very well done. Even Mother Gothel has a distinct way in which she carries herself.

My favourite scene (which I’m not really spoiling because it’s been in all the trailers oratleastithinkso) is the lanterns in the sky. The back story behind them is a sweet one, and I found myself lost in the however-long the scene went for. For lack of better words, sooooo pretty.

The music. I’d listened to the soundtrack long before the film came out here in Australia. In fact, a lot of people I talked to from the US said that they found the musical style songs to not be very memorable. While I agree with them to a degree, I still feel they are still very fitting to the film. All I feel they’re missing is a bit more Omph! Mother Gothel’s ‘Mother Knows Best’ kind of has it going but I feel it was still a little on the soft side. The score itself is beautiful, then again I expect no less from Alan Menken who already has a list of my favorite Disney film scores under his belt.

Overall I loved the film and it will be joining my list of ultimate favorites. Fantastic story, fantastic characters, simply fantastic. At no point did I ever feel squeamish or bored. I even came out of the cinema having not chewed my finger nails which is a rare occasion for me (and a sign for that the film has had my 100% attention for the entire time).

I highly recommend seeing it, even if it’s only once in your lifetime. I’m rather excited because I’ve already got 2 more viewings of the movie scheduled in over the next week or so.

Fanart I did back in early December. Because I can.

and a photo of the artbook, which I recieved last night and proceeded to run through the house cheering about.

New “Legend of Korra” News!

2011-01-03T07:09:00.003+10:00

Information:

Co-creators of the original series (Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko) will write all of the episodes.

Why a female Avatar:

- Large audience of females of original show
- Adoration of headstrong female characters by fan base
- Time for a big action franchise with a female in the lead
- Expected to be darker, more mature than original show; HOWEVER, they’re not attempting to target a new audience.

- Dante Basco (Zuko) said he will return to voice a character

- Confirmed (via Twitter) that it will have something to do with Zuko
- One of the new episodes will be entitled “Skeleton in the Closet”
- The Track Team (composers for the show) has said that the music will be “the Roaring ’20s with an Asian twist.”

Rumors:

- The series may continue for more than 12 episodes if it gains enough popular support. (This happened with Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was scheduled for 13 episodes at first but continued for 61.)

- Korra could be descended from Sokka and Suki.

- There may be flashbacks of the original series. (DiMartino mentioned that there was a “definite link” between the old and new series.)

- The Cabbage Merchant will not appear but “his legacy will be present in some form”.

SOURCE that I found it at and the ORIGINAL SOURCE

Let the geekout begin.

Aniiiimation abounds

2011-01-02T17:19:00.003+10:00

As part of one of my holiday projects, I had to format and upload a heap of animation work to youtube. Some of it is new done over the course of 2010, some of it is old from years past. Lots of After Effects practise in pulling these togther, and hateing myself for using so many Movie Clips as apposed to Graphic Symbols. Live and Learn.
Anywho, here they are :)

I've got one video left to reformat, though It's basicly all movie clips so I'm still debating if it's worth it.

Tracked down

2010-12-30T21:21:00.004+10:00

I mentioned a while back to some of the gang that I'd seen a typical schedule of a Mangaka. Anyways, was finally able to track it down again.

All I can say is wow.

Source: http://www.comicsbeat.com/2010/12/02/sample-work-schedule-of-a-manga-artist/

And something else I managed to track down. I mentioned to someone (I think it was Tim) that Disney released a music video for their upcoming film Tangled that stars a large number of the production staff.

I think that it's great how they involved everyone :) it's also a fun tour of the studio.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-24T23:29:00.003+10:00

Merry Christmas everybody :)

Food About You

2010-12-21T08:24:00.000+10:00

Food about you
Uploaded by AlexandreDUBOSC. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

here, have some trippy stop motion :)

Upcoming things part whatever and some shorts

2010-12-20T18:10:00.004+10:00

So the trailer for the third transformers instalment, Transformers: Dark of the Moon has been release and man, does it look good. I'm excited, but then I love the transformers franchise.

And some shorts I found through a friend :)

Salesman Buck.com

Salesman Pete from Salesman Pete on Vimeo.

Meet Buck from TeamCerf on Vimeo.

Tribute to the man from the moon

2010-12-07T18:06:00.002+10:00

Tribute to Norman Frederick Hetherington, the man behind popular Australian children's television puppet character Mr Squiggle who passed away on the 6th December 2010.

All photoshop vectors. Except for my handwriting. That's just me.

Even even more upcoming things

2010-12-04T20:04:00.005+10:00

So if you havn't already heard, Disney's Easter holidays animated release has a trailer out. Mars needs Moms.

It's from the same studio that brought us Monster House, the Polar Express and A Christmas Carol (that one with Jim Carey). I have to be completely honest, I did not like how they portray humans. In this film; Gribble looks alright, as do the aliens (to a degree) however I do not like the look of the kid or his mom. It looks like it'll still be a good movie though.

Anyway was just reading up about the studio (ImageMovers Digital), and this is their last film before their expected closure in 2011.

and here's a cool short film that all us photoshop users should like ;)

I Have PSD from Hyperakt on Vimeo.

I wish I could do that to toast.
If you check out the website you'll see they even had an animator on the production team.

Even more upcoming things of Awesomeness

2010-11-23T12:11:00.003+10:00

So continuing on with my 'upcoming things of Awesomeness' I've found yet another trailer for a 2011 animated film

Yup that's right, if you havn't already heard Pixar are releasing Cars 2 next year.
While I'm not that excited about it (I'm still mourning the shelving of NEWT) I trust in Pixar to produce a great movie.

Anyways here's the official synopsis:

"Star racecar Lightning McQueen and the incomparable tow truck Mater take their friendship to exciting new places in “Cars 2” when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours and hilarious surprises when Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage.

Torn between assisting Lightning McQueen in the high-profile race and towing the line in a top-secret spy mission, Mater’s action-packed journey leads him on an explosive chase through the streets of Japan and Europe, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world. Adding to the fast-paced fun is a colorful new all-car cast that includes secret agents, menacing villains and international racing competitors."

Next up, a new clip released from Tangled on one of Disney's youtube acccounts.
It's got some great humour, and some great character animation.

While this last one isn't animation per se, I found it very inpirational.

It's done by Pixar and joins a growing voice of hope for LGBT teens with their own submission to the "It get's better" project.

Creative Advertising

2010-11-14T11:19:00.001+10:00

I do so love creative advertising

Incase of apocalypse

2010-11-12T16:17:00.003+10:00

... follow these simple instructions

Added in part of the Zombie conga line, as it's effects were doine in After Effects. Not that I could export it very well :/

More upcoming things of Awesomeness

2010-11-12T07:12:00.004+10:00

So it appears like Winnie the Pooh is getting a reboot.

"Winnie the Pooh," the first big-screen Pooh adventure from Disney animation in more than 35 years. With the charm, wit and whimsy of the original featurettes, this all-new movie reunites audiences with the philosophical "bear of very little brain" and friends Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Kanga, Roo—and last, but certainly not least, Eeyore, who has lost his tail. "Winnie the Pooh" hits theaters July 15, 2011.

Gack! Looks so cute! :]

Something really cool also happened to Glen Kleane. I can't actually read the page (I'm thinking it looks french... maybe?) but there are some lovely artworks by him

Check it out!

//EDIT
The Art of Glen Keane. More amazing Glen Kleane art. Check it too.

Upcoming things of awesomeness

2010-11-09T08:45:00.003+10:00

For those Avatar the Last Airbender fans who havn't already heard. A line test from Avatar: The Legend of Korra was found on the blog of a Korean animator.

Dante Basco, the voice of Zuko, is also set for a return in the new series. What his part will be is still unknown.

and a teaser trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2

Dance Dance

2010-11-05T11:48:00.001+10:00

WHAMM

2010-10-29T10:33:00.001+10:00

UNDERDOG - the film

2010-10-27T22:13:00.003+10:00

And to yer left we have the finished Underdog film that was submitted to the 2010 60Forty ProtoNinja award by that girl called Scheree.

Animated over a month and a half in Flash.
Backgrounds drawn in Illustrator.

Didn't win a place, however t`was great fun to produce.

Evacuate Title Screen

2010-10-22T12:00:00.000+10:00

Classworks. Part 2

2010-10-15T11:41:00.003+10:00

Cinema Patrons

2010-10-08T15:25:00.000+10:00

Messing about with After Effects

Max THE MAN progress 001

2010-10-07T16:16:00.000+10:00

HRA ep14. Making Future Magics

2010-10-07T09:13:00.002+10:00

Just stumbled upon this. It's amazing. Stop Motion light painting done with an Ipad. Sooooo pretty.

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Buggalug in a halfpipe

2010-10-01T13:40:00.000+10:00

Fire Safty Rotoscope

2010-09-30T15:52:00.001+10:00

=]
my people are greeeeeeeeeeeen

Arts from all over the joint

2010-09-21T16:15:00.007+10:00

ART DUMP! Because I haven’t done one in ages.

Self portrait.
I need a haircut.
What chu lookin` at?

Practise attempt at digital painting
did the greyscale and overlaid some colours. I really like the tree and bush.

Miscellaneous sketches from my little sketchbook
The Mermaid was inspired by Tim's take on the children's storybook assignment we had to do for Jane

A while back I dug up a scrap sheet of paper from 2006 with one of my first ideas for an animated short (inspired after a night of bush dancing). Dug around even further in my digital archives to find some of the original concepts I did back then. Then redrew the characters. I forgot their cowboy hats.
Adding the idea to the growing list of possibles for next years major animation project. Though chances are it'll be waaaay to much to pull off. Maybe one day...

What I love about Animation is...
My 2D project from Terry's class back in term 2.
Found over at my deviantArt. Finally put a load bar on it :/

I also finished that Comic page from that post I made about Google SketchUp. Can be found here.

HRA ep13. Disney's Tangled

2010-09-21T15:52:00.005+10:00

I happened to stumble upon some neat behind the scenes stuff from Disney's upcoming movie Tangled (aka Rapunzel).

There are some high rez stills, promotional artwork, character model sheets and concept art.

Wither you're looking forward to this film or not, I think it's well worth a look. There is some beautiful artwork. Here's hoping they'll release an "Art of ..." book alongside the movie.

There's even a new trailer =]

Source: www.stitchkingdom.com

Google Sketchup in use

2010-09-04T22:30:00.005+10:00

Having had Google SketchUp installed on my computer for some time now I decided it was time to use it. Or at least try to. So I decided to mock up the latest setting for my comic TEAM ZiNE and see how it could help.

Welcome to Bobby's house. I only really needed the living room but once I got the hang of everything I went ahead and started to map out the rest of the house floor plan. Chances are I'll never finish it, but that's alright. I don't need the rest of the house.

Anyway that's the result of 3-ish hours of messing about. I may continue to use it. I found it extremely useful in planning the layout, figuring out perspectives and which camera angles did and did not work.

comic comparison

On the official Google page for it there are some galleries of what can be produced through SketchUp. I think its well worth a look at if you have the chance.

The floating 3d object

2010-08-20T15:09:00.000+10:00

Even more Max

2010-08-20T13:07:00.000+10:00

Mid Pose and End pose
:)

Arts

2010-08-11T17:19:00.006+10:00

Completely forgot I had some art to put with the last post. So here we are:

My representation of my brain.
All Photoshop vectors. Pulled off in 2 hours
and a zoomed version of the brain part because it's probably too hard to read some of the small stuff.

Possible new character? Not 100% sure yet. Was inspired when the thought crossed my mind that all our characters are more or less 'a love child concieved by our brain'. The idea of having a cute-as-a-button child-like character who was aware of this was too hard to resist.
Her name is Imagine (im-a-gine)

Highly Recomended Animation. ep.12

2010-08-11T16:10:00.006+10:00

So with my important hand bunged up and one heck of a nasty a headache that's borderline 'sick' (but refuses to take the extra step to cross that line and be it) I spent my day goofing off, trying not to be bored (because I can't draw/colour/hold the freaking tablet pen) and researching military ranks and stuff.

Somehow amongst my researching I stumbled upon a videos.

The first is a preview of the Rooster Teeth popular machinima series Red Vs Blue, in animated form.

From a fan point of view, I enjoyed it immensely. I laughed at their ideas-that-were-good-at-the-time and all that happened because of them. From an animators point of view, I loved almost all of it. To me some of the animation looked abit stiff, or at least that bit at the beginning while they stood there and talked looked it. Otherwise I quite enjoyed the timing with their gags. Specifically when Church was attached to the rocket.

Anyway. I looked around to see if I could find any more details regarding further development into a series but everything I found was conflicting. One places said it was being developed another said the entire project had been dropped while a third said it wasn't going to be animated like this any more. Ah wells.

If anything I kinda like the idea of it going animated like this. Maybe one day it will continue further.

And here's another video I found. I think it's the early animation of a 3rd year CalArts animation student's film.
I'd like to say, 'I loved how it went' but I am yet to see the end. I did however enjoy watching the rough pencil animation.

In other animation news...

Fast Lane Entertainment have teaming up with Mad Cow Pictures, an Australian Sydney based animation company, and are currently in production of an animated film called "Trouble Down Under". It's due for release in 2012 which only means one thing. Potential jobs ;)
Second years may appreciate that more than us firsties.

60Fourty ninjaness. part II

2010-08-06T21:11:00.005+10:00

So I've almost finished my entry for the Sixty40 Proto-Ninja animation competition. Got 3 and a half scenes left to go. Aiming to have it finished by Sunday evening. Wish me luck :)

look here's half a scene

Oh No - Anticipation

2010-08-06T11:36:00.000+10:00

Animation In Games

2010-08-05T22:07:00.004+10:00

I enjoy a good video game, as I'm sure most do. I enjoy them even more when there's some great animation (I've bought plenty a game and played it only for the pretty animation and story). I happened to stumble upon the Opening Cinematic of Lionhead Studios upcoming game, Fable III.

I'd like to take the time to admit that the ending tugged hard at my heartstrings. Though that could just be from Zoë Wanamaker's narration.

I'm actually looking forward to the game now :/
With some luck the actual game will have good enough graphics to match.

PuzzleBox - Come join the fun!

2010-08-01T11:58:00.002+10:00

PuzzleBox
An OC Tournament with a Twist

Hello everyone!
And Welcome!

Icy (the Quiz Master), myself and Skylar would like to officially announce that PuzzleBox is up and ready to go. In other words, Applications are officially open for submission!

How do you enter? What do you do? What is this PuzzleBox place? You ask, well it’s quite simple.

First off, it's an OC tournament of a different kind. We don’t make people go battle each other in potentially life threatening duels. That’s so last century. Instead in each round we will present you with puzzles.

Oh puzzles, you say, that’s easy!

But my friends, it’s not that easy. We’re not looking for conventional answers. We’re quite insane ourselves. What we’re looking for, and for you to pass each round, is the most creative and unconventional solutions possible. So really only the most creative ideas will pass to the next round.

At some stages of course you will stumble across your competition and have to race to see who will pass through to the next round. But we’ll discuss that in full detail when the time comes.

We’re also a comic thing. So grab your most artist look thinking cap and be prepared to tell a great story.

Now how do you enter? Where do you start?

It’s quite easy actually, just fill out our lovely application and you’re partway there but don’t forget to read the rules and guidelines. They’re there for a reason.

APPLICATION!!

_{APPLY NOW!}

After your application is approved, you need to submit an audition comic. A brief outline has been provided in the rules and guidelines of the application, explaining how your character has come across our lovely tournament. The rest then is up to you.

And lastly Deadlines! Because every good contest has them.
Seeing as we plan to host a most unusual tournament we’ve decided to split the deadlines for the Application and the Audition Comic.

The Application deadline is the 29th August.
The Audition Comic deadline is the 5th September.

There will be a countdown on the groups front page, so keep an eye on it.

So go forth! Tell your friends, your family, strangers on the street! That we're here and we're ready to see how far outside the box you and your thinking can go.

~Swe

Angry Max is angry

2010-07-30T13:41:00.003+10:00

Don't let the man bring you down yo >:]

Kung Fu Maxi Boy

2010-07-23T12:12:00.002+10:00

Impact

Anticipation

Cinema Patron

2010-07-21T21:32:00.009+10:00

Class work. Designing a cinema patron.
I think I'll call him Musket :D He's a cross between a pirate and a musketeer. He's not quite sure where. Strange little lad.
... or is he a lass?
hmmmmm something to ponder on.

Rock and Roll Babe

2010-07-16T10:30:00.002+10:00

Max pulling a classic Elvis pose :D

woop woop

//UPDATE//

MOAR LoA :)

60Fourty ninjaness

2010-07-11T17:32:00.003+10:00

So who else is excited for the Sixty40 Proto-Ninja Competition? I know I am. I'm also very glad to see that the closing date has been pushed back by two weeks, I'm gonna need that time.

Anyway anyway

I thought I'd post some of the backgrounds from my animation, mostly because I can.

Tada!

All were drawn in Illustrator. Rough sketched layouts done in my initial storyboard.

I'm very pleased with how my animation is coming along. I'm over the halfway mark now :) Though I have to fix some of my timing somewhat :/ everything was fine in the storyboard, but now some parts feel very fast. I'll see how things go

2.5D and some active bugs

2010-06-12T21:20:00.007+10:00

I stumbled upon something very fascinating. Everyone should remember our last assignment with Terry, and how we could of pushed it to 2.5D. Well you should watch this, this girl is good.

I'd like to also point out that she does it all with the mouse

And on a completely unrelated topic, here's something I started writing about weeks ago and then forgot.
My mum introduced me to this, it's been around for some time but I found it fascinating. Shot in real time, with CG characters and an interesting use of sound effects. Anyone who watches a lot of ABC should be familiar with it.

www.minuscule.tv

Yoga Max :D

2010-06-07T15:06:00.001+10:00

More max time

And a video I found on Deviantart