I'm not sure what the big announcement from Lucasfilm will be tomorrow, but I have a feeling it has something to do with this.
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May the Fourth Be With You - "Pixar Wars"
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Samson the Superlocomotive
A concept design of "Samson" as he will appear in The Brave Locomotive. Samson is the pride of Straight Lines, the American railroad empire founded by Baron Van Kapital. The 1899 Superlocomotive is the epitome of the Dutch entrepreneur's powerful transition into the 20th century. What will become of Linus in the wake of this formidable industrial replacement?
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2D Animation Tests
I uncovered some 2D animation I did a couple years back!
Mrs. Butter's Baby is a traditional (on paper!) animated short I started my senior year at MCAD while I was finishing up Mortimer & Bracket. It was for my Advanced Character Animation class, and I sort of lumped several exercises into a gag narrative about a plump mother and her bratty, stubborn little man-baby.
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Palm Springs Rough Animation
I assembled my complete animation work from the Palm Springs noir short that I directed at MAKE last year. Many shots I took all the way to final cleanup, and the others I blocked in and charted so that my assistant animators could finish them. These are my raw static Photoshop animation sequences, devoid of any post-production whatsoever and set in order to the final audio track. The cars I modelled with NURBS and animated in Maya.
And here is the final piece for a comparison:
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Comic-Con 2011 Souvenirs
Under normal circumstances my blog is exclusively for my personal art, but this is a very unusual circumstance. I seldom splurge, and I've never been much of a collector.
However, at Comic-Con this year I was at the Van Eaton gallery booth and I fell in love with two production originals by two of my favorite animators: a razor-sharp drawing by Milt Kahl of Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty, and a pose from the opening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit drawn by Richard Williams and touched up by assistants with shadow placement in blue line.
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"No carrots!"
"Aye aye, sir! Okey dokey!"
Not coming out of the plastic until handled with gloves and framed!
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BEN RIG Beta Version 1.0
BEN is a FREE animation rig I built for the 3D Animation class I am teaching this semester at MCAD. He is an all-purpose learning rig for basic character animation exercises. This is the first Beta version, subject to revision upon suggestion / request.
Download the Maya rig here!
BEN features a standard facial GUI.
Easy visual guides, and only animation controls are selectable.
BEN is globally scalable, and is "life-size".
Low-poly skin mesh ideal for real-time animation playback.
BEN includes:
- Basic unwrapped UVs
- Tidy Outliner hierarchy
- Auto-clavicle arm controls
- Easily constrained group nodes
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BEN RIG 2.8
BEN returns with several additions and refinements based on feedback I've received from other animators. The upgrades are listed below. Thanks, everyone!
Download the Maya rig here!
BEN enjoys some new facial details.
Also fixed the "darkening head Normals" bug.
Much improved volume preservation in shoulder skinning.
Tongue controls with full range of motion.
CTRLs for tongue are inside mouth.
An extra cleanup wrist control, and individual digit joint controls.
Also fixed the "collapsing wrists" bug.
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More Gesture Drawing at Disney
These are drawings from two separate gesture drawing classes this week at the Disney studio. The nude drawings were 15-20 minute poses. The French maid drawings were 2-5 minute poses. I'm really enjoying drawing with China Markers.
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Male Figure Studies
3-5 minutes poses from another recent class at Disney.
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The Flamenco Lady
3-5 minute gestures from class today.
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November 11 Second Club Winner!
I couldn't be more thrilled about my entry being selected for this month's 11 Second Club! Below is the HD version as it appears on my Vimeo page.
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The antagonist became a blend of influences, ranging from Anthony Quinn, Jack Nicholson, Christopher Plummer, and other film heavies with imposing voices and physical presence.
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Here are some quick and dirty brainstorm sketches, in the order of their inception:
From the outset the audio clip inspired in me a modern-day noir aesthetic, much like Scorsese's The Departed. I tend to be very raw and stream-of-consciousness in my initial impressions.
The antagonist became a blend of influences, ranging from Anthony Quinn, Jack Nicholson, Christopher Plummer, and other film heavies with imposing voices and physical presence.
Initially Beckett was a more upright, prissy hoodlum. I thought it made for interesting contrast and it seemed to fit the slightly nasally voice. I blocked in an entire thumbnail pass of this character, but was unsatisfied with the performance and tone, and scrapped it...
In the end, Beckett became more cool, intense, and hunched over - an arrogant James Dean / Matt Damon type.
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11 Second Club Interview
Here is an interview I did regarding my November entry, conducted and compiled by the wonderful Steven Hawthorne. His questions were thoughtful and specific, and really fun to answer. Thanks, Steven!
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December 11 Second Club Winner!
Taken aback and delighted that my entry was selected again for this month's 11 Second Club! Below is the HD version as it appears on my Vimeo page.
I was not originally intending to do two competitions back to back, but when I heard December's audio clip of Pete Postlethwaite from Clash of the Titans, it conjured an almost instantaneous visual in my mind of a mountain goat. Something about the sad, wavering, almost braying quality of his dribbly baritone. A spark had been lit, and I immediately began gathering reference images and videos. The one that most captured the spirit I was going for is right here:
The feeling of an elder imparting wisdom upon a naive youth was a scenario that felt ripe for interpretation. Gandalf and Frodo, Obi-Wan and Luke, Merlin and Wart, Mufasa and Simba, Mystics and Gelflings, Doc and Marty, the Stag and Bambi - the list goes on. And along that same path, I'd never done sincere acting with quadrupeds before. So many new challenges about this assignment made it worthy of the energy expenditure for me.
An early digital concept and a sketchbook drawing of my first impressions of the audio:
As with my November entry Rendezvous, I treated this endeavor as a hypothetical proof of concept / animation test for a larger idea. The character designs and poses were explored before animating to a degree that would give foundation to the thumb-nailing process. Once I blocked in my thumbnail key poses relative to the layout, I tied them down and made changes to the character designs on the fly to streamline them, increase the appeal, and make the spacing issues come together.
Big cats are hard to draw, so I watched a lot of footage of mountain lions pacing, and really tried to absorb what is different about their anatomy from a mountain goat's, and what defines their personality in their movement. I really responded to how big and thick their limbs are, and how their midsections have a weighted, sagging quality. Their default expression is some combination of apathy, pride, malice, and voracity.
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Joey Brown
Joey Brown, Her Majesty's animation force of nature -
one of Disney's secret weapons for Wreck-It Ralph.
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"Dailies Doodles"
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Disney Final Review!
Passed my final review at Disney today! So excited to be continuing on to animate on Wreck-It Ralph! Many thanks to Malcon Pierce, Adam Green, Chad Sellers, Daniel Martin Peixe, Chris Cordingley, Becky Bresee and Clay Kaytis for all their amazing mentoring in the Talent Development Program.
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Wreck-It Ralph Trailer
I'm so excited to be animating on this movie! The first trailer is here, and you can also watch it on the beautifully-designed official site! Play the Fix-It Felix Jr. 8-bit arcade game there as well, to see where Ralph comes from!
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"Quit Smoking" by Make
Congratulations to my wonderful colleagues at MAKE for creating these 2D animated / live action hybrid PSAs. You guys make it seem effortless, and continue to be a principal supplier of quality hand-drawn animation. I can't wait to see all of the other great 2D projects you have in queue waiting to be released!
This was one of the last projects I contributed animation to before coming to Disney.
The behind-the-scenes clip brings back some fun memories:
This was one of the last projects I contributed animation to before coming to Disney.
The behind-the-scenes clip brings back some fun memories:
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The Brave Locomotive - First Screenshot
Happy holidays! Here is the first official screenshot from my independently-produced short film, 'The Brave Locomotive', about Linus the steam engine and Henry, his engineer.
Trailer to be released in April 2013!
And here is a delightful in-progress plushie doll being made by the lovely Julie Shin!
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The Brave Locomotive - Facebook Page
The Brave Locomotive now has an official Facebook page! You can follow updates on production and other related news and insights here!
The debut of the page also coincides with the release of the second official screenshot - Linus' passengers delighting in the mountain scenery.
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The debut of the page also coincides with the release of the second official screenshot - Linus' passengers delighting in the mountain scenery.
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