FOREVER SLEEPLESS

Static Skies - The Black Tower

2012-02-16T21:37:00.000-08:00

The first three pages of Static Skies, the comic I have been diligently working on for the past seven years, have now been posted to Smackjeeves.

Thank you everyone who has been supportive and even helped me with this project over the years (not that it's anywhere near over yet)!

I hope that this is the beginning of something wonderful and that you will all enjoy the ride.

Static Skies is rated for older teens and will be updated every Thursday.

Family Portrait and Late Christmas Picture

2011-12-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

Crissy and Peter's family portrait. Peter is 2 and Crissy is 4 in it.

This was made to be a background element in some of the panels that I will now be able to reuse.

And here's the Christmas picture I made this year. It was finished a day late and I forgot to post it here.

Finch and Ursula Velding

2011-11-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

Finch is a shapeshifter whose main form is an elf. He can turn into any living creature, but has a preference for the form of a crow and, secondly, a horse. Finch is a skilled swordsman, but would certainly rather not fight if the choice is there.

Finch has an unfortunate and painful past.

I really can’t say much about him because mostly all of it is spoilers.

Ursula Velding is the Empress of the Vampyryn Empire: the largest kingdom of the vampires. She maintains a very serious composure, but cares very deeply for her citizens. Ursula would probably make an excellent psychologist if she weren’t busy ruling, being a wonderful listener and having a knack for analyzing the humanoid mind. Being the ruler of such a vast and endangered land can be very stressful at times though, so she will often be found trying to meditate or with a big cup of calming tea in her hand.

Ever since Ursula was little she has experienced flashes of events before they happen, an inherited skill that she tries to harbour and use to predict the future.

Ursula doesn’t come into the story for a while.

As a side note (sadly I feel I need to bring this up) yes, I like vampires, but not the super sexy or sparkly kind. I hope I can bring a better name to them.

Mermaid Concept

2011-11-29T21:49:00.001-08:00

Character concept for a comic that I will be creating for Shi’s anthology. I did some concepts for her and I really had the urge to paint one of the poses.

She’s so much fun to paint, I’m a little sad the comic will have to be in black and white. Then again, I’m sure I’ll be grateful for less work later.

Shovy Quaelt

2011-11-19T20:34:00.000-08:00

Here is a character page for Shovy Quaelt, one of the main characters from my comic. He is an imp, but doesn't use magic, unlike the majority of his species. Instead he has had to become very skilled with using his fists and feet for battle. He is a general pervert but, despite this, he is incredibly loyal and will be the first to rush in and help someone in a dire situation.

Oh yes, and Shovy also loves to eat and cook!

Shovy won't come into the comic for a while and, unfortunately, I can't say much else about him because of spoilers.

I know I haven't been posting much up lately, primarily because I have been inking like a madwoman, but hopefully you will enjoy this and three more character pages I hope to finish soon.

Halloween Costume 2011

2011-10-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

Here is my first real sewing project! This is the Halloween costume I've been wanting to make for forever, since I really love jesters.

It took me about a week and a half to make.

Comic - Volume 1 Cover WIP

2011-09-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get this done sooner but there is lots of stuff happening in my life right now that demands my attention. In light of this, I hope you enjoy some inked, work in progress art of the first volume cover for my comic. The cover shows a tower that will be very important throughout the course of the story.

The painting for it is going very well and it should be done soon.

I am also currently inking the first chapter pages and I hope that they will be done before the end of the year.

Loki Fanart and Lifedrawing

2011-08-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

Fanart of Lochlan and Kian from Loki, my close friend ukiiukii 's wonderful webcomic.

You can read it here.

Lastly, been getting back into the swing of lifedrawing daily. Let's see how that continues to go. Hoping to buff up my abilities as much as possible before I get to inking my comic.

Anthology Sketches

2011-07-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Something a little new this time! http://sho-art.tumblr.com/ asked me if I'd like to contribute to a comic anthology, sometime in the future. Of course I got way too excited and came up with a story. I decided to sketch out some characters (because character design is too much fun).

Who knows if I'll actually end up using this idea in the end, but it was a good exercise none the less.

Also, for the lack of big comic updates, I apologize. I've been very busy lately with animation work and also trying to finish up the roughs of chapter 10, so that I can move onto inking... :>

Happy Canada Day!

2011-06-30T21:17:00.001-07:00

Although none of my characters are Canadian, that doesn't mean Crissy can't share in some of the spirit.

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Helga's Robots

2011-06-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here are two of the robots from my comic. Helga designed them and they help her run Paragon City.

The smaller ones, Scouts, are used primarily as cameras so that she can keep a constant eye on the city and its people. They have small insect like wings that allow them to fly.

The bigger ones, Troops, are used to keep the populace under control and pack a big surprise inside the containers on their back.

I found out through making this picture that robots, while hard to draw and clean up, are much easier to colour.

This was a great break, but I really can't wait to draw more pages now. :)

My Comic - Characters

2011-06-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Below are sketches of some of the main characters from my comic. Since I posted them on my new livejournal: http://zaralet.livejournal.com/ and deviantart: http://zaralt.deviantart.com/, I figured I should post these here as well.

I've been developing this for seven years, planning and roughing out pages, but never really had the courage to show it to anyone outside of my closest friends due to a fear I've had since childhood of character theft. However, recently, thanks to my very close friends, I've gotten wonderful encouragement and become brave-ish enough to do this.

First, there are a few things I need to explain about the premise of my comic for these character descriptions to make sense. There are three separate dimensions that exist my comic's world; the second would be what we consider Earth, as well as the rest of our universe, and the third is where the majority of the story takes place. In the third dimension, there are many different types of creatures and humanoid species who are born to and can use magic, unlike humans.

A rabid reader, Crissy knows a lot more than most kids her age, especially about the way things work, and is always keen to learn more. When her mother was struck with a sudden illness that devastated the family, Crissy took on a lot of responsibility around the farm, including tending to the tractor (her favourite toy). During this time period, she also developed a strong urge to help people in any way possible. While this is both a blessing and a curse, it also makes her quite brave.

Unlike his sister, Peter is a lot more timid and prefers sticking with the familiar. Because of this, being thrown into another world makes him constantly freak out and not trust anyone around him. He is very stubborn and skittish, but is also incredibly loyal to his sister, who he will follow into the fire if necessary.

Also known as The White Sorcerer, this demon was one of the most powerful magical figures throughout history and remembered for his tyrannical rise to power. During this time, he lost sight of his originally noble intentions. This caused him to hurt the one closest to him at the time, and he has never forgiven himself for the act.

Helga crossed dimensions and put an end to the Magical Revolution that had been devastating the Third Dimension. She used her machines to become Paragon City’s leader and, to prevent any opposition, she completely outlawed the use of magic. Helga always maintains a pleasant demeanour, which she uses to assure her subjects that everything is fine. She designs all of her robots herself.

The Wizard is a mysterious figure who is often assumed to be a myth by much of the populace. Despite the great risk he is taking, the Wizard freely uses his magic to help the poor, the oppressed and the needy. His walking stick may make him look frail, but it actually helps amplify his power. The Wizard is a kind and caring leader; if a little shy due to his necessary seclusion. He often cracks jokes that no one else understands.

Always smiling, Era is the optimistic and happy sibling out of a set of four identical sisters who were separated when they were around six years old. Being a nymph, she prefers to stay close to nature and lets plants and flowers grow all over her house. She excels in plant magic, but rarely uses it, constantly fearing Helga’s authority. She is extraordinarily generous and will often house people who are looking for a place to stay without looking for anything in return.

I really meant to have this posted earlier... but I got slightly carried away with the colouring. Paint Tool Sai is a wonderful program, and I will certainly be using it to ink the actual pages when I get to them.

I hope you enjoyed these.

2011-03-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

My film, Sleepless, won the Rising Star Award at the Canada International Film Festival! Wow!

It was an incredibly hard decision, but I decided I really couldn't afford the trip down to Vancouver at this time.

I remain very grateful to the festival organizers for giving me this aaward and hope that the festival is a roaring success this year!

Dancing Fool

2011-02-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

I had about a week to two weeks to animate four dances, for a dancer for the new dance game, Dance Nation SCW, at http://www.sparkcityworld.com/. It was lots of fun, the animation and the research, and the project caused a lot of dancing to go down around the office.

I'd love to do an animation exploring breakdancing.

January 2011

2011-01-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

As I work towards some more finished pieces, and hard on some exciting new stuff for Spark City World, here are a few things to pass the time with.

Something a Little Seasonal

2010-12-16T18:39:00.000-08:00

Below are the skating animations I was working hard on a little while ago for Spark City World. I had to take the existing avatars and make them skate in a complete turn around, plus do tricks, plus animate their clothing to the turn around and tricks. Since I think the tricks turned out pretty well, I thought I'd share them and 3 of the 4 costumes.

Avatars and clothes by me and (c) Fuel Industries. (Their faces were not made by me.)

It was fun, and I certainly enjoyed learning about skating, something I've never animated or really looked at in detail, but I won't deny that it was a lot of work. :)

November 2010

2010-11-29T18:06:00.000-08:00

A key frame animation of a scene in one of my comic projects. (This scene was inspired by a dream I had back in early highschool.) I did this scene as a practice because I really wanted to animate underwater movement.

An almost completely rough animated scene of the same comic project when the main character first enters a strange world.

Lots of animation this month: animating skating cycle rotations, tricks and costumes for the girls on http://www.sparkcityworld.com/.

Also, Aniboom was wonderful enough to feature my film on their youtube site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHBKRU4dh8Q

October Bits

2010-10-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a sketch of a clown for a painting I'll be finishing soon with any luck. The clothing originated from an outfit concept sketch I did, that wasn't chosen in the end (but was my favourite), for All Girl Arcade.

allgirlarcade.com

Also, getting into lifedrawing daily now. So refreshing.

NOTE: Now that I have a steady job, expect, at minimum, monthly updates.

New Job

2010-09-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

So, I started at a new job in July, so that's why two months are missing from my postings. Currently I'm on a probation period, but I really hope I get to stay. The work is really diverse and it's nice to be part of the conception process as well. (Fuel Industries Rocks!)

Here's the game I'm working on if you're curious:

http://www.allgirlarcade.com/

Also, my film has made it into the Toronto Independent Film Festival and will be playing tomorrow. Cool, and yet nerve wracking all at once. Should be fun though and we'll see what happens.

And here's something silly for the road (I'm animating sheep one more time for a personal project - dancing sequences are fun!)

A Band Concert

2010-06-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I went to my youngest sister's band performance. It was a good opportunity to draw some kids. The kid with the symbals was definetly my favourite.

Promotional Bits

2010-05-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

My postcard and poster for my fourth year film, Sleepless.

Edit: Music composed by Franz Liszt, arranged by Charles Roland Berry and performed by The Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

Final Animation Reel

2010-03-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

Sleepless, with all the rough animation.

Scene 40, cleaned up

2010-03-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

Here's my longest scene cleaned up: the final scene. Although it's not properly timed out and some lines still intersect, I thought it turned out fairly well for my first time fully cleaning up in Flash.
Oh yes, and there's a wall there. I swear.

Scene Done!

2010-01-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

Just a blink.

Sleepless Final Leica

2009-11-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

Here's my leica which has pretty much been locked down for now, but we'll see during production of course.
Note: There's one part where the jet pack explodes and springs fly out. That scene has been changed a little so the springs are a bit more obvious.

Moop Run Cycle

2009-09-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a run cycle I did during the summer. I finally got to test it and, minus some mass changes, I think it came out quite well.

Good Idea Bad idea

2009-07-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

I decided, in some crazed state, that I would make two e-cards in full animation on Flash. they turned out pretty good, however, they took a very, very long time. The good news though is that I'm quite speedy at clean-up.

This was a Halloween card and involved animating transformation sequences.

This one was my altime favourite and included me reaching a goal I had hoped for the summer, animating something flying, a stork to be exact.

When the site goes up in October I'll show more.

Also, just as a side-note, for this intern we're required to come up with the concepts, board them, do the designs, rough animate, clean animated, do the backgrounds, paint, find the music, sound FX, everything... so it's a pretty big job to say the least.

A Hungry Panda

2009-07-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

I did this animation over last Christmas and, I have to say that breaks really seem to help with the quality output. I think this may be one of my favourite animations I've ever produced.

Umbra Scenes

2009-07-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

Here are the scenes I rough and clean animated, composed the layouts and painted for our third year film as part of Squareman Productions, Umbra. Sorry, the quality is very poor and some skip at the beginning. Strange that.

The rock in this background was painted thanks to Stephanie McGowan.

The Result of Too Much Gaming

2009-07-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

Actually, while after playing video games for too long I usually feel light-headed and tense, maybe even acquiring a little headache, I found Super Paper Mario never gave me that.

This game caught me by surprise, mainly because of the great characters it had. Not only were they fleshed out, by they were amusing and interesting to watch, character dynamics and all.

By the time I had finished it, I needed to draw some fanart. And I haven't since last summer so that's saying something. I've learned to love Photoshop, digital painting like a crazy monkey this summer. It's very relaxing I have to say and I think I'm definetly improving.

Sleepless Package

2009-05-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Here's my pitch package for my fourth year film. I'm quite looking forward to it. Let's see how I can pull off the humour needed.

Sorry about the two typos.

I am ze Intern

2009-05-19T10:56:00.001-07:00

Some snapshots of the animations and backgrounds I've been working on at Buzz Interactive. Done frame by frame in Photoshop which was really useful to figure out.

A Girl and her Dog

2009-05-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

I finished this for my grandmother and portfolio. I was thinking I might do an animation based off of it.

Life Drawing Mania

2009-02-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some life drawings from the end of last semester.

Action Analysis

2008-12-16T16:07:00.000-08:00

Here come the Christmas Holidays, and there goes my Action Analysis. Overall, I'm fairly satisfied. I learned lots about how to colour in Flipbook.

Just a note, the two tone's really hard to see at this resolution.

Best Royal Winter Fair To Date

2008-11-18T16:41:00.001-08:00

These are definetly my best Royal Winter Fair drawings to date. I had so much fun. I missed colour in lifedrawing so much.

Practice

2008-09-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

Random characters I drew to get better at face shapes.

First Week Simple People Drawings

2008-09-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

So, for the first week back we had to draw people, but only with simple forms. It definetly was not as easy as it sounded, taking us away from a lot that we had already learned last year. I hope I can only hope that I get better at these.

Expression Sheets

2008-09-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

I wasn't super-fond of the art, but I really liked both the premise of the story and the redesigns that Spug, creator of Maturation, did for the two characters, so I thought that I'd have some fun and make expression sheets for them. I're really discovered over the last little while how much I enjoy drawing expressions.

Demo Reel 2008

2008-08-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

Here's the demo reel I made for 2008 of all my best work thus far.

Papanak Zoo

2008-08-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Here're some drawings I did at the Papanak Zoo to try and get into shape for the coming year. I didn't do too well, but I got a few I was happy with. We also managed to get rained on partway through and marvelled at the fact that we could see the rain coming towards us before it hit.

Oh, also, guess what the wristbands to get in looked like...

Yeah, that's right. No joke.

Victorian Storyboards

2008-08-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here's page 1 from my storyboarding assignment.

Old Storyboard Works

2008-08-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the work I did for my Victorian-themed story we had to develop this past semester that I really enjoyed. With my theme, I made four main characters, designed storyboards and made pencil tests for layouts.

This is scene 3 of my Victorian Story where Bonnie begins chasing after a carriage down the street where Curtis is holding her grandfather.

This is scene 5, which is a continuation from scene 3 and 4.

This is scene 29, where Bonnie's bursting through the bushes to where Curtis is holding her grandfather at gunpoint.

Here's Bonnie's character sheet.

Here's Curtis' character sheet. These two were my favourites of the four to draw.

And, lastly, here's the background from scene 29, all coloured up on photoshop.

The Big A-N-I-M-E

2008-05-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, this has never, ever stopped bugging me, and it's gotten to a point where I just had to write down all my thoughts. Now, I see a lot of crazed fangirls who think all anime is 'genius' and then the anime-haters who think its all basically crap. The middle people seem to be hard to find, they're there, and thank the heavens they're sane... well, mostly.

Now, here's my stand on the issue. What actually sparked this whole journal entry was a composition written on an animation studio's site (yes a studio's site) dissing all of anime. Now, that would have been a little frustrating, and I would have moved on, but then I saw the examples they were using and lost it. This is what drives me crazy: anime, is not a genre. Anime means animation in Japanese, therefore, it is simply Japanese animation. Most people don't put American animation into one category. There's Disney and Pixar and Nickelodeon, and each has there own style, or even many different styles often enough. And this is what gets to me. Yes, at first glance, especially since it doesn't come from North America, we tend to think it all looks the same, but the facts are clear, it doesn't. Most of what we think looks the same comes from the eyes. They have more of a twinkle to them, but even that by itself can change.

Now, about the examples this guy used in his report. They were bottom of the barrel ones, primarily Pokemon and Sailor Moon. How the heck can you use such bad examples to illustrate how poor so many different styles are? These low-key animes, in my opinion of course, are Pokemon (not the games, they're awesome), Dragon Ball Z, Inuyasha, Sailor Moon and Naruto. Obviously, this is my opinion. But here're my reasons.

Pokemon used to be good. I actually watched the first episode again and, yes the animation could use some work, but it was certainly more entertaining. Pokemon lost it a long time ago, why? Ash and Pikachu lost all their personality and the plot formula just keeps coming back exactly the same as the episode before. Now, the show looks like it was designed in cuddly-kiddy land.

Sailor Moon. Okay, the animtion needs work, once again, and the character designs (yes, they all look the same) but where does the story actually end? I had to give it up because it just kept going and lost me. It honestly wasn't that bad when I was little. But I suppose my judgment was lacking too.

Which brings us to Inuyasha. It was way, way, way too long. I only had to watch 2 episodes, very far apart from one another, to realize that practically nothing had happened between those to points.

Dragon Ball Z, never liked the show, and it's not just because I hate over-muscly men. I watched it a few times, mostly because my cousin liked it, and they would stand and talked for minutes on end until finally someone would throw a punch, and then they'd talk again. Not to mention the bad animation. Their character designs are also really dry and alike.

Naruto I tried to get into, I really did. I guess what really got me wasn't the anime itself (although I hear that the plot has gotten ridiculous now), but the following of fans who were really obsessed with something that, honestly, wasn't THAT great. If you're going to pick something to love, shouldn't it be something that has a real hook in you for a REAL reason?

So, those are the examples that I keep seeing popping up on why anime 'sucks'. Now here're my examples of animes that I love. (No, I would use Avatar as an example except that it's American animation made in English. It's only been inspired by anime) (Keep in mind I'm using the Japanese examples (no dubbing))

Full Metal Alchemist

The characters, not only the designs, in this made my heart leap! They were diverse and interesting and Ed didn't make me want to chew off my own ear like most heros do. The story I also enjoyed because of how dark and serious it was, and I felt it, but then it could be funny now and then to lighten the mood. I just had to note that that one part with Barry the Chopper in the meat room always makes me terrified.

Death Note

Although I despise how they re-made the ending, the animation for it was very good. The detail and life-like quality it had was wonderful. Sure, there was a lot of talking, but when they moved, man did they ever move! They also made suttle movements that meant something and didn't have to be over-exaggerated to make you get it. All the landscapes and scenery made me feel like it really could have happened. It was also clever, in how everything was unravelled. The battling of the minds was intelligent and, almost a quarter of the way through, I was literally cheering for Light to go down.

One Piece

Although I've only begun reading and watching it, I can tell this one's going to be up there. The character designs are off the wall! Whoever came up with these is either a mad genius or... a mad genius! And, everytime I see anything, it makes me pumped to do something, go on some adventure! Not many shows can make that happen.

Miyazaki films

Miyazaki is a genius. Spirited Away remains to this day one of my favourite movies. It may be a little slow-movie compared to what we as Westerners are used to, as my Storyboard teacher points out, but he does daring things with his movies and gives them such an involving and breathtaking touch that it's hard to explain sometimes. The animation, of course, by itself, is eye-gougingly gorgeous.

Speaking as an animator in training, I just wanted to make these final remarks. If you want to diss something, diss something that's specific, don't generalize.

And something that should be worth watching should be something that

#1) Has good characters that are involving, and you care about

#2) Has an awesome story to it

#3) Yes, great scenery and backgrounds are a real plus

#4) Is animated at least well and

#5) Most importantly, makes you feel involved, possibly laugh, and excited. Just, makes you FEEL.

This is why my number one animated cartoon is Avatar, because it has all of this and more. But it's NOT and anime, so I won't go into detail about it. But I will say that I would love to be on the animation team, as all the animators had to do martial arts to know how the characters move. (That's probably another reason why the animation is so beautiful).

I just needed to get this off my chest because it's been there for so long. If you're not interested in a bunch of anime, fine, say you're not interested, but don't say you hate it, just because you haven't seen anything worthwhile.

There will always be good and bad. You just have to find the good and ignore the bad.

Personally, I think a lot of American animation has lost it nowadays. *Coughjohnnytestcough*

The Platypus vs. the Koala

2008-04-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

Classes are almost over, so, here's the clean and rough of the Platypus character, and my final animations of the 2nd year. (It's so tragic!)

I wasn't sure how these would turn out with all the pandamonium that's been happening in my life lately, but, I have to say, I think I really like the cleanup for this one more than my rough, which is a definite first.

Once again though, I see a glaring problem area. But on to other things as I shall fix that at a later date.

Flipbook

2008-03-12T08:04:00.001-07:00

So, I just thought I'd post my first page that I did for flipbook. I wish that I'd had more time, seeing as it was dead smack during the muzzle animation, but I still think it turned out okay overall.

And Then There was an Agrivated Koala

2008-03-03T15:58:00.000-08:00

P.S. For some reason the synching when I uploaded the clean version is horendous.

So, here's the muzzle sync as it is so far. The full track recorded, with the wonderful voice talents of Kaming Mak as the Platypus and Pete Emslie as the Koala, is actually 20 seconds long. I honestly think that man could be a professional voice actor. So, this is only the first 10 seconds. I'm pretty happy with it, even though there are always a few things that I want to fix. I'm hoping to, after putting the muzzle half with the beak, make it a portfolio piece if I can manage.

Lip-synching

2008-02-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

Here's the mouth sync we did recently.

There was a long pause of silence, so I fit in a little lip-wetting. Quite a few people laughed when it was screened. I guess that's a first for me.

And here's the human sync.

The sound clip was taken from Mason of Dead Like Me, my favourite live-action show of all time. I think this turned out pretty well, all things considering. It's too bad I didn't have time to put the hair in every frame.

Graphic+Realistic

2008-01-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

Since I have too much leftover stuff about, here're my two paintings from the end of the semester, a graphic and realistic painting for the theme: future.

Unfortunately, the quality's not very good on the realistic one for some reason, which was my favourite.

May Your Holidays be Merry!

2007-12-14T18:08:00.000-08:00

So, the semester is finally over, not only with a cheer, but with a sigh of exhaustion. My advice: don't sleep for only 2 hours and then wake early for an exam (you will slip into a coma). I hope everyone is going to have a great time wherever you may be! I wish you all nothing but the best.

In honour of the end of this term, here is the final animation until the holidays come to an end. I've had this happen so many times to me while working, the volume on my headphones jacks up suddenly, ironically also when I was completing this assignment.

Happy Holidays everyone!

The Walk and Run (Unfinished)

2007-11-23T22:27:00.001-08:00

I still plan on finishing the interaction between the two characters, whom I love dearly, and maybe touch up the walk, but I must say that I'm very, very happy with the run, the most satisfied that I think I've ever been with an animation that I've done. I can't believe how much praise my characters got, I didn't think myself anything of an animation character designer, most of the characters I create go into comic books and the like.

With this animation I finally learned how to properly pan and now flipbook seems like almost a breeze, well, at the level I'm supposed to be at anyway.

I'll make sure to upload my characters model sheets soon.

I also don't have any names for them yet, which is unusual...

I highly recommend checking out Andrew's adorable yet morbid animation (the best mix).

Now, I wonder what the expression change will hold...

Emslie the Great :D

2007-11-23T22:15:00.000-08:00

Pete Emslie, our character design professor does the most amazing charicatures I think I've ever seen. In the second year studio they're posted at many, many desks of the various students to whom they portray. Like the others, I love the one Emslie did of me, so I thought I'd share.

I was kind of worried about getting it done, because most of the charicatures I've seen haven't been very flattering, yet, this being my first true charicaturedone of me and all, I was pleasantly surprised.

Thanks Emslie.

Royal Winter Fair

2007-11-18T10:00:00.001-08:00

The Royal Winter Fair was much better this year in terms of my drawing ability I feel. As usual, I got distracted by the bunnies. They're so fragile and soft: it makes me somewhat worried about getting one.

So, here are two of the pages from our little excursion.
Next time I plan on trying brown paper with black and white conte. Chris inspired me to do so when we were drawing the animals that came to the college. It just looked that much more pleasing. (He's amazing by the way when it comes to his life drawings).

Weight - Lift - Toss

2007-11-15T21:37:00.000-08:00

This is one of the longest animations I've ever done, and by that I mean working on it. It still isn't entirely perfect, but, I still think it looks fine. It's truly amazing how much better something like this can look after you've slept off the massive amount of time spent on it and look through awake and fresh eyes.

This is also the first animation done with my own character, that is, Mari, or Marisol. Here is her model sheet:

and here is her pose page for this animation:

Andrew Perez, Nick and Melanie's animations for this blew me away! I suggest watching them.

The Infamous Floursack

2007-11-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

The main symbol I guess you could say that the animators harbour, that keeps popping up is the floursack. To give a floursack personality without a face was quite an interesting task, and one that I thouroughly enjoyed. To think that we were doing the same sorts of exercises that people at Disney were! It's mind-boggling.

So, each student drew an object out of a hat. I traded a few times and then got the mirror. I had a few ideas at first, but didn't like them enough, so decided on this:

It went past the time limit, but I was more satisfied with it this way. I still wish I knew what that professor thought of it.

At the beginning of this year, however, we continued with the floursack, but, this time, had to have the little guy in a boat-type thing, riding up and down waves. I love animating the squishy and stretchy form of the floursack, but, man, those wave details were a pain in the derriere. In the end, I'm quite pleased with it, except I have to agree on the criticism that the boat should have dug into the water more as it was moving. Truthfully, I was paying so much attention to the movement and the wave detail that I overlooked how deep the boat was going normally.

Still, not a bad start to the semester's animation class.

Crawling Critters

2007-11-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

Another one of my altime favourite animations. We drew an animal out of a hat and had to animate their walk cycle. At first I didn't quite like the idea of doing a rat. It is, after all, very small and rather common. However, once I got into it and found enough reference, it was very cool. The rat was also useful for adapting to my own creature who walks in a similar fashion.

During the search for reference, one of my my colleagues managed to give me this site for animal movement:

www.bbcmotiongallery.com

Your name escapes me right now, but I want to thank-you again for that. It's incredibly useful.

Silver's Better than Gold!

2007-10-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

Cha.

Actually, I mean John Silver from Treasure Planet, and, if you don't know what that movie is, go and watch it! It is by far my favourite movie. Both full of amazing, original and lovable characters while providing a heart-warming story, great comedy, cool action and beautiful graphics, this movie takes the cake for me. To get you familiarized, here's some of the pictures of Silver that I took for reference.

His design is very cool, especially how his face shifts (his jaw) when he talks and he's incredibly loving, but tries to keep that tough-guy facade. The only part that really got me on this animation was the hat: I eventually had to fashion it out of sculpy to get the turn-around right. It also didn't help that my professor informed me that the Beast and Silver were the two hardest to do for this assignment and that one person had given up doing this for Silver. Nevertheless, this happens to be one of my altime favourite animations that I've done.

The Amazing Second Semester

2007-10-10T05:03:00.001-07:00

Well, it didn't start out exactly that way, let's get that straight.

This is the Pink Panther walk cycle. And, if you don't know who that is, use Wikipedia. Basically, there are other names for this animation, such as the one that made nearly every animation student loath the Pink Panther. Those who picked it as the thing with which the floursack interacted generally, not always, but generally, killed it. (Andrew Perez's was an awesome twist though) I'll be honest, I can't look at the Pink Panther anywhere anymore, except for my coloured version of this animation that I am actually quite proud of.

Here's the Toon Boom version. This is honestly the creepiest piece of music I have ever heard in my life. I have tried listening to it with the lights off; I don't recommend it unless you like being scared, it's very freaky. (Though this amount of the track here really doesn't do it justice).