Elephant March Sketchblog

Run Gloria Run

2012-02-10T02:32:00.000-08:00

And illustration to go with my very interesting, traveled friend's blog. Hopefully I didn't put a flag anywhere that'd cause an international incident...

http://rungloriarun.blogspot.com/ here's her blog: she's every bit as interesting as the sketch suggests. Little had to be extrapolated, she's practically a cartoon character herself

Pies

2012-02-06T02:13:00.000-08:00

AMAZING a mostly hand-drawn picture on pencil on here. Though my stupid scanner ain't working so I had to take a photo and uploaded it: so I had to do even more touch-up then usual.

Had three spare short film ideas I decided to dream up for future use, and thought i'd at least do one pitch sketch of them: in this case, one based around how i could never enjoy an old fashioned comedy pie fight without the pained though of good dessert being wasted, combined with the frustration of trying to hold onto artistic pride in crass commercial art.

another rough

2012-02-01T02:14:00.000-08:00

I don't know if the grin really shows up here, but it took a LOT of molesting of the rig, heh; much of which I only got away with because he more or less transitions between two expression. Might be trickier with later shots if I don't learn how to hand the pose deformer with the bit more sophistication

more thought bubbles

2012-01-27T02:05:00.000-08:00

Hmmm i wonder if I'm giving too much away, but eh, I think the thought bubbles by themselves still leave enough questions that it won't spoil anything. I should probably minimize CG shots more, though

... This one's probably pushing it....

Sento Shot

2012-01-23T02:36:00.000-08:00

I have every intention of doing one with the guys next.

Updated animation rough

2012-01-20T02:40:00.000-08:00

Again, only slight adjustments, BUT Enough that I thought it was worth getting feedback again

Wolf/Pig

2012-01-17T22:39:00.001-08:00

Sigh, SOMTHING I can post now at least. RRRR it's not that i haven't been doing other stuff: it's just that between getting the new computer working and STILL trying to get Maya going, this is all I got. Heh, this is probably the bubble I fear might be "going too far"... You gotta imagine the red arrow is pointing at the character in the same suit as the animal.

Pinned

2011-12-30T22:57:00.000-08:00

Managed to get SOMETHING sketched over the holidays. Got some a film treatment done... This seemed one of the "pitch" sketches

xmas paintings

2011-12-25T09:57:00.001-08:00

Heh, two of these are paintings I'd drawn originally to go with the paintings I posted LAST year. Mom's insiting I not post them for fear of people stolen. I told the only two that AREN'T more or less copied from online photographs probably aren't well-painted enough to be worth stealing :).

At any rate, the copied photos were a nice painting excercise (as you can tell the serow one was a bit more rushed then the others)

Mom said she wanted a painting of some of the famous structures in SF, and thankfully the most overphotographed things were what she liked the most. The Tanuki (racoon like things) probably turned out the nicest. The foreground monkeys, middle monkeys and the landscape were taken and dropped from different photos, till I got a mix that worked: the monkey in the foreground who's getting groomed, his expression didn't have to be alterred from the photo at ALL

early animation

2011-12-18T23:11:00.000-08:00

It's not the only animation i've done, but most are pretty simple. These still need some post-model tweaking on some of the more extreme rig positions, which i still need to learn how to do, BUT really I couldn't ask for a better rig job. Special thanks to the talented Arron Robinson for putting up with all my demands thus far (heh, I still keep asking for changes). All I got for now before going home for the holidays. Can't wait till I can start animating Jenny as well.

Coffee Bun Menu

2011-12-07T01:01:00.000-08:00

My first mess with acryllics in years, heh. Took all day but I love the shop and the two ladies, so it was worth the modest asking price, not to mention enduring all the xmas muzak (My heart goes out to every poor bastard in the service industry around the holidays). Plus they feed me so much free food i didn't want to ask for much: I did the painting and little sketches, and would've helped with the text but they say my printing and burst out laughing :). As a small revenge I put one photo of them on here just because they flipped out when I suggest it, muahaha!

And if you haven't been there yet, GO! It's good and they get passed up too much.

Izakaya Tanuki Lineup

2011-12-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

OY this took a while: i know I designed a lot of these characters already, but there's always that desire to rethink them (even if you end up going in a circle) T__T.

One of these izakaya regulars (the girls anyway) is a tanuki in disguise, and since all of them have means of repelling male advances, all of them are suspects. It's always tricky to get a wide variety of girls of the same age, ethnicity and all potentially attractive while still being imperfect enough to have personality.

OK no more lineups for a while, they take a long time and don't exercise one's animation skills enough...

one more "fantasy"

2011-11-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

extra one. Now that I got a more workable rig to test out i'll probalby be putting these animation's off for a while: UGh i'm defeintely not going to be as painterly as this one... might end up deciding this is too detailed as is...

More tv paint thought bubble animation

2011-11-14T05:57:00.001-08:00

They're all very simple cycles... but I'm confident in the context of the actual film anything more complex or less repetitive won't sink in. Any thoughts anyone?

Heh, this one could REALLY be taken out of context if it weren't going be right beside the image above it >_<

UGH, this one took WAYYY longer then it ought to have: it's just reallly hard to, if at all possible, make this in good taste. Also, anyone else feeling the brush jitter is too distracting?

early render tests

2011-11-08T21:24:00.000-08:00

Would have more, but my computer wimped out after so many renders. Again early versions, the interior shot isn't fully dressed yet (computer couldn't handle it) But I'm actually rather pleased with how Jenny turned out material-wise: though her eye's will probably change once she's rigged. Hopefully I'll be able to render Jerry out tommorow, again computer seemed to reach it's limit's for renderring today T__T

Bishonen

2011-11-08T04:04:00.000-08:00

I know I know, a taboo LINE UP, but i wanted to see how the two different styles looked next to each other: if the more supernatural form drawn in a line-art style would work next to CG characters. More over, it's sooo hard to make a metro pretty boy not look gay... or not gay enough as it necessitates.

This is Bisho, a fox spirit with a passion for playing with the hearts of humans: something normally done by female foxes. There's lots of Kistune folklore about shape shifting foxes, and the rules vary enough i hoped I could take liberties: fox spirits can shape-shift into anything they want for the most part, but the only way they can pull off a human is with special fox masks. At the top is Bisho in his most basic form: straight fox. He's based on foxes that hang around Hokkaido temples and mooch food off people: they're such a perfect combination of scraggly and cuddly it's almost proffesional.

tvpaint test

2011-11-03T04:59:00.000-07:00

my first tv paint animation of the first "thought bubble" animation for my cartoon. RRRR there was a much nice BG on this but apparently tvpaint is funny about saving work (there was much swearing and kicking of walls). Ah well, I suppose i'll go back to it later: Playing with a rough look on them for schedules sake, plus hoping it might push the "basic thoughts" theme a bit...

The Coffee Bun

2011-10-25T03:55:00.000-07:00

If you are ever at the Lonsdale Quay and need a coffee, pass up the icky Starbucks and walk a bit past it to the adorable "Coffee Bun" cafe near the seabus.

Baked fresh every half hour, try an original coffee bun: not to sweet or filling, crunchy buttery goodness. The aroma itself is worth it...

Zombies

2011-10-17T00:11:00.000-07:00

Again, somthing I don't normally draw: for a friend who's a zombie first person shooter nut. I can't help be fear i'm overexplaining the gag...

old pics

2011-10-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

Had to take the pony screenshots down until my producer got permission for me. Realized i'd lost these two pics in the process... so here they are again, heh

Korean in Kanada

2011-10-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

A gift for a buddy from Seoul I wish I'd spent more time with. Open as she was to experiencing as much of Canada as she could while she was here: this seemed one culture shock she wasn't prepared for...

Scary Bear

2011-09-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Gift that's been a looong time coming for a friend for her band. It's pretty simple, but I've found simple looks better. Hope she likes it. Gotta make sure my next drawing are more structured-detailed as it's easy to fall into the flat cheated look

racial slur

2011-09-19T03:14:00.000-07:00

another bloody CG test, MAN it too a while... HOPEFULLY i'll get faster. Yeah, I know the newspaper's pretty gross looking, but i didn't have the patience to do any more with it at the moment...

Fu Fu and Hanji

2011-09-12T03:48:00.000-07:00

HOPEFULLY i'll have that stupid test animation posted sometime next week and I can move on to ACTUAL thought bubble production.

Meantime I set it aside for another birthday card... been waiting for ages to do this one for a friend, possessor of one of most lovable dogs i've met.

Drumroll

2011-08-23T01:25:00.000-07:00

No doubt i might be crossing the line here, but this is yet another present for two MORE twins, based on events from there party: The one in red is technically my boss, heh.

Tried REALLLY hard to emulate Hirschfeld's style, but of course my lack of confidence with the single line failed :) And those are meant to be there boyfriends hands (also friends), heh...

dimsum rainbow and zelda quilt

2011-08-15T03:01:00.000-07:00

Finally, my mom's hard work on the quilt I designed complete and mailed to my cousin for her graduation. I'd managed to design the characters on big blueprints for her and custom cut out the triforce symbol before heading back. Whatcha think?

Fanart and late birthday present for a friend: based on ongoing artwork project by him and his better half.

CG ANIMATION

2011-08-02T00:27:00.000-07:00

GOOD GOD this took forever: stupid contract work. I can only HOPE that this went slowly because I was getting the Maya learning curve out of the way.

Anyway, YES I know it's fact, but I wanted to get locomotion down early. My next test is gonna be something slower.

Any thoughts?

birthday card

2011-07-17T02:03:00.000-07:00

YEESH, i'm rusty. Forced myself away from the stupid maya animation to do a card for two girls birthday. GAH and the print shops closed before I could print it off for them T__T.

Ah well. Back to maya I suppose.

P.S. Winnie the Pooh might just be my first pick for Best Animated Feature thus far.

animation rough

2011-07-07T23:18:00.000-07:00

Amazing, i finally get the models to the td artist: and he already managed to basically remodel all the meshes in one day for the sake of rigging, heh.

But while he's doing that, i'm going through Maya tutorials to brush up on my 3D animation. Here's the ROUGH i put together in flash, no lets see if i can do it justice with the norman rig.

Thought Bubble characters, first pass

2011-06-21T02:10:00.000-07:00

UGH, I can't believe how long two bloody models took me: not that they don't have a lot left to do on them. I wanna see what my new friend who wants to rig them has to say... It's probably hard to tell without seeing the actual models, buuut, if anything can see any obvious problems don't hesitate :)

Thought Bubbles, first model pass

2011-06-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

AHHH why can't I finish the effing model??? Still not done. Hopefully these modelsheet notes plus my models in progress will help the TD artist give me further instructions

Office floorplans

2011-06-06T22:13:00.000-07:00

One of my good friends said she'd help me with the modeling: so i'm trying to do some floor plans for her. I still got some more to do, but hopefully this'll get her started and I can do the rest at some later date...

Maquette

2011-05-27T22:41:00.000-07:00

SIGH, sooo many things that could've been touched up on these, but I gotta get onto there modeling :S. Still, rough though they are they will be evidence that two characters can translate into 3 dimensions.

New title, plus quilt pattearn

2011-05-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

Title changed among other things: This one's just clearer and leaner, I think

this is basically the same one, with this one bit I trying to decide whether to leave in or out. Any thoughts anyone?

Spent a great deal of my visit home designing this quilt for my mom to make for a cousin graduating from video game school. Haha, can't wait till she sends me some photos of the finished product so I can make all my zelda-freak fans writhe when they see it :)

colortests

2011-04-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Missed a few of them. Think this should cover all the major color/mood changes i'd wanna put in it...

parking lot color script

2011-04-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

here's the color tests... any thoughts?

SB character colortests

2011-04-22T04:25:00.000-07:00

Righto, Think I got them now. Onto the scenery...

Jerry

2011-04-20T00:48:00.000-07:00

Haha, you can't get a more generic name then that, can you? But there's a good chance it'll never come up in the cartoon, anyway. Did some poses, he's still pretty colorful, but I'm also working on some color scripts of the offices, and it's pretty muted, so hopefully it'll work well.

Again, any suggestions, nows the time to give them :)

Spank Bank Animatic

2011-04-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Slightly updated. sounds still bad, of course, haha...

New animatic, Old concept paintings

2011-04-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

Here's some concept sketches I did way back in 07, I figure four years is long enough to put them up, though the guy may ask me to take them down. They are based on Anosh Irani's The Song of Kahshuna. Heh, some of them aren't half terrible...

SIGH, well, it's been re boarded several times, and no doubt will continue to be: any further suggestions would be welcome... Apart from do the sound effects better, because I know they're bad, haha

Bubble Hub pass: first pass

2011-02-16T04:01:00.000-08:00

SIGH, I started this, when? May? No music yet, but I wanted to get it up to get some feedback.

character designs

2011-01-16T22:40:00.000-08:00

FINALLY, happy blood NEW YEAR. AHHHH, the trouble with big projects is you rarely have anything presentable to show every week.

Wanted to show these characters were thought through from all angles, and more or less how i'd want them to look, textured and lit.... as close as my painting skills would allow anyway...

a drawing of a friend I did to mortify: confident that there's a few oceans between me and her fist

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

FINALLY, somethng new on my bloody blog. These were paintings of my trip to Japan, which I made for xmas presents. Two short, luckily the people there for are in Australia and won't get a chance to see them for a few months anyway.

Anyhoo, hopefully there will suffice for December T__T

Gaijin-Kitsune

2010-11-12T04:21:00.001-08:00

I can't BELEIVE how long it took me to make somthing to put up here: My Little Pony's FINALLY done: FREE from fushia hell. Still, i managed to accomplish some nice poses on it, so i'll have to keep in touch with the studio to find out when i can post some stuff.

I seem to have failed to find a good idea for a short film inspired by my trip to Japan, but here's a feature idea i figured I should at least try a sketch some main characters for. Based on all the stuff I like about contemporary japan: shapeshifting animal spirits, Akihabera shops/nightlife, and of course, the girls...

ID number

2010-10-18T00:49:00.000-07:00

Another beat board. brushing aside my complete lack of skill with line/perspective and color, does ANYONE, get the connection?

"Spank Bank"

2010-10-04T00:04:00.000-07:00

Ok ok, newest short film idea: about the politics of educated men working with women in modern workforce. And about how natural attractions shouldn't be something to be ashamed of, but aknowledged as strictly impulse that shouldn't interfere with the other gender being able to share an office with you.

I decided to set it in the "future", so that I could do strange duck-dodgers ish spacesuit to avoid having to create CG drapery: and people communicate with "thought bubbles" that shoot from spouts on the top of there suits. The male coworker desperate orders a device that will censor naughty thoughts about coworkers (a device known as a Spank Bank) to avoid him look misogynistic.

"I'm a Gnu"

2010-09-27T00:14:00.000-07:00

Yet ANOTHER idea for a short film (lots I still have on paper needing to be graphited over).

The idea was to animated to an old Swann and Flanders song "The Gnu song"... Decided to make the characters SUPER simple for rigging's sake: the Gnu's design what based a bit on shaun the sheep from Aardman.

This was the mascot of a friends aspiring rock band, that she wanted me to draw up for a t-shirt print (she's mailing me one). She always did stop motion horror flicks with an ancient teddy with a sneer that she carries everywhere, so I suggested using him as the name for her band.

Cosplay day

2010-09-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

Went on my first Cosplay outing a few weeks ago, and finally sketched out a joint costume affair some of my friends dressed up as. Their reaction to this might be mixed.... When it comes to platonic friends, you get in trouble if you're either not flattering enough, or much too flattering...

"Problems"

2010-08-31T00:50:00.000-07:00

The newest (and probably most practical) CG cartoon idea. If you don't get it, I don't blame you :).... I'm still trying to sort out the basic plot: just how all the characters react differently to it.

Cat Cafe

2010-08-24T01:48:00.001-07:00

I know, I know; the Bubble Hub's been slowing down posts. Any way, here's ANOTHER idea for a short film next year, also based on my trip to Japan.

For those who don't know what a Japanese Cat Cafe is (which doesn't involve much in the way of food, save tea or coffee of a beer) is a lounge dedicated to taking care of cats, so that denizens who can't own pets in their housing (very common in Tokyo) can spend some time with the cats at an hourly rate. The amusing thing about it, however, is that cats aren't professional creatures: their playful and affectionate when THEY wanna be.. not when YOU wanna be.

Is it narcissistic to have yourself in a cartoon?

New Maid design

2010-08-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

Animated three of fourteen shots for the Bubble Hub test so far. On the buses though I've been trying to redesign my cafe maid: I still want the teeny-character thing, but felt the last design was a bit too close to previous work. I ended up with the sort of spy vs spy nose that I thought helped match the broadness and silliness of the business man but still managing to be all cute.

I need a few background maids, so hopeful lots of these face studies'll allow me to come up with distinctive designs while still being able to recycle the body of the original maid (to save modeling/rigging time).

Bubble Hub animatic and cousin's wedding gift

2010-07-23T01:56:00.000-07:00

And here is the animatic for my "Bubble Hub" test, with voice and effects edited in.

Both girl's voices are still in working development: they were done by the very talented Beatrice Tsang. You wouldn't believe how long it took to get a girl who could provide an amusing voice... Any thoughts would be certainly appreciated....

Wedding present for a cousin.

Bubble Hub BG's

2010-07-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

More BG's for the Bubble Hub Test. Just one elaborate fantasy BG left... and some #$^@!*@ voices (you'd be surprised how much harder it is to find a good girl voice actor), and I'll be ready to animate.

Japanese business man sketches

2010-06-28T02:01:00.000-07:00

Just some roughs, trying to work out the one characters design, no doubt making choices ill-suited to CG. Still, I'm getting rather fond of him...
And here's BG's I'm trying to design for a test of the "Bubble Hub" I boarded. The one scene clashes with the bedroom. It's meant to be a fantasy scene, but I think even by that extend it'll probably need to be alterred...

Mallet Maid designs

2010-06-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

Again, lots of projects that will take longer to finish, or need voices recorded before worth posting, so this is what I got for this week.

Just wanted to see how these characters could look as rendered CG characters.... with only a small idea of how to model them, heh...

Well, I had my doubts, and it wasn't without its flaws (More rhetorical dialogue then I'm use to at Pixar), Toy Story 3 more then lived up to the trilogy. Easily their most intense climax in any other their films.

I wanted to sketch the strongest character in the film, without giving anything away: I'm sure most people figured out his role, but possibly not to the extent that they took him.

Oh, and Teddy Newtons cartoon "Day and Night", in my opinion, probably did more to push the medium and entertainment value of hand drawn animation in six minutes then Disney did with it in ninety...

Japanese Monkeys

2010-06-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

You'd think I'd be getting more accomplished, what with my new cintiq. Too many failed attempts.

But anyway, another photo from japan, based on the cute monkeys I saw up in Nagano. Does the joke work?

Maid with a Mallet

2010-05-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

Yet another possibility for a short film. This one's less one's certainly a lot fuzzier then the elephant one, and probably even more trickier to translate in CG.... not to mention potentially unsettling if not handled tactfully. Regrettably, all these reasons seem to make it more intriguing to me.

Plus, I wanted to try doing something based on my experiences in Japan:

This was probably the most notworthy custom at one of those frightening cutesy maid cafes; very pretty girls mind you and the outfits certainly did them credit, but the whole scenario was far too "pink and frilly" for me to certainly consider the situation "sexy". Of course I've never found leather and leashes did anything for me, so I suppose Neither extremes work on me.

ANYWAY, all I can think of to expand on this scene of broad slapstick is possibly some sort of imaginative 2D animation of the "pain stars" taking a life of their own and interacting with the CG characters somhow.....

Now, in the real maid cafe I went to, the waitresses performed this assault with a harmless squeaky-toy mallet (not THAT much smaller then this), but given the appearance of the standard clientele, I'm sure they would've wished they had a more authentic one from time to time...

How To Move An Elephant

2010-05-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

And idea for a short cartoon. I'm planning to apply for a highly untested fourth year at Cap, where you come in with a (very) short film storyboard, and basically use all the classes and resources of the program to make it in. Trick is finding a short cartoon idea short enough and simple enough that one can do impressive animation within the deadline for a demo reel, yet still stands as a finished "story" so it stands out and also has festival potential.

Inspired from an old picture book from my childhood, I thought of the idea of a roman soldier just trying to get an elephant up a hill. I picture just a very simple looney-toon's esque gag sequence. Which would be good, but after seeing some of the amazing and highly inventive shorts coming from Calart students, I feel it might be a bit too familiar.

AHHHHH, to attend Calarts. Perhaps someday I MIGHT be confident enough to take out a major loan and possible find a way to transfer in ONE YEAR of it.... sigh...

2010-05-10T23:49:00.000-07:00

Finally got SOMTHING up about my trip to Japan. Here's the title..... I'm sure I come up with somthing to put behind it before I go to Japan a second time.

I've also been working on an animatic for a Bubble Hub test, which I shall post once I get a female voice actor for the scratch test...

2010-04-05T23:34:00.001-07:00

DONE!! Or as done as it's gonna be for this round: I'm off to catch a flight to Japan tommorow morning, and my Disney application's being handed off to Fedex right before.

By everyone!! Be back from Japan in May!!!

Will

random Bubble Hub poses

2010-03-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

redid these two poses for the covers of my pitch. Handing it in tommorow.

Extra character sketches for my Bubble Hub pitch. It's due this week and this is also the last week to get my animation and portolio done. So if my third animation bit isn't on here by Next monday: somthing terrible probalby happened to me....

One week till I'm off ot japan. YIKES!

It was at the eleventh hour that I realize I'd forgotten to add two characters to my pitch: Koko's fastidious sock puppts Jimmy and Frankie (named after the two greatest puppeteers of all time, Henson and Oz). They were inspired by two mitten/puppets I bought in a small hand-knitting stand. The arms their currently in belong to the lovely Juri Eun: I felt I needed them on girl arms: My pale hairy ones would've brought up questions about Koko...

Bad Girl and Destroy Him v.2

2010-03-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

Last weeks been working on my third piece, HOPEFULLY will get it done well before April. Japanese warlord berating his assasins for an unwanted assasination: "John Cleese" line for "Fierce Creatures".

FINALLY. Started piece #3 a while ago, but gotta focus to get done by APRIL. AHHHH. Still, any critiques on these too would be very welcome.

The Yoletown Girls

2010-03-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

Current animations running late: hopefully get it done by next weekend...

Managed to snail in the last of the main character lineup for Bubble Hub. If the Lip Gloss Gang represents the rough lower class girls terrorizing the twins, then the Yoletown girls represent the enviable Upper class girls, always being naseatingly altruistic and happy.

Privelaged, flaky, impossibly perfect students and perky enough to raise the hairs on your back; But with Yuki depsises about them most of all, is that their NICE. Yep, it'd be so much more bearable to be around them if they were, in fact, shallow, mean and vindictive like the sterotype often conveys, but sadly their quite nice in their own right.

The Y girls represent how deep, down there's a part of use who alway hate people better off then we are. Yuki, having no restraint at all, finds every chance to hate and villifiy them. Of course, this doesn't stop her from trying to befriend them if it improves her social standing...

subtle animation designs

2010-02-09T04:39:00.000-08:00

Designs for the next animtion; the flash roughed-out stage took all bloody week! Wanted to do somthing more subtle then the last one...

Vincent Pryce dialogue animation

2010-01-28T19:23:00.000-08:00

My first bit of hand drawn for this year; if I have time after getting some other pieces done I'll add in a phone cord.

Any feedback wouldn't go amiss...

The Lip Gloss Gang

2010-01-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

Supporting characters in the Bubble Hub. I needed neighborhood bullies, but I decided right away they needed to be girls; it's definitely not as funny if the your leads are girls and their always been physically threatened by boys, and it's DEFINITELY funny if the lead boys are being terrorized by girls. The "Lip Gloss Gang" are kind of a combination of some coworkers, tomboys, emos, gritty cousins and school bullies I've known (that's right, I've been picked on by girls before... sigh). They are an unstoppable force of nature that everyone in downtown fears: even the biker gangs turn of their engines in their presense. Careful, they'll take your money and give you a gaudy makeover...

This is a character simply named "Grump" I designed for my current 2D excercise. Yes, he's a bit formulaic, but I wanted somthing SUPER easy to animate for this time around, since I've gotta get my confidence back after not animating in this medium for a while....

Bubble Hub Cast

2010-01-18T03:36:00.000-08:00

Been too busy to get much posted: Just quit a contract early to work on my demo reel animation for Disney.

Did manage to work on my Bubble Hub Pitch over the holidays. Thought I should design all the main characters to go with the pitch.

Their dad was the toughest character to design by far: Because the twins are a mix of two very different asian ethnicities, they can be just really broad asian. The parents I wanted to be a bit more specific. Their dad's super Hanna Barbera....

A quick card I made for a friend. Their both coworkers on my last job I got kinda attached to: She was a good sport about it...

X-mas gift

2009-12-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

My youngest brother's present; the dog that this puppy currently is is a bloody mammoth!!

Merry xmas and all that.

Sean and Song

2009-12-11T02:14:00.000-08:00

First design pass at the Bubble Hubs most faithful patrons; primarily due to being Yuki and Koko's ubearable admirers.

Both are equally repellant: Sean do to an extreme lack of confidence, and Song do to an extreme surpluss of it...

More Yuki Koko poses

2009-11-29T19:05:00.000-08:00

I really gotta get going on my christmas paintings, AHHHH, all responsiblitly goes out the window when a ambitious project kicks in...

Koko and Yuki

2009-11-23T02:24:00.000-08:00

Names confirmed. My japanese-Austrian friend informed me that her parents gave her and her sister japanese names that are easy to pronounce in a non-japanese country.

Seemed to make sense; Blue hair's Koko and Pink hair's Yuki.

2009-11-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

Just got Up; studied some acting sketches from one of my favorite bits of animation in the movie; when the bird's saying goodbye to the three characters, conveying her attitude towards the three of them: deep affection, condescending fondess, and resoloute mistrust.

Some other sketches for the two "Bubble Hub" twins. I don't know whether it expresses strong misogynism or a lack of it, but it was inspired by, in my opinion, girls excessive apprehension over their waistlines; or in the case of "blue-hair" (name in progress), an unusual lack of it...

Roald Dahl was such a huge part of my childhood, looking back and remebering all the old kids books. Per usual, the name meant absoloutely nothing to me. I love how tackfully gory half of them were, hee hee. Roald had a knack for tapping into childrens love of violence and dismemberment without ever crossing the lines of good taste or intelligence.

Funnily enough "The Giraffe and the Pelly and me" was the one I remeber the most fondly, despite the fact that it was probably his most innocuous...

Curious to see the Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is one of his I missed as a child and finally read in the light of the the approaching movie.

The Bubble Hub

2009-11-10T03:01:00.000-08:00

Seems all the ideas I get turn out to be really girly. Ah well.

I thought of a simple idea of a tv show about two completely incongrous twins forced to work in their dad's bubble tea shop (being a very popular beverage here in Vancouver), while inbetween college classes for the summer.

Most of the great comic cartoons, I find, tend to be very simplistic and relatable in their setting, allowing you two spend most of your efforts playing with juxtaposing character personalities and doing really exaggerated gags and comic devices.

Anyone who can tell whom blue-hair is based on: amazingly they only part of this drawing that IS an exaggeration is that she hate bubble tea....

Bull vs. Boar

2009-11-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

Unlike the spanish "Bullfight", the japanese one is comparably more humane: you just put to bulls in the arena, and in traditional bull form, they bang heads together until one of them is pushed out or chased out of the arena.

Just one more bit of fanart to get rid of the last bits of obssession revived by my halloween costume.... hopefully that'll satisfy it so I can get on with orginal stuff...

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-10-27T02:01:00.000-07:00

Hat's off to Spike Jones. Got me pretty choked up.

Villain I've been working on very briefly. Yakuza boss, so he's gotta be fat enough to suggest he eats a bit better then normal...

animation design

2009-10-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

Quick design for my animation.

Originally for the 11 seconds club, but what with you job at work, it's unlikely I'll get it done in time. Might as well work on it all the way through, as it can go in my demo reel if I finish it...

FF 9 again

2009-10-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

yeah yeah yeah... I'm going to bed

sketchbook peoples

2009-10-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that rather then push these all out in one late night, I could space the sketchbook scribbles out over the dry spots when I don't get anything else done.... Ah well

Tom Moore!!

2009-09-25T01:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, that took long enough. Almost missed Septmeber entirely

Finally saw Brenden and the Secret of Kells: Words fail me. Though if they didn't, they'd be good words, I assure you.

Met the very talented Tom Moore, and I managed to avoid stooping to fanboy insufferability for the most part, with the exception of a photo with him (I really gotta adjust the brightness on my stupid cam)

Hadn't done anything with the Geisha story. Anyone get it?

Lots of my spare times been on my short cartoon animatic. Figured if I'm gonna do it, I should do it right and sort out proper size comp, and eventually rotations of all the characters.

Must go to bed... hope I can get stuff up faster in then this next month...

Boar attack

2009-08-31T02:20:00.000-07:00

visual gag I wanted to sort out design-wise. It's funier if you picture each member of the chase running through the scene with a slight pass between their appearance...

This never happened in the book, but I always thought there would be somthing very satisfying about Fenrir, being a character of pure brute force and a terrifying bully, being physically overpowerred rather then magically...

Pigwidgeons first delivery...

Modern Women B.C.

2009-08-16T23:25:00.000-07:00

As predicted, not enough time was alloted for the 11 seconds club (that didn't last long), my studio has announced we'd be getting more pay and more time for our scenes; an act of generosity so unprecedented in Vancouver animation I feel practically indecent. Hurray! Maybe I'll take a shot at next months.

At any rate, here's a peice I did when working out some characters for another short. Might actually work on an animatic some of these in my spare time...

More HP sketches (oy vay). Still haven't gotten it out my system.

Dudley's redemption (a pleasant arc, actually)

11 seconds club: must be out of my mind

2009-08-05T02:06:00.000-07:00

Well, against all better judgment (given how difficult it's been to get anything personel done while working at Big Bad Boo), I'm gonna see if I can't enter somthing into "11 seconds club" Seems as good a means of practicing animation as any. Roughed it out quickly (and albeit crudely) and I'm hoping to get somthing done in 3D (after many abandoned attempts). Here goes nothing, at any rate...

After seeing half-blood prince (which was my favorite of the books), I couldn't resist going through the books again; this time in audiobook form so I can work at the same time. These audiobooks were narrated by Stephen Fry, who my friend believes dumbledore is based on.

Again, my Dumbledore and Voldemort, despite my attempts to the contrary, pretty much look like everyone elses :P Allright, my first bit of silly HP fanart in over a year; now hopefully it's outta my system and I can get back to my own stuff...

Lotsa dishes

2009-07-27T01:10:00.000-07:00

Another short cartoon idea being worked on. No decent title yet. Very Laurel and Hardy esque, hence I want to push a monochromatic look. My goal is to rough out enough animatics and present them to some people, in the hopes of getting something together.

Works been nuts, hence such a small post in such a long time. Grrrr. Still, I decided i might be rushing through stuff in order to make weekly posts.

The showdown

2009-07-14T00:27:00.000-07:00

Ughh, a seventy hour week at work, I'm gonna have to get faster with toonboom.

Designs for yet another short cartoon idea; Doubtless my most inane one yet. At least this time it'll be semi-intentional...

One of my friends asked me to do a cartoon version of her. So I threw in my other Asian Ontarian friend in it, along with her herculean boyfriend (also a good friend). My theory (and I suspect there's to) is if your tiny, adorable, and asian you can say absoloutley anything and it's still cute. Clearly the same rules apply for being buff and Russian, provided you have a wooly enough beard and an endearing lisp...

All meant with love, guys...

Back from the farm

2009-07-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

Just got back from, in my Grandfathers words, "God's country". Once again a long list of side projects I planned to finish in loo of being able to work on animation were, predictably, unfinished... Hrmph.

Yep, that's a pretty generic witch, idn' it?

One of our favorite dinner activities at home was watching the hummingbirds outside the window. They fight like cossaks over the feeder if your luck.

An interesting occurance at the vancouver airport. unjust discrimation or inability to grasp the concept behind a metal detector; you decide.

This somthing I had big plans to finish for some prints, but decided they look to close to all the other girls I've drawn so I'm gonna try to rethink the designs...

If there's anyone to blame for my lack of productivity at the family farm, it's this little bugger....

HELP

2009-06-16T02:08:00.001-07:00

Two other characters to go along with the cute little knight on his cute little horse.

As I quoted before. Lara Croft or Tifa had nothing on me in my geeky video game days, but Princess Toadstool occupied far more of my prepubescant mind then I'd ever be willing to admit. Oh wait, oops...

Bus people's

When Pigs Fly

2009-06-08T01:11:00.001-07:00

Another extrememly vague idea, but one i wanted narrated by a barbershop quartet of flying pigs. I had almost finished this one version of them last Sunday (the smaller one below), as you can see I got sick the designs before I finished refining it, and decided to try some flatter, more UPA designs, as my attempts to improve my animation draftsmanship had prevented me from trying anything like that in a while.

After coming out of UP for the second time (had to see it twice before I could make a solid opinion), I came across a lumpy border collie while waiting for the bus that I swear was the spitting image of Dug.

After seeing the movie with and without the digital 3D effect, I'd have to say it was the most tasteful use of the gimic I've seen; They used it selectively and tended to make this push into the screen rather then come out towards you, which i find much less jarring. Still, I'd probably just as soon forgo the 3D and save the extra three or four bucks.

One other difference between the two ways to see the movie is Trailers. If you wanna see the Princess and the Frog Trailer on the big screen, see UP without the digital 3D...

Four, no wait Three days at this point

2009-05-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

I'm a dead man at work tommorow; why do I do this to myself.

Comes out Friday!! I wanted to do some fanart before I see it, because despite all the great reviews it's been getting, one of my good friends who got an early screening gave it a semi-scathing one, sounds like one of their more creative concepts. Still, we've disagreed before... albeit usually with me in the wrong :)

There; another peice of cheap fanart; now that it's out of my system I can get back to original stuff hopefully

"Hero"

2009-05-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

Gah, it takes to long to get any drawing practice in when you trying to learn 3D animation. I'll try to get somthing twice a week.

Here's a "hero" I've been working on for this idea. I wanted a Link/Mario/Mickey Mouse type hero; I think it's funner when the good guy's diminuitive. Hopefully I'll have some actual 3D on here by June, knock on wood.

And yes, I did change the colors from last night; I'm having a heck of a time with them. Any suggestions would welcome

Computer had a virus!!

2009-05-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

I can explain, see, between relearning computer animation, getting stuff done for the internship applications, and then getting a virus taken off may computer, I haven't had a chance to update!

And no, I didn't get the producers animation done yet, arrgghh! But I did get a few peices sketched in the absence of my computer...

Old character from an old project, wanted to see if my draftmanship has improved since. My character design skills are certainly pretty rusty after setting it aside for animation...
Not to mention a novel I've been trying to finish for months now; uggh! Very clever P.G. Woodhouse series; life with Jeeves. Essentially it's about a butler who constantly get his idiot old-money master out of petty problems... Not to mention his equally lay-about rich friends and relations.

blueblanket rough

2009-03-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the rough I did for my attempt at 3D. Lets say if I can do a good job of it on a Pixar quota (I heard they did about 3 seconds a week)...

Any thoughts in the rough stage?

Burelesque-esque

2009-03-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

Slight update. An improvement?

Well, he's first pass of the Perle Noire Dance. Any thoughts, anyone? The last split-kick she does at the very end is still bugging me; I don't know where to change it, though.
The university did a special burlesque-costume life drawing session last week. Thought I got some nice gestures out of it. Really cute costumes.

Rough dance

2009-03-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Next project; roughed it out in flash first. Josephine Baker dance, but the steps I studied were referenced by very talented contemporary burlesque performer who does a tribute to her, Perle Noire. There were so many moves that looked fun to animate I had a heck of a time just taking it down to ten-seconds worth.

Dividing the work area into thirds definitely helps keep track of things. I just hope the timing works this well once it's been tightened. Would've loved to try doing this one in 3D, but then I'd have to get help with rigging and modeling and it probably wouldn't make into the internship on time; I'll save 3D for a project where I won't mind just using the generic rigs.

Blasphemous Walrus

2009-03-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the same animation with a slight adjustment; which I alterred digitally, I'm ashamed to say. If you can even tell the difference, is it an improvement?

Latest progress on Mr. Walrus animation. I'm having a hell of a time trying to keep it from being either to soft or too jarring for the dialogue. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know something's bugging me for "Vatican", but any accents I add seem out of place....

Aminals

2009-03-02T03:36:00.000-08:00

Some of the gestures I sketched at Maplewood.....

little goatees

2009-02-23T04:55:00.001-08:00

Second pass. New things that must be redeemed I conveniently noticed the moment the bloody thing gets uploaded :)

Deciding I need to get more animal drawings in, I finally got around to going to this petting zoo which is absurdly close to where I live, and pretty cheap too. The animals don't move nearly as much as on a regular farm, also.

Miniature goats: so cool...

Coraline

2009-02-16T04:27:00.000-08:00

Personally I think the whole 3D glasses shtick is going to disappear in a year or two; I certainly don't mind it, and I think it's cool when it's not overdone, but I really wouldn't miss it if it were gone. Now, that might not be the popular consensus of course.

This was my favorite scene from Coraline, or at least my favorite one that wouldn't spoil anything. I loved how Muppety the "other father's" face was. The movie was a tour de force in terms of design, but of course that was to be expected from Henry Selick. What did please me was that the eye candy didn't get in the way the plot. Though to be fair I read Neil Gaimen's novel and it was nice and simple too; which isn't always the case with his books I find. The theme's in which the fantasy is put towards is very singular and straight forward, so you have to time take in both the imagination and the characters. Plus I loved the posters of the two elderly actresses in their bugalow from their youth....

I'd be very suprised if UP manages to outdo Coraline, visually at least. Not that I don't love how stylized the old man is. I saw a sketch of this fat dog that'll be in it, and I'm curious to see how he'll fit into things....

stickynotes are an (2D) animator's best friend

2009-02-11T02:14:00.000-08:00

Oy, this's been a while coming! Any thoughts? (this has been updated since I posted it...)

And the rough I did for the next one looked so interesting in the blocking stage I couldn't resist putting it up too; I often try plan things out using Flash first before committing to paper. I wanted to do a dialogue piece with an existing Disney character; walrus was a simple choice, but I figured better simple and well done then say, trying to handle Frodo for Notre Dame (Even though I thought the dialogue would have suited him well).

Oh, and Coraline was great. Not least of which 'cause it's so bloody gorgeous...

Will

2009-02-02T23:21:00.000-08:00

Wanted to post my animation; not quite confident with it yet. So, just life drawings this time, it seems.

Even at Mt. Seymour...

2009-01-26T02:03:00.000-08:00

This is for all the teenage waitresses out there who can't be spared from drunken advances even in sleepy Mt. Seymour. Especially if it looks like their first generation Korean girls, who no doubt are twice as grossed out because in addition to the middle aged marauders being old, balding, tactless and smelly, their also big and hairy....

Trying to enforce fabric folds a bit more in my studies, cause only after overhearing (friend of a friend of a friend) how disappointed Disney was with the last round of applications, it's something I probably skip over or cheat far too often.

Aaand I was hoping to get around to putting poses of this guy up with the stationary sketch, maybe next week. Originally a Pterodactyl, but decided it would be less convoluted to just make him a dragon, so he fits more automatically into the "fantasy" genre. As soon as you add extra arms in addition to the wings, it autmatically says "dragon" as opposed to dinosaur...