Zombies!

Seems like everyone is doing zombies these days. Gotta do my part. I did watch 'The Walking Dead' the other day (the first episode of new season), and I think I'm hooked for this season. I caught up with last season's episodes this a few weeks ago, so I think I'm ready to go!

Robot Dancing Concept

Thinking about taking a short break from my film to animate something. I have this dancing robot in my head. Picturing him walking out onto stage VERY mechanically then going into this really fun dance. Then, when its over, he stiffly walks off screen like a robot again. Got the urge to move away from key poses for a while and get something animating! Would be fun!

IGC Animatic for Simpsons Video Game

This piece was produced as reference for the other IGC's that would be created later on. It did not appear in the game. My job on this was go to through the original piece that had been produced at EA and to both revise and 'Simpsonize' it. Interesting side note... the voices for these initial animatics were done by EA employees in-house, and they did a great job!  The password to view this animatic is 'animatic'. 

Meet The Guineas Animated Piece

This was an animated piece that went along with a pitch for a series called 'Meet the Guineas' (written by Dan Ewen and Eric Garcia). The characters were done in a cut-out style animation in Anime Studio Pro, a nice inexpensive little software package that allows you to add bones to your drawings. The background image was drawn by Chris Oatley.

UFC Animatic Intro: Dream Sequence

This is the intro of the animatic for the film I am currently working on. The film opens up with a dream sequence that sets the stage for the main character's mental state at the start of the film (he has big ambitions, but feels trapped and unable to move out from underneath the shadows of some other giraffes- we will learn who they are when he comes out of the dream in the next sequence). This is the second version of the animatic (began working on this sequence in early June of 2011 and spent about 120+ hours to produce it). The entire film will be about ten minutes long and will probably take me a few years to animate. Want to make sure the story is working before I move into animation (excited to be animating soon though... hopefully in the beginning of 2012).

More Sketches for Simpson Game

Did a lot of these. Really enjoyed the process.

Animated Piece

This was a piece I did for fun along with my Animation I class a few years back in Toonboom (back when it was Opus). The giraffe character is now the lead in the short film I am working on. Really liked that character and had wanted to do something with him for a while. He was part of a project I was developing with a friend, and so I used him in this exercise. This was kind of a goof on old silent films (maybe an old swiss film or something where its really dated and we really don't get the humor). I love a good vomit on screen! The projectile vomiting on SNL is always priceless.

More Characters from Pitch Piece

Characters from another pitch piece. Brainstorming about animals living at a lab testing facility.

Go Buckeyes!

Have wanted to do something with OSU football for a while now. Someday. Go Bucks!

Simpsons Layout Scene Set-Up

A scene set-up from an episode of The Simpsons. Don't remember which episode, but basically the aunts were babysitting Maggie but really not watching her at all, and she had to change her own diaper and redress herself. She did a pretty good job of it, but put her dress back on backwards and one of her aunt exclaims, 'so helpless'.

Characters from Pitch Piece

This was one of the characters from a project some friends of mine and I pitched at Disney not too long ago. Fun project (they liked it, but very similar to a few things they already had in development at the time).

Christopher Pop-In-Kins Commercial

Finished this piece in December of 2009. Won two bronze Telly Awards. Quick production, but everyone was happy with the results.

Looking for a Job

A number of my portfolio students at CCAD are in the process of getting their work together for their demo reels and preparing for life after school. We're going to be going through this exercise this week and wanted to share it with any other students who might check out this blog. First of all, be honest about your work and its quality. Look for projects where your own work looks like it could be dropped seamlessly into that production. Find a number of these examples then begin doing some detective work. Find out who made each one of those projects. Once you've figured out where they came from, I would recommend either buying the Hollywood Creative Directory (http://www.hcdonline.com/) or registering here on the site (http://www.hcdonline.com/blubook/) so that you can get one week free access to all their directories. At that point, its your job to contact those studios where you feel your work is the best fit. With the directories, you'll have a list of all the people there who you would need to get in touch with and you can begin working your way down that list. In my experience, the people who really want work generally find it (the key word there is 'really'... some people say they want it, but they really don't or they are afraid to try for it for whatever reason). You obviously have to have some level of ability; however, there is a lot of work to be done out there and styles vary widely from production to production. That's why I think its a good idea to do a bunch of research up front and to strategically target places that give you the best chance for success (because your work looks like it 'fits' there) rather than sending portfolios out randomly or to places where your work really isn't go good match with the company. Good luck!

Dancin' Man

Would like to animate this guy. Maybe tonight. Was listening to 'Pumped-up Kicks' while drawing this guy. Picturing a double bounce walk while doing a wave motion with front arm. Would be a fun walk cycle.