WIP new poster

I'm working on a new poster for a local Chiptune event, for my buddy Dot.AY
This one will have a cryptozoological theme, because I was reading about Mongolian death worms the other day and think they are the best!

I think I am getting better at creating the compositions for these. With this one I took a step I think will be really useful, where I basically just threw some random shapes in the back ground that makes an aesthetically pleasing oveall silhouette. This one has an almost lotus flower shape.
Perhaps soon I can give one of those "image made of images" a go. Kinda like that link...

Geometry Wall

For my visual story class I need to storyboard and develop and original animation.
I randomly came up with this idea. I'm calling it Geometry Wall so far (don't know if I need a more poetic name). It's kind of like Tetris meets that really freaky manga comic "The Enigma of Amigara Fault".


So there will be more news on this soon. Dunno if I will ever turn it into an actual animation, it's a pretty fun simple story though. I'm starting to enjoy really simple design, I'm not sure if it is out of laziness, fear of detail or what. I can kid myself that it is expression through simplicity, like pixel art.

Laika to the Stars

I have this assignment for my post production class to make "something awesome". That is really our only guideline. Well I guess we have to use after effects a bit too.

I have this short film idea that I had completely forgotten about until recently, which I think I will try and see through. It is pretty ambitious for the size of the assignment.
I'm real interested in space travel and have always found the story of Laika (the Russian dog sent into space) super fascinating and tragic.

The idea is I tell the story from the dog's perspective and act like a dick and anthropomorphise the heck out of Laika by making her narrate it too. So what I need to do is get a girl with a russian accent to do it with! That is the hard part. Finding music is pretty hard too. I would love to use The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows somehow, so it is royalty free. It is the song Yuri Gagarin hummed as he went into space. I also need to work out how to make the visuals... Do I draw it all?! WHAT DO I DO!?

Here is an image for Laika I made a few years back. Says something about from the streets of Moscow to the stars.

Art Dump

I always wanted to sound like a real internet graphictition (can't say artist yet, so I will invent words till I can confidently) and say Art Dump. I don't know if it implies it's shit or what.

FIRST DUMP!

This is Sonja. Or as I like to call her, Sonja Smoke.
This is for my friend Bronte. Or as I like to call her, Bromley/Brompy/Brambrey/Braprey.
She is currently finishing off her Honors in creative writing and is doing this awesome poetry meets super hero story! I am going to be doing designs of her other characters soon, I had lots of fun working with her character descriptions.

DUMP 2!

This is for my Post Processing class. I am currently rendering out my first After Effects version. It is going to be pretty awesome and star wars themed. This is a multiplane image, so every element is on a different layer so a After Effects camera can fly through it!!!

DUMP 3!!!

This is a card for my Dad's birthday. We are getting him a zoo thing where he can go hang out in the cheetah enclosure, this is what I will assume is gonna happen because my Dad is the manliest guy I know. He once cut a horse in half with a motorcycle. I'm not even kidding on that one. One day I should make an animation about that amazing event.

Just playing

I just drew my first thing on my new widescreen monitor (duel display). Was pretty awesome!
Having so much space to work in is so good! I'd been doing all my drawing at uni, now I can do it at home too!

I also was playing around with some of the new weird 3D pressure brushes in CS5. You can see it got grotesquely out of hand.
These/this guy might show up somewhere in the future.

I'm going to be gnarly busy in the next few days. Turns out the incredibly boring and creatively barren flash animation thing I'm doing for a client is unexpectedly needed in the next few days!
Late niiiights are GO!!!

Aesop Fable Adaptation WIP1

For one of my classes I need to adapt an Aesop Fable into a short animation storyboard.
My original test was for adapting one about 3 animals living vertically in a big old tree.
This was my test image.

I find it really useful to just get something visual put down for an idea. That way it can exist in the image and remind me when I stumble back across it.

My new idea is adapting the fable Two Frogs.

It's going to be very 2D and graphic. I think this is due to my heavy playing of Dwarf Fortress at the moment. Also I'm so busy I figure this might be a little quicker to produce than some detailed epic... I also love volcanoes and wanted to make something that would pay homage to those 2D army battleground images I drew as a kid ala Worms.

New Poster WIP

I'm currently working on a new poster for DOT.AY for a big aussie chiptune gig.
Here is my first rough template WIP.


It is in the same series as my old poster.

Wallpaper and pro. cont. PRO C*NT?

HEY. HI. So production is going along and all. I'm about to go away for a week to visit parents and ol friends. Tomorrow I will be working with like 30 other animators on a Tropfest entry!
We have almost finished all our backgrounds, which has been tedious and taking heaps longer than we thought. I've also picked up a few freelance little things.
HERE IS A TREAT FOR YOU. A wallpaper by Tom. It is so good. Click for full screen PLZ!

Production Continues

Production has been going ahead pretty smoothly. The animatic is underway and a few shots have been worked out. It's still going to be tough to tell this story in the timing of the song and make it clear with no dialogue or narration. Here is a bit more concept stuff.

Above by Tom

First concept

Real basic animatic is done. We have planned the thing out further, considering shots and whatnot. Our biggest hurdle will be to create a readable silent story with an unusual plot.

Here is our first batch of concept art! I only drew the guy sitting down, Tom did the rest.

Tom from now on is in charge of elephants... for obvious awesome reasons.
It will be interesting to see how our styles combine. Hopefully it won't be too obvious when there is a switch of artist. It's a good learning experience for collaborating though!

Holidays!

I've gone a little into holiday mode hence the lack of updates. I've been playing HEAPS of Dwarf Fortress this past week. I've tried to get into it about 4 times in the past, but it's always so hardcore that I give up. I finally cracked it this time! I've watched about 2 hours worth of youtube tutorials. Such an amazing game, with so much depth and creative inspiration.
Speaking of which, I am starting up production on a little holiday animation colab with my uni friend Tom. We are going to do it in flash to capitalise on the newgrounds.com market of hyperactive teenagers. We are going to adapt a famous Dwarf Fortress Something Awful forum game session into a short animation. Can't wait!

Here is some quick concept sketches for another idea that I was planning on doing but got bored of.

Click to make excessively large

Fl(aliens)ash

Working through my Flash assignment. I need a character (or 2) moving through an environment with some degree of lip synch and editing. I'm using 2 characters, an Alien father and son. They come to earth under the guise of Jupiter's moon Diplomats, but the Father actually takes over the earth in a few days, having actually been banished and shot towards the sun as a horrible criminal from his planet. The son is kinda bummed though because he was enjoying human school. It's mostly set in France, because turns out they had been stockpiling super weapons since World War 1.

*Shit... When telling a uni buddy this just now he explained that this is basically the plot of invader Zim, something I've never watched. SHITTY SHIT SHITS!*

Anyway... HEY LOOK! I'm going to draw all the visuals in Photoshop and import them into Flash to make the characters. I'm not so keen on this style of Flash cutout animation. (OH COOL! Upon bringing it all into flash I have discovered that: You should not make characters out of images (even high res) if you want decent quality)

Hows that unoriginality feel Simon? CRUSHING!

Also Rule has been going well! It was on the front page of boingboing.net
Also here is another image for a project I'm helping out with!