Some more OLD Animation

Looney Tunes Animation from handdrawn and Vimeo.


Here's another shot I did on Looney Tunes: BIA that never made it into the film. Not sure why, the sequence got used, and I even remember watching the great Tracy Lee clean up my stuff. In fact I even think I remember seeing it in color... hmmm, weird. I was always bugging those clean-up guys about drawing tips and stuff. Clean Up is one of those artforms that has pretty much become lost to the new generations. It makes me sick to think about it-- as an animator you KNOW how important it is to get a really stellar clean up artist to keep the original intention of your shot!
So this was a fun, simple shot. I remember this was towards the end of the film, being the new guy I hadn't gotten very many "sweet shots". Now I know, there are no small shots just small animators right? I agree, but you gotta admit you're never gonna grow unless you get some shots that have more meat to them. So I mentioned to Tony DeRosa that if at all possible I'd love to get something a little more substantial. Kindly enough he gave me this shot. He was looking forward to doing this himself, so it was a bit of a sacrifice for him to let me do it.
I did the shot in 3 days. I can remember trying make it last longer cuz I was having so much fun on it!
So anyhow, more coming so stay tuned!!

New... er, old animation!

Looney Tunes Animation from handdrawn and Vimeo.

So here's some more animation as promised! It's pretty old stuff (so please no uninvited critiques :), but still fun! I was 20 when I was working on this film (Looney Tunes: Back in Action) and it was quite the learning experience! Frankly, I was scared stiff the first half of my experience on the film. Coming straight from art school into having to meet footage qouta's, learning how to take direction and not take it personally, and relaxing enough to make great animation was fairly difficult for me to balance at first. Ya know, getting your animation looked at by nobody but you and your peers and then all of the sudden trying to please Eric Goldberg was, ummmm, daunting!! He was very gracious and patient with me though-- and I am greatful for that! I learned a lot.

To be honest I never really was all that interested in THIS type of animation. I wasn't a Looney Tunes nut growing up, I was too busy watching Pinnochio and studying Glen Keane and James Baxter. But I sure loosened up on this stuff! You really gotta know how to push shapes, and still keep things solid with this stuff. But it's really about comedy, and timing is the key. Comedy and Drama are 2 seperate artforms, but equally as challenging.

Anyhow have fun watching, this was my last shot on the film and you won't see it in the finished film because it the entire sequence got cut. That actually seemed to happen quite a bit to me on that film, bummer! Cheers!

Introducing!!

Intoducing a brand new character! Granted this design is not final per se, but it has the feeling I wanted. I have gabbed about doing short films on this blog for a while now, and have never been able to settle on anything, but I think I finally have. I must say too, the other major motivator has been the possibility of not being able to animate during the day. I have been shifting a little bit more into design (out of necessity) and have not been able to animate as much recently. Having a short film to work on will give me something (important) to animate until I can continue to animate full time again. I'm excited about it, it's a kind a a small, simple, character focused story that should be a lot of fun and maybe even pull on your heart strings a little. So stay tuned for bits an pieces from the short!

Also, I've been getting an e-mail or two about continuing tutorials. I can honestly say the intention is there for sure, but time recently has not allowed for much more that simple postings. So I guess the general answers is yes there will be more but you may need to be excedingly patient in the mean time. Thanks to all who visit the blog and leave comments, and we'll see ya on the next post!

Arty Guys

I thought maybe it was time to get going on some arty types in male form! It's easier to post when your just doing drawings, and not animation for other people that your not suppost to show.
However, sometime in the near future there will probably be more animation on the blog... some new stuff that I'm pretty excited about, so stay tuned!!!

getting closer to the finish line!

(Click on it to see it better)

Painting is fun! Especially when you stink at it like me and can make a bagillion mistakes on the computer while you do it! This design portfolio is getting closer to being done all the time! Have a great weekend everybody!

All done

All done.... for now :) You're never done, you just run out of time!

In the Wilderness of Character Design, and roughing it!

I am totally on this artsy fartsy kick with all these artist types I've been posting! I've always loved studying dance. I can remember being sick and home from school studying "Riverdance" when I was 11. That's where I really started learning about weight in locomotion I think. Dance is perfect for study because they accentuate the natural things we do and present them to you in a much more beautiful manner. Ya know, like their arcs are always perfect and such, their timing, the list goes on. I guess the danger is that I personally feel sometimes animated performances can feel "too perfect". I love mistakes in animation, a little stumble here, reaching to grab something and missing, all that kind of stuff every single one of us does. There's this great shot in "Jaws" where Brody reaches for a telephone in the morning at his house. There are 2 on top of eachother. He grabs the one on top and says "Hello". Frows, hangs it up and picks the other on up. I dunno, that shots has always felt real too me because of the imperfection in it. Man, all this performance talk is making me me miss animating!!



I decided to post these ruffs I did today. I don't usually post my ruffs... but I liked these, so I hope you do to! Later!

More of the Hillsy Billsy

Not enough hill billy lovin' for ya? A few more band members-- there's more, but I gotta leave more to post for another day right!? Design is freakin' fun, but you wanna know what I keep thinking as I am drawing this stuff? "Man, I wanna animate!"

Hill Billy Fun!

I love the country! Ya know, real country, like Southern Oregon! We just came back from a visit. It's such a simpler place, were yes means yes and no means, well, no! I'm not a real fancy guy, for better or worse, but i love that life is much simpler there. Too bad you can't be an animator there! Maybe I should open a tatoo parlor there, and then work at 7/11 at nights! Hmmmmm, I do love slurpee's!

I'm doing a whole hill billy band for the portfolio. Here's a chick who has about as much fashion sense as I do! Cheers!