Brock-O-Rama

THE FILM IS DONE!

2009-04-24T13:55:00.001-07:00

Well, there's the film. All shiny, finished. I have so many people to thank. First of all, the constant professional and EXTREMELY talented voice of Allen Stewart Coates.

I have now had the honor of using his voice in two films (The Celestial Ox from 3rd year), and I can honestly say that neither film would amount to much without a stern, booming yet also gentle and charming narrator behind them. Its gonna be hard to come up with stories WITHOUT imagining his voice reading them, but I'm gonna try!

Next is my other amazing get, Dan Rodrigues. This guy not only composed an authentic-sounding score, but also came up with the fantastic Mandrake scream sound you hear throughout the film (it was sampled from his little cousin screaming her head off in the mic.)

He mixed all the sound elements together so the film sounded proffessional, and less student-film-y. Once I got these two guy's contributions to the film, which happened probably within the first month of production, it raised the bar quite high. This made me want to make the best visuals I could to match the audio bliss the audience was gonna be given!

Which brings me to my crew of assistant artists! Amir Avni, with his steady hand and incredible linework was a BIG help getting my rough animation cleaned up. Then there's the SLAVES whom I gave files to color and wouldn't let them leave until they were finished and PERFECT! They deserve a big round of applause for putting up with me. Jen Bamford, Nicole Breedyk, and Andrew Glisinsky: I'm sorry about the shackles and leg irons. You guys all did a yoeman's job! THANK YOU!!
Here's what all the animation from my film looks like. Its even more dramatic when I put a few books under it and shoot it from a low angle!

Goodbye Sheridan! I learned a lot from you. Made some great friends, had some good laughs. I think I gotta go find a job now.

Color Test

2008-12-15T00:56:00.001-08:00

The self-traced linework adds about triple the coloring time, but man it looks sweet when its done.

2 seconds down, BILLIONS more to go

2008-12-11T05:26:00.000-08:00

My film is hovering around the 3 minute mark. So that's like, literally BILLIONS of seconds according to my math. He's a bit more "jiggly" than I'll usually make him, but since its a tighter shot I'll probably leave it. I sorta rushed this so I can do a cleanup/color test during the xmas break.

WILL HE FINISH IT? Part 1

2008-11-25T00:34:00.000-08:00

So I'm updating the blog! And only 7 months since the last update! Expect to see the next post sometime in June 2009 at this rate.

I'm working on my 4th year film. Its about the legend of the mandrake root. That's the one that screams when you pull it from the ground, and the scream kills ya. But you really want one cuz its like, magic and stuff. According to legend, there was one special way to acquire one without getting killed. You have a DOG get killed instead! Look!

The guy in this photo is going "EXIT! Stage RIGHT, even!" Hahaha. But seriously he is. He's making the poor dog do all the work pulling out the root cuz he tricked it with some food. Neat huh? PATHOS! Someone should make a cartoon about this!

ALRIGHT I'LL DO IT

Here are some heads

Third Year Group Films Trailer!

2008-04-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

I thought our films looked pretty good before, but splice 'em all together and back them with the dulcet tones of Carly Simon and you got yourself a winner, boy. To everyone in our year, congratulations! Take a bow. Its over!

Films included and their production blogs (in order of appearance)

1. "The Last Strand" http://cs-entertainment.blogspot.com/
2. "Evil Stevil Jumps Again" http://evilstevil.blogspot.com/
3. "Galactic Adventure Quest in Space" http://s-h-a-g.blogspot.com/
4. "Sushi Time" http://squishyfishproductions.blogspo...
5. "Monster Bash" http://a1productions.blogspot.com/
6. "The Celestial Ox" (MY GROUP!) http://mocappenguins.blogspot.com/
7. "Cousin Tony"
8. "The Delirious Journey of Ethan McKearney"

Link's Awakening

2007-12-21T12:49:00.000-08:00

30 second storytime! Hope you like unfinished Nintendo fan fiction!

Kill your friends! And play with your tail

2007-11-03T20:41:00.001-07:00

FLASH!!!! AHHHH-ahhhhhhhhh!!!! King of the IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!
please forgive me my Flash Gordon/Queen moment.

Here are some clickable things. This past summer I had a great time interning at Six Point Harness in Hollywood, CA with my pals Bryan and Rory. These were made our first few days, to mostly get our feet wet in Flash. We were told to make little animated videos of us killing each other. I was really rusty with the program! So the first one really is all drawing, then they start to get lazier and lazier once I learned what Flash can do.

The last one is a rough test for a scene from my 3rd year group film "The Celestial Ox"

A Place

2007-04-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

With STUFF! I just did the coloring. Linework copyright Nelvana.

Pant-O-Mime

2007-03-04T19:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a character design assignment where we got to go back and re-visit some characters we've already animated. Let it also be known that yellow cake with chocolate frosting is the world's most delicious food. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!

Back-handed Hoof Slap

2007-02-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

A rough line test of the muzzle-sync assignment. Its changed a bit from the storyboard: he no longer grabs the chicken. This makes my life easier since I dont gotta draw 2 characters moving around at the same time, and lets Crunchy the Pig use both his hands to emote.

Lozzi Lessons

2007-02-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

After reading Hanna Barbara background painter Art Lozzi's color theory and technique tips on John K's blog I had to try some out for myself. I'll be the first to admit this is about 1000 times more busy than any HB background, I went overboard with the textures when I found out how to make my own brushes in photoshop. But it was a cool experiment, and I cant wait to do more like this.

"HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE!"

2007-01-24T01:58:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest stack of drawings! "The Princess Bride" is quite possibly the perfect movie. I would have also loved to have animated the line that came next: "You were not hired for your brains, you hippopotamic land mass."

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

Here's some jolly holiday animations for ye! First up is my walk/run assignment:

Wasn't that festive?! And now, more yuletide glee with the expression change assignment:

Wheeee! Happy holidays to you and yours! And speaking of milking machines:

Feliz Navidad, y'all!

Egg Factory

2006-12-10T03:50:00.000-08:00

Scrambled or fertilized?

Like, a Reel

2006-12-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

YAY! Storytime! Turn your brain off for a sec and watch. This is the leica reel of my storyboard. Its rough drawings and voices for now, and next semester I may be animating some of the dialogue scenes.

Its Really GREEN

2006-11-17T02:15:00.000-08:00

You say you want a background painted in the shade of an avacado? WISH GRANTED!

Weight lift and toss assignment

2006-10-30T21:15:00.000-08:00

I'd like to go back and make the throw even more delayed, really exaggerate it with more of a whip action. I'm just glad its done.

The Magic Kingdom...IN HELL!!

2006-10-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

The drawing of this background was provided to us. We got to come up with a mood and color scheme. The flash of lightning in the final was added digitally.

ker-SPLASH!

2006-10-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

Wet...Sack. Heh heh.

Intergalactic Asparagus Tips

2006-07-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Say Hi to Gorejuiceaur! She battles huge japanese monsters with her carbon coated hands! She drill presses them, then feasts on the juices that flow from their huge artichoke-shaped wounds! She's a pistol alright!

Happy Father's Day!

2006-06-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Tell your papa he did alright with seeding you!

Do-it-Yourself Animation Desk

2006-05-25T02:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm back in Vegas with nothing proper to draw on. Whats a guy to do? Commission (read: FORCE) his wordworker dad to build him an animation desk! Thankfully he agreed! It actually saved me a bundle, and is a huge step up from my portable one I bought a few years ago for about $300! This one can be angled at different degrees thanks to the little notches in the folding legs. The lighting setup we used uses 2 flourecent bulbs and bruther, IS IT BRIGHT! The most expensive part on it was probabaly center disc itself. $45 worth of translucent white plexiglass bought from a sign shop (its not available at hardware stores, in case anyone was wondering). And I still plan on buying a fancy pants ACME drawing disc once classes start back up, but this will do the trick for the summer for sure. I'm so happy to use this now!

More Pencil Tests

2006-04-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

These were our last two animation projects of the semester, an animal walk cycle and a flour sack. We randomly picked objects out of a hat for the sack to interact with, and I got "groucho glasses." COMEDY GOLD!

Yay STORYTIME!

2006-04-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here's an assignment for storyboard class. We're given a scene from Aesop's fable "The Ant and the Dove." Happy EASTER!

Strangers With Candy

2006-03-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

This is another one of my favorite TV shows where while watching an old tivo'd episode, I felt compelled to pick up a pencil and draw the star. Her name is Jerri Blank, and she's a 46 year-old high school freshman. For 32 years she was a teenage runaway/prostitute, but now she's outta jail and picking up her life exactly where she left off. The show is hilarious! She's always horny in class and just wants to fit in. The whole show is a spoof on all those old afterschool specials that tackle deep issues kids face. Stephen Colbert plays "Mr. Nobblett", one of Jerri's teachers and is equally hilarious. I included one of my favorite quotes from the show too. They made a movie of the show! It gets released this June I think. More pics of Jerri can be found here:
http://www.strangerswithcandymovie.com/gallery.html

Panning Background

2006-03-26T17:31:00.000-08:00

Here's a rough draft of a forrest layout I'm workin on. Our layout teacher is from Disney Feature (before they went 3d) who is a phenomenal artist and a great instructor, so this will probbaly have quite a few changes after I show it to him.

It's the New Zoo Revue!

2006-03-24T18:53:00.000-08:00

Comin' Right at YOU! I went back to the Toronto zoo the other day. Sure beats doing any actual work! I drew some more baboons, who I am convinced have the most amazing yawns. It almost looks like their lower jaw unhinges. The otter on display was really something too. They have impossibly long bodies! Its like a dachshund and a rat mated. The last one is some marsupials. A tree kangaroo in the middle and some wallaby sketches.

New paintings for ye

2006-03-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

The top one is a still life starring stuff I got at the thrift store. The bottom one is a copy painting of a background by Bill Tytla from Fantasia. Both are done in gouache.

Now in GLORIOUS COLOR!

2006-03-15T23:52:00.000-08:00

And I didn't spell color with a "U"! Thats me, going against the Canadian grain! I'm such a rebel! Here's my Pink Panther walk cycle all colored purdy-like for your viewing pleasure.

Trip to the Zoo!

2006-03-12T02:13:00.000-08:00

I finally had a chance to check out the Toronto Zoo this past week. My favorite were the apes...the gorillas, the baboons, the orangutans...SO LIKE US!

Animation school animations!

2006-03-02T10:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a few pencil tests. The Droopy is a head rotation, then an expression change, then a lip sync to our teacher saying "meow". The middle is a walk cycle featuring the star of stage and screen, Steve Martin. The last one is a ball and tail actin' all ball and tail-ish. Seeing all these drawings I did running at 24 frames per second reminds me of something I heard on Beavis & Butthead years ago. They were making their own short animated films, and Butthead, wizzened old soul that he was told Beavis something that will stay with me forever: "If you wanna have like, the coyote fall off the cliff, you gotta draw like, a THOUSAND coyotes falling off the cliff!" Truer words were never spoken!

Don Knotts 1924-2006

2006-03-01T23:26:00.000-08:00

Heaven now has a kick-ass landlord. And now he and Jack Tripper can have wacky misunderstandings together again!

Storytime!

2006-02-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

Wahhh, waaaaahhh, WAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.......didn't write it, just drew it.

Paint 'n Sketches

2006-02-16T19:19:00.000-08:00

Here's some studies in guache of some shiney objects next to some citrus orbs. These are supposed to be warm ups for a big, fancy still life project we got coming up. Also I included another round of sketches. Some are fellow students, some are from watchin TV. Oh, and apparently all the teachers in Canada are goin on strike in about 2 weeks, for higher wages and bennifits, etc. So it looks like I might get a chance to finally get caught up on assignments! STRIKE ALREADY, DUMMIES!

Coming this fall to NBC!!!!

2006-02-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

I'm SOO EXCITED!!!! My favorite glass-eyed detective is BACK!!!

Kaff drawings

2006-02-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

Funny thing, Canadians. What we call a cafe, pronounced "ka-Fay," they call a cafe, pronounced "KAFF". Which puzzled me because I thought they'd take the more french-sounding pronounciation that I'm used to. Those Canadians I tell ya. They're a riddle wrapped in an enigma! I have now infiltraded they're lair and am living among them-UNSUSPECTED!

Planet! Schmanet! Janet!

2006-01-30T20:09:00.000-08:00

Here's day and night versions of the planet of lonely robots. Teacher might have to take my sponges away, I tend to go overboard. Oh and Brock, 1992 called. It wants its sense of color coordination back. Since I wont be getting much background work I'll try to scan in more drawing and post them this week.

Vegas Nudies

2006-01-03T23:28:00.000-08:00

While on xmas break I tried to take advantage of the local Vegas life drawing community. Everyone there is so good! Lots of talented painters and graphic designers who work around town. These were done on my handy dandy tablet PC, which I havent been able to use for life drawing while at school (I'm still not fast enough on it!) These are some quick 2-5 minute gestures and one long 2 hour pose.

Painting a DUNGEON

2005-12-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

Here's another painting assignment. With this one I stuck to traditional materials all they way and gave my tablet a rest. Thought I'd post some planning stuff to, so you folks can see my thought proccess. First I start with a quick thumbnail, in this case I used markers to rough in some tones. Then I did a color rough with the actual guache paint, testing color schemes out, seeing what worked and what didnt. The big one on top is the end result!

CLASSES ARE OVER THIS WEEK! VEGAS, HERE I COME!

Dry Dry Desert

2005-11-12T20:19:00.000-08:00

Here's some photoshop color studies of my next background painting. Hopefully I can actually manipulate real paint at least half as good as I can push pixels around. Cross yer fangers.

Animal frenzy!

2005-11-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the Royal Winter Fair! Its like this sorta hayseed version of a convention in Vegas, only people are presenting their cows, sheep and butter sculptures instead of porn DVDs and such. It was fun! LOTS of big smelly animals everywhere and farm folk and kids running around. Great opportunity to see these animals up close. It was all indoors too, which made it nice because it started to snow outside that morning! Had fun drawing all these animals, I heard there was a ban on chickens and all fowl because of the whole "bird flu" scare. I would imagine you are more likely to cath the flu from one of those runny nosed kids dripping on you, but oh well.

Purdy Colors...

2005-10-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

I likes 'em PURDEEE!! Here are some cloud studies, done in thin washes of guache.

Starting to get the hang of this Photoshop...

2005-10-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

I didn't draw the design, but I did color it. This was an assignment for my digital tools class.

My first "A+"!

2005-10-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

Put this one on the fridge, ma! Nobody can storyboard a scene of ultimate holiday destruction like yours truly! The assignment was to draw a room in the first panel, something happening to that room in the second panel, and then the result in the 3rd panel.

I don't even remember the last time I got an A+. Second grade maybe? Defintely not in a college environment. But hell, this is Canada. Maybe they hand 'em out like kettle corn. Oh and another thing, the actual grade on it was a 93%, but I guess thats an A+ according to the proffessor. Ihzzhn't Zhat Vheerd?!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, America!

2005-10-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Eat some turkey and watch some Canadian rules football! Here's some drawings of my Fred Flintstone feet and sausage fingers to enjoy.

Four Paintings

2005-10-05T01:55:00.000-07:00

These were made for my layout (background) painting class. The assignment was to come up with a simple, surreal design for a landscape. Then we had to paint it 4 ways: First, just simple flat black and white with no blending or shading (second from top). Second, we need to add gradients (3rd from top). This one probbaly gave me the most trouble. I kept striving for perfectly blended, subtle gradients that I could make in 3 seconds in photoshop, but what I ended up with was clunky, patchy gradients that look like they were made with my foot. I'm new at this! Third we had to make the same design, but now make it more 3D (bottom). This one to me came easier, basically when in doubt just add a highlight or a shadow and POOF! Ya got 3D! Finally, we had to choose our favorite of the 3 and re-paint it in a monochomatic (using only one color) fashion. So yes, I did pick the fastest and easiest one to re-paint. BUT, I happen to really like flat, simple designs like this. Reminds me of my printmaking days. It conveys everything the more rendered ones do, but its much more succinct and to the point. I like that. Plus its 5am and these are due in a few hours!

Drawing Kate Moss's Ass...

2005-09-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Finally got around to scanning some stuff tonight. For our life drawing class, we have to prepare a portfolio full of skeletal studies of the pelvis, ribcage, skull, vertebrae, etc. My group got to take home the pelvis for this week, so that means 4 or 5 of us get together and sit around a big plastic pelvis and draw it from every angle imaginable. Sounds fun right? WRONG! The idea is the more we know the skeletal system, and once we can draw these forms accurately, and quickly, then our real life drawings from the model (and furthermore, our cartoons) will be all the more easy to do, because the "roadmap" of the skeleton is already etched in your brain. Hope so! I recently found out that after Christmas they give us an art test where we must be able to draw the entire human skeleton FROM MEMORY. From a front, side, and rear views!! Just thinking about that makes my head hurt...

Oh! And here's an art tip from me to you: The human pelvis when drawn from a top-down perspective looks surprisingly like the Batman signal!

Storytime!

2005-09-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

One of our first assignments was in my animation principals class. The teacher wants us each to sort of storyboard why we got into animation, to kinda get some background info on us. Its not even graded, just for fun but I thought I'd post it in case anybody hasn't heard my tale yet. 100% true!

The Star Spangled Maple Leaf...

2005-09-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am in Canada! The school is amazing. So many talented artists here! All the professors here are people I can google search or pull up on IMDB.com and see their resume/industry history. I had Life Drawing class today. I'd be posting one of my figures from that but they all sucked! I did roughly 40-50 sketches and it just wasnt my day. I've been out of practice and it shows! Starting next week however, the school offers free extra life drawing class every single night. I'd be stupid not to go, so hopefully with practice I'll get back in the swing of things. In the meantime, I drew some of my classmates durring a notetaking session, here are the whimsical results!

Kick it off with some boobies...

2005-08-11T02:36:00.000-07:00

Since my favorite thing in the world is my Tablet PC, I thought I'd share some of my life drawings I've done recently with it. I still know I'm pretty slow with getting detail down. The tablet is partly to blame, your hand just isnt quite as adept when pushing a plastic stylus across a plastic screen surface as it is with charcoal on newsprint. You can use your whole arm for each stroke when drawing on a big paper pad, and here I'm using my wrist a lot more. But enough excuses. I just need more practice, plain and simple. Plus I could go on for hours about how utterly kick-ass and irriplaceble the tablet PC will be to so many artists in the next few years, but I'll save that banter for later...

Word Up, my homies?

2005-08-11T02:13:00.000-07:00

Hey there! Everybody and their moms all have Blogs now. So I figured I'd give it a shot. To people who don't know me, I'm from Las Vegas, NV (born and raised!) and am currently about halfway through a cross-country trek to Canada. Amazingly, I have been accepted to Sheridan Institute's freakin INSANE animation program. This fall I start a 4-year degree in what I've always dreamed of doing, and I plan on posting my progress here on this site. This is mostly so mom and dad and everyone else can see that all the money and support I've gotten hasn't gone out the window. But I'll also be commenting on my struggle to adjust to the rigors of Canadian life, how much I'm jealous of my classmates, and so on and so forth. Its gonna be a trip!