As mentioned previously, I've had a few projects completed for a while but due to the wishes of the client, I've kept them under wraps. I've had confirmation recently that these are now ok to share, and so I've uploaded them now as part of the update.
This work is in-keeping with previous pieces for this client, which makes use of elephants as the main subject within the design. The client knew that he wanted a front facing elephant and that he wanted it to have a cute appearance as it would represent a beauty brand.
As the design developed, the client chose to incorporate flowers. I also designed the "MOORLIFE BEAUTY" logo and the client asked for the addition of vines and roses. The second design was inspired by another design that the client had seen and will be used as part of promotional material.
I still have some other completed projects that I haven't been given permission to share so they will most likely form part of my next update, which will hopefully be soon.
My intention after these projects was to return to the balloon animation from previous updates. However, another animation option came along so I'm going to be pushing that project back until I've developed the new idea further.
I will update again soon with my most recently completed projects.
In the weeks since my last post, I have worked on a number of different projects and now have several more proceeding behind the scenes.
First off, I created a simple Viking design, mainly for my own use. However, I really enjoyed designing this character and I'm happy with his final look. I have a few ideas for what I can do with him in future so watch this space.
A future project..?
I have recently completed some artwork for print, which I will post in another week or so and will discuss in further detail when I do.
Additionally, I completed numerous logos and advertising pieces for Kenny at Moor Life, as mentioned previously, and I am now able to show these off in all their glory:
Different colour variances of a design for Moor Life.
-These designs were a lot of fun to work on. Kenny was inspired by Snoopy when he sent me the idea for these designs and this is particularly evident in the "Moor Sleep" piece.
I have suspended development on "A Cartoon About A Balloon" for the time being while I continue to do logo and graphic design work.
Next update will show the aforementioned artwork and then shortly afterwards I should be able to show recent graphic design work.
As previously mentioned, the Meatballs cartoon "Food Doggy" is now finally completed and I have posted it across my social media channels and on my website.
Now going forward I will continue to work on the animation project for the Scottish DJ and the podcast he works on. I'm not sure where we go from there. I feel quite tired from going from one project to the next so will take a break after this one.
I have now completed the intro to "Food Doggy" and have completed all the animation work. My co-animator Jon is still working on his own scenes and I will continue to work on the scene colouring. Below is the final animation and colouring of the intro, though the music used may still be changed for something else.
Alongside working on my new animation "Meatballs" (below) I have also been coming up with new character designs, and it is Pirates (yet again!) The crew I'm building are more of a villain crew, and I picture them as the antagonists to my first crew. I will eventually get around to digitally colouring these then who knows, maybe I will develop things further with a one off comic.
This is the Captain of the crew, and Captain Avery's nemesis.
rate
This character (Amarog) is highly powerful and surprisingly fast.
This character is called Simi. He isn't the most skilled fighter, however, due to his ability to climb and his speed, he makes himself a powerful contender.
I think of this character as a total wild card, borderline psychopath.
This is the model sheet for the new project "Meatballs". Animation work is starting to pick up and the piece should be finished very soon. I will update when the cartoon is completed.
Work on the animated short named "Meatballs" is coming along nicely. Tomorrow I am releasing the below image on the run up to completing the short. This piece should be finished by early September. I will post the final animation upon completion.
As I promised, the digital character design that I have spent part of
today working on. Avery was planned to be the main character in my
pirate comic, created as part of a university project. However, the
project didn't really evolve into anything. I decided to just convert my
sketch of Avery into digitally inked to get some practice in.
Next,
as previously mentioned, I will get back to working on the next "Gump
& Gil" episode, which I will hopefully have finished at some point
next week. In-between working on this project I will also continue to
design and digitize characters in order to build up my website.
Well, it has been quite a while since my last post in relation to my work on "Tim's Time Machine." I have been on a much needed hiatus after the mayhem of my Masters degree. The break has felt amazing and has allowed me to spend quality time with my beautiful girlfriend, Amy and amazing son Logan.
The constant and unyielding flow of assessments feels like a distant memory, and I'm already starting to look back on it with fondness. I feel that now is the time to get back to work and start creating more animation. Below is my final piece from my degree, titled "Et Rapta" (latin for "The Kidnapping") Et Rapta was created in Toon Boom Studio 6.0 and took around a month from start to finish.
"Et Rapta" takes place in a small town named Lardeen, during a time when a series of child kidnappings have taken place. A total of thirteen children are officially declared missing, with no leads as to their whereabouts. The story follows mischievous ten-year old Rex, who accidentally flies his toy plane through the window of a derelict old mansion. However, upon entering, he finds far more than he bargained for.
Please watch "Et Rapta" before I go into more detail in regards to the plot.
So, yeah you probably seen that coming. Hopefully the plot was clear enough that you understood everything that was going on. Alex West (the creepy scientist type), who I consider to be the main character, was a renowned and amazingly gifted surgeon, who sadly lost his son Timothy after a long battle with Leukemia. Alex (as can be read in one of the papers Max notices) tried his very best to cure his son, but only managed to prolong his death.
Alex went off the rails after Timothy died, driving his wife away and becoming obsessed with bringing his son back. Eventually, he became insane and increasingly desperate, resorting to kidnapping local children and operating on them to look similar to Timothy. He injects them with Curare, a strong paralyzing agent, throughout the process before locking them in glass cases like dolls, naming them "experiments."
The target outcome of this project was to create an animation that would be considered creepy and somewhat scary. This animation deals with darker topics than what I, as an animator, have dealt with in the past. This is what encouraged me to see it through to the end, it was something I would need to adapt to, and test my skills. Usually I focus on creating comedic animations and knew that the horror genre would be a big challenge for me to overcome.
I was inspired heavily by the types of stories that I read in my youth, particularly those from the "Goosebumps" series of books by R.L. Stine. These tales, more often than not, ended with a shock twist.
"Goosebumps" was a big influence on this project.
In my personal opinion, the final piece came together quite nicely. I feel that I am most likely capable of better work, although I do stand by this piece fully. The area that I feel I didn't quite do enough with was the back story of the scientist character. I had it all planned out, as you can see above, but perhaps it is a little too subtle, particularly as some of it, like the newspaper articles, are "freeze-frame" information.
The amount of exposition for Max I feel is the right amount because, as mentioned, I consider him to be a secondary character, with the scientist being the real important character. I also cut quite a lot of Max's scenes for time reasons, but there was originally a scene with max walking through the garden and a scene in the main hall of the mansion.
I learned quite a bit from this project, particularly with the storytelling aspect. As mentioned, I usually veer towards animations with gags throughout, similar to Tom & Jerry. As a bad habit, I used to only have a rough idea of where the story was leading when I started animating, causing difficulty later. This was mainly because I was impatient with such things.
However, I have since learnt to take my time and fully flesh out my storyboard before starting. I have learnt to plan ahead with story from the start, having a start middle and end before going ahead and animating.
Next on the agenda for me will be trying to find a job within the animation industry. I know this won't necessarily come to me overnight, but I am willing to work as hard as possible and will hopefully see it all pay off in the end. Asides from this though, I will also be returning to my animated piece "Grumpy Gary in Dog Daze" which is about one-sixth complete. I also intend to create a second episode of "Gump & Gil" with fellow animator and friend, Jon Campbell. I also have quite a number of other exciting ideas for animated pieces that I will hopefully get around to working on in the near future.
These are the colours that I have chosen for the establishing shot of "Grumpy Gary's" house. I am not great at deciding on which colours to use for backgrounds and I will probably make several changes before I am completely satisfied.
EDIT: This is the final look that I have given to the establishing shot.
