Where's all the time going?

Here we are, yet another Monday and the start of a new week. Lots to do. I'm feeling raring to go though, so fingers crossed it'll be a productive seven days.

Before I go onto my weekly plan. I'm going to go through a few illustrators who have been tickling my fancy lately.

First up, Jelle Pelle. I might have mentioned him in earlier posts. He illustrates for childrens books, magazines etc, and his work is top nosh. Here's an example.

Everything about this is fantastic. The composition works really well, all the elements have room to breath. The colour choice helps carry the emotion of the image, light and colourful. Also, if you look at the shapes which are used, its mainly curves and circles, which are proven to make the viewer feel happier than say, sharp angles.

The perspective is obviously great too, even at such an obscure angle, he manages to tell the story of the image. Anyway, I basically love this image.

Right, here's another image one of my favourite genres, Western! Again, the composition and framing in this is brilliant. The two bandits hold the piece together at the bottom of the image, and their hats help to draw the eye towards the cowboy. The colour coming from behind the cowboy works really well too. Also, I like the collage effects in this. He uses different textures and patterns for the clothing. Sometimes if this isn't done well, it looks clumsy and awkward. But when done right like this, it adds alot to the image.

He uses a collage effect for the background too, things such as the wheel and cabinet are imported in and then adjusted to fit the image.

Anyhow, heres a video of how he made the above image. Honestly, if you only spend 15 mins on the internet today, make sure its watching this. I love how much attention to detail and love goes into creating this image, I hope I can get this kind of finish in my illustrations one day, I think its all abut patience and hard work.

Illustrating a Cowboy in Photoshop and Illustrator from Jelle Gijsberts on Vimeo.

Class eh?

Right, I've got plenty of other artists and animations that I want to go through, so every day this week I'm going to post up some inspirational stuff, and thats a fact.

Okay, weekly plan. As I mentioned in my last post I'm a little behind because of the work I've been doing, so this weeks needs to be a real belter. I've got a good feeling though, so fingers crossed.

Monday:

Updating blog- check! But more importantly I want to get my final storyboards done and dusted so that I can work out which part I'm going to animate for this project. So, when I get home later its straight to work on my boards. Its funny because sometimes I want to work on personal piece for my portfolio. But for now, all my attention is going to be on this film. I'm getting excited about working on it, and hopefully that won't fade away...

Tuesday:

Now that my storyboards are done (hopefully) I can begin fleshing out the thumbnails of what I'm going to animate. I haven't decided whether I'm going to do a scene for the robber or the Ice Cream Man, or even both if time allows

Wednesday:

Okay, so hopefully everything will now be in place to begin basic animating, getting keyframes done and what not.

Thursday:

Animation is the order of the day with a side dish of hard work, blood and tears. Mmmm

Friday:

Okay, so by this point I'm hoping that I'll have a finished line test, or at least a rough one.

So its not the most complicated plan, it basically just involves hardwork and graft. I also have to squeeze in my research which isn't quite all done yet. Yep fingers crossed.

Weekly round up and other stories

Its been a funny old week. First off, I've wrapped up my freelance work for the Customs House. I'd already done the jigsaws and colouring books, so that left me with the Where's Tommy? Illustration. It was abit of a slog, and the client came back asking for a few amendments so it was back to Illustrator where I redrew the whole background, well live traced it, but it still set me back a couple of days. It was good to get back on Illustrator though, I haven't really spent much time on it recently, opting for Photoshop for most of my work. I think Illustrator brings a different approach though, and that professional finish needed in some projects. Hopefully I'll be playing around with that a bit more anyhow. The clients really happy with the end products though, which in turn makes me really happy, I felt relieved and proud that everything went through okay. Its strange, but when your working by yourself, it can be a bit lonely and daunting, there's no one their to cheer you on or give you a pat on the back...but thats something I'll have to get used too if I want to make anything of myself. Still, sometimes its good to have a second opinion on your work, but as I said, I hope that will come with experience.

I've also managed to get a couple of new freelance gigs too, the first is for a local newsagent. Its basically a logo and a boy riding a bike holing a paper. I'll post it up in due course but I used the same method as I did with the Customs House work. I sketched out a few ideas, which I think is always important as your first idea is very rarely the best one. I then inked it up in Photoshop, and live traced it in Illustrator using the 'detailed illustration' mode. It came out great, so I Live Painted it and hey ho there it was.

The other project is for a marble arts company, they want a Rococo type logo with two characters either end. I've sketched this up and I'm awaiting approval to go ahead, so I'll be sure to update as soon as I can.

Reflecting on the work that I've been doing recently, I think freelance work is exciting, intimidating and rewarding all at the same time. It's a bit like being a footballer, you can do all the training in the world, but once you get out onto the pitch, its a different ball game. You're following set instructions and expected to deliver a high quality product on time and on budget. Seems simple enough, but in my experience I began to doubt myself at first, I almost felt like I'd forgotten how too draw a straight line. But, you just have to work through it. I'm not sure if this a common thing but that was my feelings anyhow. Another important aspect is the time spent on each design. I had to think what my time was worth, and in some respects I think I made some mistakes on this one, especially on the Wheres Tommy. Also, after speaking with Dave, he told me that even if you yourself arn't 100% happy with everything, it doesn't really matter as long as the client is. You could spend more time tweaking things that people won't even notice, and the more time you spend, the less money your essentially making. So I suppose the golden rule is: If the clients happy, then you should be happy.

Freelance work is an interesting beast. As I mentioned it can be a lonely road to take...but the prospect of being your own boss is an appealing one to me. Having said that, I'm under no illusions about how much of a struggle it would be, there would be good times and bad times, and in the beginning I imagine it would be mostly bad times. Building up a strong client base would be the first port of call, but that can take years, you need to prove yourself to be reliable, efficient, and have the skills necessarily to deliver what you say you can, there's no hiding behind colleagues and not answering the phone and the delivery date. That appeals to me though, I like to deal with people and see projects through, I think this could come from my time working at Hexagon, where my job was basically to see a job through from quotation to sales to artwork to delivery. And all business work on the same principle, so I think its set me up in good stead for the future. Having said all this, if someone was to offer me a job in Studio I would bite their hand off, I'm going to keep my options open.

Mondayitis and last weeks evaluation

Roll up, its the start of another week. I feel a bit tired and poorly today, but I just need to man up and get on with it.

Anyhow, last week I had planned to get all my research done and start drawing up roughs for my model sheets. I think for the most part, I followed my weekly plan through. For the first time I can remember, I'm not going to be stressing around on Thursday night trying to get all the paper work done. That's a good feeling, having all week to draw and make everything look spick and span. I mean, a whole week of drawing, it can't possibly go wrong, can it? Well, anyway, I think last week was a good 'un. Friday was a productive day too, it was all about the Skillsets website, writing up what we want to do when we grow up. I thought it would be boring, but I actually enjoyed it, and learnt something too! I got it done too, which is an added bonus because I think the worst thing that could happen would be too go back at the end of the year having to do all the Friday work.

So...heres my plan for this week, its mostly going to be doing my model sheets but I'll try to be more specific where I can.

Monday: I'll be doing more work on the model sheets, I'm going for the two characters, but I don't want the standard to slip so tip top drawing is on the cards today (along with lots of screenshots)

Tuesday: More of the above I think.

Wednesday: I'll be tightening everything up in Illustrator, getting everything print ready and what not.

Thursday: I think I'll be spending the day putting my sketchbooks and research file together and making everything lovely.

Friday: Hand in day. hopefully there will be no running around like an idiot and come 1pm, I'll be done!

We shall see if this all falls into place, I cant see why it shouldn't... I've kind of left the best til last, and despite my Monday Misery I think this week is going to be another belter.

And finally, I went to the the Illusionist last week so I shall be giving a fairly long review for no body who reads this blog

Constructive Crit

I thought this might be of interest. A few of you might have seen the Film Noir thing I did. Well, I sent it over to a cartoonist friend of mine who always gives me honest, brutal, but most of all helpful feedback. Honestly there's nothing better than someone disecting your work, especially when it comes from someone who knows what there talking about.

Plan of the week, 20th September

Monday morning, bright and early. The first years are getting there brains melted by information overload and I'm sitting in the pod thinking about what I'm going to get done this week.

I've managed to get a fair amount of research done this weekend. I looked at a some tip top character designs and oddly enough, actually learnt a fair bit too, about what I should change to make my designs stronger. I've still got a little touching up to do, typing up my backstory and what not. I've obviously given myself a bit of a do because I have two protagonists, so that equals two backstories to type up, two model sheets etc. But, I don't mind that, the enthusiasm that was pulsing through my veins hasn't evaporated over the weekend so I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Anyway, here's the breakdown of the week.

Monday: I want to finish up all my research. Like I said I've got the majority of it done, which is a bit of a rarity for me. But I think if I can spend today making it tickety boo I'll be happy.

Also, I have got the approval on the linework for my jigsaws and colouring books, so tonight I'll be bashing on trying to get the colours all put together. Shouldn't take to long hopefully as its only flat colour...but I think the quicker I can get them done, the quicker I can get paid!

Tuesday: With my research (hopefully) out of the way, its time to start working in my sketch pad. I'll be gathering up reference material for the robbers, Ice cream logos etc. all that jazz. I know I already have some initial designs, but I'll be starting from fresh and I'm going to exhaust all avenues.

Wednesday: Hopefully I'll be fleshing out my idea's, drawing out some more designs and what not. I think one of the things I'll really have to go at is drawing the bike for the robber, and the ice cream cart for the Icer. So I'll be spending time making sure they are of the same quality as the characters.

Thursday: I'll be spending the time developing my concepts again. Also, The Illusionist is on a the Tyneside Cinema for the last time, so I think I'll be going to see that.

Friday: Hopefully, my designs will be pretty much sorted, and I can spend the day, and the weekend drawing up my final concepts for colouring next week.

Yeah, so that's that really. I think that seems like a fairly reasonable amount of work. I'll be updating here to show where I am with the designs throughout the week...so keep an eye out

A New Dawn

Well its the beginning of the end. The final year has arrived, and with it a fresh start and a chance to prove what I can do to myself, my peers, and the industry.

Without sounding like a pretentious idiot, I really feel like this year is going to be a good one. I've had productive summer, doing freelance work, meeting people in industry, reversing into cars (allegedly) and generally just doing alot of drawing. All of this seems to have put me in good stead for this year, and I feel optimistic and ready to have a good go and what comes my way, and grasp any opportunity that I can.

I had ameeting with Paul Windle Design during the summer break and they seemed to be keen to take me for work experience during this year, I'll grab that with both hands, it would be fantastic to see how they work, and I'll probably learn how many bad habits I've picked up too.

I'm also busy with the freelance work I mentioned earlier, its basically some illustrations for some jigsaws and colouring books for a theatre company in South Shields. I'm awaiting on the approval for the linework at the moment, so I'll be bashing on with that once it comes through.

I thought I'd start of my first post with some of the work I did over the summer, so here goes:

This was a little piece I did just for fun, I rarely draw women, and this is something I'd like to remedy this year. I had rendering this one out... especially the face.

This was a wee piece I did for my portfolio

I did this for an potential iPhone app that hasn't took over off, or even left the hanger really. It was originally for 250 characters for a kind of top trumps game. In one way I really wanted this to come off as it would have been well paid, however on the other hand its about half a years work

Again, this was done for fun and my portfolio. I think the fire works alright on this.

Something abit different from me, I gave myself about an half and a half and just painted a quick scene.

And finally, here are a couple of initial designs for this years AD207 project. I'm I'll chop and change them in the coming weeks.

Thats about it for now. I've got a few animations that have really grabbed my attention that I'll be posting up soon.

Also, if anyone would like to follow my personal blog, the address is:

www.leestilldraws.blogspot.com

Animation Frames and Numercy

I'd forgotten to add this in, and I know its in the brief, so here goes nothing!

In regards to the e4 Ident we completed earlier this year, there was a number of mathmatical nightmares I had to overcome. As you may now know, the live action of the flipbook and the Flash animation had to be composited onto Photoshop. This threw up all sorts of problems. Firstly, I had to work out how many times I would need to repeat the flipping so that the animation would fit on. The animation was roughly 6 seconds, and the actual flipping of the book was about three. To get around this, I took a certain section from the live action, about 15 frames and repeated these so the animation would fit. However, if I had just laid the animation on the top, the viewer wouldn't be able to see what was happening. So, every frame from the animation was laid onto the live action four times, twice when the paper was flat, once when the page was starting to turn, and a third when it was almost flipped over. When the other page was in view, I laid the next frame onto page, so that it gave the illusion of a real flipbook. This was a very time consuming progress, and the file was becoming so big, about 450MB, that I had to split the file into three sections, which would later be composited back together in Final Cut.

This was how I managed to get around that problem. Of course when it came to the animation I did on Flash, I had to think carefully about the frame rate and the timing. I had to cut some of the animation down as it was too long when taking into account the opening and closing of the book.

This was the way I managed to get around this

Cake Card

As I mentioned in my last post, I used the skills I learnt from Photoshop Creative Magazine and applied them into my own work. Some of you have probably seen the below image before, but this time I've made a few changes to create a greetings card. I think the result is pretty good if I don't say so myself. In fact, I've sent this away to a greetings card company. The most likely case is that I won't get a reply and it will go straight into the spam file, but you know, turning up is half the battle and all that.

Heres the image anyhow, what do you guys think?

Photoshop text tutorial

I bought this months version of Photoshop Creative as a kind of spur of the moment thing. To be honest there's alot of stuff to do with digital photography, which doesn't really apply to me. On the other hand, I learnt some amazing tricks and short cuts, particularly on the blending options on the layers. Whats even better was that I was able to put them into practice on my own work.

Below is the original tutorial I did. Its basically creating a text and making it look like jam. I used tools that I've never really played about with such as the Direct Selection Tool and the delete anchor point to modify the text.

Below is a little breakdown of screenshots of how it works


I started by using the stock image on the disc and writing the word 'let's' in the Hobo Font.


Using the Direct selection tool and delete anchor points, I made the text look more messy and like a liquid.






After some messing around with the super blending options, I was able to come up with this. I felt really happy with how this came out, and in my next post you can see how I used it in my own personal work.

Tutorials

Okay, so I feel like I've kind of cheated on C4D and missed out some of the fundamentals. In order to rectify this. I've started to work through the Anne Powers book. Heres a little breakdown of what I've done so far.

First up is the exciting cone tutorial, pretty basic, but I did learn a few tricks about textures and what not.



And heres a rendered version



Next was the Planet tutorial. This was an interesting one as I learnt the 'Danel' feature which gives the texture a really nice feel.



After this I did an exercise in animation with dropping balls, I already knew about keyframes and what not, but its still good to go over and learn a few new tricks and shortcuts.



As I mentione, these exercises are all pretty basic, but I'm exicted to be moving through the book and learn some new skills which I may have missed.

Maxwell A. Oginni

Just a quickie before we do out walk cycles. I just stumbled across Maxwell A Oginni's work. I think sometimes combining live action and animation can look a little bit awkward, but not in this case, he hits the nail on the head. I'll post some more stuff of his soon, but for now, have a ganders at this.

Try Life In Another Language Commercial from Max on Vimeo.

Weekly Plan and London Town

Well, its finally upon us, the final week. I've kind of got a plan: work my knackers off. The problem is that last October I bought tickets to see a band in London, and lo and behold it happens to be on this week. So on Wednesday if all goes to plan I'll be on the train to London Town, but I'll have to see what happens all over the next couple of days.

So lets pretend that I'm not going to London, this would be my weekly plan

Monday: Today, we're learning how to animate our characters on C4D, better late than never I suppose. If I can get the basics done for Geralds walk, I'll feel a lot happier

Tuesday: Gerald still needs some minor tweaking before I can call him completely finished, for example I still need to do some work on the morph tags for the hands, as they look a tad odd at the moment. I would also like to apply some textures, but I don't want to over do them, as I think Gerald is best kept relativley simple.

Wednesday: Hopefully by now I'll have Gerald walking onto the scene, and I can start animating the rest of the scene, this will most likely run into the rest of the week until Friday.

Friday: The hand in. I want to make sure all my work is done and in order etc etc. Hopefully everything will be wrapped up by then.

Joints in Cinema 4D

This may not have worked for all the joints, but I definetley want to try this out sometime, seems pretty easy.

Some more Gerald and some drawing

Tonight, probably against my best interests, I decided to do a quick sketch to have a little break from 3D. I'm concerned about my drawing skills getting abit rusty and it was nice to have a shot on the ol' tablet. I decided to draw a viking, nothing special and I think I'll have another pass at it soon.


Here's a little update on Gerald, I've been doing some more Morph tags today, mainly on his hands and want to have him completley wrapped up tomorrow, or today as it is Friday. Really excited to see him in motion!

Skateboard Minature

This is fantastic, very charming little animation by Tilles slinger. The photos of the skateboarders were cut and put over enviroments such as desks etc.

Skateboardanimation from Tilles Singer on Vimeo.

Gary

I can't remember how I came across this little gem, but I do know its a final year film from students in an animation school in France. I think I remember reading it was made in Maya. The characters are particularly appealing, especially the girl and Gary. I also think the fusion between 2d and 3d works superbly. Anyway, just watch it and see what you all think.

Gary from Gary on Vimeo.

Gerald coloured

So, Ive started to block in the colours for Gerald. Its harder than the tutorials as Gerald is just one cube, so I can't pick the parts I want to colour, such as arms, torso etc. As a result, the colours seem to have a mirro image when colouring. Pretty annoying but hopefully I can sort out that problem soon. Anyhow, I'm pleased with the colour scheme, and once I get the colours nice and neat I'll start to apply the textures, which I really think will bring him to life. Also, at the moment I think he looks abit shiny, so I'll have to change that too.

BodyPaint round 2

Below is a picture of me on a Monday morning before I have my splap on, only joking of course. This is my second attempt at C4D's Body Paint. I'm really getting into this now after seeing the possiblities on offer. Anyhow, I'm going onto the real thing now, my beloved Gerald who I'm getting very attached too. I think the more you develop a character you more you get to know the backstory of the character. Originally, I wanted Gerald to be a smarmy toff with a gift for golf. Now however, I can see him as down and out golfer and an ever optimist despite his contstant downfalls. I hope to get this across in the animation. I'm looking forward to this process, Richard Williams Animators Survival Kit will once again come in very handy.

Anyhow, enough of that, feast your eyes on this good looker

3D Body Paint

So I'm gong to bw painting gerald in Cinema 4D's Body Paint. Before you all say what a rubbish program it is, remember that this has been used on films such as Spiderman 3 and the Hulk, so there.

Before I jump in feet first, I've been doing some tutorials from the super duper Anne Powers book. Heres my first creating a rusty sign, I'm pretty amazed at what can be achieved, and excited about what I can do with Gerald. Next up is a Body Paint of a face, but for now, heres the rusty sign

Sketches and things

Just wanted to show some of the sketches that havent quite made the cut as of yet. I'm always kncoking things out without finishing it, which is something I plan to change in the future. Here a few pages that will hopefully get finished in the future!





Also, its probably about time I posted up my animations from this year. I'll start with the best, my E4 ident. I'm still fairly pleased with this, I think I'll tidy it up a bit before I submit it too E4. The only thing that still annoys me is the fact you cant really see whats going on, which is a shame because I put alot of effort into the actual animation. For that reason, I've posted up the actual animation.

Inspring artists

Alright, so I feel abit guilty about not updating this enough, but now that I'm doing it, I feel like I could talk and post forever, nevermind. Here are some artists who are really catching my eye at the moment.

Lee Davies

This guy is fantastic, exactly where I want to be in terms of design 3d modeeling. The images below are 3D stills, but they have an illustration quality to them. I love the caricature which he used to create his characters. Here is a link to more of his work.








Also, this is nice little film by Ian Worrel, I love the character designs and muted blue tones in the film, I don't really get it though.

http://vimeo.com/10019015

Personal work

So keeping in turn with updating this blog on daily basis...I'm going to go through some of the personal work I've bee doing. Lately, with the Cinema 4d project going on, I feel like I haven't had much of a chance to draw for myself, or to draw at all really.

The first piece is a supposed to be funny joke, but it was originally done for the Character design challenge on Deviant Art. It was done in Photoshop, I created the texture for the wallpaper myself. I always feel then when I do a really rendered piece in PS, I learn so much. Quicker ways of doing things, and learning to not work harder, but quicker. Theres things that I've missed here which I will go back to one day, as I think its a fairly good portfolio piece, but overall I'm fairly pleased with it.

Click for a better picture




If you cast your mind back to when we were given a brief to design characters for Ambic, the company that makes school furniture, I jumped at the chance becase mainly, I love designing characters, so it was right up my street, also, the chance to win £300 pound is always nice. I didn't have long to do it but did manage to come up with something which I think fitted the criteria. It was due on the Monday and as I only finished it on the Sunday, I decided to drive from Hexham to Chester le Sreet to personally post the disc. Unfortunatley, once I arrived, I discovered a giant fence which Alcatraz would be proud of was blocking my way in. The drive back was disheartening, but there was a glimmer of hope as my Step Dad works in Chester le Street, so I managed to convince him to drop it in for me before he started work. A week after the hand in I made a courtesy call to Jonathan, who was my contact there. We had a good ol' chat about animation, and he was pretty clued up and a really nice guy. He said they hadn't really had a chance to look through, but he did remember my entry, and it was a very high quality in comparison to some others. Its always nice to hear people appreciate your work, so I put down the phone feeling fairly confident.

A month or so passed and I was getting slightly anxious about what was happening, I decided to send Jonathan an email, as I dind't want to be too desperate and call him again. A few days passed until I got a reply from Jonathan, he was currently in Dubai on business, must be nice! He told me the company was extremely busy at the moment and they'd put the characters on the backburner. Now, I could look at this is two ways. Firstly, I was slightly frustrated that I jumped about trying to get these done, as had a number of people probably, and now they were just saying there not doing it at the moment. Another way of course is that they still haven't picked anyone yet, so I still have a chance, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I suppose this kind of thing happens alot in the industry, part and parcel, and something I'll have to learn if I want to make any kind of career. While I'm on this rant, I do think that people take what we do for granted. If someone wants a character designed for there business (especially if its someone you know) they think that it should be for free, or for a couple of pints. The fact that we draw cartoons is almost looked down on. Perhaps this is because its seen as child like. But more to the point no one should really have to work for free, you'd expect to pay for a plumber, joiner, hair cut so whats the difference? I'm not going to work for free again, as it is basically saying your work is worthless, and I think I could do a better job than alot of work I see around. Its all about putting yourself out there, something which I'm going to talk about in a later post.

Anyway, here is the characters I did, I hope I'm not breaching some confidentiality of Ambic and blown my chances of winning! These were sketched out in PS, and inked in Illustrator. If I'd had more time I would of changed a few things, and looking back at your work you always spot the flaws, but it is what it is and I think its of a fairly high standard and represents my style quite well. Click for a better image








In trying to keep up with a proactive not reactive way of going about things. I've redesigned a character from the football magazine Match. A bi weekly football magazine aimed at the younger audience. Football and drawing are my two passions in life, so it seemed like a no brainer to do this. Once there finished I'm going to send them away to the publishers, and see if they want to use them or me in the future. I know its a long shot, but I want to get my name out there. Noone knows you exist if you're just sitting in your bedroom and not showing your work to anyone. This is what I have so far, again these were done in PS. Once again, click for a better view.

Weekly Plan

So this week is going to be fun filled I think, and also, very busy. Ideally I want to have everything wrapped up for next Tuesday, I'm supposed to be going to London on the Wednesday to see a band. I'll be coming back on the Thursday so I can still hand in on the Friday, but those two days which I'll miss could be important. If I still need to do work then I'll just not go, but it would be nice to be all done for when/if I go.

Anyway, here's my breakdown for this week.

Tuesday: Present my model to the class for the Crit. I'll pick up on any comments made and try to tweak any problems. Hopefully Gerald will be ready to start animating the next day. I still need put the textures and colours on but I've been reading through the 3d body paint section in Anne Powers book and I think for what I want, it will work well and hopefully I'll be able to get some good results.

Wednesday: If all is well I want to start animating today, getting the basics of the walk cycle down as thats probably the most important thing in the animation.

Thursday: I'll carry on animating and try to make Gerald move in the best way I can. I should mention that during this time I'll be keeping my paper work up to date.

Friday: Carry on with the animating, hopefully by this time I'll be fairly profficent and can get the majority done over the weekend ready for rendering on the Monday.

He's Alive!

Well, after pottering on with the weight tool, I've got Gerald to move around like a real boy. There's still some flaws to iron out, and he still needs to be coloured, but I'm fairly pleased with him so far. In fact I'm pleasently suprised with how he is moving considering the odd shape he is, especially the trousers. The next plan of action is too put some Morph Tags on his hands, a couple more expressions, and just all round house keeping. I still need to create his gold club and ball too.

Click the below image for a better picture

Inspirational Character Designs

Alright, so I can often be found wratching around on the internet looking for artists who's work is an inspiration and who use and exciting and new styles and tecniques. One artist who ticks all those boxes is Joe Moshier, a character designer for Disney Features, who's characters have appeared in films such as Ratatouille, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, The Incredibles etc.

Here are a few examples of his work.

As you can see, he has a vintage style of working, but with his own modern twist thrown in, He's also not afraid to mix things up, using traditional methods and using vector work on others.

Character Shape Challenge

Over at Deviant Art theres a group which designs characters from set criteria every week. For example one week we will be given random shapes from which to create some heads, this week has been creating a character from a random object. Anyhow, here are some past creations.

In February , I was lucky enough to be at Animex animation festival where the infamous James Baxter, who has worked on pretty much everything since being an animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, was giving a speech/presentation. He was there to talk through his experiences in the industry and to talk about his new film 'How To Train Your Dragon'. We were even lucky enough to watch about 12 minutes of the film. Everyone seemed very impressed and there was even a big communal 'Awwww' when the clip stopped.

He went on to say that 'HTTYD' was probably the best film he has ever worked on. Now, for someone who worked on such films as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast etc. thats a big call, and I thought he was just doing what every Tom, Dick and Harry do when they have something to promote. Needless to say I took it with a pinch of salt.

However, that all changed when I went to see the film at the IMAX screen on Saturday. Without doubt, that was the best cinema experience I have ever had. I knew it was going to be good, but I wasn't prepared for how good it would be. I'm not going to blabber on about the best bits etc etc because loads of people have posted blogs and journals saying how good it is. But I think that says something, that people are coming out of the film and feeling inspired, and want to write about it, I know I did. I would even go so far to say that its my favourite animated film ever, better than anything Pixar have done, and maybe even Disney as a whole.

Soooo to sum up, if you have any interest in art, film, games, dragons, pretty much anything, then go and see this film, if you don't like it I'll give you you're money back, well, James Baxter will.

Argh Shapup

Because I have too

Personal work dump

A little dump of my personal work which has accumulated over the past couple of months. All of this work was done in Photoshop with a graphics tablet.

Stephen Silver

Stephen silver is a character designer who has worked on Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. He also designed the characters for the Clerks animation series.

Stephen has been a favourite artist of mine for a couple of years, his clean designs, and simple shapes are something I try to incorporate into my designs. The silhouettes he creates are strong and clear but while still staying stylized.

Here are some examples of Stephen's work and a link to his blog

Hello there

First post on my shiny new blog. Above are two examples of work done for our character design. I drew out some rough sketches, and then went on to do some model sheets, these arn't the final model sheets but I believe they work well. The original sketches were done in Photoshop on my tablet, and the model sheets were also done in Photoshop. For the final model sheets the work will be done in Illustrator.