New films on the way!

So, I finished my Animation Production Film Final today! It took a few (several thousand) hours to actually complete, but my instructor and I managed to get it all done! I'm not uploading either film to YouTube or even here until after the showing on Thursday, but once that's done and my films have been officially presented, I'll let everyone on the net see them as well! I can't wait to get some feedback (or at least I hope I'll get some feedback) but I'm also nervous... my films never quite turn out exactly as I had planned. Usually I can hardly stand to watch them for about a month after they're finished, cuz all I see are the gaping holes for things I wanted to do and the imperfections in the things I did. Looking back now at my two older films, I love and appreciate them a whole lot more than I did after they were first finished... but I guess that's just the way it goes with artists. We are our worst critics.
Anyways, keep an eye out for my upcoming posts! There's sure to be something exciting or enjoyable to someone out there.

Shamefully Overdue...

So it's been a while since I've posted... anything. And seeing as I've got two short films in the pipeline at the moment, I figured it would be good to get a few things up before I spring two more finished products on the world... and I had some free time and thought this should be done. At any rate, in a few more weeks I'll post my finals for both Animation Production and Storyboarding, along with animatics, concept art, and any other little tidbits that go along with them. I don't want to post anything prematurely, since I don't want to give my stories away to more people than necessary... I mean, they're only a couple of minutes. Easily spoiled.
Hopefully everything goes well with my finals and I'm able to get stuff posted in a timely fashion... yeah right. In the meantime, I've uploaded more videos to my YouTube account as well as the video page of this blog. They're just a few more pencil tests and animatics, but they show what I do with my life, so I hope they're at least a little interesting. I mean, I do plan on making these things for a long time. I just hope they entertain someone other than myself.

New stuff in the form of Classwork

So I'm not sure if anyone would notice, but I've been posting a few of my classroom exercises on my video and art pages. There still aren't too many things to see, but there will be over time. As such, I probably won't be posting on the front page every time I add something, so be sure to check the other pages for updates every week or so!

How things should be.

So here's one of those posts on some of my inspirations. This is actually something I vaguely remember as a kid and actually discovered a few days ago. It's a segment from Sesame Street (old school Sesame Street... not sure which decade) and is, in my opinion, a brilliant peice of animation. The way the animators used not only the drawings on the dishes but also the shapes and movement of the dishes themselves to tell the simple story is wonderful! And what's really astounding is that these types of segments (Little Super Guy) were fairly common and continually different! The mere fact that people working on a public television show for preschoolers took enough time to create painstaking stop motion animations just astounds me! And aside from that, makes me want to work in this field myself. ;)
The Sesame Street crew really went above and beyond over the years with not only stop motion animations and puppetry, but also beautiful hand animated segments, all for the benefit of little kids. If only more people nowadays would take so much pride in their work and care for their audience.

Design changes again...

Hey there! Since I seem to create art more than usual during the school semesters, expect there to be a lot more content up on the blog as the weeks go by. However, the majority of this stuff will be going straight to the art or video pages and won't be posted on the front page. And SINCE there's going to be a great deal more art and whatnot, I'm going to try and make some pages within pages so it's a little more organized and not just a huge page of pictures. So! Once I figure out exactly how to do this, ... it WILL be done!

Sneak Peak!

Here's a preview of one of my exercises in Animation Production: animate an interaction between a teapot and a teacup, using seperate layers for each character. This is just the test taken off one of the monitors we use to try our animation before we turn it in. I know it's hard to see, which is why it's just on the front page and not the video page. I'll be uploading the actual animation soon: most likely next week. And that'll be the actual, clear animation from the computer! Enjoy! ;)

Here's a sketch I did just recently of my cat Felix lounging about under the covers on my bed. It's sketched from a photograph, much in the same way my recent storyboard exercises were. I'm getting more and more used to sketching from real life, and am quite enjoying the results!

New Fall Semester

So school has started up again, and since I'm taking two animation classes this semester, expect a lot more to pop up on this blog! I've just started my Storyboarding and Animation Production classes, and already I have a few things to show! Check out the art and video pages to actually see my work as the classes progress, but for now, here's a look at what we've started doing: Our first assignment in Storyboarding was to take a series of photographs of an action and redraw the frames as storyboard stills. Here's the first shot of my series, showing my cat Felix jumping onto his cat tree.

During the call-for-entries period of the NexTv Web Series & Short Film Competition that I'm participating in, there is a monthly viewer's choice "Shortcut to the Finals". The top vote-getter each month gets a pass to the finals of the overall
competition (still ongoing) and about $1,250 worth of filmmaking software. The list of industry heavy-weights involved is long (ICM, Disney, "The Office", Fox, etc...); getting to the finals is extremely significant.

Here is how to vote:

1. Go to www.nextventertainment.com/web
2. Click on the big blue tab at the bottom left of the page that says, "Shortcut to the
Finals"
3. Type in my name (or my project's name) in the search bar on the right just above the list of submissions
4. Click on WATCH.
5. Then click on VOTE.

I appreciate your support.

Interplanetary ART

Well, here's my latest film! It's actually only my second film, and was made entirely in just about a month. This should be up on the video page soon, so if you happen to stop by there, don't forget to check out my first short and my animatic for this film.

New Content!

Well, thanks to perseverence and a good amount of luck, I've managed to figure out how to put together pages on my blog with actual content on them. As of now, two of the videos I've made have been posted to my videos page, namely my short "Leo and Dee" and my animatic for my newest film. The art page is pretty sparse at present, but hopefully after this semester ends and I finish my film I'll be able to post actual artwork from my portfolio. Right now it's just a few of my character sketches and early story ideas for my film, but stay tuned for more!

This is an early incarnation of my character Leo who has appeared in two of my films to date. He hasn't changed too much apart from size and proportions, though he did go from being an outcast European bat to a lost Brazilian one.

Okay, so here's a picture I did a while ago, that basically depicts a cartoon "me" with most of my film and animation inspirations. Included are characters from The Last Unicorn, My Neighbor Totoro, Labyrinth, The Hobbit, and yes, even Muppet Babies and Pokemon. I'm not gonna lie, I totally love those shows.

But wait, there's more!

As an added feature to this blog (and in the hopes that someone will actually be interested in it) I will be featuring much of my fine arts work as well as animation related art. Having taken two years of AP (Advanced Placement) Art in high school, I have quite a few peices sitting in my portfolio at home just waiting to be presented. Seeing as I have never had an interest in taking up a career as a fine artist, I have not had the inclination or opportunity to show these works in a show or exhibit outside of high school. As this is the case, I see no problem in presenting my work in this setting where I can accompany such works with other aspects of my talents. I hope the wider array of media will provide a better perspective for my style of art in general.

Oh the changing of the... backgrounds.

Hey, just a quick post to any possible viewers, but this blog will be undergoing many changes over the next few weeks (seeing as it is new and all...) so don't be surprised if the blog looks different each time you see it. Of course, I don't know how many people will be viewing this early seeing as there is really no content up at present. But soon! Soon!

The n00b...

Hey there! As this is my first time blogging, I don't have much to post at the moment. However, I would just like to offer a little glimpse at what I hope to do with this blog. I am studying animation in college right now and am hoping to make a career out of it. This blog will be a means to showcase some of my past and current work, as well as get feedback and ideas for future projects. As for actual animations and short films, there won't be too much to show at first because, frankly, those take a heck of a long time to make. So, in order to apease the visually minded folks out there, I will be posting sketches, character designs, and even animatics as time goes on. Also, I hope from time to time to discuss some of my artistic influences and thoughts on the world of art and animation. Because hey - what's a blog if there isn't at least a bit of pointless rambling?

Auf wiedersehen!