Shameless Back-Posting

Trying to get myself back into work and a routine this week. Hasn't particularly worked... But I figure that any work after a break is good. Now I've just got to take that energy and plant it into something slightly more productive in terms of Sushi.

Got distracted last night doodling this thing. Like I warned you, reminiscent Séjour comics may well appear from time to time.

This is almost definitely exactly how things went.

I realised through this that I really need to get some more life into my drawings. My poses are pretty dead - as is my mark making... Need to make a conversion to a more ruthless medium I think. And source out some more dynamic life-drawing poses.

Speaking of which, did some stuff to get warmed up. Feel pretty apathetic about most of these but, you know. Stuff.

Return From A Land Down Under

The "Land Down Under" being France.

It's been oh so quiet here on the blog front. Chances are you were thinking (hoping?) that was the end of me. Pecked to death by a flock of angry seagulls on a dark Dundee evening.

But no. I had escaped to France in order to mould the lives of young, impressionable francophones. Then travel. Whilst I was away, I had the very honoroable intention on keeping a sketchbook travel diary and filling it up with wonders and tears and magical moments in which one gets lost in for years to come.

Alas, that never really came to fruition. My intentions were good, but in practise I never had any time to myself whilst barking at French kids to behave and then when I did have time, all I wanted was sleep. And wine. So much wine. However, I did get some pages done which I've added below and the experience has given me much inspiration to get back to drawing now I have nothing to do with my life at the moment, so what was first intended as a travel diary designed to record events as they happened, my travel diary seems to have morphed into a tool in which to indulge my nostalgia...

Or at least that's my excuse.

So expect some kind of little cartoons of my adventures in up and coming weeks, but for now please enjoy a wee selection of what I actually managed to produce and like during my "Séjour en français":

Funky house with a crazy tall roof in Tours. 

My wee friend from the first week, Clément. I shared a room with him and he talked in his sleep. At first in French and then English by the end of the week. Job well done I say. That boy was a real life cartoon.

Drawing in the Rodin museum, Paris. Some American guy's got a picture of me drawing this. He asked me to take the picture of me in such broken English (thinking I was French) that I didn't understand him. When he departed with "Au revoir - merci beaucoup" I realised that he still didn't gather I wasn't actually French...

Italian mother and son chilling in some gardens in Paris. Reminded me of Yzma and Kronk from Emperors New Groove, had Kronk been Yzma's son...

I went to visit Gobelins L'école de l'image in Paris. My reaction was exactly how this describes. 

I MUST GO TO THERE.

Cool structure in Brussels - the Atomium. Pretty dull on the inside however.

Till the next time, France... You've treated me well.

Modelling: Check

Woah, how is it just so easy to forget to blog.

Well, I promised you something productive, and something productive you're going to get. I've finished the environment for Birte's film: Sandmen. Huzzah! Kinda blitzed it in two days of intensive Maya-ing which is kind of concerning... It's probably riddled with mistakes. Ach well. Here it is for you as it stands at the moment:

And that's my first piece of degree work done... Hmm... I'm not sure how I feel about that...

Another Week Missed...

Another midnight deadline missed...

But I had a reason! I was have a peek around the amazing MacKinnon and Saunders puppet and stop mo studio. It was so cool seeing the place in action and the stuff that they've produced over the past years not to mention the wonderful hospitality and invaluable advice I was given. It's just gone and rekindled my love for stop-motion - the thing that got me into the animation biz in the first place. So. Got some life re-assessment to do, but got to focus on my final year first.

I've spent most of my time recently putting together a wee portfolio for some potential business, so because of that I don't really have any work to show you. I only got back up and running on Monday and have started a mishmash of various projects:

1. Some environments for a friend's future comic (s'gonna be huge)

2. Started a new 3D 11 second club (I WILL submit this one)

3. Started painting up my first Sushi background.

So I promise you something from one of these next week.

So to appease you for now, NUDITY!

2 Min Gesture sketches. Trying to improve my accuracy and getting a line down correctly first time, so these were all done with a brush pen on some scrap animation paper I found.

Hmm... I wonder how many times I can continue to use the "nudity" get out to distract you from the fact I'm getting nothing done...

When I was little like you...

Finally managed to finish this damn 3D animation. The graph editor is one of the most whoreish things out there. But it does the job. Watch it and see if I done a good.

CLICK HERE BECAUSE YOUTUBE CONTINUES TO DISAPPOINT. 

Aiming to get a 2D test done this week. Considering the face that I'm going to be spending all of next year doing 2D animation, I really should start to get back to it... Because I have done none this semester. Hmm...

Uhhhm. I don't think I really have much else to say to you. Just a short one this time you'll glad/emotionally destroyed to hear.

G'day.

Operation: Upgrade

Yes. I know. I was vacant last week. I understand that I broke many hearts and dreams, but I have a reason.

After 4 years of faithful use, I decided it was time for a new computer. My trusty Vaio has served me well, but Photoshop Elements 7 and a 15" screen were starting to feel a bit restricting...

So, I have squandered away my savings into a shiny new desktop with Maya that works and access to Photoshop CS6, and others I'm yet to delve into... I have so much SPACE now and so many TOOLS, I just don't know what to do with myself...

But I'm more than sure I'll work something out. So here, I introduce you to my new and old computers, sitting comfortably together, like brothers.

Also a sneak peek into my "studio" (desk). Compact.

So not really much to post tonight really as I've just been playing around with stuff as opposed to doing work (except from working on the "stars" 3D lipsync test which I'll hopefully upload next week once finished...) But I couldn't not do something with all this new technology at my disposal...

So what to do?

Why, draw naked people of course!

A selection of 2 minute studies, just getting a feel for stuff. Normally I'd have hidden this away to the dusty depths of my hard drive, but for some reason I feel kinda happy to show this, despite its lack of accuracy. It seems to have more character, which is something I've really been trying to work on.

Just gotta reel it in a tad...

Peut-être...

Les Retrouvailles

This year, I decided to continue my 3D work. It was given as an option, but I decided to persevere. Employability and all those shenanigans... This semester we were focusing on character work, so we modelled, rigged and animated a character. People were following a standard template, but after having had a bad experience with this certain model last year, I couldn't bring myself to face it. So I decided to challenge myself and make my own; Dave.

He started out as a doodle in my sketchbook as our tutor talked through something I probably should have been listening to...

Which then led onto a turnaround:

Which then led onto the final model:

And then rigged:

(And then later textured but I don't have that file with me...)

I'm aware that if you have been following my blog, you'll perhaps recognise this man with the wonderful nose. To be honest, I just chose to model him because of the nose. When it came round to animating him, I didn't really have any idea what to do as I didn't know what kind of person he was. So I just got stuck in and started playing about and his personality just sort of appeared through the tangled web of the graph editor. So I animated him and enjoyed it. 

I'll upload the 3 wee tests I did tomorrow - the converter on my laptop has given up tonight...

So, yes. That was all well and good. I handed in and headed home feeling content. But then I got the itch to work again. With no desire to touch my grad film for a while, I naturally came back to this (and drawing cartoons of myself of course) and felt I wasn't ready to let him go yet.

I've managed to land the chance to get a tour round the awesome MacKinnon and Saunders studio (think Tim Burton, Fantastic Mr Fox and Postman Pat) so felt like it would be beneficial to have some character sheets for Dave. Make it look like I actually did it officially instead of off the cuff. With a minor style development which seems to have snuck up on me from nowhere (not that I'm complaining) I sat in the sun and doodled some expressions for the first sheet of the Model Pack:

I'm really pleased with these, though I should probably go in and tidy them up. Like I've said before, I don't really feel character stuff is my forté, so when things turn out how I want them, it seems like a success. So. Plans:

1. Finish the model pack

2. Finish inbetweening the incomplete 3D scenes

Then Bonus:

1. Do some more 3D tests

2. Design a new character for him to interact with

3. Do some 2D tests.

I actually really want to do some 2D tests. Hoping to acquire Flash in the near future (alongside a new compooper, finally) so as I'm feeling comfortable drawing him, he could be a good place to start.

We'll see.

À la semaine prochaine!