Wanted

I've been working on a live action short film that is a parody of an awesome short film called Nuit Blanche. Our version involves a cowboy and an unlikely love interest. On the side I've been tasked with making some promotional posters to hang up on campus.

It's suppose to resemble the Flynn Rider posters from Tangled. There will be several different versions with different noses.  The film has to be done by early February so maybe I'll be able to show it by then. This semester is going to be a busy one.

Bouncing Ball

I'll tell you what you will see if you click play on this embedded youtube video. Just so there are no surprises. You will see a ball coming out of a pipe that bounces a few times before coming to a stop. There is no color and you will probably not smell anything. It is my wish that this experience will be enjoyable for all who participate. Proceed.

Storyboard Art

A snippet of some storyboards I did for a school project. I actually don't know if I'm aloud to be showing these, but no one said otherwise, so here ya go. This scene is somewhere in the middle of the story so it's a little out of context. It was very fun to draw. Part of me thinks that storyboarding is the route I would like to go in the animation industry.

Annie Oakley

whoops! I never colored her hat. Or her holster.

Should All The Quaint Ants Be Forgot...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from a handful of birds and a fabricated monster!

We didn't start the fire

fire effect for FX animation class

Pillow Tie 2.0

A few more Pillow Tie illustrations.  We're going with a missionary theme right now that will eventually be used for a calendar.  I'm much more pleased with the way these newer ones are turning out.  My first ones (here) were done in Adobe Illustrator and I didn't really know what I was doing.  These ones were actually drawn and painted in a program called Sketchbook Pro.

Buy a Pillow Tie for Christmas.  Buy several.  They make great gifts.

from the dust

Hey internet.

I guess it's kind of cliche to apologize when a lot of time goes by between posts. The internet doesn't really care.  And my devoted few don't seem to mind.  So I'm just going to pretend it never happened and forego the apology.

This semester has been extremely busy. I've since joined a traveling circus, invented a sequel to the internet, and defeated evil (it came back the next day). I've also done a handful of art type stuff that I will be posting in parts over the next few weeks.

First up... a micro-cartoon!



Also, you might notice a few advertisements (pronounced the british way, ad-VERT-ismentz) here and there on my blog.  Does that mean I've sold out?  Regardless, I'm now confident my financial future is secure cause I'm earning an average $1.86 every month.  That might be enough to pay for my drinking habit.  My water drinking habit.  One 16 oz. bottle every thirty days.

SQUAWK!

This one fell into the archives without much notice.  Thought I'd pull it out and show it just for fun.  Only took a few hours to do. The assignment was to practice asymmetrical movement.  Apparently beginning animators have a tendency to move limbs and such at exactly the same time and direction and it makes things look too robotic and boring. (Sentences have a way of sounding weird when the word 'and' occurs too frequently.)



School starts again this next Monday, which means I'll have a lot more work to post.  Character Design, Storyboarding, Visual FX, and Animation. Yikes.

The Injustice of it all (a non-art post)

There are several times in my life when I've been handed something that I clearly didn't deserve.  Let me enlighten you with an example.  In the year 2000, probably a day or two before graduation, it occurred to me that I had not ordered a cap and gown.  "Wait, we're supposed to order those?" I innocently said to myself. Sheepishly, I entered the school office and informed the administration of my pickle.  Sparing you the details, I walked out of the office with the new experimental cap and gown model some salesman was showcasing for next year's graduates.  It was made of a different shiny material that I think they use to make space suits or something.  As a reward for my ignorance, I was the only member of my graduating class that was practically glowing.

Anyone who knows my wife and my daughter would certainly agree that I got more than I deserved. Click this link and prepare to melt.

A couple weeks ago I was minding my own business when I got an invitation by email from a professor at UVU to attend an animation workshop in L.A. and visit DreamWorks, Sony ImageWorks, and Nickelodeon.  "Wait, What?!" I'm still a bit confused on why I got to go.  It was awesome.  

The following is a brief summary and a few highlights.

We drove west Sunday morning in a large van.  Attending were a professor, a coordinator, two seniors, and a lowly freshman (me). Monday we were greeted by the ACME Network, a non-profit organization that provides training and integration into the animation industry.  We then went to the DreamWorks Animation Studio and I was in shock.  

After the tour we had a complimentary lunch where I caught a glimpse of Hans Zimmer and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Hans was wearing gold pants. I happen to have a friend that works there as a story artist, Steven Macleod. After lunch he took me on a private tour and showed me all the studio offices.  He even showed me a secret room that was hidden behind a bookshelf on hinges. It almost felt like hallowed ground. Then Steve introduced me to Nicolas "Nico" Marlet.

This guy has been at DreamWorks since The Prince of Egypt and is highly revered for his character designs on Kung Fu Panda

and How To Train Your Dragon.

He was very kind even though I'm sure we were probably interrupting him.  He showed me some face-melting drawings that he was working on for How To Train Your Dragon 2. I couldn't tell if my eyes were opened wider than my mouth, but I'm sure I looked ridiculous.

Next I went back downstairs to attend a story workshop by industry veteran Frank Gladstone and David Pimentel, who is Head of Story at DreamWorks.

Me and Frank

Then we went out to dinner and I met Mark Walton who worked for Disney and is now with DreamWorks.  If you're familiar with the movie Bolt, he did the voice acting for the hamster character, Rhino. By the end of the day, I wasn't quite sure what hit me.

The next couple days we hit up Sony and Nickelodeon which were equally enjoyable. I'll spare you all the fanboy commentary. We drove back Wednesday and that was that. 

Now there might be two schools of thought on why I was afforded this opportunity.  1- Perhaps there is some super-cosmic force that is lobbing pitches my way despite my inadequacies and ignorances in order to prime me for something beyond my capacity to fully realize. Or 2 - It's just dumb luck. Regardless, I was very grateful for the opportunity.

The main thing I learned from this trip is that I want to break into this industry even more than before AND it's a lot more competitive and difficult than I thought.