Cat Nab Production - 01

Been working on my film..... Here is some of my character development.

It's based on a true story about a young girl stealing a kitten from its mother, and then realizing the consequences a wee bit too late.

Since this is my first real film, I had the roughest time trying to settle on a story. Long before the film class started, I tried boarding a sequence or two to try and find something with a strong enough story, and something fairly possible to animate.

My first idea was of from an aboriginal tale about where the platypus came from. It involved a duck who got kidnapped by a water rat. She escaped, and then laid eggs weeks later. What came of it was the platypus! It was a little suggestive in story, and I couldn't get the length down to less than 3 minutes.

 

 

There was another idea based on an Aesop's Fable about the Stag and His Reflection. It involved very detailed deer and lion anatomy, not to mention, a big technical issue of how to animate detailed antlers stuck in a tree.

 

  

 

I was frustrated. I was telling my mom about this, how I didn't want to just "make something up," I wanted to base it off something, a real story. I know my strengths and strong stories is just not one of them.

My mom didn't even have to think. She said, "Why don't you make a movie about the time you stole that kitten...."

The rest is history.

Here's some character development....along with Character Design concepts. The top left is the finalized character design.

 

 Various Layouts: 

  

 

For my own security, I'm going to take this down in a week or so.

But uploading it for now so you all can check it out.

This is the first sequence.

So yeah.  Cat Nab.

Bring it on!!!!

Cartoon People I Know...

It's been too long since I last posted.  I am ashamed.

I'm sure most animators or character artists do this:  Make cartoons out of their friends.

It's not that easy sometimes.  Never been able to explain it.  There are people who are just dying to be drawn and then other people who are extremely difficult to draw and have them look like them.

Now that I'm more experienced, I realize it's because their features are subtle versus exaggerated. 

Now, a group of animators, that's easy for me. 

And now a group of co workers.  Let me tell you.....

The guy in this picture is really hard to draw!!!!!  However, fun too, once I figured him out.  

I gotta do my roomates next, and some more animator ones!

Cats

My animator roomate and I were talking about our three cats.

And this happened.

There is a plot.   And we think we want to make a short out of this.

Crash = Strung out, non-neutered anorexic.

Frank = Tuxedo wearing, serious fat cat.

Ollie = Female, fluffy, cheerleader bimbo.

And yes, my two cats on the right were named after Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

:D  The idea is great too.  I SO want to animate them now.

CTN Animation Expo

Well, what can I say?

It was amazing.

Sketches are always better.  :)

I got to meet a few of my living idols such as Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, James Baxter, and Tony Bancroft.

I got to see Eric Goldberg and Tom Sito again.

I met some new awesome people, all from the industry.  Handed out business cards, in the hopes that maybe someone will like what they see.

I DO need to upload more, though.   It's serious at this point.

Myself and the people I was with had always been wary of LA.  This was an unjustified fear.  LA is no different from any other place.  The people there were nice, and in some ways, even nicer than the people in San Francisco.  (We WERE in Burbank).  The weather was (once again) beautiful the whole time we were there, and there was plenty to do locally.  We even found an awesome bar called The Office.

And going there, and being surrounded by other people just like us, and so many industry professionals.....it was home.  It was just a convention.  But it was home for three days.

Point being, I'm more inspired than I ever have been in my life.

Tonight, my roomate and I had a Disney marathon (kinda), and watched Emperor's New Groove, then followed by Treasure Planet.  We sketched characters from the movie while it was playing, trying as hard as possible to keep them on model and do it quickly and proficiently.

It was a fun excercise.

I found it so neat watching Kronk animated too, after Tony Bancroft showed us so many demos with him!!!!!

:)

Life is so good right now.  There isn't anything else for me in the world.

Now I gots to prove it.

Nudes

Some figure work. :)

Simba Walk

A quadruped walking across a log...



Who really resembles Simba from Disney's "The Lion King."




^_^ 'Cos it is.

And Some More...

And on the topic of story panels, here are some music inspired ones.

Went to a Porcupine Tree concert, and had a great time.

So I tried drawing some of the band in a 16:9 aspect ratio!!!

Story Panels

Some of my story panels!!!

These characters are my own.

And some more...these are not sequential.

I love storyboarding so much!!!!

Shark Week 2009

I participated in Shark Week this year.

Here are some of the many drawings.

 

There were a ton of others, but I put colors in these, and liked them the most.

Squid

I felt like painting. :)

This was inspired by a local graffiti artist in San Francisco.

Gouache and colored pencils.

Stop Motion

For years I've had an interest in stop motion.

Always wanted to pursue it, but it's hard to do without a studio.

The Durability Test of my rig.




And he DID survive the film.

Here is the same creature, in a paper stop motion test.

Paper animation is so awesome. I can't even stress it enough.

Here is a second stop motion excerpt from my film....



I love this character so much!!!!!!

Faces. Portaits. More Charcoal.

On the previous topic of portraits, here are three others.

These are quick hour drawings.


And my Tyler, downward view, watching Lost.


I love him. :) :) :)

Ink Wash Me.

Self Portrait with Inkwash.

Charcoal and ink!

Cat Skeleton.

The last post reminded me of a project I started this summer.

I was lucky enough to find a perfectly preserved skeleton of a young cat.



Unfortunately, this is as far as I got with its assembly. I need to figure out a base to put it on, and figure out how to reinforce it and wire it.

What amazing reference!

Abyssinian

I wanted to do a study of a cat skeleton. I love Osteology.

The cat here was an Abyssinian.

The cat render. Intos Tablet, Photoshop.



I liked it. :) Drawing kitties is what I like to do.

Border Collies

Border Collies!!! :) :) :)

I tried really hard to get the anatomy right in this one.

Skeletons are so much fun to draw!

And then the render. Done with intuos tablet on Photoshop!

Some life Studies....A border collie and a miniature Australian Sheppard.

A quick pencil test trying to follow the strange movements of my border collie Brigit. She has a very peculiar run, as she doesn't really bob her head, and the only things moving are her legs.



Border collies are weird. Brigit is almost always rigid. Especially while she is "working."

(She has a career in 'ball getting.')



And the inspiration. :)





Finn (Top) and Brigit (Bottom)

Platypi

I want to animate these guys. :D



Platypi are seriously the coolest creatures ever. Especially when in cool colors.



Prisma Markers.

3D Dialogue Test

A quick dialogue study. Trying to figure out blend shapes for the first time.



Now I have to figure out how to rig the head!!!!


Dialogue : David Cross, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind.

Yellow Snake

More Lovelies. I guess I'm inspired by Atlantis somehow.

Oh well, the snake's cool.

More to come tonight, I upload some of my figure drawings.













When you're trained to draw the figure first, you put that drawing down, and before you put the clothes on, realize that you're about to alter a perfectly good figure drawing.


I end up calling a lot of my nude drawings finished.

This one in particular is prisma/construction paper.

Pepe Le Pew Film

Here's some rough animation!!!!!

Pepe Le Pew needs to stay away from mirrors.

Break one, and it's a lot of bad luck!