Another finished still!

The end is so near, I can taste it! I am muchos excited :)
I'd love to be able to just concentrate on my reel and portfolio now, however I have two electives to take care of, exams and such.

In any case, I only have two official weeks left of 4th year.... which then means I graduate in two weeks! Yipee kay-yay! WOW, how time has flown.

Much excitement to come, but for now, I gotta finish comp on "Tah-Dah"!

The cello stands alone.

Here's another painted layout from my film - this one is basically my master layout where the farmer is playing his cello. I can't wait to finally get to colouring my animation!

The deadlines are fast approaching....just keep colouring....just keep colouring......!

Paintin' fences

I am done clean-up [yay!!], and I am starting now to colour my backgrounds. I have 13 backgrounds total, and 2 minutes worth of animation.....and I plan to paint each frame in Photoshop with texture SOOOOOOOOOO....

I gots a lots o' colouring ahead!

For now, background 01 is done-o!

It's called "Skinny Legs & Sweaters"

Here's a quick concept [with 2 colour palettes] of the intro of my 4th year film. I am looking forward to a lot more time this summer to develop the style, characters, story, etc.... but I am excited to make a fun, old-fashioned cartoon!

I thought of the name about a year a half ago and the story developed from there.
Stay tuned, summer 2009!

Pies in the skies

So these last couple weeks back at school have been kinda busy with this whole internship search for this summer... but we are going steady on our group film as well!

Trying to get the design pack locked down; here's some celestial sky designs I came up with. They were fun, and I experimented with some custom Photoshop brushes as well. Me likey stars :) And I did have pumpkin pie tonight [mmmm!], so it isn't only in the sky....

Layout lolligagging

So I fiiiiiiiinnnnaaaallllly spent some time cleaning up my Action Analysis layouts, and putting some colour to them. It's funny how your style can develop so much more once you start adding colour... I had it in my head all along, but it's fun when you can finally see it taking shape. I wanted it to be more of a graphic-y offset to the final clean-up characters.

Here's a few colour options I am playing with... only a week and a half to finish this puppy!! Well, and everything else. I can't decide which colour option I like best, but I keep being drawn to the blue-ish one. Any votes?

Group film field studies

We are trying to work with a more graphic, fun, UPA-ish style [my fav!]... so I did a couple layout designs [well, one design, 2 colour palettes] trying to push the style a bit.

This is from a part in the film where the earth is newly covered with crops and food and the Ox is plowing the earth, so I wanted it to be fun and colourful, with some sketchy textures. If you click to enlarge the images, you can better see the textures.

And now.... I am gonna action analysize my heart out!!

Group style & colour concepts

We are working on nailing down the style for our group film... here's the piece I am bringing to the table for our meeting today.

I definitely LOVE this style, I'm really excited about the direction the film is taking.

Last but not least....!!

Here is our last assignment of the year, which was due today!!!

Our diagonal pan from layout class, which we had to digitally paint. I had fun, but I was definitely running out of steam this week, especially since it's so close to the finish line!

SECOND YEAR IS DONE-O!!!!
Now for laps of excited frantic running around Oakville!
Hmm, maybe I'll have enough energy to just run home to Winnipeg!

No, in a couple hours I will crash majorly.
It's been a crazy year!! And I am SO excited for summer, yippee-kay-yay!!

Background for Beak, Napoleon

Phew, finally finished this wonkified background for my beak animation [Napoleon]. I wanted something fun and graphic-y and Bugs Bunny-esque... it's actually quite difficult to do a proper wonky style!

Extra thanks to my painting teach, Mike, for his expert wonky advice on this! I am thinking perhaps I might re-cleanup my animation in Flash to colour it and get a nice vector-ish line to match this background....hmmmm....summer promises to be full of experiments in creativity!

ONE MORE WEEK LEFT!!
I cannot wait.
Can NOT.

I still love gouache.

I was going through my paintings from last year.... I really miss the "analog painting", what with all our fancified "digi painting" skillz we are acquiring. I kinda hate becoming so dependent on Cmd-Z [yes, that's right, I said COMMAND not CONTROL!!].... 'sides, there's not many more relaxing things to do than put on some good tunes and paint an eve away.

Oh sweet summer evenings....come hither. I shalt paint til my heart's delight.....

Or at least for a good couple hours, deadline-free.
And really, that's all I'm asking for.

Anyway, this is a layout from Lilo & Stitch. A GREAT 2D film, absolutely boo-tiful; they seemed to return to more of a watercolour-ish style in that film, reminiscent of earlier classics like Pinocchio and the like.

Yeah, the colours in this one just seem to sing. Me loves it. [Kudos to the original artist, wowza.] I was just happy to be able to replicate it in any sort of pleasurable fashion.

Me enjoy it.
So in conclusion....me loves gouache.

Whoo doggie, the saloon is in colour.

Today, even though it is Spring Break...I am forcing myself to work on stuff so I don't fall waaaaaayyyyyyyyeeee behind when we get back next week.

So...that means first cleaning up loose ends on projects I just couldn't get to last week, then tackling the huge ones due next week.

Here's the saloon from previous posts....'tis coloured. It took forever to get the right colour tones and balance all the objects in the room....not to mention it was rather annoying going from school to home due to the massive change in contrasts for no apparent reason.

Grr. Don't get me started on PC > Mac frustrations.

ANYWAY.
Yippe-kay-yay, I think it's done-o!

I shalt post some fun Oscar sketching lata.

Saloon....toned.

Here is the saloon layout I previously posted... I toned it up in Digi Paint class on Friday. I think this is pretty much the feel I want. I definitely want the focus to be the saloon doors; hence the greatest contrast there.

I am excited to start the colour version, as then I can begin to play with textures and such. Mike [our prof] gave me the tip of putting the most detail on the elements in the foreground, and then less detail as you work back.

ie. Most detail on the bottle on the table in the lower right corner, much less detail on the clock on the wall. Then your eye will be led to the doors, where it should be.

Sounds simple....but we shall see! I tend to paint in Photoshop for ever and ever and ever and ever... sometimes I wish you couldn't undo - like in real painting! I'd be able to move on much quicker. :)

Sheepers Keepers layouts

I painted these layouts from my storyboard panels. I wanted to experiment with a flatter, WB-ish look, rather than realistic-ish. [Which I normally gravitate towards.] These are gouache done on watercolour paper. Ya just don't get the same effect doing the Photoshop thang....plus, PSD isn't nearly as tactile. There's no Cmd-z in gouache! I think that's a good thing. We have to learn to walk away from the keyboard....pick up the paintbrush.....

But I digress.

Me loves gouache.