Update 9/27

Been working on my comps in AfterEffects. Aiming to have all comps built and ready to recieve the charachter by next Thursday. Just roughing them out now- the way I've organized the piece, it'll be very easy to edit myself down the road. Here are the things I've created:

Here are the first and third with sample character art:

So all  in all, I'm on schedule.

Job Stuff

1.) The Big'n: Cartoon Network.
Location: Various Studios, so various locations.
Why: My dream job is creating cartoons. I'd prefer television to movies just because of the amount of creativity that is a part of the day to day process of creating shows.

Where to send stuff: http://www.turner.com/careers/#/brands/cartoon-network

2.) The Middle Ground: Powerhouse Animation.
Location: Austin, TX
Why: Beyond the fact that it fits my three main criteria (2d animation, not Louisiana, and is in an affordable location), it looks to be a very solid company that has worked a number of projects I could totally see myself working on. Looks like a great environment, too.

Where to send stuff: http://powerhouseanimation.com/contact.php

3.) The Realistic: Bayou FX.
Location: Covington, LA (my hometown)
Why: The company is literally five minutes from my parents house, so I'd have a place to say. While I am unsure of everything the company does due to a lackluster web page, it would be a convenient job where I wouldn't have to pay for living until I got a better job and it could be good experience.

 Where to send stuff: http://bayoufx.com/#

Update 9/18

Alright folks, here it is. It's still super rough, but I held to my schedule of getting my animatic finished by today.

Next step: refine the hell out of it by Thursday, then count the number of different scenes and assets needed. Compose a strict weekly schedule for asset creation using the 100% done animatic as reference.

Anywhos, enjoy.

Artist Inspiration Post: Zac Gorman & Louie Zong

As an artist and an animator, I'm constantly drawn to other artists' work. It's only natural I draw inspiration from the pieces I like, and experiment with my own work using the techniques used in those pieces I enjoy the most.

I feel like many times, animators forget about where we started as a medium- animation was, in the beginning, moving illustration. The first animators were illustrators. In my own work, I want to create living illustrations, treating each frame as it's own piece.  My goal as an artist is to tell stories, and Illustration, the original visual storyteller, influences me greatly.

Recently, there have been two illustrators (of the many that I follow) that I've been watching and drawing inspiration from, and I want to spend this post talking about what it is about each that I react to.

Zac Gorman

Zac Gorman freelances mostly, but has recently received commercial success on the internet for illustrations that play off the nostalgia of people in my generation growing up with video games. Often, his personal work reflects both his adult problems and his child-like memories of playing games that affected him personally.

What draws me to Gorman as an illustrator is two things: 

1.) I strongly relate to the subject matter. This is a feeling I want to evoke in my audience- sure, they might not necessarily relate to a wizard who can create hot dogs, but if I can suffuse that character with human emotion and place him in a situation where we can relate to him, I'll draw my audience in.

2.) The line quality in his pieces is very calculated, yet loose, creating a texture to his pieces without falling into chaos. That, coupled with an incredible sense of color and composition, he creates work that feels alive. As an artist, I want to create work like this- if even my stills feel alive, then I can rest assured that when the piece eventually moves it will a pleasure to watch, aesthetically.

Plus, he's a cool dude.

Louie Zong

I'm attracted to Louie Zong's personal work mainly because of how it's made- every day he creates a new image, while constantly experimenting with textures and line quality. The looseness of those pieces, like Gorman, helps bring the pieces to life. Also, like Gorman, Zong has a wonderful understanding of color and composition, and many of the works he creates are very creative and interesting. He's a great artist to look at whenever  the creative juices are running low because he's a great example about how to force yourself into creativity.

Update 9/11

I spent the weekend experimenting with various tools in aftereffects, taking the comp I created for last class and moving things around.

After watching some tutorials about 3d layers, importing, depth of field, etc. and fooling around in the program, I have a little test animation (seen above) that experiments with lens flares, 3d layers, camera movement, and lens blur. It's short, but I think that it has a lot of potential creatively.

Update for 9/6

A proof of concept for the backgrounds.

The Whatever-U-Want Wizard.

A sketch showing the sizes of all the characters.

I had wanted to work on the animatic/ storyboard more, but I felt that in order to move forward, I needed to have a clear idea of the characters, colors, aesthetic, and backgrounds. Thus, here we have them. Enjoy!

Update for 9/4

Over the weekend, I spent my time working on a rough animatic. While I wasn't able to complete the animatic, I've made serious headway in it. I redid a couple of shots, created some new characters, and experimented with the various settings and props of the scene. Also, I have some sketches of possible designs for the WYWW, but I'm not satisfied with them at all.

My plan for the week is to finish the animatic and resolve the WYWW. Also, I want to create a comp of the opening scene where the HDW stands behind his stand, by Thursday.

Hotdog Wizard Animatic (part 1) from Nicolas Pflug on Vimeo.