Stereoscopic Paintings

Now for some more shameless self promotion!

Clicking the title will take you to an inexpensive paperback collection of  of my stereoscopic paintings that I'm self publishing on Lulu.

These are striking colorful stereoscopic nudes done in free-view style paintings that can be seen in 3D without glasses or special equipment.
Or paste link into browser: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/stereoscopic-paintings/15474411

The Metaphor

It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned my personal film.  Part of the trouble with a personal film is finding the time to do them, but some people knit or play golf, and I make stupid things like paint or do a short film.  It’s a ‘short’ short film with the title running almost half the screen time but it’s still taking quite some time to do, partly because it’s already done in my head, (and looks so much better in there too).

The film came fully realized as I was listening to royalty free music.  Even then I knew it was a metaphor and would be familiar to almost everyone.  My inner-eye vision of the style and action for the film were dated clichés and the ending a natural conclusion to this line of thought.  It seemed as though this cartoon had been made already, so why do it?  Because it’s the kind of thing I don’t get to do in my day-to-day work as an animator.  I don’t get to draw and I don’t get to do pantomime. That’s enough reason for me and it keeps me from getting into trouble elsewhere.

I’ve got five or six more shots till the startling profound ending.  To Be Continued!...

Laying Pipeline

I am thrilled and challenged by the reality of having essentially a virtual animation studio in my home.  It’s been a cyclical journey for me trying to reach the look of ‘Golden Age’ animation. 

Having worked in traditional animation during the late 70s the amount of resources needed was considerable starting with reams and reams of punched paper.   Factor in the acetate cells, paints, camera, and an area to house all this including workspace and I can’t even imagine the expense.   

Now after 30 some years I have all the tools at my fingertips and no trees were harmed or houses mortgaged.

I'm in the process of making a pipeline for a short personal film and have decided to use an 8GB thumb drive to transfer project files between platforms; a PC with Wacom Tablet, and a Tablet PC with Wacom technology for cleanup animation.   I’m using Flash for quick and dirty animatics and color studies, ArtRage to do final backgrounds and Toon Boom Animate for principal animation.

I did a combination storyboard\animatic that was broken out into scenes using QuickTime Pro so I know my shot lengths and the sound tracks were extracted from each scene.  I made folders for each scene that contains the scene animatic QT, audio file, ArtRage BG file, and ToonBoom work files so everything needed is in it’s own folder.

Here’s a low resolution scene showing the steps from storyboard, to layout and pencil test, to finished color.

What is so great about this is I can go in and make changes even after the fact without having to re-shoot or use more materials!

If you want to do animation, there really isn't any excuse not to now that it's all in the box.

Poor Mans Cintiq

I've been looking for a way of doing paperless animation and have settled on a software.  Now, the difficulty has been drawing with a Wacom Tablet which is okay for a lot of things but not precises enough to do good in-betweens and clean-up.  Everyone uses the 21" Cintiq for this which allows you to draw directly on the screen.  They also make a 12" but the expense has been too much to justify.  After checking into tablet PCs I found the LE1600 by Motion Computing but the cost was still pretty high.  Now after a few years I found a used one on Amazon and  got it for almost nothing!  It has Wacom technology like the Cintiq and is also another computer as opposed to just being a drawing screen!  I've got just the project to run through it!

Hunting Weasels...

Doing some design work for a personal project.

Click on images to enlarge

Animators, Bookmark This Site!

Péter Nagy's new website the Living Lines Library has compiled pencil tests, model sheets, and other things hand drawn related and placed them on an organized site for your enjoyment. The way things are laid out you can easily find what you are looking for.

Click on the title or past this link to find it: http://livlily.blogspot.com/

Retouching Family #2

A friend of the family saw my restoration of our kids done with Photoshop, (it's an earlier posting on this site somewhere), and asked if I could lighten a picture of their grandmother? All they had was a copy of an old newspaper clipping. It was pretty streaky with a herringbone caused by the Benday dot patterns newspapers use to get halftones. There was something that looked like a feather in her hair but it maybe part of that herringbone effect so I downplayed it and left it out. The whole thing should have been repainted but I didn't have the time and the end result is a little ghostly. It's not my best work and I haven't heard back from them yet but it was free so they can't complain too much.

Click on image to enlarge

Balaam and His Donkey

I wanted to do a contemporary retelling of Bible stories to make them relevant today. Something layered that could be enjoyed by a wide range of ages like "Bullwinkle" which worked as satire for the adults and entertainment for youngsters. The style could be easy to replicate using Flash and driven by dialogue allowing the reuse of artwork. I thought it was something I could do alone without help

I can't say this was successful, and I think the poor production qualities like sound and music, plus the recycling of artwork, and the length of the story worked against me.

Anyway here it is for better or worse. And yes, I did all the voices too.

He Drew as He Pleased

To start 2011 with a bang, here's a link to legendary Albert Hurters rare and expensive book of drawings, "He Drew as He Pleased".

I had sent Daniel Caylor scans of the book found at my local library and he posted them in their entirety on his site "On Animation".

Clink on this postings title or use this link to find it.

http://www.onanimation.com/2010/11/04/albert-hurter/

Hope it's going to be a good year for everyone!

Successful Gift Portrait

I've been told Joanne was able to recognize her children so the gift was successful. What a relief.

Click on image to enlarge

From The Brinkerhoff Family

Sorry, this is last years card but I didn't have time for a new one and we still mean it. Click on 720p for HD

Merry Christmas

Old Memories

I found this digging through old stuff. The picture on the back is pretty impressive as everyone is in focus. I recognize almost everyone I worked with but there are a lot of folks I never knew and some folks are missing including myself I think. I may be one of those eyes peeping over a shoulder though there should be a bald head or ball-cap.

Click Image to Enlarge

Anaglyphic and Free View 3D Life Drawing

Click Image to Enlarge


This is my first attempt at stereoscopic life drawing with texture.  it's not completely successful but it's a start.

It also confirmed my frustration with the anaglyph method because the colors shifted enough to muddle things so I've included a cross eye free view style also.
A more accurate anaglyph version of this can be found clicking the title "Anaglyphic Life Drawing" or going here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29289570@N00/5204200579/

Portaiture

Click image to enlarge.

I haven't done any portraiture in years.  These are brothers but I'm surprise by their different head sizes and I know it's accurate.
This is an oil painting for Christmas so I hope the person getting this doesn't know about my blog.

Missed History

Today, thirty-one years after its original release, Will Vinton’s now classic and award-winning animation of “The Little Prince” was presented at the Hollywood Theater with some of the original voice cast members reprising their roles live, along with sound effects artists and live music.

I couldn't make it but I dearly would have loved to. After 13 years with the Will Vinton Studios it would have been wonderful to talk once again with these gifted, creative people.

Megan Kahrs, another former employee, was there and posted some pictures on facebook which I'm using without her permission.

The middle picture starting with the mustachioed Mr. Vinton on the left, includes Joan Gratz, who won her own Oscar for the claypainted "Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase", and master animator/director Barry Bruce who defined the look of Claymation.

If you've never seen "The Little Prince & Rip Van Winkle" or "The Adventures of Mark Twain" they are available here: http://willvinton.net/filmDistribution.htm

This blog is peppered with postings on Will Vinton, Joan Gratz, and Barry Bruce if you're interested.

Retouching Family

My wife found this damaged photo of our two oldest kids. She was very upset so I did a little Photoshop on it. You have to love that Clone Brush!

Click on images to enlarge

Finding Stop Motion

I tried to build a stop motion demo reel with the bits and pieces I have kept but found most was in an unusable format. The usable things are the commercial bits at the beginning with Barbie and all. I found some badly compressed sequences on YouTube of my work from the TV show "The PJs" shot at Will Vinton Studios. It looks awful but I captioned the characters I'd done and the whole process brought back a lot of memories.

"PJs" ran three seasons and was controversial from the start. From an animation stand point it was very well organized and people were top notch making it happen. This was gorilla animation and I can't remember the exact daily frame count needed to stay on schedule but it was well over a hundred frames. It meant no 'pop-through' where you put the puppets through a few trial shots. Many times it involved group shots with the entire cast, each one having their own idiosyncrasies.

It's a very different kind of animation than commercial or theatrical.

Team Work

Sandro Cleuzo has a great blog and this posting talks about the team work at Disney when Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl were still animating. Even a master like Frank would go to a stronger hand to get better results. The first image is by Frank and the second is an improved pose by Milt. See more and read the whole article by clicking the title.

Frank Thomas

Milt Kahl

Dark Void

I animated this sequence for the game The Dark Void sometime ago but just found it on YouTube. The character at the end overhearing their conversation is a different design than what was originally there.  The sequence is a little stiff to me now but still in keeping with the rest of the acting in the game for the most part.  It is choppier because this was captured from the game engine and the refresh rate isn't always fast enough.

I feel compelled to mention there is no motion capture in this game. It seems mo-cap is becoming more prevalent in cg animation but it wasn't used here.