loopdeloop

Yeah, yeah.  So I've been bad about keeping up this blog and just bypassing it with tumblr - but I have been doing things!  Most of it has been a series of small explorations and other things in between jobs.

One of the things I've gotten really into is Loopdeloop!  It's a really awesome bi-montly internet & real life event where people from all over the world make looping animation based on a topic.  They can range from a few frames to almost a minute, can be gifs or movies, and run the gamut in style and media.  They all get put up on the site for everyone to see and then get screened at regular loopdeloop events in Melboure and Los Angeles.

It's a awesome place to sandbox out ideas or new techniques or just get motivated to animate something without being overwhelmed by the magnitude of a short film or other project.  It's a great way to discover new animators/artists and keep tabs on what the regulars are up to.  I actually got a freelance gig from a creative director seeing one of my loops, liking the timing, and reaching out based on that.  It's kinda crazy.  But the best part of it all is that making loops is fun!

I'll admit most of mine get done in the few hours before it's due because I'm busy with work and/or the deadline always surprises me when I convert it from Melbourne to California time and it turns out to be way sooner than I realized.  As such, most of the ones I've done have been pretty quick and show it, but I'd rather make that push to get something new made than do nothing at all - and besides, it's all in fun!  Some people go all out and make small films out of their loops.  I try to keep mine small, as on the scale of a walk cycle.  This is partly so I keep the project small and manageable so I can worry about other aspects of it other than sheer production volume, but I also enjoy the challenger of thinking about things on that small of a time scale and exploring what works for it.  Since January I've made 5 loops.

#1 - Hollywood

This was my first go at it and the most involved.  I used this one as a first foray back into 2d animation, which I've neglected since sophomore year.  The rough was done in flash, final frames in photoshop, and then everything was taken back into after effects for the flicker and editing.  Since making this I've found Alex Grigg's super helpful photoshop animation tutorial which everyone should check out.  Animating is photoshop is pretty straightforward but Alex shows some super workflow actions that he's put together that really streamline the process.

#2 - Sports

I had just learned how to do basic rigging in After Effects before I did this loop so I put my new found knowledge to work to make this whole thing in an hour during one busy work night.  It's super simple but I really enjoyed working with the graphic quality of it.  I'd like to do some more stuff in this vein in the future.

#3 - Frantic

What if a robot was frantic?  Another quickie made from non-motion blurred and randomized sections of this project (which is also to get a blogger write up eventually).

#4 - Food

Getting the downshooter I made back in use.  Cut up a strawberry, did some stop-mo with it, and edited it to music by Craig Smith.  Full song and original video collab with Sishir Bommakanti over here in tumblr land.  I shot some other material that night as well but didn't have time to developed a layered edit with everything, so it stayed just strawberries.  I've been revisiting the footage though, so expect to see that.

#5 - Frustration

I had recently ordered an LED light pad to get back into doing some traditional animation and had discovered tailor's chalk while wandering around the garment district of down town earlier that week.  (Tailor's chalk is awesome!  It comes in both clay (chalky) and wax (crayony) compositions, features very limited colors, and is shaped in chunky rectangles or triangles that let you really leverage it and get some neat marks!)  Anyways, I put all those things to good use in a five hour chunk of night after work.  It's all straight ahead, which was really really fun.

tumblr is addictive

I managed to hold out for a while but it's time to admit that I've finally succumbed to tumblr (and it's completely distracted me from this blog).  I've got to start getting this one back up to speed.  The two will overlap - but not completely.  I'm trying to keep tumblr land largely wordless and mostly for personal experiments (mostly) while this blog can contain pretty much anything, personal, professional, whatever.  I'll only be talking about work & process on here though.

So yeah, tumblr, you can check it out here, http://itsaherring.tumblr.com/
Also, I contribute to another tumblr for other experiments and such with my friend Craig, http://insteadofbread.tumblr.com/ (It slowed down after summer but it's getting revived).

Oh, and the thing above, just trying some stuff out with shapes/form/color/and leaving details unsaid :V

Too bad it prints like garbage.  If anyone's got some real tips for printing intense RBG images or knows of any printers that actually give good color in the los angeles area or online please do share.  Kinkos and I have become mortal enemies.

crystallography

 

"Fig. 102 shows a tetrahedron (o), it's edges bevelled by the trigonal tristetrahedron, +202/2, k{211} (l), and its angles replaced by the rhombic dodecahedron (d)."

From the 1890 edition of Elements of Crystallography by George Huntington Williams.  Fig. 102. appears in the chapter "The Isometric System".

operations

 

child of

doodletime

 

and then Roy Orbison and Devotchka joined in.

site seeing

I made this website about a year ago.  It's birds, because birds are neat.  Not only were birds featured on this website but so was my work.  It's gone now though, a new one will be up later this month when I can get my domain back.  Everything + sub pages were hand drawn/written because I came to the realization that there were no internet rules saying I couldn't and this simply made more sense (it was also more fun).  But back to the topic at hand, websiiite.

As a side note, I had a bunch more sketchbook bits edited and ready to go but my macbook up and died.  Those scans are going to stay where they are until I can perform an autopsy.  In the meantime, funeral services will still be held next Friday as planned.  I hope to see you all there.

strawberry

It wasn't any kind of plot point, but when we were working on our film we came to choose a pie type for each of the characters.  Pete was apple - the quintessential American classic - even the stunt pie standing in for him in the live action scene was an actual apple pie.  Sheriff, we decided, was a meat pie.  Narrator came to be a strawberry pie.  Of course, by that point, it only seemed proper to outfit him with an appropriate bandanna.

airplane drawings

tiny squares

making drawings move.

dress-up

Key Lime was such a minor character in our film, really she was just a background character who played into a couple of gags.  Since she wasn't all that important and never got much screen time, not a whole lot of time and concern went into her design beyond the initial phases.  Upon entering 3D though it quickly became apparent that we had some issues to resolve and decisions to make.  Since Key Lime is a "flat top" pie she is very close to Quiche structurally and the structural problems were consequently solved through Quiche.  Her dress however wasn't.  We were stuck with the simple short hand we had used for her in prepro, but that simply wasn't translating into the world we were building, so it was back to the drawing board.  These are my notes from that whole bit of trying to fix her and how to adapt a showgirl's dress from a person to a pie.