Christmas Animation

I love this animation at the beginning of the movie. Probably will happen if Santa went to my house.

Shopping!

Ever look around the mall and see some guy tagging behind his girlfriend while she looks at every single piece of clothing in the entire women section? They need more pubs and bars in malls for guys to chill out while they shop.

Rough Animation by the Masters

I got this little bit of info from the Victor Ens blog. It has some really cool rough animation from some of the great animators. Glen Keane, Milt Kahl, and Ollie Johnson, just to name a few.

http://1on1animation.com/inspiration-flip.htm

DAN AYKROYD IN HALIFAX

These are just a few pics taken from Paul, of Dan Aykroyd making a guest appearance last week at a small blues bar here in Halifax. A few of us went there for 7 to have some awesome ribs and beer and to chill out until the dan showed up. When he did (around 11), people went nuts and camera flashes were going all over the place. He went right up on stage, played one song, and then scooted out in the back. That was it?? One friggin song??? Oh well, at least we saw him, and his blues brothers car parked out front.

My Poncho Animation Short #2

This is the second short that I had to animate over at copernicus studios. Again, the bg's, special effects and sounds were all being done in Mexico at the time. I apologize for the sound being off. It happens sometimes when it goes thru YouTube and Im still trying to find a way of fixing it. I'll try and post the third short next week. Cheers!

GLEN KEANE LECTURE AT CAL ARTS

I found these on youtube of Glen Keane giving a lecture to students way back when Aladin was being made. He covers a lot of material that I found interesting, and useful. Just wanted to give the heads up that its really hard to see the images on the overhead projector because the filming was very old. Ahhh the classic VHS. Also, there are 13 parts to this lecture, about 4-5 minutes each, so I had no way to post them all up. If you want to see the rest of them, just type in glen keane in your search. On that note...enjoy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!!

Inspiration MONDAYS #3

Lion King Pencil Test

Free Time

When you draw on a wacom tablet seven days a week, 10 hours a day, it can be very difficult to find time to draw your own stuff on paper. Thats why, if you have any time at all, you take it. These are just a few doodles I did with the 5-10 minutes I had free from my busy schedule. No real thought process with these, I just let the pencil do all the work.

Asterix and the Vikings Rough Animation

I dont know how long these clips were around, but I just found them on the web a couple of days ago. You can tell that the big guy is voiced by Brad Garrett from Everyone loves Raymond. Cant wait to see this

INSPIRATION MONDAYS #2

After doing almost 3 years of both classical and symbol animation for flash, I wonder how it would feel going back to animating with paper and pencil. I know that flash makes it easier, and faster, but I miss the flipping of paper between my fingers and the overall look on a line test. Oh well, maybe I'll try it again some time. Heres a collection of rough animation from the Emperors New Groove DVD. Cheers!

Hammy's Boomerang Adventure Short

Here is the short found on the "Over The Hedge" DVD, which I believe came out onTuesday. I must say that I like the snappy animation of the squirrel, but its still a little too cutesy for me. I still havent seen the actual movie yet, but I hear its pretty good. Maybe I'll just save my pennies to buy it for that rainy day.

Beer and pizza tonght! TGIF!!

Inside Pixar!

Ever wonder what it looks like inside one (if not..THE) most popular animation studio? These are pics taken from someone on the Pixar Tour, and they're amazing. Check out the games room!! I know it looks cool inside, but I've heard that animators work their asses off night and day. But still, come on...Its Pixar.

http://www.micechat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40678

MY PONCHO ANIMATION

Here is the project I did while working at Copernicus Studios, and done completly in flash. Each person in the studio was given one short to do, of Poncho the Football trying to do whatever it takes to play in the soccer finals in Germany. All the animation was done by myself, and all the special effects and backgrounds were done in Mexico. I was pretty happy with how this turned out, except for a few small changes the producers wanted. 1) They had the pilot shake his fist and 2) the bird was changed to climb the planes wing on the left side, rather than the right. Oh, and it was for Spanish television. But this is what is said:

Poncho: C'mon Duck, we got to go where the planes is!
Duck: Bah-k
Poncho-Quit yer back wackin Duck, nothin is going to happen to us!

Poncho: Hey open up!!!
Pilot: Hey!!!
Pilot:Here try this!!
Poncho:Ye-haw!!
Pilot:Bah!
Poncho: Germany Here I come!!!

Poncho: Hey Ducky, wheres your feathers??
Poncho: No,No,No, Dont...Yeaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
Duck: Germany...Here I Come...HaHaHaHa

Poncho:Look out Below!!!!
Poncho: Donkey..This is your lucky day..We'sa going to Germany...YEEEHAAA!!!

If I can find more episodes I did..I'll try and post them up later..until then..enjoy PONCHO THE FOOTBALL.

Cheers!

Line Of Action

Noticed this in the local paper. This is a young kid doing the Micheal Jackson dance on the waterfront. This is a great example of silouette and line of action. Great poses!!

INSPIRATION MONDAYS

Yes, the weekend is over and its time again for another long week. So I thought I would start posting every Monday a kind of motive to get out of that slump and back into action. These clips are from a graduating class from Paris, France. If this is the talent that is coming into the animation world...we're in trouble. These guys are unbelievable!!!






Now start animating!!!
Cheers!

The Paul Caron Movie

Made by yours truly!

Back to Bloggin!

Hey everyone! After a long, (I mean loooonnggg)time of not posting anything, I finally got my blog working again. Dont ask me how it happened, but its fixed now, and Im back to putting up some stuff. Still trying to figure out how to put videos on, but Im sure I'll figure that out too. In the meantime, enjoy the blog again!!
Cheers!!

Apollo Character Designs

Here are a few characters I designed for a project at Copernicus Studios. Nothing too special, Murray asked me if I wanted to design some background characters. All this week i have been plugging away at my website, and if everything goes well, it should be up and running by Monday. Lets cross our fingers!

Character Design Line-Up!

Here is the line-up of the characters I just added before. Not too sure if I want to keep the colours, but theres always time to change it.

Enjoy!

More Designs!

Character designs!

Just playing around with some character designs. Trying to figure out what kind of colours to use. Still have to make a line up for these guys.

I've always been a huge fan of artists that work their way up to the top, and find a place in major animation studios. One of them is an artist that I've really respected, enjoyed and inspired me to try and do better. His name is Victor Navone, and he's an animator at Pixar. Have a look at his website, and check out his photo's. There you'll see many things that go on at Pixar..really cool stuff. Also Victor JUST started his own blog...double cool!!!

www. navone.org

Nothing too new at the moment. Just decided to clean up and colour the animals I did a few posts back in April. Cheers!

May is finally here, and its about time!! As much as I enjoy winter, (which really wasnt all that bad here in the maritimes), I couldn't wait for the nice weather, and being able to sit on a patio with a nice tall glass of alexanders keiths beer. Took me a few days to work on this one. I coloured it in flash and added shadows in photoshop. Cheers!!

While I'm still working on my own piece, I want to introduce you all to one of my favorite and very talented artist....Arthur de Pins. His work is so amazing and pulls you right in. His detail with characters are breathtaking, and his use of colour is unbelievable. When you have some free time, please please please check out his stuff. Its all in french but I managed to work my way around it. His animation is really cool too.

www.arthurdepins.com

Thought I would try and draw some animals for a change. More to come soon!

We just got one of those expresso makers. Joy!

Just a few pages from the sketchbook from last night. Nothing new to report..that is all!

I know, I know, you've seen this before many times. The old try-and-hit-the pest-with-a-mallet-while-he's-on-your-friends-head....routine. Thought I would try and draw a little slapstick today, and maybe introduce a few new characters....hmmm? Still getting used to coming up with some interesting colours rather than the plain purple, blue, green, brown they supply you in the paint pallet.
Cheers!

Did some sketches at work, thought i would post them.

This is just a design of a girl that I did for a friend of mine. He's using it to try and get a project from a client, which means that there might be a small side project coming my way. Lets hope. Again I cleaned it and coloured it in flash mx.

Happy Easter everybody!
Well..... actually, its the next day. I spent yesterday working on the rough, and finished it up with colour this morning. I tried something different this time, which was importing the jpeg into my flash mx, and then cleaning it up, and then adding colour.

Enjoy!

Just finished another project at Copernicus. We did this Kids Save Kids three minute short , about being bullied at school. Really looking forward on working on the next project. Its kind of hush hush at the moment but im sure you'll be hearing something out of me later on. Its the kind of project where its more warner brothers and not realistic. But until then, I have a few days off to draw. That and maybe sit on the couch and watch cartoons all day..fun!

I just found a site that allows to me listen to any radio station in canada online. So since I've been homesick the last couple of days, I thought that I would listen to some of the radio stations I used to listen to while living or visiting back in Ontario. It was great to hear 99.9 again, as well as 102.9 "the edge", and 96.9 Brantford. But after hearing those stations for a good 5-6 hours, I came to realize that I was even more depressed and more home-sick than before. Oh well...May will come soon! On another note, work has been very busy, and finding time to do my own drawings has been scarce, but I did find some time yesterday to do these drawings. Just a fat mouse I playe around with.
Enjoy!!

Thought I would try and do some drawings away fom the Disney style....which is so hard after doing it for so long! I've also been looking at more John K stuff, his animation and characters. I enjoyed them before but wasn't really into them, (if that makes any sense). He spoke at a function that I attended here in Halifax, and he explained how sad it is that everyone has to follow the "model sheet". Go crazy, push the drawings and have fun with it. That was four years ago. So last night, after consideration (and quite a few beers I might add), I thought...hey, why not at least try it. You know what? It was fun! Although I still see a little Disney in it. Now all I need is more practice.....and more beers!

It's really hard to get away from a style that everyone is drawing. Thats why im trying to come up with interesting characters to kinda stand out. I also need to start drawing smaller. This damn scanner keeps cutting off stuff and it doesnt really look professional.

Cheers!

A Bunny...not Bugs Bunny by all means. Maybe a distant cousin.....maybe, just maybe!
By the way....I'm snowed in. We just got hit with 30 cm of snow with 15 cm still coming. I love Canada!

I find that I get bored very easily! So while I was waiting in the car for my girlfriends chiropractor appointment to finish, I found a small pad of orange paper stuck between the seats. Well, ever since I was a kid, if there was a pencil, pencil, crayon, anything around, I would keep myself occupied. So here are a few quick sketches I did. I kept them because I thought they were neat....enjoy!

I came up with this joke (if it hasn't been taken already) while my girlfriend was watching "The Bachelor" on t.v last week. Its taken me almost a week (here and there) to get it right. I was either very brave or very, very stupid to use a charcol pencil, especially one that smudges easily. Im sorry if the feet are cut off. Im hoping to shrink it down, when it comes time to colour it.