Friday, December 25, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Weakly Update
This week's update is indeed weak.
Needless to say, with Christmas and Holiday festivities looming, I had very little time to start working on my animation. While I did make some headway, I think it would be best to use the rest of this year to complete the one animation, and work out any bugs I find in the process.
So starting next year, I will officially begin (again) the weakly animation. This time with a new animation (assuming the current one is finished) and with the 1 week time limit. I will, however, be preparing and updating my college applications and (god-willing) be sending them off during the first week or so of January.
Here is what has happened so far:
I have started the site.
I have brainstormed a good story with my brother on an animation.
I have story boarded the project, and made a few extra sketches.
I researched reference photographs and took a few of my own.
I have drawn the first half dozen or so images for use in the animation, mainly backgrounds.
That is where the constructive work has ended, and here is what I learned:
I learned that brainstorming with my brother, while fun, often goes in direction no one should ever follow.
I learned that there are few things in life as fun as creating something your own, nor are they as time consuming.
I learned that procrastination is like that buddy that is coming around to your place and hanging out, drinking your beer, and wasting your time, making sure you get nothing done, and he's hard to kick out.
I learned that I need to practice my drawings more.
I learned that we need to get a snow shovel (more on that later).
Well I have no images to show as of yet, since my scanner is still not hooked up to my computer. However, I did do a lot of cleaning around my apartment so with any luck I will actually be able to find the scanner, and find room to fit it next to the computer. I have also cleared off a table (mostly) to help with drawing, when we aren't eating off it.
But Christmas and the like is a big issue that takes a lot of time. Combining that with about 2 feet of snow in one day, and snow plow workers who (apparently) don't work on weekends, makes this weekend very... slippery. It took at least half an hour to dig the car out of the parking space, it was enough snow that having a snow shovel actually would be useful for parking in a parking lot. So as you can imagine, we went out as little as we had to, never leaving the house all day on Saturday. You'd think being stuck indoors all day with no guests or meetings or game nights, just you and your wife, would mean lots of time to work on things. Well... it isn't often I get to spend the entire day with just my wife, and me, alone, all day, snowed in.... lets just say we didn't waste that time.
*Ahem*
Well that being said, I will continue to work on the animation this week... Yes, yes, I know it is Christmas. I will not be able to spend long on it, at least not before Christmas. But I will do what I can! My goal is to get most of this done before new years weekend. I want to have something to show you all this year. So I will be spending another week on this weakly project.
I don't know when I will post next, but just in case, let me wish you all Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year too.
Needless to say, with Christmas and Holiday festivities looming, I had very little time to start working on my animation. While I did make some headway, I think it would be best to use the rest of this year to complete the one animation, and work out any bugs I find in the process.
So starting next year, I will officially begin (again) the weakly animation. This time with a new animation (assuming the current one is finished) and with the 1 week time limit. I will, however, be preparing and updating my college applications and (god-willing) be sending them off during the first week or so of January.
Here is what has happened so far:
I have started the site.
I have brainstormed a good story with my brother on an animation.
I have story boarded the project, and made a few extra sketches.
I researched reference photographs and took a few of my own.
I have drawn the first half dozen or so images for use in the animation, mainly backgrounds.
That is where the constructive work has ended, and here is what I learned:
I learned that brainstorming with my brother, while fun, often goes in direction no one should ever follow.
I learned that there are few things in life as fun as creating something your own, nor are they as time consuming.
I learned that procrastination is like that buddy that is coming around to your place and hanging out, drinking your beer, and wasting your time, making sure you get nothing done, and he's hard to kick out.
I learned that I need to practice my drawings more.
I learned that we need to get a snow shovel (more on that later).
Well I have no images to show as of yet, since my scanner is still not hooked up to my computer. However, I did do a lot of cleaning around my apartment so with any luck I will actually be able to find the scanner, and find room to fit it next to the computer. I have also cleared off a table (mostly) to help with drawing, when we aren't eating off it.
But Christmas and the like is a big issue that takes a lot of time. Combining that with about 2 feet of snow in one day, and snow plow workers who (apparently) don't work on weekends, makes this weekend very... slippery. It took at least half an hour to dig the car out of the parking space, it was enough snow that having a snow shovel actually would be useful for parking in a parking lot. So as you can imagine, we went out as little as we had to, never leaving the house all day on Saturday. You'd think being stuck indoors all day with no guests or meetings or game nights, just you and your wife, would mean lots of time to work on things. Well... it isn't often I get to spend the entire day with just my wife, and me, alone, all day, snowed in.... lets just say we didn't waste that time.
*Ahem*
Well that being said, I will continue to work on the animation this week... Yes, yes, I know it is Christmas. I will not be able to spend long on it, at least not before Christmas. But I will do what I can! My goal is to get most of this done before new years weekend. I want to have something to show you all this year. So I will be spending another week on this weakly project.
I don't know when I will post next, but just in case, let me wish you all Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year too.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Project Update: Day 1
Well I am busy at work on the second day already, which is mostly going to comprise of drawing the various scenes and elements of the animation. I will focus on getting the easiest parts done first, so I can finish the majority of the animation before I get to the more complicated animation (frame-by-frame) which will take longer. Luckily there is not much of that in this animation, which is the point of making it a short film, and by short, I mean SHORT... like 30 seconds, which is about average for a commercial.
So here is a recap of what happened yesterday.
Alas, I did not get as far as I wanted yesterday, but that is mainly due to my own inherit laziness. I have been focusing on chores and other activities (like my 60+ and growing unread emails) rather than focusing on the animation. What I DID do was still very helpful to get a head start today and tomorrow with the drawings.
Essentially, I drew out the entire story board on a series of 3x5 index cards, which I will be scanning in later this week (when I start scanning the actual drawings, since my scanner is not hooked up at the moment), and I will post online as soon as I can. It took about 40 cards, but a lot of those scenes will actually just use re-cycled animation to save on time.
I also researched the various elements in the animation that I will need to draw, to give me a good reference for a starting point. I needed lots of pictures of cars, cop cars, old cars, insides of cars... In all, I have collected the best ones (about a dozen) that best suits my needs (plus one really awesome concept car design just to look at :p) and will be using these (printed out) to get a start on these drawings with fairly accurate, or at least decent, depictions of what they are suppose to be.
I also started some of the drawings, but spent too much time on other tasks, that I didn't even finish the first one yet, so i am going to buckle down and spend the rest of the day today and tomorrow working on finishing up these drawings.
Onward I go, to victory!
So here is a recap of what happened yesterday.
Alas, I did not get as far as I wanted yesterday, but that is mainly due to my own inherit laziness. I have been focusing on chores and other activities (like my 60+ and growing unread emails) rather than focusing on the animation. What I DID do was still very helpful to get a head start today and tomorrow with the drawings.
Essentially, I drew out the entire story board on a series of 3x5 index cards, which I will be scanning in later this week (when I start scanning the actual drawings, since my scanner is not hooked up at the moment), and I will post online as soon as I can. It took about 40 cards, but a lot of those scenes will actually just use re-cycled animation to save on time.
I also researched the various elements in the animation that I will need to draw, to give me a good reference for a starting point. I needed lots of pictures of cars, cop cars, old cars, insides of cars... In all, I have collected the best ones (about a dozen) that best suits my needs (plus one really awesome concept car design just to look at :p) and will be using these (printed out) to get a start on these drawings with fairly accurate, or at least decent, depictions of what they are suppose to be.
I also started some of the drawings, but spent too much time on other tasks, that I didn't even finish the first one yet, so i am going to buckle down and spend the rest of the day today and tomorrow working on finishing up these drawings.
Onward I go, to victory!
Monday, December 14, 2009
It begins...
Well the first brainstorming session is complete. We have fleshed out details, added some great new content, and gone over the details for every shot and animation styles. I am even playing with how music and sound effects will be done.
I will start in the morning with story boards, simple and quick, which will be very sketchy but should be enough to get the idea. I will probably post a few of them online, in low quality, by the end of the day.
I also planned out my week with a bit of a buffer in case it (inevitably) takes longer to complete than planned.
So far, this is how things for my week look:
Monday: Story boards, character designs, drawing.
Tuesday: Drawing.
Wednesday: Drawing, scanning, coloring, animating.
Thursday: Coloring, Animating.
Friday: Animating, Sound effects.
Saturday: Music, Sound effects, Graphics (titles, etc)
Sunday: Final tweaks, rendering, posting online, brainstorming for next week.
Granted, this is a LOOSE timeline, I hope to take LESS time per topic than I listed here to give me a better buffer at the end of the week. Music also will probably only be a placeholder until actual music is created by the members of Tangent Artists, which may take a few weeks. But until the animation is the important part, sound is merely a detail that can be dealt with at a later date if need be.
So expect some updates tomorrow, and perhaps some pictures as well.
Wish me luck!
I will start in the morning with story boards, simple and quick, which will be very sketchy but should be enough to get the idea. I will probably post a few of them online, in low quality, by the end of the day.
I also planned out my week with a bit of a buffer in case it (inevitably) takes longer to complete than planned.
So far, this is how things for my week look:
Monday: Story boards, character designs, drawing.
Tuesday: Drawing.
Wednesday: Drawing, scanning, coloring, animating.
Thursday: Coloring, Animating.
Friday: Animating, Sound effects.
Saturday: Music, Sound effects, Graphics (titles, etc)
Sunday: Final tweaks, rendering, posting online, brainstorming for next week.
Granted, this is a LOOSE timeline, I hope to take LESS time per topic than I listed here to give me a better buffer at the end of the week. Music also will probably only be a placeholder until actual music is created by the members of Tangent Artists, which may take a few weeks. But until the animation is the important part, sound is merely a detail that can be dealt with at a later date if need be.
So expect some updates tomorrow, and perhaps some pictures as well.
Wish me luck!
Review of Disney's "Princess and the Frog"
While I am going to use this blog to mainly focus on my own experiences in my latest animation project(s), I am also going to use this to occasionally review animated films. These are professionally animated movies which (god-willing) will not be "weakly animated", but should provide to be a great source of inspiration to animators and artists. While new movies will always make it on my list, I may chose to review or comment on an older movie that sparked my interest or really excited me. This will include both 2D and 3D movies, both fully animated and partially animated. Expect to see the occasional review of such films as Wall-E, Avatar, and even anime like Ghost in the Shell. (That isn't to say I might not throw in a true weakly animated review every so often, just to warn others).
So for this first review, I will briefly go over my view of Disney's The Princess and the Frog. My wife and I saw this on the opening weekend, looking forward to this as a new beginning for Disney. For us, the Disney movies started to run downhill before their Home on the Range movie, and their 3D films have just been embarrassing. So when Pixar and John Lasseter "took over" Disney (by that, we merely mean that the team behind the Pixar hits are now involved with and directing the Disney Animation Studios), we were excited to see what they would come out with. We were pleasantly surprised with Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt was a great movie. This, being Lasseter's first full-length 2D film, and the first 2D film from Disney since their Home on the Range film in 2004, promises to be a new beginning for Disney and their re-emergence in both the Classic Disney story-telling and traditional 2D animation.
The Princess and the Frog really brought back the classic style and feel of the original Disney animated fairytales. We both enjoyed this film, although we did have some criticism for it. While I feel this is a huge leap in the right direction for Disney, I don't think this is as much of a leap they could have made. In regards to the few concerns people had about racism in this film, I did not really see any evidence of it. There is one scene where 2 men (dressed in a donkey costume, if that tells you anything) say something along the lines of "a girl with your background". At first this sounded slightly racist to me, but I think it is intended to be a class issue, someone who is lower class versus someone who is higher class. Beyond that, I think they handled race well by simply not making it an issue.
The story itself was a very good twist on the original fairytale. While I do not want to give anything away (I really hate it when things get spoiled for me, so I try to not spoil things for others), I will say that this plays on the princess and the magic kiss theme. It is clearly a family movie...
As far as the characters are concerned, while the original trailers had me concerned over the animal characters, I am glad to say they are not as annoying as I thought they would be, they are even downright enjoyable. There is plenty of character development, although at times I think it is a little too sudden and needed more time to flesh out some of the character-changing events a little more. Regardless, I was quite happy with the way the characters turned out and the way they developed with the story. My favorite character would have to be the villain, although Tiana's over-hyper rich friend is a close second. The villain, a voodoo witch-doctor, has an interesting and fun style and his magic was very unique and was intense at times.
Finally, lets talk tech. Technically, I was very pleased with the quality of this movie. I recognized that many scenes used 3D modeling, and yet was glad to see they were seamlessly integrated with the rest of the film. The use of color was very vivid, and the imagery was very "Disney" magical. The animation of the characters was very tight, well handled hand-drawn animation. Digital painting allows them to make a flawless presentation of animation and shading using a variety of techniques from traditional cell-shading to the lighter airbrush effects. The characters themselves are very fluid and flowing, with very good dance moves during all the songs, and flowing animation that really define the characters. There is a lot of style in this movie, but it oozes with technical know-how. They have clearly gotten down the fine details of their craft and have perfected into the art it deserves to be. I especially love the little hyperactive reactions of Tiana's rich friend who gets overly excited quite easily, practically jumping over the other characters.
Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5. For technical ability, I feel this is as good as you will get anytime soon, however certain other projects looming in the shadows promise to out-shine even this gem. For characters, I feel that, while these are well-designed characters that develop well through the story, there was still more that could have been done to really bring out the main characters and really round off the others. As far as story is concerned, it is a good story, with a nice twist, but is lacking the real evolution I was hoping. Other films by Lasseter (such as Up, Wall-E, etc), have a point in the story when the original goal of the characters are drastically changed, and the entire feel of the movie is altered, to a point where you thought the movie was going to end, but there is still a good 20-30 minutes left. It is this last half hour or so that really makes these films shine, something this film could desperately use to make it as bright as the other big star movies he has made. Specifically, there needed to be more between the prince and Tiana, more between the villain and his "powers", as well as more conflict at the end (perhaps a more dramatic and even desperate scene from him), and more to bring the story to a close.
Regardless, I still feel this was a very good movie, which I would recommend to movie and animation lovers, who want to see a witty twist on the classic story, with great music, amazing animation and visuals, and good characters. If you leave wanting more, perhaps that is a good thing. It is always better to want more out of a movie, than to leave wishing there was less.
So for this first review, I will briefly go over my view of Disney's The Princess and the Frog. My wife and I saw this on the opening weekend, looking forward to this as a new beginning for Disney. For us, the Disney movies started to run downhill before their Home on the Range movie, and their 3D films have just been embarrassing. So when Pixar and John Lasseter "took over" Disney (by that, we merely mean that the team behind the Pixar hits are now involved with and directing the Disney Animation Studios), we were excited to see what they would come out with. We were pleasantly surprised with Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt was a great movie. This, being Lasseter's first full-length 2D film, and the first 2D film from Disney since their Home on the Range film in 2004, promises to be a new beginning for Disney and their re-emergence in both the Classic Disney story-telling and traditional 2D animation.
The Princess and the Frog really brought back the classic style and feel of the original Disney animated fairytales. We both enjoyed this film, although we did have some criticism for it. While I feel this is a huge leap in the right direction for Disney, I don't think this is as much of a leap they could have made. In regards to the few concerns people had about racism in this film, I did not really see any evidence of it. There is one scene where 2 men (dressed in a donkey costume, if that tells you anything) say something along the lines of "a girl with your background". At first this sounded slightly racist to me, but I think it is intended to be a class issue, someone who is lower class versus someone who is higher class. Beyond that, I think they handled race well by simply not making it an issue.
The story itself was a very good twist on the original fairytale. While I do not want to give anything away (I really hate it when things get spoiled for me, so I try to not spoil things for others), I will say that this plays on the princess and the magic kiss theme. It is clearly a family movie...
I must explain more clearly what I mean by a "family movie". In my opinion, outside of the rating system (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, NR), films have a target audience that they try to appeal to. This does not actually have to do with the rating they receive, although they have to make sure the rating is compatible with their target audience. I have split the target audience into separate catagories.As I was saying before, this is a family movie, with a lot to offer the adults and teens, as well as the children. In fact, I would say many family movies like this one have more to offer the adults and teens than the children, who often miss the deeper layers of the film. (That is not to say this movie is as complicated as an adult love story, but it does have more than enough to offer the older audience). The one caveat I have is that this story seems a tad too short. An extra 20 minutes would have done wonders for this movie for both the story, and the character development.
Children: These are movies intended for children, with little to no entertainment value for adults and teens.
Family: These are intended for the entire family demographic. That means children, parent,s brothers, sisters, young, old. While it tries to have something for everyone, it is often mistaken for a children's movie because it is not specifically targeted toward adults or teens.
Teens/Action: Action blockbuster, aka a Guy's Flick. Usually full of special effects and action with some adult content, mostly defined by its violence. Adults love these as much as teens sometimes.
Teens/Romance: The typical "Chick Flick", and other similar movies. These are the date movies, romance comedies, vampire love stories, and so on with little to no violence and special effects. Both adults and males watch and enjoy these as much as teens and women.
Adults: These films are adult films, movies meant for people who can handle adult things. Not specifically meant for titillation and the like, these films are more adult in their structure and presentation. Movies like Watchmen fit here despite the heavy effects and graphics, but at the same time, movies like Nixon/Frost are also listed here. Both deal with adult issues, and contain adult situations. That is not to say teens don't want to or do see these movies, but the target audience is not the teenager.
Educational: These are documentaries and educational films, usually suited for the full audience range, but often targeted at a specific demographic. They have their own listing because they are not usually associated with big blockbuster films. Several blockbuster films will also be educational but not fit into this category, because the target demographic is not the same.
"Specialty": This is what I call the adult X rated movies. They are intended for the pure adult audience interested in titillation and related adult material. I will not be rating any movies under this category, animated for not, since they are of no interest to this project or the development of animation.
As far as the characters are concerned, while the original trailers had me concerned over the animal characters, I am glad to say they are not as annoying as I thought they would be, they are even downright enjoyable. There is plenty of character development, although at times I think it is a little too sudden and needed more time to flesh out some of the character-changing events a little more. Regardless, I was quite happy with the way the characters turned out and the way they developed with the story. My favorite character would have to be the villain, although Tiana's over-hyper rich friend is a close second. The villain, a voodoo witch-doctor, has an interesting and fun style and his magic was very unique and was intense at times.
Finally, lets talk tech. Technically, I was very pleased with the quality of this movie. I recognized that many scenes used 3D modeling, and yet was glad to see they were seamlessly integrated with the rest of the film. The use of color was very vivid, and the imagery was very "Disney" magical. The animation of the characters was very tight, well handled hand-drawn animation. Digital painting allows them to make a flawless presentation of animation and shading using a variety of techniques from traditional cell-shading to the lighter airbrush effects. The characters themselves are very fluid and flowing, with very good dance moves during all the songs, and flowing animation that really define the characters. There is a lot of style in this movie, but it oozes with technical know-how. They have clearly gotten down the fine details of their craft and have perfected into the art it deserves to be. I especially love the little hyperactive reactions of Tiana's rich friend who gets overly excited quite easily, practically jumping over the other characters.
Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5. For technical ability, I feel this is as good as you will get anytime soon, however certain other projects looming in the shadows promise to out-shine even this gem. For characters, I feel that, while these are well-designed characters that develop well through the story, there was still more that could have been done to really bring out the main characters and really round off the others. As far as story is concerned, it is a good story, with a nice twist, but is lacking the real evolution I was hoping. Other films by Lasseter (such as Up, Wall-E, etc), have a point in the story when the original goal of the characters are drastically changed, and the entire feel of the movie is altered, to a point where you thought the movie was going to end, but there is still a good 20-30 minutes left. It is this last half hour or so that really makes these films shine, something this film could desperately use to make it as bright as the other big star movies he has made. Specifically, there needed to be more between the prince and Tiana, more between the villain and his "powers", as well as more conflict at the end (perhaps a more dramatic and even desperate scene from him), and more to bring the story to a close.
Regardless, I still feel this was a very good movie, which I would recommend to movie and animation lovers, who want to see a witty twist on the classic story, with great music, amazing animation and visuals, and good characters. If you leave wanting more, perhaps that is a good thing. It is always better to want more out of a movie, than to leave wishing there was less.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Getting a head start
While my project goal is to complete an animation a week, that does not mean it will take only 1 week to make every animation. While most of the work will take place during that week, I will probably brainstorm and layout ideas beforehand, to help get an idea of what to do before I dive into it. Considering the amount of work that will be involved with a single animation in a week, along with keeping up my workload with my clients and working on web comics and preparing to submit applications to various colleges (not to mention the ever-present distraction of video games), I will have my hands full every week. However, I do have time to work on brain storming, which for me works best when i can throw ideas off of someone else and get ideas back.
This is exactly what my brother and I do. We have done this for his comic idea, which I have started to draw and (with any luck) will be ready to post the beginning of the new year. Well we are also going to be doing this for the weekly project. In fact, this works out really well for both of us. With all these ideas going around in our heads, not to mention the ideas from both my sisters and my wife and friends, we need to brain storm these and attack each one we like the most. In the past, we considered making blogs or podcasts (titled "Hixonitis, have you caught it yet"... not that catchy actually), but they always fell through when real life took over. Well I am tired of these things never happening. SO, I am taking the initiative to just start it. And for my family, this works very well to brain storm off each other. My sister is full of clever and witty ideas, my other sister has notebooks full of her own ideas (usually in drawing and comic form), and me and my brother... well you see he is the writer, and I am the visual artist. He can put any story into a writer's perspective, and I can visually layout the series of events and such (like camera angles and layout). I am a very visual person, and he is very verbal, so combining the two works really well for us.
And this is what we did last night. Since we are no longer living close together, we have to chat via AIM, which works well since my iPhone is almost always logged in. Before our brain storming session devolved into penis jokes and wise cracks (don't think I'm kidding on this), we did come up with some good ideas. Usually our sessions end in a chaotic mess of jokes and off-topic explorations, but while we are still focused on the project at hand, we can come up with a lot in a short time.
What did we come up with? Well I'm not going to just say them all. But I will say that we have several ideas for an ongoing theme, with existing characters from the Tangent Artist web comic group we are part of. That is not to say all of these animations will be directly related to Tangent Artists, but we are planning to use some of these existing characters (which are caricatures of us) to better visualize the events and jokes of some of these ideas. There will be many that will not involves these characters at all, but we will be featuring a series of them as well. We also worked on future ideas, and fleshing out some more details on the first project.
As it stands right now, we have a little more fleshing out to do, such as story boarding, which will be the first step here since we know what all the characters will look like already.
I will be posting all the details once they are worked out later this weekend, or at least by Monday. I will also be posting some of the story boards, character designs, animation tests, and maybe even photographs as well as I work on them. Look forward to all the crazy happenings and insane deadlines I will put myself through, and please enjoy the animations and posts. See you all at the start, in only 3 days!
And wish me luck! ;)
This is exactly what my brother and I do. We have done this for his comic idea, which I have started to draw and (with any luck) will be ready to post the beginning of the new year. Well we are also going to be doing this for the weekly project. In fact, this works out really well for both of us. With all these ideas going around in our heads, not to mention the ideas from both my sisters and my wife and friends, we need to brain storm these and attack each one we like the most. In the past, we considered making blogs or podcasts (titled "Hixonitis, have you caught it yet"... not that catchy actually), but they always fell through when real life took over. Well I am tired of these things never happening. SO, I am taking the initiative to just start it. And for my family, this works very well to brain storm off each other. My sister is full of clever and witty ideas, my other sister has notebooks full of her own ideas (usually in drawing and comic form), and me and my brother... well you see he is the writer, and I am the visual artist. He can put any story into a writer's perspective, and I can visually layout the series of events and such (like camera angles and layout). I am a very visual person, and he is very verbal, so combining the two works really well for us.
And this is what we did last night. Since we are no longer living close together, we have to chat via AIM, which works well since my iPhone is almost always logged in. Before our brain storming session devolved into penis jokes and wise cracks (don't think I'm kidding on this), we did come up with some good ideas. Usually our sessions end in a chaotic mess of jokes and off-topic explorations, but while we are still focused on the project at hand, we can come up with a lot in a short time.
What did we come up with? Well I'm not going to just say them all. But I will say that we have several ideas for an ongoing theme, with existing characters from the Tangent Artist web comic group we are part of. That is not to say all of these animations will be directly related to Tangent Artists, but we are planning to use some of these existing characters (which are caricatures of us) to better visualize the events and jokes of some of these ideas. There will be many that will not involves these characters at all, but we will be featuring a series of them as well. We also worked on future ideas, and fleshing out some more details on the first project.
As it stands right now, we have a little more fleshing out to do, such as story boarding, which will be the first step here since we know what all the characters will look like already.
I will be posting all the details once they are worked out later this weekend, or at least by Monday. I will also be posting some of the story boards, character designs, animation tests, and maybe even photographs as well as I work on them. Look forward to all the crazy happenings and insane deadlines I will put myself through, and please enjoy the animations and posts. See you all at the start, in only 3 days!
And wish me luck! ;)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
In the beginning...
In the beginning, there were ideas. Lots and lots of ideas. Too many ideas. So many, that it took 2 minds to hold them all. Thus, my brother and I were born as twins. Yes, we are identical twins, and we are planning to work together on collaborating these ideas into this project.
But all projects must begin somewhere, and at some time. As they say, every journey begins with a single step, or in this case, a blog post.
Well the time for this project to begin is close at hand, it has not yet started. I want to make sure I have an entire full week to begin my animation, and start officially at the beginning of the week, Monday, December 14th, 2009.
I have already decided what to do with this first project, which will be a 2D animation. I will say that this is an idea my brother came up with, and I have played with a little. Without going into details, I will say that this is going to be a mock-ad for the web comic site we both support and work with, Tangent Artists.
I will be posting more details about the project this weekend, and will begin the work on Monday.
This will be a stand alone animation, with no direct connection to any other, however it will belong in the "mock-ad" theme.
So stay tuned for more, and hopefully I will be able to keep this blog fun, and funny, as well as interesting for all.
But all projects must begin somewhere, and at some time. As they say, every journey begins with a single step, or in this case, a blog post.
Well the time for this project to begin is close at hand, it has not yet started. I want to make sure I have an entire full week to begin my animation, and start officially at the beginning of the week, Monday, December 14th, 2009.
I have already decided what to do with this first project, which will be a 2D animation. I will say that this is an idea my brother came up with, and I have played with a little. Without going into details, I will say that this is going to be a mock-ad for the web comic site we both support and work with, Tangent Artists.
I will be posting more details about the project this weekend, and will begin the work on Monday.
This will be a stand alone animation, with no direct connection to any other, however it will belong in the "mock-ad" theme.
So stay tuned for more, and hopefully I will be able to keep this blog fun, and funny, as well as interesting for all.
Welcome!
Hello!
Welcome to my blog, or rather my chronicle of my latest personal project entitled "Weakly Animated".
In short, this is a blog documenting and displaying my latest efforts to increase my skills as an artist in the 21st century. Essentially, I plan to create 1 short animation or art project every week. But perhaps you should know a little more about me before I start.
My name is David Hixon, and I am an artist and geek extraordinaire. I am married (sorry ladies). I recently graduated college with a BA in Digital Art and Animation. Shortly afterward, I started to work for the National Geographic Society as an "imaging technician". Thanks partially to the economic down-turn, and partially to a struggling photography/magazine industry, I found myself unemployed after 2 years of dedicated work. I have been struggling to find work since then, and have become a Freelance Image and Design Specialist in the meantime. I have decided to focus on continuing my education in the digital arts and animation. While I work on applying to various colleges, looking for a job, and keeping up my workload with my clients, I am going to also be working on several web comics (via Tangent Artists), and a new series of animations. That is where this blog comes in...
I will be using this blog to chronicle the various art projects I am involved with, but more importantly, to log my experiences and updates at making 1 animation every week. The quality of this animation is not important, some will be very low quality, others much higher. I do plan to make several of these available in HD, as well as online via YouTube.
I plan to use this project as a way of working out some of the aspects of animation that continue to allude me, as well as to increase my productivity and my portfolio of animations. This is also a perfect way to experiment on various techniques and styles, as well as fine-tune the process to come up with a fast and efficient way to animate. I plan to use all the resources I have available to me now, which includes traditional 2D animation, Flash-based animation, 3D animation, etc.
For many of these animations, I will be collaborating with others to complete them. My brother will be helping me with the writing in many of these, my wife will be helping me in some of the animation process as well as with maintaining the site, my sister will be helping me with some of the art, my friends will be assisting wherever they can, and my PS3 will be assisting in the "distraction" - I mean "research" category. I am always willing to collaborate with others, and if you are interested, drop me a line, but as you can see, I am trying to keep myself busy so don't expect a fast reply.
I hope that you will support me in my attempt to become a better artist, and achieve my dreams of directing and animating my own stories and ideas.
Thank you,
David Hixon
Welcome to my blog, or rather my chronicle of my latest personal project entitled "Weakly Animated".
In short, this is a blog documenting and displaying my latest efforts to increase my skills as an artist in the 21st century. Essentially, I plan to create 1 short animation or art project every week. But perhaps you should know a little more about me before I start.
My name is David Hixon, and I am an artist and geek extraordinaire. I am married (sorry ladies). I recently graduated college with a BA in Digital Art and Animation. Shortly afterward, I started to work for the National Geographic Society as an "imaging technician". Thanks partially to the economic down-turn, and partially to a struggling photography/magazine industry, I found myself unemployed after 2 years of dedicated work. I have been struggling to find work since then, and have become a Freelance Image and Design Specialist in the meantime. I have decided to focus on continuing my education in the digital arts and animation. While I work on applying to various colleges, looking for a job, and keeping up my workload with my clients, I am going to also be working on several web comics (via Tangent Artists), and a new series of animations. That is where this blog comes in...
I will be using this blog to chronicle the various art projects I am involved with, but more importantly, to log my experiences and updates at making 1 animation every week. The quality of this animation is not important, some will be very low quality, others much higher. I do plan to make several of these available in HD, as well as online via YouTube.
I plan to use this project as a way of working out some of the aspects of animation that continue to allude me, as well as to increase my productivity and my portfolio of animations. This is also a perfect way to experiment on various techniques and styles, as well as fine-tune the process to come up with a fast and efficient way to animate. I plan to use all the resources I have available to me now, which includes traditional 2D animation, Flash-based animation, 3D animation, etc.
For many of these animations, I will be collaborating with others to complete them. My brother will be helping me with the writing in many of these, my wife will be helping me in some of the animation process as well as with maintaining the site, my sister will be helping me with some of the art, my friends will be assisting wherever they can, and my PS3 will be assisting in the "distraction" - I mean "research" category. I am always willing to collaborate with others, and if you are interested, drop me a line, but as you can see, I am trying to keep myself busy so don't expect a fast reply.
I hope that you will support me in my attempt to become a better artist, and achieve my dreams of directing and animating my own stories and ideas.
Thank you,
David Hixon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)