back to the drawing board...

My love affair/honeymoon with AfterEffects may be over, or at least getting rocky. Not sure what happened, but I may need to re-do the thing. Probably punishment for me for including a reference to kicking my instructor in the cajones. Hopefully, he would find it funny. But it wouldn't be the first time I've been hated by a teacher...Mrs. Mansfield, Clara Painter, Lonnie Wieland...maybe a few in college, too. But I'm older, now, and find my "give a rat's ass" pretty much malfunctioning. I find it funny. But ball shots are, along with pie fights, stuttering, prat falls, and wardrobe malfunctions.

Enough, already! Here it is...



Leilah Tov!

...on a roll...kinda...

Chicks and monsters are 2 of my favorite things, if not my favorite things, to draw. Here's another scene. I'll probably get dinged for using the puppet tool too much. But how am I going to learn movement without doing some experimenting. Half of discovery is failure. Anyhoo, here's another scene. You may have to double click on it to get the full view. Can't quite get the hang of this blogspot format...

pluggin' away...

Not much to tell. This is a storyboard for another scene for the animatic I'm putting together for a class.

old dog, new tricks...

Don't remember going this long on a dry spell. School's been tough this semester, but I needed it. The semester is winding down, and I have a little ditty I've been working on in Concept Art for Animation. This particular piece is a scene for the animatic, and it's just something I did to get more familiar with Adobe AfterEffects...



The file size is way too big, so I'm going to have to do some tweaking on it. The premise is a mixing of "Mayhem at the Prom," and "Dogs and Cats fighting." When I get it done and more managable, I'll post it.

This one is from the final project from last semester. I did the character design and the keyframing on it...



Tootles!

finding some legs...

Last night, I did an art show which ended up mostly with me drawing some caricatures. In getting out some art for display/sale, I had to go through my file cabinet. Found an awful lot of sketches and doodles of ideas. Most of them are for webstrips that I have yet to get off my duff and draw. Some seemed like good ideas at the time. Others still tell me to find the muse to draw them.

This is one of them.



The art is a WIP. I hope to find some time to finish it soon. Maybe make some prints or something. Now to compose some kind of story. For some reason, the centaur character seems to show the most promise to start the thing off, and them maybe add the others as I go.

We'll see.

hope...

Back in November, I was approached to see if some characters I'd created could/would be animated for a ministry. It seemed to stall and I've been frustrated.

I did take some animation classes, did okay, and a few weeks ago saw a glimmer of hope that the thing may yet get off the ground. One of those involved, who does some animation, took some of my art and worked up a test. We have since talked of working up a second test--something that may convince the "powers that be" to put it on the front burner.

Here's a clip/test. It's only about 6 seconds. Animation by Jake Johnson. Character created and designed by me. Oh, and voice by Jake for the test, too.

Enjoy!



Leilah Tov!

things...

2011 continues to be a year of discontent. Spent it pretty much by myself. There was a family situation, of which I'm not going to comment on further, and Becky was needed for that.

I did go to the Mutchler/Clark family reunion. Got lost because the road I was on was closed about half way. Spent a good 45 minutes on some gravel roads to nowhere trying to get to Tarkio. Found out later on that I-29 isn't closed at Rockport, and that I could've taken the easy route. Time to quit listening to Katey Horny at channel 5.

We did go over to the Dewalt's for Fourth of July evening. It was good. Some homemade pizza. Watched their neighborhood turn into a warzone with all the fireworks going off.

Was listening to the radio, and was amazed at all the memories that came flooding back depending on the song that was playing. Loggins and Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance" came on and I remembered the cutest brunette who walked into the gym my senior year at the winter dance...and how I didn't "man up" and try to talk to her.

Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes" reminds me of a mini-roadtrip I was on in Northeast Kansas. Saw some old friends that summer who would've been my classmates had we not moved to Maryville, MO from Effingham, KS.

Some song from "Dirty Dancing" came on and it reminded me how much I hate that damned movie. Still like the song, though.

Feels like I'm "marking time."

I've been wanting to take some kind of self-defense class. I think I'll try to find one, right after I go work out.