A little while ago I had the opportunity to work with a great team put together by Byrd Alley to create a series of animated commercials for a new drug to help people suffering from a list of illnesses related to “type 2 inflammation”. Matt Sutter did the character and background art and I did the animation. In these pieces each illness is personified by a member of an extended family living in the same apartment building. The fun part for me was figuring out how to do various morph animations that pop up in each piece (ie. dumpling -> cringe, flowers -> congestion, pizza -> blob monster). View all four animations on my portfolio page.
Category Archives: Animation
Pow! Swoosh!
“A Farewell To Arms” Redux
JustEleanor has been doing her own interpretations of classic book covers. I was asked to bring a little extra life into the artwork. Here’s an example of “A Farewell To Arms” by Ernest Hemmingway. It’s a very moving story.
Sweet Sweet Thursday
Thursday is almost Friday and that’s almost the weekend. Get yourself a sweet treat for you and the sweeties in your life today. Y’all deserve it!
End of July Racing
I love cycling and July is a special month for cyclists because it means that it’s time for the Tour de France. Both men’s and women’s races take place during the month, although with staggered starting dates and for different durations. The racing looks beautiful with the backdrop of different French regions and mountain ranges. There’s also the human drama with stories of champions, underdogs, legends, and legends in the making. If you’re curious to learn more and experience some of the thrills there is a wonderful documentary series available on Netflix called “Tour de France: Unchained” (crudely translated from the French title “Tour de France: Au Coeur du Peloton” or In the Heart of the Peloton).
My wife and I had the privilege of taking a self-guided bicycle tour of France several years ago. The luxurious fabled time before children. Unfortunately, it was not during July so seeing le Tour first hand wasn’t possible. However, we did get to ride some of the classic terrain that the race visits often. Afterwards we came home and collaborated on a series of art prints based on what we saw and experienced. I made some translations of these pieces as looping animations. Here’s one of those pieces inspired by riding through fields of lavender. I can still remember how it smells.
A Rainy Day
Rainy days can be frustrating. They can steal your joy. Maybe rainy days even make you feel a little bit sick, but they can be beautiful too. What do you do on a rainy day? How do they make you feel?
Animation With A Different Direction
Most of the animation projects I’ve done recently have utilized older comic strips that I’ve made or friends have made. I felt it was important to not fuss over drafting the story, character design, etc. and focus on the animation. Just get to business! This was also my solution for killing procrastination. For a while, this seemed like a fun way to generate content and practice different skills (SPOILER: I’m not a trained animator). The drawback has been that the style hasn’t changed much and the type of directing, framing, and pacing were very similar. It felt like I needed to change things up and try a different challenge.
I’m an avid anime and manga consumer. At night, when I have trouble sleeping, I’ll watch anime since with the sound off and the subtitles on. Maybe I’m a bit more focused on what I’m seeing and I absorb things differently. One day I sat down and started making an animatic from scratch of an action sequence inspired by anime (well actually, it’s more like a portion of a scene). No big plan, just winging it. After reading about the movie production process of “Flow” I felt empowered. Here’s the rough animatic so far…
More Progress
Another pass of rough animation and adding a second character. If you’ve followed some of the prior posts you may remember the image this is referencing.
Sketchy Leap
On to the next thing…
Dog Lover
This guy loves dogs. I mean REALLY loves them. Maybe you’re this guy? Perhaps someone you know is this guy? If so, I hope y’all find some dogs to dote upon today!