BlueBird Character Design

Once I get clearance to post the spot, I want to talk at length about this project. But for now, here's a BlueBird!

Daily Crapbook

A sketch I meant to finish tonight, but...meh!

LightBoard Trace

Over the summer, I contributed a little bit of Flash work to an iPad app called "LightBoard." Its simple animation- so simple that I hardly want to spend the time making a demo of it, but I wanted to at least mention it. Also, I got to do voices for a couple of the characters which thrilled the bajeezus out of me. (I'm Fishy!) The app has gotten some great reviews, check it out!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lightboard-trace/id395565030?mt=8

"Wassa matta, turkey? Ya CHICKEN?"

Over the fall, I was at Primal designing some characters for a project called (COUGHcoughgrumblejibblyCOUGH). The villian was supposed to be a tiny evil despotic chicken. Eventually, the character got scrapped, but I did save some of my sketches.

Tooncast Drawn Together

This is the job that occupied most of my summer- a spot at Artifact Design called "Drawn Together" for Cartoon Network Latin America's version of Boomerang called Tooncast. It was a daunting project because of the the scope and the process. Its a very long spot, there are hordes or characters, and animating directly in Photoshop was something I had never done before. And of course, the turn-around was tight. There are lots of things I wish I could change. For instance, I way overanimated Porky and Shaggy in the beginning. They ended up so small in the scene, and the camera pans by them so fast, they could have literally been a still. My worst idea was an attempt to animate Batman and Robin to the camera movement because I thought that would be easier and look better than tracking. But after several days of fruitless struggle with the camera drift, I gave up and had them walking in place. I got cheeky with a walk cycle of He-Man and had him waggle his hips like Wonder Woman because I thought he'd be so far back in the crowd no one would notice...but then he ended up being front and center. And there are so many walk cycles a with a frame or two shaved off- I should have checked them before the final renders were comped. And when time was bearing down on us, I relied so heavily on the cut-and-paste cheats for some characters that I won't even name which ones they are because I'm embarrassed. You may notice that my usually meticulous tagging of characters is lacking in this video, but I just couldn't muster the energy to follow such intricate camerawork and tag animation I didn't care to take credit for. But I am proud of a few things. As stupid as I was about my Batman and Robin camera drift attempt, I am very relieved that shot turned out so decent. I might even use it for my demo reel. And at my insistence, I got to place Velma and Johnny Bravo in a scene together (in the building outside dog alley, where Johnny draws the shades.) I'm reasonably proud of my Daffy Duck because I think its good animation done very quickly. Overall, I have to say this was a fabulous learning experience and for all my errors, I am pleased with the product. The artists at Artifact really pulled this one together- it was a great team to be a part of. And animating classic character is a real, if rare, treat.

New Year's Resolutions

I haven't had time to make a proper holiday card this year, but at least I got to squeeze out one sketch this past week.

Merry Christmas 2010

Every year I pledge to make a printed card for snail mail, and every year it...doesn't happen. Oh well! Merry Christmas anyway!

The Little Racoon

I have a lot of things I want to post, but I'm slow getting around to it. My here's a trot cycle I just finished for the Little Raccoon in Monkey Rag. Not what I hoped, but he's not on screen for very long and I just have to move on. I'm getting some other goodies ready to post, so stay tuned!

Monkey Rag Updated Animatic: Pencils Hit One Minute!

I had planned to hit the one minute mark several months earlier, so I'm very happy to have gotten it done tonight! I've been working on this almost every night (which is why my Daily Crapbook entries have all but ceased) and I hope the next thirty seconds will come much more quickly. Crazy sleepy now- bedtime!

I Put My Hand In There

This is something a little bit different from usual- I actually appeared in this spot! Well, my hands did at least. In the middle of the BlueBird project (to be posted within the next couple of weeks, stay tuned) the executive producer at Artifact Design asked if I wanted to be part of a shoot since I was a) a girl and b) a drawing-type person. I am also c) a ham, so I said yes yes a hundred times yes. I did draw all the drawings, but I can't take credit for the design: that was Chris Rainey, affectionately known as "Hip Hop" by his colleagues. It was a very fun shoot- I think I may quit animation and become a hand model.

Monkey Rag Sc. 07 Keys

Hey, its been a while! (Now why do my blog spots always seem to start out that way?) I'm just coming off another job binge, and I've got a few days to work on Monkey Rag. I was hoping to finish Sc. 07 by today and although Mitzi is nearly done, Spanky is still just keys. But I'm hoping I can finish the whole shebang this weekend so I can update the animatic! I'm excited about that, but I'll refrain from commenting until I've actually done it.

Equifax Debtwise - 2009 -

In spring 2009, the good folk at Dagnabit Animation brought me on to do a couple scenes for their Equifax spot. I just got the final version (yes, it took a while), and thought I'd throw it up on the ol' blog.

Daily Crapbook

Daily Crapbook

Improv. Its funnier if you're loud.

Unused Keys of A Certain Cat

This is some unused work from a spot that wrapped recently at Artifact Design. I'm excited about the final, and I can't wait to talk about it. But for now, since I don't want to cause any trouble, here's just a hint of what I've been up to most of this summer. This character was scrapped early on (hence the rough keys) and in no way has anything to do with the final.