2D aniamtion at its most fantastic

Thought of You from Ryan Woodward on Vimeo.

Thought of You by Ryan Woodward
The song is The World Spins on Madly by The Weedies.

I seriously didn't know what to think when I first saw this. My jaw dropped and I couldn't take my eyes of the screen.If anybody asked me about "what is art?" I'd play this to them. I'm still boggled by the thought of this clip. Just so freaking beautiful!

Monthly Music Video #7

Yeah...It's been a while and I'm very VERY sorry for it, but back on topic, tis the month of November and in the blog comes a new music video.
The clip is "HEY" by Eatliz. I just randomly came across it. Really nice visuals and animation for cg...kinda disturbing in parts though. Love the styling for it  and I want that massive ridable frog!

At the movies...

Atlee seeing her first ever Disney movie. Inspired after reading a few Power Girl comics.

Drawings for July

Alright, since I haven't posted anything all month, I may as well put up what I have drawn and am happy with. Going from the top corner these are my character pieces that I want to work on.
1. Aya - Onechanbara (proudest one)
2. Liara - Mass Effect
3. Ulala - Space Channel 5 (need to rework the thighs)
4. Kara Zor-L - Super Girl
5. Toph - Avatar: The Last Airbender
6. Jess and Sol - OC's from my animated short

The Lonely Man - Solo (animation)

Well, since it's done and I'm happy with it, I've now decided to post it up on my blog. Essentially, this is guitar solo for the Young Maverick's song, "The Lonely Man". About 7 layers of animation here, all of which are individually animated, NOT TWEENED! All drawn in Flash CS5.

The animation has been applied to the actual music video footage....well, put it this way, it needs to be re-thought out.

Happy Engagement Bill & Ash

Friend of mine from High School recently got engaged and I had no idea on how to give them a memorable present. So I drew up a sketch for them (along with money for their wedding). This is probably the first of a few to come. I was happy with how this came out (simply because of how quickly and cleanly I did it) and so were they (apparently so much so they're getting it framed).

Monthly Music Video #6

It's early but I don't care, I figured in the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death I'd do a tribute (and also he died on my birthday last year...talk about enthusiasm from people last year, sheesh). So this will technically be July's video



Leave Me Alone by Michael Jackson.
Say what you want about the man, but damn was he a hell of a musician/performer/dancer. I still remeber seeing this on "Moonwalker" when it came out on VHS.

Monthly Music Video #5

Man, I had so many freaking wicked music videos and songs in my early teen years, thank god for 90's rock. Tool is quite renowned for their music videos as well as their music, but their stop motion videos are just....haunting. "Sober" was one of the first few that I was exposed to by accident one late night on TV. It still sticks with me visually and mentally.

The Lonely Man - Young Mavericks production

For a little while now, I've been working a Steve Sheldon and my brother (Tristan) on animating a music video called "The Lonely Man" by the Young Mavericks. There have been meetings for this and it has only been recently that we've completed an animatic for it. In most cases, it's probably one of the more "flowing" animatics that I have produced in my time. Essentially some parts have been animated to a degree and others have been composited in with the video footage. Now it's the finalised animation stage and i want to get this done within this month. I keep on mentioning that I'm working on a music video to people and they're never sure what to say, well here's some snapshots from the video of how it's looking:

Energy drinks make tattoos do this? GIMME ONE!

I was just looking around to what the heck a mate of mine was on about since he wanted me to (and I quote):

"Draw the chick from wicked energy drink ad in her awesomely hot black bikini". 


So I investigated this on Youtube to discover awesomeness. I think I have an idea as to what my next little piece may be ;)

Monthly Music Video #4

This was a High School song for me. Catchy as hell and ... well... it's Gorillaz. Enough said.
Interestingly animated and nice visuals in my opinion.

Haha, DC-bewbs

This isn't mine, nor do I own it, but I'd sure as hell want the original. This was a commission that comic book artist, Amanda Conner (JSA All Stars, Power Girl) did at one of the cons in the US. I started picking up the Power Girl comic series she and Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are working on and it's REALLY good. Like, Robert Kirkman's Irredeemable Ant Man good. That said, I found one of her sketchbooks from the SDCC 2006 on ebay and just ordered it. I was sold by the cover ^_^.

Henshin A-HEY WHAT THE F###?!?

I know it's been out for a while now, but I just got my hands on a copy of Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble on ze Gamecube. I was psyched because of how long it had been since I played 1 and 2 and I love my Capcom//Fighting games. This however made me realise how unforgiving the Viewtiful Joe series really was (I refuse to play easy mode in games). Red Hot Rumble is hell when it wants to be, but is still good wholesome fun in my books. In saying that, I decided to add Joe to the "Clash" sketch I'm working on earlier than planned.

Happy Birthday Kt

I figured I'd be nice and do a continuation of a pic she requested a little while ago http://ecj.deviantart.com/art/Commission-KT-feat-Buffy-152865153
(For the record: BtVS so totally pwns Twilight, many MANY times over)

Capcom: Clash of Heroes

I've always wanted to do a CAPCOM group piece, but I've never been able to decide who i want in it, nor did i have the artistic ability to pull it off in the past. Now I'm feeling confident and I genuinely believe I can pull this off now.
At the moment I have drawn up:

- Akuma

- Dante

- Morrigan

- Maximo

- Megaman

Hoping to put in:

- Captain Commando

- Frank West

- Viewtiful Joe

- Leon S. Kennedy

- Cody 

- Phoenix Wright 

- Amaterasu

- Strider

 Other Games I'm wanting to add in:

- Demon's Crest

- Other Street Fighter

- Rival Schools

- Other Darkstalkers

- Red Earth

- Killer 7

- Onimusha

More will hopefully pop into mind but I can't really be bothered right now. Point is, this is going to be one of my biggest pieces. Any ideas, shoot us a line.

Pin Ups

Ah, my Pin-Up series, each done in a night. Only 3 at the moment but I'm still proud of them and more will be on the way, even if they are kinda revealing.

Monthly Music Video #3

I loved this film when i came out....noting I was about 8/9 when it did hit the cinemas. But the music video always stuck with me. It also happened to be my introduction to U2. I thought they were some sorta insane alternative band....then later on I discovered who they were really and I was kinda disappointed. Still, "Hold me, Thrill me, Kiss me, Kill me" by U2 is still a strong animated music clip in my mind.

Get out of my dreams...and into my CAR(s)

Car illustrations for Music Networx, Germany, latest illustration job = completed

Minus Florida, Plus Cintiq21UX

Alright, as some of you have been notified already, I have decided NOT to go to Florida to work in Disney World in the hospitality biz. Why? Because I believe it is not sustainable living when you work for $7.25 an hour within a NON-TIPPABLE service. I don't care if I'd get 45+ hours a week working, that is slave labour for a person my age. So I'm sad to say, no Florida experience for me yet. However, I have decided to bump things up a notch professionally though. A while ago, I was investigating into a product called a Cintiq21UX  2nd Gen monitor. It works like a Wacom Graphics Tablet but you draw right on the monitor and it's awesome. They were priced at $4000AUD when I first checked them out. But now they have dropped to the awesome price of $2750AUD. So the money I have saved up will be going towards this....and a trip away somewhere else.

...WANT!...

Art styles - Chris Sanders

There's this group thing on DA that I signed up to that gives you challenges to work with every so often. One recently was to create a character in the style of Chris Sanders (Creator of Lilo and Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon). This was my take for the challenge. No prizes, just old school fun.

Supa Nova Expo

Well, I didn't make it to it yesterday but I managed to fit time in to go to the SuperNova Expo down at the Melbourne Showgrounds today (whilst helping out Mum with her market work). I heard it was insane busy yesterday but today was kind of average crowd from what I saw. Way too many Akatsuki and Organisation XIII cosplayers in my opinion. Picked up a few GL comics that I haven't been able to find online, met Stewart McKenny thanks to my bro (for those who don't know, he has done the artwork for the Clone Wars Adventures comics, Captain America and Super Friends). Really nice guy. And at long last, managed to purchase a commission from one of my favourite UDON artists, Chamba. My bro keeps on going to these comic-cons and sees him there and I'm usually working or not quite in the same country at the time. But I finally got a commission...I was stuck between getting a bust of MegaMan or Dante from Devil May Cry. Below is what the result was. I'm damn happy with it, although I'm curious as to what Dante may have turned out like...maybe next time.

DevArt fan Pic

 A little while back, I hit 7,000 views on my DevArt page (woot) and to celebrate I offered the chance to a wacther to have anything they'd want drawn and coloured. One lucky viewer won and asked for this. Character design and bodily movement wise (and the TV image) I'm quite happy with. Wish i could've done more with the toning though...oh well, beggars can't be choosers...or in some cases they can *shakes fist*

Professionalism (part 1)

Finally posting up the line work I had done for Music Networx. 

It's funny how 'simple' is exactly what a businesses want these days. These ended up being used in promotional material they pitched to companies (such as VW ^_^)

Monthly Music Video #2

Elton John - Someday out of the Blue

This was the main song for the Dreamworks animated film "The Road to El Dorado". I love that film. I love this song and the music video. It's a great collaboration of 2D animation and live action and morphing within actual sequences within the film.

Work in Progress

I got kind of inspired from reading a few of my art books (which is a pretty decent collection just looking at it). So I've decided to clean up my style a little further and try an make drawing a little faster and more detailed to work with.

 Since I'm a bit of an old school Capcom fan, I want to do a massive piece with all of my favourite and most used Capcom characters. I've drawn up Morrigan (Darkstalkers), MegaMan and Kyosuke (Rival Schools) but i still have a bunch more to draw up. Akuma's head has been drawn, i just didn't scan it since i need to draw his body...and i'm picky with what get's put up.

  I've started toning this one already and drawing up a BG to go with it (not in this scan), but this is part of a scan of a prize won by one of my DeviantArt watchers (she's a gem ^_^). And that's supposed to be Sadako from the Japanese version of The Ring in that pic...she's a bit of a fan of her :P

Now this is actually a continuation of another piece I completed a little while ago. REALLY proud of this one, just as much as its predecessor, as violent as this one is.

Cereal:Geek Art?

Alright, I didn't actually do the inked lines for the characters, but I did the colouring for everything else in these pictures. These were supposed to be for a Magazine in the UK called Cereal:Geek that my bro got me to help him out with (since he was writing articles for them at the time). I don't have a clue as to what's going on with these being published, but it's been over 2 years. Old stuff I can finally post...probably my most detailed toning work too.

Creepy much?

I found some old sketches that I worked on over my uni years (past 4 years) and some of the ideas I had were....well....put it this way, I can see why lectures drive some of us "bananas".  But during some of the classes (when I probably should have been listening at the time) I had some different yet currently usable designs for monsters and characters. The character on the left is a rendition of the "Boogie-woman". I thought, "man, I really didn't give her much in the bust department" (then again, that happens with realistic pics) so I redrew her in toon form...honestly, toon version doesn't have enough cracks and stuff coming from her eyes.

Phil the Tour Guide now....Lounge Swinger?

 

Phil the Tour Guide was an illustration I did back in 2007. It got some really positive feedback back in the day and still some today. Only recently, I remembered him...doing a Michael Buble musical number. When I redrew him in this mind-set I could just see him doing those sorta jazz songs. Any who, sketches revisited and revised.

Sketch time: DISNEY

So I saw the latest Tinkerbell movies a little while ago... now I realise that sounds kinda weird since I'm 22 n' all but hear me out. Yes, they are intend for the younger female audience (like Cinderella etc) but they really weren't as bad and corny as I thought they'd be. Sure the 1st film was corny as all buggery but they managed to tell a decent and fitting origin story to one of Disneys symbolic characters. The second film has alot of personality in it and the cg animation is quite watchable. For something produced by Disneys "other" company, this one turned out quite well (still not as great as A Goofy Movie or The Ducktales Movie but still good nonetheless).
And for those of you have seen Avatar: The Last Airbender series, Tinkerbell has Katara's voice and it's suited just fine.
So, from those movies I decided to doodle a little (Flounder I drew later on but on the same page).

Then and Now: Me and Animation

 

For years, I've had a thing for the traditional animation industry, but I never really knew much about the technology behind it (aside from the whole "draw one frame and then another and then another and then another" routine). It wasn't until 2004 that I was introduced to digital animation....in it's most horrid format possible. I didn't get introduced to animation through Flash, no that would've been a benefit. Instead, we were taught PowerPoint, frame by frame animation. 

 If I could travel back in time, I would punch my media teacher in the kidneys. That said, it's not like the ideas weren't there. Me in Year 11, I wasn't necessarily the most inspired child but there were some....'ideas' floating about. The illustration that you see before you in all its shapey glory is the first incarnation of "Jimbob the Time Bum". 

You have to admit, you didn't see that one coming. Essentially, Jimbob accidentally comes across a rip in our dimension and decides to have a closer inspection of it and essentially ends up in the prehistoric era, gets chased by a T-Rex, outsmarts it and gets back to his own time where his brain can't comprehend what has happened and so his head explodes into little pieces. That it in a nutshell. It wasn't until recently that I was trying to come up with some character ideas that I remembered about some that i did in my early years and decided to revamp them. Jimbob 2004, meet Jimbob 2010. 

Differences? Instead of coming across a rip in the fabric of time, scientists in some random lab accidentally lose their latest invention (a time traveling remote) and Jimbob finds it in the dumpster just outside the building/lab. And so Jimbob's adventures through time begins.

This is one project that I would love to plan out, but having the assistance on it and the time frame with work n' all, I'll see how I go.

Monthly Music Video #1

N.A.S.A: Tom Waits + Kool Keith, Spacious Thoughts (BB Video) 

I saw this the other morning on TV and it instantly reminded me of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" visually.
But the sound is so much different. This is my music video choice for the month.

TOY FAIR TIME! *Screaming inner child*

Toy Fair 2010 has just arrived and man-o-man is it looking awesome (as most of the stuff coming out of it usually does).
OK, based on particular departments/companies, here's my "wants" coming out from this years convention.

Marvel:
Iron Man 2 figures - New Avengers Iron Man, War Machine (90's), War Machine (Movie)

Marvel Select:
Deadpool

 

Neca:

Terminator 2 - T1000

 

Predator 2 - Predator

 

Nightmare On Elm St (Remake) - Freddy

 DC/ Mattel:

DC Classics - Tomar Tu and Guy Gardner (WANT!)

 

DC Classics - Zatanna (WANT!)

 

DC Universe - Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Sinestro

 

 Mattel:

Ghostbusters - Peter Venkman (Slimed) and Paranormal Investigator Ray Stantz

 

So far the DC Classics line are probably my main highlights from the Toy Fair so far simply because they're just so damn well sculpted. And the Guy Gardner figure is probably one of the best green lantern figures I have seen so far, even better than most of the Blackest Night series. That said though, I'm still hanging out for this item in particular:

Yes, it's the NEW Bat Girl. But it's just so beautiful a sculpt.