Day 139

Some cool things have happened since day 100. 

• I completed work on an interesting freelance animation project.

• Illustrated my first children’s book.  Also a freelance job.

Not long after Day 0 I saw a video of Glen Keane, a great animator who recently retired from Disney.  After  30 years of working for a major corporation he wanted to explore the ART of animation. 

• Here is a brief video I edited with some interesting advice and relatable situations.

• You will hear from Mary Costa, the voice of Sleeping Beauty share what Walt Disney told her. 

• You’ll also hear Mr. Keane talk about dealing with the new freedom he created for himself outside the comfortable walls of a corporation.  Interesting stuff.    

Below is the cover page for the story I illustrated.  It was drawn on paper (and re-drawn. . . and re-drawn again), scanned, and since I wanted to keep the pencil texture I opted not to draw a super clean line in Adobe Illustrator.  The color was applied in Photoshop.  

 

Day 94 - Circles Are . . . Shall We Say "Difficult"

Below is a recently completed port window to complement the sea-life mural in the room.

Below you can see the rough template first drawn on newsprint paper based on some research images.

The image was then transferred onto tracing paper and outlined on the reverse side with pink chalk.

The final step in transferring the image was placing the paper with the chalk against the door and going over the drawing one more time. 

Day 86 - Update 2 - Mural anyone?

This is gonna be quick. Look at the time. oi.
Below are images of a mural I completed this summer.

It was a great project and everyone involved was very nice.

Lesson reinforced: A little bit of planning goes a long way. Be prepared.
Challenges: Figuring out how to paint a HUGE gradient for the sky, making sure brushes didn't dry with paint on them, staying hydrated (definitely lost a few pounds in sweat . . .and smelled like it too).

The concept drawing almost perfectly matched the final painting when layered on top of each other. Cool!  Click to see larger.

Day 86 - It's All In the Details

Below you can see the steps taken to refurbish two metal decal buttons for a motorcycle. The original paint was looking crusty, but it was still holding on tight!

Nothing a bit of sandpaper, combined with paint thinner, wire wheeling, and exacto-knifing can't handle . . . right?

First thought: " That's a whole bunch of tiny details."











Whose idea was it to put red paint under the white?

White paint attempt # 1. Thought: "This is lumpy and therefore a failure."

Scrape out the white and try the red paint. Thought: "No need to freak out. . . this will look decent in the end . . . and repeat."

After carefully slicing the red paint off the letters, I re-painted the white center, destroyed it and tried one last time. The result: shiny, but still a little lumpy. I tried my best so there you go.

Day 30 - Check Up Time

Animation "Pencil" Test from Noel on Vimeo.

(25) “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? (27) Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (34) Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34

Worry = No Trust

On animation: Above is a pencil test of the first three shots for my animated short film. The sound was not included to not give away everything too soon.

What I have learned so far:

(1) Sometimes less movement is more! The eye needs a little time to read a pose, so it is okay to hold parts of a character in place for a few frames without making the shot look cheap.

(2) Animating on Two's (Double exposure of a drawing) is kinda' intimidating for some reason. It is a constant battle in my mind trying to figure out when to add more frames or let a movement continue on two's.

(3)After seeing the shots in sequence, I now know that they need to connect better, probably by making the poses more similar after each cut.

(4) I'm loving the multiplane effect in shot one. It is subtle. Can you spot it?

Day 21

Time is going fast, let me tell you! Today I updated my website with the images above. The pencil drawings were scanned, inked in Adobe Illustrator, and colored in Corel Painter and Photoshop.

Needless to say my eyes are now burning.

Work on the short film is slower than I want. Must work faster!

Day 4

Day 4 and I've made some progress on a traditionally animated short that has been on the back burner for too long!

The animation tests above are from before my 100 day journey. As crude as it may be, it really allowed me to learn the software and hardware.

As it turns out, those two things do not an entertaining movie make.

Well. Lets carry on.

Freedom: Day 1 & 2

Sometimes one needs to make choices and take chances that are contrary to common sense.   If one does not first believe in oneself, then who will? 

It would appear that many leaders are judged by the results of their first 100 days in charge. 

The First Hundred Days - 1933 The Great Depression, how nice.

Franklin D. Roosevelt set a high standard for new presidents during his first 100 days launching a raft of New Deal reforms over his first three months in office. 

An example closer to animation comes from Peter Schneider, an executive brought in by Katzenberg in the 1980's to Disney Animation. 

He states, "When I got to animation, I knew I had 100 days to change the culture before it changed me. I was trying to empower people, to make them feel good about themselves, to value the work." He knew that decisive action was needed to turn the workplace atmosphere around.

Well, I'm on day 2. There is plenty to do. Better get things started!