Rifts Stickers!!

Last year at Palladium Book's Open House, I announced plans to create an animated sticker pack for iOS iMessenger featuring characters from the Rifts® universe (and somehow forgot to post the announcement here)!  After a long wait for legal paperwork, and two additional months for final development, I'm excited to write that the digital stickers are now FINALLY live on iPhones and iPads worldwide!!

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Are you ready to level up your iMessage texts?
From the pages of the Rifts® tabletop role-playing game, come adorable, fully-animated stickers of your favourite iconic characters!

Created by yours truly under official license from Palladium Books®, Inc.

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Note: If all goes well with iOS sales, we will be doing our best to look into finding a way to bring these to Android users as well, so tell all your iPhone friends to buy them now! ;)

DEMO REEL!!

Over the years there's been a few times where I've been asked about a demo reel. Problem was, I had primarily worked as an instructor, rather than producing content. That's still the case; but thankfully, while teaching, I'm usually drawing more than just stick figures. So, I've gathered up some of that content and compiled it all together into a nice little demo reel. Some of it you may recognize from earlier posts, and others may be newer; either way, I hope you enjoy it!

Wakfu

Over the last few months I've been on a huge WAKFU kick, and thought I'd draw up a piece of fan-art based on its main characters:

Percidal, Evangelyne, Amalia, Yugo, and Ruel

But what is WAKFU?

During my travels, teaching animation, WAKFU was the single most asked about animated series, the world over. Naturally, I set out to find out as much as I could, and I'm so glad I did.

WAKFU is a heroic fantasy animated series that follows the quest of an orphan, Yugo, who sets out to discover his origins. It was created by France-based studio Ankama, inspired by their turn-based MMORPGs (also created in-house) called Dofus, and it's sequel, Wakfu.

What makes WAKFU stand out from other animation is that it's heavily made using a cut-out style (characters are like puppets), but the movements in the series are beautifully fluid, and doesn't shy away from strong dynamic poses and camera shots, not normally associated with cut-out style animation. What makes it even more impressive is that it was also created using Adobe's Animate CC (aka: Flash).

Former students of mine have all heard how I've long since parted ways from Flash's use of symbols, and its traditional animator un-friendly interface. Though it has gotten much, much better, proficient Flash users still get a lot of my respect for working with the software, and Ankama ranks the highest up there.

Ankama's secret though is that the animation for WAKFU is actually created traditionally, on paper, first, and then cleaned up in Flash, using cut-out where, and when possible.

Traditionally hand-drawn keys of Yugo

For some of the more complicated shots, creatures, and contraptions, Ankama even utilizes 3D software, helping them to push angles even more.

Suffice it to say, that a lot of hard work has gone into creating the animated series, and it shows, in spades. Not only is the animation amazing, but the story and world-building are also a delight, and I highly recommend it for anyone that hasn't seen it.

Mind you, that's the most upsetting thing, as it's not widely available here, in North America. Thankfully, Netflix does have both Seasons 1 and 2 online, as well as the movie, La Quête des Six Dofus Eliatropes (don't worry, it's in English).

And if you still can't get enough, might I also recommend their board game, Krosmaster Arena (also available as a PC game). It's a turn-based skirmish miniatures game that battles it out using similar mechanics to their video games. And while the game itself is a blast, the physical miniatures you play with are irresistible! (Check out a live Table-Top game play of Krosmaster Arena here).

Enjoy!

Animation Tutorials Now Online!

About a year ago, I posted that I had started working on a series of animation tutorials using Toon Boom's Storyboard Pro and Harmony.

I'm pleased to announce that the video tutorials are now available on Udemy's website!

ANIMATING TRADITIONALLY WITH TOON BOOM

Affordably priced, this beginner course is great for animation students just starting out, or even professionals looking to quickly figure out how to animate traditionally in Harmony (YES, it's not just for cut-out animation!).

As mentioned in my earlier post, the series walks the viewer through the entire workflow from analyzing dialogue, to storyboarding, to completed animation.

If this sounds interesting to you, or someone you know, definitely check it out!

Animation Tutorials - In Production

With all the Robotech art out of the way, it's been a little quiet the last couple of weeks.
I've temporarily put my other projects on the back burner, as I've been recently working on an animation video tutorial series.

The tutorials will walk the viewer from dialogue analysis, to storyboards, to finished 2D animated scene (no cut-out). I'll be using software from Toon Boom, including Storyboard Pro, and Harmony 11. While I will be talking about how to use some of the software features, the focus will be on character animation fundamentals, which will be applicable no matter what software (or paper) you're using.

The tutorials are being produced for participants of the Skills Canada - Ontario Technological Skills Competition; but will be made available for the public, afterwards, and once I actually get a store page set up.

Pricing has yet to be determined as it's still in production.

If this is something that you think sounds interesting, drop me a line, or leave a comment here, or on facebook. Unfortunately, until the project is fully completed, I can't post images or samples up; but if there's enough interest, I'll be sure to do so, once the project is done!

My Venture into the Third Dimention

So earlier this month I mentioned I've been trying my hand at learning how to use Maya.
My first project, following online lessons from Digital Tutors, had me creating, rigging, and animating a robot from scratch.

Thought you all might get a kick out of seeing how it turned out.

Since doing this, I've discovered a few things: my laptop can't handle 3D particles, or 3D animation very well, and it's not crazy about tons of textures either.

It's still pretty quirky, but after 2 DAYS of rendering, waiting to see how it turned out (and hogging my computer), I don't think I'll be going back to make changes. But, for my first ever foray into 3D, I'm pretty happy with it.

So this will probably be first and last animated 3D piece I do until I get myself a new computer. Though, in the meantime, I'll probably focus more on learning to model instead.

Next update... More Robotech art.

We can Rebuild Him...

We have the
technology

It's been a while. Too long.

 

As it turned out, I did indeed need surgery for my back. It had gotten to the point where I could barely move due to the pain. I went under the knife at the end of July, and I'm glad to say everything went well, though it did take another two months to recover.

 

Of course, right after that, I had some issues with my drawing hand, which apparently also needed surgery for just last month. Thankfully, it's also recovering.

 

Needless to say, not much real drawing or animating from me over the last year.

 

So, aside from work, I've also been spending some time playing lots of board games, getting re-acquainted with programing for video games, and of course keeping up with advances in animation software.

 

 

I'm looking forward to starting the new year, fully functional and ready to draw again!

 

In the meantime, here's my very first attempt at stop-motion.
Even added some drawn animated effects as well, just for kicks.

 

 

May Update!

It happened, it finally happened...
After almost two years of teaching freelance for ToonBoom, I've been officially given the job as one of their international software trainers. Essentially, I work both in-house and abroad, teaching individuals, schools, and studios, how to use their various animation applications. I also get to draw, rig, design, and animate, all sorts of art stuff, in-house, for various clients, not to mention constantly meeting new people throughout the animation and art industry, all over the world! So it's pretty exciting, super busy, and a lot of fun!

All this happened though, in the blink of an eye. One minute I'm in Toronto, and the next, I'm in Montreal, literally looking for a place to live the moment my plane touched down in Trudeau airport! I'm still not quite settled in, and there's a 50/50 chance I may be moving again in the fall. Until then, I'm bouncing from place to place, meeting various locals, and getting a lot of walking done in the process, hehe.

I'm hoping once I get my bearings, and something loosely resembling an actual routine, I'll have the chance to do some drawing for myself again (yeah, I know I keep saying stuff like that).

Also, huge shout out to all the fans at this year's Palladium Open House! Wish I could have made it to see everyone, but with everything happening all at once, there was no way for me to make it to down to Michigan. Hopefully, they'll decide to do at least one more in 2014...

Okay, enough talk, here's a zodiac Art Jam pic I drew celebrating all you Taureans out there (myself included).

24-Hour Film! - The Bearfather

The only software I have down here in Atlanta with me is Toon Boom's Animate Pro; so, when a number of fellow animators decided to spend 24 hours of the weekend (hosted by Ashlyn Anstee) and whip up quick animated short films, I jumped at the chance to join in the fun (albeit a little late getting started).
The theme for the shorts were coveting, or wanting something, and who would be more demanding than mobster boss, the Bearfather...

Galvatron Demo

Okay, I promised I’d post this up, though it's just the class demo.

For those not familiar with my class, every year as part of the demonstration for my last assignment, I take on a request to animate an established character in cut-out style and do a jump animation with it. Previously, I’ve done the zombie from Plants vs Zombies™ and Nightcrawler from X-Men Evolution.
This year, the request was for Galvatron, from the Transformers series (G1 of course!). Because of the complexity of this particular cut-out character and since I’m a huge Transformer fan, I will be tweaking the model and re-doing the animation I previously did for class and will be adding a traditionally animated transformation sequence after his jump - just for fun.

I also wanted to give YouTube my first test run with something small and low-res, to see how it goes, and I figure quick demo animation should do the trick. :)

Below is the class demonstration, which I'll be soon be re-animating!

Note to self: Put some padding in before and after clips so YouTube doesn't cut it off so quickly.

24-ish Hour Film - Faily Tales

A few weeks ago, a small number of students at Sheridan College put together a 24 hour animation film-athon; meaning, they gave themselves 24 hours to put together a short animated film. Each person did their own short piece, but a few of them got together to do a themed set of clips in the style of failed fairy tales. I also had the pleasure of joining in on the Fail-y Tales, although, my 24 hours ended up being more like 6 hours due to work stuff that I also had to deal with. Still, it was a blast getting to do some wacky animation! My hat’s off to all the students that participated in the 24hour film-athon, they all did a great job!!

Below is the collection of Fail-y Tales, created by Ashley Belgrave, Nicole Gagnon, Dilraj Gahunia, Vanessa Stefaniuk and myself. Try to guess which clip(s) was done by me, check out the comments below for the answer. :)