Schoolism caricature and a short film sample

Heya people of the interwebs!

Check out a sample of my short film "A Grey Matter":

Things are rolling along well and It's great to finally get the look locked down!

I thought I might also share one of my assignments from Jason Seiler's Schoolism course, here's my caricature of Forest Whitaker:

And the original reference photo:

I learnt some really great lessons here about colour.  He introduced me to the "complimentary split" colour scheme which is pretty much a simple pattern to follow on the colour wheel which limits your range and generally gives harmonious results.  Learnt some rad new Photoshop techniques too with basing all my tones on my bottom layer, and adding colours on a layer above with the "colour" blending mode - great way to separate your thinking and breakdown tones from colour.

If anyone out there is considering a Schoolism course, you can get bit of a discount with this promo code:  c8z7w

Cheerio playas!

-Dan

A frog, a pheonix and a large nose.

Howdy ho world!

Here's some progress on my short film "A Grey Matter":


This is the second character in my short film "A Grey Matter", a simpleminded but relentlessly happy little frog :-).  So I'm still experimenting away with shaders and the final look but I'm honing in on something that I'm really happy with :-D.

In other news, here's a TVC I recently animated on:


I animated several of the shots featuring the large red pheonix :-D.  It was actually a really fun TVC to work on and if you check out the making of:  (http://cirkus.co.nz/blog/2012/03/giadinh-bank/)  you can see how much of the set was actually physically built out of paper.  Blends well I think!

In even more news, here's a recent assignment I submitted for Jason Seiler's Caricature class at Schoolism:

So here he's getting us to focus on values and restricted us to a monochromatic painting.  I'm really honing my eye to see finer details which is great and challenging.  The source photo was a "civilian" which is actually one of Jason's friends :-D.

Remember you can get a discount at Schoolism with this promo code!:  c8z7w

Spread the positivity folks!
-Dan

Back to Schoolism! Caricature with Jason Seiler

Bonjour!

I'm now in my third week of Jason Seiler's schoolism course (www.schoolism.com).  I've braved something quite different for me, as this course is quite technical and has quite a big painting element.  I'm learning loads already, especially about keeping the likeness there in conjunction to pushing those proportions.  Here's my Tom Hanks, my first assignment after Jason's suggestions.  He was a really difficult character to draw especially getting that touch of anxiety in his eyes.  Anyone looking for a discount at schoolism can pop in this Promo code:  c8z7w.  It'll give me a bit of credit for my next course too ;-).

In other news, a film I worked on last year has been released and has done the cinema run in most countries already.  We worked on the bird and bee chase sequence which was an absolute hoot.  Check out my updated reel to see some of the shots I worked on:  http://vimeo.com/23622337.  There was some interesting new challenges here for me as I'd never actually animated characters in conjunction with live action plates before.  If you see the second shot on my reel, it's actually got digital doubles of the actors, that swap to a live action plate and then back to digi doubles again in the same shot - quite tough!

Expect an update on my short film soon!  I'm just touching up the shader work on my frog character and I've also started animation.  Exciting times!!!

Adieu!
-Dan

Life drawing level up!

Howdy people of the interwebs!  Ah my first post of the year, I've got a good feeling about 2012, big things will happen.  Not in an apocalyptic way either - good stuff, bound to happen.  Just wait and see ;-).

Well, better late than never, here's my last 7 "Art Workouts" for 2011 ;-)

Art workout 2011, Week 46 of 52

Art workout 2011, Week 47 of 52

Art workout 2011, Week 48 of 52

I did a two day life drawing workshop at the Maleny Arts Retreat which was fantastic.  Here you can see a bit of my progress - particularly in relation to lighting with charcoal.  The first one I've really emphasized getting a thicker, stronger outline on the contours that should be in shadow, also trying to keep a good amount of contrast around a specific focal point (the head).  The second pic I was really working on getting a nice tonal range overall and concentrating on matching shadow tones through the drawing.  The third one I've focused on getting my flat tone strokes to roll around the "tubes" of her body to get more of a sense of 3D volume.

Art workout 2011, Week 49 of 52

Here's my first ever watercolour painting!  Lot's of experimenting and feeling my way around here, but enjoyed the medium none the less.  There's some parts of this painting I like, but overall you can see my tentative approach hasn't quite worked.  I can tell a key aspect of learning water colours is to generate a lot of free flowing confidence and be open to the accidental randomness that occurs.  Defo will be playing with a lot more watercolour in the future!

 

Art workout 2011, Week 50 of 52

Popped out the old SLR for bit of a play after spotting this guy jumping around my herb garden pots.  I think maybe the pots are a great refuge for these little guys as the little frogs tend to get eaten by the great big toads we have around here :-(.

Art workout 2011, Week 51 of 52

Art workout 2011, Week 52 of 52

And last off here's some doodles I threw together at the WoodFord Folk festival at the end of last year.  Random inspirations from the many interesting characters wandering around.  Drawn with a Biro and I added a little bit of tone in Photoshop.  I usually stay away from most photoshop filters, but I have to say I quite like the "Splatter" filter - I find myself using it often to break up that CG look of many brushes, looks quite nice like colour leaping through the texture of paper.  Right on!

Adieu!

-Dan

End of 2011, what a year!

Evening folks!

I hope everyone had a fantabulous Christmas and rearing up for a rip roaring goodbye to 2011!  I'm off to the Woodford Folk festival over the next week to hang with some smelly hippies and soak up some awesome vibes :-D.  Here's some quick samples of what I've been up to these last few weeks:

Some Look development for my short "A Grey Matter":

Art Workout 2011, Week 42 of 52.

Art Workout 2011, Week 43 of 52.

Storyboarding storyboarding storyboarding.  I've been working hard on really nailing the telling of my short's story and I've been experimenting with loads of different ideas.  Here you can find some recent boards (just some random samples, these aren't consecutive panels).  I'm making great improvements with each iteration, progress is being made!  :-D

Art workout 2011, week 44 of 52

Here's a digital portrait of my good friend Jim, who unfortunately passed away several years ago.  For me, the time of mourning has passed, and I wanted to paint a picture celebrating the lovely energy in which he lived his life :-).

http://www.kineticdan.com/wiki/index.php?title=Idea%27s_for_the_animated_short_-_notes
Art workout 2011, week 45 of 52

More notes!  "Ideas for the animated short" is a great book I absorbed to keep myself thinking about all the elements that come together to form a really great short.  Defo worth a read!

Well I've still got 7 workout's to do by the end of the year :-S.  Ah well, the folk festival well surely inspire many a drawings to share first thing in the new year ;-).

Adios amigos! 
-Dan

The old man is a com'n

Howdy!

Here's some more of this year's art workout and some development of my short film!  Firstly, I've been working hard on the new model for my short film's main character - check out some turnarounds with pose tests here:

Art workout 2011, week 37 of 52

Also, I've finalized the design of my second character, a cute little dumbfounded frog:

 Art Workout 2011, Week 38 of 52

Art Workout 2011, Week 39 of 52

And also, for the occasional break away from my short - here's a few random doodles:

A bizarre long necked frog:

Art Workout 2011, Week 40 of 52

The lizard captain!  He's a salty veteran sailing endlessly across the soft sandy desert of the vulture isles.

Art Workout 2011, Week 41 of 52

Cheers captains!
-Dan

A Grey Matter concept work

Yoyo!

As I'm devoting myself fully for the time being, all my time of late is spent developing "A Grey Matter".  Exciting times!

Art workout 2011, week 33 of 52.

Here's a photoshop painted concept for the frog character in my short, whom I have affectionately named "Wibby".  This one was created with photoshop's "natural" brushes set.  Not quite the look I think I'll go for, but defo worth the experiment.

Art workout 2011, week 34 of 52.

So here I'm starting to nail down a final design for my main character.  I must have drawn this guy 1000 times, so I got together all the best drawings, my favourite nose/hair/head shape, and amalgamated them all into this design you see here.  The linework/rendering style is inspired from the very excellent short "The Backwater Gospel".

Art workout 2011, week 35 of 52.

I've been very busy boarding for my short.  Exploring as many ideas as I can, grabbing feedback from peeps, then hitting the boards again.  Boarding is redoarding they say eh?  I'm revealing a few panels here but still keeping most of my cards hidden ;-).

The creative habit notes - by Twyla Tharp

Art Workout 2011, week 36 of 52.

As I'm sailing under my own guidance and self discipline, I thought I'd go over my notes when I read this great book by Twyla Tharp.  She doesn't sugar coat anything, just giving clear and practical ideas about generating ideas, keeping organized, inspired and focused in whatever creative path you're heading on.  I'd recommend any creative characters out there to give it a read!

Power on comrades!
-Dan