Merry Christmas!

Meet Carl

I was working on our Christmas card this year and had some leftover paint that I didn't want to go to waste, thus Carl was born. Carl is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison for aggravated leering.

Finished Ocean Piece

Here's the finished piece for the ocean scene.

Ocean thumbnails

Thumbnail color studies for the ocean voyage scenes.

Color Key of Viking Village

Here is the Color Key I worked up from the thumbnails. I still haven't added the Viking houses (they will be in the center).

Color Studies of Viking Village

Here are the thumbnails of the Viking Village (or surrounding areas).

Finished Color Key

Here is the finished color key I worked up from the thumbnails.

Sven Color Studies

I've been working on the color script for Sven lately. Here are so thumbnail color studies.

Fab Jack-O-Lantern

I'm not into conventional Jack-O-Lanterns, so this year's pumpkin carving was of my favorite band in a memorable pose.

It's been a while since I posted last, I've decided to make up for by posting way too much all at once. These next few posts are all animation assignments, including some of my first experiments in Maya.

Animatic

So I started boarding "Sven" and I took the boards from one of the sequences and made a brief animatic out of it. An animatic, for those unfamiliar with the term, is sort of a pseudo-animated sequences that uses the storyboards to show the timing of a sequence. A lot of animatics now will also include 3D elements to show where objects will be in space and what sort of camera angles/moves will be needed. Since "Sven" is traditional 2D animation, though, my animatic is more lo-tech.

A Break From Sven

I found this sketch that I did awhile back and decided to start coloring it. I thought I'd post up the progress so far. I'm starting to notice that all the doodles I do are of sad guys or old men...or old sad men.

Sven in Technicolor

Some more sketches for 'Sven' and some color ideas, too.

Sven's Parents

Sketches of Sven's parents and adopted Mexican mother.

More Sven character sketches and exploring Sven at different ages....plus some sea monsters!

More Sven Sketches

Exploring more Viking characters.

Sven Sketches

More sketches for "Sven the Mexican."

Sven Sketches

Here are some sketches of Sven and some of the other characters.

Sven the Mexican

I am excited to announce a project that I am undertaking with Casey Stadler, a friend of mine from BYU-Idaho. It is an animated short film that we will be creating based on a story that she wrote a few years ago called "Sven the Mexican." This will be a long undertaking but, hopefully, we will be able to take the finished film and submit it to some film festivals. I don't want to give away the story too much but the above is an illustration of the title character done by Casey. I am very excited about this project and I think it will turn out to be a hilarious short. Stay tuned for more.