Drawed by Moi

Iron Sham

2011-10-27T13:41:00.001-07:00

Lunch Sketch

2011-10-27T06:01:00.001-07:00

Fed Up

2011-10-25T15:06:00.001-07:00

I'm seeing this one through to the end.

Quick Lunch Sketch

2011-08-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

Did this on the last 20 mins of lunch at work today. I didn't really have anything in mind when i started it.

Post #100- Paper Factory

2011-08-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

Made this vid of my band.

Cable

2011-08-16T05:30:00.001-07:00

Doodling with Hercules

2011-07-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

I was watching 'Hercules' with my sister and drew this.

Pok-ee-mons

2011-06-24T11:12:00.001-07:00

I drew these pokemon.

To all of my non-existant fans...

2011-06-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

I still live, i've just been super busy lately. Still in work at the moment but hopefully i can post some stuff later tonight and explain what i've been up to.

Dan :)

Finished

2011-03-31T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I finished this yesterday. What do you guys think? I got it printed on a nice big A3 board and it looks pretty damn cool if I do say so myself :)

Me Love You Long Time....

2011-03-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

I've managed to put a few more hours on this tonight. First time i've come back to it since I started it, been busy with web comic stuff and super busy with work (did a 12 and a half hour shift Thursday, it was killer!). This image is proving to be a right pain, I can't figure out what style to try and colour it and finish it up in. Originally I wanted it to look like a Marko Djurdjevic piece (example: http://justanothergeekblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/daredevil-everyone-by-marko-djurdjevic.jpg) but i suck way too much to pull it off. I've been thinking of just inking over the lines and colouring it a little less extravagantly, but i really didn't want it to have any black lines. Sigh.....i dunno.....

Shaping up...

2011-03-22T16:06:00.000-07:00

For an evening that started with me thinking 'I have no idea how to start this image!!!' I think it's actually shaping up to look pretty decent. Not bad for an evenings work! I'm going to spend tomorrow evening working on it too. Unfortunately I have to go to sleep now for real work tomorrow.

In the meantime check out this weeks page of Sambooka: http://www.sambooka-comic.com/

With or without Bears......WIth or without Beeeeaaaars.......(sing to U2's 'With or Without you')

2011-03-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a gift for a friend. Obviously it'll be fully painted. It's two super heroes fighting of loads of bears who are having their minds controlled. I have been struggling for the last two evening to get the composition right though. I'm worried about background bears mainly, i suck at crowd shots. Any advice? I need to finish this ASAP!

Coloured a bit...

2011-03-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

I started colouring this guy, i think he still needs abit more work, but i don't know when i'll get around to it. I may be posting again later, i've been working on a concept for some sort of futuristic hand gun, just for fun, so i'm gonna try and polish it up super nice. May even ask my friend Rhodri if he wants to make a CG model of it for a laugh.....

Speed Painting

2011-03-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

This was done in just over 20 minutes; it shows :p I was about to head off for a friend's birthday party but felt guilty that i'd drawn nothing all day, so I did this quick. I kinda like it.

Venom and stuff...

2011-03-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

I started this picture of Venom at work, but i can't think how to finish it off. And advice?

I also painte my friend's dog, Henri, he died recently. Very sad.

And then there's a little bitty at the bottom then for my bud, Luke, who is ripening to the age of 26 on the 20th (tomorrow) but his party's tonight. Gonna be good.

I'm baaaaaaaack!

2011-03-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I've finally finished building my desktop computer, allowing me to digitally paint and animate from home, so expect to see alot more posts on a regular basis from me, even if it is something crummy like the image above. That was just me trying out the computer after installing photoshop, wacom drivers and stuff, to see if everything worked. Was just making it up as I went along, I guess somewhere along the line it turned into a Skrull though. And Skrulls suck.

See you soon!

P.S. If anyone has been religously keeping tabs on my work, I've still been working on 'I Live In A Robot', but these things take time. Also i have news on a mini-comic for you, but that's for another post.

Long time no blog....

2011-03-04T05:33:00.000-08:00

Here's some stuff, talk later! I will be updating alot more soon.

You like to Scuba?

2010-11-25T05:25:00.000-08:00

Mega Bored

2010-11-19T05:29:00.000-08:00

I drew this quick today on lunch out of mega uber super boredom.

Also my band is starting to get it's act together, check us out: www.myspace.com/paperfactory

Bear

2010-11-05T06:27:00.000-07:00

2010-11-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

I was watching a justice league cartoon on lunch and drew this.

The Rooftop League

2010-09-18T01:33:00.000-07:00

I'd love to write a huge amount about this but i am back in my home town visiting the family this weekend and have to go take this guy on his morning walk, Lester The Super Dog. He is an amazing poochy and i miss him when i am in Cardiff :(

DC comics were running a monthly webcomic competition up until a few months ago (http://www.zuda.com/) where writers and artists would submit their comic ideas. 10 competitors each month would submit the first 8 pages of their comic and the public would vote for the winner who would get $1000 and a year long publihing deal.

There were tons of great comics and ideas (as well as some not so great) and i was going to give it a bash. My comic was called 'The Rooftop League' which was and idea i've had since i was about 13 or 14. It's basically inspired by games like Street Fighter, Tekken, Timesplitters, etc. A load of crazy characters just fighting for sport but they could use power ups and so on, and all this took place on the rooftops of a ficitonal city.

Anyways, above is my first and only draft of what i was going to enter before uni got ontop of me and then the competion shut down. I am gonna admit that it was a rush job because i was so eager to get the comic up on the site so in a way i am glad it never happened because this wuld have been torn apart on the forums!! I was have scripting it and half sketching it out with markers at the same time which was a fun way to work! Anyways, i'd love to spend a lot more time developing this, perhaps with some friends to get even more nutty ideas and characters in there and hopefully one day in the future make something of it.

All of this was done last Christmas, by the way.

Note: for any horrific spelling mistakes, my keyboard (and entire laptop) is on the fritz, big time. Eg, i tried to type the word 'amazing' earlier and it came out 'amg'.

Messing around on lunch break

2010-09-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

I can only use photoshop at work at the moment because my laptop is poop so i am really rusty with it again. This was just me scribbling until i got bored. Should have a new comp soon so will be able to do hell of a lot more at home.

I'll be doing a biggish post soon about my Zuda comic entry which was never completed, mainly because ZUDA GOT SHUT DOWN!!! But I did do quite a bit of stuff with it so why not show it!

Again, i'll be back later....

2010-09-09T05:35:00.001-07:00

I'll be back to write about this later!

2010-09-07T05:34:00.001-07:00

EDIT: I have time to write about this now! The webcomic www.sambooka-comic.com is going brilliantly! Bryony and i have been working hard on it and we have had a lot of great feedback and comments so thanks guys! I take care of the writing and lettering chores aswell as ocasionally helping out with page layout and character/logo designs.

I've come up with some new characters/ideas/plot points recently anyway and here is a quick INITIAL!!!! sketch i managed to do of one at work yesterday. None of this will be occuring until much later on down the story line, but it pays to be prepared!

Scott Pilgrim Pin Up: Process thingy....

2010-08-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, i'm going to try nd keep this short because my last post was quite lengthy. I made a print of Bryan ee O'Mlley's characters from his series 'Scott Pilgrim' to give to him as a gift and this is how i did it.
I started it late the night before (because i am a dumbass!) and began hashig out little thumbnails. I hated them all so sketched a Scott holding the sword on a sheet of A4 bristol board and decided it wasn't enough. So then i taped on another A4 sheet and drew te big Gideon head and added smokey-ness. I was going to leave it at that because i was in a rush but it still looked bare, so then i taped another sheet of A4 on the other side and added the angelic Ramona (Liz's idea). I decided i would flip Scott around in Photoshop so he was protecting her and inked the whole thing with a brush. I added the 6 other Evil Ex-BFs heads in last minute and inked them up too.

Then i scanned the sheets in and alligned them in a hurry. I cut and paste everything to be where i wanted them.

I then began blocking in colour (at this point i went to sleep and woke up early next morning to finish it).

I removed the pencil lines and put down the final colours which were mostly solids, then i added shades. I used some gradients on a few of the Exes and for the BG. I daubed on the smoke quickly with a big brush and added some liney light ray shiz in the background (i was going to try and make the background a similar pattern to that on the 4th book, but it didn't look right). Then i rushed to the printers, got it printed at an A1 length, then hurried off to Nottingham to deliver it! That's it!

I'm pretty proud of it. I've never combined traditional inking with digital coluring before but i really enjoyed it. In fact, workin on the novel i am really growing to love inking on it's own! More on that next time though!

I'm off out for buy-one-get-one-free cocktails and tapas, mmmmmm.....

Dan

P.S. Was in a wee car accident (sort of) on the way back from Notts, but thats a whole other story!

The BIG post!

2010-08-17T04:31:00.000-07:00

Hey All! I know i've been really quiet on here lately, but there are many reason, the main one being; I'M SUPER BUSY! With work (which is still going amazing btw), a new web comic, my graphic novel and being sick, the last two weeks have been pretty manic. First of all:

Bryony James and I have finally started uploading our web comic which we've been working on for the last few months and now we have a few pages done we are confident we can start uploading and remain on schedule. We update every Monday and you can find out more at: http://www.sambooka-comic.com/

Second: I went to see BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY ( creator of Scott Pilgrim ) yesterday and it was a blast! For weeks before going i was planning on doing some fan art to give to him but then wasn't going to bother because i was already busy. Then at 9.30pm the night before going, my girlfriend Liz urged me to at least do a sketch otherwise i may regret it. I got to started right away and the above image is what i came up with. Considering the whole thing took about 4 hours i'm pretty proud of it, there'splenty i'd change but i'm going to do a process post on this piece at a later date. (Thank you Liz for making me do it x).

The signing was great, but he was on a tight schedule so it was quite brief. It was held at Page 45 in Nottingham, the only place in the UK which stocks the above poster,which i bought and got signed. Hurrah! The plan was to get all my books signed, but time was running short so i just got him to sign the poster which i want to get framed, shook his hand, gave him the print i made and said thanks for the books and to keep making great stuff.

LASTLY: AN UPDATE ON MY GRAPHIC NOVEL

The page count is at 15 at the moment and has been for the last week or so. I was ill last week so was spending my evenings trying to relax, so i'm not where i wanted to be at this point which was around 20 pages. I haven't posted any final images of it yet because the plan is to get as much of it done as i can before i show anything. This is because i don't want to get bored of the idea by talking about it all the time, i want to put all that energy into making it.

What i will say is: It's called 'I Live In A Robot', it's going to be roughly 150 pages, i'm doing it with brush and ink and adding greys, tones and letters digitally. I don't know how i'll be releasing it yet, wether i do it online, self publish/print it, or try to sell it to a publisher. The most important thing to me at the moment is to just get it finished.

If you've made it to the end of this post,

Thanks! And comment, let me know how you all are!

Dan

What's this?

2010-08-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

Sleepy

2010-08-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

I managed to sketch this at work, i don't know when or if i'll ever finish it, really busy between work and the graphic novel, but it's something to post.

Lazy Bones ?

2010-07-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, above are two super quick sketches i did in work yesterday, they're nothing worth talking about in detail, was just bored in last 10 mins on lunch break.

What is worth talking about is my Graphic Novel!!! I've mentioned it before ('I Live In A Robot') and have been working on it since, when i get time. I have got 10 completed pages of art, YAAAAY! It's all pencils, and brush and ink work so far, then i add greys and tones in Photoshop. I have set myself some rules for making it which i haven't got time to go into right now, but these rules are making sure i get this thing completed!

Also i've been writing another webcomic called Sambooka which is being drawn by Bryony James ( www.bryonyjames.blogspot.com ) which is going extremely well. We've got five pages finished so far and i've plotted out the entire story. We're dying to upload that one but i'm really struggling with sorting the website out for it and can't seem to find the time to do it with work and all now. If anyone wants to lend a hand let me know!

On my next post i'll try and upload a snippet of I.L.I.A.R. Or maybe i won't......

I want to finish this....

2010-07-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

i wanna finsih this. sketched it in about 15 mins on lunch last week. when i get time i'l make it a fully finished painting.......i swears...........

2010-07-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

MAX GUY!

2010-07-10T04:16:00.000-07:00

I love REMAKE! It's a great little comic about this bloke called MAX GUY who is super funny and also kicks a lot of ass. Anyways i've been lucky enough to chat with the creator Lamar Abrams and i said i'd do a bit of fan art because i love it so much. I have never deliberately done any fan art before, that's how cool REMAKE is!!!!!! Go buy it! Now!

This is Lamar's site (or one of) : http://neo-rama.livejournal.com/

How are you all?

EDIT: The link should work now

THE LIVING SPACE SUIT!!! OOOOOOOOOAAAAAA......

2010-06-25T05:32:00.001-07:00

I did this on lunch, i have a story for it but i'll have to explain it later.

Uh, Homie Womies?

2010-06-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

Just a chilled mess around before leaving work. Shapes and bright colours!

Lunchy Munchies

2010-06-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

The demented crayon scratchings of a mad man.........on his lunch break.

That guy who's kinda like a frog...

2010-06-23T05:25:00.001-07:00

I did this at work today on lunch. It was just a quick mess about but i do kinda like it :)

I'm really busy at the moment but i am hoping i can start uploading more soon. I've got a job as an animator on a children's show and I have been working as hard as i can (and when i can) on 'I Live In A Robot' and i am also writing a web comic for a friend who's drawing it. Both projects have the first 4 pages of art completed. Busy, busy, busy!

'til next time!

Sketch

2010-06-18T05:31:00.001-07:00

Did this on lunch at work today.

Finished!

2010-05-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

Forgive the cruddy quality of these pictures, they were all takenon my phone:

So, this is how i felt towards the end of making my film

But now i am all done! And i feel like this!

I am super chuffed that i've finished it! There's only some touch ups that need to be made for our final end of year show, so i am still quite busy, but it's all been so worth it. I'll be able to post my film after our end of year show and i will be able to chat about it in more detail then. That's all for now. Oh by the way, the above pics are from one of my fave series of books, Scott Pilgrim. Sometimes i think Bryan Lee O'Malley stole my life and put it in his book! :D

P.S. What do we have here? Is it a certain comic a certain smeone is drawing?

Russia's Electro!

2010-05-18T16:13:00.001-07:00

I missed paper and other physical things after watching Corey Lewis draw live on his site, so i scribbled this up just before leaving uni to try and keep me sane. Done with Markers.

How i feel right now....

2010-05-17T10:17:00.000-07:00

A super dooper quick photoshop sketch of myself, several minutes before doing the sketch. My final film is due in May 21st and working so hard on it is really taking it out of me. I can't wait for Saturday to just stay in bed all day and read comics! Then Monday, after i have recouperated (is that how that word is spelt?) it's 'I Live In A Robot' all the way!

So yeah, this sketch is how i feel right now and probably how most of my buds working on their films feel too. Can i get an 'Aaaaaamen'?

I.L.I.A.R: Warrick concept

2010-05-10T13:12:00.001-07:00

Hey guys! You may have heard me mention a web comic i'm working on, i posted a teaser image for it a few posts back. It's called 'I Live In a Robot'. A preview page of it is going to be included in a fund raising comic/art anthology a friend and I are putting together to raise money for Glamorgan University's showcase of our work; The Glammies 2010!

I haven't been able to do too much on the comic, my film obviously has priority over it. But when that's been handed in on May 21st, it's full steam ahead on I.L.I.A.R! I'm really excited about it. Here is a concept of one of the characters. I planned to do the whole thing black and white to produce pages faster, but doing the rough colours on this design was fun, so i may reconsider!

Hope you're all ok!

New Website!

2010-05-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

As you can see i have re-designed the blog so it relates to my BRAND NEW WEBSITE!

EDIT: I HAVE A DECENT ADDRESS NOW:

www.dan-lee.co.uk

The site is getting there, i need to tweek bits, but check it out and spread the word!

Also for you die hard fans out there, here is my old blog banner.

Kratos Again

2010-05-05T05:40:00.001-07:00

Minor Changes and Kratos

2010-04-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

Made some changes mainly to the girl's face and there's another Kratos design i forgot to post a week ago. Haven't done much on the Kratos thing lately, uni has been nuts!

More Life Drawing

2010-04-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

The top one isn't finished, i'm taking a break from it to come back to it with fresh eyes. The other two are just quick scribbles of buildings in Cardiff, nothing to write home about.

Digital Life Drawing

2010-04-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

None of them are great, but it's got to be done. My favourite is the top one.

I Live In A Robot

2010-04-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Many of my non-existant die-hard fans may remember a post i did a while back called 'Warrick's Home' (16th of Feb, go refresh yourselves). Where to begin. This is that idea, slowly coming to light. I've been moaning to alot of people lately that i am getting sick of working on my film and during that 'sickness' i've been coming up with tons and tons of new ideas i want to work on, and i always want to start work on the most recent one. If i continue like this i'll never get anything done! So a few weeks back i put my foot down and said 'This is the idea i am going to follow through to the end (besides my film)'. It's called 'I Live In A Robot' and it is going to be a webcomic. It has evolved over the last few months from something that i was playing around with, then titled 'At War'. It's coming along quite nicely and at a calm pace. I have plotted out the entire story and today i have been working out the functionality and anatomy of the robot, so he can actually move and these movements make sense. This image was the last study i did of him today and i thought i'd make it into a rough little teaser poster. Nothing in the image is finalised, but it is on it's way. I'm kinda just blabbering away now, but this project will see the light at the end of the tunnel and will be the first large scale, personal (aka. non-uni related) project of mine to do so. I'm still going to be chipping away at other things (how many of you are sick of hearing of the 'Dream' project, ey?) but this is priority at the moment. I need to at least do it for myself.

They're closing up uni now, so i gotta go.

Portrait Attempt

2010-04-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

I needed a break from animating so I thought I'd try a portrait. I think it took me about 45 minutes and it was fun!

Collaboration

2010-04-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Lately i've been taking a lot of advice and tips off of the concept artist, Darren Fereday. He graduated from the same uni i'm at now and is now working in the industry. I bugged him a couple of days ago for some help and guidance and thankfully he's really gone out of his way to help me. He came into the studio today to have a painting sesh and we ended up working on the same image. He did most of the heavy lifting but i learnt alot about lighting, colour and how to use it to show form, etc. He came up with the inital sketch (top image) whilst me and John shouted silly ideas to put in. John came up with 'a giant robot fighting a flock of terrordactyles (spelling?) that are being summoned by a wizard. Then Darren tightened it up (middle image). I added the lava and made some changes to the robots design and made the wizard more tech based. Then i passed it back to Darren who tidied up the lava, added more detail, form and lighting to the robot. Then i added legs to the wizard and tried to pimp up his staff, and that was all we had time for (bottom image). It was great fun and i can't wait to do it again!

Oh yeah, the terrordactyles went by the wayside in the end.

Kratos The Cuddly

2010-04-09T12:46:00.001-07:00

I'm a fan of the God of War games. I really enjoyed the first one have put off the second game until now. I'm hammering through it so I can get to the shiny new third installment. I mainly like it because it's a good mix of platform and puzzle action. It reminds me of Jak and Daxter (ace games!) at times and that got me thinking how it could be a cool game for younger players if they tamed it back a little. Take out all the horrid blood and gruesome kills and replace it with more cuddly designs and just have the bad guys puff into a cloud of coins or orbs when you kill them, tweak the story obviously (maybe even the name too) and the developers could have a recycled game for a whole new audience. Anyways, i am babbling. What i am trying to say is i have set myself a mini-project of redesigning the mighty Kratos (God of War's main character) if the game were for kids. It's mainly to give me something else to design since all the pre-prod on my film is long behind me :(. I may re-work some of the game's bad guys too if i find the time. The above is my first crack at it.

Water Studies

2010-04-08T16:12:00.001-07:00

These are my attempts at painting water. The need to paint water well is related to the post below too, which shall remain shrouded in mystery for now, mwahahahahaaaa! But yeah, i painted the top one first and bottom is last, so theoretically they should get better, but in my opinion they all suck equally as bad as each other.

I should also have another batch of images related to these last two posts up tomorrow and if they keep going as well as they are now, i'll be very proud of them.

Speak tomorrow, gang!

Dream Time

2010-04-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

Babies!!!!

2010-03-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

My friend, Ken's been doin these 'baby' versions of characters (mainly anime ones) and in my quest to procrastinate from working on my film i kind of attempted one, screwed it up and then gave up. But here's how far i got! I think it was meant to be (new age/ultimate) Hawkeye, but turned out to be a guy in purple with swords and cool goggles. I dunno......

go check out Ken's babies: www.ken3000.blogspot.com

Hatred For My Film!!!!

2010-03-31T06:37:00.001-07:00

It's the easter holidays. I'm still going into uni everyday but I am getting so bored and sick of my film and anything to do with it. I am trying to re-locate my film Mojo but failing :(. Help?

I guess in the page above I have subconciously made that guy in the black t-shirt getting punched as a representation of my film.

Jumping out of a Plane for Parkinsons Disease!

2010-03-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hey all, sorry for the lack of posts lately, uni has been super busy! Hopefully i can post some shots soon.

My nut case girl friend, Lizz, is jumping out of a plane (with a chute) to raise money for Parkinsons Disease. It's insane, but awesome too, so if any of you have any beans to spare (or money) please sponsor her: http://www.justgiving.com/Lizz-Watson

The Jump is on 17th of April.

She ran the Cardiff half marathon last year in support of the same cause and i think she's planning on doing the bath one too in May some time?

BUT ALSO CHECK THIS OUT!!!!

http://www.wix.com/daniellee0403/La-Mezcla

A website i made! My first one! Liz has begun making and selling jewellery and donating half the proceeds to the parkinsons charity also up until the point of the jump. It was kinda done in a hurry to get it up and running for before the jump, but i am pretty proud of it so please let me know what you think. I designed it from scratch so there are some bits that i still wanna tweek but the basics are there. I will be changing things on it over the coming days when i find time.

Anyways, enough rambling, i got a film to make!

Happy Sponsoring,
Thanks.

A Shot!

2010-02-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

Love Bot Test from Daniel Lee on Vimeo

Here's a super fast shot from my film that contains no spoilers. It's coming together! I'll re-post this when i have more time looped as it's only a second and a bit long. Let me know what you think.

Blue Ball

2010-02-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

Blue Ball from Daniel Lee on Vimeo.

Re-posting the Blue Ball test through Vimeo because it seems to be more reliable. I'll be posting all videos using Vimeo from now on. I have done a bit more work on that wee orange character which i will hopefully be posting later today.

Another Test

2010-02-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

Lightin Test in After Effects from Daniel Lee on Vimeo.

I did some more work on that character i posted today, just trying some more things out in flash and after effects. Too tired to go in depth. Night.

Who is it???

2010-02-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

The above is not a video clip, just a print-screen from the trailer for the Gorillaz vid. It's been rumoured that someone very very very famous is going to be in the video and the strongest rumours were Bruce Willis and Wylie Coyote (that how you spell it?). Well this is the only flash of people from in the trailer and the bald guy kinda looks like Kyle Gass to me from Tenacious D, what do you think? Also i am pretty sure that creepy fellow in the back appears in cartoon form in the new 2-D ident. They've released a Murdoc one too recently, both are on youtube.

Warrick's Home

2010-02-16T10:57:00.000-08:00

Uni is so busy lately there's not a lot of spare time to do much other stuff. I managed to do this quick little study whilst waiting for something to render. It's for that idea i mentioned a couple of posts back that was merging with another idea (the post with the rough comic strip). Anyways, i have managed to make it into a simple project that's easy to work on with little spare time. Incase you can't tell, i want to make it look like the 80's was sick on it.

Animatic frustration!!!!

2010-02-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

I am currently re-working my animatic. Over the last two weeks i have gotten some great advice from people in the industry and they're all saying the same thing; to make things as tight as possible. So i am trimming where i can on my animatic to make my film shorter, but the story is far more in depth than Nunzilla (my second year film) and i am trying not to lose that depth. I am taking away, but then i am adding new little shots to make everything clearer. It's driving me nuts! I'm at the end of my teather. If anyone can offer any advice, please do.

Jane at A

2010-02-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Jane, i've managed to do a few bits and bobs for development work but it's moving slowly because uni is super busy at the moment (for the long version of busy-ness, read the post below, it includes a trip to animation studios in London). I'm almost back up to speed on my film work and when i am i'll be getting together with John so we can crank out a lot of stuff for you guys. In the meantime the pic above is the only thing i have worth showing. I managed to do it quickly on a break in uni. Also, would it be ok if i emailed you my animatic in the next few days?

Cheers

Dan

I got sunshine in a bag...

2010-02-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

Howdy gang. I haven't been posting as much as i'd like to lately mainly because I HAVE NO TIME! I've had a bit of time away from my film and now i am playing catch up. Last week i spent five days on work experience at A Productions in Bristol and had a really great time. I was the illest i've been in a long time for the entire time i was there but it was still brilliant to see people in the flesh working in the field i'm studying. Up until then it was a mere myth to me! I went into uni over the weekend that followed then trying to catch up but i just seemed to get sicker and had to take tuesday morning off to try and get better ready to go to London the next day! Hurrah!
The trip to London yesterday, pardon my french, blew my f***ing mind. It was a long day but an amazing one. We drove up on a mini coach, visited Blue Zoo, Passion Pictures, Double Negative and Cinesite and then drove back the same day. I would like to go into detail on all of them but have no time at the mo, so i'll just mention my favourite. Passion Pictures is where i want to be at some point, it was brilliant there. Similar to another favourite of mine, Studio AKA, they seem to be open to working in many different ways, creating new and exciting work (check there website www.passion-pictures.com . Be sure to hyphonate it! You've been warned). Whilst i was there i did bear witness to some behind the scenes/making of stuff of a certain cartoon band's new music video and animated shorts. I'm a big fan of the band and i can't really say what i saw because they made us swear we wouldn't, but what i did see looked super-duper cool! It's the Gorillaz!

I'm rambling. After a long long day in uni today i am almost back on track and schedule with my film. I do have some concept art stuff i am doing for A Productions but it is having to take a back seat at the moment as uni comes first. Above is a cruddy 1 or 2 minute doodle. Below is something from a wee project i started last November which i have been adding little bits to as i go and is kind of merging with another idea i have which is very exciting. It began as semi-autobiographical and this a comic sketch i did on the day i first read manga. It's probably funny to no one other than me and my mate, John. There are probably lots of other things i wanted to say but have forgotten as it's 2.15 AM and i didn't want this to turn into a massive boring post, but hey, look what happened....

CV

2010-02-07T08:24:00.001-08:00

We have to do an interesting CV as part of our business module, so i took sunday to do it and this is pretty much what i came up with. It's going to be a booklet, so these are the page spreads, they're in a random order because thats how they need to be printed to make the booklet. I'm not entirely happy with it, but i don't have the time to make drastic changes, i just want to get on with my film!!!

More Detailed Final Backgrounds

2010-01-29T09:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some more detailed and finalised backgrounds. Beneath each one is the rough layouts/colour keys i worked from. They were tough, but great fun to paint. I feel like more needs to be done to the first to make it fit with the second. These are from two consecutive shots.

Final Colour Card Backgrounds

2010-01-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

These are some of my final(ish) colour card backgrounds (bg). Basically these bgs come from the shots in my storyboards where the camera is pretty close on the character and there is no need for an uber detailed bg. On my film last year these were just solid colours with slight gradients over them. This time around i am going for a more abstract feel and am playing around alot with textures and collage looks. I've also inserted suggestive images to match the type of area the character's are in, in this case it's the leaves to represent a forest. My favourite is the third one down. Not to happy with the first so i'm going to change it when i have a spare moment, make it a little more orangey. The last one is a bit plainer because in the shot, a character is juggling and i figured that would be enough for the viewers eyes to take in as it is.

yup...

2010-01-25T05:39:00.000-08:00

Complete(ish) Colour Script

2010-01-23T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hurrah! My colour scripts are done! Now the people i've got helping me with my backgrounds and I can crack on with the backgrounds. I'd like to get as much background work as possible done within the following week because i have one weeks work experience starting from the 1st of February with a studio in Bristol called A Productions. I'm really excited about that but kind of nervous too. I don't have the best of luck and i'm worried i'll end up doing something horribly wrong and get black balled from the entire industry! Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

It's been a very busy week and they're only going to get busier so it looks like i'm not going to have as much time to work on my ZUDA entry as i'd like so i'll probably have to enter it in the March competition. I've got to prioritise and put my education first so i'll work on it when i can rather than rushing it. The competition will always be there.

I've rambled enough.

'til next time!

Mat

2010-01-21T12:10:00.001-08:00

Thar thee go, Mathew. Arrr!

Remember the Robots?........(oh, and my Zuda Entry)

2010-01-21T06:02:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, i've been uber busy on colour keys and colour scripts for the backgrounds in my film and they are getting really boring after doing 40 of them. Only 28 left to go *sigh*. Anyways, i thought i'd post some thing not university related.

As you can see above, i have begun work on the final pages of my Zuda Comics entry. I started today and there is still alot of work to be done on it, but i just thought i'd show what i've got so far. Below is my rough layout. I changed the really lame pose in the first panel to something that i think works and reads so much better.

I don't want to talk too much about what the story is about until it's complete but hopefully it will be finished and submitted within a week or so to be considered for next month's competition. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, why not go and sign up for a Zuda account ready to vote for moi if i do get in? :D I've already made Liz sign up! www.zudacomics.com There are quite a lot of good entries this month. Go there and vote for Phantom Sword! That's where my vote went! Also check out the comic's artist, Nick Edwards. He's amazing, and a year younger than me, damn it! His website is teamdynamite.livejournal.com. Do NOT putt www. before it.

And lastly, i've been working on that robot painting i uploaded a few posts back. It's changed loads and i'm quite proud of it, but i won't be fully proud until i've finished it. Polishing it off is proving to be really difficult though.

Amy Stuff

2010-01-18T10:51:00.001-08:00

Howdy Amy, there's the two colour key/layout things. Remember on thew one with the factory that the hills closest to us and the billboard need to be on seperate layers so i can move them about when i animate the shot. They're 1024 x 576 pixels. And that black spoldge is the brush.

Drop me a line if you have any q's.

It's a Sunday and i am Sleeeepy

2010-01-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

Howdy y'all. Above are some colour scripts/studies/whatever the hell you wanna call them for my film. I did these real quick today to help me with my finals backgrounds which i completed 3 out of the 4 i had scheduled to be completed today. I'm going to blame the one unfinished one on the fact that it's a Sunday and my body and brain are confused as to why i am making them work on the day of the week that is normally spent doing next to nothing and on the fact that i haven't used Adobe Illustrator since i made my second year film, 'Nunzilla'. Anyways you can see the final backgrounds in the film when it's complete! In the meantime, enjoy the scribbles above.

Cheerio

P.S. I have been working on that blue robot thing i posted the other day, it's looking a bit cooler and more polished, i need to do more to it so i'll post it when it's done rather than posting it in dribs and drabs.

Save The Phantom Sword! Please!

2010-01-12T15:27:00.000-08:00

Hey all. Look at this robot guy i painted! The new tablet is still being ace! This is my warm up painting i did this morning and added too on breaks from actual work through out the day. I pretty chuffed with it and really want to fine tune it, so i will do on my breaks tomorrow to make him nice and shiny.

Speaking of fine tuning, i added the medals and tribal markings to that weird alien captain guy i uploaded yesterday but it didn't look much better. It's a pretty poor painting as it is, but tomorrow i may try and rework his hand altogether, elimante the black lines and just add mor detail to try and make it look more painterly.

Now then, onto real reason for this post. Above is a page from one of this months Zuda Comics entries, The Phantom Sword. It was second in this months ranks but has dropped to third. It needs to be number one! It must win! It's brilliant and i want to keep reading it for as long as i can. So i am begging everyone that reads this to sign up and give it your vote, pleeeeease! It's a great site anyways, full of amazing and free comics of all different genres to read. Y'all might aswell sign up now and vote for this because i'll only be bugging you to do it when i enter the competition myself next month. Do it! www.zudacomics.com . I'll be checking on you all, even my Mam and Dad and family.

'til next time!

The Woods and Captain Sapien

2010-01-11T10:24:00.001-08:00

Uni has started back and i'm kind of off to a slow start, though i've finally gotten a new Wacom tablet (the Intuos 4, A5 size) and it is amazing! It was a late Christmas gift from my parents and it already seems to be making a difference to my work. Above is a background study for my film and below is something i just did today for a break from uni work. Hopefully i'll be updating more often now i'm back on the case in uni.

On a second glance at the last picture, i realise i didn't do as much to his face as i wanted to. His eye brow is a bit shabby and there were some tribal markings i wanted to put on him along with medals and stripes on his chest. I'll get back to it after i've done some more background work.

Ciao

Ho

2009-12-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas y'all. Hope your day was as good as mine. Had a great time with the family, visiting grandparents, my aunty and uncle, huge tasty dinner and then loads of cool presents. I managed to do some sketching at my aunty and uncle's place but i am sans scanner at the moment, so i cant post those. They were mainly designs and page layouts for my Zuda entry. I've been working on the script for that too. Here's some random bits and bobs:

The cover to a graphic novel i had for Christmas. I've started it and it's really cool, sucked me right in. Burns' inks are really heavy and solid which adds several creep-points to an already creepy tale.

This is me havin a two or three minute try of a WACOM Cintique!!!! One of my class mates, Nathan, got the 24" one as an early Christmas present (lucky sod) and was kind enough to let me have a bash. It was amazing!!!! I know what i drew isn't great (i'll use the fact that i didn't want to hog up Nath's working time as an excuse) but it felt amazing. I found i had more control and worked faster. I have a holiday i need to pay for and when thats done, i am saving for one of these bad boys. But i'm crap with money, so owning one will probably forever remain a dream.......sigh.....

This is something i started a little while ago but never finished. I remember watching all the Hellboys (live action and animated) with a few mates one night and this is one of the doodles i did whilst watching. I just found it randomly today and thought i'd chuck it up. I'll probably not go back to finnish it as i find it hard going back to an image after a long period of time.

And this is an early doodle of the Lovebot from my third year film.

So, for those of you i haven't already wished, Merry Christmas. I'm going to go watch some films and draw.

Ciao.

Theo Colour Tests

2009-12-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

Here are two colour tests i whipped up quickly tonight (or this morning, it's 2:10am). Neither of them are great but i was just trying to quickly establish what sort of direction i want to go in with the colour. The one at the top was done in photoshop and the one at the bottom in flash. For some reason the tablet and sensitivity was playing up whilst i was doing the flash one and at the begininning of the photoshop one, but i persisted. I prefer the one in photoshop, but i am going to give things another go in flash (hopefully it'll work correctly this time) and another go in photoshop too, this time laying some flat colours first. I am also going to try doing the line work in flash and then colour in photoshop to see how that looks.

I am really tired now so, night night.

2009-12-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

Above are the (pretty much) final designs of the two main characters for the ZUDA ( www.zudacomics.com ) entry i'm working on. It'd be nice to put it in for the January competition but i'm in no major hurry, so it'll probably be entered for the February one. For those of you that don't know what ZUDA is, check out the link above.

More as it comes....

RTL Sketches

2009-12-15T12:32:00.000-08:00

Some sketches from a few pages of my sketchbook. Took me longer cleaning these scans up than it did for me to actually draw them! Playing around with shapes within these two characters. Click on the image to see it larger. More to come...

Lizz

2009-12-15T10:45:00.001-08:00

She fell asleep on me, so I drew her. MWA HA HA HAAAAA!

I am making Roger Rabbit 2!!!

2009-11-26T11:29:00.000-08:00

Here's two tests i've done this week.

Above is 2D over stop motion animation. In my film the book will be a photo album and the pics within the book will be animated too. For the test i used my friend Kenneth Ghann's sketch book (check his blog www.ken3000.blogspot.com ) and, you probably guessed it, but i didn't have a tripod for the test.

Above is me trying to figure out how i want the 'Orientation' video that the robots are brainwashed with before they are sent out into the world. It's just a test. The song is 'West Coast' by Coconut Records.

I couldn't seem to get a better quality export so these will have to do for now.

Ciao

"Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen..."

2009-11-23T12:09:00.000-08:00

Those of you who know me well will know two things about me; a) i ridicule those who read manga and watch anime and b) i go through phases. Lots of phases! Recently i re-read my Scott Pilgrim collection and i don't think i'll ever stop being obsesessed with those books or the books creator, Bryan Lee O'Malley. In the back of Vol.3 he mentioned how he had gotten re-obsessed with manga whilst working on that volume and listed a few. I thought i'd check one out to see what inspires him and picked up one of the books he listed, DeathNote. It was brilliant! I couldn't put it down. And this stuff is cheap too (£3.50 for 200 pages on amazon!). So i've kind of been on a bit of a manga and anime phase lately. It kind of reminds me of my 'Try and read every issue of Uncanny X-Men ever printed' phase which was very short-lived. I've been watching Naruto and Bleach (luckily my house mate has tons of the stuff and knows which cruddy series to avoid) but i am trying to make sure i only read DeathNote before getting into any other manga series (the Bleach one looks amazing and was really tempting on my way home from uni today, but is it worth reading it after watching it?). With manga, i think i like it because it's just kind of nutty and fun and i really admire and respect the process and speed the creators go through to produce them and i'm looking at things that i can take from it to apply to my own work.

I know this shouldn't really be on my blog as my father kindly pointed out on my 'Bustin' Balls' post that it was not Drawed By Moi, but i can't really show the work i am doing at the moment and i miss posting stuff that nobody reads. I have been working on some other stuff too, not for uni, which i am hoping to show you soon, but i want to wait until it's done to avoid talking it up and then not finishing it and having nothing to show. But in the meantime...

....i have a house party yo co-host.

Peace.

A Quicky. . .

2009-11-18T07:54:00.001-08:00

Just a quicky. I've been working on my first animatic today and i can't really show it so here's a bit more google sketchup work. I haven't been building any super detailed stuff, but i have been using it to do some quick pre-vis work for certain shots. Here's an example. I got to run, i'm going to see 2012! I know it's going to suck, but effects that big you got to see in the cinema.

Ciao

Board

2009-11-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

Above are the first thumbnail story boards i have done for my film (which i have just realised is still nameless). Even though they don't look like much, these are probably the toughest set i've done. I don't mean in drawing skill, these are just quick scribbles that i can barely make sense of myself. They were tough because i had a few scenes of the film planned out from the start and it was really hard to link them altogether and make them gel. In these cases i always find it best to just get any ideas down on paper and power through the boarding, even the scenes that i am not so sure on. This way then i have something tangible to work with rather than trying to figure it all out in my head and get the boards right first time. You're welcome to try and figure out the story from these but they're all jumbled and a lot of it is likely to change. I don't want to give the story away or risk having the idea stolen (i know it seems unlikely, but it could happen) so i doubt i'll be posting the final boards in full. Now it's time for first draft animatics!

Peace

edit: you can zoom in on the image if you click on it. A little magnifying glass appears.

Google Sketchup

2009-11-16T06:38:00.001-08:00

I've been using google sketchup today. It's the first time i've used it and it's actually pretty cool. It's very user friendly, but i am still quite bad at it. I think i'll probably be using it to build my sets in and then use these virtual sets to help me frame my film, etc. I've also been thinking about using the models i build in it to paint over in photoshop or flash to use as backgrounds. I did a quick test of this today.

1) Here's a model of a table i made, plain.

2) Here's the same model but with a marble effect applied from google sketchup.

3) Here, i exported the model from Sketchup as a JPEG, opened it in Photoshop and had a quick crack at painting over it just to see how it would look.

Bustin' Balls

2009-11-13T09:28:00.001-08:00

Ok, i know this isn't my work, but i just had to post this image. I've been re-reading my Scott Pilgrim collection (by Bryan Lee O'Malley, a God among men) and this image made me laugh just as much as it did the first time. The series is brilliant, unlike anything i've read before. Anyway in this picture Todd the evil vegan is having his twig and berries mashed up by Envy Adams as she finds out he's been cheating on her. I think this is probably the most accurate visual translation of what it feels like to be kicked in the nuts. Clearly O'malley has taking a few wellies to the stones himself, ha ha. It's being made into a movie starring Michael Cera, but you should read it before the movie gets a chance to be your first impression of the franchise. Also check out O'malley's site. Makes really good music under the name Kupek.

More Robots Which Almost All Look The Same But Are Not......snooze....

2009-11-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

Pretty much what the title says. I'm closer to having the final design of the robot. Settled on the two eyes and big hands (i think) so i have just been pushing them around, changing minor details which i'm not sure you'll be able to make out on the size of the image here, but i am basically trying to decide how much or how little detail to have on the 'bot.

Silhouettes and a Test

2009-11-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

So, above are some further character studies. I found a brush i liked in photoshop and just started doing these. These shapes came out naturally which is good because i think i am subconsciously finalising the design. I am pretty confident that i will be going with the robot with two eyes because i think i'll be able to display more emotion with them and get the audience to sympathise the character. And belwo is an After Effects test. I think i mentioned in an older post that i haven't used after effects in about three years and even then i wasn't very good. But basically, it's a test for the orientation video that will be shown to all the little robots before they are sent out into the world and i want it to have this 2D/3D thing going on.

I just remembered i still haven't explained the idea behind the story which i promise to do soon. But in the meantime, it's thursday, which means it's film quiz time at Cineworld! (Nerd!!)

Ciao

More Robots!

2009-11-10T10:05:00.001-08:00

To try and help with the character design i decided to draw them side by side as thats how they will be most of the time through the film. I am kinda happy with the boy in this one, but that's not why he hasn't changed in this series of images. I was only changing the robot to see what sort of size he should be compared to the boy. I tried some slightly different shapes and i also did an extremely small bot and then extremely large, just to see if anything would come out from it. I do like the huge robot, but i get some sort of 'Mighty Joe Young/ King Kong' vibes off of him and don't think the design would fit the character's personality. That image kind of gives the impression that he is just there to protect the boy and that's not the story at all. I'm rambling again. I should be putting a similar post soon with the boy varying in size and posture, etc.

Bear Boy helps out...

2009-11-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

Yep, more of the boy. I am getting really bored of doing these now, that's why they're quite rough and poor. But on the plus side i've got some ideas to work with now, i've just got to start thinking more about shape. These characters with the animal hats on came from a little character i've been drawing for years called 'bear boy' who is basically a kid with a little bear hat on, so i thought i'd put some elements of him to good use. I've really got to start thinking more about what sort of person the character is aswell. Bear Boy was always quite cutesy but the boy in my film (who is still nameless!!!!) is alot more independant. He can take care of himself and can have fun all by himself in his domain, the woods! I am sort of pushing this 'King of the Woods' thing with him. I think it's a nice contrast to the technological background that the robot comes from. Thats kind of why in the designs the characters are looking quite stern and cheesed off, because the boy didn't ask for and doesn't want this little robot coming along and messing with his life. Robots do not belong in the woods!

Quite a boring paragraph above there, but hey! Struggling with the jedi still, don't be surprised if i give up on it soon (quitting is what i do best) plus i may put up an image of the original Bear Boy soon, complete with cute-factor and his balloon.

hmmmmmmmmmm.....

2009-11-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

Well, as you can see i am struggling with the design of the boy. It's harder than designing the robot (who still isn't finished yet) because i had a pretty clear idea of what i wanted him to look like from the start, but with the boy, not so much. I've been in the studio all day, not just working on the boy designs but writing up the script for the film which is going really well and also running some tests in Adobe After Effects. I haven't used the program since college and even then my skills on it were limited, so i am trying to teach myself the ins and outs of it and trying to get to grips with 2D-3D and multi-planing. Done a little work on the jedi, but at the moment that seems less important than my uni work. Anyways......

In the woods...

2009-11-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

Howdy y'all. Just popping up a few more designs for my film. These are character designs for the boy who doesn't have a name yet. No prizes for guessing i'm not entirely sure what direction i want to take him yet, but i know i won't be using the top right design as it doesn't suit the character's personality.

Below are two little scenario concept paintings. The first was forced out as i really had no solid idea where i wanted to take the story and it helped me so much as now it seems that i have too many things i want to include in the film! Anyway, i know i haven't explained what the plot is yet, but maybe the second painting will give you a clue. In the meantime, i need a break from film work, so i am going to try and polish off that Jedi!

Peace

Early Character Designs

2009-11-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

These are some super early character designs for my third year film, i know they don't look like much but they were banged out pretty quick. I am struggling with ideas this year so i am really just throwing shit at a wall at the moment and hoping some of it sticks. I'll explain the concept of the film on my next post and hopefully will have finished the jedi. In a rush though at the mo.

Ciao

Edit: I've added another row of designs. Please let me know which ones you like.

Jedi so far....

2009-11-03T06:42:00.001-08:00

I'm in uni meant to be doing pre-production work on my film but instead i started doing this. I thought i had a solid idea for my film but i've gotten bored of it already and started to doubt it. I'm trying to come up with a new idea but i can't get Star Wars or Hellboy off my mind!

Anyway, this is no where near finished yet, i've spent ages trying to nail the pose, this is probably the 5th one. When it's done i'll post the entire process on here i think in sequential images.

Poor Droid

2009-11-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

Hey guys. Been working on this image and decided to post it whilst it's still in progress to try and get some feed back and tips. I am still working on it, but i always seem to get to the point where i feel i've gotten the idea across and then can't be bothered to polish it up, so any help i could get on polishing the image would be great. I didn't have a plan when i started it, just did about 3 or 4 thumbnails and felt this was the strongest, so i just went with it.

Number Three

2009-11-02T08:51:00.001-08:00

Let Me Flash You

2009-10-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

Howdy all. Was busy this week at uni. For the last three weeks we've been messing around with Flash. I've used it before, to make my second year film, Nunzilla, but i was sort of learning it 'on the fly' back then. This time i've had a chance to actually sit down and explore more of the programs tools and what not and it's given me quite alot of ideas for my third year film which is really cool. Anyways, below are two little short things i did for the project. I hate recording and making sounds for films, i usually prefer someone else to do that, but in this case i had no choice, so they sound uber bad.

This project wasn't so much about the animation itself but more about exploring what flash can do. In the second vid i was pushing textures and masks. In the next post i'll probably put up my second year film, Nunzilla.

Space Ranger!

2009-10-12T17:30:00.001-07:00

This is just me practicing drawing straight into photoshop (no paper! i do love paper though). I'm not great at it but i figure a doodle in it a day should fix that. Maybe i'll polish this up and colour it soon. I'd love to write more but i am uber tired.

Too much Sponge Jack and Flap Bob

2009-10-10T11:01:00.001-07:00

I spent a good portion of today sat on my ass watching SpongeBob and Flapjack then came up to my room, whacked on a live NOFX album and drew this. Just started out as a doodle but after i scanned it in i thought i might as well add some colour and got quite into it. Really enjoyed this one.