The Aussie-Alaskan Animator: HAPPY NEW YEAR AND THE LAST 4 MONTHS OF SHENANIGANS!

I.... too much happened.

There was this cacophony of BFA thesis, Honor's Capstone thesis, my CGI modelling/rigging/animating job, AnimationMentor work, and commission work on the side...

And somewhere in there I am pretty sure I lost all my sanity.

But now I'm out on the other side and I don't know how I survived but I did and I'm very glad of that.

So after the jump is a massive BALH;FIOEGHHH of images, from my BFA, from frustration and anxiety, from procrastination... (all of the above really).

I hope you enjoy. I'll be posting my BFA animation later.... (it's 2D and about 3.5 minutes long)

I'll try to post this in roughly chronological order as well.....

** SHENANIGANS AFTER THE JUMP!*

BE WARNED, THERE BE MANY MANY FILES!

I feel the most important thing when you are undertaking a long creative commitment... is to make sure you always have an out... a distraction. If you just bore and bore away at your main project, you are going to burn out. Your work will be grey, laborious, terrible, uninspired and sad.

I saw this start to creep into my animation to my horror, and realised I needed to find side projects and little things to keep me happy, but primed artistically. (if that makes any sense)

So I'd do lots of silly vent art on the side. Given, I probably ended up spending too much time on these, but it really helped me from rage- quitting at my actual thesis. (I will upload some images from my BFA project later).

So don't be afraid to take breaks. It will help you get through your projects. Everyone's own personal journey is different. My struggle was getting 3300 frames drawn and coloured by deadline, whilst keeping afloat in AnimationMentor, an Honor's Capstone Thesis, and one of my museum jobs.

Here is my vent art of hilarity:

SEPTEMBER

I drew this in Sharpie on my arm, because my animation was driving me to distraction :)

This is a WIP tattoo for a good friend of mine :)

OCTOBER

Singh/Singha from Thailand. A mythical lion that guards temples and warriors.

More sharpie art to distract myself. Another Singha, which I kept traced on for about 5 days :)

A Thai-style mythical dog. Birthday card for a friend, whose Zodiac is the dog.

10 minutes of scribbles on notepad paper with pen- waiting to go to dinner.

NOVEMBER

Dog Urchin

Fish dragon.

Dandelonia

LoL Ice Rabbit Champion idea :D

DECEMBER

Mordu FTW. Such an awesome grumpy bear.

Sea-donkey

Tiger-warrior considers his Sgain-dubh.

JANUARY

Goodness did I love drawing this one. INTENSE GRR.

He offered a flower.

The Consuming of Mekara

Jamboa of Ga'zee.

Tyger tyger burning bright <3 p="p">

Egyptian Canid Exomonk.

A Gypsey Vanner horse IN SPACE!!

Angus was done December of 2011, Gypsy Vanner was done December 2012 :)

PROGRESS MADE!

I think!

Ms. Fox. (Flash Vector art, if you can believe)

Closeup of Ms. Fox.

An attempt at a colourscape

I LIEK PURPL. 8D

I drew this a few days ago, #YOLO SWAG SPACETIGER.

Was a bit of a sarcastic jab at hipster instagram photos and imagery,

even though I'm a guilty Instagrammer myself...

I guess it's either merciless self-deprication or shameless hypocrisy.

Either way, eh.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes I'd get so frustrated whilst drawing/colouring frames I'd just start doodling in that frame.

Like in this example!

The black frame is the 'stage'.

The coloured wallabies will pan across onto the stage.

So I drew this entire HIDDEN WORLD OF HORSES AND TIGERS AND FOXES!!!!

It is rather interesting how animators/game designers can get away with putting so many shameless easter eggs everywhere :)

Here is a screenshot of my workspace.

The green lines are the guides for absolute screen space, and safe ratio. (for different screen ratios)

There are a bunch of layers above the workspace: for the background, shadows, static characters, moving character parts, semi-moving character parts, hue alteration pass, and border mask.

SO MANY LAYERS TO KEEP TRACK OF IT MADE ME CRAZY.