I find watercolor much more difficult than oil painting. But sometimes you hit on something with watercolor that just takes your breath away. I aspire to the likes of Alvaro Castagnet (go look him up, seriously) and John Singer Sargent. Maybe in 20 years I'll get there.
Sketches always seem to lose something when you scan them. But I was fairly happy with how this likeness turned out. Fairly timely too! Serena Williams is looking good to win the finals at Wimbledon.
I finally tried my hand at gouache, painting a subject that would be forgiving if I screwed up. But it turned out better than I hoped. Interesting medium.
One big thing that has occupied the last half-year of my life has been a venture to create an entertaining and informative travel/outdoors Youtube brand. My wife and I took a long 4+ month roadtrip across the United States this summer, documenting as much as we could with video, writing, and photographs. Thus 'Roades on the Road' was born.
Along with our travel documentaries, we review gear and share tips for outdoor activity. Coming from a decidedly un-wealthy perspective, this often yields interesting and funny results.
I could talk all day about the trip, the process of filming and editing, social media use, and every other little thing that is involved with a big project like this, but I think it's best, for now, to let it speak for itself!
Of course you should thumbs up, subscribe, and share with all your friends! I'll be happy to field any questions you have as well!
In October's 11 Second Club, I got tenth place out of 144 entries for this animation. My first entering the contest in a couple years. An indie director is having trouble with some of his more... re-animated actors.
Before I left the library I wanted to leave them with a strong and appealing marketing framework to jump off of. On my own time I developed the "Your Ticket To Anywhere" campaign through a few animations that incorporated fantastic scenes that gave way to library logo. They were all done in After Effects and I think turned out really well. Enjoy!
When I decided that I was leaving the library to pursue other things, we figured it would be a good idea to have some continuity in the Adams County Avengers so that it could be used for future marketing initiatives. Rather than Captain Adam (my superhero) just falling off the map, I decided to shoot a small transition video where I pass the torch (or pen in this case) to my successor Lt. Deborah.
We shot it all in one day and I banged out as much special effects as I could in my free time in the week or so before I left. I think it was a pretty fitting farewell to me and a cool exciting intro to Deborah. All the effects work was done in After Effects. The wings were animated by blend of keyframed pivots and some puppet deformation. Enjoy!
The Adams County Library serves a small rural community. Funds are very limited. Despite that, it is fairly forward-thinking, always looking for innovative ways to reach patrons. This is doubly true for children. Fostering a love of reading and a connection with the public library in young people is central to the library's mission. To that end, we developed an exciting marketing strategy, the Adams County Avengers.
We were a group of library superheroes, promoting free-thinking and imagination, constantly battling our nemesis Dr. Monitor. Dr. Monitor hypnotizes children with his giant screen head, turning them into mindless technophiles. Now, the irony of using a digital video to promote non-screen activity wasn't lost on us. I wrote, directed, shot, edited, and created effects for the video.
It was a huge success. We even went around to the local schools in full costume and got mobbed for autographs.
I worked full time for the Adams County Public Library. During my time there I had a great time doing many jobs. I worked at the reference desk, conducted story hour, managed patron records, and played bouncer for the junior fight club that sometimes had impromptu meetings in the library. One of my favorite things I was able to do, though, was media work.
I created a new logo for the library:
As well as a few fancy animations to go with it!
I'll post the other three in a separate post! I also did a a few short super hero videos, complete with effects, to promote our summer reading programs. Those will be posted in a separate post as well. Stay tuned!
It's been a long time since I've updated the blog. I assure you all, it's not because I've stopped creating. Quite the contrary. I've had my fingers in many different venues. Mobile games, marketing campaigns, woodworking, travel media. Hell, I was even a super hero at one point. But I'm ready to make some even bigger changes in my life. My next few posts will be catching everyone up on some of the highlights of the last couple years, and then it will all be forward motion. New adventures await!
.... And by the way, if it wasn't clear from the above message,I am available for work! Animation, graphic design, motion graphics, video, you name it!
My latest 11 Second Club entry garnered me a 15th place ranking out of 217. That's my best yet! It's very exciting and motivating. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Earlier this year I did some animation work with Lightborne Lore, a small studio in Athens, Ohio. Mostly I worked in After Effects. It was a demonstration of a pretty complex concept of space-based solar power that would tackle some of the difficulties that have been discussed in the field. Anyway, here is that video.
Just recently I created artwork for a few cool guys at the new geek-culture blog The Critical Failure. I recommend it. It's updated regularly and the posts are pretty relevant to my interests at least. The idea of the artwork was that this D&D elf got a such a bad roll of the dice that he shot himself in the foot with his crossbow. Thus, rather than a critical hit, a critical failure. Anyway, check out their blog at TheCriticalFailure.com and let me know what you think in the comments. It's my first time digitally inking with vector software.
I've worked with Flash a bit in the past, but I figured now was a good time to really delve deeper into the program and learn some new things. I've been learning how to code Java recently and that has transferred over semi-well to coding actionscript. I've been working on both games and animation. For fun, here is a flash version of myself!
Just a fun little thing I did last night after seeing the upcrop of Jerusalem UFO videos. I thought, "how easy is this to fake," and since I did this in a couple of distracted hours after not using After Effects for anything like this before and not really touching the program at all in the last month or two, I concluded - it must not be hard at all.
Well, my plate has been a little full through various things. Helping with family, girlfriend, and doing so many artistic projects that I'm pretty sure the tenuous emulsion that's holding me together is pulled to its limits.
You'll see all that in the future.
Right now I'll present some sketches.
Here are some Burne Hogarth inspired head studies:
Well, not final resting place or anything, but out of my brief stint in Columbus. Between preparing for the move and AnimSchool class/work, I haven't had much time to update the blog. That should change now with the added bonus that I now have a scanner, so expect sketches every now and then!
