Painting Update

Progress is a bit slow at the moment, mostly working on a series of replacement faces for the girl puppet (photos soon!)
But I've snuck a bit of time for the painting - still in progress, but it's coming along!

Painting in progress

The Imp is in the process of having the seams cleaned up so no picture yet, but here's the progress on the background painting for the new animation. I went more realistic so the puppet wouldn't look so out of place.

New Projects!

I've been sculpting away at the Imp, as well as a new character for a new animation. Currently untitled, it's going to be a lot of fun to work on.
It's an idea I've wanted to make for years. An old discarded puppet/creature sits in an attic, locked into place and staring at this painting (heavy Van Gogh influence in the painting). In his mind the character comes to life, and it evolves into a power struggle between the two. I've never thought of a way to do it before - it involved massive sets and props. So - I've decided to do it as a stage production (in stop mo). The lead puppet (sculpt below) and characters dressed in black puppeteering the main elements. It lets me tell a bigger story without needing a big team to do it. And I can focus on movement!





Here's the preliminary sculpts of the Imp (waiting to hear back from the director before continuing on). He'll have little wings which'll be really fun to animate. There'll be two but since it's greenscreened we'll film one, mod him up a bit, then film as the second one.

He's a little too friendly in these pics, need to devil him up a little bit!

New Reel

I just finished putting together my 2010 demo reel:


Up next - Imp puppet! The head is sculpted and the body will soon follow - the temptation is to try casting silicone into a silicone mold! A little risky if the release doesn't work but would love to try silicone molds.

Long time no Post!

Been keeping busy! I have some a new puppet (photo soon, just seaming some edges) and while Soma Foama is tricky to work with (very fast cure time) the lightness and feel of the puppet is amazing - so soft and flexible.

Which is great.... as I have my first puppet & animation commission! It's for an independent film and will be a small devilish imp - will be my first character with wings and I can't wait! It might even be shot on film which I've always wanted to try - though if I use a webcam as live assist I can still get away with using Dragon ;)


I've been also practicing on the scroll saw, and made a few geeky puzzles:


Zombie bookmarks:
And a puzzle from a photograph of my friends son.
A fun way to make things and get much better for cutting new props!

Animation relevant photos coming soon!

I love animating!

I really do - tried animating to sound for the first time today and it's a blast! It really guides movements and has a great feel when animating, really enjoyable. Another test with the ballet puppet and a slight costume change. Final version will have that sheet in the back ironed! And those sunflowers glued down a bit more.

Long Time No Post!

Ages without posting! Real world events (job issues) caused alot of stress and got in the way of animating! The nerve. But is all now resolved and I'm taking some time off to focus on animation - the goal is to get a job related to this! We'll see how it goes, all I can do is try to get better at what I do and go from there.

On that note, a short test with the ballet puppet:


Thoughts and crits always welcome!