Stephen P Neary

2012-01-27T13:44:00.001-08:00

I've been out at sundance this week. It's been awesome. saw some really great shorts by don hertzfeldt, julia pott, kangmin kim, & others. and features! and things!

in lieu of drawings, here are some random pictures from park city.

if you run outta town for awhile to the middle of nowhere, you'll see this

this snowman and I flew around the world one evening.

clips of dr breakfast played at a bowling alley? check that off my bucket list.

ok. back to new york soon. and reality.

2012-01-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

oh cripes has it been busy. lots of stuff to get ready for sundance, and the top-secret project at work that I'll hopefully get to show people someday.

Here's a new poster for dr breakfast. Do you want your own dr breakfast poster? It's OK to say no.

I started writing for this blog on the huffington post called the sundance diaries. It went up today, but I should be updating until the fest is over at the end of the month. The other short filmmakers have some great stuff to say. But you don't have to take my word for i t.

2011-12-08T06:29:00.000-08:00

i wanted to do another post like this one, showing a bit of how i animate using a combination paper and after effects. it's not the most efficient system out there, but it's the most efficient system for me, working on a train at least.

all starts with the storyboards/animatic. I try to draw really loose, but with enough poses so I know what's going to happen.

next some sort of layout to draw over on paper. it's pretty much the same here, but ideally a layout should improve the staging a bit.

Pencil animation. Really going scooby doo on this one--limiting the parts I animate with multiple layers.

From here I'll use a multiply filter in after effects to color underneath the pencil drawing. They're just shape layers with the paths adjusted a tiny bit each frame. I've found this to be a little quicker than coloring frame by frame in photoshop, but it's not nearly as exact.

Oh! add the egg too.

add the watercolor BG

and the final product

oh yeah! dr breakfast is a vimeo staff pick! thank you so much!

2011-12-06T18:30:00.000-08:00

hi everyone. it's been a crazy couple weeks with work, travel, holidays, and commuting. and there's this thing--this is new. . .

really excited to go to park city in January!

and a huge thank you to the crew--sound designer Robin Arnott does some insane stuff--try watching with your eyes closed. And Nick Koenig's music is awesome. And we had the perfect deer, Chris Siemasko and Vadim Bazhanov.

I was going through some old, embarrassing sketchbooks and I found my first ever dr breakfast ideas. They're a lot older than I thought they were--drawn 7 years ago, right after I graduated high school.

I guess it all started with bread. Hmm. Anyhow, pretty weird how ideas come back, or maybe they never leave. Just mutate a little. Eventually, the scene became this.

2011-12-05T20:55:00.000-08:00

from the old sketchbook

sad batman

2011-11-30T20:18:00.000-08:00

ctn-expo was rad! got to see a bunch of friends and sold a bunch of sketchbooks. I even sold out of sandwiches--I think next year, I'm just going to sell sandwiches.

painted this in between slicing up avocados. the mountains say hi.

dr breakfast online!!!

2011-11-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

it's been done for months, but it's finally time to put the dumb thing online.

Had some great screenings at Austin Film Festival and AFI Fest--so I finally decided to just let the world see it rather than keep it offline for the festivals. Still more festivals to come, however.

I had a great time making Dr Breakfast. I have a pretty long commute, and it's great for animating films. Metro-North even has electrical outlets in cars, so you can plug in your lightbox. I even brought my scanner along a couple trips. Word of warning though--animating in public is one of the best ways to court ridicule.

Overall, making a film is a great break from working on films every day. stills & full credits below!

written, directed, animated by
stephen p neary

sound design, mix
robin arnott

music
nick koenig

additional foley
giggles

deer 1 chris siemasko
deer 2 vadim bazhanov
pj man stephen neary
dr breakfast sean stogner
capt ahab robin arnott

additional animation
connie li chan

voice recording
tim nordquist
justine warwick

produced by
stephen p neary

with giant thanks to mrs lugo's 3rd grade elementary class!

2011-11-07T06:51:00.000-08:00

being a kid is great. i miss after-school time--playing with legos while watching bob ross paint on pbs.

2011-11-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

yeah dr breakfast plays at AFI Fest in LA nov 8 & 9!

2011-10-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

s'more sketchbook

bye! gotta catch a plane now.

2011-10-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

hello!

Going to the austin film festival next week for the premiere of dr breakfast! I'm psyched to see some Lasseter and michael arndt panels out there too. cause I'm a nerd.

I found this photo from awhile back of all the dr b backgrounds:

send me your address and I will ship one your way.

I'm also going to be at CTN expo in LA this november. I'll be selling some art. I'm also selling vegetarian sandwiches. there's never good food at those things. Do you have a favorite sandwich?

I've been super busy with this new project at work. But it's pretty cool. It's a secret.

bye!

2011-09-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

ssketchbook dump

my newly lengthened commute means plenty of train doodle time.

toxie's back!

2011-09-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

here's a promo I did for npr's planet money podcast. Last year you might remember the cartoon I made about toxie, their pet toxic asset.

Well, turns out that pool of mortgages became the subject of a lawsuit, and the good folks at planet money could potentially earn $75,000 as a result. Which they would give to charity.

here's the full podcast!

And here are a few sketches. We already had the toxie model in after effects, so I could crank the entire thing out in a couple hours.

thanks to connie for letting me work on this instead of going to see the lion king with her.

2011-08-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

i blame my lack of posts on work deadlines, moving, and the hurricane.

2011-08-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

train drawings

(sandeep loves avatar)

dr breakfast sneak peek!

2011-07-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Dr Breakfast will have its first public screening at the Katonah Museum of Art, on Thursday, July 21, as part of Surrealist Outdoor Cinema. Many thanks to Andy Keir for curating the rad collection of films. Watching movies outside is always a real treat, especially in friendly weather and fine company. Doors open at 8:00pm.

"hooray!"

Dr Breakfast will screen in front of one of my all-time favorite movies, Being John Malkovich. It's one of those rare, brilliant movies that I find endlessly watchable.

so yeah, hop on Metro North and check it out! It's only an hour from grand central, and the fresh air will do us city folk some good.

2011-07-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

some puppies, babies

2011-06-20T06:49:00.001-07:00

here's the dr breakfast trailer:

So yeah, hopefully that leaves more questions than answers.

Blue Sky has a new exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, with tons of production work from ice age and other movies. In studio the story department has a huge wall of caricatures, so they borrowed some for the show--Here's a sketch I did of patrick harpin that's in the exhibit:

and . . . you can finally watch chicken cowboy on vimeo. quality is a lil better.

2011-05-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

it's all done. Finished. stay tuned for screening info and eventual internet launch...

Robin Arnott did an amazing job with the sound design--we had an epic mix session at his studio in Austin a couple weeks ago. Nick Koenig lends a really awesome score. I'd say that old hat about sound being half the film, but I think in this case, the sound makes the film. check their stuffs out.

I'd like to post more how-to type stuff in the coming weeks. but here are a few stills for now.

time to catch the bus!

2011-05-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

some train doodles:

2011-05-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

super busy. crunch time, springtime, and finishing up all the dr breakfast stuff... i'll try to get back to semi-regular posting.

here's a cover i did for i love bad movies, a pretty cool zine. You may recognize the characters from the Walter Murch classic, Return to Oz.

and here's a commission I painted a while back for a friend.

now that dr breakfast is winding down, it's time to post my collection of odd after effects error alerts. enjoy and be inspired!

what does it mean?

Blue Sky's latest movie, Rio opened a couple weeks ago. Congrats to everyone!

Rio is a low-budget, indie mublecore dramedy about a bird coming to terms with his own mortality. just kidding. I did a lot of early development on the monkey characters--here's a drawing.

everyone go outside!

2011-04-14T20:48:00.001-07:00

some sketchbook stuff

seb cuts his own hair.

2011-03-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

here's an animation test from dr breakfast. trying to finalize all the specifics.

dr breakfast animation test from pizzaforeveryone on Vimeo.

I finally threw away my giant ear. After four apartments in four years, it was just time to say goodbye.

if you're looking for a giant nose, i've got one of those too.

if you're looking for a screening to attend, the New York International Children's Film Festival will be screening Let's Make Out at 6pm on Saturday. It's in a block called For Teens & Adults Only (that way it won't give the younger kids any ideas).

2011-03-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

some doodles

2011-03-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

dr breakfast is finally animated! I'll be working on post production stuff and making little tweaks in the next month.

seems like ages since I doodled the first ideas during class--at one point I almost made this as my senior thesis instead of chicken cowboy . The story has changed a lot along the way. Most of all I wanted to do something different.

It's really hard to make shorts with a full time job. I never expected that when i started at blue sky fresh outta school. Seems like balancing everything is harder than the actual work. But I love making films.

2011-02-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

more stills:

done . . . soon . . . ish

2011-01-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

here's some more dr breakfast work. i wanted to do more traditional animation for some sections. but everything starts with the boards:

from here i trace onto paper for layouts.

and here's the animation. try to stick to very limited cycles, or else i will be working on this cartoon forever. and it already feels like forever.

color with shape layers in after effects.

add watercolor background. probably won't do this for everything.

final animation below

2011-01-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

first still from the new short. many to follow.

2010-12-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

i wrote this weird lil book awhile back, but I had to put it on hold behind some of my other side projects. Since I haven't had time to post anything else, here it is!

still animating on dr breakfast! I'll post some stuff soon maybe.

2010-11-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

happy thanksgivin! Dine with deer and count blessings!

Most of the scenes for my next film are looking like this--some animation, some storyboards. Progress moves slowly forward. Lots of working on the train.

doodles:

yeti drew me with the pudding people:

it's a very accurate portrait.

2010-11-09T06:40:00.000-08:00

this week on This American Life you can hear the full story of Toxie!

Sit back, relax, and listen to some depressing news about the state of our economy, as lightheartedly investigated and reported by the amazing David Kestenbaum and Chana Joffe-Walt. And review the cartoon it inspired!

2010-10-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

I was really sleepy after making the npr thing. but I'm back.

that and my scanner and I are fighting again.

ok that's better. some random sketchbook pages full of obnoxious colors:

don't worry, dr breakfast is coming along...

2010-09-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

here's the youtube embed for toxie:

I drew some original sketches, thinking toxie could maybe be a turtle. Because I love turtles.

Still have Toxie coughing up change and all that.

But we decided to go in more of a monster direction to keep with the feel of the first animation. I think it ended up being a better design anyhow. More of a mischievous gremlin-type character.

from there I started building models for everything. Lots of hand-drawn elements scanned and puppeted in after effects. For me this is the fastest way to work. Also I animated a stock bounce that could be reused and adjusted into lots of different scenes:

At the same time, I'm thumbnailing story boards to the audio track:

Then cleaning these ideas up into boards for an animatic. I try to keep the boards clean enough to serve as really bad layouts for animation, but loose enough to draw quickly.

Then I just animate the after effects model over the boards. the finished still is below.

All in all we had a little over 3 weeks to do everything. 1 week for boards, 1/2 for models, and the rest of the time to animate.

2010-09-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

i haven't posted in awhile--but I made this cartoon! This one is for NPR's Planet Money. It's about Toxie, a personified toxic asset that helped burst the housing bubble.

The embed is a little funky, but you can see the full cartoon here. Big thanks to connie and robin for helping out. We had about zero time, but we somehow made the deadline. And huge thanks to planet money for giving us something wacky to make.

I'll post some more making-of stuff and a youtube embed soon. For now it's nap time.

2010-08-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

ive been quietly toiling away on dr breakfast. most days on the train my laptop screen looks something like this:

but here's a random selection of sketchbook pages too.

rz's fauvist nightmare

sometimes little kids watch me draw on the subway. They always look like the don't really care what I'm drawing--but seeing me draw makes them remember that they want to draw something. This 5 year old took my sketchbook and drew this picture. he wouldn't tell us what it was until he was finished. Then his mother and I got three guesses.

it's a landscape from avatar, of course.

One more thing, if you live in france or germany, you can catch screenings of Chicken Cowboy on the ARTE tv network. check your local listings I guess. It's pretty cool that they broadcast short films on tv in Europe, and I wish there was a similar market here in the US.

2010-07-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

testing out colors for bg panels. just painting over the storyboards. i think I'm going to do the finals in watercolor & gouache ala chicken cowboy.

if you're in new york at all, let's make out will be playing sunday august 1 at animation block party. go cause it will be great! And look at that lineup!

2010-07-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

what batman loves.

and other doodles.

2010-07-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

he's a watermelon.

that's about it, really.

2010-06-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

dogs and cats

2010-06-23T06:30:00.001-07:00

I've turned into one of those really busy people who doesn't update.

I got mentioned alongside some ridiculously talented people in Variety a couple weeks ago. So I ended up going the Annecy at the last minute to speak on a panel. Annecy is obscenely gorgeous:

Working on dr breakfast. Starting to build the models in after effects.

Originally I wanted to animate on pencil and made let's make out as a production test--but the realities of making a 6 minute short in my spare time--things are probably going to look more like this crude test, with some hand drawn scenes thrown in sparingly.

similar to chicken cowboy--very pared down rigs, because I usually end up breaking them anyway. Hopefully this allows more time for story and direction.

oh yeah! check out the L Magazine screening of animation block party on Friday, june 25, at 8pm! You can see Chicken Cowboy and other awesome shorts!

2010-06-03T20:05:00.001-07:00

pile of practice figure drawings.

step 1: tear up drawings

2: get plastic bin full of red wigglers

3: place shredded drawings in bin

4: add moldy oldy food

5: let the worms do what they do.

get back to drawing. make more worm food.

2010-06-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

untold trials of bygone generations

2010-05-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

jury duty part II

some studies

2010-05-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

jury duty part I

2010-05-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

the amazing jerod: story artist, mountain climber, underwear model

2010-04-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

hi everyone. things have been very busy.

big thanks to connie for the bird masks.

first off, you can now see chicken cowboy on channel frederator. since CC is finally slowing down in the festival department, I thought it would be cool to share with the immense and supportive frederator community. plus, they've got it up in hd!

here are some paintings i've been doing with blender dog:

Blender dog was inspired by my childhood dog, mickey. He wasn't really a good dog, more of an unrelenting tornado of destruction and neurosis. But man, he made us laugh. And that always made up for all those sticks of butter he stole and ate.

2010-04-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

things that batman loves:

2010-04-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

giants!

2010-03-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

i finally finished boarding dr breakfast.

right before my computer died.

2010-03-08T21:15:00.000-08:00

what does a foot wear to a bank robbery?

then he puts on his game face.

I got really busy with work, but i will post something soon. something other than me getting distracted while putting on my socks.

Oh yeah! Chicken cowboy is playing at the new york international children's film festival! You can see it march 13, 20, and 21.

2010-02-16T17:06:00.001-08:00

o winter i will best you yet.

if you're in LA, check out animation block party, screening on the 18th.

you can see chicken cowboy.

2010-02-04T18:53:00.001-08:00

hi everyone. It's been a busy couple of weeks. lots of work, and I got to speak last week at AENY. Everyone there got a sneek peek of Dr. Breakfast. It was the first time I'd pitched the boards to a large group, and it's always fascinating to hear what plays and what doesn't.

below, here's my contribution to a charity art auction. David LaMattina and Chad Walker at Blue Sky made a documentary about a pen pal program between sixth graders living in Bed-Stuy and orphans in Sierra Leone. The auction benefits both groups of students.

you may recognize the mailboxes from let's make out:

the awesome people at JibJab put let's make out on their website as a valentines day card. So you can send it to people!

It's also still up on youtube:

2010-01-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

I've been barely finding time to put a few blender dog illustrations together. here's one:

I'm going to monkey with the scanner settings a little more. watercolors never look quite right on a computer screen. Anyone have any tips?

meanwhile, dr breakfast lumbers toward a complete and awkward first pass.

strange things will happen.

2010-01-09T13:18:00.001-08:00

train and travel doodles

mighty ed, master of the commute.

2010-01-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

happy 2010! here are some more blender dogs.

testing out some slight variations in line and paper.

2009-12-21T21:48:00.000-08:00

some chicken cowboys

more dr breakfast

2009-12-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

some dr breakfast boards:

little by little.

2009-11-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

kurt vonnegut says happy thanksgiving!

2009-11-09T07:20:00.000-08:00

seems like captain ahab could have been sneakier:

"I'M HERE TO CALL A TRUCE!"

some other doodles:

If you're in texas this weekend, check out chicken cowboy at the lone star international film festival. my pal andrew disney programmed the rad block and is throwing a really great party afterwards. Check out the trailer he cut too:

*edit
tomorrow in austin there's another screening of Chicken Cowboy at Animation Block Party!

chicken cowboy has definitely played more in texas than anyplace else.

2009-11-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

blender dog! you are a bad dog!

2009-10-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

some train sketches.

whatever normand wants, normand gets.

deer does some laundry.

2009-10-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

If you're in indianapolis this weekend, check out the heartland film festival. You can see chicken cowboy on saturday, tuesday, or wednesday.

I'm excited to have my film play there because I remember attending in high school, before I knew I was going to grow up and do this stuff for a living.

If you're in new york, chicken cowboy is also playing next week at hdfest. it will screen wednesday at 9. both screenings will be in hd, which looks way better than youtube.

i started boarding something. this may look familiar. everybody pester me to finish this thing. I'm going to keep it rough so I probably won't be posting much of the boarding process.

Lately I've been trying to bake bread. the results sometimes reward, sometimes dissapoint. But I like this picture:

2009-10-01T19:32:00.001-07:00

2009-09-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

here are some drawings i did for a pitch awhile back.

I found this strange painting on the street:

(flat stanley not included)

2009-09-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

some more sketchbook. . .

2009-09-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

hi everyone. here are some doodles from my sketchbook. Please try to enjoy if you can.

can you guess which person pictured below is my father?

september comes again. I cannot believe I have lived in this city for five years now. I have loved it very much.

2009-08-21T07:40:00.001-07:00

dr breakfast painting. 18 x 36. I will show the progression. That way it looks like I've been doing more personal work than I actually have been. Work is busy.

Hopefully I can do more painting this fall. Very refreshing at the end of a long day.

2009-08-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

I like postcards, so I think I'm going to print a few of these up.

I regret not posting for whale wednesday. a day late, a dollar short:

speaking of whales, my friend barbara made me this awesome birthday cake:

It's really quite something. And I don't know how she managed on the subway from brooklyn. New york is a magical place in the summer.

There's a block in the village under invasion of caterpillars. I see a few every time I pass. Some little kids were playing with them too, and we took this picture. They might be low-level pokémon.

Here's another Dr Breakfast painting I've been working on. I'll post the finished product later.

Oh yeah! Chicken Cowboy won the Audience Award at ABP and the Hoosier-Lens Award at IIFF. Thanks to everyone who saw the film at either festival!

2009-07-22T16:06:00.001-07:00

when the world gets you down, bake a pie.

you're probably all pretty sick of the festival news, but here are a few more places you can see Chicken Cowboy:

Animation Block Party, New York City (this weekend)
Trimedia Film Festival, Old Town Fort Collins, Colorado, Sept 11 - 13
Calgary International Film Festival, Sept. 25 - Oct 4

2009-07-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

princess-tastic figure drawing session.

2009-07-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

a little something something from the sketchbook.

sea creatures. don't forget that tomorrow and every wednesday is whale wednesday.

jim henson we all miss you more than ever.

2009-06-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

some faces from the ol' sketchbook.

friends, strangers, people on tv & in print. no one is safe.

michael jackson--also from indiana.

2009-06-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. in chicken cowboy-related news, the DGA screening was great. CC will screening next at the indianapolis international film festival

IIFF is July 15-25. check it out! Indianapolis is my hometown, so this is especially cool for me. Like Canadians, Hoosiers are strange and often creative people. Famous Hoosiers include Larry Bird, James Dean, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Twyla Tharp, Wes Mongomery, and, as the security guard at the airport reminded me after seeing my driver's license last week, John Cougar Mellencamp. Someday i will paint a series of hoosier portraits.

Come have an omelette with me can also be seen this week at the NYC Food Film Festival. Check out the schedule here. Lots of food-related films and actual food and drinks.

Here are some sketches of flight attendants

here is vadim.

and some paint chips.

you can see some dr breakfast in there. I would like to storyboard dr breakfast on paint samples.

Finally, thank you all for the kind comments on let's make out!

2009-05-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

hi everyone. Here's my latest short, "let's make out." I started back in march, and it's taken me a little while to finally get the thing done. Pretty much all cycles of animation done after work or during lunch. something to keep me busy...

It's much in the same style of come have an omelette with me. this one's a little more detailed though.

thanks to connie for some extra vocals there. The original idea was to have a bunch of different animators do make out cycles, but things got a little hectic as always.

Here are some stills.

If you're in Los Angeles on June 2nd, you can see Chicken Cowboy at the Director's Guild. Here's the schedule for tuesday. Many fine films playing. I'll be there as well.

Anyhow, with let's make out done, it's on to the next project. hoping to get back to dr breakfast a bit, but we will see.

2009-05-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

some stills from the new short

2009-05-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

it's not so bad.

I've been skimming through ezra pound's ABC of Reading on the train. One of my profs, Nick Tanis, first recommended it in his writing for the short film class. Pound's educated (and often snarky) criticisms firstly apply to poetry. But his writings also provide some fun exercises for writers, filmmakers, and animators alike. Just substitute the medium.

Take the passage below:

You have, probably all of you, your favourite writers.

What would happen to you if you started writing immediately after you had been reading

or C?

If you wanted to say something they hadn't said, or something of a different kind, would their manner of writing make your statement more accurate?

More interesting?

. . . . . .

Do you know why you like . . . .

Do you in any way distinguish beetween writers whom you 'like' and those whom you 'respect'?

Why, and how?

What do you guys think? What are your filmmaking or drawing sensibilities? Where do they come from? How easily are they influenced? Is this a good thing? How critical are we of what we see? I'll see how this is met before I post my own responses.

2009-05-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

some trees

2009-05-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's been another good week for chicken cowboy. CC won 1st at asifa-east in the student category. Congradulations to all the winners! full list can be seen here. Chicken Cowboy also won best animation at the national film festival for talented youth. Thanks!

Here's some fan art!

This comes from Aspen Middle School. Aspen Shortsfest has a great program that brings filmmakers into the classroom to show their shorts and answer questions about them.

This one is from chris siemasko. I like it, but would probably like it more if it was drawn by a student.

naw i'm just kidding. yeah napkin drawings!

i'll start posting more again, not that you guys have been missing out on much.

2009-04-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

this sunday, if you're in new york...

be there or be [ ]

The New School

Tischman Auditorim

66 W. 12th St.

(bet. 5th/6th)

here's another still from the project:

2009-04-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

hi everyone. Here are some concepts for the short short I've been working on in my free time. With fewer scenes unfinished than complete, it's time to start thinking about the next phase. How are these all going to fit together? And how to color them (with as little work as possible)?

These are just ideas. Anything and everything could and will change. nothing is permanent.

from what I've been showing so far, you can tell I'm really pushing the story and the production value. Well, not exactly. This is another experiment to keep me going before my next big short gets underway. A sort of spiritual sequel to come have an omelette with me.

speaking of CHAOWM, if you're in new york you'll be able to catch the world premiere at the new york food film festival, June 13-19th. food and film excite me.

In other news, you can catch Chicken Cowboy this weekend at NFFTY in Seattle, or next week at Rincon International. I think some more screenings are still coming, just in case you're not sick of chicken westerns.

have I been dropping too many hyperlinks lately? sorry if it's a little tacky.

2009-04-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

happy friday

2009-04-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

first off, here are some hugging dolphins

It's been a busy past week. Chicken Cowboy won for animation at AFI Dallas, and won Aspen Shortfest's "High Five to Lo-Fi" award. I was told that means it had the best low-budget to high production value.

Going to Aspen Shortsfest was a blast too. Met tons of extremely talented filmmakers. It also made me sad to miss AFI.

It's really amazing all the work that goes into making these festivals happen. My hats off to all the organizers and volunteers.

Looking forward to getting back to work on this short short. It's going to utilize a lot of the animation I've been posting lately. Can you detect a theme?

2009-04-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

hi guys. if you haven't heard the news, here it is.

Thanks again to everyone who made chicken cowboy possible. It was a great way to finish nyu. Tons of fun to make.

Here's second drawing I ever did of chicken cowboy. It was waaay back, summer of 06. The first drawing I did on a beach in california-- I'm too tired to dig it up and it's almost too silly to post.

here are some other old paintings of cc.

I'm off to aspen shortsfest. Thanks to everyone who saw chicken cowboy at AFI Dallas and First Run this past week. In the next month it's playing at NFFTY and Nashville.

2009-03-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

here are some more drawings.

it's going to be a busy week.

2009-03-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

right about now i would trade internet for hot water.

Would you rather have internet or hot water? For the rest of your life. Why?

2009-03-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

so it goes

2009-03-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

new dr breakfast painting

18 x 24 I think

2009-03-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

.....

2009-03-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

hi everyone. Things at work have gotten a little more busy for me. As a result, I've had to scale back a little on dr breakfast.

The good news is I've decided instead to take up another smaller project, more in the vein of come have an omelette with me, the thing I made this summer.

I'm not sure when it will be done. Here are some concepts.

Expect the limited production values of an after-work-just-for-fun-style project! And don't expect much of a plot.

More news. Chicken Cowboy will be screening at Aspen Shortsfest in April. Leaping lizards!

2009-02-23T20:10:00.000-08:00

some more turtles.

for all those out in the world, you can catch chicken cowboy at a festival near you! In march cc will be playing at Dallas AFI Film Festival and the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) in Seattle. And for now you can still catch it on youtube, too.

2009-02-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

some recent sketchbook stuff.

more koalas.

thumbnails.

I know that today is valentine's day because this morning one of my turtles died. Goodbye lady geranium. I wish winter would end sooner too.

2009-02-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

batmen

2009-01-29T06:21:00.000-08:00

deer bath

doctor breakfast is slowly moving beyond a random collection of ideas into something resembling an outline. It's strange to see it coming together a little more, and stranger still how personal this short is becoming. hopefully I can get started on boarding pretty soon.

2009-01-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

"but as soon as I saw him I felt that he was my father, my flesh and blood, my future and my doom. I knew that when I was grown I would be something like him; I would have to plan my campaigns within his limitations." -john cheever

I read this the other day and thought of my dad, of course. So here's dennis. Upon rereading this passage a more couple times, I've also realized it applies really well to the movie Teen Wolf.

And some koalas. I'll post more dr breakfast, but figured for today everyone's a little burnt out on floating breakfast ghosts and droopy eyeballs.

scuba diver man reminding you to swim safe.

2009-01-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

the scuba diver

he's been stuck for thirty years.

2009-01-21T06:53:00.000-08:00

Some pictures of a the giant nose.

It's a little sharper than I'd like, but that's paper mache for you. You either get lumpy or angular.

It hangs on my wall. Here you can see the coffee grounds that make the nose smell like coffee.

Here you can see the original plans (again). And below you can see the fan way up in the nose that blows out the smell. I think that, if we all had fans in our noses, a lot less people would pick them.

2009-01-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

Here's some exploratory work for dr breakfast. mostly just train doodles.

The story isn't quite solid yet, but so far this film is feeling less concretely narrative than ones I've done before. I like the idea of playing with emotional continuity rather than narrative continuity. A stream of consciousness, more dream-like.

The process has been fun so far. Here's a larger painting I did. Excuse the lousy laptop camera.

Oh yeah--Chicken Cowboy is now on imdb. Still waiting on all the credits to process, but check it out, I guess.

2009-01-06T05:54:00.000-08:00

FACE MELT

i did this way back when last year for a friend's live action short. it's amazing what you'll find on old usb drives. best viewed on loop.

as a child I loved watching raiders of the lost ark. but that end--jeez. terrifying. i think i still have the occasional face melting dream to this day.

2008-12-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

hi everyone. Lots of people out there haven't seen chicken cowboy yet, and I've gotten a few requests. so I decided, what the hey, I'll put it online.

I hope you enjoy it.

On a more theoretical note, the festival system is extremely goofy. I really appreciate film festivals, especially the ones that screen chicken cowboy, but others seem to have very arbitrary methods for selecting shorts and features. I haven't figured out a clear formula for what works and what doesn't. And it all gets in the way of what I like to do--actually make these films. the idea of festivals as a path towards eventual internet or video distribution further complicates things. Perhaps it's just me--I'm pretty impatient, and the process of building a buzz around a short for one to two years during a festival run before the world can see it online or on dvd seems a little anti-climactic, especially if I have a job and am not dependent on Chicken Cowboy for money.

Plus, who cares? I make cartoons.

Anyhow, I decided to put CC on youtube. Just for a bit, maybe longer. Some festivals have a problem with cartoons being available online while they're screening. So I'll see what sort of reaction I get--if anybody has a huge problem, I will take it down.

I'd also like to make chicken cowboy available on DVD in the next year, along with my previous films shark suit and bigfoot's eulogy.

you know, something for my parents to buy.

2008-12-12T05:38:00.000-08:00

first off, a public service announcement from the cast of full house:

and now some ideas for dr breakfast