city designs for dr breakfast

and some character ideas

just a doodle

I was thinking today about 2D and 3D in student films thanks to a recent post on Michael Sporn's blog. I feel like 2D, 3D, hand drawn and after effects--there's no reason why it all can't come together in an efficient and effective way.

Here's an example of my workflow for a shot in Chicken Cowboy. I sketched out these keys first according to the storyboards. If I like the pose in the board enough, I can just use that as my key.


From here I can make vectorized shapes in after effects, or use the pre-made illustrator rigs if the poses are similar enough. But getting the right pose is always more important than using the premade rig.

Here it is in AE:

above is a pan BG I painted for CC.  This spring I left it on a school computer overnight, and the next day when I opened up the file--there was oprah!

I found out later that Harry was behind this.  Mos def the best banner ad I've ever seen.

here's a clip from Chicken Cowboy now online, hosted by sound designer Robin Arnott's new website.

For me, Chicken Cowboy was all about the sound. From initial concepts through boarding, the idea of sound as a way to supercharge the rhythm, pacing, and action of the film was crucial. Robin did a great job balcncing the very realistic and very stylized sounds required.

Sound really is half of filmmaking. I think so anyhow.  Check out the clip and see for yourself! Present are two scenes--one's very sophisticated and subtle from a sound standpoint, the other one is a little, well, louder.

oh the tintinnabulation

He's concentrating! You've got to make your atoms align!

And for good measure: a goose.

dr breakfast paintings

some sort of rough kitchen design, where it all starts.

For about a week now I've been spending a good 3 hours a day on trains and subway cars. Brooklyn to white plains is a little bit of a trek, but with a sketchbook and a paperback, it's a very doable, and dare I say it, very enjoyable commute.

Some of the people on the train crack me up, though.

This guy had his paper up, creating a little office for himself. I'm not sure if he was trying to muffle his business call out of politeness or out of privacy. He shouldn't have worried. The call was completely undecipherable, even to eavesdroppers.

"If you look at this next move as a destination from this place . . . where does that leave us incentive-wise? You're narrowing the focus of what an exit strategy looks like."

say what?

me trying to figure out the ins and outs of my next film.

It's always good to go back later and discover that what you worked out the previous day. . .

1) is bad.
2) makes no sense.
3) doesn't conform with previous ideas.
4) doesn't conform with previous themes.
5) doesn't conform with previous themes because the story has no theme.
6) is bad.

that's how I learn.

I'll post this again with hopes of boosting the view count:



Why are festivals so expensive? I'm going to start my own. Who's with me?

I started carrying around this little goat notepad:

Aside from having a good picture on the cover there, it's tiny. Smaller than a moleskin. Which is great, because I'm constantly losing those awkwardly-sized, expensive little black books.

Anyhow, little notepads are great for doodles.

Or for jotting down some storyboards just long enough to remember. Be sure to write it down more detailed somewhere else--this picture here doesn't make much sense otherwise. Or maybe this is how I really see things.

When in doubt, draw merlin. take advantage of the 1:4 aspect ratio.

I haven't told the blog world yet so here it goes. . .

I start as a story intern at Blue Sky on Monday!

I'm mad excited.* I'll let you guys know how it goes. Plus, the daily commute from Bed Stuy to White Plains should give me plenty of time to doodle, so maybe expect more bloggin'.

This is how I wish the dudes at Gringotts looked. Not like those scary goblins in the movies.

Dr Breakfast visits the pyramids!

*yes. I did just say "mad excited"

some pictures
horse!

more good news on the way

doodles:
"Hey you kids! Get away from those cows!"
freshly-minted chicken cowboy trailer now on youtube:




yeah! indy 500!

a scribble I painted on the back of tisch's commencement program.


I found out last week that shark suit won a marion carter green grant from the national board of review of motion pictures. It's enough encouragement for me to get rolling on my next project.

Wow. life after graduation has been busy. A lot of ins, lot of outs, lot of what-have-yous.

here are some old posts, selected at random, reposted. Just to keep the ol' blog up and moving. I've been doodling, but haven't had much time to paint anything. So I'll post some new stuff later this week.

About 10 days ago someone uploaded a copy of shark suit onto yahoo. I'm not really sure why they had a copy or why they uploaded it, but somehow it got 42,000 views. So I decided to start uploading shark suit myself, since I guess people will watch it.

first off, good ol' youtube:


If you'd like to watch in HD, check out shark suit on vimeo:

Shark Suit: the Musical from pizzaforeveryone on Vimeo.

feel free to comment if you hate it, etc.

Another great thing about this past week's spring animation showcase was the chance to do an installation for my experimental animation course. Doing something different is always fun.

So here it is, a giant ear with earwax and egg.


This box was filled with speakers. The sound travelled through the pvc pipe into a hole in the ear canal. The monitor also looped an egg spinning.

My hope was that, in order to hear the audio, you'd have to lean very close to the ear. Once there, you'd get a nice smell of the earwax, which was actually fresh peanut butter.

Ideally, I would have had a small fan in the box or pipe to blow the smell out further. But you can't have everything. Reactions were mostly positive, except that people don't seem to like peanut butter in this context.

here's some gauche stuff.


The pictures above(minust the frogs and dr breakfast) were from a catalog of Mississippi filming locations sent to me by the nice people at the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, MS, where Bigfoot's Eulogy screened a couple weeks ago. Looks like a swell place to make a movie.

Here are some toes.


and cacti

edit: my 200th post on this blog. uh, go me?

Thanks to everyone who came to the screening! We had a really great turnout--I only wish we had more chairs for the half of the audience that had to stand (including the Dean until someone got her a seat). What a great way to end college. Better than commencement could possibly be, anyhow.

Gonna start posting more videos, hopefully. Here's a tech demo of a tough scene from chicken cowboy.


Chicken Cowboy tech demo from pizzaforeveryone on Vimeo.

I'm a big fan of 3D that doesn't look like 3D. I try to use it not as a shortcut, but to let me do things I don't have the chops to do otherwise. Call me a sissy.

Today's the day! Come see chicken cowboy at NYU!

My mom made these chicken cowboy cookies. She made about 4 dozen of them.

Also, "Shark Suit: the Musical" won second place in the student category at the ASIFA East animation festival. There were lots of extremely awesome films shown. Just happy to be a part of the screening.

you got served


breakfast

We've all worked so damn hard for this. Lets take thursday to sit back, relax, and watch some really good cartoons.



knowing this is my 4th and final showcase screening makes me feel terrible. I'd like to say the college years flew by, but they lasted awhile. And they were mostly amazing.

Anyhow, stop by the screening to see chicken cowboy for the first time ever. This Thursday, 6pm. Screenings at 6:30 and 7:30pm. 721 Broadway, 9th floor, NYC. If you're going to SVA's show instead, you've got a good window of about 10 minutes to grabs some food and say hello.

below are some ideas for my next short, tentatively called "Dr Breakfast."


Hoping to get some ideas and a script up and running in the next couple weeks.

Time for some more drawing and painting.