Mouths

Just thought I'd show you a series of mouths I use for making the main character talk.  I'm pretty happy with the way animating dialog is turning out so far.  I've been testing out the mouths first by using After Effects.  I have a layer with a mouthless puppet and then insert each mouth on it's own layer for the time needed to portray the syllable it needs to.  This acts as a test and a guide.  I can then follow the quicktime I make from my After Effects file and organize the mouths, decipher which frame they should be on and make an x-sheet to follow while animating.  I don't want the final mouths to be an After Effects thing.  I'd rather put paper mouths on the puppet frame by frame as I animate.  It blends in so much better this way, and I'm really going for that practical stop motion feel.

By the way, Happy New Year!  2015 will finally be the year this project sees the light of day!  Episode 1 is in the can, and episode 2 is half way there.  I don't like declaring release dates, just because I never know what it will really take to do it right till I get there, but I'm really hoping to get the first two episodes on line in February 2015.  Then, subsequent episodes will follow when they're done.  Initially I'm thinking 6 episodes total which I'll release over the coming year.  Cheers!

Episode 1 is in the can!

Episode 1 of my forthcoming web mini series is done shooting.  The second episode is written and I'm blocking out the shots and recording dialog for it now.  I'm on track for debuting this project by the begining of 2015. Yippee!

The Boxtrolls

I've been working Laika's next film, The Boxtrolls for the last two years.  Now, at last there's a real trailer for it! The film comes out September 26th.  For the most part on this film I was responsible for all the animator x-sheets, for those that don't know what that is, it involves breaking down the dialog into phonetics, frame by frame so the stop motion animators know which part of the word they're on when they're animating.  By the end I got to do the facial animation on a few shots as well.  It looks like VFX has been hard at work putting together the final look of the film.  This trailer looks great!

Boxtrolls Trailer

I'm Back!

Okay, I know it's been an embarrassingly long time since I posted anything.  For anyone that's actually reading this, thanks for sticking with me!  Awesome things are on the way, I promise!  The first instalment of my webisodes is in production.  And to prove it here is a frame from the first shot of the first webisode.

It's going to be a series of quick, one minute or so comedy bits.  One guy in an office and the infinite possibilities of poking fun at the world of work.  I want to release the first three all at once by the end of the year, since they're so short.  From then on, they'll be released one by one.  This blog is where you can get sneak peaks and tidbits about my progress, and of course the grand announcement that this project is finally out there and ready to be seen.  Stay tuned!!!