Photo of the Day - Untitled

, a photo by old＊love on Flickr.

MGMT - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

Another amazing piece of animation from oneedo.  These are the guys who brought you Apache, which was equally awesome. I love how they take simple 2D animation and use a series of layers to build an interesting composition.

the tinker toy sword

the tinker toy sword, a photo by henebry on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
sometimes he looks old and sometimes he looks young and sometimes he looks a little bit of both.
like here.

Amalgamation

Amalgamation
amal-gam-ation
1. a combination of different elements into a single body


motion : Micaël Reynaud, gplus.to/micael
portraits : Michael Jang, michaeljang.com
music : Memory Tapes, myspace.com/memorytapes
animated gif available, j.mp/amagamation
youtube 1080p version, youtu.be/5lugDrGlQTQ?hd=1
static portraits, j.mp/uKhLs3 (+ interview of M. Jang)

I Love You, Will Smith

I really do....and you better to. Watch this hilarious piece from Bradley Jackson to find out why.

Bunhouse Productions

Recently I uploaded the short video I made with my friends called "A Drug Deal Gone Bad." During the shoot that day my girlfriend, Lisa, had snapped a few shots of us with her Mamiya C330. This was my favorite shot in Danny B's creepy basement. My one hope is to never stop making movies with these fools, no matter how dumb they are.

The Bunhouse Productions crew starting from left: Kevin, Dusty, Chris (me), Danny B, Spike (not pictured)

Creating the Mean Mug & Slim Teaser

I have been wanting to create a 3rd episode of Mean Mug & Slim and really change it up. I thought the first two episodes were fine but they were a little cheesy and safe, I want to push the boundaries a bit and have some more fun. I also wanted to try and see if I can use video or photographs as a background instead of creating illustrated backgrounds. I figured this could look cool and also save me time in the production of an episode. So to complete this I knew I needed two things.

1. The illustrator file of Slim, broken out into individual layers and labeled appropriately (this is necessary for what I do in After Effects)

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2. A video for the background (but below is just a still image because you get the idea)

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The next step is to bring Slim into After Effects. When importing you want to select the option Composition - Retain Layer Sizes because this will keep all our layers exactly as we had them in Illustrator so our character is easy to animate.

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Next, parent the appropriate body parts (arms to torso), and use puppet pins to create bends in the limbs.

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Now Slim is ready to animate. I kept the animation simple because this was only a test to see if the look would work.  So I placed Slim into a separate sequence with my video and masked out a section to hide him behind the table. The initial result looked pretty good!

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However there is a problem. My camera footage is shaky because it is hand held, and Slim doesn't stay in the same spot on the couch. Well to solve for this I simply motion tracked the position and rotation of my video and applied all keyframes to a Null layer named Null 1.  I then parented my Slim sequence to the Null 1 and everything was good to go again. In the end the motion gives the piece a realistic quality that I enjoy.

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Motion tracking rotation based on the corner of my table. Keeping the position and rotation points far apart is key.

Motion tracking position based on the red light of my video game controller. A high contrast area is key.

After this it's just about adding those little touches to really pull everything together. A simple title, shadows on the wall and under Slim for weight, and a color ramp with a lighten mode over everything to pump up the lighting.

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The final product came out as good as I could have hoped so I plan to go ahead with this process in the future. We will see if I run into any interesting problems as I do.

Losers

I really hate Everynone....and by hate I mean wish I could be them. I would love to work on a production like they do. They shoot video like photography in motion and their work always builds in excitement. Always fun to watch and this one is no different.

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, TWO

Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate are the geniuses that brought us this wonderfully adorable character. This is part two of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and I must say this episode had me smiling the whole time. Just a feel good short and there is nothing wrong with that.

Danny. Homeowner. Adult.

Growing up is weird to say the least.  Ever since I graduated college I feel as though I have been catapulted into adulthood. All of a sudden I have to be my brother's best man while all my friends are getting married and knocked up.  Needless to say I am ready for none of this. I think I will be immature just a while longer.
This brings us to Danny. Homeowner. Adult.

And with any great first home comes the first bar. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Revamp

It had to happen sooner or later. Might as well be now. You will notice everything got a lot bigger on this site. Well, bigger is better, especially when it comes to photo, video, and illustration. I want you guys to be able to notice all the little things that go into these works like I do, and to accomplish that I had to reformat my blog. So you might run into a few weird looking posts, but in the next few days I plan on fixing all the kinks. Enjoy the view!

Shorts

Here are some inspiring short animations I came across today. Each one is different but they are all memorable and fun.

Ray Prints by Blacklist

Cloud Rainbow by Nathan Love

ZeroFilm NYC Open by MK12

This 'n That does T-shirts

I'm hoping in the near future to begin creating my own, unique t-shirt designs and selling them individually.  I will post more when I actually start creating shirts, I'm planning for early next year. In the mean time I will be creating some designs for print. I find it only fitting for the first design to be a promotional one.

Pentax K1000

Yet another camera down. I like everyone better than the last. Now the only thing left is the mammoth Mamiya. I'm a little nervous but I think what I've learned with the other cameras will really help me out.

Brownie Starmite Camera Timelapse

Just last night I created my very first timelapse of an illustration. I have been wanting to do this for a while as a way to incorporate my illustration work into my reel. I think the result came out pretty good, although it took a lot longer than I had expected (3 hours). I hope people can watch this and get something out of it. I am in no way an Illustrator expert. I am mostly self taught so this is more or less an examination of my thought process as I try to figure out the best way to achieve the look I want. Enjoy.

Carpet Lines and Fireworks

Admittedly there is not a ton of stuff to do in Toledo, Ohio so we have to do with what we have. Below is a perfect example of that.

Photo of the Day - C.

C., a photo by thomaskrauss on Flickr.

A Drug Deal Gone Bad!

You heard it my friends. I think we all know what happens when the drug deal goes bad. This was shot and created in one day with the help of my very good friends. My buddy Dusty DeLelles shot and edited the piece and I displayed some amazing acting while also doing the sound editing. Much thanks to my friends Kevin and Danny for pitching in to act as well. Enjoy.

Monster Bash

As you know Grey Scale Gorilla's most recent 5 Second Project theme was "Monster Bash." While perusing the entries I came across this little gem....Definitely my favorite of the bunch.

Imperial Mark XII Flash

Whew, that's 2 cameras down in this little project I have. This time I decided to create the Imperial Mark XII Flash. I have pictures of 4 other cameras I plan on creating, and they only get harder from here on out. I think I will save the Mamiya C330 for last. I also plan on creating a time lapse of the work process that goes into illustrating one of these cameras, so keep looking for that.

I LOOK & MOVE

Very creative use of stop motion from Constantine Konovalov. I especially love the part where he falls out the window. It's nice to see something a little more experimental these days. I feel like I have been in a video rut lately and more drawn to animation and illustration for things I haven't seen.

Photo of the Day - Untitled

http://vanderbeat.tumblr.com/, a photo by van derbeat on Flickr.

Polaroid Puke

Polaroid Puke, a photo by ChrisKoelsch on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
www.threadless.com/submission/381580/Polaroid_Puke

Created in Adobe Illustrator

Silence Television - Gianmarco Magnani

The work Silence Television by Gianmarco Magnani contains some amazingly detailed and realistic illustrations. The work is clean and professional. Visit the site here to see more and buy prints.

Ant Baena

I recently posted a design from Ant Baena without even knowing it (the CUNT one).  Now that I know who Ant is, I can honestly say he has some other great work on his site. Check it out here.

Monster Bash

I have always followed Grey Scale Gorilla's 5 Second Project but have never entered. Well I finally got around to finishing something for the contest.  This time the theme was "Monster Bash". Initially I had a few different ideas but I ended on creating an 8-bit video game end screen with a few dancing characters

After I was animating the video game screen I began to realize that it just wasn't enough. I then began the project of creating an entire arcade scene in Adobe Illustrator to house this little animation.

It may not seem like much and in the animation you only see it for 2 seconds but the background took the longest to make. Mostly because I created everything from scratch. Although it took a long time I had fun putting all the details into it, like creating the Monster Bash logo for my game:

In the end I put it all together in After Effects, added some ambiance with lights and music and voila:

Photo of the Day - Untitled

Untitled, a photo by William's Wish Wellingtons on Flickr.

Future

I created this piece for the Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration contest. I truly love mixing the old with the new. Space Angel was created in 1962 but in an amazing way I think their view of the future is not far off. One of war and games.
Footage taken from Space Angel
Music by State Shirt

Photo of the Day - Untitled

Untitled, a photo by marcoandresargüello on Flickr.