Cutting Room Floor Update #3 - Backgrounds and Animation

In this update I'll be showing you some of the backgrounds I have been working on along with some of the beginning stages of animation. I've been moving slower than I'd like lately and that's mostly because background creation isn't my favorite thing to do, nor is it really what I'm best at. Regardless, I've gotten most of the main backgrounds completed at this point, at least enough to start animating with. Below are some examples of how I have larger scenes that I can cut into.

I'm excited to say that I'm starting to piece the animation together now after so much time.  That meant remaking the intro I had made so long ago.  I was excited to do this for a few reasons, one being that I'm now animating my characters using the AE plugin, Duik.  This makes the animation process a hell of a lot easier for me, and also gives me better final results.  Below are the two versions; the top one is my older version and the second is my updated version.  As you can see the characters have a little more individual personality to their run cycles and they are a little less floppy (aside from Slim of course). Anyways that's it for now, stay tuned for more updates.

Into the Orange - A portrait for Nicole

Every time a new person is hired at the place I work they get a unique portrait based on their personality created by one of the artists here.  I tend to throw my hat in the ring every so often, but this time was special.  Normally I don't know the person very well but Nicole has worked on the video team as an intern for about a year and now she is full time. Needless to say we are pretty close.  She's a huge film buff and a lover of the color orange, so she told me to get my inspiration from old horror movie posters.  I had a lot of fun with this one and really liked how it came out in the end.

This is Nicole.

I started with a simple sketch.

And ended up here.

Closer shot for detail.

C.P. the place to be

Growing up in Toledo, Ohio there is one thing that almost everyone does each summer, and that's go to Cedar Point. It's one of our few claims to fame in this area and I'd be damned if I didn't celebrate it's majesty at least once a year. We didn't make it out until Halloweekends this year, but with my iPhone6 and GoPro in hand I managed to make a little video out of what was pretty much a perfect Cedar Point day.

Star Wars Uncut: The Empire Strikes Back is Finally Finished!!

A long time ago in a galaxy far away I submitted an animation to Star Wars Uncut: The Empire Strikes back as a fun way to make work for my reel and get better at character animation. I had seen the first uncut film, but hadn't known about it at the time to participate. So when the chance arose for me to add my name to the long list of fans I was sold. That was almost 2 years ago believe it or not, and just yesterday I received word that one of my animations made the final cut and would be in the film. Below you can see said animation for scene 337, "Something is wrong". To see the full film go to Star Wars Uncut or StarWars.com!



You can check out the full movie below, and if you want to check out my scene specifically go HERE.

Cutting Room Floor Update #2 - Getting back into it

Alright I'm back, and a little later than I had anticipated. I got sick so that knocked me out for about a week and I also had a freelance animation that I was working on at the same time. Those are both done and out of my system now and I'm back to full time working on Cutting Room Floor (aside from my day job that is, still gotta pay for the cat litter.) Anyways, I'm still in asset and background creation mode. Below you can check out a timelapse video of me creating and rigging Professor Hoodlebrink and also a still image of the Bun House Mobile interior shot. Much more to come in the following weeks as I still plan to finish this by Halloween.

17th Brussels Short Film Festival - Supervenus

Amazing animation and story telling by Frederic Doazan in his piece, Supervenus. I love the Monty Python-esque style paired with the absolute grotesque and dark humor.

Cutting Room Floor Update #1

For those that don't know I am undertaking a much lengthier animation in my MeanMug & Slim style in the vein of old Scooby Doo cartoons. I've completed the script and audio recordings and I'm estimating the final piece coming out to around 15 minutes, which is a great length for an animated short. However, that's a lot of work and planning for just lil' ol' me. Probably in over my head actually...but I figured it would be entertaining and possibly educational to show you bits and pieces along the way. Seeing as how I have my script all read and a general storyboard, the next thing to do was to get my characters into After Effects, rig them up with Duik, and test them out. Below are some fun results I've had playing with my newly rigger character. Stay tuned for more updates!





And here is a bonus shot of D-Man with a giant bong, just because.

Arup - Future of Mobility

Really inspired by this most recent animation from Ross Phillips for Arup. It's a long piece and it really kept me entertained throughout the whole thing, and to be fair it's almost like two pieces in one. I love how the first half of the animation is setting up the world we live in via the dialogue, but the animation isn't exactly 1 to 1 with the script. We are seeing a separate story that is enhancing the feeling of the dialogue, instead of just reiterating it. I also like how we then take that character and actually build him out more with the specific family stories. The transitions were seamless and the piece really felt alive.

Slim's ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Yep, this thing has made its way to lil' ol' me. I can't believe it and honestly didn't want to be called out in it for multiple reasons. But, I also have terribly guilt and can't let my friends down. So, I decided to take the opportunity to put my own spin on it (are you surprised). Anyways, here is Slim's A.L.S. Ice Bucket Challenge.

After Effects Lip Sync Problem

Been having this issue with lip syncing in After Effects so I thought I would make a video about it. If I turn up an answer I will be sure to follow up with another video.

Take Back Chicago

This is an animation I created in association with Grassroots Illinois Action to promote and raise awareness for their new website, takebackchicago.org. The goal of the website is to help the communities of Chicago look up their aldermen, find out how they are voting, and learn what's really going on in their city.

Bun House Games: D-Man Plays Don't Starve

I have to admit, instead of animating I've been playing a lot of PS4 instead. So, I thought I'd put all my hours spent playing into good use and release a play through video every once in a while. Recently I've been obsessed over the game Don't Starve. It's a fairly hardcore survival sandbox type game that sort of resembles Minecraft in the way you play. However, it is much a much more stressful experience overall. For this reason I wanted to put one of my fellow Bun House Crew members through the experience of playing the game for the first time. Below is the result.

Lovaganza

When Jordan Scott's animation skills meet The Academy's designs great things happen.

Dog Walk Cycle

This is my first real stab at a dog walk cycle.  I've been practicing more using Duik as an animation tool as well.

Royal Canoe - Bathtubs.

Really enjoying this music video from Nathan Boey for Royal Canoe's song Bathtubs.


Royal Canoe - Bathtubs from Nathan Boey on Vimeo.

Johnny & Berry

A hilarious short from Sang Lee not only about the importance of confidence, but also a lesson in being a good wingman.

Cartoon Network Rebrand 2002

I guess this must be old if it's from 2002, but I had never recalled seeing it before. At first I thought I was entertained by it simply for nostalgia's sake. But as I watched more and more I realized there was a lot more to it than that. These cartoons WERE all a very important part of my childhood, but what I loved so much about them was their ability to make me laugh without a single line of dialogue. Call me simple, but I can't help but laugh out loud at some good ol' fashioned slap stick. Nothing's funnier than a cartoon slamming into a wall and crushing like an accordion. If nothing else, this serves as an amazing reference for various types of animations (I particularly liked the three panel one where each character sneaks on their tiptoes across the frame).

Machine Gun Popcorn - Outtakes

As you may know I recently entered the Tree City Film Festival with my buddies of the Bun House Films gang. We created a bad martial arts film called, Machine Gun Popcorn, and well...these are our outtakes. The music I used is Barracuda by The 5.6.7.8's. Enjoy. We certainly did.

Neebo

Sometimes you have to make an animation that gets a lot of information across and as animators we have to come up with new ways to make the not so interesting more interesting. I think this video from Sidekick Animation for Neebo is a perfect example of that. Their art style is simple, but they use that to their advantage with use of fun transitions and negative space.

機関銃ポップコーン - Machine Gun Popcorn

Over the past weekend the Bun House Films team and I entered the 2014 Tree City 50 Hour Film Festival.  It was certainly a challenge to get a film out in just one weekend, but we managed to make it by the skin of our teeth while still upholding the quality and humor that you've all come to expect from the Bun House name.

We were given a genre (Bad Martial Arts), a prop (National Geographic Magazine), and a line to say in the film ("If a tree falls").  With those ingredients, below is what we collectively came up with.  We call it, Machine Gun Popcorn.  Enjoy.

Montenegro

A beautiful short animated film from Luiz Stockler about thoughts, life, anxiety, depression, and going bald.



See more about Luiz' process for this film below.

Yokohama // Orange

I see a lot of ads these days that follow a similar recipe as this one from Giant Ant for Yokohama. Good writing mixed with various clips of video and animation that on their own would probably mean nothing, but when all put together add up to something greater than themselves. In this particular piece I'm really drawn the 2D animation they lay over their video footage. It just gives it that extra zap of fun that it wouldn't have otherwise.

Tiny Worlds

I absolutely adore these little shorts from Rushes. I mean the 3D alone looks amazing, but I really love the 2D animation supplementing the submarine video. It all blends together well to create a really fun piece.

Ohio

A strangely captivating and oddly engaging story from Maria Blasucci, Andrew DeYoung & Tony Lewellen.

DJ Snake & Lil Jon - Turn Down for What

This music video simply kills it on all fronts. I have no words.

Countrylife #3

Really love this animation from Andrea Manzati (illustrations), Aude Danset (animation), and Wesley Slover (sound design). I really appreciate that 3 separate artists created this piece because I think what makes this animation so successful are those three parts working in unison.

Font Men

Really love this short piece from dress code about the work and process of artists Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones.  Fonts are one of those ultra-specific forms of art that most people probably don't stop to think about, but when you break down fonts and the reasoning behind them, you open up a whole world of interesting problems and solutions. I also really love the animation they have sprinkled throughout. I can't think of a better way to illustrate the subtle differences between a single font type.

Coworker Portrait #5

I recently finished another portrait for my coworker. This is probably my favorite portrait I've done yet. She wanted it in the style of Alphonse Mucha, which I felt was semi in my wheel house. The style itself is part illustration part photography, so I figured if nothing else I'd be able to fudge it. Took a few afternoons but I really like how the colors came out and the I had a lot of fun bringing the hair to life.

Bun House Films' "Monkey Man" Behind the Scenes

Ever wanted to know how a Bun House Film is made? Well this little behind the scenes footage my buddy edited will not clear that up for you.

Vagisil "Let's Do Something About It"

These are two simple yet effective ads for Vagisil by Tofer Moran. I really enjoy the character style and color palette of these works. Everything about the whole piece is subtle, smooth, and calming. just goes to show you don't always need crazy effects to make something memorable.

Don't Fail Idaho 'Turning Point'

I've always loved the way BUCK can take small animations and turn them into something bigger through the art of storytelling. This animation could have been created in such a much simpler way, but BUCK goes the extra mile to tie emotion to the piece, which in the end makes it 100% more authentic. It makes you care. That being said the animation itself is smooth as always and I absolutely love the character style at the end of the video.

Ripple - The Future of Money

Really enjoying this animation for the new global payment network, Ripple. Animade has done a wonderful job creating "fluid" transitions and I love how they carry the ripple motif throughout the entire piece.

Fun with Shapes

A simple title for a simple animation that needs no more explanation. Work by Elliot Lim.

Chris Koelsch 2013 Animation Reel

Hey! That's my name in the title of this here blog post! What do ya know, I actually finished my 2013 reel!  To be honest I'm extremely relieved.  I guess releasing it in early February really isn't all that bad, but I'm excited to move on to the projects I have planned for 2014.    I'm pretty proud of all the work in this year's reel and the track, Budding by Broke For Free really sets the tone well.  I have a few bigger projects already in the works so keep your eyes peeled for what may pop up in the next year, I appreciate every single person that supports me.

The Journey Begins

Michael Kirkham and Johnny Kelly were charged with creating over 500 animated clips for an interactive commerical project. Here is a semi-randomised selection of 75 of these - three and a half minutes out of a total of twenty-six (!). I absolutely love seeing animation like this. It's like seeing the mind of the creator, or seeing a great painters sketch book, I could stare at it all day.

chimpnology

For those of you who don't know cyriak, you should probably check out his Youtube page before viewing this video below.  His style is, how do you say it, a bit different. But I love his work and I hope you will too, he even did Conan's Season 3 supercut, which you can see here.

Photobooth Rentals of New Mexico

A friend of mine owns Photobooth Rentals of New Mexico and he recently approached me about creating a 30 second ad for his business.  I had a lot of fun making this because their playful branding fits my style really well, and they managed to keep the message short and sweet.  Photobooth Rentals of New Mexico rent out photo booths for all kinds of events and their staff is extremely professional, so if you are in the area definitely think about giving them a call.

 

Cube Spin Test

Recently a coworker approached me with two videos he had seen online (https://vimeo.com/13458659, https://vimeo.com/7576197) and wanted to know if it was possible to recreate the cube spin seen in them without using Cinema 4D or any sort of 3D program. So in an afternoon I whipped up something similar completely within After Effects and you can see the result below. It was made with a few lights, a 3D cube made from 2D shape layers, and some faux shadows.

A Guide To American Football

Fraser Davidson has been a LONG time animation inspiration to me. This recent animation he's created that gives a full tutorial to American football is no different. Not only are his colors brilliant and character designs quirky, but his animation is always smooth and drives the story in an engaging and unique way. The best part of this whole animation? He wrote and animated the entire thing himself!

Jungle - Platoon

This music video for Jungle's hit, Platoon is one of those videos I know I would like before I even watched it.

The Bun House Gang: Cutting Room Floor - Update 1

Hello all!  Seeing as how The Bun House Gang: Cutting Room Floor animation is going to be a constant work in progress for me over the next year, I figured it made the most sense, both for me and my audience, to give updates as frequently as possible. This way everyone can see all the work that goes in to something like this and hopefully interacting with fans will give me a little extra boost to keep working when I'm getting in a slump.

I've made a few updates before, showing you the characters I've created.  I now have the full Bun House crew assembled (see below).

My next step in the process was to take these characters into After Effects and get them rigged up and ready for animation.  Seeing as how Cutting Room Floor is going to be heavily based on old Scooby-Doo episodes, it only made sense to copy their iconic title screen.  So below you can see breakdowns of each character's run cycle, and then the final product at the bottom.  Remember to stay tuned for more updates in the future.

Life Updates

Hey all, I've been fairly busy with a lot of stuff so I apologize for my lack of posts. My life is pretty focused around the things I'm trying to get accomplished. For one, I'm trying to finish my 2013 reel before the end of January. After that I will be working on the first episode of Life of Slim. I was going to try and push it out before the end of the year but it didn't seem right to rush. I want it to be able to take my time with it and make it better than before. I've also been super preoccupied with creating characters for the next Bun House film. This one will be fully animated and I expect it to be one of my biggest projects of next year. In preparation I have been creating the members of Bun House in Life of Slim style one by one. I only have one more to do, but here are the characters I created most recently.

Louis C.K.: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Crackle is being a huge butt and not allowing embedding of this video, so you'll have to just click on the image below to get to the video. For those of you that haven't seen Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, it's a show where Jerry Seinfeld does just that.  He picks up various comedians in cool antique cars and gets coffee with them.  This recent episode stars one of my favorite comedians, Louis C.K.  However, that's not the only reason I was excited when watching this.  About half way through Louis tells a long story, which the editors chose to animate over.  I really like the simplistic style, it's just enough to help make the story a little more entertaining.

Creating and Rigging Spike Timelapse

With Monkey Man: Origins only a week behind me I'm already beginning to think of what new and exciting short films I can make for Bun House Films. The more I thought about it the more it seemed obvious that our brand of humor, gore, and horror would be great for animation. So one of the projects I want to start next year is a short animated horror flick involving all the Bun House crew up to their usual antics. If you've seen my Mean Mug & Slim series then you already know I have an animated character for myself; however, that still left Spike, Dusty, Danny, and Kevin from Bun House to be created before I could start animating anything.  To make it a little more fun I thought I would create each new character one by one, and then release them in a series with each new character killing off the last.  For the first installment I created Spike, and naturally he killed my character.  You can see the making of Spike's character below, and make sure to keep an eye out for the next kill...