Rotojam Excerpt

Here is a rotoscope I have been working on as part of a collaborative project. Enjoy!

 

Gum Bichromate Print

Gum Bichromate process. One of the most difficult processes I have worked with so far. Ended up having to gently remove the excess pigment by hand with a q-tip. Negative was also manipulated by using a sharpie pen to create an outline around the trees. Original image is below.

Night’s Mirror

What makes us afraid of the night is the fear of the unknown. It causes a yearning for the past and anxieties to what the future holds. It is the uncertainty of what is beyond the darkness that halts not the need, but the want to explore beyond our own comforts. Night’s Mirror is meant to be an exploration of coming to terms with uncertainty.

The majority of inspiration came from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, which while dealing with the impermanence of love, goes into metaphorical imagery of the past’s decay as the present moves onward. Other inspirations come from origin stories meant to explain the natural order of things. Although origin stories usually involve gods, Night’s Mirror looks to more humble and personal origins.

This is meant to be a coping with my own fears of the future. I would rather look at the future as a friend rather than a source of anxiety in which it has become for me. I am looking to keep the outlook simple and hopeful. This is also a look on how much loneliness causes such a negative outlook on ones future. I like to think, if the future was seen less like an individual pursuit and instead one that is a shared journey, that fear would be replaced with hope.

Rottimorti

It was at a lecture with the animator Kyle Balda that I learned an important thing about conversation; a very small margin of it is about words, the majority of communication relies on body language. Rottimorti, has no dialogue, and this is common in animation. Animation does not need to rely on speech, what it needs is body language; it needs to be a conversation through action.

The story itself began with a look back at Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Swifts satirical essay is both filled with dark humor, while bringing attention to a serious issue. Rottimorti is playful at heart and in style, but is also meant to bring up the fact that we are wasteful with our food, specifically meat. It is so easy today to forget that a slab of beef was once a living cow, and in the modern world, even to mention the fact that to eat meat involves killing a living creature is a social taboo in most circles. I think it is time to have a conversation.

Demo Reel

My new Demo Reel for this year. Some of the animation I have yet to upload since it will be premiering at my school on the 29th. All of the work has been done in the past two years. All complete animations shown will be available to view in May.

Van Dyke Brown Print

A Van Dyke Brown print of a vanita I put together. Pictured is a glass sphere, a spool of thread, an open book, a glass bottle, an ink pen, an apple, ivy leaves, and most noticeably, a human skull. Each item in the image has a symbol meaning behind it relating back to the symbolism in vanita paintings of the 15th Century.

Salt Prints: Self Portrait and Salty Photo

Salt printing was one of the most common ways of printing photography in the 19th century. The first image is a self portrait as a 1860’s brothel girl, the second image is a salt print of salt, but I wanted to show it in both an amusing but disturbing way.

Cyanotypes

Two cyanotype images I have made. The first one is an edited photo from the 1800’s, I added tattoos and biker jackets to the women, the hats were already part of the photo. The second image is a claddagh, which is an irish symbol for friendship, loyalty, and love. The second image was toned using a mix of green and black tea.

Night’s Mirror: Set Design

 

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Some images and a gif of the the set for Night’s Mirror. The set consisted of rocks, dirt, wire trees, and some twigs. It took some time to get everything right. mainly the lighting. Will be starting shooting soon, looking forward to it.

Night’s Mirror: Eep Puppet

Her is the final puppet for Eep. Very Happy to introduce them to you. Below you will also find process shots.

Nights Mirror: Capstone Proposal

Night’s Mirror Proposal PDF

While finishing up Rottimorti, I will begin a stop motion animation Night’s Mirror. Below is my written proposal.

Rough Animation: Rottimorti

This is the final go before getting into full color. The rough animation has been completed for some time now and coloring is underway. Look out for the completed film at the end of April.

Pastel Art

 

Three pastel pieces I did over the break. I have been trying to focus more on color and life studies.

Collection of Sketches

A collection of Art and Sketches completed during the Fall Semester and break. During this break I was looking into a lot of character design mixed with figure drawing.

Final Animatic: Rottimorti

Continuously throughout the semester I have been working on my final Senior Thesis. This is the final, cleaned up animatic. While working on this, I was also woking on the rough animation, which at this time is completed along with backgrounds. Right now, I am working on clean up and coloring. Expect the final animation at some point in Spring.

Birthday Card Design

The final project we had in illustration was to create a birthday card that could be used by the visual arts and new media department to give out for students birthdays. Each design created will be judge by the faculty and whichever is considered the best will be sent out for the remainder of the year. I created two designs to submit and tried out two different styles, while keeping a playful whimsy to each design. I hope to personally start printing and distributing them myself since I enjoyed creating them both.

The Oh Hellos: Poster Design

 

A poster I made for a fictional event hosted by the real band The Oh Hellos. I took into consideration The Oh Hellos style of music, but mainly I focused on the venue I chose for the band. I enjoyed playing with a simple style that provided both the information and an interesting design. One thing that I kept in mind was to create a poster I could see myself hanging on my wall.

Phuuka: Character Creature Creation

Here is a design of a creature I called a Phuuka. It was done as part of an assignment to combine both a human and animal together to create a creature. I combined both a rabbit, moth, and bat to create a guardian spirit that has a bit of a mischievous streak. The concept was based after the Irish spirit called a púca. The goal of this project was to advance my skills with digital painting and to experiment with color and lighting.

Storyboard: Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Adapted from the short story by Neil Gaiman. The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds is the story of Humpty Dumpty with a twist.

Senior Thesis: Storyboard and Rough Animatic

click here for pdf version

Here are the storyboards for my senior thesis. Still working on a name. Below is a synopsis of the story. Will be working on more detailed animatics while creating rough animation for the shots. I have already finished up the first have of the detailed animatic and hope to post that along with the rough animation.

The Runner

I had meant to post this at the end of August, but I forgot to upload it. This is the final film with music done by a sound designer at my school. It was a lot of good practice and I feel like I learned a lot from the experience.

Character Sheets

For the next year, I will be working on a senior animation. So far I have the story and character sheets. The story is of a necromancer, Davy, who begins to work for a vicious chef, Fergus. To help him cook, Davy brings the meat in the kitchen to life.

The Runner (In Progress)

This is the first 12 seconds of an animation I am working on called “The Runner”. The film follows the life of an old man who continues to run despite his age. The majority of the animation will be rotoscoped following a similar color palette as in the preview. This preview contains two of the more complicated shots to animate. The final animation will be done by August.

The Runner Storyboard

This is the storyboard for my summer animation “The Runner”. It is a collaborative work with a sound designer. I have been experimenting with color design in storyboards instead of just black and white. The final animation will most likely be in full color. The plot is of an aging runner who continues training from day to day. The final scene shows a view of the ocean and is meant to depict a larger meaning behind why we do the things we do.

Two Hour Figure Drawing Session

These were figure drawing sketches done in a two hour session before the end of the semester. The class was made up of volunteer students and models for anyone who wanted to improve their figure drawing abilities. I have not had a lot of opportunities recently to complete a live study, so I found this experience helpful in keeping practice in figure drawing.