So, Reel FX has an annual Canvas For A Cause fund-raiser, and I was happy to be apart of it this year. I’m pretty happy with the way mine turned out:

It’s been quite some time since I’ve done a traditional painting, and it was my first time with acrylics, so I started by doing a quick digital sketch to figure out how I wanted to approach it.

May I present to you Dr. Randal Direen Ph.D

(I’m not sure the world is ready for this…)

oh, I should note that this was heavily influenced by Pete Oswald’s work on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which happens to be Randy’s favorite movie (I’ve never seen someone identify with a character so much before :)

Sketches from a day at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

And these are some quick (60 sec) gestures from the cool Animal Gesture Drawing Practice Tool on pixelovely.com

This bambino is about to BAMBEAN it! … that or egregiously miss, spiraling to the ground — there might be a reason he only plays on the weekends at a kids field ;)

I’ve never played around with with any of the sculpting software on the market (zbrush or mudbox). Mostly because of two reasons: one, they cost money; two, I’ve been told their interfaces are a pain to learn). Sculptris surpasses both those hurdles; it’s free… and it has like only 6 buttons in the interface :)

I did this in little more than an hour of just playing around with it:

Oh watercolors, how you challenge me so.  These were done in a small 3×5 watercolor sketch book. The first two were done from vacation pictures; the later two were done on the spot.

(though doing a water color under water sounds like an interesting challenge :)

Funny how getting a new job and moving to a new state can keep a guy from his blogging duties ;P

Anyway, here are some drawin’s from the drawing class I’m taking at work:

(all were 5 min. poses)

Went spelunking in Belize last year, and it left a lasting impression :)

Tuh Dah!

Download (Android & iPhone compatible)

Demo Reel Breakdown

Edit: I’ve updated this animation. Pushing the lip shapes and dialog accents.

Here’s a dialog animation I did to test out the facial setup of my character:

New Version

Old Version

I know a medium close shot of a character just delivering a line of dialog isn’t the most interesting thing you can do in animation; however, I had a lot of fun being able to focus on it’s subtlety. I didn’t actually use any reference for this animation (not always a good thing to do), but  I recently read a book on facial psychology written by Paul Ekman and Wallace V. Friesen called “Unmasking the Face” and tried to put a lot of what I learned from that book to use. I find it very interesting what triggers a facial expression, and tried hard to show it as my character is thinking through his dialog.

Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear any and all feedback!