Random sicko

Shadowman

Just lately, in the few hours between going to bed and actually falling asleep, I’ve been reading a series of books by Charlie Higson, a well-known UK writer and comedian (The Fast Show and others). This particular series starts with the first instalment “The Enemy”, the premise for which is basically that everyone on earth over the age of 14 becomes afflicted with a mystery illness that devastates the body and the mind.

The only people unafflicted are kids younger than 14. With all adults horribly diseased and insane, and feel a little better if they catch and eat some kids, civilisation crumbles quickly.

So far, the three books are: The Enemy, The Dead and The Fear, with the next instalment The Sacrifice due for a UK release in September.

It seems to be written for mid teens, kind of like if Harry Potter was zombie horror, but it’s absolutely compelling reading for anyone (though I’m not sure it’d be a good bedtime story for toddlers.. just saying).

Anyway! The reason I’m telling you all this is because I was inspired to do a few drawings from the third book (The Fear) in what Charlie recently announced would be a seven book series.

I’ve used Autodesk Sketchbook for all of these, and each took roughly an hour. If you are squeamish, these may be the first step in conquering your fear. You’re welcome.

The Collector

St. George

Shadowman again. Excellent character.

Here’s something I did almost a year ago (Oct 2010) but somehow forgot to mention here. I guess it’s because it was all very hush-hush at the time, but Dragon Age: Legends has been played by a zillion people on Facebook, and was one of the first games on Google+, so I guess it’s safe. From memory, after the storyboard was approved, the animation took me 48 days.

I was only given a loose description of events and characters to adhere to, so I had free rein to do my thing. Using ToonBoom software I designed, storyboarded and animated everything from scratch. The sound was done by EA’s audio contractor. Hope you like(d) it!

When it was released, one particularly violent scene was cut out. This is the uncut version complete with all the gore of flying organs and bone shards.

I was recently given an opportunity by Wizards of the Coast to come up with my own ideas for a DnD-themed webcomic. I’m not sure exactly what their plans are for this new section but it appears they’re simply getting a bunch of artists together and gauging which makes an impact. Here is the full list of artists and comics published so far.

The idea I came up with is a small group of wannabe heroes who sit in a tavern watching adventurers coming and going. They’re basically dumb, unskilled villagers who dream of glory but have no idea where life is leading them. The strip is called “Life at the Top”, though I neglected to incorporate the title on my pages.

My first two pages introduce two of the main characters (a gnome and a dragonborn), setting up their relationship and personalities. Each page is a simple standalone gag but if this continues, I’d introduce their peers and a few storylines.

For what the commission called, I spent far too long on these (about three days each). As you can see, they ended up more like graphic novel pages than syndicated strips. Time will tell what comes of it (if anything) but as comics were my first love, I really enjoyed doing these and hope something happens. In the meantime, you can help out by using the Tweet and Like buttons at the bottom of those pages.

Dashkin Progress

Things have certainly changed and evolved over the course of this project, but the biggest change by far occurred just a few days ago. Our original sponsor no longer exists as the group of people with whom we set out to do business. We were kindly given two alternatives: put Dashkin on the shelf for several months to see how things pan out, or take our game to another sponsor. Considering the Dashkin-loving community is still waiting eagerly for news of a release date, we chose to cut and run. So for now, we’re completely independent again.

(edit: don’t get me wrong. If it weren’t for that original sponsor, we would have released an inferior game 2 months ago. The people there are fantastic and I’d work with them again in a second if I could. We have them to thank for the game we have now)

The first and most obvious option is to find a new sponsor. The alternative is to self-publish. The downside of the latter is that we don’t get paid upfront for our efforts thus far. It has now been 7 months since we started on Dashkin and the two of us have reluctantly begun to take on other work to pay some bills. This loses us a lot of momentum and also pushes back the release date. The upside of self-publishing is that we get full ownership and a game marked only with our own brands.

We’ll see where it goes from here now, but rest assured we’re both still working hard on getting this game finished and released.

I recently wrote and animated a music video for Cilla Jane’s new song “Into the Woods“. I completed the animation entirely in Toonboom Animate Pro 2 and it took me 46 days (~1 scene per day). As the schedule was tight, it’s not quite as fully animated as a Brackenwood short but I spent a lot of time setting up the atmosphere in each shot. I’ve spent time alone in forests at night and I really wanted to capture that sparkly clear night forest feel.

Cilla had seen my work before and gave me free rein to do “something foresty, preferably with a girl in a spotted dress, an owl, fox and deer“. After hearing the song, I came up with the story for the video. Yes it’s metaphoric, but I’m interested in reading your interpretation.

update: if you’d like to help us get the clip screened on ‘Rage’ (a weekend all-night Australian music program), you can request it here. Just type “into the woods by Cilla Jane” in the request field

My most recent assignment is now live on the Wizards website. Like the previous D&D cartoons, it’s a promo short but this one is for the Dungeons & Dragons Red Box. I storyboarded from the script and it came out at 3½ mins, so I went ahead and completed it. Just before it went live though, I was asked to edit it down to around 2½ mins to improve the pace and comic timing. The result is a much more effective, snappier short which I’ve embedded below. However, you can see my uncut version – complete with an extra gory courtesan death – on my own YouTube channel here.

The software I used was Animate Pro 2 (of course) which allowed me to do the sweet 2½D environments, lighting and filter FX.

Seems to be pretty well received so far. Discussion is happening here on the Wizards site and here on the Brackenwood forum.

2010 W3 Awards – Silver Award Winner

Category: Web Video > Animation

Where did he come from – this fleck of spite in an abandoned paradise? Who is this peace-shattering scourge of the forest? He is the last of the Dashkin, but in the rough language of wild creatures, he is known only as Bitey.

click above image to get high res.

The Last of the Dashkin fills in some of Bitey’s back story and poses a few questions about the world in which he lives.

This movie is my answer to those who said Brackenwood was nothing but a series of pointless scenes strung together. Up to this point, I’m inclined to agree so each new installment in the series from here on will be loaded with questions and answers on the history of Brackenwood and the future of her inhabitants.

The 6th D&D toon promotes edition 2 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Once again I used ToonBoom Digital Pro and as you’ll see I went absolutely crazy with lighting and effects. I’m particularly proud of the two main backgrounds – namely the outdoor ‘Styx Oarsman’ (the ship/tavern) and the main indoor location. After the movie (below), I’ve embedded a time lapse screencapture I made as I worked colouring one of the backgrounds.

Wizards also interviewed me for this one, and you can read the interview here on their site.

As I’ve been getting to know ToonBoom software over the past months and, because the D&D cartoons have been getting bigger and more complex, I got permission from Wizards to do Cartoon #5 with ToonBoom Digital Pro. The software is amazing.. incredible even. This means however, that the D&D cartoons from now on will be in video format, rather than Flash vector. But you’ll immediately see the difference. ToonBoom is very powerful and I’m sure you’ll agree that the quality of Demogorgon is leaps and bounds ahead of the Flash toons.

oh btw, I also got permission to upload the shorts from now on to my own YouTube channel, so I have more control over the quality when it’s on YouTube. Here it is. Enjoy!

I was sub-contracted to animate this short piece for a corporate video. It’s called ‘For the Want of a Nail‘ and is supposed to illustrate how overlooking small details can lead to disaster. It goes something like this:

For the want of a nail, the horseshoe was lost.
For the want of a horseshoe, the rider was lost.
For the want of a rider, the battle was lost.
For the want of a battle the Kingdom was lost.

I used ToonBoom Digital Pro and as the storyboard and character designs were provided, it only took me about a week.

This was another attempt to make something from start to finish in a single day, but it ended up taking two. It’s also the first time I used ToonBoom instead of Flash for a personal work. I used Animate Pro 2 which, back then (early 2009), was known as Digital Pro.

The response to this one was very encouraging and it helped me decide to do the next “30 Shorts” in ToonBoom as well.

A mental image I’ve had for many years and always wanted to animate it. No, it’s not a personal experience but I’m sure that is the case for kids all over the world.