Threadless-Lion King

Guess who has another Threadless design up for scoring... :)  This one is for the Lion King design contest, and I decided to do one of Timon and Pumba.  A more realistic version anyways.  You can find it here.  If you have a moment to score it (preferably a 5) I would super appreciate it!!!

I originally wanted to do the whole cast, but I was only able to get Timon and Pumba done before the contest deadline.  I did a Simba and Nala after I submitted it too.

Also, I have a TON of new stuff to post about, which I should hopefully get to over the next week or so!

Thorsday

It's been so long since I last posted something!  I still have a bunch of AM stuff to throw up here, but first I have another Threadless design contest submission!  This one is for the Thor contest.  My love of terrible puns definitely played a hand in this one.  I called it '5 Day Forecast' and realized afterwards that I could have taken it a step even farther by calling it '5 Day Thorcast'.  Oh well.  It's still up for scoring, so I would very much appreciate it if you could (hopefully) give it a 5 for me.  I also love comments and facebook likes/etc.  Thanks in advance!!!!!!  You can find it here! 

Threadless-Spongebob Squarepants

Aaaaaaaaaaand another Threadless design contest submission!  This one for the Spongebob challenge.  You can find it here.

Voting is open for 1 more day!  It has been doing decently well so far, but every vote counts!  If anyone else sees this in time to rate my design (preferably a 5) it would would make me a very happy camper.  Thanks!

Threadless-Odd Couple

I submitted a design to the Threadless 'Odd Couple' design challenge, and here it is!  I had to make sure that the title was sufficiently pun-y, so I called it A Match (Mer)maid in Heaven. 

I would be super appreciative if y'all could rate it (a 5 would be preferable) to help it get picked and printed!  If you want to like/comment on it as well it would be lovely!  I believe that voting is open for 6 more days.  You can find it here.  Thanks!

New Shots

I've been a Busy McBusy-son lately, animating up a storm.  As well as my Animals and Creatures 2 class (which I will try to remember to post about soon...) I've been working on some new dialogue tests.  One of my classmates from last term, who is a super awesome animation supervisor at Nerdcorps in Vancouver gave me some great advice about tailoring my demo reel to studios.  I asked him about applying to Nerdcorps which does a lot of work for television, and he suggested that I try animating 3 different dialogue pieces in 3 days-1 day for each shot.

I chose a fairly short clip for the first one, as it has been a while since I last animated a dialogue shot.  It turned out ok, I ended up spending a good portion of the day trying to figure out how the handcuffs were going to work though...

questions from Erica Miles on Vimeo.

For the second one I picked a longer clip, with two characters.  This one took me a bit longer because of the two characters, one of which being a dog (and a rig I had not used before as well).  This one could still use some work (and I haven't had a chance to upload it yet).

For my third shot I picked an audio clip that I've been wanting to animate for a while.  I think that this one turned out the best of the three.

Quarter from Erica Miles on Vimeo.

I've definitely noticed myself getting faster working on these shots and I'm going to work on a couple more over the next little while.

AM-Animals and Creatures 1 Week 3-6

Our post walk cycle assignment was to animate a type of quadruped locomotion be it walking. running, trotting, leaping etc.  I decided to do a smaller cat, because I thought it would be fun and the majority of the other shots being done were of bigger cats.

I watched a LOT of cat videos on youtube and found a bunch of this adorable little kitten.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYk07KFWPZ8 (the part that I referenced starts at about 2:08)

Then I did a bunch of thumbnails.

I wanted to tie in this shot and my third shot is a sort of anim-jam with the cat/kitten walking over and sniffing a sleeping ogre, then end up playing around the ogre and jumping on him-waking him up.

I blocked out the cat prancing/trotting over the ogre (which would be added later).  The tail was also hidden in this pass so that I could focus on the rest of the body.

I did a couple of more passes on it and ended up with this more refined version.  I also added in some tall grass to make the high steps the kitten is taking more believable.

Blind Contours?!

In my mountain of old life drawing I also found these ridiculous blind contour drawings.  

This first one looks like it's terrified and maybe in a strait jacket.  My friend Kendall thinks that the face looks like a mushroom cloud.

Most of my blind contours seem to end up having 'elephant feet'.

I really enjoy how this guy's fingers seem to be turning into root vegetables.  He seems totally relaxed and fine about it though.

Old Life Drawing Pt2

Here's some more of the life drawing that I found while sorting through a bunch of my old artwork.

For this one we did a bunch of continual gestures as the model moved around in one spot.  I kind of like how this one turned out.

We used ink and nib pens one week, which was very different for me.  It has a neat kind of graphic novel feel to it though.

Remember when I said that I would sometimes get bored and add 'backgrounds'...

This model was always difficult for me to draw because he had a tendency to look RIGHT INTO YOUR EYES as you were drawing him.  He looks so forlorn with his broom.

This was the same model.  He became a ninja.

And welcomed butterflies into his hands.

This model often looked down at the ground, so I decided that he was thinking about flooring samples.

This one turned out looking super sassy.

We did some anatomy studies as well.

Graphite is also something that I don't use very often, so this one was a bit of a challenge.

I really like how the last one turned out, especially in the foreground hand and the foreshortening in the face.  

I found a bunch of ridiculous looking blind contours as well, which I will try to post soon-ish!

Old life drawing Pt1

I was going through a bunch of my old artwork and found a bunch of life drawing that I did back at my old animation school and through the USCAD program.

Getting ready for the big race.

Sometimes I would get bored during class and add 'backgrounds' to my drawings...

This one turned out a lot better.

One of the very few color drawings I did.  I was using watercolor pencils, which like watercolors, are hard.  I also enjoy that she looks sassy even while sleeping.

And now for a gaggle of hands.

AM-Animals and Creatures Pt2

Our first assignment actually animating, was a basic quadruped walk cycle.  Here are the thumbnail sketches.

And the walk cycle.  

It's still a bit 'hitchy', but I learned a lot from it!

Threadless 'Original Monsters'

Hey y'all!  I recently submitted a design to the Threadless 'Original Monster' design contest, and would love it if you could score it (preferably a 5), like it, share it etc. to help it get picked!  It would be amazing if Threadless actually printed one of my designs on their shirts! Here's the link.  I think that scoring is open for the next 9 days. Thanks! :)

AM-Animals and Creatures Master Class Pt1

I started taking the first of two animals and creatures master classes from Animation Mentor at the beginning of January.  I thought that it would be a good addition to my character animation skills, and although I wasn't sure at first if it would really be my cup of tea I've found that I actually enjoy it.  I've always loved animals, and learning about their anatomy, how they move and why they move the way they do is pretty cool!  My mentor for the term is John Nguyen.  He's a pretty awesome guy, and has worked for a number of impressive studios and on some pretty awesome projects/films.  He's currently working for Disney Interactive Media Group.

Our assignment for the first week was to do a bunch sketches of different types of animals to start honing our observational skills.  I made sure to include both a teacup pig and a unicorn in mine.

We then had to take the cat rig and do two dynamic poses with it.  It was my first time ever using a quadruped rig, and it definitely took some getting used to.  Looking at both poses now I can already see a bunch of thing that I would fix.

This last one looks more than a little drugged...

PROJECT DUMP

I'm really behind on posting about my projects, so here's a PROJECT DUMP. (Meant to be said in the manliest of voices)

Pita

My sister commissioned me to paint a picture of her friends dog Pita who had recently passed away, to give to her as a birthday present.  She asked that it be done in the same style that I did the three paintings of our dogs.

Kevin 2

I had posted my Kevin costume on a home-made costumes website a few years ago, and in September I received an email asking if I still had it, and if I would be willing to sell it.  I was extremely excited that someone actually wanted to buy something that I had made, and it was someone who wasn't related to me!   The costume was for her young daughter though, and the Kevin head that I had made for myself was very large, awkward and heavy.  I made a new head for the costume that was slightly smaller and made out of lighter materials.  I had learned a lot while making the original head, and was able to improve on the new one quite a bit.

The new head (left) and old head (right)

I painted the beak so that it had more of a natural looking gradient than the older one, and gave it's eye's highlights to give it a bit more life.

I fixed up the body as well.  It originally had a cardboard box inside of it to make it look bigger, but that made it super difficult to move in and almost impossible to ship anywhere.  I luckily had some of the blue fabric left over, and sewed it inside, stuffing it and cutting arms holes to make it into a sort of feathery vest.

DQ Cat

One of our managers had been away for a couple of months, and to welcome him back a friend of mine had suggested that everyone give him the gift of cat pictures.  I luckily had a large picture of a kitten just lying around....so I suited it up in the proper DQ attire and added a lovely cat pun.  I ended up being the only one to bring a cat picture, because no one else was ridiculous enough to take the note seriously...My manager really enjoyed it though! :)

Lucky's Birthday Present

My friend Shawna, the same friend who suggested that we bring my manager cat pictures, also requested that we give her dog Lucky a birthday present.  Shawna is a HUGE Harry Potter fan, so I made a tiny Gryffindor scarf and an owl for her dog.  She was very pleased. 

Birthday gift for my Mom

My mom loves both Tinkerbell and her dog, so I decided to make her a paper piece with both of those things!

You can see our other two dogs in the background as well.  Amigo is chasing his favorite carrot toy.