Fun with pen and a newer reel. From this point forward I am tweeking and will probably be working in Photoshop as I can capture mood better. Now I am off to get location reference and to draw some mad locations.

I started the day cleaning-up my retooled character design. With assistance from Joe Haidar, an ex-Disney Animator I met over the summer I have added some much needed structure and personality to this design. This proves that even when I think that a design is near finished it still has much more work. I still will be doing more passes to get even more personality from him. Tomorrow I am dedicating time to the exterminator and the setting.

This is the second pass on my story reel. I was going to post my first pass but got around to completing this first. This pass has taken what was working from the previous but I have added some suggestions from classmates and mentors. I want to do an acting pass but am sitting at 1:30 which is a doable length. I am going to be doing research for style, as I would like to explore a little more. Thankfully Don Hahn came to the school today and gave a huge list of inspiration, so I am set with reference for a while.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.
Thanks for having an interest.

Alright.

The school year has started and so has pre-production on Pest Control, my graduate 2D animated short film. This year, unlike last we will be "hitting the ground running" with story production with my final reel due in about 6 weeks from now.

I am going to start by posting a short animation of my character which I did over the summer. I am impressed only because I did it on a little light box, on my lap and on a couch without the assist of Flipbook or any other way to shoot it. I was not able to shoot this until today which taught me to flip and analyze animation regardless of the computer. I am going to try an animate this entire year without the restraint of shooting constantly.

Secondly, here is my storyboard (so far) for my film. I have 2 more sections to do for it an am steadily approaching the maximum length. That means I will be editing and cutting in the coming weeks. So far I am happy. I have been given suggestions already and am excited to work them in to the second version. Until then here is Pest Control.

Enjoy.
(and critique is welcome)