Block Head

Render, Render, Render!

2011-05-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

Thesis Ahoy!

2011-03-05T14:34:00.000-08:00

So I am smack in the middle of production on my thesis film. Just completed this render to get the final look of the film set for my approval meeting next week.

Click to make images bigger.

I really have my two amazing friends Man Louk Chin and James Marcus to thank for the great models! Man Louk worked out Claire for me while James did the Robot. Here are the character design turnarounds I gave them to work off. SPOT ON PERFECTION GUYS! :)

This coming Wednesday I will be doing the ADR for the actress who will be playing Claire. I am so excited the girl is so cute and sweet!

Anyway I finished all the rigging for both characters the other day and did a test walk with the Robot. He's so much fun to animate!

Just finished Claire's rig test, yay!

And here's the animatic! Now let's hope I get this thing done before June!

Time for Festivals!

2010-07-01T01:05:00.000-07:00

I have made a website for my movie picture. Coding is still the bane of my existence... even if it's a free template haha. Anyway check it out! :)

http://alexisblock.com/toppers/

Done!

2010-06-07T23:54:00.001-07:00

Now time to get crackin' on my thesis! *dusts off sketchbook*

Working hard for no money

2010-04-19T17:02:00.001-07:00

Da-dun da-dun.

All Rough Animation DONE!

2010-04-12T02:51:00.001-07:00

God cleanup is going a lot slower then I imagined it would even though I scheduled it to take forever haha. It is also very boring. That is all.

Working in the rough!

2010-03-03T04:26:00.000-08:00

So I animated about 40 some seconds of rough on Nero. I love Toon Boom Animate! It makes the process somewhat bearable while still being slightly fun.

But I also never want to do this again, ever. Production management is so more my calling. I'll leave animating to the people with the uber talent.

Layout Animatic

2010-02-15T22:15:00.001-08:00

Things are moving along! Yay!

Why I Don't Sleep.

2010-02-10T01:38:00.000-08:00

Stuffs I am killing myself getting done. 65 Backgrounds done? Check. Commence LAYOUT!

Here are some random backgrounds spanning from the beginning of the film to the end. Click to make bigger and pretty. Jpeg compression slays me. Obviously still working on this opening shot below.

And the one thing I have drawn for my groups Imagineering project. The lobby to our Art Community Center idea.

E Card Assignment

2010-01-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

I make useful assignments for class. haha

Clickith here for the bigger PRETTIER version.

Toppers Final Animatic

2009-12-06T17:15:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Steve for suggesting Ratatouille as a soundtrack. That's why he's the composer and not me haha. I can't wait to hear what he comes up with based on my choices! SO EXCITED!

Model Sheet Time!

2009-12-06T01:57:00.001-08:00

EEEEEEEE!!! Great news! I'm getting funding! Yay Matt Groening you are now 5 million times more awesome then you were before! Which was pretty awesome. So I am hoping to purchase a Cintiq as well as ToonBoom Animate. It should seriously help keep my time moving along instead of me sitting at my light table wishing I could command C and V my drawings. Isn't that the most frustrating feeling ever?

MOVING ALONG!

So I have model sheets done for my characters. All 3 of them. Though I must make mental not to NEVER have front camera shots on any of them, especially Nero. Good GOD I tried forever to get him semi-decent but major fail. Thankfully he's never going to be animated doing anything in that position. Strictly transitional!

Wrap Up!

2009-10-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, need to keep this more updated I'm told. Sorry Chris! haha So here we have some updates.

First my C Film I finished in June.

http://kuklamusic.com/theater.php

As well as some concept/story panels from my new film about gay cake toppers titled Toppers. Until I find a better freaking title. lol Suggestions are WELCOME! Anyway, I really want my film to LOOK like cake. So when you watch it I want to you leave feeling a craving for delicious pastries. Ergo I've decided to loosen up the style a bit. All line work not on a character shall be white or a varying shade. All color work will be fuzzy around the edges and always saturated. I want spongey cake feel and textures which means research. I expect to gain a bajillion pounds for this film lol. Film starts off rainy and blue and pumps it's way towards pink by the end. Because pink cake = AWESOME cake. I'm thinking of tones along these lines.... only more saturated. Internet ate the saturation in upload!

God I love that color!

As for my characters. I really would love to have them be bold black lines with one splash of color. Sorta like this animation I saw on cartoon brew for Sunblock once.

The Hero's would be his cape obviously and I think it'd look great to have color trailing after him in the action sequences. Still need to pick a color for him though. And it can't be purple because that's just too obvious. I was thinking yellow? Pops on both the blue and pink backgrounds I'll have. Plus softens his character up a bit. I dunno... I'm going to play with the hue slider in Photoshop for like a day before I decide haha.

Really need to work on finalizing characters this weekend too. So much to dooooo. Anyway onward to ART!

Opening scene. I wanted a more lower POV for my opening since the film is about toy sized things and all. My original I felt was too flat. See?

A classmate had an awesome idea that I should theme his cake like Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Only I don't want to get sued so instead we have the Acropolis of Aloneness. Way better than the Manhattan cakes I went through! Which you can see below. Brooklyn Bridge cake and Empire State Building Top cake. Fails.

The crazy pervy sparkly unicorn cake next door. They like licking things... and each other.

Upset Bride with lovestruck Groom in the background. I need to give them names! Everything in this movie needs a name. Hero, Groom, Bride, Unicorn gets so boring to repeat over and over during board presentations!

Because every Fat Kid dressed in spandex wants a super hero birthday cake.

At one point my Bride pushes the Groom into the cake for flirting with the Hero. So he pulls her in too. Saves me animating half their bodies for half the film! Yay!

Random take from my scene folder. I just grabbed whatever haha.

SO ALONE.

SO READY TO SAVE HIS MAN.

Creating more challenging camera positions for myself.

Lick.

End sequence involves the Hero ripping open Pinata's to save his Groom from leaving the cake shop in a box. This is one part of that flying sequence.

ALL IN 3 MINUTES! GO ME!

And I feel like sleeping now so that is all for today! :)

Animatic

2009-03-16T22:53:00.001-07:00

For my final on Tuesday we have to hand in a progress reel. Here's what I have so far!

http://alexisblock.com/files/Final.mov

Scene 13 Pencil Test

2009-03-12T19:36:00.001-07:00

Any long holds involve another layer which I animated Timmy's arm on since I am strapped for time and don't want to be coloring that many full body shots haha. If there is anything I've learned from professors it's to cheat whenever possible. ;)

http://alexisblock.com/files/scene13.mp4

Inspirations

2009-03-06T00:38:00.000-08:00

Two totally different films I'd like to share that inspire me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vORsKyopHyM&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouyVS6HOFeo

A Scene!

2009-03-05T18:10:00.001-08:00

All I need to do now is have fun on the Soundstage and do some Foley!.... and this one scene will be done. 49 more to go!

Tests!

2009-03-02T22:15:00.000-08:00

Some pencil tests from my film and an inbetween assignment for Tom Sito's class.

The Alexis Block Facial Expression Database

2009-02-03T01:21:00.000-08:00

So I was doing some faces in the mirror as reference for a character sheet I was working on when I realized how fun it was to make ridiculous faces in the bathroom. So, naturally, I grabbed my iPhone and started taking pictures and wala! Below is the Alexis Block Facial Expression sheet. Everyone should see what they can pull in the mirror and post up their own sheets! :)

Working!

2009-01-27T00:26:00.000-08:00

I have been watching Disney movies all day as part of my rewatch all my fav's from childhood yearly ritual. I had 101 Dalmatians on loop for a while as I worked out some backgrounds for my C Film. I love the color simplicity on top of the line work from 101 and it is heavily influencing my own work! I'm excited!

And here are the color turnarounds for all the kid characters including their dream sequence counterparts.

Sketch Dump

2009-01-24T16:14:00.000-08:00

I finally got some time to sit down and scan a few pages from my sketchbook. When I get more time I'll get those up too. So here is some stuff from life drawing class to museum visits and then some!

Falling Leaf Assignment

2009-01-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

Simple leaf done in Flash to save time. And trees!

A Film Done!

2009-01-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

So I shot this after Thanksgiving on the ACME crane downstairs. Took 2 hours! And I didn't get to see it till the film was developed a week later. And now 3 weeks later I finally got it converted to a digital format haha. So here it is for everyone to see, and ignore the time stamp, I couldn't figure out how to turn it off on the converter machine lol.

Animation Class!

2008-11-01T16:54:00.000-07:00

So I have begun to time out my A Film for class. It's about a seagull that wants to eat a cheesy poof but then is attacked by other seagulls and left for dead. All in 15 seconds. Anyway it will be completely animated by hand on cells so I'm trying to get it all relatively easy as it needs to get done THIS MONTH. So here is a little animatic I did in flash today to work out timing and staging. Ignore the crappy drawings haha. Let me know if you have any ideas about how to make it better!

I also worked out the levels. The goal is to keep the levels LOW! Max of 6 being shot at a time.

BG - Beach, sky, umbrellas. (Top pegged)
A - Hero Seagull and cheesy poof(Bottom pegged)
B - Flying Seagulls (Bottom Pegged)
C - Bouncing seagulls (Bottom Pegged)
UL_OL - Fat man (Top pegged)
OL - Ball (Top pegged) and another cell of just the cheesy poof before the seagull picks it up.

This should work out as then I can pan the BG, UL_OL, and ball without having to worry about my walk cycle on the seagull and stuff. I'm excited! Who wants to help paint? 360 frames on 2's that should be around 180 frames, some of which are cycles so I'm gonna go with like 100 or so actual cells to paint.

I am going to die. lol

Work in Progress

2008-09-24T01:01:00.000-07:00

I am all inspired by Pascal Campion (here's his blog!) and his use of light with flat colors. LOVE! So I am venturing into the foray as well. So far it's been fun! I can't wait to get this done, but right now I need SLEEPS! Especially since I have to be up for more orientation tomorrow! :)

Africa

2008-09-09T20:14:00.001-07:00

Uber cute cuddly animals on Discovery Channel make me want to draw!

Shopping!

2008-09-08T23:12:00.000-07:00

Was watching The Devil Wears Prada for the millionth time on HBO and decided to be productive haha.

Arts

2008-09-07T01:26:00.000-07:00

Some arts from recently. One after being inspired from visiting Stuart NG's shop and 2 from helping out some other film guy with a kiddy catalog for his thesis film.

Red Riding Hood FUN!

2008-04-22T12:14:00.001-07:00

Working on some Little Red Riding hood character stuff for fun. And it's helping my flash skills improve! Score! And as usual all color is lost in the upload to internet land. Alas I need to remember to use web safe colors when putting stuff up here haha.

French!

2008-02-03T16:53:00.000-08:00

Work in progress for demo reel! So getting rid of the bug eyed kid.

Logo stuff

2008-01-11T11:15:00.000-08:00

My friend wanted some "crappy stick figures", seriously, as the design for her flyers for a marathon event. So here is the design for the slogan...

If you're not first, at least you're not them.

Another speed painting of DOOM

2007-11-18T14:46:00.000-08:00

Done whilst organizing Juniors class assignments for Kristin. Dear lord do some of their CD's take forever to copy over. *head desk*

Painting Time!

2007-11-15T10:47:00.000-08:00

Speed painting done in class today 'cause I was BORED. Not really bored... just tired of Butterfry.

Yay arts!

It's Raining

2007-06-01T17:51:00.001-07:00

Yay! Finally rain. In honor of this I bring something cute.

Phil for Thursday... I mean Tuesday

2007-03-03T22:40:00.000-08:00

So I had to do this all today so that I am not freaking out tomorrow in the middle of intermission. Or worse doing my homework on my program lol. Anyway here's my crap. They look TONS better on the computer than printed as you can actually see the brush strokes here. IT just looks like a big mess when printed. So a nice little forwarning to everyone. Don't trust crappy printers.

Waspy World

Comicy World

Ladybugy World

Olivia Walk Cycle

2007-02-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

Maya Stuff

2007-02-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

2 assignments down, a bunch to go.

Yay for not having a Life!

2007-01-31T07:37:00.000-08:00

Well this only took about all yesterday afternoon and night. But yay for tablets! Assignment was to do a style switch on this living room into Gothic, Impressionist, and Cartoony.

Progress... FINALLY

2007-01-19T22:02:00.001-08:00

If you see anything off let me know. I am driving myself bonkers here lol.

Death by PB & J

2007-01-15T22:43:00.000-08:00

I couldn't help myself lol.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

2007-01-14T21:35:00.000-08:00

So Kristen's latest assignment was much harder than I expected it to be. As evidenced by the ridiculous amount of time it took me to finish. For the lucky ones not in Phil's class this week's assignment was all about pictograms. We had to draw instructions for making either a pb&j sandwich, soup, or microwavable popcorn. The second half was to design a visual image to describe 2 of 4 things. Artifical Environments, Illustration, Animation, or College.

So here is my Saturday lol.

OMG Headache!

2006-12-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

Walk Cycle

2006-11-29T06:57:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Blog topic

2006-11-21T21:53:00.000-08:00

Hm, for some reason I can't edit the group blog post to put up my thanksgiving piece. So I'll just post it up here for now.

Superman who?

2006-10-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

Too priceless not to.

OMG Scary!

2006-10-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed this haha.

Uh.... testing?

2006-10-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

Mmm.... candy.