Time for Festivals!

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!

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

Working hard for no money

Da-dun da-dun.

All Rough Animation DONE!

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!

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.

Layout Animatic

Things are moving along! Yay!

Why I Don't Sleep.

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

I make useful assignments for class. haha

Clickith here for the bigger PRETTIER version.

Toppers Final Animatic

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

The Alexis Block Facial Expression Database

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!

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

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!