~!~

foxing season

2009-10-04T17:47:00.001-07:00

Such a dumb drawing! I wish I had time to do more entertaining stuff, but work, cooking + eating a large animal a day, Animation class and weightlifting all take so much of my time. At least animating has kept me relatively busy! Here's some work from class 3:

Also, here's some rough planning for my upcomming animation test:

Animation Mentor Reel - Class 2

2009-06-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

WOOOO! Here are the assignments in reverse chronological order from my two classes at Animation mentor. Seeing as how I started the program too scared to even click on geometry, and lost as soon as I started using the timeline (never mind even touching the graph editor) I think I have come a long way!

Despite being stressed out by getting back into work, having ZERO time to work on assignments during the week, and kinda going through a "low" period self esteem/mood swing wise this month, I think I have come away form this class better than ever, and ULTRA excited to start the next class : Advanced Body Mechanics.
SO I'm getting a free week of catching up with work, sorting out my food (I'm 100% sure I need to need to eat a significant amount more), going to crossfit/O-lifting (I LOVE to snatch!!!), and after that its STRAIGHT BACK to animating! Awesome.
Thanks for reading my blog, I'd appreciate any feedback you might have!!

Practice drawing clean

2009-05-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

Job starts tomorrow! I'm gonna miss my time off.

Animation Mentor Update!

2009-05-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

AM is coming along quite nicely, here is some planning I did for the upcoming project:

I had the idea to animate my planning ENTIRELY in 2D from Jason Ryan (animator at dreamworks now, I think) who supposedly works this way a lot..
I find it really helps me push the timing + movement, with zero time invested in trying to wrangle the rig into a passable pose only to ditch it. This way I have the feet, and arms and everything roughly worked out so I don't need to have as much headaches later on.
I must say, this was a very fun experience, and we'll see what the end product turns out like.
I find Maya a very powerful tool, but sometimes I have a hard time using it properly without it taking the reins... So I wanted to try it this way for a bit. I'll upload the final shot in a few weeks when I'm done, along with the rest of my 2nd term stuff.

Work is starting up soon, and I am both looking forwards to being on a schedule again, and having money. But I am not happy about potentially not having enough time to cook my food and go to the gym, and have a healthy social life etc.. I lost 20 lbs over the downtime, I feel great and I love good food and excersise so much.. I DON'T want to go back to the way I was before... Hemb.. Anyhow, hopefully I'll upload some lifedrawing next - we'll see!

Fencer

2009-04-30T14:05:00.001-07:00

Sandy Hill 2

2009-04-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

keep on swinging

2009-04-09T19:39:00.001-07:00

Sandy Hill 1

2009-04-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

Anyone in Ottawa, get your ass down to Sandy Hill community centre for amazingly cheap lifedrawing class... 7:00-9:30 for 4$
I can't believe how much Animation Mentor has helped me with my overall drawing.. I never expected to do this good seeing as how the last time I went to life drawing was last year.
.. I still suck at drawing my own stuff >_>

2009-03-30T08:35:00.001-07:00

Blagh..
Quick Lifedrawing done at work instead of working!

Animation Mentor Class 1 Reel

2009-03-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hello! Here is the assembled assignments I did while attending Animation Mentor
It was such an awesome experience, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to dive into animation headfirst, and get some serious education in your brains..

Stu Poses

2009-03-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of making a different blog for my AM stuff, but I have been thinking about creativity and art a lot lately, and I've come to a bit of an understanding of why I love art so much, and particularly my angle on animation.
I have always been really self conscious about my art, and I never really was proud of any of my drawings. In fact, I never really drew that much period before I got into animation. I guess each person draws for different reasons.
I have come to terms that my drawings may never be amazing one off character designs. I just want to achieve different things that what I am holding myself up to. All I know is what I like, and I hope that through my art I can learn to convey something larger than just a pretty picture.

I am extremely grateful for the lessons I have learned while working at Mercury Filmworks, and taking Animation Mentor, and learning about nutrition and fitness, and buying a house, and moving along with life in general.. I am feeling the interconnectedness of all aspects of my life, and as one thing clicks into pace, other things seem to follow.

Anyhow, all that was my roundabout way of saying I love the drama I can create with art, and I need to keep that in mind, so that I never lose sight of why I love to pick up the pencil in the first place. And I will not separate anything into different blogs.

Here are some of the poses I did of the animation mentor STU rig. I'm in the process of making a reel of all my assignments, as soon as I get a bit of time off work, I'll post that too!

"Man Down"

2009-03-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

In uncertain times such as these, I have to stick to my priorities.
1- get into shape
2- eat like a hunter-gatherer
3- Get better at animation
In the next little while, I have all the time in the world to draw whatever I want. Its funny how hard that seems to have become for me. I need to stop worrying about my priorities and start having fun!

Roadbag! (and Creeper)

2009-03-02T09:05:00.001-08:00

There's certainly lots of Roadbags around at this time!
I felt like uploading this unfinished sketch - I like the feeling of it, even though its not finished and too flawed for me to fix it now..
Drawn with sketchbook pro while watching the AM lecture!!

2009-01-20T16:12:00.001-08:00

There's a lot to do nowadays... Mostly work and Animation Mentor!
Jimmy two-shoes is coming to a close sometime in the next few months. SO gotta work while there is some!
here is a promo for those who are curious - CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h5Di60udzQ

AM is going really well, I am loving it. I have learned SO much, and so far all I did was pose "Stu".. The feedback on that site is amazing.. I find myself more inspired by the day. I have been drawing WAY more - I find that extra encouragement always makes my drawings better.
Anyhow, must get to animating!

Another Pug

2008-10-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

YAY!
Work is going very well.
Animation mentor is very exciting.
Excersise/Eating has turned a new leaf! Gonna be starting a program at http://crossfit.com/ ...
We take possession of our new condo next month! I'm Excited!!!
I guess my happiness overflowed into my new muse subject.

Pugs

2008-10-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

First post since I finished school! B'duuuugh...
I had a cool summer working on Jimmy two-shoes, an awesome new TV show! I am also Starting Animation Mentor, to build up my skills even more! I'm in the maya springboard class, and So far it's been really exciting! I hope learning maya won't be too hard! More posts to come! I'm not dead, just terrifficly busy with work, excersise and school!

2008 DEMO REEL!

2008-04-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

What a year

PORTFOLIO STUFF!

2008-04-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

Selected pages from my portfolio!

alien!

2008-03-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

The cutest alien. Concept for a small school assignment

Painted Bgs.

2008-03-21T12:36:00.001-07:00

5 weeks left till I'm done school... Uh oh....
I have a lot of work to go do now!

WIP BG painting

2008-03-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

Don't care that its too saturated >_< !!

Girly Post

2008-02-20T20:53:00.000-08:00

Thank you all who have been commenting on my posts - I really appreciate the feedback! I am still rather inexperienced with all this internet stuff - I am slowly coming out of my shell.

Practicing color layout for the damn book my school puts out each year showcasing our work.. I actually have to start thinking about presentation... Yuck!!!

I'm about 1/2 done animating my film by now - It's exciting, I am really looking forwards to the open house, and the day I am no longer a "Student".

Animals

2008-02-08T12:43:00.001-08:00

rough scenes!!

2008-01-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

This is some of my rough scenes.
I truly feel that animation is my strength - and I'm excited to finally have some stuff to show off.

1 (I have to line-test it this way because it's a pan - this is just a quick line test, so meh :P)

2

20

January's almost out

2008-01-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

Maybe.

Floating Punks!

2008-01-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

A theme I intend to expand upon with drawings.... More because when things are named the same, its easier for my brain to organize them.

Spacemen Vs. Cavemen

2008-01-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

The Age-Old dichotomy!

School's Starting up again tomorrow. Hopefully this won't mean less posting - I'll be spending the next2-3 months animating, I hope to have something to show soon!

turtletravel2

2008-01-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

Again, familiarizing myself with layout presentation!! I'm so bad at it!!

happy dragons

2008-01-05T09:43:00.001-08:00

my attempt at drawing "cool" things or "beautiful" things always end up humorous and silly.
Practice with layout techniques - not sure if I like it at all.

"color sketch"

2007-12-28T13:40:00.001-08:00

Scene from my film experimenting with painting styles for my BGs and the color scheme.

non-christmas christmas cards!

2007-12-19T22:03:00.001-08:00

School's almost over

2007-12-11T22:59:00.000-08:00

... " ... ONLY FOR NOW!"

"Making up for it"

2007-12-09T23:47:00.000-08:00

Just some quick photos I took for my final this term - Ill put more up, when I get around to it ;)
I personally think I suck at Life Drawing - well, conte and nupastel anyhow. :P

Whoo-whoohoo

2007-12-02T22:31:00.001-08:00

Fanart : Lonely Worlds

2007-11-10T13:04:00.000-08:00

For Julian's birthday, I did fan art of his comic, lonely worlds - A very interesting, refreshingly different web comic! Check it Out!
Congratulations on another year of life, this time full of exciting drawing adventures, and learning! Good Luck!

2007/08 FILM

2007-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Nothing I can show yet - I am a bit early on in my pre-production stage!! I am not all that comfortable with showing not-approved stuff. Anyhow, here are 2 characters from my film just to give you the gist of whats going on.
.
.
Also, since I keep getting better @ drawing each time I make new stuff, I never want to show anything old!!

Anyhow, I have undertaken a lofty goal of finishing a film of under 1 minute by april - and to not make it suck. I want it to be funny and ridiculous... Lets see if by April I'll even be half done! :P

WOOT!
Anyhow, there will be more when I have stuff I feel like showing!!

mogget!

2007-09-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

Following an excersise form the excellent book : "Prepare to Board" by Nancy Beiman. YAY

"Internal struggles".

2007-09-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

freaks

2007-09-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

A lifelong theme.

Angry Rodents

2007-09-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

A summer-long theme.

midsummer

2007-08-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

G'hoh Boy!
I can't upload more.
Partly because of terrible internet and slowness, and also I dont really have acess to a scanner to scan the many drawings I have created.

I am also a tad shy!

My computer broke, and I do not have photoshop to tidy up drawings and save them properly - and my work has me working 10 hour days, and not much happiness has come of this - I still want to updae my blog somehow. So here it is!

2007-06-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

love//hate relationship with flash

2007-05-19T12:55:00.001-07:00

Dont know if its worht it to continue trying to draw in flash at all....
And I need to find out how to use colours >_<

Some drawings from the past month

2007-05-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

Fueled by Dr. Who, Rocky Horror, Scrubs and Oblivion, I have taken to the Halifax animation industry, like a slug to a stone wall.

I havent really done any elaborate things this month. This new job is sucking alot of my energy. And I still dont have a scanner - I had to scan these in the dead of night when no-one was guardig the studio's scanner!!

Just for fun:

To be cleaned up in flash, hopefully:

absence of "?" amount of time

2007-04-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

I am moving to halifax, in order to work At Collideascope and will be without internet for an unknown amount of time... I expect May to be a slow month for this blog.

I am going to show you why I am not ever proud of my work. For my non-artist friends I have made an Un-Censored assemblage, for a taste of how much work goes into one of my projects.

Male Character Design:
I abandoned these male designs pretty early on - they were too flat looking or something.. Too bad, because I probably would have preferred it.

Here are the concept designs for a female character:

more work was needed defining the body shape and pose:

I drew something I really liked, but my teacher had other ideas...:

I went and drew up more "3-D" faces to change my design to what the assignment needed >:| I am no good at faces.
And here is a rough idea of what it looks like in the rough stage/ "completed" stage:

forgot

2007-04-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

I need to ignore myself sometimes.

Sketches I did on the bus

2007-04-13T03:05:00.000-07:00

I couldnt be female and not draw this stuff too.....

old one-lines

2007-04-13T03:00:00.000-07:00

End of school impatience

2007-03-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

self portrait.... kindof. I am trying to get over some bouts of anxiety. And this is what happened.

BFF

2007-03-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

Favourite characters from starwars.....

Pen sketch night

2007-03-01T20:50:00.000-08:00

I am tired and angry, I still managed to draw something tonight. Woot, I guess. Not really in the mind to care if these are good or not. >_<

I just love drawing in pen so much.

Pilot concepts

2007-02-26T20:28:00.000-08:00

Picking up from where I left off form a few posts ago. Hopefully what I will finally go with will be better than these.

Paintings

2007-02-26T13:16:00.000-08:00

These are some older paintings, part of what I would consider my "fine art" protfolio.

Pen Drawings

2007-02-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

Pans

2007-02-25T18:44:00.001-08:00

Layouts used to be the bane of my existence - I just simply couldn't do them. With this in mind, I am quite happy with the way this turned out. Character design up next

pick your poison

2007-02-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

inspired to draw alchemal supplies for some reason...

Yay for the first colour post :)

Starfleet

2007-01-27T08:01:00.000-08:00

What I am hoping I see here is the point of no return. This drawing is special, both for my closet-trekkieness and love for small creatures, but also because I never really "got" drawing until recently, and I am constantly being surprised at every turn..
Wonderment.

lifedrawing1

2007-01-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

Some one-line lifedrawings I did with felt tips

Quinnlan

2007-01-18T05:31:00.000-08:00

This drawing is what jump started my design project - This is the pilot of a flying vehicle I will design, as well as 2 layouts to go with it.

Perpetuality

2006-09-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

I do not have much time to update this blog properly, so for now, expect infrequent updates of wierd art, until I can find my feet...

We will see what time cooks up for us, shalt we?

-Meehan