Masked Thane of Phantasmia
Well, after many months I am back for an update. Typically when there is no internet-based artwork flowing from the depths of my dome it is because I am preoccupied with much more pressing and dire work… such as getting hired as a full-time animator and illustrator for design boutique, Neo-Pangea. This may come as old news to some of you, but I figured it was about time to make a post about it on my site. I started out as a subcontractor back near the end of September and have recently been signed on to full-time work! Because of this, I have moved on over close to the studio in West Reading, PA. Moving, holidays, work, all that jazz… man this site is dusty – look at all the cobwebs!
To check out Neo-Pangea’s website simply go here: http://www.neo-pangea.com/ I’m stoked to be working daily as a 2D-Animator on the team. Keeping with Neo’s theme of having “characters” instead of simple titles (i.e. “Baron of Pixels”, “Jack of all Portrayed”), I have donned the title of the “Masked Thane of Phantasmia”. (photos to come mid-January) So just what work have I done in the past few months? TONS! We’re talking about multiple handfuls of projects for AAA clients in America’s TV and medical industries. However, things are pretty hush-hush right now and so this is currently the only video I am allowed to post: Faceblam!
In addition to work for Neo-Pangea, I have completed some freelance gigs. One of those was with Misfit’s Attic’s buddy studio, Team 2-Bit. I animated an in-game cut-scene for their upcoming game, Fist Puncher. Head on over to their website to get all the deets: http://www.team2bit.com/ They are incredible guys rockin’ it on the indie scene. Their game has some awesome characters and gameplay as well. My personal fave is “The Beekeeper” – be sure to check it out!
Demo Reel 2012
This demo reel highlights my experience with character animation, effects, and motion graphics inside of Adobe After Effects created in the past year.
Shot Breakdown:
1. A Virus Named TOM Intro – Animation, FX, storyboards
2. Doodle Promo – Animation, assets, illustration
3. A Virus Named TOM Hydrator – Animation, FX
4. A Virus Named TOM Teleporter – Animation, FX, animatic
5. Shaded Chasm – Everything
6. Blessing White Promo – Animation, assets, illustration
7. A Virus Named TOM Sidewalk – Animation, FX, storyboards
8. Kuiper’s Sail – Everything
A Virus Named TOM assets by Travis Koller: http://travisleekoller.carbonmade.com/projects/4272382#1
Marius Libman (Copy) gave me the rights to use the song, Closet Face, for this reel.
To see more of my work, including hand-drawn animation and animated sprites used in video games I’ve taken part in, please click the Demo Reels tab above to see their respective reels. Thank you!
A Virus Named Tom
Hey everyone! So, as most of you probably already know, I’ve been working for Misfits Attic since August, working on this sci-fi puzzle game. Well, it turns out I’ve been pretty much the only animator for the game since November while still being a student at Huntington University! Pretty crazy. It’s been a crazy ton of responsibility and a lot of work. You can imagine me being excited to you the big news! A Virus Named Tom is now available for pre-order, which get’s you into the open beta!
Those that go this route will get their high scores permanently baked into the full game. So, say you get like gold on one of the levels and beat the developers’ scores, well your name will be on the scores list for the final product. And there are more incentives for pre-ordering – order before Valentine’s day basically gets you a second copy for a friend/Valentine. Pretty sweet! It’s only 5 bucks so if you’d like to support me, Huntington University, and the Misfits Attic team, order away! The final game will be 10 bucks, I believe, so ordering now is basically getting you a 50% off discount!
Currently it’s just available on PC, but will hopefully be coming to Steam, Mac, and Linux in a future release.
If you’d like to find out more or sign up for the beta, head on over to http://www.avirusnamedtom.com/ Thanks everyone!
Aikaterine – Misfits Attic Update
Continuing with my drawings of Kolevis this past week. It feels good to draw my character again, and for some reason this happens every fall around Halloween and before Christmas. Perhaps this is because she reminds me so much of Halloween with her costume and color scheme. One of these days I’ll have to bring it to life. In my previous post I did an ultra-painterly realistic version of Kat using a new technique. While it was fun and produced a cool result, it was too much work and not the style I enjoy. In this illustration I went back to my roots – video games and tested her out in some old-fashioned pixel art. I definitely like the look of this better and makes me think that one day she’ll have her own video game!
While on the topic of such, Misfits Attic released a monthly update yesterday detailing the progress made in the game and how far we’ve come over the past few months. One of my animations got highlighted! On top of that, there is some cool music brewing for it as well, so check it out: http://misfitsattic.blogspot.com/2011/11/monthly-update-november-11.html If you’d rather not go to their website and read the article, you can just watch the animation above. I did not create the art, simply animated it and brought it to life. My only creations were the explosions, particle effects, and blood splatter. Everything else was hand-animated in After Effects. Enjoy!
Not Dead
Hey guys. I’m not dead, just extremely busy working full-time remotely between multiple companies! I’m blessed to have these jobs and I’m doing my best to rock them and not slack. However, I’ve been getting really burnt out lately. Need some personal work to keep my creative mind alive. So here, had some fun with this little explosion animation I did today in After effects. Had a lot of fun with the colors, blurs, particles, just everything! I was inspired by the effects used by characters in DC Universe that use Ice Beams. It is a vis-dev assignment for Misfits, but I have no idea if it’s going to be used or not. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to post an itty-bitty something after months of silence. Here it is:
New York Chapter
Comes to a close. A little over a month ago I came onto Motion Capture NYC’s team as an intern. I worked on their Whiteboard Animation side of things, doing heavy work in motion graphics using After Effects and Photoshop. Because of this opportunity, it lead me to more contacts and expanded my network. I gained a lot of experience and cool stuff to put on my reel! It was a lot of fun, but now it will be good to go back home and turn the next page on my life’s book. I’ve picked up a remote-work contract position at Misfits Attic and am very excited to finish my projects going on over there. Right now, things are very hush-hush, but you can check out the company and get an idea of what I’m working on here: Misfits Attic
Now that I’ve finished my work at MoCapNYC, I want to show you the projects I completed there. The promotions have gone public so feel free to check out Doodle and after you watch what they’re about. Pretty cool company if I say so myself! I did about 90% of the animation on the first spot, and on the second I did it entirely by myself. Let me know what you think!
Commissioned!
It’s my friend’s birthday. Caleb, haha, he loves Spiderman. Truth be told, I’ve never seriously attempted to draw a superhero before. Even though I read the comics, watch the movies, shows, etc, never have I truly given it a go. So here he is, as Spiderman. Commissioned by our friend Shar’Niese for his present. It was on the 19th, so I couldn’t post it until today. However, I drew it on Monday.
I used a pose reference off of Google images. Drawn with brush inks and sharpies.
Internship Search
So, I’ve started my internship search for summer 2011. I sent out about 25+ applications so far which is about 10 more than I did last year, so I am really praying I get something! I have received 2 rejections in just a day and a “wait until fall to apply” response. You could pray for me if you found it in your best interest. I’d really appreciate it. You could also help by letting me know of any opportunities you happen to stumble upon. I’m always looking! Perhaps share Mourou with your friends and artists you know?
Here’s a figure sketch I did last week! Haha, all this paperwork is throwing me off my game.
Moving Forward
Well, the week is coming to the close and I am desperately trying to work up a new demo reel to send in with my applications for summer internships. Hopefully my stuff will be good enough to land some interviews, if at least one. I’d love to have a job opportunity for the summer in a related field to my line of work. I’ll soon be posting some tests of new demos to be critiqued. So stay tuned. Once I have a good reel and get my applications out there I will feel more motivation to finish this senior project. I’m more worried about jobs now than I ever have been so I need to act on it first.
Little Ruiner Concepts
I just wanted to post some more of the concept artwork I did for this past weekend’s competition. This was the official character sheet for our “little ruiner” of the speech. I thought you might enjoy it.
Good day today. I think Mourou is going to move into production over the summer for “This Chilling Air” if time permits. If I get an internship we probably won’t start until the fall, but I just wanted to put it out there. This competition has given me a renewed sense of self as an animator/art director starting out his career. The bigger challenge will be to finish the Teach Me How to Fight film I’ve been working on.
As for now, I’ll be cutting a new demo-reel and applying for more internships for the summer. Here’s to hoping I land a good opportunity!
もうろう 