2.9.10

Slight Update..Kind of..

Busy Busy, three different animations in the works and even a game!

Learning the powers of the mystical flixel.. check out a stupid demo i made. So terrible...

26.8.10

Retro Thursdays! - Rock & Rule

Ending this month on a high note here, I've chosen one of my all time favorite animated movies!
Rock & Rule! This 1983 film was a doomed success. Plagued with setbacks and terrible, almost non-existent marketing, it never got released to the mainstream audiences that it intended.
The animation is great, the atmosphere reeks 80's, and it features original music by the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed!!! Seriously this should have been on the top of everybody's list.

Here's the Wikipedia synopsis of the film to give you all the little ins and outs. Just click on the picture below to begin playback of the movie.


This is the American edited version of the film. It's the much more rare Canadian version that contains all the uncut goodness...hard to find but if you do grab it!

19.8.10

Retro Thursdays! - Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Here's a classic for you all! Anybody remember Rikki-Tikki-Tavi?
This 1975 classic Chuck Jones toon was a  made for T.V. movie that was fairly dark considering the classic Jone's look that it had. Though it did stay much more true to the source material unlike the Disney's Jungle Book from which Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was a short story in..

Here's the Wikipedia article however I couldn't find one focused on the cartoon itself. Oh well!...Click zee picture!

(EDIT: Video source has been updated :D)

And your Amazon.com link!

16.8.10

In the Mean Time..

Yes I am keeping busy!

Besides working on a couple different projects (slowly but surely) I do sketch occasionally and mess around with Gimp. Thought I could at least update a bit more by posting some of the stuff I do here and there...

Here's a couple of wallpapers I made for my Ubuntu and Windows computer! Woooh!



Aaand there we go!

12.8.10

Retro Thursdays! - Shinbone Alley

This week we have another UPA produced musical, 1971's Shinbone Alley.
This animation was considered a flop along with it's theatrical counterpart, but still is regarded as a cult classic due to its strange story. Basically some guy commits suicide and comes back as a cockroach and falls in love with a cat, but being a cockroach can't get her attention and repeatedly commits suicide again. There's a lot more to it than that but you get the basic gist of it all..

Check out some other random Wikipedia info here and click on the image below to begin the film...Enjoy!


As always if you enjoy this movie check it out on Amazon.com

5.8.10

Retro Thursdays! - When The Wind Blows

Wow so it's been a while since I've last updated hasn't it? Well life has it's funny little way of, well...getting in the way!

However back to business, I have gathered about a months worth of Retro Thursdays movies for all you to watch so get ready for those! The comics however will be another story since I was hoping to have some new ones done by now..oh well :/

This week we have the 1986 film When the Wind Blows. This neat little film is based on the book of the same name (like most good movies I suppose..). It's also another hybrid film in which most of the environments are real and the characters are animated. This is an apocalyptic movie and although the movie starts out lightheartedly enough as it progresses things become more and more dark.

Here is your Wikipedia Synopsis as per usual and as always just click on the image below to begin the playlist of the film :D



And please if you enjoy the film and would like to own it then check it out here on Amazon.com

31.7.10

This Coming Month...

New Retro Thursday movies coming this August!

17.7.10

...

:[

24.5.10

Comic - Apartment 308 Ep. 2

And here is the next comic in which my second Apartment 308 short was based on.


As you can see I used to have a Tick character. I felt this was too much like Aqua Teen Hunger Force since I was having the Tick kind of act like a Meatwad character, Fly was mean like Master Shake, and Ant was the Frylock of the group. So I scrapped him in the cartoon version and added Worm in his place. Worm is much more pathetic and also won't play as big of a role. I kept Ant in there for now, but he is gonna be fazed out and replaced by Roach... Who is just as bad as Fly.

17.5.10

Comic - Apartment 308 Ep. 1

Here it is as promised! This comic was the inspiration for the first Apartment 308 short.


I remember after I first drew it out something happened (most likely spilled soda on it) to where it was almost destroyed. I scanned it in, cleaned it up, and replaced the dialog with a computer font. This inspired me to do the same with the other comic...which you'll see next week!

...Unless of course you dig through my archives..in which it is hidden! Muahahah!

13.5.10

Sorry...

No Retro Thursday movie today :(
Been very busy this week but I'll make it up tomorrow for sure!

10.5.10

Comic - Blue Marker Syndrome!


I love these random comics I did.. Notice the Canadian guy? Yup same one from the first Apartment 308 cartoon!
Also there's a quick tribute to Homestarrunner right at the end :P

6.5.10

Retro Thursdays! - Gay Purr-ee

This week we have the 1962 UPA movie Gay Purr-ee. I wanted to feature a Chuck Jones film and it was a toss between this and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. I ultimately went with Gay Purr-ee even though it wasn't officially produced by Chuck Jones merely writter by him, however his influence is more than evident.
Gay Purr-ee is a Parisian story about cats (yes more cats!) and before anybody starts drawing comparisons with Aristocats remember that this movie predates it by almost ten years! Although the character designs are typical Jone's savior-faire, and I say that in a good way, the background designs are very stylistic and almost painterly.

As always and again, here is your Wikipedia Synopsis. Please click on the image below to begin the playlist.
Note that this time the film is hosted on a Romanian site so dont be alarmed!


And you can always find this movie and more on Amazon.com!


4.5.10

New Layout!

Ah yes.. Another month, another layout design.

I've finally got around to implementing the new layout I had made a while back. I was having trouble getting blogger to conform to my new columns and after some searching around the webz I more or less found the answers. I have a couple more additions to put in but those are minor. Also there's still a few quirks to fiddle around with, one namely being the magical disappearing footer whenever I try to add the Theyfollow.me widget, but more or less everything is on its way to being perfect...for now!

So if you happen to stop by in the near future let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions as to why that particular twitter widget just won't cooperate, I will be much appreciative!

:]

3.5.10

Comic - Ferris Wheel Frenzy!

This has nothing to do with ferris wheels and everything to do with working at the office.


This is one of my favorite old-timey's. I love the chemistry i created between these two.
Spoiler Alert* They will be making an appearance in Apt. 308! Although they won't be stick figures.

29.4.10

Retro Thursdays! - Fantastic Planet

This week's retro movie is from 1973. An international film Fantastic Planet or La Planete Sauvage was a production by both France and Czechoslovakia.
This is a very surreal story that takes place on the planet Ygam in which humans are taken and basically treated as animals. It's a little slow to start but if you can wrap your head around it then it is definitely worth the watch!
Once again here is your Wikipedia Synopsis! Click on the image below to view the movie playlist.


And if you find this movie worthwhile you can always purchase it on Amazon:















26.4.10

Comic - Doug's Imaginary Friend


Here's one that was slightly inspired by Drop Dead Fred! If you've never seen that movie then go rent it now! Definitely one of my favorite childhood movies..

23.4.10

Google Search Story - Apt. 308 Style



So Youtube has this thing going on where you can create your own Search Story. I tried it out and it's pretty fun for a laugh. I made an Apartment 308 one but found it lacked a little commentary. So I downloaded the file, and spiced it up a bit!

In the mean time production is coming along much slower than anticipated. The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy for me. Going up and down, up and down and now car troubles. Not to say that it's at a halt but things are begining to get on track once again.

22.4.10

Retro Thursdays! - The Plague Dogs

This week we have a good one from 1982! Based off the book of the same nameThe Plague Dogs is a very gripping tale of two dogs that have escaped an animal testing lab after being put through brutal tests. You really get a feel for what they are going through and all the trouble they must endure just to be free.

I really enjoy the animation in this movie. It's far from the typical Disney-esque animals in which they seem more human than otherwise. The animals in this film actually have all the little quirks and tendencies of the real thing and the only humanity you experience is when they speak. Definitely a must see!
Here is your usual Wikipedia synopsis. And as always you may click on the picture below to view the movie:


Once again you may find this movie on Amazon.com:








19.4.10

Comic - The First Apartment 308!

Hmm... Let's try and spice up these Mondays with more comics!
This is a special one because it was the first time I ever had the idea for Apartment 308. You can see that there was another character which was supposed to be a Tick. I eventually scratched him out of the whole thing and replaced him with Worm.
Click To Enlarge:


Later on I'll post up the other two Apartment 308 comics that I based my cartoons on!

15.4.10

Retro Thursday! - Felidae

This week we have have the 1994 film Felidae (yes the latin term for felines). This is a German animated film about...you guessed it, cats!
Directed by Michael Schaak and animated by the Trickompany animation studio, this movie is great in that it's basically a noir murder mystery involving a cat named Francis and the new neighborhood he's just moved into. So it has cats, mystery, murder, and an awesome 90's theme song to boot! Something for everybody!
Check out the full synopsis here on Wikipedia. Click on the image below to watch the movie:

Once again if you like what you see and want to purchase the film you can get it here below. It helps the creators and myself! . . . More or less haha.


14.4.10

One In The Morning & Still No Inspiration..

I'm actually going to go to bed. I think Friday night I'll try staying up late and do that whole "make a comic strip because my mind is totally tired" thing... Maybe.

13.4.10

Comics! Goth-Stick-Boy

Well, sort of...
Things have been going slowly once again. Been busy with the trials and tribulations of "real" life.
In an attempt to keep this blog updated more consistently I'm going to try and post a weekly comic! First I'll start off with some of my ancient comics that were done waaaay back yonder then newer one's after that. Do not be fooled though! These are mostly just randomly drawn out sketches that happen to have words in them. Good for a giggle or two I suppose :D
Note that I pulled these off of my old photobucket account and since I haven't been on there in ages all my images got progressively smaller and smaller...I'll try and enlarge them, hopefully they won't lose too much quality. Not that there was much there to begin with...

First one! Click to enlarge:


A little history:
I drew this back during my "goth" faze. I would go to a lot of parties and always, ALWAYS! There was at least one guy like this. Ah...2002. We survived the Y2K and it was just downhill from there...

8.4.10

Retro Thursdays Begin! - Hey Good Lookin'

Hmm... So let's see how long I can keep this up!
Every Thursday I'll be posting a recommended "retro" animated movie or show along with a link to the video so that you can view it! And yes, this will be called "Retro Thursdays."

Enough talk! Since my last post was about the 1982 Ralph Bakshi movie Hey Good Lookin' I thought I'd start of easy with that! Here's the Wikipedia Synopsis of the film since I'm way too lazy at the moment to write my own... 
Click on the image below to start the movie playlist:


I will try to fix broken links if and when they happen and only if the post is still relevent. Hope you all enjoy!

Also I know we live in a day and age where we can watch all this stuff for free, but if you really do enjoy these videos please support the creators by buying the film. I'll even link you to them!


6.4.10

Neat Article on Bakshi's Hey Good Lookin'









Bakshi is definitely one of the more interesting animators of his time. Determined to stretch animation to it's limits he always tried to incorporate real life into his works, whether it be rotoscoping, recorded audio of actual street life, or...whatever! 

This is an interesting article about "Hey Good Lookin'" a film in which Bakshi tries to blur the line between animation and real life. Click the link above and give it a read!













Original article written by Tony Best, hosted on Waxpoetics.com

23.3.10

Says-A-Me Street Test Clip



Here's the quick clip I promised! It really is just a quick clip of what I'm working on. No sound or timing involved at all...
It also wont looked so rushed, I just wanted to put together a quick lil something for all those who may be interested!
In slightly related news, I tested out the newer Toon Boom Animate and I have to say I love the vectorization feature in that program MUCH better! After going back to Toon Boom 4 (which I'm using for this short) I noticed how much more jagged the imported drawings become. Sigh...time to start saving for an upgrade!

20.3.10

Do A Chicken Walk!

Believe it or not I've actually been working on these cartoons. Albeit slowly...
I'll post a quick clip of the Says-A-Me short later on this week to prove it!
In the mean time there have been a few posts of other animations that I see all across the webs, I really do enjoy these and love to see small studios do well.
I have another one from the great Augenblick Studios. You may know there work on Adult Swim's "Super Jail" and there current series "Ugly Americans" which I haven't had the pleasure of watching yet, but I do hope it's good...Here's a demo reel!!!


10.3.10

Freaknik..



I'm not exactly into modern day commercial "hip-hop" but this cartoon is definitely worth a look. The whole animation style is quirky and amateurish so it's very fun to watch.
The topic of discussion however doesn't have much to go on but Freaknik really isn't about the deep storyline or complicated characters and it does seem to drag on for a while during the middle. If you're a big fan of T-Pain and his cohorts then this should be a no brainer i suppose. If your like me then just tune out the voice modulation and try to enjoy the ride. Your either gonna hate it or say, "wow..Bootsy Collins is an alien on a dog spaceship and hey, so is George Clinton! Why not?"
Brought to you by the wonderous people at Titmouse Inc.

2.3.10

Great Stop Motion Animation - The Machine



Nice stop motion animation by Rob Shaw of bentimagelab.com check it out!

23.2.10

Online Stuff...

Some fun animations from MoreFrames.com


Those two are just bumpers but check out their video section for a lot of other crazy cool clips.



9.2.10

Should I Change The Title?

I've finally begun animation on the Says-A-Me cartoon..
I've got all but two of the character's voices recorded and the sound effects are ready!
I have begun animation! Take note that I'm also recording some of what I'm doing in hopes of making some sort of tutorial so that is kind of slowing me down a tad but hopefully It'll be worth it!
Now my only remaining problem is whether or not to stick with this same title... It's a Sesame Street parody which is why I've labeled it "Says-A-Me" but I'm wondering if i should just got with something more obvious? Hmm...well I've plenty of time to think about it...
Till then I have some more sketches to post later on, some related to this cartoon and some other random stuff. Also there are a couple of links that I had put up. One for Videos; which are all on my youtube page, and another for said Sketches; which have random things I draw that are somehow related to my cartoons...or upcoming toons!

7.2.10

Claim Token

AE3QXCXEMK2E


Ignore that...or not just signing up for stuff to get this bad boy noticed! . . .
Also going to be adding a couple different areas here, sketches n so on.


:P

2.2.10

strangedominion.net

Just acquired a domain name! Ended up going with NameCheap since I've been hearing some fairly positive things about them. You can now catch me at:
www.strangedominion.net
the ".com" version was already taken *shakes fist* but iz ok :D

Some iPad Filler...



So I love to use RSS. Unfortunately (depending on your opinion) lately it's been filled with non-stop news of the iPad which is basically an over sized iPod touch.As much as I'd like to see the tablet market evolve a bit, especially since all my work is done on a Fujitsu Lifebook (the one linked there is the closest I could find to my T4010 model), this little bit of technology seems a bit...gimmicky?
Anyhow I'm hoping that it will at least re-ignite the tablet industry. Until then however, I have yet another filler video! Made it the late wee hours of the night I present to thee....
iPOOP

Note To Self...

When compiling a video on your laptop, don't forget to plug it into the wall...

31.1.10

Says-A-Me Sketches

Here are a few sketches from the upcoming Says-A-Me short...




30.1.10

Making Headway

Well this weekend I was able to get some help with voice-over work thankfully. Now I only have two more characters to finish!
In the mean time I have some character designs that were worked on. Been kind of stuck on how I'm going to have the people look like in this one. Also I have other obligations that I need to work on as well...DOH!
I'll be posting some of the character designs later on.  Also time to start making a little tune and get some sound effects in order...

29.1.10

Chegg...Commercials!

Okay so i don't exactly have cable t.v. In fact i don't have it all. I rock the good 'ol bunny ears!
Anyhow I was basking in the glory of cable television at a friend's place when I saw a Chegg.com commercial... It was completely great! I loved the animation in it.
So I did what was natural and youtubed it and low and behold I fond more! Check them out here if you haven't seen them already. Short and sweet..


27.1.10

Bit Of A Preview Here...

Ah hell, here are all the backgrounds for the next cartoon... :D















Finished With The Backgrounds

I've finished the backgrounds for the Says-A-Me Street episode.
I know it's out of order since I still haven't finished with the voice recordings yet, but I should be doing that hopefully this weekend when a couple of people can help me out with that..
I'll upload some previews later on today...

25.1.10

Finished With A Storyboard...

I have uploaded a storyboard of the Sesame Street (Says-A-Me Street) cartoon I'm working on currently, however only friends can view it so yeah...friend me! I'll release it to the world once the full cartoon is finished so if your the patient type I suppose you really don't have to friend me...sniff...

Also I'm working on a "tutorial." I'll be documenting my paperless animation process during the creation of this cartoon so be expecting that as well. Hmm...yes progress is the key!

20.1.10

Need More Voice Talent!

I started with the voice recording today...turns out I'm about as bad at it as I thought! So far I can only get Big Birds voice down, but I got stuck! Now every time I talk it just sounds like that!
Hahahah..soo anybody wanna help? I need females for this one!

p.s.
Don't make me do it!

19.1.10

Just On A Quick Note...

I added progress indicators on the page. Hopefully this will prove useful in some way, at least giving viewers a visual as to how far along I am in my projects.
The progress bar will be incorporating five parts of my animation process.

Step 1 - Scripting
Step 2 - Story Boarding
Step 3 - Voice/Sound Recording
Step 4 - Animation
Step 5 - Compiling

Each of these steps represent %20 of the total project. I almost always take each of these steps in the same order for all my animation projects so basic math skills should be able to tell you how far along I am.

New Layout!

Just finished with the new blog layout. Looks good i think, much more simpler than the last. Yeah now to work on some animation!

In the mean time my sister sent me a pic of my nephew using his newly inquired logical skills to turn on a light... I felt obliged to turn it into a motivational poster :D






16.1.10

Hard times...Harder Thinking!

Damn I am sooo horrible at updating aren't I?

Ok so even though I have a script written out for another cartoon and having intentions to animate it, for some reason I haven't even touched it...However not all is lost because I've just finished up a script for another A308 cartoon! This one is a very heavy endeavor since I'm aiming at a full youtuby 10 minute episode!

So now the question remains..Should I animate the shorter random cartoon first? Or just jump straight into this A308 beast? I'm actually aiming at making the other short first just so that there's a little something for my "viewers" to watch. That's right, I'm thinking of you!

YOU SHALL BE ENTERTAINED!