Saturday, July 05, 2014

Abby's Dad

Here's a first stab at the design for Abby's dad, Tim. Tim is a down on his luck writer from NYC. Upon being an utter and complete failure at jumpstarting his creative writing career, Tim is forced to move him and his daughter back to his hometown of Anytown, USA. Not having too much to offer a small community, Tim finds work with the local paper writing beat stories. Being forced to do ride alongs with a local cop, Tim is constantly getting himself into situations he's completely unprepared for. But nothing compares to his ultimate challenge, when he gets home and attempts to raise a teenage girl. I wanna design his cop buddy next. The cop is going to also be down and out. I assume he's the shame of the department, which is way he gets paired with the writer from the paper. They're gonna be a great duo.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

An Abinormal Year

So I guess it goes without saying that I have not posted on this blog in a long time. Had a very active year and half since last... Titmouse Inc has kept me very busy with productions like TURBO F.A.S.T., China IL., and most recently I've been lucky enough to get to Animation Direct on The Venture Bros. Season 6. Been a very productive and fruitful year and a half to say the least. Most importantly I got married to the love of my life Melissa! We've been married 7 months, and really I couldn't be more happy. I'd probably have to give my wife the credit for inspiring me to push myself. I have a tendency to be complacent and settle with my personal work, but this year was a little different. Recently I embarked on making a personal film which primiered at the Midsummer Night Toons Festival here in NYC. The event went great and for anyone who wasn't able to see it there, I'd like to share about it here with you! The Short is called "Abinormal!" and if you give it a watch I think it'll explain itself. "Abinormal!" is an idea i've been sitting on for a while now. First and foremost, I used to be terrified of "The Exorcist". So I think at the most basic level this has been some sort of cathartic experience for me. Secondly tho I always thought about it and wondered... what if Linda Blair's character never got cured of her "condition"? What if she had to just brush off that vomit, and pick herself up? Go to school, hang with friends, could she lead any type of normal life? What would that look like? I thought it was funny lol. So I decided to stop dreaming about it, and just make it. Now, before I get a little too ahead of myself, I did NOT make this thing alone. I was very fortunate and had the help of some extremely talented people throughout animation in NYC. Tom Soulen was there from beginning to end with me. From the get go he always believed in the idea, and since was responsible for all the backgrounds throughout the piece. Animation wise, along with myself, the crew I was able to gather was stellar. Starting with my two best bud's Yuri Fain and Danny Hynes. Both without question were eager to jump in and lend a hand, and the animation they cranked out was unbelievable. Aaron Brewer jumped in and just nailed the style and the sensibility (not to mention lending his voice for the character of Harrison, which to me he completely killed it!). Mike Carlo whom has been directing animation here at Titmouse East was able to lend a hand and delivered the, if not, most memorable shot in the film. Tim Prendergast was able to help out and produced some FX animation (for which theres a screen grab below). Just top notch work, really from every single person who helped, down the line I couldn't have been more lucky. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, I constantly feel like I'm never really living up to my potential, and for the first time I feel like I've shown the world what I'm capable of. Nothings perfect, and it's all a learning process... but If your reading this and watching I hope you enjoy!