Well, I know last week I said I would be back today with some new content from Nimbin/Gerkinman, but I have had the biggest week I have had in months. I worked at 3 different places, and from home this week. Good to be busy again.
The main big project Id like to talk about was a series of short animations for Google Android. I was called in on Wednesday morning, sat down and was given some storyboards and off I went. This is the first time I have ever been called in to do character based animation as opposed to just web banners and other similar things like that, and I quite enjoyed it. I was working alongside an animation lecturer and the offices After Effects guru. The character himself was animated entirely in flash and then being exported as a sequence of .pngs to be recompiled in After Effects with funkier text and other effects.
All in all it was an enjoyable experience and the other animators were great to work with and id gladly go back again.
In other news here is that Nimbin/Gerkinman pic I promised :P
Im not sure how busy I am going to be next week, so I dont know how much animation work I will get done on the film. Ive also got Loopdeloop Tuesday night. I didn't get to attend last months so im looking forward to going back again.
Boy oh boy what a busy week. Freelanced on Monday. Played a bunch of Skyrim. Got my new loop finished. Oh hey yeah! The loop, thats a good way to start this post.
So the theme for this months Loopdeloop was "Condoms". I had originally gone through a number of ideas before I settled on my final concept. Its not exactly what I set out to make but people seem to be enjoying it. I haven't made anything video game related in a number of years now so it was rather refreshing.
If you want to vote you can make your way over here. The name Super Cock Joke Bros. came a from a follow up project to my short film Cock Joke Solid which I released a number of years ago.
I had planned for a while to make a whole series of cock based video game parodies. Im glad I bailed on that idea tho.
In other news I've been working on the new episode of Nimbin/Gerkinman. Im still not sure which name I will be releasing the series under. Funny how deciding on a name is proving far harder then any of the animation. Hopefully I will have some screens worth sharing next week.
Something else I have been working on and can share is the remastered version of my cartoon "Down at McDonalds".
Originally released in 2008 and animated in a single afternoon, "Down at McDonalds" was based on a story from a work mate, about one day when he was on ecstasy and went to a toilet in McDonalds and swore Ronald McDonald slid under the door and started to lick his leg. Being drawn to that sort of bizarre tale as I am, I had no choice but to make it into a film. So I did. Its something that, for the time I made it in, Im still quite happy with, but that doesn't mean I dont feel like it could be better with some expanding on. So i've started to go back to it in my free time and jazz it up a little. You can see some of the comparison shots between the original and the remastered version below.
The first obvious change, is the new art style, going for a more hand drawn look as opposed to the simple clean vector look of the original. It also now takes place at night, because everything is creepier at night, everyone knows that.
This shot remains largely unchanged, the person behind the counter has been redesigned, as has the menu behind him. I also decided to drop the third man in the line since he didn't really add anything to the shot, but the composition itself remains largely unchanged.
Once again this shot remains largely unchanged. What I have done is made it look much more like the dirty stained toilet one would expect to find in a McDonalds. The original looks more like something from a hospital.
This shot has gone through a number of changes. While not obvious here, in the original shot everything was static. Now not only does the camera pan but also the man in the background moves around as he gets ready to eat his burger.
This scene went through a large number of changes. The main on being in the original short, its a loop of the man eating his burger. Now this shot was recycled 3 times and increased in speed. To avoid that repetition he now goes through 3 stages of eating, the burger, the fries, and a drink. He also just takes a single bite now as opposed to eating non stop.
So far this shot has been the most heavily modified from the original. The original is far to close to the camera and just looks awkward. This was something that I really wanted to rectify. Once again the dirtiness of the toilet is made more obvious as well. Having the camera peeking over the wall of the stall also helps make him look more alone.
So thats about it for next week. Next week will probably be filled with images from the new Nimbin/Gerkinman episode. Got to keep jumping back and forth to keep things fresh.
Boy oh boy, what a week. As I mentioned last week I was heading up to the Northern Rivers to visit family on the weekend. And I did, but before I divulge into that, heres a video my partner Maya put together for a uni assignment, starring yours truly. Its about dressing for weather in Melbourne.
So, without going to much into the trip I had, We went through Nimbin, and since thats the series im wanting to bring back next year I thought I should do a bit of a post about it.
These here are the Nimbin Rocks, and really, they are the only things from Nimbin that have ever actually made there way into any of the flash episodes or illustrations.
When you finally make it out of the hills and closer to the town this is the sign that greats you. You will find these signs all over the Northern Rivers.
These shots give you a bit of an idea of what the main st of Nimbin is like. Its something I always wanted to include in the original series but never got to, but you will be seeing it frequently in the new season. As you can see from the photos it is a colourful place, which ties nicely into my art style.
Of course the other thing Nimbin is famous for is its ties to Marijuana. There is no shortage of memorabilia and other things over town, from Mardigrass posters to paintings and photos of local super hero "The Plantem". I wonder if "The Plantem" and Gerkinman would get along...
This is a sign that was originally used in the 1973 Aquarius festival. Its been restored obviously. I still find it to be an interesting piece of history.
There is also an interesting museum that covers the history of the town from way back when Dinosaurs ruled the crops to now. The amount of work thats gone into this alternate museum is quite astounding.
The town is also home to some of the regions most colourful vehicles. The original Nimbin idea (Back when it was called Teenage Mutant Ninja Ferals - ferals being the sort of people that inhabit Nimbin, the ones that aren't hippies anyway.) had the crew driving around in a colourful bus, maybe its time to bring that back.
Its also a great place to go for novelty hats. If you are into that sort of thing anyway.
Lastly I leave you with the Nimbin Bush Theatre. A building that was once an old flour mill repurposed as a cinema. I went with my dad to this place a number of times to see foreign films, it really is a great venue, as far as atmosphere is concerned anyway. If I get the feature film made after these 10 episodes, this is where im going to want to premier it.
Next week hopefully I will have some animation and illustrations up, but until then...
Yes, not a whole lot to talk about this week. I guess the main things are that I re-released my 2008 short film "Spaceman Bob and the Time Apple" in HD on both Youtube and Vimeo. You can find each of them below respectively.
I may record a commentary track for the short down the line. The actual upscaling to HD was a pretty simple process thanks to the simplicity of the animation, and I only did some minor updates (Most noticeably the splash when Bob jumps into the water). I had considered doing a similar thing to some of my other older shorts, but they would require much more reanimating in order to fit the 720p video resolution. So we will see what happens.
The other big news is that tomorrow I am flying back home with my partner to the Northern Rivers to visit family. While I am away I will be taking a lot of reference video at Lennox Head, Rock Valley and most importantly Nimbin, to use in the new Nimbin series. I also hope to use the video from Nimbin in the first episode as an introduction to the town. So we will see what happens. I arrive back on Monday, then I am freelancing at Hubink on Tuesday and Wednesday. That leaves me with Thursday to get some animation work (most likely this months loop) done as once Skyrim hits next Friday... finding the will to animate will be much harder...
Daniel Elliott is a contract flash developer, working on flash banner ads, microsites, iOS apps, television animation time lapse photography and music videos. This blog covers all of these areas, as well as the areas of local food and photography.
