So I’ve been trying to nail down this project. As always, it takes longer than I expected.

Here is a lower-quality render:

Download a little higher-quality file (right-click and save as) HERE. -36.1mb

Feel free to take a verbal swing at it. There are many things missing (text representing the legal end, for one). Sound clips are missing, but the general feel/animation is there.
enjoy!

-Tom

As some of you may know, I am working on an animation that reflects legal jurisdiction issues. The animation uses a metaphor of squirrels living in a big tree…

The audio levels need to be messed with, it’s a bit quiet. And the voice will be slightly higher in pitch.

In any case, I have to animate like a madman if I want to pump out 2 and a half minutes this week. So here is my first whack at the animation- The first segment of the film:

I’m fairly happy with it. I’d love to make the branch shake and such, but I may have to go back and do it later. For now I need to get a bare-bones version done for next week.-Tom

I’m lucky enough to be working with Dr. Browne to possibly be publishing a set of animations to accompany a 1700 page book his wife is writing. I am going to be representing the choices involved in going between Federal and State court- all with squirrels.

I’m really excited for the project- I love the idea of taking dry academic material and making something engaging with it.

So here are some of my drawings of the squirrels. I tried to really break it down to shapes.

My rough squirrel concept:

Stern Squirrel:

Beaming Squirrel:

Eating an Acorn:

Walking:

Running:

Hope you like it,

-Tom

I’ve been really interested in After Effects lately. I animated the following piece in After Effects using the push-pin tool in about a day. It is a fairly intuitive tool.

Here is the vid- no sound- (It is a freelance piece for some online show about losing weight):

-Tom

I’ve been working for one of my professors, Dr. Browne, (to whom I owe much of my growth over the last 3 years) making posters of his favorite ideas. The first assignment was to illustrate the inter workings of Aristotle’s description of the human brain. The concept is referred to as “Aristotle’s Who We Are”. I thought about describing the concept here, but I suppose my artwork is supposed to do that- so have a gander:

The whole thing:

Breakdown (Click to Enlarge):

I’m still struggling with color usage and drawing, but I’m-a keep working at it.

Until the next post,
-Tom

This is my timing for a weight-lift, roughed out in flash. I’m probably going to scratch the facial expressions, and do a new face later… I sort of stopped doing the face halfway through anyhow. I’m still getting used to 2-D… and I’m not very good at drawing. But I am determined to get better, so I’m devoting this school year to it (at the least). I’m going to take this into Photoshop CS3 and hand-render it… once I figure out how I want to do that.

Anyway, crits are welcome. I don’t know how much longer I plan to spend on this particular peice, but if your suggestion is minor I will probably give it a whirl. If you have some major adjustments in mind, I’ll probably just jot them down for next time.

Hope you enjoy it!
-Tom

Our labs at school got the updated Adobe Suite (which now includes Flash), and I finally had a chance to really mess around with some of the new features in Photoshop CS3. One feature in particular really got me excited: Timeline Mode.

For those who edit video, timeline mode will probably look like a lame iteration of After Effects. However, coupled with onion-skinning and video layers, the timeline mode in PS CS3 presents some 2-d animation opportunities that could arguably induce salivation.

Basically you can import video as a layer and create empty video layers in much the same way that you would import an image and create regular empty layers. The main difference between a regular layer and a video layer being that the image on video layer is linked to the position on the timeline (no more making gif animations with a layer for each frame!!). So now hand-rendering animation, video, 3-D animation, or even other rough 2-D animation is easy- all of those familiar photoshop tools functioning over a timeline.

Here is a quick ball-bounce I made using the timeline mode in Photoshop CS3:
Download link