Frank. Blog. Yes.

Good Vibes Stoner Gag

2011-12-23T03:21:00.003-05:00

This was probably my favorite contribution to Good Vibes. At the end of production, show creator, Brad Ableson, approached a few of us to do some interchangeable "stoner gags" for the intro of the show. It was extremely flattering and I had way too much fun with this thing. We were given total freedom to design, layout, and animate the entire thing ourselves as well as come up with the gag itself which was pretty refreshing. The ideas ranged from Mondo and Woodie as 8-bit characters...to Mondo and Woodie as fish...to Mondo and Woodie drawn in the style of Ralph Steadman.

I'm pretty sure there were 8 total and they all turned out fantastic. It was great to be allowed to run free with these. Above is my stoner gag done in an old timey rubber hose style.

Good Vibes: Breast Friends

2011-12-02T03:24:00.003-05:00

Here's a gif of a walk cycle I animated in tonights episode of Good Vibes. The character layout was done by Mike Nassar.

Some people save lives for a living...Others make technological advances to better mankind...Some teach and shape the minds of the future...Me? I make cartoon tits bounce.

I've posted a lot more about Good Vibes on my Tumblr, but you can catch it on MTV at 10:30pm on Thursdays. I loved working on the show. We boarded, animated, and edited the entire season at Six Point Harness. I'm proud to be a part of a prime time series that's done entirely here in North America, employing a ton of local talent...(Take that Korea) A lot of fantastic artists we're a part of the show and it was a pleasure to work with them. I encourage you to check out the series. It's pretty raunchy...but it's backed up with a lot of heart.

Happy Thanks-gif-ing

2011-11-25T20:54:00.007-05:00

I've been making a lot of gifs lately. Really fun to play around with. It's a good way to get some personal animation done on the side without having to commit too much of your time. The top is a tribute to one of my favourite moments from Seinfeld and the bottom is a tribute to Always Sunny.

Beetle-Drink

2011-10-07T06:37:00.003-04:00

"We've come for your daughter, Chuck"

One of my favorite movies. The version I used to watch as a kid was just a VHS copy recorded off of CityTV...I still remember the commanding voice of Mark Dailey welcoming me back to the movie after the commercials....lots of hamburger helper commercials....haha but anyways, it wasn't until years later that I saw the unedited version with Beetlejuice's "Nice Fuckin' Model" line followed by the horn honking junk squeeze....It was on that day that my innocence was shattered forever. haha.

The always inspiring and talented Cheyenne did this collab with me...I started by doing Beetlejuice and she finished it off with Lydia and the BG elements. I love the scene it creates. Right on time for halloween too.

More BATMEN

2011-09-01T19:43:00.009-04:00

Here are some recent collaborations with Cheyenne.
She's crazy talented and always fun to work with.

clean up by me.

Rough by Cheyenne

BOMBS

2011-08-29T20:42:00.002-04:00

Some days you just can't get rid of them.

P.W.

2011-08-05T17:51:00.002-04:00

I could honestly watch this movie on loop forever.
Just sayin'

GNOMESTER

2011-07-26T15:43:00.003-04:00

Remember when gnomes weren't cool?
This was inspired by a hilarious series of drawings done by her royal Cheyness

GALAXY CIGARETTES

2011-07-23T22:26:00.006-04:00

Conquering the universe can be tough on your nerves.

Thats why more Cosmonauts smoke Galaxy Cigarettes than any other brand.

Galaxy Cigarettes: In space, no one can hear you inhale.

Douche Knights

2011-06-23T14:10:00.004-04:00

A new computer and a new cintiq means I'll be able to give this blog some attention again.
While I was sifting through my portable hard drive, I came across these designs I did for a project a long while back. They were never used, but I had a lot of fun doing them.
Have at you, Bro.

Paging Mr. Herman

2011-03-29T21:00:00.003-04:00

Mr. Herman.
You have a telephone call at the front desk.

Pure. West.

2011-02-18T18:40:00.004-05:00

"Bats frighten me. It's time my enemies share my dread."

You feelin that dread yet?
Didn't think so.
The Adam West Batman may as well have worn a fanny pack as a utility belt.
...but man, could he dance.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-10T18:30:00.003-05:00

Happy 1861 everybody.

Love: Frank

Quiet, You!

2010-12-09T20:56:00.006-05:00

I love Mister Peabody and Sherman.

Such a hilarious premise.
A smug, super intelligent dog owns an idiot boy as a pet.
Together they travel through time, interfering with the space time continuum.
All the while, Mr. Peabody is pointing out how stupid Sherman is.
The End.

Any one wanna do a revival with me?

*UPDATE*
So it seems Dreamworks beat me to the punch. pfff...They would.

YOU LOSE!

2010-11-30T20:06:00.008-05:00

It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal!!!
You stole fizzy lifting drinks!
You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get nothing!
YOU LOSE!
GOOD DAY, SIR!

I could never figure it out...are we supposed to like Willy Wonka?
Seriously, the guy's a slave owning, kid killing, candy pushing asshole.
He's pure evil.

Yo!...Willie!

2010-11-08T20:46:00.002-05:00

The Melmacian uprising is imminent.
All hail Melmac.
"HA!"

Plop.

2010-10-27T02:48:00.009-04:00

This is my ol' pal Anna. She has a love for E.T. like no other.

Personally, E.T. repulses me. He looks like a sweaty turd...and then he starts to die and looks like a dried out turd that's been bleaching in the sun.

And don't even get me started on when he was dressed in drag...That particularly freaked the shit out of me when I was a kid.

Regardless of what I think. Anna and E.T. look pretty damn good together.

Mr. Sulu: making space exploration fabulous since 1966.

Today my buddy Cheyenne showed me this cool "minimalist" Futurama character lineup.

There was something extremely appealing about it to me.

Neat way to approach colour design.

I was inspired to slap one together for The Simpsons.

getouttahere.

Scooby Doo: Camp Scare and Flap Jack

2010-09-14T04:05:00.009-04:00

I don’t often get to post my work work but every once in a while something I do sees the light of day and I’m allowed to share it with you guys.

Today the direct to DVD movie, Scooby Doo: Camp Scare, is on shelves.

Six Point Harness was responsible for the beautiful intro sequence.
I’ve posted a few scenes that I layed out and animated. I have to say, enjoyed this project a lot. The designs were right up my alley and as you’ll see I had some fun scenes.

Please excuse the not so stellar video quality.

Cartoon Gravity: Doesn't work til you notice it ain't

Above is something else I can show. Six Point Harness also recently did some "CN Check It" spots for all the Cartoon Network shows. I got to lay out and animate this particular Flap Jack Spot. I enjoyed Squeezing Bubbie out of that tiny hole...I was worried they'd think she looked too turd-like....but it flew.

Buy it and watch the intro a jillion times!

Remember Alf?

2010-09-13T19:54:00.003-04:00

He's back. In blog form.

Dedicated to Anna Lehman.

Have You Seen This? Have You Heard About This?

2010-06-30T04:57:00.013-04:00

I’ve been living and working in LA for almost a year now. Since I’ve been here I’ve mostly seen G-list celebrities at best. I’ve crossed paths with some pretty cool people at work…but this morning I had a pretty fun encounter that inspired the drawing above.
Just as I left my apartment I spotted an old-timey looking car heading towards me. At first glance the car was what stood out to me. Then as it got closer, I could make out grey hair, a denim shirt, and the mother of all chins. With only seconds to react I came up with the most intelligent, witty reaction possible…I pointed, waved and yelled “JAAAYYYYYYY!!!” like an obnoxious moron.

Surprisingly, he waved back...AND…he honked the old-timey car horn at me.

You know those ones that go “AAAOOOOOO-GAHH!”

I know none of this sounds like a big deal, but trust me, it was very surreal.

I'm more of a Coco kinda guy but it was nice to start the morning by being greeted by Jay Leno in some multi-million dollar jalopy.

Also, I got a hair cut.
I'm keeping it shorter these days. What do you think?
I had to look my best for my visit to Toronto and all the G20 riots....insane weekend.
As much as I wanted to hang out down town...I'm glad I stayed out of the core of the city.
I donno who was worse, the cops or the protesters. Jeez.

None the less, it was great to see all my fam and friends back in Toronto.
If any of you are reading this...there's an air mattress waiting for you in LA with your name on it. Come visit one day.

Murray Hewitt and Mr. T

2010-06-08T22:23:00.003-04:00

"IT'S NOT A SCAM! Why would someone want to scam me, Jemaine? AND on the internet service? One of the most...trusted things of today's society."

Just a quick warm up caricature I did this morning.
Every time Murray says the word "gig" it brings me enormous amounts of joy.
I love this show. Really heart broken there won't be a third season.

Also, can you believe it took me 23 years to draw Mr.T?

Me neither.

Planet of the Soylent Green Ten Commandments Omega Man

2010-06-04T22:22:00.010-04:00

Been watching a lot of Charlton Heston movies lately. So I figured I'd do a nice big finished piece as an homage.

Only Charlton could wear a neckerchief and still be a man's man. Don't worry if my interpretation seems off. It is. I felt like mixing a bunch of his movies...Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, and The Ten Commandments.

What you see here is still my rough. Just planning colour and composition. His head is the only thing cleaned up so far (below).

I would love to find a filter or something to put on it when it's finished that makes it look like an old printed comic. Do you know what I mean? Like old school printing press pointillism.

Does anyone know of such wonders? I'm sure there's a photoshop plugin floating around out there.

"Damn You."

PUNCH!

2010-05-27T22:18:00.008-04:00

Hand punched beet juice makes for the best bowl of Borscht.

...An old Slavo: Strong and Best family secret.

The Power of Borscht

2010-05-14T20:42:00.006-04:00

This is “Slavo The Strong and Best”.

He's the strongest and best in all of Eastern Europe.

The secret to his greatness comes from his steady diet of Borscht and the fact that he is the world's only pure bread man. He was conceived and raised by two heterosexual men, thus possessing two Y chromosomes.

If it can be punched...He will punch it.

BTW...I'm back. I unintentionally took April off from blogging...April was the busiest month I've had in a while. Big project at work...Development on my own project...plus my Birthday and lots of house guests visiting from Toronto and Detroit.

I missed you guys.

Engage

2010-03-31T02:46:00.003-04:00

Captain’s Log - Star Date: Supplemental,

These new bum flap uniforms make exploring the galaxy so much more practical.

Love: Captain Jean-Luc Picard…xoxo ;)

Ba-Donk

2010-03-08T05:21:00.011-05:00

I’m debating whether the title should be “Ba-Donk-A-What!?” or “Baby’s First Ba-Donk-A-Book”…what do you think?

I may have jumped the gun, but I think it’s safe to say Little Golden Books would publish this in a second. My goal with this book would be to educate the children about big asses, while simultaneously robbing them of their innocence and ultimately traumatizing them

…on second thought, maybe I’m not cut out to be a children’s author.

I had to design some bikini girls at work…which led to me drawing more bikini girls for myself (these gals being them). I think they turned out pretty cute / sexy / offensive.

My work here is done. *dusts off hands*

Nerd Alert!

Behold. The holy grail of Laser Discs…The hard to find John K. Flintstones Collection. I’ve been looking for this thing forever…and finally Amoeba delivered.

This collection boasts the first season of the Flintstones, plus interviews, animator profiles, commercials, original pilots and precursors, lost content, and some inserts by John K.

Amoeba, I love you.

White Unicorn

2010-03-04T01:43:00.010-05:00

Behold. Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother doing what he does best…Flying through the infinite cosmos on an inter stellar unicorn, jamming with a Kryptonite guitar pick. If you ever see me with headphones on…7.3 times out of 10 I’m listening to Wolfmother. By far my favourite band. I was fortunate to enough to hang out with them way back in 2006 at a small show they did in Toronto. At the time, I was dating an Australian girl (who introduced me to their music) after the show we hung out with them for a bit…They spent most of the time flirting with my gf and reminiscing about Australia…BUT they also bought me a few beers and Chris signed my ticket. Fair trade.

Here's the drawing without the distraction of stars being born.

pff...ruined my ticket by writing all over it.

I miss the Drake. If anyone from Toronto is reading this and hasn't been...Go check it out...Toonie Taco and Tequilla Tuesdays on the rooftop with a cult classic movie screeing.

Skunk Pee

2010-02-23T21:37:00.005-05:00

The untitled skunk ape project is going through some exciting developments.

We'll see where it goes...right now I'm just having a lot of fun with it. Unfortunately, I have a lot that I can't post yet. But we'll get there.

And this I had to share. Last month I went to the Pee Wee Herman live stage show. It was a combination of his 1981 stage show and his TV series. Needless to say, I experienced a nostalgia overload. Pee Wee's Playhouse and Pee Wee's Big Adventure (Still one of my favourite movies) were definitely two of the things from my youth that turned me on to what I do now.
Unfortunately, this was the only picture I managed to snap after the show...but look at that set. Don't you just wanna live in there?

COOoo-STAN-ZA

2010-02-10T05:34:00.003-05:00

Hi.

Kings Among Men

2010-01-29T05:27:00.006-05:00

I haven’t posted any caricatures in a while....a conscious decision because there was a while there where I went totally caricature obsessed. But I’m back on the wagon again…and I’m hittin it HARD with this post.

KRAMER! *screechy Jerry Seinfeld yell*
It’s unfortunate that Michael Richards will forever be associated with the KKK-ramer…but racism aside…Kramer is probably the most entertaining character in Television history…(Second to Homer of course)…everything about Michaels Richard’s performance as Kramer is genious…I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

the nervous ticks…the ignorance…the dumb luck…the moochiness...his physicality…the way he delivers his lines…right down to the way he looks….basically everything about Kramer makes me tingle. He’s a living, breathing cartoon character.

There’s really only one way to draw Kramer…all the work is already done for you…He’s pretty much a caricature of himself…wrap your mind around that.

But anyways…above, is the K-man looking pretty vacant.
I had to throw in the lobster shirt for bonus points.

Giddy up.

Here we go. I’ve attempted to draw Christopher Walken a million times…and I never felt like I got it right...until now.
I’m finally at peace.

The whole Christopher Walken persona is so beautifully eccentric…If I could spend an afternoon with anyone. It’d be him. He’s one of those celebrities that I hope is exactly the same in real life as he is on screen…I wish that with every fiber of my being. I’d be so disillusioned if he was just a normal boring dude at home.…which he probably is.

Man, what if he doesn’t even really talk like that?...
…I just made myself sad.

What’s the opposite of Christopher Reeves?....
Christopher Walken.

Hahaha…ok, now I’m happy again.

MEAT!

2010-01-27T06:12:00.011-05:00

This post was brought to you by...MEAT!

...delicious, cowardly meat...

Poppycock and Fiddle Faddle

2010-01-21T05:17:00.009-05:00

100th POST!...oh...and it's 2010.

2010-01-06T04:45:00.014-05:00

Well...Here we are...It's my 100th blog post...AND 2010...AND the first year of my career...AND my first year living in LA...So many milestones...I can't think of a better way to celebrate than dumping a TON of stuff on here...all at once!

Sensory overload!...pop culture reference overload!

Originally I wanted to do something really sentimental...While I was back in Toronto visiting family over christmas, I dug through all my old drawings and comics that I did as a kid...I was gonna scan them and share them with you on here so we could all have a tender moment basking in the wonderous joureny of a little boy who wanted to be a cartoonist when he grew up...or an ice cream truck...

but then I forgot to pack them and theyre sitting on my desk 4000 miles away....Shit.

It's okay though, I promise you can laugh at my old horrible childhood drawings another day. I definitely plan on a post like that the next time I venture on up to the great white north...but for the time being...SPIDER-MAN!!!

I love comics...(Especially Spider-man and Wolverine)...I love how superheroes and comic books are the greek mythology of our time...Thousands of years from now, future explorers will find all these comics and super hero movies and think our Gods were nerds blessed with the proportional strength of a spider...running around in pajamas...kicking the shit out of flamboyant bad guys...It's rediculous, yes...But I find it fascinating and I genuinely love these timeless characters.

This was actually my first time drawing Spiderman...I know EXACTLY why it's taken me this long to draw him...can you guess?

Look at that dude's line milage...and I just did a quick cartoony version of him....but man oh man....that webbing all over his costume...It's intimidating...Steve Ditko sure as hell didn't design Spider-man with practicality in mind...No wonder they gave him the solid black costume for a while.

I think what makes Spider-man such a compelling character is the fact that he's interesting with the costume on AND off...Peter Parker...He's human...He has flaws...inner conflict...he's probably the most relatable super hero in the works.

Seriously, who cares what that goody two-shoes Clark Kent is doing...skipping around gum drop lane with his fake glasses...pfft...Give me a hero with some good inner turmoil any day....I'll also throw Batman, Wolverine, and Iron Man when he was a drunk on that list.

Anyways...the BG for the drawing at the very top was ispired by the old 60's Spider-man cartoon...When he would swing from those wild, trippy water coloured skies...the groovy underscore playing along with those bongos. Far out, man.

As for the design itself, I was just going for a fun, loose, cartoony Spider-man...I love when he's drawn skinny and lanky...so I tried to incorporate that.

Above are some character designs I did at work that were never used...I'll let you draw your own conclusions about the character...I tried to experiment with some different styles...far left being more prime time-ish....far right being more CN / Nick...and the others...Just experimenting and having fun.

INPUT!...just some Johnny 5 doodles....The Short Circuit films hold a very special place in my heart...I'm still 90% sure he's just a VCR glued to a treadmill...If they update him to look all sleek and hip like an iPod in the remake...May god have mercy on us all.

Oh...and the one in the top right corner...that's Johnny Zero.

He's Johnny 5's "special" cousin.

That's it for this giant post...I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and I wish you all the best in this shiney new decade...2010 years...Lets get this one right...I know we can do it.

Love: Frank

Hoedown!

2009-12-13T04:25:00.011-05:00

Three posts in one week. It's a Christmas MIRICALE!
An occurrence such as this deserves to be celebrated with a hoedown.
I've been having a lot of fun with this Skunk Ape character lately. I'm in the middle of a mini animatic for a quick sequence I want to do with him. I'll post some of that in a bit.

The usual Line and Colour.

Above and below are a rarity. I usually never post my rough roughs. As you can see, they're very raw...quick and dirty...I treat my roughs very instinctually and try to keep them as spontaneous as I can. I figured they were worth since as I don't post my entire "process" very often.

I love doodling on post its.

I have a confession. I HATE sketch books. I feel an enormous amount of pressure when drawing in a sketch book...I start to worry that I'll taint the entire book with a bad drawing. I'm not afraid of bad drawings, I know we've gotta get them out of our system, but I'd rather scribble freely and jump from post it to post it.

I've tried several times to keep a sketch book...but inevitably, I always abandon it for post its. When I'm doing rough doodles I like to draw small too. It forces you to focus on the predominant details and simplify things.Also, I doodle exclusively in pen. With pencil your tempted to continually sculpt ONE drawing by erasing or doing too much under drawing. With pen, you get one bold shot at it. If it doesn't work the first time, you start fresh.

The more times you draw it. The better it's gonna be.

PS. My next post will be my 100th post!

O.M.S.T.

2009-12-09T03:24:00.015-05:00

OMST: Old Mama Swamp Thing.

She's an extremely senile swamp creature who single handedly raised the Skunk Ape (See post below).
She's The Skunk Ape's moral compass, offering up old gems of swamp wisdom...However, unknown to the Skunk Ape, her "wisdom" is riddled with senility.

Which is probably why the Sunk Ape doesn't have a clue about anything but his Banjo.

Although she has her fair share of personality flaws, Old Mama Swamp Thing loves The Skunk Ape as if he came from her own primordial ooze. How else would anyone or anything survive the horrors of Skunk Ape puberty?

She's also always trying to eat Zeek the hillbilly child. (see 2 posts down)

And despite wearing glasses, She's totally blind.

Line and Colour work.

OMH: Old Mama HUMAN.
For some reason I started with ths disgustingly quick doodle of her as a human before she de-evolved into the fish / sludge / swamp creature she is now.

One-String

2009-12-08T00:16:00.018-05:00

Some more Skunk Ape for yous guys.

Just a warm up doodle I did before work.

Tread softly fellow nature lovers, and gaze at this elusive and PROUD specimen. Justifiably so, as he's the only species able to play Dueling Banjos with ONE...yes I said, ONE STRING.

*gasp*

incredible.

Here's a bit of my process...not pictured is my rough rough....which is usually REALLY rough and its main purpose is just to block in the pose / silhouette I'm looking for.

This may be a no-brainer to most of my readers. But I'm always curious about other people's processes...Even if the methods are only slightly different.

Typically I draw in 4 stages...rough rough...clean rough...clean line...colour.

Every step of the way I'm fixing problems and trying to push the pose a little further.

how do you guys go about it?

Ok...Check this stach out.

I only shave once every 7 days cause my delicate Canadian skin can't handle anything more than that. However, my delicate Canadian skin is coupled with lush Italian facial hair. So when I shave, I have a nice piece of stone to carve a masterpiece out of. Before it all comes off, I like to experiment with different types of facial hair that would either get me arrested and / or have too much shame to go out in public with.

It's fun. This is the first ever documentation of a particularly good week.

I call this one "The French Pervert"....Then again...It worked for Walt.

I'll post some more.

BTW! I was just googling...and this is Google's tribute to what would be the 115th Birthday of Popeye's creator, Elzie Crisler Segar.

I tip my hat to whoever designed this...I love it....and I love Popeye.

Look at him...he'll punch anything to get what he wants..."I want that spinach but those letters are in the way...no problem...I'll just punch OOGL"

Popeye is PROOF that everything can be solved through violence.

Dude once punched a snake and it turned into a pair of shoes and a hand bag...

I rest my case.

SKUNK APE!

2009-11-19T04:04:00.010-05:00

Skunk Ape!...some character design samples of a personal project I'm working on.

I've got a bunch of other early designs of various swamp creatures...Including "Old Mama Swamp Thing" and a con artist croc...I'll post more as I get further along.

For now, all you need to know is that this is the LAST Skunk Ape in existance...He's 4000 years old and is an accomplished banjo...ist.

This is the hillbilly child known as Zeek.

More to come.

She-Girls

2009-11-11T03:00:00.011-05:00

Typical reaction I get from LA women.

Just a panel from a storyboard I was workin on today that I particularly liked. I had to make some lady types react negatively in a "humerous way" to the dude hitting on them...pff...if there's anything more humerous than vomit, I haven't seen it.

I was just posing these gals out...

the designs themselves are courtesy of Joel Trussell.

Dover-esque BG Character

2009-10-29T00:58:00.006-04:00

Today I had to fill up some church pews with a bunch-load of BG Characters.
Where as most animators cringe at the thought of crowd shots, I usually enjoy them. It's a fun opportunity to do some bulk character designing and sneak in whatever bizzare characters you can think of.

I particularly liked this guy who's a drawn-from-memory design based on the villain character from the WB short "The Dover Boys"...I thought it was an appropriate homage seeing as how this particular project is supposed to be in a "WB Style".

Also. Smears are fun.

The Temp

2009-10-24T04:26:00.007-04:00

Last week, a short we worked on at 6PH for Jack McBrayer and NBC aired with the season premiere of 30 Rock.

The short was traditionally animated in Flash and cleaned up using traditional methods as well as Flashy methods. The end result was a beautiful little piece of animation that you can watch HERE on Cold Hard Flash.

I particularly love the designs which were a combined effort by my talented buddies, Brock Gallagher and Sah Tantivaranyoo

Above is a little sequence of keys I drew for one of the scenes I worked on.

I don't usually draw cute girls. So this was a pretty fun opportunity.

Work's goin really well and LA's treating me quite nicely.

I know I've been syaing this for a while...But I have a HUGE indie project I've been working on in my spare time that I'll be sharing with you guys soon. Stick around.

PS. Buy the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Art of Book...Not only was that movie the best CG animated film I've ever seen, but the Art of Book will make you pee in your pantaloons.

Christopher Miller, Phil Lord, and Carey Yost are my heroes.

COMING SOON!

2009-07-30T21:58:00.004-04:00

Banjo playing Skunk-Apes perhaps?

Fish Face, Conan, and the LDs

2009-07-24T14:49:00.020-04:00

Here I am. The Job hunt continues. I've wrapped up some freelance stuff and recently I've been trying to make the most of some great opportunities. Right now I'm just waiting to hear if any of them will come to fruition. Cross your fingers for me.
In the mean time…I present to you, quite possibly the ugliest person in Hollywood (above)...

Steve Buscemi. As I was drawing him I started to realize how similar he looks to those old WB caricatures of Peter Lorre.
Although resembling a snaggle-toothed fish, Mr. Buscemi has got to be one of the greatest actors out there. His range is amazing and he's always one of the highlights of whatever film he's in.
He seems to be in the same league as Christopher Walken. He'll act in films at opposite ends of the spectrum. Even if the movie sucks, he still shines.
I tip my hat to you dearest Steve.

Next up. Excuse the roughness of this drawrin'. This one is what I like to call "quick and dirty".
I did it in about 2 minutes Just a real quick doodle of Conan during his monologue.
I always love how boyish he looks from afar, but whenever they get in close, his delicate, fair skin is wrinkled and creased like he’s a couple centuries old.
Personally I love the new Tonight Show. Obviously Conan's had to tone it down a bit because of the earlier time slot but he's still my favourite. He's definitely the most manic of the late night dudes. I'm also looking forward to Leno's return, don't get me wrong. I can definitely relate to Conan's style of humour the most though. Conan's basically a nerd with charisma. That warms my heart.

Plus he wrote some of the BEST Simpsons episodes AND wrote for SNL when it was actually funny...I mean, common.
I've had the pleasure of seeing Conan live when he came to do his show in Toronto...Stompin' Tom was the musical guest...I got so giddy when he pulled out his stompin' board.
And I've also seen Leno and Kimmel live when I was working in LA...I'll admit, they were pretty good too.

Anyways, just some goodies I wanted to share via virtual "show and tell". For those of you who know me….I'm a pop culture junkie and a pack rat. A deadly combo...I hunt, I gather, I collect, I hoard...I basically live on a mountain of junk and hiss at anyone that gets too close. DVDs, books, comics, toys, animation art, old electronics, new electronics...and THESE bad boys. In the past year I've been extremely turned on to Laser Discs.
For those of you who don't know, they're the most beautiful obsolete technology out there.
They were the prehistoric version of DVDs. Huge vinyl record sized discs of uncompressed video and sound. One movie needs to be put on both sides of the disc. Half way through, you have to flip the disc over. So inconvenient that it's charming. The quality is actually better than DVDs...not as good at Blu Ray though.
But still. I love these things. The album art is great and a lot of them have some really cool inserts. They also have special features that you won't find on their DVD counterparts.
I picked up my first few at Amoeba Records in LA. Then found an LD player on Craigslist. Recently I found out that they also sell used LDs at BMV books in Toronto.
My favourite is definitely The Complete Tex Avery Collection.
I'm pretty sure you can't get the FULL collection of his MGM cartoons in any other format.

Imma go watch some toons now. Have a good one.

An Ode to Pants

2009-06-21T18:18:00.009-04:00

"My dungarees make them hun-ga-ree."

My cartoony design of Jemaine from The Flight of The Conchords in a few different kinds of pants. This was inspired by the lyrics in their song "Sugalumps".

"All these bitches lookin' at my britches."

"Put em in a trance when I wear track pants."

My line work. It's not perfect. I kept it a little looser than usual. I absolutely love the out stretched foot on the track pants pose. Those huge feet were really fun to draw. My favourite one is for sure the dungarees pose though.

PS. I graduated. As fun as cartooning and animation are, I've absolutely worked my fingers to the bone the last 4 years. Those of you who are also cartoonists and/or animators undoubtedly know that you live and breathe this stuff and it's not just a career, but a lifestyle.

Needless to say, it felt good to finally get that piece of paper that states I can officially and professionally draw boogers and bums.

Congrats to all my peers as well.

More Yogi and a BUM

2009-05-30T06:05:00.012-04:00

Some more Yogi...I've had HB on the brain lately...seeing it everywhere. This time I paired Yogi with his arch nemesis for some character interaction. I love when people lead with their tongue when they're about to take a bite outta something...gross but It makes me laugh, so I incorporated that...After I drew it, I paused to figure out what the hell Yogi's even eating. I have no idea what that is...a delicious slice of bread perhaps? a piece of sponge cake? Soylent Green? I don't know, YOU decide. I threw some dry brush on there to gussy it up. I like how it turned out...It's amazing to me how much colour and some fancy brushes validate a drawing. Also, I just love that salmon colour.

I had fun drawing this. Here's my line work and solid colour for those who care to see.

...And my quick and dirty rough.

DUDE!
This was just my clean rough...or rough clean...whatever you wanna call it...Just figuring out the design...Next post I'll show ya the finished version. This is a peek at a little "just-for-fun" Flash project I'm doing. I'm animating a quick scene from my all time favourite movie, The Big Lebowski. The Character and BG style is inspired by Clone High.
My goal with this is to just have fun and see what happens.

Anyways. That's it for now. I'm heading out of the country for the week. So if I disappear from the webber net this week, that's why.

Talk to you soon.

Love: Frank

Demo Reel 2009 (Short Version)

2009-05-26T01:41:00.004-04:00

Just a quick updated sample of some of my work, including a few scenes from my 4th year film "The Patsy Pals".

You can also watch it by clicking...HERE!

More Media Coverage

2009-05-13T15:25:00.011-04:00

An article was published in the National Post this past Saturday (May 9th) that gave a peek into Sheridan's Animation Industry Day (Click on the copy above to see it up close). I was fortunate enough to be one of the Artists featured in the article, along with Tapan Gandhi, Laura Friesen, and Adi Targownik.

You can check out my scanned copy of the article above or read the online version HERE.

It was written By Adam McDowell. He was a great guy to work with. Rather than just getting a general taste of the day, he was really enthusiastic and involved. He sat down with us, asked some great questions, and then shadowed us for the rest of the day while actively participating in what was going on around him.

I particularly like his description of Tapan...and I quote:

"Slender, boyish Tapan Gandhi's harmless looks conceal a dark sense of humour."

bang on. haha.

My setup wasn't too shabby either:

"Frank Macchia’s thick black glasses and prize fighter’s profile mark him as the likely creator of the old-timey slapstick found in The Patsy Pals."

Don't be fooled, my "prize fighter's profile" is mostly used to chomp down on pizza while drawing and watching cartoons in my underwear all day.

The article also features a classic candid conversation photo of me and Evan Spiridellis of JibJab which is pretty cool.

haha, vanity aside, Adam hit on some great points regarding the state of the industry itself as well as how Sheridan fits into the picture.

Overall, Industry day was much more valuable than I had expected. More than anything, I feel it was a great chance to do some initial networking and add onto the relatively short list of contacts we had going into the day. I was also fortunate enough to score a couple of interviews which was a nice bonus, especially since only about 7 of the 46 studios who attended were interviewing.

Other than all that, I've been getting re-acquainted with some free time doodles and stuff like that. I have a small just-for-fun flash project in the works at the moment that I'll post about this weekend.

CHCH News: Sheridan Animation Industry Day

2009-05-05T19:12:00.001-04:00

Busy, Busy.
I was fortunate enough to be chosen for an interview for CHCH news' coverage of Sheridan's Industry Day.
I wasn't expecting them to air any of my work, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw The Patsy Pals and Evil Stevil doin their thing on the news.
I had to wing it, so hopefully I sounded somewhat intelligent haha
Also! I'm going to be featured in an article about the Sheridan Animation Program on Saturday, May 9th's edition of the National Post.
Check it.

Finish Line

2009-04-28T12:24:00.006-04:00

Sorry I haven't been around to update for a while, but as you can imagine, Finishing The Patsy Pals has been top priority. I just finished this past weekend, and man...let me tell you, I have a new found respect and appreciation for anyone who's ever attempted to make an independent short film...and when i say independent, I mean entirely on your own.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I haven't had many people watch the finished product yet. That will be the true test. My goal with this cartoon was to entertain. So if I can get a smile or a chuckle out of you, I'll let out a sigh of relief and know I've done my job.

The second I was done this film I had to pack up and move 4 years worth of accumulated crap out of my apartment. I'm now back at home with mammy and daddy. 4 years of college behind me.

The job hunt begins.

Industry day is on Thursday at the school, so that should start the job hunt off nicely.
Anyways, I've posted just a few screen shots. Once I get settled, I'll write up a nice retrospective and post my film for you webber net dwellers to enjoy.

God bless cartoon violence...

COMING SOON!

2009-04-03T17:57:00.007-04:00

What legitimizes a cartoon in today's capitalist society you ask?!?! Pfff...TOYS of course!
(PS. This statement is meant to be tongue in cheek. I'm not really a fat cat, I swear.)

I've collaborated with the incredibly talented Anthony Hrymakowski to bring you Patsy Pals Toys!
He's an amazing sculptor and all around artist who's got a real knack for translating relatively flat and designy cartoon characters into 3 dimensions while maintaining their appeal.
Check out his work by clicking his name above or on my buddies list.

Along with the release of the film, you'll be able to have your very own Patsy Pal to inflict cartoon violence on! Drop an anvil on him, blow him up, or just keep him on display on your desk...any one of those is acceptable.
The image above is just a teaser of what's on the way.

Also! I'm losing my mind putting upwards of 12 hours a day to make this film the very best it can be...and guess what?
10 more days til it's done.
I'm overwhelmed with a sense of excitement and panic after saying that.

See ya in 10 days!

Fancy Pants CG Stuff

2009-03-25T00:12:00.001-04:00

This is kind of old, but I figured it’s worth tossing up on here.
This was my very first attempt at animating with Maya (this is just a quick playblast to give you an idea)...I love to draw, and there really is no substitute in my eyes, but I have to admit, I had a lot of fun with this.

It’s kind of interesting…you can tell by the style of animation that I’m typically a 2D guy…pose-to-pose sort of stuff…I love strong poses…Love character layout and really milking some comedic acting out of them…I find that sometimes CG animation becomes too wishy washy…clear definitive poses get lost in a sea of over acting within a pose until everything just blends together…Presto was my fav bit of CG I’ve ever seen and that was more of a pose-to-pose sort of animation style too….Same with Horton…and I just saw a preview for “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” which seemed to have a very bold and cartoony pose-to-pose style of animation too….I tend to prefer that sort of thing.

But anyways, I enjoyed using Maya and once my thesis film is done, I’ll def be tinkering with it some more over the summer.

By the way…I just did the animation…the character model and rig are courtesy of my prof……his name is Rosco…the alien, not my prof...

and of course...the dialogue track is from Dumb and Dumber.

PS…3 more weeks til The Patsy Pals

4 Weeks Left

2009-03-18T10:16:00.004-04:00

This is it people...In less than a month, The Patsy Pals will reach completion.

A first edit of the film is due April 9th...ONE DAY before my birthday.

I'm tellin you...after the amount of work I've put into this thing, seeing it finished will be the best B-day present of my life.

Wish me luck in this last big push.

*takes a sip of rockstar*

Yearbook

2009-03-11T01:47:00.006-04:00

At the end of every year, Sheridan releases a "flipbook" yearbook in which everyone in the program can submit a page of doodles. I've never submitted a page, but figured since this is my last year...no better time than now.

I gave it a bit of a scrap-booky look to keep it interesting. Threw on some of my fav doodles from the past year.

*EASTER EGG*

The page of text under everything in the bottom right hand corner is one of the pages from the original script for The Patsy Pals.

Figured I'd give it a little nostalgic value.

Lookin forward to gettin a copy and seeing everyone else's stuff.

Nudists

2009-03-07T12:14:00.010-05:00

I was recently introduced to some awesome freebee drawing software called "Open Canvas" It's with out a doubt the best digital drawing tool I've ever used. So simple and intuitive.

The theme? RETRO NUDISTS!

Why you ask? because I haven't done any life drawing at all this semester and I needed some good practice.

I have a theoy that the more unique and unconventional the body...the more beautiful the drawing will be. Kind of a contradiction...but for some reason people with bodies that don't fit into society's definition of "beauty" are a lot more interesting to draw.

I may be biased, but this rule seems to only apply to women lol.

Anyways...the results were beautifully grotesque, and again...I really enjoyed drawing with this software...if you dont have it...DOWNLOAD IT...it's free...it's simple to use....Open Canvas.

Stink lines....I couldn't resist.

Sandbags

2009-03-03T21:26:00.011-05:00

Hey there bloggers. Evidently I'm still alive.

Just been working harder than ever on the film / school / an awesome freelance gig.
I wish I could show some of the freelance stuff I've been working on. I'm currently designing the characters for a show that Cookie Jar Entertainment has in development. Unfortunately that's as much detail as I can give.

It's been a great opportunity and experience. They've been a pleasure to work with and have really allowed me to have a lot of freedom and fun with these designs.

And of course...The Patsy Pals....I'm on the home stretch of the film...basically 2 months left til completion. So far so good. but I'll let you be the judge once it's all done.

Up top is just another teaser. One of thousands of drawrins.
And below is just some colour design I did ages ago.

Sugalumps

2009-02-15T18:50:00.003-05:00

I can't stop drawng this guy.

I think I may have a problem.

Just caught up with the secod season...and I can't get that "hurt feelings" song out of my head.

..."have you ever been asked if your hair is a wig?"...

YES! I actually have. and it DID hurt my feelings...I feel your pain Jemaine.

HAPPY V-DAY!

2009-02-14T15:58:00.002-05:00

Evidently V-day can be immature and fun too.

Happy V-day everyone!

And especially to you Sammi!

I love you.

Burly Stills

2009-02-01T20:48:00.007-05:00

Just checkin in to let you all know that I'm still alive and working hard on the film.

...enjoy some stills of Burly from one of my favourite scenes.

1 Second of Cartoon Violence

2009-01-21T00:49:00.001-05:00

Just a taste.

This is 1 second out of 135 for my independent film (cartoon), The Patsy Pals.

This scene is just a test and lacks a final composite...no BG...no elbow grease...just the raw 31 frames of character animation.

I'll do my best to update my blog as often as I can between now and April...but right now I'm in the depths of production on this thing. Finishing The Patsy Pals, an finishing it WELL is my priority. I shant disappoint. I'm about a third of the way done so far. So far, so good.

I'll post more teasers...scouts honour.

Two-Zero-Zero-Niner

2009-01-13T23:42:00.019-05:00

I'm back from my unproductive Christmas break.

Happy New Year!...2009 eh?....kind of sad...it's really the end of an era...not for another 991 years will human kind be able to wear those novelty new years glasses where your eyes look through the zeros. Sad really...I'd hate to be the owner of that quality product...

"Well guys, it's been a damn good 9 years of novelty new years glasses...we're gonna have to shut down for a while...but we'll re-group in the year 3000. Godspeed"

Anyways...enough of my hilariously topical anecdotes...and on to some drawrin.

So rarely do I work in this style...I think it's called...reality? haha

But anyways, this was a portrait that was requested by a friend. Sharpie, graphite, and a Bic ball point. I like that it's a little gritty and loose. Even though I'm an animator slash cartoonist through and through, it feels good to mix it up once in a while.

Back to my usual methods, this was flatter-ture I did for my parents as a Christmas gift.

Mammy Linda on the left and Big Daddy Dominic on the right.

They really loved it which was a relief. There's really no excuse to botch a caricature of people you've seen almost every day of your life.

They compliment each other nicely in caricature form though. My Mom's all jaw and my Dad's all forehead. PS, Thanks guys for my freakishly large jaw and forehead. I'm def the mutant spawn of these two individuals.

And finally, here's my fav life drawing from last semester. A lot more cartoony than usgh, but this model was really askin for it haha.

Last semester also marked the end of my life drawing classes at Sheridan. This semester is basically all about getting the independent film done.

Wish me and the Patsy Pals luck.

A FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US!!!

2008-12-22T01:08:00.014-05:00

Well, tomorrow is Festivus (December 23rd). This year it falls on a Tuesday just like the actual episode.

I read an article yesterday that said more and more people are beginning to celebrate Festivus and have Festivus parties.

I find that unreal...I've always wanted to go to a Festivus party.

Festivus of course being the holiday that Frank Costanza invented in Seinfeld due to his frustration with Christmas.

How do you celebrate Festivus you ask?
Easy.

Step 1. Buy an aluminum pole instead of a tree. It requires no decoration. Tinsel is distracting.

Step 2. THE AIRING OF GRIEVANCES: At the Festivus dinner, you gather your family and friends around the table and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you in the past year.
"I got a lotta problems with you people...and now youre gonna hear about em!!!"

Step 3. THE FEATS OF STRENGTH: Festivus isn't over until the head of the house hold is wrestled and pinned to the ground.

And there you have it. Mind you, when Kramer thinks a holiday is a little "out there"...you know you have something pretty messed up on your hands haha.

HAPPY FESTIVUS EVERYONE!

"Crouger! YOU COULDN'T SMOOTH A SILK SHEET IF YOU HAD A HOT DATE WITH A BABE--...I lost my train of thought..."

Merry Christmas Mr. Bean

2008-12-18T01:42:00.007-05:00

One of my favorite parts of Christmas are all the nostalgic Christmas Specials that air on TV.

So many greats that get me all sentimental and trigger memories of past Christmases from all though out my life.

Some of my favs include: The Grinch (the Chuck Jones version, not the crappy live action one)...the film "A Christmas Story"...the original Muppets Christmas...Charlie Brown...and the Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol.

BUT!

The ultimate Christmas special...in my opinion (as you can probably guess from the caricature above) is "Merry Christmas Mr. Bean"

It's got such a good balance of comedy and Christmas.

You get to follow Mr. Bean through every stage of the season.

Mr. Bean playing with the nativity scene and all his crazy expressions while he's conducting the band...gets me every time.

And not to mention the turkey-on-the-head gag that EVERY other TV show ripped off after it initially aired.

(I'm lookin at YOU "Friends")

Rowan Atkinson...genius physical comedian...He's like the Charlie Chaplin of the 21st century.

anyways...What are YOUR fav Christmas specials?

YEAAAHHHHHH!!!!

2008-12-05T16:21:00.006-05:00

I'm still obsessed with Jack Black in Tropic Thunder...

"Let's move!...We only have 16 hours til they wake up!"

The Patsy Pals Animatic

2008-12-01T22:10:00.001-05:00

The semester's almost done and I'm pluggin away at The Patsy Pals...Thanks to everyone who's checked out the Animatic and given me some feed back.
I'm excited to get this thing done for April.

Tonight we had an awesome guest lecture by Animation Director, Bob Jaques.
I've been extremely fortunate to meet a bunch of animators like him that I admire.
It's great to hear how they think and I've learned a lot from all of them.
So thanks to Bob for taking the time to speak to us.

Not to mention it's inspiring...which reminds me...I should probably get back to work on the film.

Keith Doppleganger

2008-11-19T20:38:00.018-05:00

I hope I look as good as Keith when I'm 104...

The drawing below is of a model we had in class today who reminded me of Keith Richards...So when I got home I had an insane craving to draw the real Keith...

and so i did.

Now I'm satisfied.

The Patsy Pals Leica Reel

2008-11-14T11:42:00.001-05:00

So here it is! The leica reel for my 4th year independent film.

I still have some tinkering around to do with it. I want to re-record some of the dialogue and stuff like that. But it’s pretty much locked for production at this point.

The music I used is just temporary place holder stuff. I’ve got a very talented musician slash composer, Dan Rodrigues, workin on the score. So I’m excited to see what he’ll come up with.

So next step…Production baby!

Doctor of Cartoon Violence

2008-10-17T03:24:00.004-04:00

Finished the boards for the Patsy Pals...

Expect the animatic REAL soon...

TPB

2008-10-02T17:25:00.006-04:00

Another Canadian comedy: Trailer Park Boys.
(left to right) Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles

This show's pretty low brow, but it def has its moments.
Great characters and hilarious dialogue...if you can get past all the F-bombs, it’s actually pretty well written lol.

I love it cause unlike most Canadian comedies...it remains funny even though its so DISTINCTLY Canadian...Usually the more "Canadian culture" that’s packed into a show, the more lame it becomes...probably because they usually rely on Canadian political humour...*barf*

They also don't rely on those worn out old Canadian stereotypes...they poke fun at the country indirectly by dropping some pretty obscure Canadian references...some of the jokes are so obscure even the most red blooded Canadian has to stop and think.

"Get me a couple bags of chips...dressed all over and zesty mordant"

If that quote doesn't make you laugh...you're def not from Canada. And if you ARE Canadian and still don’t get it…look it up…you’ll laugh.

Zesty Mordant...pshh

One Year Later

2008-09-20T13:25:00.004-04:00

I just realised my blog turned one year old 5 days ago...

How could I have forgotten such a monumental occasion (sarcasm).

It's been a good year...Evil Stevil Jumps Again...Internship in LA...hopefully if i keep the work up that momentum will carry on.

"You're entering a world of pain..."

2008-09-19T16:46:00.009-04:00

I recently bought the new 10th anniversary edition of The Big Lebowski...Definitely one my favourite movies.

It's one of the few films that I can watch over and over and still enjoy it every single time.

The movie's full of great quotes and hilarious characters. John Goodman's performance always stood out for me. You rarely see this guy in a role like that but he pulled it off big time.
Come to think of it he's also done a lot of voice acting roles for animated films.

Anyways…did a sketch of his character, Walter Sobchak and cleaned it up in flash...I've been continuing to draw in flash a lot since the internship this summer. I want to stay in good practice cause I’m seriously considering doing the clean up for my 4th year film digitally.
In terms of clean up style, I love how you can achieve a really bold hierarchy of line fairly quickly and easily.
So...y'know...practice makes perfect.

PS. I'm in love with my new moleskin sketch book.
It’s like a little new testament of doodles.
Can anyone tell me what the hell the little pocket in the back is for though?
I have a few ideas haha.

Family Guys

2008-09-06T17:06:00.005-04:00

Dad.................Nonno.............Grandpa

Kenny vs. Spenny

2008-08-22T14:42:00.004-04:00

More caricatures...It feels good being able to draw just for the fun of it. I usually don't get the time to during school or work.

Today I've attempted to capture Kenny and Spenny....Probably one of the funniest and most original shows to come out of Canada.
For those of you who have never seen it. Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice are two best friends. Kenny, a crude antagonist and Spenny, a neurotic pacifist. Every week the two compete in a bizarre competitions like “Who can wear an octopus on their head the longest?”, “Who can gain the most weight?”, or “Who can break the most laws?”…stuff like that. The loser must complete a “humiliation” as decided by the winner. The show works perfectly…Kenny cheats…while Spenny tries to win fair and square…they clash big time.

I often wonder how authentic the show is or how much of it is scripted. Every once in a while I do some stand up comedy at Yuk Yuks and one night Spenny was there as well…I spoke to him off to the side while we waited to do our set and he was EXACTLY how he is in the show…goin on and on about how nervous he was about doing stand up, and he has no idea why he’s doing it, he doesn’t even enjoy it...blah blah blah.

“Real” or not that show is hilarious…lookin forward to the new season this year.

The Dumbest, Finest Sitcom Ever

2008-08-14T01:02:00.008-04:00

Recently Nick at Night started airing re-runs of Family Matters.
As a result, I've been watching more of that show than any human should. I mean like...HOURS....of Family Matters...every night
I totally forgot how stupid...and yet so GOOD that show was.
I def think that show was the peak of corny sitcoms.

i mean...common
a wholesome, all American family...check
wacky neibour...check
obnoxious laugh track for shit that no REAL person would find funny...check
insane, out of this world situations that range from robots, to evil ventriloquist dummies, to being stranded in hot air balloons...and so on...check
and a lame moral at the end of every episode...check

yup. that sounds pretty good to me.
so anyways...lately i've been in caricature mode...so i decided i had to draw Steve Urkel...how could i resist. I'll admit he gets pretty irritating after the 5th or 6th episode in a row...but he's so animated...real life cartoon character.

always ruined it for me though when he'd break character while STILL in the Urkel costume to talk about gun safety or something at the end of an episode...would always make me feel so disillusioned

on a side note...i saw a pic of what Jaleel White looks like now...google that...it'll blow your mind...he definitely does NOT look like Urkel anymore.

I wonder what ever happened to Waldo Geraldo Faldo and 3J....pshh...3J

*this post is dedicated to Tapan*

Speaking of comedic secondary characters with BIG glasses...heres a facebook wall graffitti i did for Sammi...395 days ago...

Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys.

See Ya Later Hollywood

2008-08-01T03:03:00.005-04:00

Well...My time in Hollywood has come to an end...it's definitely a bitter sweet feeling. Probably one of the richest and most significant experiences of my life. I'm sad to go but it's also renewed my passion for this art form and has given me incredible insentive to kick 4th year's ass.

We went out with a bang though...tonight we had a pizza party at 6PH with Glen Keane...

John K...Eric Goldberg...and Glen Keane in one summer...*pees pants*...a tri-factor of animation genious if you ask me...it was an incredible honour to meet them all. They were all so humble and enthusiastic to speak to us and share some of their infinite wisdom.

Glen spoke to us about his experience in the animation industry, spoke about his film rapunzel, and offered some great advice regarding getting to know your characters and investing your personality into your film and characters.

He was even kind enough to draw me Ariel witch I got him to make out to Sammi since she 's obsessed with the Little Mermaid and used to roll on the ground pretending she was Ariel.

I think i can speak for all us Sheridan interns out here when i say wev'e had a great time, learned a ton, and have been welcomed with open arms by all the great people at Six Point as well as all the amazing artists we met.

a job well done guys...I tip my hat to you all. It's been a good one.

My only regret is that I couldn't accept John's invitation to hang out one last time tomorrow night before I leave. unfortunately I'll be like 20,000 feet in the air.

He's been exceptionally good to me and it still blows my mind that i got to be all buddy, buddy with my largest influence. Thanks John...I'll catch you next time.

Next stop...the great white north for my last year at Sheridan...Now I can get back to posting art on this blog and get this film goin. Sweet D.

Eric Goldberg and Friends

2008-06-20T02:13:00.009-04:00

So I'm DYING to post some of the stuff I've been working on at Six Point Harness...But sadly that'll have to wait, cause at the moment if i post it I'll be breaking my confidentiality contract and will be killed soon after. So I want to fill the void on my blog somehow. Why not with some more animation big shot encountrs. Once again. Brendan and Six Point Harness have pulled through to allow us Interns to rub elbows with the greats. Today we had the honour of meeting and talking with Eric Goldberg.

For those of you who aren't familiar with his work, He animated the genie in Aladdin, Phil in Hercules, the flamingo with the yo-yo and Rhapsody in Blue for Fantasia 2000, scenes in the new goofy short "How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre"...and co-directed Pocahontas...He's currently animating Louis the Alligator in Disney's new 2D film the Princess and the Frog.

So yeah...Quite an impressive resume...He was the nicest guy and offered incredible insight into character development and character animation. Given the characters he's dealt with in the past, he' got a knack for an animated comedic performance. It was inspiring to hear him speak and he had nothing but positive predictions for the future of 2D's return to feature. I would think he knows a thing or two about whats goin on with that. He's also got a new Character Animation book coming out in July that discusses how to create and handle a strong character in animation. It will also come with a DVD that contains animated examples of the theories presented in the book. I'll definitely be looking for that one.

I was also lucky enough to be invited by John K. to go to his house for some cooling beverages with him and a bunch of his animator buddies. It was such a surreal experience to be hanging out on a personal level with one of my biggest influences...at his house even...it was amazing to pick all their brains for a night...theyve all worked on incredible stuff...and for some canadian animation intern like me to be hangin out with a room full of big shots...it was the most humbling experience of my life...fortunately for me...they were all really welcoming...and Eddie Fitzgerald even made some of his world famous (in the blogging community) faces for me haha. (pictured below) Mike Fontanelli did not seem impressed with the antics of Uncle Eddie haha.

This internship in LA continues to be a once in a life time experience for me. I'll be taking so much home with me from this summer. Hopefully I'll be that much more equiped and inspired for my 4th year fim.

I'll try to get some art up soon.

John K.

2008-05-29T02:42:00.010-04:00

So today was pretty damn cool. When I had my interview for 6PH, one of the questions I was asked was what animation artists inspire me. After listing a couple names I said "and John K. big time" to which my boss, Brenden, replied.."pshh, I can f***ing introduce you to him for sure." (his casual swearing actually really put me at ease during the interview haha..a well placed f bomb warms the heart) Brenden being a great guy whos taken all of us wide eyed Canadian interns under his wing stayed true to his word and got John to come in and talk to us all. Now i don't mean to get all sentimental, but when i was a kid Ren and Stimpy basically opened my eyes up to how much fun animation can be, and the limitless possibilities it holds. I learned to draw by watching those cartoons over and over and drawing what i saw on screen. I still remember the first time i saw ren and stimpy...I was asleep...my dad comes bursting into my room and woke me up saying "Frank! you gotta see this thing on TV...there's a cartoon cat looking for his FART!"....genious.

So anyways...a decade later...I'm in LA doing what I love..and I got to meet one of my largest influences...he gave us a very insightful talk on the "animation biz"...his honesty can come across as harsh at times...but he def knows what hes talking about and his passion for the art form is extremely evident. I'm a passionate guy myself...I think you have to have that passion to be an artist, and as most artists do...we have some pretty solid ideals of what our art should be, and what it should live up to. John genuinely wants the best to come out of the animation industry...and his words were extremely inspiring...I was lucky to meet this guy, fortunately everyone can check everything hes about at his blog...if you havent read through it...you should at:

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/

Here are some experimental doodles John did on Painter during his visit...

pretty good stuff. I def had a nerd attack today

Hollywood: 3 Weeks Later

2008-05-25T02:46:00.008-04:00

Unfortunately I haven't been able to post since I arrived in Hollywood, but here I am...3 weeks in...alive and well...amazing.

I've had an incredible first impression though. Not only is LA an awesome, surreal place..Six Point Harness is such a great studio...it definitely surpassed my expectations. The people who work there have welcomed us so readily. Within the first few days they trusted us to work on "real" projects. So far I've done lots of designing...a little bit of animation. I'm all settled by this point, and already 100 times more comfortable with flash than i was on my first day. But so far so good! I'll try my best to post updates as the summer progresses. Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to post much art work due to confidentiality agreements...damn top secret cartoons.

A character design I did for work...not the usual style I prefer...but you gotta leave your comfort zone every once in a while and try something different...this particular project has some strict ass style guidelines though. Hopefully i made the best of it.

Sheridan 2008 Film Trailer

2008-04-28T02:04:00.001-04:00

Our good buddy Brock did a Great thing for all us third years at Sheridan. He put together a beautiful montage of scenes taken from all our group films. A great eidt that captures some of the finer moments. I love it. Nice work Brock.

Evil Stevil Jumps Again: A Retrospective Look

2008-04-23T03:18:00.052-04:00

So now that the film’s done, school’s done, and I’ve had a chance to settle into some relaxation, I figured it would be interesting to do a little retrospective piece on the experience I’ve had with the film over the past year. Here are a few things I learned through production of this film…some serious…some funny...some seriously funny:

1) Don’t over work a story.
2) Strong characters go a long way.
3) Maintaining continuity takes a lot of organization and communication.
4) Clean up is a bitch.
5) Adobe After Effects is God.
6) Energy drinks are your friend.
7) Sleep is for the weak.
8) Your peers are your greatest resource for learning.
9) When designing a character, be conscious of line mileage. (Tons of wrinkles and hairs suck.)
10) Entertainment value is everything.
11) You’re not making a film for yourself; you’re making it for an audience.
12) Animation is not just a career path, it’s a lifestyle.

Like any valuable life experience, this group film definitely had its ups and downs. As tedious as animation is as an art form…I forgot about any of the struggle we had, all the sleepless nights, any frustration…it totally vanished upon seeing our finished film at the screening. It was such a rewarding experience to have developed some stupid idea I came up with in the shower all the way to something tangible that an audience can enjoy.
All the 3rd year films turned out incredible, and as a class I think we can all be very proud. Each one had its own unique story and visual style. Now, of course I’m a little biased, but our group in particular took on a pretty ambitious film idea, that ended up being one of the longer films and I truly believe it was a success. As a group we were definitely fortunate to have ended up with one another. We had a strong bunch with such a wide variety of strengths to draw from and I’m thankful I got to share this experience with them.

I think the real eye opener for me, was when I started showing our film to my friends and family outside of the animation bubble, who know nothing about the technical side of it. I can sit and pick out every mistake in our film….every continuity error, every pixel that may be off….But does that matter?...Does that ruin the film? Absolutely not. I think as artists we tend to claim ownership of our work and can easily become selfish and want to create it for ourselves…but all art is nothing with out an audience. Animation especially, is a medium used to entertain others. Our audience enjoyed our film (thank god) and didn’t notice any of those nit-picky mistakes that only an animation nerd would. They see it for the story and for the characters. And that’s what it’s all about. If you can communicate a well developed story with engaging characters and have some funny drawings along the way, you will succeed in entertaining your audience and as an animator. (not to discredit the technical side of animation of course.)

Anyways, I went and made a bunch of screen captures of our film for you all to enjoy. I tried to pick frames with some of the more interesting facial expressions and such. Unfortunately I can’t post the actual film online because I think we want to submit it to a few festivals. I’ll be posting my own individual scenes shortly. But for now, take a look at the screen caps. I put the name of the person who did the particular scene under each picture.
Have a good one.

Matt

Haine

Jack

Igor

Frank

Veronika

Frank

Rory

Haine

Rory

Veronika

Jack

Kayla

Jason

Igor

Tracy

Jack and Haine

Vivian and Rory

Vivian

Rory

Jack

Si Yeun

Veronika

What a ride. Can't wait to do it all again next year...but this time...on my own...*menacing music*

Familiar Faces

2008-04-07T19:03:00.005-04:00

Just some random doodles of people I've seen and know.

1) My LIT Prof...a man by the name of Dr. Maximiliaan van Woudenberg (I swear to god I'm not making that name up. Nice guy with the best name I've ever heard.)

2) AL! this is a guy I worked with in landscaping. He's unlike any other human being on the planet. You'd have to meet him to understand. Just to give you an idea though...He drives a neon yellow vespa all year round and covers with with a BBQ cover...He's a Shriner...He drinks about 12 cans of coke a day...He likes to throw gravel at people...The only music he owns is a cassette tape of Nelly's album, Country Grammar.

3) Just some guy i saw. haha no interesting story for him.

4) Eric...another guy i worked with...hilarious guy...He can play the banjo like no other...He reminds me of Dave Grohl.

5) The girl of my dreams.

6) Suspicious looking pony tail smoker guy.

7) Creepy guy that was lurking around Kensington Market DT Toronto.

PS: There's nothing like sketching with BIC ball point pens...goes on the page like butter.

PPS: Evil Stevil Jumps Again is almost done. What a ride it's been. *single tear*

ESJA - Finished BG

2008-04-04T21:08:00.003-04:00

This is the final tweaked BG for a couple of my scenes in the film. The major addition was some moodier lighting stuff.

We're entering a very exciting week. Everyone's scenes are to be composited by Monday and then the rest of the week will be spent on the final edit of the film...it should be done by Thursday, April 10th...which also happens to be my birthday. If all goes well, a finished, kickass film would be a damn good birthday present.

I AM CANADIAN

2008-04-03T00:14:00.010-04:00

Because all us Canadians are angular and wear our first initial on our shirts.

"I'm not your BUDDY, guy!"

"He's not your GUY, friend!"

"Well I'm not your FRIEND, buddy!"

"I'm not your BUDDY, guy!"

...

Evil Stevil Frame Grabs

2008-04-01T14:00:00.006-04:00

Well, believe it or not, this ain't no April fools day joke. I've ACTUALLY put together a fully composited scene. I figured I'd post just a few screen captures.

Keep in mind that I still have to add in some lighting stuff with after effects and I'll probably tweak the composition a bit. But this'll give you a nice little taste of what's to come.

Be very excited. Evil Stevil WILL Jump Again in 2 weeks!...(I hope)

Evil Stevil is a Sell Out, Man!

2008-03-28T20:41:00.001-04:00

The Animation Student Council had a bit of a fund raiser today. They were selling all kinds of stuff created by the animation students...T-shirts, charicatures, sketch books, and BUTTONS for all the third year films.

The Evil Stevil buttons sold like hot cakes. Glad to see the old geezer is such a sell out.

Deal of the Century

2008-03-25T14:20:00.011-04:00

Nothing new to report...I'm currently cleaning up all my rough animation for the film...I'll get around to posting that shtuff soon. BUT I felt a hankering to do a post. So this is really more of some animation appreciation.

Behold. The deal of the century:

I found this dvd in the "cheap garbage movie" bin at a wal-mart...that's right, I shop at wal-mart on occasion...gimmie a break...I'm a poor student.

Anyways, can you guess how much this thing cost me?...no? give up?

FIVE bucks!

Five bucks for 150 cartoons...some classic, some bizzare, some I never even knew existed...like who's ever heard of "Hunky and Spunky"?

UB Iwerks

Popeye

Betty Boop

Three Stooges

Oswald Rabbit

Felix the Cat

Casper

Tom and Jerry

and a bunch of other random cartoons

I was really proud of this find and I had to share it with the world...or I guess...the 4 people that read my blog haha (ouch...my ego).

So that's just me nerding out a bit. Although, if you too are an animation nerd. Go get this DVD. Great source for some inspiration.

Evil Stevil Jumps Again - REVISED Final Leica Reel

2008-03-12T17:37:00.001-04:00

So we're right in the middle of production...I'll be posting some pencil tests really soon...As we've been animating this bad boy it's been easier to see what works and what doesn't. So we made a few revisions to the Leica as we've gone along. The leica was done by me and Rory...and as for the voice acting...
Announcer: Me
Evil Stevil: Rory
Death: Brock

Random Character Designs

2008-02-12T18:52:00.001-05:00

Animal House meets Mystery Men

2008-02-12T10:12:00.000-05:00

Since this semester's all about the production of Evil Stevil Jumps Again there's nothing left for storyboarding class. So, this semester in SB we're pitching slash developing our story ideas for our fourth year films. (third year - group film...fourth year - independent film) Here's some concept stuff i pitched the other day. I'm sure IF i do use this premise, it'll under go a ton of changes, but you gotta start somewhere.

MACCHIA OUT.

Evil Stevil Jumps Again - FINAL Leica Reel

2008-01-25T08:39:00.001-05:00

After many many revisions to this film I think we've finally locked our story down. This final version was boarded by me, Rory, Si Yeun, and Kayla...and the leica reel was edited by me and Rory.
Voices....Announcer - me....Evil Stevil - Rory...and Death - Brock
This film's come a long way and with production on the go I'm excited to see this thing done.

Life Drawing - Part 2

2007-12-11T17:09:00.000-05:00

Here are some recent life drawings from the end of semester portfolio. Have I improved since my last life drawing post? you be the judge...I sure hope I have. Our prof's a talented guy, and knows what he's doin but he fails people like it's a bodily function...even if they're not that bad...which is harsh, but at the same time, scare tactics have made us whip ourselves into shape.

5 minutes

5 minutes

1 minute

7 minutes

Storyboard: Rough to Clean

2007-12-07T02:18:00.000-05:00

For character design/ animation class each of us had to take a panel from the storyboard of our film and clean it up. The intent of this mini assignment was to allow us to explore the possibilities for clean up and colour. I've had it in my mind for a while that I want to go with a bolder line around the silhouette of the character. It seems to be a quick and simple way to give some variety in line and a stylized appeal.

Posting a Poster

2007-12-04T16:41:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been quite the grind. Pre Production on ESJA is just about done. THEN! when we come back in January all fresh...PRODUCTION BEGINS! Here's some promotional artwork to tide you over until then.

It's That Magical Time of Year...THE ROYAL WINTER FAIR!!

2007-11-14T00:56:00.000-05:00

Ah yes...Every year in early November our life drawing class takes a little field trip down to the Toronto Exhibition grounds to spend a day at the Royal Winter Fair...Basically it’s a giant livestock show with a pizza pizza stand...not sure what's so "royal" about it...the "winter" and "fair" part are pretty accurate though. If you can get past the smell, the mobs of grade school kids, and using milk crates as chairs/ drawing surfaces...it's actually a pretty good time, and everyone in the animation program usually looks forward to it. It's a good opportunity to draw a nice variety of animals up close and personal. Anyways, we had to come up with two pages of sketches for our class and this is what I came up with this year.

Casual DEATH

2007-11-09T00:16:00.000-05:00

This is the design of Death that we decided on for our group film, Evil Stevil Jumps Again. The designs presented here were drawn by me and are a mixture of conceptual designs done by me, Rory Madge, and Matt Lau. Some minor tweaking might still take place.

The whole idea behind Death in our film is that he's not what you would expect from the classic depiction of Death. Our Death is overly emotional and basically a wimp. He lives with Evil Stevil, and the two have an old married couple sort of relationship...Death filling the role of the wife.

Evil Stevil is a dare devil who lives with Death every day of his life...metaphorically and literally...deep, I know. Death has spent so much of his time trying to catch Evil Stevil in one of his stunts, but was never able to. Eventually, as the saying goes, "If you can't beat em, join em". Death did exactly that, and moved in with Evil Stevil. Death comes home to ES at the end of his 9 to 5 job escorting people to the after life, where the two bicker and argue about meaningless crap. Death watches his soap operas while Evil Stevil continues to obsess over his 50 year plan to create and perform the most spectacular jump the world has ever seen. Hilarity ensues.

Recent Life Drawings

2007-11-04T02:03:00.001-05:00

I realised i haven't posted any life drawings on this blog yet, so i decided to dump

some recent stuff...

1 minute

5 minutes

1 minute

5 minutes

10 minutes

30 seconds - blind contour

Fun with Sculpey

2007-10-31T19:26:00.000-04:00

So a while ago I found some sculpey lying around and an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force was fresh in my mind so I decided to have some fun. I’m usually so busy with school and doing art for assignments, so I rarely get to play around and do artsy, nerdy things for myself.

"Tonight...you?" What do you think he means by that? It's like he's threatening me or something...

"I want a unicorn with a horn and a banana seat and a banana suit."

"I'm fine...Everything's fine like wine..."

"Tonight...You..."

Evil Stevil Character Design

2007-10-25T00:36:00.000-04:00

Rough

Clean Up

Colour

So I'm on reading week and I've been focusing a lot on character design for "Evil Stevil Jumps Again" which is the group film I'm working on at Sheridan. I definitely like the body on the first guy way better than the second. I think I’m leaning towards that design. I'm on the fence about the peg leg though. I love the idea of the peg leg. It makes Evil Stevil’s design unique and is a quick and effective way to show his back story. It visually describes the kind of life he’s lead. He’s a dare devil, he SHOULD have some injuries, why not exaggerate that and show an obvious external injury. I’m still wondering if there’s a better way to include the peg leg…design-wise. Rather than just a stick of wood...maybe it could be like the end of a cane with a rubber stopper...or a piece of metal…shrapnel style...or a crutch-like contraption...I don't know. I’ll definitely continue to play around with that. The last thing is regarding the goggles. After getting used to drawing him without them I think he works better with just the plain helmet. I loved the goggles. I thought the redundant nature of having his goggles and old man glasses was pretty funny but at the same time it made his head pretty cluttered with detail. Plus, there’s a design rule I came across that says there needs to be gaps of space around areas of important detail...so...it’s probably better not to have his head too cluttered. Anyways, I’m excited to get back to work on the film after this reading week. It’s been an amazing experience so far. I’ve been working mainly as the story supervisor but I’ve made sure to get involved as much as I can in all aspects of pre production.

Evil Stevil Concept Stuff BEGINS

2007-10-04T16:48:00.000-04:00

Here's another sample of the Evil Stevil conceptual design i've been doing...check out the blog...evilstevil.blogspot.com...a lot of really cool stuff is pouring in from all members of the group...the creative juices are flowin' thick.

INTRODUCING:...J-RAFF the 80's Giraffe

2007-10-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

Know what time it is? It's time to party with J-Raff!

EVIL STEVIL JUMPS AGAIN...in April

2007-09-27T18:55:00.000-04:00

So third year is off to a pretty good start…it’s the big one…the group film year *gasp*…The film’s been off to a good start, we’ve got a strong group and enthusiasm’s running high. I was fortunate enough that my story idea was chosen. Basically it’s about a 110 year old retired Dare Devil who decides to jump again…hence the title…”EVIL STEVIL JUMPS AGAIN”…it’ll be between 2 to 3 minutes long. Currently, the groups been finalizing the details of the plot through beat boards and working on rough concept and design. These are just a few of my early character designs for Evils Stevil…Stay tuned for the progress of the entire film on the official Evil Stevil Blog, which is linked to my buddies list on the right.

I've fallen in love with Post-it's...been cheating on my sketchbook.

We decided that the slippers are a must. Also that he'll have to do the jump on a wheel chair rather than a motorcycle...keepin it old old old school.

Mmm...Geriatric pea eating.

Some OLD gouache paintings from first year...

2007-09-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

This painting and the one below were quick in class studies we did on reflection...they're pretty fast and loose, but i liked how they turned out.