Merry Christmas 2013.

                                 

                                 

I had the opportunity to design some christmas cards, After some brief sketches and some work in illustrator this is what came back and I'm pretty happy with the results. Happy new year everyone. 

Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger

While I'm continuing with the animatic, I've been given a side project to design a logo based around a honey badger. These are my first rough mock ups I made up in Illustrator using sketches for reference, I like how it's developing but it has a lot of potential for development.

Playing with camera angles.

 watch on vimeo

I've been throwing my spare time into a very rough animatic using different camera angles I want to play with. There isn't a story yet, I'm building the narrative around my camera work so I don't really know what it will be like until it's finished. Anyway, here's the first 30 seconds or so.

A foolish Samurai Wielding A Magic Sword.

I'm really enjoying Illustrator as a creative tool, so I thought I'd try and work in a different look, I had a go at creating another picture based of one of my favourite shows. Samurai Jack was a series on cartoon network running from 2001 to 2004 and in my opinion is a fantastic piece of narrative storytelling. I also love the unique look of the show. Designed by the very talented Genndy Tartakovsky.

I had fun making this image and I love the interesting use of tones and lines and I'd love to do more with this style and see if I can get it moving.

I didn't want to work in this style without trying something slightly more original with it so I thought I'd try and apply some the design ideas I picked up to a self portrait. I'm not 100% happy with it but there are a lot of elements I like about it so it's interesting thinking about what I can do to improve it.

Motion graphic experiments.

I felt like playing with some of the tools in photoshop and after effects so I found a couple of tutorials and set about playing around with Tweens in photoshop and 3D extrusion in after effects. the first is a flash screen designed for iPad formats, however I'm yet to figure out how to utilise this in a piece of software. But I like the results so I thought I'd post them.

Click to view in Vimeo

The second is a test with an adjusted version of the same logo in after effects to see if I could achieve something new by combining the resources from the previous tutorial with another on extruding vectors in after effects, the results were interesting and I'd love to try out some plug ins on this but for now I'll leave it as it is as I have a couple of other things I want to try out before I throw myself into 3D.

Run Cycle

Click to watch on vimeo

I was playing around with the bone tool and I ended up making a run cycle with it, it's very rough but it illustrates how to use pre-cut graphics to make a character pretty well so I decided to post it as it maybe useful to someone explaining the principle, I've made all the graphics semi transparent so you can see all of the components at any given time.

Friendship is magic.

I decided I'd take the time out to do a character piece and make something for a friend at the same time, Thanks to some reference from Inkwell pony via deviant art I designed a Custom pony for someone I used to work with, I had a lot of fun playing around with the colours and getting the layers right. I hope to come back to this and get it animated in future. overall this took me about 2-3 hours from start to finish.

Good For Health, Bad for education.

I was getting frustrated trying to colour more complex images in Illustrator so I decided to just throw all my frustration in to a 10 minute ad pieced based off a Graphic from the film and manga series Akira. Working in block colours gave it a nice Bauhaus/ Art Deco Vibe. It reminded me of the more recent Transport For London posters so I threw in a municipal authority reference. I also like the weird asymmetrical layout and how it all sort of landed when the "For"s lined up in the pill.

Classic restoration

I found a tutorial I was working through last year and decided it was worth playing around with and putting up, I'll try and post some colour versions in time, but for now here are some images of where I am so far. 

This was an inking an lining tutorial I found in Computer Arts Magazine involving a VW camper but I decided to put my own spin on it and work with a ford capri. I liked the basic lining and the blacked out version below.

It does need some work, but it was a fun little exercise and i'm getting a better and better grasp of Illustrator as I go. on another note here's a screenshot of something else I'm currently working on in flash. 

So far it's just a rough test based off some old bar doodles but i think it's worth cleaning up and showing off, I can't wait to get it done.

Green Hill Zone. Act 1

the other day I was reminded of the original sonic the hedgehog. It's a game that really stands the test of time and as a fan I thought I'd play around with some of the original sprites and see what I get. so I used the green hill palm and sunflower and mapped the key points in illustrator so i got crisp vector version of the original designs. Then I went in 2 different directions. 

The one in the middle is the just the vector points coloured in to get that distinctive geometric look and in the more complicated version on the top I Tried to map out the curves and shapes implied in the design for a more smooth flowing graphic. I love how they came out so I thought I'd put them up here and share them with any Sonic fans out there.

 The smoothed rounded version of the vectored palm and sunflower

 And the more retro palm and sunflower based on the original sprites

the original sprites as they were in the original game

Tomothy and pals by Nathan Viney

This is another fan pic I've done of a comic from a university friend. Tomothy and pals is worth a read and I look forward to seeing the new book when it comes out.

Check out Tomothy and pals on nathanviney.com

A respectable Third Place

I come was written and illustrated by 2 guys I went to school with. So I thought I'd do a fan piece of one of the main portagonists  and provide a link to get some interest going, I like the take on the sword and sorcery genre and the character designs are charming. follow the link below to see the first 2 issues, I'm looking forward to more in the future. 

Click here for the comic

E-sting 2013

This year I entered The E4 E-stings contest, This is the entry I produced in photoshop and after effects Called "Horizon". I enjoyed working to a brief again and working on a specific project over the course of about a month from start to finish gave me lots to think about and work with.

Here's the finished Article, the HD versions are available on the youtube and Vimeo links below.

Click here to watch on youtube

Click here to watch on vimeo

And of course the entry on the E4 E-sting page.

Horizon E4 E Stings 2013

Bunnies In space!

Watch this video on Vimeo

Today I decided to animate a sketch I did ages ago while having a drink with my friends, We bounced characters around and space bunny was a popular concept. I did some rough sketched which I cleaned up on my tablet but Today I got around to animating the scene and I'm really happy with the result. I'm considering doing a short with the character but I think next time I wont be lazy and do the shading and highlights as well.

The photo shop sketches I took into illustrator to trace into vectors with the pen tool.

The Illustrator Vectors in Flash being animated as movie clips

 The original character sketch and the scene I sketched around The character. to give the sketch more depth I also added some shading.

5 minute speed paint with iPad

A speed paint I did using Procreate on the iPad, I love the brush options and how much tone comes across with simple brushes really easily and the ability to save files as .PSD files means it's so easy to take stuff over to my mac and experiment with it.

Lift with the knees.

Here's a 10 second animation I made in flash a while ago, I didn't plan any of it out but I liked the result. It was a fun couple of hours work.

Click here to watch on Vimeo

Dog a doodle

I did a sketch of my dog on my iPad last week and I liked it so much I decided to animate it.

The finished article

The original sketch.

Shameless fan service

I felt like doing something with a bit more finish this afternoon, so I got an old piece of fan art I did a while back and I thought I'd vectorize it in Illustrator, I'm pretty happy with the results and I might try doing some colouring experiments with it next week.  

Inked Afro

Afro in progress in illustrator I used the pen tool to trace over the original line work on a separate layer then just messed with the brushes and thicknesses until I got something I liked.

The sketch I did from reference ages ago, I liked the pose and how much of the style came through in the composition so i thought it was worth cleaning it up and seeing what I got. 

Full of Hot Air.

A doodle for a rag tag airship idea I had while looking at old fishing boats. I like the idea of building a project around this used and worn in sort of look. The mast like post in the middle and the use of multiple balloons seemed like a different take on a fantasy airship.

Sometimes, you just feel Arrrrrrrgh

My first doodle with my iPad.