Pet Yeti Screen Shots and Something Fun...

Stills from the “Emma and Molly’s Pet Yeti” preview…which will be uploaded shortly.

Well, there is A LOT to update on. Sorry for the lack of recent posts everyone, but the past three weeks have been CRAZY. I survived finals, I graduated from college, I moved home to West Virginia, I re-packed and moved to Brooklyn, NY, and on Monday I started the first day of my new job as a game artist working for Large Animal Games.  So needless to say, there hasn’t been a whole lot of time for new art creation. But there ar a few things you all can look forward to over the next few months as I start my career as an artist:

1)    First, I’ll be finishing “Emma and Molly’s Pet Yeti” by the end of August. I’m not entirely sure how, but it’s going to happen. If anyone is interested in working on the film this summer let me know. I need CLEAN-UP Animation artists like no bodies business.

2)    I’m going to ~attempt~ to start a web comic!!! Yes, I’d do want to exercise my comic creation skills since…heh...you know…got an art degree in it and all. I started playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 last week, and I swear this game is fruitier that the Rainbow Road. Dear lord, it’s kinda embarrassing how queer this game is…so I’m going to exploit it! I have some fun ideas. So as I play the game over the summer, I going to write my person web comic equivalent/parody of the story line. It might work. It might now. We’ll see.

3)    There really isn’t a third thing I’m working on this summer I just put this here cuz someone told me once that things that come in threes are cool so yall mutha fuggas can just deal with it.

It’s going to be a fun summer! So stay tuned for some sexy, sexy artwork…

More "Pet Yeti" Backgrounds...

Finals are a week from tomorrow. I'm going to get all of my stuff done...how?

BUT, good news! My compositor Nate Taylor and I sat down last night to work on the film and we now have one mintue of COMPLETELY finished film!!! Only three more to go! New project deadline has this film finishing up right around the end of July. Just in time for San Diego Comic Con!

Finally!

Ok folks, I finally finished the last of the eight illustration series for the "Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti" opening sequence. Whew! Boy did these turn out to me more troublesome than I originally anticipated. Ugh! My next post will be all eight of them in a row so you can see the story progression from one to the other. I swear I think whatever my next film is, I think it will be one of those cool painted short films that keep cropping up all over Cartoon Brew and Line Boil. The majority of the work that I've done for EMPY has been painting, and I'm really starting to enjoy painting and illustrating a lot. Many of the artist that crop up on these sites have found really unique ways to combine painting, illustrating, and animation into one perfect hybrid. It's cool to think that animation doesn't necessarily have to be separated into animation, cleanup, background painting, but that all three processes can be one in the same. I'm even more excited for graduation now. I can't wait to explore and experiment!

Here are a few of my more recent favorite short films that you guys should totally check out. All of these have been a huge influence for my next film (again, whatever that might be (not sure yet)). 

Headless Studio Reel

Bear Film

Red

Valencia California

Yeti at the Beach

Ha! Ever wonder how a Yeti stays cool at the beach?

Finally I'm nearing the end of my senior project class (about time)! I've been creating these illustration for my Sequential Art senior project class at SCAD. I'm excited by how much work I accomplished over the course of the quarter, but it's fairly daunting how much work still needs to be done in order to finish the film for May. But thanks to my wonderful team of animators and layout artists, the film is getting done a little bit at a time. I'll have more goodies to show soon, including the finished treehouse layout and a final composite test.

Another painting - Kitchen Bedtime Story

I'm pumping out these paintings like crazy. Finals are next week! And then I can do non Yeti related artwork.

Shadow Puppets - Yeti Painting #3

I actually finished this one up last night, but needed to pass out for a few hours. So now I'm up to three finished paintings (with only minor tweaks needed to be made), and that leaves six more to go (I actually took the time to count then last night). I'm taking a break today to work on some animation for a class, so you guys should see another finished illustration sometime tomorrow or early Saturday. 

Variety will come eventually...

If you've seen the animatic, you'll recognize these images from the opening sequence. I'm illustrating these images for my sequential art senior project class. I've been working on these all quarter so far, and I'm getting so close to finishing the drawing. I'm frantically finishing line art so that I can move on to color as soon as I can. Ugh! I have lot to color before the end of the quarter, but I've done three painting tests so far. I'm getting more comfortable with the coloring process so I don't think it will take too long. But then, again, things always take longer than expected. Always. It's going to be an interesting rest of the quarter.

Here's what the illustrations look like in the final scene. Any suggestions? I'm afraid they're getting too detailed, but I think they'll read fine when I translate them into color. 

Senior Film Animatic v2

I completely forgot to post this several weeks ago! This is the second version of my senior film animatic. Still need to adjust a few things. The next version will have sound and a test soundtrack!

Updated Senior Film Style Test

After much deliberation with the EMPY Team, excellant feedback from Facebookers and Bloggers, I think I've settled on a Yeti color scheme, and here's my reasoning:


Most people chose a lighter toned Yeti, which I agree is appropriate because that is what generally separates Yeti's from Bigfoot interpretations. However, most Yeti interpretations I've seen included some variation of white on blue. Following suit for this Yeti design is, I think, a tad cliche. The Yeti in "Emma and Moly's Pet Yeti," is a very "different" yeti, not only in personality but also in appearance. I not only choose a warn neutral scheme because it stands out nicely against a cold environment, but a warm fur, gives him, I think more character. Think of it this way: red is hair is to humans as brown or warm fur tones are to Yeti's. This Yeti is playful, he's creative, he's care free, and he's intelligent. He's not a big, hulky mass that likes to eat and smash things. I wanted his coloring to reflect this. I did however, keep a blueish-green nose, and teal hair to tie him back to his cold origins. I also choose to give him a dark patch over his eyes for two reasons: many animals have this feature, and it is a common feature among various Yeti interpretations. Also, the darker patch helps his eyes stand out against his light fur tone.

Senior Film Composite Look

Well, I keep learning new things with each EMPY illustration I complete. I think I'm getting closer to finding a final look for the film, but I'm going to keep experimenting just in case I discover something more awesome! This image is a little convoluted. Too much going on. The eye isn't successfully led throughout the image. So still need to work on my compositional skills. One illustration at a time I guess.

Senior Film Layout Painting

I've been practicing layout painting for my senior film, "Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti." Yes, there are characters for this background, I'll post that in a bit. Yeti's color scheme is still a work in progress. He's turning out to be a little bit more difficult to color than I thought.

Senior Film Stuff

Please pardon the blog while I work on reformatting :D

I finally found the solution to being more productive during my free time - turn off the internet! It's that simple. I just unplugged my ethernet cable, and every time I was tempted to look up something on the internet, I was too lazy to get up and plug it back in. Haha! I guess it's just a clever little way to pander to my own lazyness.

Any who, here we have a style test for my senior film. Just trying to figure out what the final look is going to be.Not sure if I want (or have time) to animate shadows so I'll have to work with that a bit, but I think for the first color test, it's a good start. Of course, there's still tons more work to be done before I settle on the final color design, but hey, color's fun!

Molly

I also thought I'd post some of the character design work I've been doing the past few days with my senior film character Molly. Creating clean-up model sheets is a very tiring task as I have recently learned. I'm not usually a huge fan of technical detail drawing because I'm always afraid my drawings are going to end up looking very stale all said and done. But this one seemed to work out fairly well.

Senior Film Animatic

Senior Film Animatic - Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti from Matt Doering on Vimeo.

Well it's about time I update this blog. Sorry everyone. Senior year is driving me NUTS! "Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti" is keeping me plenty busy. So much animation to do in such a short amount of time. May will be hear before we know it.

On the note of Senior Film, I'd like to present my senior film animatic! I finished it up last weekend, and am already working on edits and fixes (as if six rewrites and storyboarding the thing twice wasn't enough (I guess that's the joy of film-making T_T)). I'm extremely excited about the direction the story is headed, and can't wait to start production. I have a large and wonderful team ready to start working.

Please feel free to comment and make suggestions. Lord knows I don't catch everything. I want to make sure all loose ends are tied up before my animators and I throw ourselves head first into animating. Thanks everyone!

Coloring and Characters

I just finished a coloring piece for my Digital Coloring for Comics class! PLEASE note that the drawings are not mine, but the coloring is! I’m not sure who the original artists are (our professor gave them to us), but they deserve the praise for the beautiful draftsmanship on these works. I deserve the praise for the coloring however. :D

The next image is of Yeti and Molly for my senior project. I’m trying to improve the gestural qualities of my design work as well as overall composition, silhouette structure, and use of straights vs. curves (sorry for using animation/character design jargon).

And now it’s time for a more extensive update…

First and foremost, “Molly and Emma’s Pet Yeti” has been adapted for screen and will now be produced as a 2D animated short film instead of the original concept of self publishing a children’s book (although I may still produce a children’s book in the future). My last few posts have alluded to the creation of a film, but I recently realized that I did not mention this explicitly. So yes I’m creating a film! Holy crap!

The production of the short film is going well so far. I have the great Tyler Kupferer (the creator of the fantastic short film “Duck Heart Teslecoil”) working on the project as my story assistant. I have a producer, hopefully a sound designer, and composer for the film score. We have a production meeting on Sunday to solidify the film treatment, and then storyboards, animatic, and most of the basic concept design needs to be finished in three weeks. Lot’s to do, but I’m enjoying every second of it. I spent most of the summer thinking that creating a senior film was an impossible task. Great thanks go to my roommates for convincing me otherwise. Now that everything is starting to come together and take shape, I’m gaining a lot more confidence that this simple story is actually going to come to life. It’s exciting to have an intense amount of confidence in my work again.

And in other news, I’m going to be entering the Disney Imagineering Imaginations Design competition with three of my friends. This has also kept my adrenaline pumping the past few days. I’ll update more as the project progresses.

Senior Film Update

I finally managed to sit down and figure out the designs for Emma (left) and Molly (right) for my senior film. Feedback is much appreciated as usual. I'll have more updates as the week progress. Lots of sketching needs to be done.

Emma and Yeti

Oh Dear! Well after a good few weeks at home, and a week's worth of leadership training, fall quarter has finally begun. And along with the beginning of the school year comes a renewed vigor, and blog updates :D. I'm working feverishly on my senior project, "Molly and Emma's Pet Yeti," soon to be (or not so soon I should say) a short film. I'm currently plucking through the character development phase, ironing out the main character. The Yeti, for the most part, is nearing completion. The girls have a long way to go, but I'm getting close (I think). Children are very hard to cartoon. Thankfully my roommate Sean has quite the extensive library of animated films that I can reference.

The above shows a loving interaction between Yeti and Emma.