Rat Dog Blog

John K. on Composition

2009-05-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

Look what I found! Juuuust what I needed!

Hey!

2009-05-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hi all, Summer is here. I rejoice. on that note I've decided to create a new account so I'm in the process of deleting this one. Super! hope your all still alive.

John K: Sith Lord of Expressiveness

2009-03-18T01:57:00.000-07:00

John Kricfalusi is one of the legendary forefathers of "Nicktoons". He's the creator of shows like "Ren & Stimpy" and made the first ever web cartoons. I'm often conflicted with this guy. I think he can be opinionated and at times, a nostalgic "finger-wagger" (sorry John, but I love me a Don Bluth toon lol). That said, there's a GOOD REASON I visit his blog religiously. The man knows his stuff, and I'd be a time-wasting fool not to hear him out. These nuggets of cartooning wisdom are more than worth getting some of my favorite animations dragged through the mud.

As it turns out, he published a few extensive posts on convincing facial expressions and how to construct them. Facial construction may be my only strength in character design (don't look at my profile icon), which makes me wonder why I'm giving up my only advantage...CLICK, before I change my mind!!! lol

Image copyright John K. and Spumco studios

Childrens Stories

2009-03-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

So I just finished the rough manuscript for hero princess and am playing with a second kids novel, Villianbots. So far the story got rave reviews from my seven year old niece, but after I clean up some typing errors I should be able to get some feed back from selected five to eight year olds. Ill post an excerpt here for general review (god knows only Brian will be reading this) but I'm satisfied with this draft (not satisfied with it as a story.) The basic synopsis deal with a little girl braving her fear, with the help of magic armor, to save her fathers kingdom from an evil wizard. Heres [art of what I gave to my niece

The sun came up. It was a bright day, but quickly it was cast out by a huge shape. People ran as monster fell from the sky. The evil monsters tore down walls of houses.
The Princess was ready; tapping the jewel on her tiara, tight covered her and her magic armor formed around her. She raised her sword, and selected he sun toward them. Light exploded, and the castles shadow vanished. The monster screamed, the light too bright for them. They ran away, fast.
Next the Princess looked up, toward the castle. How will I get up the? People came out of their hiding, whispering and pointing at her. She smiled, waved, and looked back up. Magic boots, she thought. She jumped, and took off. It looked as if she was flying.
She landed, and right away, a giant troll came out the castle gates. It swung it’s great tree club, but the Princess caught it and threw it over it’s trolls head and into the moat. The troll ran away, terrified of her strength.
The Princess walked past the gate the troll had come out of, in the court yard. A statue stood in the center, with the name “Dab Drizard” under it, spoke and moved.
“I will not let you find me. My castle in a maze, impossible to find your way through. Your Prince is me captive, and I will rule everyone. I am more powerful than you, even with your magic armor.” The statue froze still.

As you can see its kind of direct with basic details. Perfect for a younger person, although Id like to slightly flesh out the detail a bit. Some of the names are a little silly, but hey, its a kids story, right? its supposed to be fun.

One of the things im working on is some advice my girlfriend had heard about writing children's novels, which is to write the end. How exactly I'm going to do that is a question I'm struggling with, mostly because my story is already written. But maybe in the rewrite I can work the story with a bigger goal in mind.

Anyways, Im off to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to wake up and go about researching children book writing methods and possible ways to buy cheap vodka without sacrificing great flavor. God knows the second I feel better Im going to be downing shots and writing long into the night again.

Goats and Pigs

2009-03-10T23:51:00.001-07:00

I spent the day scaning and cleaning up character design sheets of my thesis characters Farro the Satyr and Nia the Pigtaur. I could use some feedback on their appearance.The Complete looking character sheets with the turn arounds are actually the older designs. I'm going for the more streamline look as their official look (cuz its easier to animate). I'll be putting up storyboards soon.

:D and random doodle i do because i can. Excuse so many pictures.

EDIT: This is the most retarded image uploader ever.

Rough start

2009-03-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hm. Sorry for random post. but I thought maybe if i posted regularly it would motivate me to keep to my work schedule better. in 2 weeks from now I have a progress-report to present to the animation class on my thesis. I havent done any solid animation for it yet. so. Here is my test animation for my main character Farro crudely animated in Photoshop. and a little incomplete something i did on the side in my frustration with myself (inspired by my roommates new game). Hope the rest of you are not as blah as I am. ~CC

EDIT: okay so apparently animated GIFs are not working. anyone wanna tell me how to fix this?

Problem with the private site.....

2009-01-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

Okay, Brian has made me aware that the private site is to hard to log into too. I'm going to be reviewing why... but In till then our centralized files wont be available to you all till then.

I really have to apologize for how long it's taking to get this project up and running....

Status Report

2009-01-12T01:15:00.001-08:00

So now there IS a spanking new private site where we can swish our work around in virtual "dailies" meetings. And as soon as I can figure out how to BREAK INTO MY OWN PRIVATE SITE, I'll be happy to upload the first story reel lol. Talk to Raf.

All current boards have been scanned in and sequence 1 is viewable as a story reel...MAN it's hard to put those things together...I fell asleep like seven times. As soon as Sequence 6 is made into a reel (or before), I'll hopefully start doing some REAL boarding. I gotta get myself into a 14-a-day workflow. Apparently, 26-30+ a day is the industry standard.

That's the way it be, right now. Anyone reading this?.......hello?......................*tears off pants and dances a jig to the Popeye theme*

Winter Break

2008-12-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

As for this project, I've already started scanning in all the boards I've done so far. I have hopes of using the "MonkeyJam" pencil-test software (check my blog for the link) to make some kitchen-sink story reels.

Also I might add that I think those 2 may be the last sequences I'll be doing in ink and marker. The resulting work LOOKS cool enough, but I can only get about 7 of those done a night. In our situations, that is obviously not good. Working storyboard artists kill around 26-30 a day. They're also a real pain to fix if shot flows aren't working. I might use markers l8er, when we're setting the tonal values of the different sequences. Don Bluth I am not lol.

I propose we make an (additional) new PRIVATE blog between us all so we may post our collective work for viewing and critique. Maybe this move will get more of an active dialogue going between us. I've already gotten some feedback, but I'm mainly concerned with shooting it past you guys.

Comment back?

Organizing your stuff

2008-10-24T00:30:00.001-07:00

Okay, so if you all haven't see the igoogle homepage yet, it is so awesome. It has an overview of all of googles services, such as reader, which sends you blogs or new sites your monitoring without you having to check them to see updates. I've subscribed to this and brians blog via it. It as if you getting emailed your favorite blogs, and it lets you know what posts are new and what you've read! Also, you should all check out Google calender, which would let us share our scheduals with each other and coordinate our group. They even have a document maker were you can upload word files, excel sheet, or make your own. It's a free Word on the web! Even Picassa let you image types upload pictures for storage, all connected on Igoogle homepage. Check it out here, This will really help organize your life, especaly if your a internetphile like me.

The sebatical

2008-10-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

So everone, Rat Dog is having a little bit of delay. A delay I'd like to refer to as life unflitered. Hard stuff, this life- kinda like an ulcer and hangover in one. Brian and I have been rather busy with our education, our personal lives, and our struggle to keep thoues three in balance. Now, I know we said we would hit this as hard as all of us could, but considering how things sre going, all I can ask is we hone our skills instead. So, brian and I will be hosting information links that will furnish your brain. Now, brian has more of the industry down then me, but creative wise were about even(even if I can't draw as well as him.) So for now, here is my favorite link, the daily beast. You can get all the important news of your day here. Have fun!

Do you need ideas?

2008-09-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

So I've been browsing the best of craiglist, and it hit me... you can't make up half the stuff. "Boyfriend lists, "how I quite my job", "or just %&*$ing %&*$ me already." Go to best of craig's list and enjoy.

Sequence 6 Finished!

2008-08-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

Turnover session and reorking-pending, but finished nonetheless! I think it's better than the first sequence I did (which is the point of getting better) since I'm more versed in the art of grey markers. I've never done anywhere NEAR this much marker work in my life.

Well folks, school's starting up again and it's highly unlikely we'll be able to work through our grueling schedules (hell, we could barely do it during the summer!). I made a point to blow through at least 2 fully rendered storyboard sequences and I did. I assume our next straight shot at this will be winter break. If you wanna tackle this thing earlier, let me know.

Until next time!

The words of Ralph Bakshi

2008-08-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

Ralph Bakshi was responsible for the animated/rotoscope Lord of the Rings movies. He also created the X-Rated Fritz the Cat movie. My current favorite of his is "Wizards", but I've yet to recieve "Fire and Ice" from my Netflix.

This was shot at his "Spotlight" panel at San Diego Comic Con 08'. Even if you love big studio animation, there's a lot to take from this speech. I found it on Lesean Thomas' blog. In all his notorious bluntness, Bakshi actually managed to be inspiring.

The next logical step...

2008-08-07T03:54:00.000-07:00

I'd like to get some "tests" done before we all go back to school. I feel like if we all saw something move or took a real swipe at some BG's, it might boost the moral around here. Heck, it might even make it easier to believe this thing could actually get done!

At our next meeting (whenever the hell that'll be...) there should at least be a computer present with a digital art program running, and a capable user at the reins. Perhaps we can leave with an honest to goodness image of what the VG world will look like! Hmm?

On my end, the storyboarding process is...actually going pretty well! Besides the fact that 3 of my markers pooped out on me, I'm officially chuggin' along. I'd like to say I'll keep this party going during school, but I can't make any promises. By now I've kind of gotten the hang of it, so who knows...

Sequence 1 is complete!

2008-08-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

It took a lot longer than expected. Work combined with martial arts meant a lotta' late nights. Most of the trouble was due to those infernal gray markers! If you saw The Dark Knight, imagine Morgan Freeman sitting in front of the Bat-Sonar machine. That's what my computer room looked like. The result, however, looks a lot better and is probably a lot more helpful to whoever is in charge of the digital sets and staging. But yeah, it's done and ready for a turnover session if necessary. If Connie wants, we can turn this baby into a (reeeeally primitive) story reel.

The next "A" sequence to draw out (according to the sequence breakdown) is sequence 6. Again, the point of the "ABC" prioritizing is from the Prepare to Board! book. Theoretically, after all the "A" sequences are done, we have a bare-bones but completed film in case time suddenly runs out. With all the "B" sequences, you have a "good" completed film. And with all the "C" sequences, you have the film you set out to do in the first place. I'm still trying to work my way up to 30 "marker-less" panels a day. I'm on 7 with the grey markers...*sigh*.

Great Modern Story telling-

2008-07-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Guillermo del Toro is the master of story telling. After seeing Hellboy II, I realized one major thing you could see between it and Pan's Labyrinth: if you take away all the sci-fi elements, you have a really great story. His ability, however, to cross over the sci-fi with the actual story elements is more than impressive, it's downright awesome! Just wait till you see the drunken song that Abe Sapen and Hellboy sing over a six pack of Tecate beer! Not to mention the fight scene between Krauss the ghost and Hellboy in the locker room.

Also, as Brian mentioned in the previous post, we've been watching Alfred Hitchcock movies. If we are to meet up and brainstorm, I propose we watch directors like Hitchcock and Guillermo del Torro as we do it. It provides us a great opportunity to sketch as well as observe visual storytelling! I'm thinking we could meet once a week, possible on Tuesday or Saturday depending on your schedules. Any of our houses would be good, but for now we can settle on it through consensus. I have a rough Idea of the pre pro process, and I'd like to give you all a handout with it roughly explaned.

BTW, any of you are welcome to post anything interesting to the group on this blog. It's all of ours!

Model Sheets: Altered, Rescanned and Resized

2008-07-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

Brian, here! Today I finished RESCANNING the model sheets and resizing them to a manageable (hopefully E-mailable) zip-file. Of course doing so without adding a few subtle alterations would be a crime. I heeded as many critiques as I could remember and they helped.....A LOT. Sorry, but I was a much younger when I first tackled those drawings (according to AAU improvement time). We can only hope the designs (among other things) will evolve into something that truly reflects our skill levels.

Also, I recently gained access to a 20 film collection of Alfred Hitchcock movies. Raf and I saw "The Lady Vanishes" a few days ago, and it was awe-some! I propose that every meeting (where we have time) might end with a screening of one of these 1+/- hour films. I actually wanted to have a "story meeting" where we could brainstorm on the coolest things that can happen on each shot we're working on. It definitely would help me with the storyboards if I had a whole pile of ideas to choose from, in case my own ideas fail. I don't know if the Hitchcock movies will help, but no jury of Pixar employees would convict me for trying it lol. Furthermore it'll be reeeeally hard to storyboard accurately without some solid layout drawings. We'll work on those soon enough.

L8er!

Drawing Workshop

2008-07-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

Summers! What a fine invention that we should never get rid of just because no one farms anymore! Isn't it great? Except for one thing: with a lack of models, we'll probably die! Well, not really, but heres some thing you may like: UC berkely has a Drawing workshop that cost only 4 buck for three hours. You sign a membership(just says you'll follow the rules) and you can draw to your heart content! However, one problem: the classroom can get FULL. 4 bucks for a model? Yes, you can bet the word spreads, and people bring their friends! However, how can you pass it up?

Here's the info:

Art Practice-Kroeber Hall room 365
Friday six o'clock to 9. I think.
Click here and look at area D-5 for the location. It's on the corner of college and bancroft (bancroft only heads west, so you can't go up it to get to campus)

When Dogs Ally (Rat Dogs...)

2008-07-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

So, the Rat Dog group finally met. Jimmy and Brian arrived at my house, and we enjoyed some left over pizza and chip before I headed over to pick up Alex on BART. We looked through Jimmy's sketch book and found out he's pretty handy with markers and color. Alex was able to do a drawings that replicated Brain's modeling, which is really good because well need more than one person animating to get this project done.

Brian took the lead and presented our Project, titled "The Scarlet Ninja" and explained his concept of the story as well as the modeling sheets. Most of his story boards followed the script I read, but I think the script I may have is an earlier rewrite. Brian also presented some beat boards he was working on, mostly for practice but they defiantly get across the look and feel of the project.

I'm feeling really optimistic after seeing everyone together. My job, you could say, is to learn about the production process and effectively divided up the tasks into manageable sections. Their will be two part to the actually production process: the stop motion section, which will be hosted at my house, and the vector animation section, which I'm hoping to divided among everyone with a computer and flash (or illustrator.)

To keep Us all coordinated, I'll send out an email packet ASAP with the model sheets, script and story boards as soon as possible. Contact me if you have any questions!