Thumbnails: Breakdancers from "B-Boy"

Back in film school, I wanted to do a demo reel that showcased motion that not only was difficult to animate with a computer, but was visually interesting and exciting to watch. Breakdancing was the perfect choice. To do this, I had to pick up every video I could find (this was before YouTube, and most breakdancing videos were shot on tape at that point), and go through them frame-by-frame to find out what the key poses and breakdowns looked like. It was a lot of work, but as any animator will tell you, there's no other way to pull off complex animations. In my student film B-Boy, the moves I had my character do included a 6 step, Swipes, Turtle, Headspin, and Windmill (the 6 step and Turtle were the only two I was ever able to do in real life). Here are some of the thumbnail drawings I did to get the poses and timing down (30 frames per second):

The 6 step:

This 6 step is similar to the style of the one I did in my reel. He does it all at once in the last 3rd of the video.

And here are the thumbnails. The order of the pages goes from left to right on the top, then left to right on the bottom. The three number columns represent the frame # on the video, the # of my scene in Softimage 3.7, and the overall # it would be if it were on its own:

 

Turtle:

These thumbnails go in order from top to bottom, left page to right page:

 

And finally, the famous Windmills:

 
 

Sketchbook: Clothed Pictures of Famous People

Here are some more selections from old sketchbooks that I scanned recently. The first is the author Zadie Smith from her great novel White Teeth:

 

After looking through some old sketchbooks, it turns out I've drawn Edward Norton twice:

 

Key facial features of 4 famous women (2 singers, 2 actresses). Can you recognize them all?

 

Clockwise from the top left: Angelina Jolie, Fiona Apple, Natalie Portman, Bjork.

Stylized portrait of Terrence Stamp from one of my favorite movies, The Limey:

Quick sketch of the godfather of noise, Rahzel:

 

Sketchbook: Preparing for Film School

I've been meaning to get the better drawings scanned from my old sketchbooks, and I think I'm all caught up. For my first post in this series, these are some pages from 2000, when I was still a student at the Evergreen State College. I knew I wanted to become an animator, but I first had to flesh out my sketchbook to apply to film schools. The Vancouver Film School ended up being my next destination.

This first page has drawings of a dancer from a magazine ad, along with some Matrix poses:

The dancers on this page were "x-rayed" from a cigarette ad, followed by a more healthy yoga couple:

 

 And this page contains my arm without its skin, and some life-drawings from a Pinoy Eskrima (Philipino Stick Fighting) session held at the college. The man with the short ponytail is the sensei. I took his Ninpo Taijutsu class the term before.

  

The first page in this pair is from a book by the famous photographer Eadweard Muybridge. The second is from an animation book, if I remember correctly. Nothing is traced, just drawn to start becoming familiar with the subtleties of how animals move:

 

More animal drawings. Trying to guess what muscles are under the fur:

  

From the Vault: 2000

I want to get in the habit of posting at least once a week on here. Unfortunately, it's been a busy week. Tonight I've been scanning older pieces to post when there's nothing current to show. Here are a couple selections from back in 2000 at the Evergreen State College:

Publish Post

Tricky, 2000, mixed media, 11"x14"

You can see the word "Tricky" spelled out in the folds of his right armpit. It didn't show up in the scan, but I put "Lange 00" on top of the lizard tattoo.

Kevin Spacey, 2000, pen and ink, 8"x8"

I think this was from an Entertainment Tonight magazine. No grids were used on either piece, though.

Life Drawings

Life drawings. 2000. Graphite and Conte on newsprint. 14"x20"

Hand Studies. 2000. Graphite on newsprint. 14"x20".

I've always enjoyed life drawing and like to jump in to whichever area looks good to explore with a pencil. Over the years my approach has become more comprehensive and methodical, taking into account proportion and value. Working as an animator forces yet another angle: the short gesture drawing, which demands fluidity and an extra bit of life. Conte and graphite on newsprint, 2000.