I Am Iron Motoko

Should have some puppet-y goodness for you in the coming weeks. For the moment, though, you'll have to make do with some more tutorial fun -

Here's a still from a test I'm working on. I've got all the futuristic gadgets up and animating in After Effects but wanted to take it a step further by rotoscoping over the live footage you get with the download, replacing the (rather rotund) actor with a more appealing Major.

I rotoscoped the 5 second clip in Flash and after some tests in Photoshop and Illustrator, decided it would be smarter to clean and color it in Flash as well.

I'll post the final if I ever actually manage to finish it.

I'm Only Dancin'

Made this fellow yesterday - he kinda reminds me of my friend Adam from college with the headphones and all.

Next up, some cool dance moves.

Papercut

Yesterday Photoshop, today After Effects...

Well, technically I started this Tuesday but here's how it's shaping up. Learning a bit about expressions and playing around with the Puppet Tool for the first time (I know!). More to come...

There are planets you don't know...

The company I work at full-time is gearing to move in to a new space uptown (W. 19th, not that uptown). The result is a slight drag in workload.
Fortunately, I can log hours under 'Learning' and whip up some neat looking effects with the help of hundreds of online tutorials - really, the only trouble is deciding which one is worth tackling.

For one of my first outings, how about some science!

It's mostly solid layers with fractal noise and some expressions, paired up with a lot of adjustment layers and the mind-blowing CC Sphere Effect. Seriously. My jaw literally dropped.

You're Going Places!

The announcement of an April 25 release date for Inchworm Animation, a new animation app for the Nintendo DSi, got me thinking about the portable animation-station options out there.

Developed by Flat Black Films, which brought you the rotoscope animation in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, Inchworm Animation has grabbed my attention as a way to make sure animation stays 'fun'. I think it's safe to stay most of us got into animation because we thought it was a 'cool' and 'fun' profession. Not to say that it still isn't (I love writing 'Animator' on forms as much as the next gal), but when you're changing the font size for the tenth time in Camp Rock 2 ads, you start to second-guess your career choice.

But video games are and always will be 'fun' and the idea of having a make-shift animation station tucked away in my bag is kind of exciting.

This helps explain my actions online this morning - while trolling Etsy, a favorite past-time during my downtime at work, I came across the Etch-a-Sketch Animator.

How had I not heard of this as a child? Why had my parent's not bought me one? Did it actually work?

I like how even with those sweet electronic beats

to back it up, "Draw it, Save it!" still sounds really lame.

A quick Youtube search turned up this great old commercial along with a few other videos of the Animator in action - enough to convince me it was worth dropping the $25. Honestly, they had me at "a dot that's hot" but the promise of "going places" with it doesn't hurt!

Of course, I could always just drop $15oo on a laptop, but will the Lenovo ThinkPad X201t play my saved Super Mario game? I'm already up to World 6!

Cinetropic

Haven't posted in a while but couldn't help but throw this up here, even as a 'quickie':

The Bellows March (2009) from Eric Dyer on Vimeo.

One of my favorites from the Ottawa Animation Festival from TWO YEARS AGO - that's how much I liked it - has finally been posted online (or at least, I just found it online).

It's a film of technical genius and yet wonderfully simple. Here's a 'how-he-done-it' video to boot:

The Bellows March production/cinetrope slideshow from Eric Dyer on Vimeo.

Enjoy and I promise to post more in the future!

I Can Haz String

I've been trying to set little goals for myself lately. I spent most of August and September pressed up against two massive deadlines, so figured a change of scale was in order.

These short-term objectives include exercises, mostly illustrating 'character animation' since I feel somewhat lacking in that department, but also tests using different techniques and programs as well.

First up, I hadn't done a whole lot of 'tradition' hand-drawn animation in a while. Doodles of my cat, Behemoth lead to a quick little test digitally drawn with the Wacom and then 'inked' and 'painted' in Flash.

Early Rough Animation

After clean-up, I exported PNGs with an Alpha from Flash and brought them into After Effects. For a background I wanted mixed-media, something like a dollhouse or diorama. I Googled about and found this incredibly talented woman's blog. I grabbed an image off of her blog* and dropped it in AE after separating out the foreground from the back in Photoshop to create some depth.

Finished MOV

Next, an exercise in 3D layers and camera moves in After Effects with digitally created cut-out characters. Will post character designs when finished.


*Call of the Small - I hope this is OK! I promise I'm only putting this on my reel and would be happy to send you a MOV of the animation for your own use as well!)

Liesje Kraai, Animator

And apparently Crazy Cat Lady. At least borderline according to New York Magazine.


I was super surprised (not really - they told me last week) to find my face on a full-page spread this week in NYMag's Look Book. I'm also excited I got to drop Behemoth's name as well as get the tag 'Animator' featured so prominently. Maybe I'll actually start believing it.

Thanks NYMag for (hopefully) directing traffic to my new reel on Youtube, Rachel for the nice interview and Pinkyotto for the adorable, Master & Magarita (at least I like to think so) shirt-dress.

Fresh, Juicy Reels!

Headed up to Ottawa for the annual International Animation Festival (more about that later). Before hitting the road, I made sure to squander some of my down time at work on cutting together a new reel.



It was time for an upgrade (new website coming shortly as well) and considering there may actually be folks looking me up now, I figured I should post it online in the meantime.

Enjoy! Suggestions are welcome!

Back on the Wagon

While my position at LBi technically makes me a full-time with benefits 'Animator', moving images of the Jonas Brothers around in Flash can be a bit draining on the 'soul'.


One reason I've decided to start giving myself little exercises to complete for a shiny new reel. Here's the rough animation for my first outing:

I've since cleaned it and started coloring it in Flash. Next I'll make a fun little background, possibly as a real, three-dimensional diorama (of the 3rd grade book-report variety).

And, yes, my cat really is that fat.

Animal House

Shoot this weekend for the long awaited They Might Be Giants video. It's been a long time coming.

Means this week was filled not only by my new full-time position as Flash extraordinaire at LBi, but also with about 4-5 hours each night making last minute mouths...


Painting rods bright green...


Keeping them out of cat's reach...


And wrapping their 'handles' with duct-tape for extra grip.


Look at him, getting into trouble!

Hit and Run

I was greeted by this sad sight on my walk home today.


With our music video shoot less than a week away and an overwhelming sensation I'm forgetting something REALLY important, I certainly can sympathize with this poor fellow.

A Screening a Day...

Keeping with March's trend here's another film I had the pleasure of contributing to -

(The one time I'll let Papyrus slide.)

David Grubin's documentary The Buddha had it's New York premier last night. Sold out, I might add. It's a good thing I grabbed a ticket when I first heard about it several weeks ago; There were little old ladies forming a waiting list several benches long by the time I got there.

And the response to the 25 minutes of animation I helped out on couldn't have been better. The instant the following Q & A session ended, the section of 'Animators' was bombarded with a multitude of audience embers with nothing but words of admiration.


Truth by told, I was a little nervous sitting down to watch the two hour documentary. As someone who has spent a good two months staring at every frame of select scenes, it's hard to take a step back and appreciate the film as a whole. All I can see are the flaws.

But whether it was time (my role in the project wrapped about three months ago), Richard Gere's smooth narration or just plain good fortune, the flaws went unnoticed.


My heartfelt congratulations to Brian, Richard, Christina, Marina, Doug, Fran, Elliot, Larry, Carolyn, Kristin, Kelly and of course, the venerable Ed Smith.


Oh, and Johnny A.

Mazel Tov!

Last Spring I got pulled on to a web series by Nick Fox-Geig. The goal was to animate a chapter of the Torah a week. The first one I animated was a fun little piece set to music all about which animals are not kosher.

(Click Here)

Try getting that song out of your head.

Last night I got an email from the Producer, Sarah Lefton informing me that the film had be selected to compete in the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. Definitely something I never expected to happen. Awesome if surreal.

The only unfortunate thing is that you have vote online and in order to, you have to register. So any of you out there that want to prove how much you care (or if you haven't bought me a birthday present in the last 10 years) go here.

And VOTE!!!

Time, time, time...

I completely forgot about this and the fact that I promised to post it weeks ago.

Bob Lyons was so excited that my partner, Chris Farinella and I were tackling some strata-cut animation for his class Animated Camera he decided to recorded the process. This is the result.

There are any number of folks who walk by the camera at some point - Stephanie Yuhas, Adam Cusack, Lauren Cipollo Etkins, Stephen Murphy, Kea Alcock, Justin Hillman, etc. Chris and I take turns shooting and handling the log of clay, though I think he spent most of his time behind the camera.

Look how cool I was with my shoulder-less black top. The final strata-cut is at the end, cut together from bits taken out of 'Take 5'. I'm sure I have the original footage somewhere on 16mm.

Ancient History

I came across this last night while ransacking my DVD collection, looking for a missing Paranoia Agent volume.

The video quality isn't the best and the watermark is unfortunate, but I'm cheap and don't feel like buying the proper software just yet.

The whole thing was shot using a good ol' fashion Bolex with some under-the-camera shots using an Oxberry. Most of the effects are done in camera, though most of the tinting was added in post, editing in After Effects.

Chris Farinella (the spastic face that keeps popping up) did the lion's share of the editing while I stepped out to a Simon & Garfunkel concert. Then I took all the credit. Lauren Cipollo (now Etkins) and Adam Cusack are also seen in some of the clips, mostly the ones shot in a park off of South St. Stephen Murphy is the man who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. I think his performance is hilarious and he was a good sport about us dragging him all over Philly. I'm the chick in the baseball cap with the serious biceps.

Towards the end of the video is the part I'm really proud of - some simple, yet still mind-boggling strata-cut animation. I'm pretty sure Chris and I are some of the only folks at UArts to have tried the technique.

At some point, I'll post the timelapse Bob Lyon's shot of us creating the strata-cut animation.

Mickey-san!!!

One of the greatest assets I had working as an ALT in Japan was dozens and dozens of handmade karuta cards.

Popular in most Japanese schoolyards, karuta cards can be used for any number of various games, the most popular (at least amongst ALTs) being the 'Recognition' type games (you teach them the alphabet, spread out the cards, each with a letter, and then watch as the kids fight over the 'B' when you call it out).

I had all sorts - animals, shapes, fruits, etc. - but I never had any as awesome as these! Found at a suburban Tokyo flea market by a fellow gaijen (though I'll confess we've never met), these cards seem to have been made for me. Japan + Animation + Yokai!


Mickey seen here getting along quite well with one of the hundreds of various Japanese spirits.


And here again, in quite different company. Apparently "ano ne no ossan" translates into something like "Mr. You Know Who." I won't make any assumptions, but the mustache is certainly suspicious.

Mickey is joined by a few other recognizable characters (Japan, well outside Disney's jurisdiction, tends to 'borrow' from them a lot).


Donald Duck, with neighboring "American Soldier".


Pop-Eye and Tarzan make a rather unexpected appearance, though I'm sure these were in circulation well before "Stitchu" won the hearts of all pre-teen schoolgirls.


And there's been no end to the appropriation of characters as you can see from this 1980's menko card featuring E.T. alongside 2001's Discovery.

Where Cartoons Go to Die

Over a year ago, I took a job at a company out in Parsippany, NJ. Pay was good, it was traditional, hand-drawn animation and lasted a good three months or so. In fact, it would have been longer save for the fact that the ($1,000,000) project was canned about halfway through production.

Last night, while stiffing through my old hard drives, I came across A LOT of work in what can only be described as a Cartoon Cemetary, graves marked by folders and file names.


Here, some character designs that were nixed.


Here, some turnarounds of the final designs.

And a true gem, a pencil test of what may be my first and only musical number to date. All the voices were cast from folks around the office, including the hilariously crazy Greek Witch who enjoyed making voodoo dolls of the client.

To the Dogs...

Every so often you experience something that can only be described as a triumph.

About two years ago I heard the song 'To the Dogs or Whoever' by Josh Ritter for the first time. The instruments, vocals, lyrics, all make you want to throw your fist in the air, celebrating the pure triumphant joy the music shares.


Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox is no different.


The stop-motion is refreshing and charming. The characters, well-designed, directed and cast, are easy to love and identify with even after only a few quick scenes. The shots and framing are pure genius, artful and emotional.

And as with every Wes Anderson film, the music is a treat. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the theater who got the tender reference to another animated film starring two enamored foxes. If it hadn't of won me over by then, the strains of Bruns and Huddleston's Academy Award nominated "Love" certainly would have had me pumping my fist in the air in triumphant joy.

Simply put, see it.

Took a Trip to Another Land

Last week marked my fourth Ottawa Animation Festival and I have exactly 0 pictures to show for it. You'll just have to take me at my word that it just keeps getting better.

Last year was decidedly lackluster in the short film section but, thankfully Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues made up for the depressing showcase of talent. This year, the shorts stood out while the features took a back seat.

My personal favorites?

Git Gob


I had actually seen this already but catching it on the big screen made it even better. What's more, the filmmaker Philip Eddolls seemed to be the only interesting character at the Meet the Filmmakers the following morning. His process for coloring the film was refreshingly creative.

The Bellow's March


The best part about this film is knowing how Eric Dyer made it. Several folks were thinking stop-motion, others 3D. I geeked out when I heard the word 'cinetrope' mentioned followed by 'what's that?' and realized I knew exactly how he dunnit.

The Black Dog's Progress


Wonderfully thoughtout film using nice stark black and white imagery and a flipbook-like set-up that boggled a few audience members enough to ask the 'how-did-you' question the following morning. Great sound work too.

Dog In a Burning Building


Made by the very talented Krause brothers, this film oozes fun from the music to the torn textured paper to the 3D to the hand-puppets. And what better way to end it than with a omage to the Muppets? The great thing about this film is that it's obvious Fran and Will had a blast making it and it's nice (especially when working the 9-5 grind) to remember why we all decided to do this for a living.

Please Say Something


When the film first started up I was immediately concerned. I had seen a film once before staring a cat and mouse rendered simply in 3D and trust me, it didn't end well. After a few seconds it was obvious this was one of the strongest, emotionally driven films in competition and the crude-looking digital characters were only driving the message home more. In fact, for all the folks out there that think animators could take a tip or two from live-action films, here's one a few live-action should look to.