This is a character I designed and pegged myself on Toon Boom.  Then i grabbed a quote (of Bruce Campbell's wonderful voice  from cloudy with a chance of meatballs), and animated some acting to it.

This was our "Take" assignment for semester 3 classical animation.  We had to have a character have an emotion then go down in anticipation, up into an extreme and settle with a new emotion.  (this all happens after scratchy slides over to the bomb lady and settles next to her).  i chose this scenario from an itchy and scratchy episode, where scratchy sees bomb lady and pops into a screaming cycle all of a sudden, and embellished it with these newly learned animation skills.

This is a monster painting from semester 3.  I'm happy with the result because i actually pulled this off in only 2 days.  I was so rushed because i had to restart the project from scratch after the one i had already been working with was having problems. I like the black and white design of him more than the coloured one. I hope to one day blend his tones better, and blend the colour overlays into his tones to give it a more diverse pattern.  

This was our first acting class assignment where we had to make a character that our instructor bought, which meant the character had to have a purpose, a back story, and give us reason to watch.  My guy was a cool hand Luke meets Wild E Coyote character, with movements similar to that of goofy, or a cartoon Kramer.  Tale was never the smartest tool in the wagon, and he knew something was wrong with him so it caused him to rebel! he always had problems obeying the rules, he never understood child hood punishment, and has led a life of crime which eventually led him to a jail cell. The prison guards must have been pretty dumb because Tale here managed to escape (possible intro title sequence), and here's where the fun happens.  Now he attempts to live a successful life of crime, but Karma watches.  He shoplifts at the gas stations, but always winds up with non-alcoholic malted liquor jugs.  He picks pockets, and winds up with rolls of Canadian tire money. He cant even eat a hot dog without being outsmarted by a family of hungry rodents.  Everything he tries, fails.  He is doomed until the day he decides to straighten up his act.

Here 2 random pages taken from my crazy action story board from semester 3.  I really enjoyed story boarding action and found i had a clear understanding of posing things out, and trying to make the suspense timing as realistic as possible.  I hate watching those action scenes in movies where all these bad guys have guns and none of them shoot the good guy when they have a chance for reasons un-shown.  Its so ineffective for me.  You have to show these characters in action when its required, where they are what they're doing, why they're doing it. make it clear and people will feel on edge rather than cheated for a movie ticket.  I think i pulled that off in this board.  My story telling was strong but certain things like clarity of drawing and composition strength were still growing.

This was our rodent assignment done for digital painting this semester (semester3). I chose to do a squirrel in free fall after an experience i had the weekend prior where a squirrel chose certain death and jumped off a tall structure rather than run past my friends and I, I was sad at first, but then intrigued at the cahonies these guys have.  So i made a squirrel in free fall stance with a mouth full of nuts. Hes comming from an above light source at night. It could be a UFO sending him back after studies, or maybe he was clinging to the wheel of a jet and let go right as it was receding into the compartment. Squirrels do end up in the strangest places!

These are a bunch of life drawing related studies done up until last week.  I will hopefully post some progress every so often as i plan to have life drawing as a constant growing skill throughout my life. More to come soon!