Love at First Bark

Hooray! After a few rather unexpected set backs, the book trailer I spent 2 months directing/designing/story boarding/character rigging/and animating is up online! The book is Love At First Bark by Julie Klam for Riverhead Books (a division of Penguin Publishing).




Credits:

Author/narrator
Julie Klam

Producer
Paul Leo

Director/Animator
Vanessa Appleby

Music and additional sound help
Roger Paul Mason

Additional voices
Isam Prado

The whole video was made in After Effects. The actual animation isn't up to the quality that I would've like it to be, but such is the case when you're on a tight schedule. Overall though, I'm very happy with it. Share this!

How to Make it in America for HBO

On Tuesday I did a little motion graphic spot for my buddies over at Omega Darling/Looseworld . They gave me pretty much free reign to animate the intro motion graphics however I wanted for this here video:



I had a good time making it. Sadly the footage was sped up since I left the office, which may have been done in the edit because we didn't have sound effects, but either way, it still looks pretty nice. I'm finally amassing enough work to put together a legit motion graphics reel. Hooray! Character animation is loads of fun, but let's face it, it doesn't pay very well...

I'll be back in their studio next week for some 2d animation for an educational project. I'm excited about getting out of my house more!

I also just concluded the big long project for Riverhead Books/Penguin Books. More to come on that in the near future.

Animals Howcast Videos

In July I made these two short videos for Howcast. They were really fun. The frog video only took me a day to do- a far cry from the first video I ever made for them! I had an especially good time with the rap video. It's not every day you get to animate sheep with grills.

Songs for Kids: The Color Song on Howcast

Songs for Kids: Animal Sounds on Howcast

Oh, and pardon the ads before the videos. I wish they'd get rid of those...

American Express Serve

Hoorah! A few weeks ago over at Omega Darling I animated an American Express commercial/tutorial for their new service called Serve. It's now online. Finally! Something that I've worked on in the last 6 months that's been released for public viewing!



I'm currently finishing up some new Howcast videos along with directing a book trailer for the beloved Paul Leo, former creative director at Howcast. I'm quite excited about this project. I greatly enjoy the conception/boarding/design portion of production, so having that opportunity again is very exciting!

Yotel Robot Roboto Robtoz

Here's a little diddy I did over at Omega Darling/Loose World a few weeks ago. I meant to post it sooner, but well, I'm lazy.

Celebrity Robot Audition - watch more funny videos

I'm about to start working for them again this week and I'm freaking PUMPED!!!!!!!!!!!!! AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Squirrely Dress

I realized after getting laid off that I needed to take a brief mental hiatus from searching for work, so I decided to sew. It's been FOREVER since me and my needley friend spent quality time together. Animating day in and day out can be a bit mentally taxing. Sometimes I forget that variety really is the spice of life. The dress was made from a pattern from Burdastyle, although I altered a few things to make it fit better. It's made from denim and a lovely Japanese heavyweight cotton squirrel print from Purl Soho. My dear friend Orlando Perez shot these lovely photos for me.




Me and Shnookums making out.

Next up, Dr. Shnookums will be getting a powder blue tuxedo!! He currently wears a bowtie and tux collar everyday, but I think it's time to upgrade to a full jacket. It will also be great practice for sewing on a smaller scale for puppets, as well as a good exercise in pattern drafting.

Tenticles

I drew this the other night. I'm putting my feelers out. Hoping for the best. Help!

In other news I can't stop listening to Rescue Song by Mr. Little Jeans. It's so catchy!

Random Crap

Some more stills from the GE spot. Still waiting on some more notes. I can't wait for this thing to be released!!

Squirrels from Vanessa Appleby on Vimeo.

This is something I did for Sean a while back. I got to design and animate the squirrels. I think they're pretty precious.

Looking for work yet again. As Winne the Pooh says, "oh bother".

More Crafty Goodness

I've been positively SWAMPED! Which, actually is awesome.

Right now I'm back working on my Howcast video for GE. They unfortunately had some rather heavy notes and wanted me to redo about half of the video. This meant I needed to make some more props. Here's what's happened so far.

Here's a new still from it. The majority of this new section is just the kid cruising around in his sweet hybrid ride. And now for some more props....

fishy poo

book shelf for kid's classroom

mom's car

desk and chair for kid's classroom

elementary school

COLLEGE (regal ain't it?)