Kanye West "Mercy"

I recently wrapped up on doing compositing/roto work over at Omega Darling for a new Kanye West video called "Mercy". The video may not visually be the most impressive thing ever, but it's actually a miracle the whole thing came together. The elements we had to work with posed some very interesting challenges for compositing. A mechanized camera was used which was supposed to make the same exact camera move for every take, but unfortunately all of the takes were all slightly off. This made compositing very challenging, especially since it was such a geometric background. We basically had to stitch multiple takes together in a way that made the video look natural and seamless. And finally, here's the fruit of our labors,

Kanye West [MERCY] ft. Big Sean, Pusha T, and 2 Chainz from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.


Hope you enjoy it!


Also sometime soon I will be posting some short Flash animations I made for Sockeye Media. They're part of a series called Mother Goose Club. It's a far cry from Kanye for sure, but they're very cute and I look forward to being able to share them with people.


If I'm not employed this week I'm going to make it my goal to start designing some new elements for an updated website. I think it's time for a change. An old friend of mine is going to code it for me in exchange for a short animation for his site. It seems like a great trade to me!

GE video

I helped out on this video for GE around Christmas time. It's just a bunch of sliding images moving around, but the editing was great. Editing by Matt Kliegman. Sliding images by me. Enjoy!

I also just wrapped on a long term project for Omega Darling. Some day it will be released... about 4 years from now. I'll be sure to share it at that time.

New Purse!

The last week I had off from work, so I decided to finally bunker down and do something productive like make a new purse. Voila! I think it might be my favorite I've made so far (which is really saying something since I've been making my own bags for 10 years). It's constructed out of vinyl fabric I got from a friend's sister who wanted to get rid of it- lucky for me! The interior is lined with cotton. Sewing vinyl is really hard on my machine and my hands. Pinning that stuff is a nightmare. I kept having to ice my fingertips! But I think the end result was worth it :) .

The interior has 3 accordion pockets for extra storage.

In other news I'm in the process of learning Maya finally. I've got a pretty good grip on the animating part, now I figure I'll work backwards and learn rigging, then return to learning more about modeling. Over the week of new years an ad I worked on for Samsung with Omega Darling aired on the massive jumbotron in Times Square! It was really exciting to see my work that big and to know that millions of people saw it. I also recently had to turn down a full time job on a show I really wanted to work on due to money. I don't understand how people expect animators to live on such puny salaries. It's especially mind blowing because we do a job that most people couldn't even dream of being CAPABLE of doing. It's a really hard skill to master, and thus it deserves fair wages. Sigh...

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?)

Working Girl ( no not like that you perv)

Yay!!!!!! Finally! I got a real job! I'm currently animating for the Animation Collective's Jolly Rabbit cartoon! It's totally adorable, and here's a little still from their site.

HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll link to stuff in the future if I'm allowed... although I'm not 100% sure on the policy yet. But yay! Just what I've been hoping for for the last 2 years. Stability! I've even got several other jobs on the side. Life is crazy these days!

I'm currently working on revisions for my GE Howcast spot. I've got a lot to redo which is a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I think it'll turn out great. I'm so pleased with the look of it that I'm actually going to take the time to submit it to festivals next year. I believe it's set to go live in late January or February and I'll be sure to link to it obnoxiously as soon as it does!

Merry Crapsmas to me and my family who will no longer have to help me pay bills! Best present ever!!!!


Love,

The Grinch

Finger Puppets

This isn't the best photo of all time, but you get the point. Today I sewed a finger puppet of myself as a promo for a puppet studio I want to work for. I'm rather fond of this, and it's going to be hard to send it... All I can say is that I hope they actually call me because if they don't I'll be incredibly sad. Puppets 4Life.

Mad Props

Lately I've found myself rather busy (yet somehow still underfunded). I've been working on a prepilot for FOX with Mr. Sean Donnelly, as well as on a new Howcast video. The Howcast assignment is especially exciting. It's a break from the standard step-by-step format we usually work in. I don't want to reveal too much about the project, but my video will be in two parts, this, the "real world",


and another section which will be hand drawn with crayons on good old fashioned paper. (Just blew your mind there didn't I?) Perhaps I'm smug, but I'm very satisfied with the look of this! It's taken forever (about 3 weeks or so) to create the background elements which are all hand made out of a combination of cardboard, popsicle sticks, felt, and hot glue. The shot doesn't exactly give you a full view of the props, so I've included some of my source photos below.

This is the main house for the film, I've included photos of it before I painted so you can better see the construction. It's made out of a cardboard armature, popsicle stick siding and shingles, tin foil for the "solar panels", sculpey for the chimney bricks, and held together by hot glue. It stands approximately 18" high.

Both the car and the rocket ship are carved out of pink insulation foam, hot glued together, and painted.

Houses below are made of popsicle sticks, hot glued on a cardboard base.

These are buildings "of the FUTURE". These were primarily made the same way as the other houses, but this time I threw in some sculpey elements as well as a pinch of glitter.






The clouds and bushes/trees are sewn out of felt and embroidery floss, stuffed with tissue paper.

In the mean while I'm on that never ending quest of future employment. Got some new contacts last week, and I'm hoping to accomplish something important this week. Wish me luck.

Catchin' Some Sweet Waves Brah'

So as promised, I'd be documenting a bit of the process of creating my personal film, working title Stories My Daddy Told Me. I've been painting this background FOREVER it seems. It was my first time working in painter. I'm pretty in love with that program. The brushes in Photoshop can't even begin to compare- not even in CS5. Although I've been slaving away, seemingly for years, I'm still not done with it. It still needs another 500 or so people on the beach, but you get the idea.

And a few select close ups....


I also did some little animation in the amusement park area. Check it out.




and some sweet waves that took forever to color




And all of this is for a less than 5 second shot. Ha. Such is the life of an animator I suppose.

Sneak Peek Stop Motion Extravaganza!

As I've mentioned, I'm currently working on my own film whenever I get a chance. It's a collection of short stories that my dad has told me about his childhood. The first story is in production at the moment with a run time of about one minute. It's primarily going to be hand drawn in Toon Boom 5 (soon to be Toon Boom 6 whoOooooOoOoaaaa), but there's a few small segments that are stop motion.

I've been working on compositing my stop motion footage I shot over at Asterisk Animation courtesy of Richard. I can't thank him enough for his help and generosity. It was ridiculously stressful trying to get everything to work together, but between 2 computers, 2 different stop motion programs, 2 cameras, and some ghetto lighting, it all managed to come together.

The big stop motion scene is underwater. Overall things went pretty well. I was very satisfied with the animation of the three fish characters, however I was a little disappointed with my animation of the plants. The armatures I used were made of steel wire (big mistake!) and the arms of the plants were very difficult to move in the small increments needed to create a subtle swaying underwater look. Right now they move way too fast and way too much. I may just end up taking stills of each plant arm and using the puppet tool in AE. I know that's cheating, but I want this film to look stellar.

Anyway, here's a little sneak peek of one of the characters. I haven't settled on a look for the ocean yet so there's no background at the moment, but you get the idea.



And here's a still that I created as a style frame for the underwater shot. It already looks quite a bit different, but at least you can see the look of the puppets. More to come in the next few weeks!

GLEE!!

Here's my latest from Howcast. I'm busy trudging away on my personal film, as well as several freelance projects. Expect many posts in the near future!

How to Rock a Glee Club Performance on Howcast

HARDCORE HOWCAST

FINALLY! My latest Howcast video is online! It paid better too! Yay! I made this whole thing in a week!

How To Save Money With BillShrink on Howcast

Also it can be seen on the front page of BillShrink's website! http://www.billshrink.com/ I also noticed this weekend when I was home that BillShrink was featured in the Morning Call. Hopefully this drums up some business for me!

Skanks

I just designed this foxy lady for a webisode I've been working on. I kinda love her.