Animatronic antics

So this is what I've been working on recently, a short animation based on the popular horror game "Five Nights at Freddy's."

The animation was done entirely in flash over about 3 weeks (it should have taken no more than 2 but September is the birthday month for the Laver household so staying on a computer was no easy feat) and features one of the games enemies, Foxy, dancing to a song from the Lazytown soundtrack (an oddly appropriate one at that).

Here are the three videos I uploaded, revealing a small insight into my process.

Keyframes

In-betweened rough animation, featuring a planned background 

Final cleanup and colour (now featuring Photoshop-made backgrounds and effects created in After Effects)

This kind of blew up over the internet after it was uploaded (at present it's my most popular animation to date) and I couldn't be more grateful (albeit baffled) about it. I'm incredibly pleased with how it came out, so knowing others are too makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Next time you see an animation from me it'll be a collaboration piece with another animator and some amazing voice-actors (featuring this character and his mascot buddies) and then I'll be doing my own original character animation once again. Next update will more than likely be on the art front.

Until then

Spider-man

Or is that man-spider? Well it's a mix of both.

Lucas "Legs" McCowl has a (more or less) finished design after all these years, and now that I've uploaded a full-body picture you can finally see what earned him the nickname "Legs."
Considering he's in a universe where humanoid creatures are commonplace, being an animal with multiple limbs wouldn't be anything particularly special. The namesake came about because Lucas was one of the earlier attempts at mutations and, with the process still being experimental, he and the other earlier subjects had defects. Lucas' being that two of his legs didn't develop properly and just hang out from under his shirt twitching occasionally.

Hope you enjoy him...and his bowling shoes

Next time I'll be posting up my most recent animation

Genie...you're free

This is the drawing I wasn't able to post until recently on other websites; in fact I was unsure about posting it at all when I was able to for fear of opening up wounds for others, but it does need to be spread around.

I drew this genie as part of a huge Robin Williams/Genie tribute piece (made by 90 people) after his tragic passing, the comedian was a huge part of my childhood and he had a huge impact on so many.

I was unsure about spreading this until the actual collab was up (though it has been on DA for about a month), but now that it is I can share it with everybody.

The collab is available here:

http://zimeta.deviantart.com/art/Disney-Club-s-90-Genie-Robin-Williams-Tribute-477190888

and here:

http://zimeta.tumblr.com/post/95405296648/90-genies-robin-williams-collaboration-by-the-good#


Next time we'll focus on something a little happier, more animals.

Gator got glasses

A quick update on the art front before I bring up my most recent animated project and more drawings of my ever-growing animal crew (which are evolving every day!) as well as a tribute that has been up for a long time but was kept back because it was kind of exclusive to one site for a long time for reasons I will explain.

Though it's not apparent in my other self-caricatures or any photos people may have seen of me, I do wear glasses. They are solely for distance/glare so I only really wear them when necessary as my vision is not utterly terrible yet (give it time, my job involves staring at a screen all day) but I recently got a pair that were a rather extreme shape, and I've thought of worse reasons for a drawing so:

So now you can see me as a bonkers bespectacled basket-case. Not much, but a little something.

Many thanks!

So those works in progress are now fully fledged drawings. What were they made for you ask? Well after graduation, I wanted to show my appreciation to my lecturers for giving me such fantastic guidance and support these past 3 years; and what better way to thank lecturers of an art course with...well, art.

Each drawing was intended to represent each tutor, either in what/how they taught me or any specific characters that were created within the year they were my lecturer. These images have my signature at the bottom, unlike the originals, which are unsigned but have a personal message on the back and my signature there.

I delayed posting them because I was unsure as to whether all the lecturers actually had them yet (I wanted them to see them first) but I know that Graham got them and is keeping them safe, so it wouldn't hurt to post them now.

 For Graham Griffiths, I drew Gizzard and the Big Bad from my 3rd year film "There be Monsters" as he was my main lecturer during the production of the short.

 For Nicola Marlborough, I drew River Mortis and Charmer, as both characters were created in my 1st year of university for character design/animation, when she was my tutor.

For Brian Fagence and Peter Hodges, my contextual tutors, I drew my gargoyle characters, Liza (left) and Pan (right); both being a double-act. This image was then cut in half and given to each tutor.

And finally Gerald Emanuel, my business tutor, taught us how to be "big fish" in the animation world, so it made sense to draw Bunyip, my little fisherman creature.

My digital painting has certainly improved, as has my anatomy. These were a riot to work on and I hope my tutors enjoy them.

Making progress

So remember those other "important drawings" I said I was working on in the last post? Well here's a quick look at a couple of them.

These are still works in progress, they are in desperate need of colour, but here is some (more or less) finished line art for you all.

Some familiar faces here too, Gizzard and the Big Bad (who really needs a better nickname) as well as Charmer and River, who I haven't properly drawn since my first year of university. She's settled into my updated style of drawing well methinks.

There are 5 of these currently in the works (which I intend to have completely done within the next week) and are being drawn for...reasons I cannot yet reveal (shhh, it's supposed to be a secret).

Night fury

Whether that title is relevant to my state while drawing this or the dragon itself is interchangeable; I did get into a bit of a frenzy while colouring this little fella.

Guess who saw "How to train your Dragon 2" last weekend.

This was an incredible film, incredibly heartwarming and action packed. Great new characters and vast improvements on some of the familiar ones (namely the other dragon riders, who had much more screen-time here. Hiccup, Stoic and Astrid are fantastic too, but I was happy we saw more of Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout, because they were hilarious). And yes, the dragons were the highlight of the film, and I still love one dragon in particular.

So here he is, a quick Toothless sketch coloured in Photoshop. With and without the background, because even though the red makes him stand out it is a little distracting.


I did draw a full-body sketch of him too, but that will come a bit later, as I am currently working on some more important art...well, important to me that is.

Now go watch this lovely movie.
Dare I say it's better than the first one? Yes I do! Because I like to live dangerously.