This is why I love animation. You can get away with doing crazy things like this. These are called "smears" and they appear often in traditional animation. I first noticed them as a kid while watching the Looney Tunes, especially in the Roadrunner cartoons. Chuck Jones was notorious for using them (just check out his "Dover Boys" short. Chalk full of em'!)

I try to use smears as much as possible in my animation. I love the technique and the ability to incorporate them in my work is a tip of the hat towards all my animation heroes. The image above is a single frame from my last animation in my Digital Cel class in which a clown entertains the audience with a balloon trick. This is the part when he whips into frame quickly. Smears are usually shot on one's, or shown as a single frame in the sequence. Mine is no exception.

In other news, my film First Bite is nearly completed and will be screened this upcoming Thursday. More to come on that later. I wont be able to post a cut until after it gets entered and judged in a film festival hosted at cartoonbrew.com. Wish me luck!

Here is the lip sync I did in regards to my previous post. Again the character is not my own, (belongs to Joe Murray), and the voice acting is by Tom Kenny. The animation is done by Jantze Studios. I was solely responsible for the LIP SYNC!!!

In any event, I'm pretty happy with it. For whatever reason it looks better when I play it locally in Flash but I'm happy with the end result. Probably needs a few tweaks here and there. In any event, enjoy!!



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM! xo




character © Joe Murray
voice talent © Tom Kenny
animation © Jantze Studios

I am currently working on a lip sync assignment in my digital cel Flash class. Above is a screen cap of the Flash interface. It's a bit tricky but I feel as though I am picking it up slowly but surely. I hope to feel more comfortable with it by the end of the month (also the end of the quarter).

The character I am animating belongs to the great Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life. The audio track is voiced by Tom Kenny, from Spongebob Squarepants. The original animation was done by Murray and Michael Jantze, my professor, and his team at Jantze Studios. Needless to say it is beyond AWESOME to be able to have this file that's been passed through so many talented hands.

The character is called Sgt. Spittle and is from Murray's Kaboing series, Frog in a Suit. I suggest you look it up on youtube...funny stuff! Anyway what I did was create the mouth shapes and animate them accordingly. They were a lot of fun to make I might add. I really enjoy lip sync and its so cool to see the character come to life and talk! Very rewarding. I am using a technique called Symbol Swapping (think South Park lip sync) and Symbol Nesting. Two different ways to do the same job. I think this one I'll post once done even though the character doesn't belong to me.I'll run it by my professor...be on the lookout for more!!






"Sgt. Spittle" character and "Frog in a Suit" belong to Joe Murray and Joe Murray Studio.

Thought this was an appropriate post. Been super busy juggling my Flash class and film First Bite. The film has come such a long way and is looking amazing. My team has been kicking butt and we've all been putting our all in it. I'll have to post a playblast of my shot once its finished. Still animating it...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I feel my blog has been neglected due to my classes. I miss updating it daily but know I'll be back on track once this quarter is over. 23 more days left.....




image copyright Matt Groening

So here is a still from my third project in Flash. The assignment was to do a walk cycle and use motion tweens as a way to save time. At this point in the game, I'm liking the aesthetic that Flash has to offer, however I'm not really understand how to animate in it to my advantage. I can do traditional hand drawn animation fine, but seem to get confused with having animation within a symbol, within another symbol. Its frustrating because I really want to get good and comfortable with this program. Guess I'll have to meet with my professor yet again....

In any event, the character is my ode to a lot of dog looking characters I've grown up with. There's the obvious Pluto, a bit of Odie, and the coloring style from cartoons like Ren and Stimpy, mixed UPA styles and approaches to layout. I'd like to think that there's just simply a bit of me in there too! I think not having ears and a tail proves that point. Not sold on the coloring. I wanted him to be yellow or an ocher. I never saw the character as being a demented dalmatian.

Also, if anyone is wondering (mom and dad), the reason why there are just stills rather than the actual videos on here is because they're still works in progress and until I can get the fixed with some more help and time, the stills are better than nothing. A tease if you will....I do intend to get the SWF's up and going asap.