RubberOnion

VLOG #7: Music

2010-10-01T12:00:00.005-04:00

I'M BACK!!

We actually literally just moved into a new apartment yesterday and I'm sitting in my new office surrounded by boxes and I can't WAIT to start some really cool stuff in here (stay tuned for that)!

This was a long time coming, I know, but I try to explain at least a little bit of why in the beginning. Hopefully this is a good VLOG to come back to after a couple months but now that everything is where it needs to be they'll come more often.

Basically my method of writing music is to pick a speed, jam to that to get an idea of where I'd like to go... then rinse and repeat the jamming over with the other instruments. The further you get along the song the easier it becomes.

The only thing I didn't mention, because of time restrictions (10 min maximum on YouTube), was that there are a few points in the song where I wanted it to sound more serious and another where I needed a break. There's no difference in the method for those parts: just break up your song into mini-queues and take each one accordingly.

... and don't worry, you'll get to see the animatic with the sound fx, dialog, AND music in the VLOG where I do the animation (=

CAN'T WAIT!! Thanks for the support everyone and leave some love below, it energizes me to keep doing these!

Trivia Question #3

2010-09-08T07:00:00.005-04:00

TRIVIA QUESTION #3:

"What is the significance behind this Bugs Bunny clip?

Hey everyone! Since you all were SO good at guessing the last couple trivia questions I'm going to do something new to pick the winner this time: after a week of guessing, I'm going to put the name of everyone who guessed the answer correctly in a bag, shake it, and select the winner of the prize! I might actually live-stream it as well if there's enough interest (first I'll actually have to figure out how to do that!). Just like last time, though, I'm going to keep the comments hidden for a few days so that MANY people can participate without the risk of cheating off others so you should make sure to answer because this time, with the lottery method, everyone who guesses correctly has the same chance as anyone to win the prize!!! I'll announce what the prize is when the winner is chosen!

Ehhhhhhh... Good luck, Onions!

(Remember, you must be on my e-mail list to be eligible for the prize. You can sign up and then participate, but the RSS feed must be active so when you put in your e-mail address don't forget to look for the confirmation e-mail, THEN you can participate. Put your e-mail in the top right of this website where it says "SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES")

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The winner has been picked!

... and the winner is... Crooklyn (Stephie Daniels) from TapouT Radio

Here's her comment:

This episode was important because Bugs was originally slated to fall to his death.

From "The Heckling Hare" (1941). There was supposed to be a surprise waiting for Bugs and "Willoughby" after the "fade-out", when they fall through ANOTHER hole {Bugs: "Hold onto your hats, folks...here we go again!'}...but Leon Schlesinger vetoed the idea of Bugs Bunny falling to his doom, and ordered that footage removed. Director Tex Avery objected, Schlesinger suspended him, with Tex finally quitting the studio to join MGM.

While Bugs wasn't ACTUALLY supposed to fall to his death, the fear was that leaving the end of the cartoon that way would leave "the less sophisticated" (reads: kids) to assume that Bugs had died, and this wasn't a button Warner Brothers was ready to push.

Here was the prize for this week's trivia question. Since this short, "The Heckling Hare," was the one that prompted the great Tex Avery to leave Warner Brothers for MGM the prize is the book "Tex Avery, the MGM Years":

... but there's a catch! "Crooklyn" said she really is just a sucker for trivia questions, so what she told me and the rest of our UStream show was that she would like to put the prize for this trivia question as well as the prize for the last trivia question she won AS WELL AS a prize or two of her own (she mentions a $25 Amazon gift certificate) into a prize kitty that can be a HUGE prize for my next giveaway!

I'll make a post on when and what that giveaway will be SOON so stay tuned for that!

So, if you're reading this you might have missed the very first UStream LIVE video!! I embedded it below for your enjoyment...

Excuse the "um's" and "uh's" and keep a lookout for the NEXT Ustream broadcast and a new prize giveaway that's going to be so big it'll sink the Titanic all over again!

... ouch, too soon...

"My Friend the... Computer: 1 - Three, Two, One..."

2010-08-13T22:00:00.000-04:00

As a freelancer, I literally have no choice but to work on a computer... this of course leads to ultimate frustration because that seems to be what computers are best at dishing out.

This is the next in the "My Friend the..." series (the first "friend" was the toilet, of course! Check out them out HERE if you haven't yet!).

For this microshort, I did the background animation in Sketchbook Pro and the guy in Flash.

Also for those that are interested, this actually is based on something that happened to me (if a bit... exaggerated haha).

Enjoy... and leave your own computer horror stories below, I might just animated them!

Trivia Question #2

2010-07-13T08:00:00.011-04:00

TRIVIA QUESTION #2:

"There are 2 degrees of separation between this video and a classic animation character; what are they?"

The classic animation character may be a bit obvious but you MUST include the connection between what's in the video above and the character to win... remember TWO degrees of separation.

Marilyn says, "Good luck!"

NOTE: don't worry if you comment doesn't immediately show up, I'm going to keep the comments hidden for a couple days so that people can participate even if the trivia question has been solved so you should answer as soon as possible because like last time the first one to guess it right and answer BOTH parts of the question who is ALSO on my e-mail list will win a prize! I'll announce what it is when the winner is chosen!

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It's been solved! Here's the comment that won it:

The song was first performed in late 1928 by Helen Kane, who became known as the 'Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl' because of her baby-talk, scat-singing tag line to that song. This version was recorded right when Kane's popularity started to reach its peak, and became her signature song. Two years later, a cartoon character named Betty Boop was modeled after Kane.

BUT... there was also ANOTHER connection that could've won it and the SAME PERSON ANSWERED IT:

The character is Betty Boop. Both Boop and Monroe were recognized as sex symbols, and both based their images/personas on a silent film star, Clara Bow.

That pretty much sums it up! Here's a picture with Kane, Betty, and Bow to see for yourself!

And finally, Onions, here is your winner: Crooklyn (Stephie Daniels) from TapouT Radio

... and tell her what she's won: "a Betty Boop computer sitter that will watch in judgment of your every move!"

"Broken Egg" - Promo 1: Storyboards

2010-06-25T04:30:00.001-04:00

Here's a little promo video I cut up with some footage I recorded while doing the storyboards for "Broken Egg." When I'm done with the Easter Bunny short I'm working on now I'm going back to work immediately on "Broken Egg."

On a side note, this is also the first time I'm using Vimeo so let me know if there's a noticeable difference in any way.

Trivia Question #1

2010-06-08T10:00:00.006-04:00

TRIVIA QUESTION #1:

"Who is this character and what importance does he have in animation history?"

The first one to guess it right and answer BOTH parts of the question who is ALSO on my e-mail list will win a prize! I'll announce what it is when the winner is chosen!

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It has been answered (many times over, I might add)! I'm impressed and pleased with the showing of animation history... I'll just have to make the trivia questions harder! For those of you who DON'T know who is in that picture above, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Crusader Rabbit was the first animated series produced specifically for television. The concept was test marketed in 1948, while the initial episode - Crusader vs. the State of Texas - aired on KNBH in Los Angeles, California on August 1, 1950.
The concept of an animated series made for television came from animator Alex Anderson, who worked for Terrytoons Studios. Terrytoons preferred to remain in film animation, so Anderson approached Jay Ward for financing. Ward became business manager and producer, joining with Anderson to form "Television Arts Productions" in 1948. They tried to sell the series (initially presented as part of a proposed series, The Comic Strips of Television, which also featured an early incarnation of Dudley Do-Right) to the NBC television network, which assigned Jerry Fairbanks to be "supervising producer". NBC did not telecast Crusader Rabbit on their network, but allowed Fairbanks to sell the series in national syndication, with many of the NBC affiliates (including New York and Los Angeles) picking it up for local showings. WNBC-TV in New York continued to show the original Crusader Rabbit episodes from 1949 through 1967, and some affiliates used the program as a time filler as late as the 1970s.
The original series had limited animation, appearing almost as narrated storyboards with frequent cuts and minor movement by the characters. This was due to the limited budget producers Jay Ward and Alex Anderson had to film the series.

... and here is an example of this historic series which as you can see is little more than a glorified animatic, but SO important:

Also, without further adieu, faithful Onions, meet your winner: Erick Hernandez

... and as a prize for answering the trivia question correctly FIRST, he gets a "Crusader Rabbit" DVD!

VLOG #6: Sound FX

2010-06-01T12:00:00.003-04:00

HERE IT IS!.. the VLOG on sound effects! I hope you got some use out of this one.

As you can probably tell this is great part of the process. It's a lot of fun to break sounds down into parts and build them back up using household items... I feel like MacGyver if he were a foley artist.

As with all recordings, you want to keep your eye on the input meter to make sure you're not clipping when recording your sound effects. Once you've cut them up, arrange them to the animatic but remember that these are rough placements so do a good job but don't obsess over it because they'll fall into place when you start doing the animation.

What I said at the end is true, if you don't at least try to tidy your office after recording sound effects you will be struggling with motivation the next day.

Also, I'm going to wait until I have at least 50 people on my e-mail subscriber list until I post my first trivia question + prize so if you want to participate don't forget to subscribe (even if you already follow my stuff)!

Thanks and I'll see you all for the NEXT one on MUSIC!

VLOG #5: Animatic

2010-05-13T01:00:00.002-04:00

So far we've done the story, we've drawn up boards, we've recorded dialog... now we start applying some visual timing to it all with the Animatic! The Animatic stage is pretty funky if only because it starts to feel like you're animating... but you're not. I will revisit an Animatic sometimes dozens of times in the next couple stages before I get to actually animating just to get things tightened up just right.

I say about 1/2 in that I had "computer issues"... that's a bit of an understatement! I'm sure that has happened to us all and it's incredibly frustrating. I would recommend that if you can't fix a problem within 2 hours, make the rest of the day dedicated to JUST solving that issue and when it's fixed just call it a day... if you try to work any more past that it'll just lead to more frustration; in times like those you really need "a win" so just learn when to walk away.

Don't forget to subscribe, join this site using FriendConnect (using your google, twitter, or yahoo accounts), and/or become a fan of Rubber Onion Animation on facebook (links in the sidebars)

VLOG #4: Voice Acting

2010-04-21T21:00:00.001-04:00

I love doing voices... always have; the difference is now I get to do them for work! When doing voices you really just want to make sure that the characters that have lines back to back sound different enough from one another... the character designs will carry the illusion the rest of the way.

I hope you enjoy watching me make all the faces and noises because cutting up the footage for this VLOG was definitely the weirdest time yet.

I mention "motivation" in the intro; at the time of this taping I was coming off of 3 hours of sleep and hardly ready to record voices. The point is that when the work needs to get done you just need to get started, and usually you'll fall back into a groove part way into the process.

Also important, when trying to overcome a motivational hump when faced with a more creative part of the process (like Voice Acting) you don't necessarily need to make it a full day's work. This was a half day, but I got the Voice Acting and Soundtrack Mix done and was able to keep the energy level up for the recordings... the rest of the day was to recoup for the next day. Even on your worst days, if you can knock SOMETHING off your to-do list you can consider it a success.

Working from home often lives or dies on small successes.

If you have any questions please direct them to the comments section below.

You can follow my updates on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/rubberonion) and facebook (http://www.facebook.com/rubberonion) for more info on what will be released, when. As always, thanks for the support everyone!

Don't forget to subscribe, join this site using FriendConnect (using your google, twitter, or yahoo accounts), and/or become a fan of Rubber Onion Animation on facebook (links in the sidebars)

VLOG #3: Storyboarding

2010-04-09T09:00:00.002-04:00

If you have any questions please direct them to the comments section below and I will answer them in a special Q&A section in the very next video!!

This VLOG was a monster to edit! I hope you find this as entertaining to watch as it was to record. I love storyboarding, it's my favorite part of the process... what's your favorite part of creating an animated short?

If you would like to download your very own copies of my work files such as the brainstorming page, script, and the storyboards in this video just Subscribe to the RSS feed by putting your e-mail into the Subscribe field on the top-right of this page, leave a comment saying simply "I subscribed and I want the files!", and you'll receive a pack of recent work files so you can follow along the process even closer! If you've already Subscribed and would like the files, just put the request in the comments below.

You can follow my updates on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/rubberonion) and facebook (http://www.facebook.com/rubberonion) for more info on what will be released, when. As always, thanks for the support everyone!

Don't forget to subscribe, join this site using FriendConnect (using your google, twitter, or yahoo accounts), and/or become a fan of Rubber Onion Animation on facebook (links in the sidebars)

VLOG #2: Plot & Script

2010-04-03T07:00:00.003-04:00

So here it is, my second VLOG! This was a hard one to edit because it is probably my least favorite stage: scripting.

There's not much to really describe about this particular process, it's just all about fleshing out the story that we brainstormed earlier with dialogue and plot points. The footage shot for this installment was actually in the same day as VLOG #1 so you'll probably be able to notice the fatigue setting in towards the end of this video as the end of the "shoot" was 9pm.

I'm looking forward to cutting up the footage I shot doing storyboards; I think that's going to be a really fun one! You can follow my updates on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/rubberonion) and facebook (http://www.facebook.com/rubberonion) for more info on what will be released, when.

If you have any questions please direct them in the comments section below. I receive an e-mail for every comment and can respond in kind so this is the best place for me to answer questions. And as always, thanks for the support!

Don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed, join my site using FriendConnect, and/or become a fan of Rubber Onion Animation on facebook (links in the sidebars)

VLOG #1: Brainstorming

2010-03-31T04:00:00.006-04:00

My very first video log! I'm making these to document each stage of the process it takes to create an animated short.

This video is the first, and probably strangest, stage: the brainstorm.

Hopefully seeing how I work can be a source of motivation for an Indie-animator-in-the-making out there that wants to create something but just can't pull the trigger yet.

If you have any questions please direct them in the comments section below. I receive an e-mail for every comment and can respond in kind so this is the best place for me to answer questions. Enjoy!

Don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed, join my site using FriendConnect, and/or become a fan of Rubber Onion Animation on facebook (links in the sidebars)

GSF - Animated Minisode #13: "Tiger's Rehab"

2010-03-11T13:55:00.002-05:00

This is the latest animation I did for the Global Sports Fraternity. March is the month of work for me and I've been pulling marathon days so keep tuned for some new announcements and content to be posted here in the next month - but now... enjoy the video above!

This is the description of the video taken from the GSF website:

It’s no secret that Tiger Woods recently entered a rehab program to help him regain control of his life…and his sexual urges.

But details of the golfer’s rehabilitation have been sketchy at best, and we haven’t seen much of Tiger since his infamous press conference several weeks ago.

So what’s Tiger really been up to these past few weeks?

"Valentine's Training Day"

2010-02-14T04:03:00.006-05:00

I decided yesterday that I wanted to release a short for Valentine's Day so I sat down and pumped this one out.

This is a very odd holiday... hence the tone of the animation.

Please send this to friends, family, anyone who you think might enjoy a little smile today!

Also don't forget to use the share panel under this post to share on any social network you want (facebook, twitter, etc)!

GSF - Animated Minisode #12: "Big Mac"

2010-01-31T14:16:00.003-05:00

Taken from the GSF website:

It’s only been two weeks since Mark McGwire’s teary-eyed interview with Bob Costas, but the slugger’s steroid use already feels like old news. If 70 dingers didn’t hint that Big Mac was taking more than just his Flintstone vitamins, all you had to do was take a look at the increase in his hat size — the man’s head blew up like a sorority sister with a boyfriend.

But now that our suspicions have been confirmed, a juiced up Mcgwire raises some interesting questions. What, exacly, was he taking? Did he stop using after he left baseball? And is it possible that the greatest slugger of our generation was a full blown addict?

GSF - Animated Minisode #11: "Neanderthal Mannings"

2010-01-15T14:53:00.002-05:00

Taken from the GSF website:

First there was Monkey.

Then there was Man.

Then there was… Manning.

Everyone knows that the Manning family has come to be synonymous with the Quarterback position. But with Peyton leading his Colts to a first round bye, and Eli leading his team to an early vacation, the elder brother has clearly asserted his dominance.

Evidently, it’s been that way since the dawn of time…

"My Friend the... Toilet: 3 - Surprise Guest"

2009-12-17T00:00:00.001-05:00

I say to the fauna of the world... humans do NOT want to be disturbed while on the toilet!

This is a place of peace, the toilet... serene porcelain plumbing. Some of modern man's best thinking was done on the toilet. When relaxed and undisturbed, the mind can explore life's greatest questions and take virtual existential quests to answer them...

So again fauna, I say to thee... "DON'T BOTHER ME WHEN I'M ON THE CRAPPER!"

GSF - Animated Minisode #10: "Jabba the Rex"

2009-11-20T13:50:00.002-05:00

Taken from the GSF website:

It is a period of war in the AFC East. After Supreme Chancellor Belichick lost many men in an early season battle with the evil Jets Empire, the Patriot rebellion has been in a state of disarray.

A botched 4th down made matters worse, and Luke SkyWelker has been sent on a mission to rescue his friends Han Brady and Princess Gisele from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Rex.

It is a dark time for the Patriot rebellion, and SkyWelker is the only hope.

"My Friend the... Toilet: 2 - Cold Backfire"

2009-10-08T23:23:00.001-04:00

If you've ever done a jackknife dive into a pool to see how high your splash could go, you'll know the general idea of the "cold backfire"... I call this little diddy the ploop poop and it is much feared. Unpleasant and disgusting though it is, young and old I've found can relate; plus, what good is the internet if not to indulge in our lowest brow for no one's benefit but our own?

GSF - Animated Minisode #9: "Vick's Voodoo Doll"

2009-10-04T19:25:00.004-04:00

Michael Vick is back; reformed to be a dog lover... but "doll" is close enough to still abuse. What's REALLY behind Donovan McNabb's recent injury?

GSF - Animated Minisode #8: "A Favrian Decision"

2009-09-17T23:19:00.002-04:00

"I'm retired"... "I'm back"... "I'm retired"... "I'm back"... Brett Favre can't seem to make up his mind lately. The guys at GlobalSportsFraternity.com decided to delve into his thought process a bit and contracted me to animate it. Behold...

GSF - Animated Minisode #7: "A-Rod"

2009-09-09T15:13:00.004-04:00

Yankee Pride?... sort of. They have the best record in the majors but A-Rod still can't do anything right in some eyes...

GSF - Animated Minisode #6: "Mets Trap"

2009-08-05T17:47:00.006-04:00

If you've ever played the game Mouse Trap, and you've followed the pre-season injuries the Mets suffered, you'll find this absolutely hilarious; if not... still...

"Manny's Baby Shower" was on ESPN2!

2009-07-20T17:38:00.005-04:00

The last animation for GSF (#5 - "Manny's Baby Shower") was featured on SportsNation on EPSN2 Thursday, July 16th at 4PM ET. Check it out!

GSF - Animated Minisode #5: "Manny's Baby Shower"

2009-07-10T21:04:00.002-04:00

If you've been following the Major League Baseball news here in the U.S. you'll know what's going on with Manny Ramirez. If not, it sums up as such: Manny took performance enhancing drugs and was suspended - the kicker was that those drugs happened to be fertility drugs.

So to welcome Manny back, the L.A. Dodgers decided to throw him a special party!

GSF - Animated Minisode #4: "David Stern's Nightmare"

2009-06-05T20:25:00.003-04:00

The NBA '08 season is over and the guys at GSF wanted to give it a proper send off with the help of yours truly. Keep an eye out for a cameo by Jack Nicholson!

GSF - Animated Minisode #3: "Killer Crossover"

2009-05-28T12:53:00.002-04:00

This minisode was so much fun to do specifically because I got to caricature some of my favorite basketball players from my youth (see picture above)... plus I'm a sucker for dark comedy. Enjoy!

"Three's Horrible" Wins at SBIAFF!

2009-05-13T15:54:00.003-04:00

This last weekend was the South Beach International Animation Film Festival down in Florida. “Three’s Horrible” was shown and picked up a win in the Series/Comedy category. I wasn’t down there myself but I got a very nice e-mail from the coordinator congratulating me. Before that, "Three's Horrible" won a $250 prize on the Newgrounds Halloween Collection. It is an official selection at the Long Island Internation Film Expo, Montgomery Film Fest, Animania: East vs. West at the Moving Image Film Fest in Toronto, and the Shorts NonStop online Film Fest (http://www.shortsnonstop.com/video_view.php?videoId=2743)

Off to a good start this season. So far, “Three’s Horrible: Part I” has been awarded twice and is making a good run in July and October. It’s nice for my first time out to get a couple wins, but what I’m really looking forward to is finishing up “Broken Egg” and submitting that for the next festival season. Next on the plate would be “Three’s Horrible: Part II”.

But first thing’s first... back to work.

GSF - Animated Minisode #2: "The Van Gundy Brothers"

2009-04-15T12:14:00.006-04:00

This second minisode for GSF was a lot of fun to do because there’s very little movement and I had to pretty much do everything with cuts, pushes, angles, and to try to play on the repetitive theme of the shots themselves. I put in some little jokes in the background with the help of the guys at GSF though I’m not sure if everyone can see it due to the resolution, but they’re there if you care see. Enjoy (again)!

GSF - Animated Minisode #1: "Pau's House"

2009-03-31T19:44:00.003-04:00

I signed on to do topical animated minisodes for the guys over at Global Sports Fraternity. All of the clips will be based on this season of the NBA, so the agreed turnaround time is about a week to keep things fresh and relevant. The way it worked, the guys at GSF would send me an audio file and I would put animation to that. They did all the writing and audio work and I was responsible for the visuals; it was enormous fun!

I'm very happy with the way these guys work and the sense of humor they have is right up my ally. These webisodes are going to pop up a day or two after I finish them over on their site, their YouTube account, various sports related blogs and you will also be able to view them here on my site and YouTube account.

For now, here's the very first animated minisode: "Pau's House"

Music Stage - "Broken Egg"

2009-03-11T15:10:00.005-04:00

Last week I was skiing in Italy so I wasn't able to do any work on "Broken Egg". It was a really nice break for me to get out of the office and recharge - then again, so is the Music stage.

What I love about the Music stage isn't just that I love to write music, it's that I'm able to work it strategically into my workflow so that I can break up the art basically into pre-production and production phases. The other thing is that since there is so much artwork that goes into something like this, having a week or two to just break away from that side of things, after all the concept art and storyboarding, and flex a different part of my brain for a bit is a welcome change. I think it really keeps me fresh for when I start the actual production and go back to doing art.

You’ll have to bear with me on this post because I think it’s going to be a long one. There are a lot of things that happen in this phase and they usually happen pretty fast... in other words: this week. If you want to listen to the music while you read just look for the play buttons below.

Like I posted in the first Storyboard post back in February 18th, I usually start orchestrating in a simple program called JazzWare. This program allows me to very simply put down the tone and melody of the song without luring me to get caught up in the packaging of the piece. There is a screengrab back in the Storyboard post I mentioned above.

When it comes time to start rendering the track, I use a more powerful sequencer: Cakewalk Sonar (I’m using version 6 at the moment). There are a couple ways I go about this; I can manually mark the MIDI notes with my mouse in the piano roll view of the sequencer, or I can record in real time and play the notes on my MIDI keyboard. The keyboard I use now is the M-Audio Keystation 88es. It’s relatively cheap, full 88 keys, and plug-and-play with Windows. Like I’ve said many times before, I like my products to be simple and straight to the point. A note to anyone looking to purchase this keyboard... if you play piano you’ll notice that the key rebound is fairly considerable which makes playing delicate pieces a chore – but that’s what the sequencer is for: adjustment. Here is a screengrab of what the Broken Egg score looks like in Sonar 6.

This is the second pass of the song in general but the first in Sonar. For the virtual instruments I use East-West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold Edition (EWQLSOGold for “short”) for the orchestra, obviously, and Steinberg’s The Grand for the piano. If you have a keen eye you’ll notice that back in JazzWare I was using a Rhodes Piano for the driving undertone but when it came time to pull up instruments in Sonar I went with a Concert Grand. Both EWQLSOGold and The Grand are VSTi packs. I load the soft synths into Sonar and queue up the instruments in their respective panels for what I need and just assign them to the track they apply to. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s ok. As much as I love writing music, the process by which I have to go about doing it digitally is pretty much a jumble of nonsensical words anyway.

I should write a word or two about the VSTi’s though. The Gold Edition of the EWQLSO is really just that middle ground between Silver and Platinum. I’ve heard good things about Platinum, but for double the price of Gold I just don’t think the articulation will be THAT noticeable. I think the Silver is going for around $200 now which is half the price of Gold, but as I had tried Silver before I can tell you that there are more instruments and better articulations by a fairly wide margin in the Gold pack.

As far as The Grand is concerned, I have to say it’s not really the greatest virtual piano out there. Though, again by power of halves, it’s half the price of the East-West Piano’s pack and most people honestly can’t tell much of a difference between pianos unless they’re compared side by side so there’s really no reason to go more expensive in my opinion.

So after I’ve made another crack at the piece, this time with soft synths, I make any adjustments that have been bouncing around in my head since then.

If you’ll notice bars 21-28 from the topmost screengrab has now been doubled to bar 36 (as shown in the screengrab immediately above). This was a timing issue that came up when I was storyboarding and I realized that the storybeats during the main conflict were starting to outnumber the time allotted for them in their corresponding music segment. It actually gave me more freedom to add some variety into that part which was much needed. The other thing you might notice is that I’ve started playing with Volume Envelopes which is basically half of my virtual mixing board process

The second part of the virtual mixing is done in Sony Acid. Sony Acid is also what I use for mixing dialogue and soundtracks as a whole so it’s not just a unitasker for the sake of adjusting volume on my one exported WAV file; but in this case, that’s what I do. I export a WAV from Sonar and I import it into Acid and use its Volume Envelope to smooth out the volume over the entire mix so that there are not such drastic peaks and valleys as far as the volume is concerned.

So now after all that is done, I have a rendered audio file that I will use right through the process and maybe until its release if I don’t feel I need to change anything before that. Below are two audio files. One is the MIDI that I made first in JazzWare and the other is the audio that came from the rendering I just described above with Sonar, the VSTi’s, and Acid. Next stop – animatic.

1: Rough MIDI

2: Final Render

Storyboards Stage - "Broken Egg": Part II

2009-02-25T23:17:00.006-05:00

Ok so here we are with the second part of the Storyboard stage. If you didn’t catch last week’s blog you might want to do that before you read this. Last week I did the thumbnail storyboards on a bunch of Post-Its; this week I took out my sketchbook, 2 pencils (H and 2B), a kneaded eraser, straight edge, and a pencil sharpener and sat at my drafting table to do the proper storyboards.

I settled on an old picture book style back in the Art Direction stage so I know that this is going to be a more graphically emphasized project rather than animation. This tells me that I want to properly lay out the storyboards because I’m going to basically be using them as direct blueprints for the final graphics.

I’m not going to show much of the storyboards here since that would give away what happens in the short, itself, so I picked three pages that should give you a little taste.

In every panel I’m making sure that it’s readable from the last. You want to have a little knowledge of cinematography here so that you don’t make mistakes like crossing the line, but you must also keep in mind principles of artistic layout like the law of thirds.

I’m sure you’ve probably Googled it already, but in case you haven’t – not “crossing the line” is simply making sure that when transitioning from one camera angle to another camera angle, you keep each character or major object on the same side of the frame. Notice in the image below, when I change camera angles from looking to the back of the newspaper boat (lower-left panel) to looking towards the front (lower-right panel) the carrots are still on the right and the cabbage is still on the left. “The line” that the phrase refers to is an imaginary straight line running between the principle characters (in this case, it’s a line down the middle of the boat from front to back), and if the “camera” is on one side of the line in one panel it needs to stay on that same side of the line in the next panel so that everything has its own place in the frame: readability.

Rule of Thirds is, again, something you can easily Google. It’s a pretty simple concept really in that you split your frame up into 3 columns and 3 rows so you have 2 vertical lines and 2 horizontal lines; where those lines intersect is called a power point, and that’s where you want to aim to put your major object in the frame. In the image below, the boat is always on a power point and so are the baby carrots (baby carrots... clever huh?).

It’s important to this project, specifically, that I do the storyboards like this because it will make my job much easier when I get to doing the final graphics. When all is said and done I’m going to essentially have 3 to 4 renderings of the same scene, but with each successive one being a step or two up from the last. Thumbnails help me play with the composition by taking away the commitment; proper Storyboards help me to better visualize the final product – it’s my missing link between the ugly thumbnails and the final graphics.

The next post will focus on the music (a nice break from all the visual stuff).

Storyboards Stage - "Broken Egg": Part I

2009-02-18T19:11:00.008-05:00

Ok, storyboards... I love them. This stage is where I get to have a lot of fun. It’s basically where the images I’ve been developing in my head and feeling out in the Art Direction stage meet story which meets stream of consciousness imagination (I wrote that four times; it’s seriously the best way I can explain it).

I’ve already roughed out a bit of the song with a really old midi sequencer called JazeWare; I think I got it in 1998. I just tried to look up their website and it’s not up as of this post; though if you can get a hold of it somehow, it’s freeware. I paid the $15, or whatever they were asking at the time, to “register” it, but it’s really just out of support. I’ll talk more about the music stage when I get to that post but this is where it started. A really simple straight forward app – just the way I like it.

Anyway, I sit on my Big Blue Chair (I’m sure you’ll see my type that a lot; I’ve had it since I was a kid) in front of an empty section of wall while playing the music on repeat and just close my eyes and have a couple run-through’s in my head. After that I take out a sticky pad and a pen and start sketching linearly. I’ve already bulleted the major events in the story back near the concept stage so I already know where it’s going; what I’m doing now is hashing out some of the in-between parts: “how does A get to B”, kind of thing.

I did say that I use pen for this. The reason is because I don’t want to do “art.” I’m not looking to make anything look particularly good, so by using pen I’m not tempted by erasers and I get a constant intensity for the lines (so as not to get caught up in making line weight or shading). I like the beginning of all my stages to be exactly what I liked about JazzWare: no frills – just get to the point; the frills come in the later stages. Any standard pen will do fine.

As I finish each little thumbnail sketch I stick it up on the empty white wall in front of me: my storyboard.

You'll notice I have two different colors. That's not because I ran out of post-its, it's because at that point there is a mood change in the music and I use that to remind me. By having this on my wall I can see everything laid out in front of me at any time. I can move things around very easily since there are no tacks; and because they’re really sketchy and don’t look good at all, I have no hesitation about ripping any post-it off the wall and crumpling it up if it doesn’t work at any point down the road. This is very valuable: you have to be able to let go.

That’s going to be it for this post. I’ll be posting next time on the second part of the storyboards, which is where things get a little more into focus, art-wise.

Art Direction Stage - "Broken Egg": Part II

2009-02-11T16:53:00.008-05:00

So this is the second post in the Art Direction stage for “Broken Egg” so if you haven’t read that yet, you might want to in order to get the whole picture of the Art Direction stage. Ok, on with the post.

Now that I’ve gotten a feel for painting with Corel Painter to get the art style I was after, I’m going to move on to the characters. Depending on the project, you can do the characters first (which actually is usually what I do), but with this project each story element will be an art panel so the backgrounds will play a little more of a role than usual being that there is no movement in the foreground to wrestle any of the focus away. Each image will have to be composed with that in mind when I go forward with production so that the action within each image is clearly visible.

For the character study I usually start with a piece of paper and a pencil. I sketch out fast and very rough some interpretations of what the characters might look like. In this short, the characters will be anthropomorphized food items – which lead to some interesting problems to solve as far as style clashing. Like I said in the last post, I’m going after a picture book style so I’m lucky that I have some reference on how to achieve a textured and painterly background with characters that have cartoonish features and not have them fighting for style rights.

My job at the moment is to study the food items the characters are based upon first so that I can figure out the best way to attach the facial features later. It’s basically still life sketching.

There is a cabbage, a couple carrots, a carton of eggs, and two tomatoes on the vine: sketch time.

When sketching the eggs, I hate to make sure I could handle the different angles, but also that I could handle the carton being thrown around and how the torque on the carton affects how the eggs sit and how much movement I could show the eggs going through while still being within reason that they would stay within the carton.

When I got to the tomatoes there was a specific scene that I wanted to try out. The female tomato is hanging off an edge (note the edge is something bendable; it’ll make sense in later blogs when you start to get the story) while the male tomato is holding onto her. I needed to know that I could do that scene because I wasn’t quite sure about it when I thought it up (I thought of complications regarding the vine that it might not look right). I sketched on some faces and I felt pretty good about them. They’re simple, uncomplicated faces which go with my kid’s picture book theme in that hopefully when they’re first seen it’ll be a bit disarming – that nothing too bad could happen because they’re so cartoony. However, again while going forward I have to make sure that the styles don’t clash.

Since I did that with the tomatoes, I thought now would be a good time to go back and put faces on the main eggs and see if they work the way I want them to.

They do. Now I need to put all the character’s together in one place and unify their style.

I put some simple color in there just for reference (not that I don’t know tomatoes are red and carrots are orange haha).

I have to make special mention at this point that this is not how I will paint these characters in the end. I’m going to make a bit of a faux pas here and just move on to the next stage. Technically I should put all the characters together in a mock up scene with the background and test it out, style wise, but I’m falling a bit behind schedule due to other commitments and I think I have a feeling for how this is all going to come out; so I’m going with my gut on this one.

The next post will be on storyboards (one of my personal favorite stages).

Art Direction Stage - "Broken Egg": Part I

2009-02-04T16:28:00.011-05:00

Since, for this particular project I don’t have any dialogue to write, the script portion is just made up of bullet notes – just putting in the list of events and actions that happen in chronological order. I’ve gotten that portion down on a few sticky notes and I’ll revisit it before my storyboards phase to make sure everything still works on both a conceptual as well as visual level.

Right now, however, I’m doing Art Direction. All this really means is that while building on the concept, I had a few art styles pop into my head and this is the time that I figure out what I want the look of the short to be: vector, raster, realistic, cartoonish, textured, flat, and the list goes on and on.

I knew that, given the slightly somber and desperate tone, I definitely didn’t want the look to be too clean; so with that, vector is out. Through the whole process of discovering what would fit this material best, I kept thinking about some of the children’s picture books I grew up with. If you take away the beginning and the end those books would be quite sad and rough, which is exactly what I decided to go for. Much of the “Broken Egg” story will be in mountain stream-like rapids, with many rocks in the path, dead trees on the bank and up the rock walls – a rather uninviting area for something so fragile. Now I’ve decided: texture is in.

With all this talk of texture I knew I was talking about painting... and if I’m talking about painting I’m talking about a lot of work per image. It’s OK, though, because while settling on the art style in my head and going with a picture book style from my childhood, another light bulb went off: Reading Rainbow. Reading Rainbow was a show I used to watch on PBS here in the states that would take kids’ picture books and voice over the lines in the book while panning and scanning each image on the screen. That’s exactly what I want to do... although, slightly different (with music instead of VO’s and a more specific approach to this being a moving picture story rather than settling solely on panning and scanning. More on this later)

So here’s what I’ve got: texture, painting, motion graphics of raster images. That’s it. Now I need to pick my workflow and try it out.

For the painting with texture I settled on a program I had gotten called Corel Painter which, since the addition of their artists Oils, gives a great replication of real painting. I’ve never taken too easily to it for two reasons; one: I’ve never been a very talented painter – two: the learning curves from something real to something digital to me have always been a bit steep; however, using a program to do this as opposed to actually painting means that I can produce it faster. Faster is not always better, but when you’re producing everything on your own and you’d like to keep things moving so you can get to your next project, faster is a pretty valuable thing. I just need to get comfortable with the program enough to be confident that I’ve made the right visual and workflow choice. This is exactly what the Art Direction stage is for.

I started off by sketching a few mountain stream scenes until I got what I felt was something I could work with; it didn’t take long as I had a pretty good idea what I was after before I even started.

I took the sketch I liked into painter and started putting the style down that I was seeing in my head. For those of you that use the program or that are looking to pick it up, I used the smeary_impasto brush with the impasto_palette_knife as well as the mixer_thin_flat and the occasional swipe of the grainy_blender to fog up some of the background and water edges. I tried slightly different techniques for each rock face and I’ve decided that going forward I’m going to use the technique on the middle ground rock face on the left.

Now that I’ve got a good feeling for the backgrounds and the texture I could get with Corel Painter, it’s on to the characters; that will be in the next blog.

Concept Stage - "Broken Egg"

2009-01-28T16:04:00.008-05:00

I’m working on my new short “Broken Egg” and now’s a good time to make a post about the first stage: concept. This stage is not a very complicated... well... concept; very simply it’s where I decide whatever I want to do with the project - where I want it to go, what I want it to say, etc. This is where notebooks, sticky pads, unused envelopes, and napkins come in handy. Usually an idea pops into my head as a feeling or something abstract but, at that time at least, reachable. I need to write down the bullet points of that feeling or idea quickly when it’s there, that way when I go back and look at them later they’ll either illicit the same or similar feeling or idea... or they won’t; most of the time I read them later and think they’re crap. Sometimes, though, I get one that I think I can explore more.

In this case, the idea was pretty simple. It came from a thought I had on this desire for so many people to have excitement in their lives and not appreciating what they have. I don’t mean excitement with things like skiing in the Alps; I mean desiring actual tragedy and drama because it’s compelling but somehow not grasping the obvious fact that real tragedy is painful. That led to other thoughts and examples I had run through in my head and out popped the concept for “Broken Egg.”

The concept needed to be fleshed out from the initial idea I had so I took out a notebook and ran with it. I jotted down some general feelings about where the idea applies and got this (below are the notes jotted in my hand notebook and below that is the translation for those that can’t decipher my brain-droppings):

Someone feeling that he’s stuck in monotony and nothing gives him spice of life. His only wish is for something - anything - to happen that will make his life more interesting. That kind of deal with the devil is always a double edged sword and, while he does get the excitement he’s after, it turns out that catastrophe and tragedy are the way he finally finds what he’s looking for. When all is said and done, is he happy that he got what he wanted or is he remorseful of what he had to go through and give up to get it? Is it both?

That's a setting for a bitter-sweet ending and one open for interpretation depending on how someone sees it. That concept has always interested me and it was one I wanted to explore more. It sat in limbo for about a year or so and since I’ve gone back and revisited it, the concept still holds up to the feeling I had back then - so I’m going ahead with the project.

United Stations - Animated Minisodes

2008-11-05T19:03:00.001-05:00

I did a bunch of small animated shorts for a company called United Stations. They are a company that produces radio content and they wanted to add animation to some of their radio sketches; so they gave me the audio clips, and I did the rest. As a freelancer you take any job you can get, but it always feels good to take one-man-animation gigs like this that I can just unleash on. Each of the shorts were about 45-60 seconds long and each took about 25-30 man hours to complete from beginning to end.

WIP Videos - "Three's Horrible"

2008-11-02T22:19:00.012-05:00

With this first open release of a short I wanted to have all the elements come straight through me; so all the designs, voices, sound effects, music, and animation got their own slot in my workflow. Because of all these disciplines I had to jump between I wasn't able to spend all the time I wanted to on the animation in specific. To get around the issue of time I did almost all the animation on two's (look it up if you don't know) and did almost everything directly in Flash without going the "draw" "scan" "cleanup" route.

Working this way I found out two things:

1 - I hate Flash's brush tool and I'm going to use illustrator next time.
2 - I'm much lazier when I work on computers.

What I ended up doing was since there was an issue of time I focused on doing the animation right for some beginning scenes, one in the middle, and the end scene -- and the rest were up for corner cutting. So what this means to you is that I thought it might be nice to record this workflow as I did one of the more movement heavy scenes.

I'm going to string them together in order below for you. Just start at the top and make your way down.

Enjoy my torment

Rough Animation - Body

Rough Animation - Head

Cleanup Animation - Body & Head

"Three's Horrible: Part I"

2008-10-30T22:33:00.029-04:00

"Three's Horrible" is a satirical treatment of the great horror movie monsters of the 30's, 40's and 50's. Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolf-Man all live together in an old, run-down, Ranch style, apartment house waiting for the next time they're wanted again. Personalities are introduced and ultimately clash in this first part of a new series.

I did everything in this short excluding only the subtle background ambient audio coming from the TV (credits at the end).

On October 25th I finished the first "Three's Horrible" mini-episode. I decided that if I was going to start something that takes that much work each time around I should keep the first one short and just introduce the characters and see how that flies. Well I'm happy to say that after it's run on the front page of Newgrounds (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/466524) it's gotten plenty of views and support that I'm going to go ahead with the series.

All in all it took about 200-250 hours of work to complete from script to code and I'm quite proud of it. Still, because of the nature of this first episode being mainly an introduction I wasn't able to show any of the plot that I have outlined for the forseeable future of the series. I'm excited to get to work on the next episode, but before pencil hits paper I'm going to need to direct my immediate attention elsewhere -- more on that later.

Thank you also to everyone who supported the release of "Three's Horrible". There's more where that came from...

Happy Halloween!

Moshi Monsters - Character "Luvli"

2008-01-05T18:07:00.003-05:00

I did some character animation for a company called Mind Candy Design for an online interactive game: "Moshi Monsters". I was contracted to do animations for a wide array of emotions and reactions each with varying levels of intensity.

I took a selection of the animations I did for a character called Luvli as well as a couple clips that show how some assets were animated.

These characters were so much fun to work on because you really get to run the gambit of actions that they will do in the game, but it still left some freedom for interpretation and creating a personality.

Check out the game at: MoshiMonsters.com

Moshi Monsters - Character "Furi"

2007-09-05T17:49:00.006-04:00

I did some character animation for a company called Mind Candy Design for an online interactive game: "Moshi Monsters". I was contracted to do animations for a wide array of emotions and reactions each with varying levels of intensity.

I took a selection of the animations I did for a character called Furi (who is the biggest of the monsters in the game) as well as a couple clips that show how some assets were animated.

I'm quite attached to Furi, I must say.

Check out the game at: MoshiMonsters.com

"Bully Story"

2007-02-14T17:30:00.002-05:00

This is a style test I did a couple years ago for a short I intend to follow through on in the future. It's about a kid who goes to the bus-stop and is met with a new bully.

Currently there's not much story in the video and the character designs for the kid has changed. The thing I'm really showcasing with this at the moment are the sound effects which, as always, were done by me.

I will, undoubtedly, be pursuing this short in 2010.

"My Friend the... Toilet: 1 - Geyser" "

2007-01-28T17:04:00.008-05:00

Doing animations for online kids games or presentations for educational outlets is a real blessing if you can do it in your career. You feel great that the work is going to be appreciated on many levels and that it's going to be used to admirable effect when you're done.

However...

... every once in a while you may get the urge to do something less admirable and a little more low-brow; thus MFTT.

Music Video "Officer" for the band Sweet Konpa

2006-10-05T16:44:00.001-04:00

I was approached to do an animated clip for Sweet Konpa, a Haitian band, for their single "Officer".

This marked the very first Haitian music video with animation in it. Everything was done by me except for the music and sound effects.

About Me

2001-01-01T13:01:00.001-05:00

caricature by SubwaySurfer

My name is Stephen Brooks and I’m a freelance animator from New York. My work has been shown on ESPN2, high profile online games, and won at film festivals (both online and on the big screen)

I’ve taken courses at the Disney Institute and refined my animation method with real world experience and an in depth study of traditional techniques. I have been doing freelance work professionally since 2004 with my animation experience, itself, starting in 1999. I also create music and sound effects for a variety of uses.

When freelancing, I pride myself on my ability to deliver what the client wants under just about any circumstance. If you would like a rough estimate for an animation or musical score you want done, please contact me and describe the project.

In my free time I also work on my personal animation projects which you can track progress on through my entries.

To hire me or request a CV
use the contact information below.

steve@rubberonion.com
skype: rubberonion

Clients, feel free to leave feedback below in the comment section!