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+ SHOTS +
I call these SHOTS because they’re super short, stand alone experimental scenes, jokes, thoughts, observations, satire. They’re like a jab in the arm with a needle. An injection of a pure excitement. In other words, practice makes the practitioner. Shots are good to build awareness on social media. It’s my free form way of improvisation.
The first shot here I did a while back to go with an announcement that I was coming available for new work. I’m pretty sure this caught the attention of Illumination which lead to a wildly fun gig on the Despicable Me franchise. I aways encourage new artists to do experiments like this on social media to keep your name top of mind in the industry.
We all know we’re in the 'Attention Economy.’ A lot of producers are looking to fill very specific roles on their animation teams. When you make content that shows your unique strength within your field, it makes their head-hunting jobs a little bit easier.
ROLE:
Animation/art direction/character design.
CREDITS:
Music: Storyblocks
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+ CAT SCAM +
I’ve taken to web 3.0 like a kid to the circus. It’s hard to even mention the word crypto without also seeing the word ‘scam’ trailing close behind. To be fair, scams have always run amok within the U.S. dollar but crypto is the whipping boy right now because of how new and unregulated it is. The main place to get crypto news is Twitter.
ROLE:
Animation/art direction/character design.
CREDITS:
Music: Storyblocks
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+ THE SHRINK NEXTDOOR +
I think it’s so interesting when I see how visual artists respond to good dramatic TV. It happens to me all the time: Queens Gambit. Better Call Saul. Game of Thrones. I think we react with inspired drawings to show how much we appreciate the way the story telling comes together by way of acting, directing, cinematography, writing, costume design, etc.
This series on HBO called The Shrink Next Door was based on a true story about the power of psychology. Will Ferrell plays an atypical role. Him and Paul Rudd chew up every scene together with amazing chemistry. They both went so deep into their characters that at times I didn’t recognize them. The pure volume of facial hair on these two alone made them irresistible to draw.
ROLE:
Animation/art direction/character design.
CREDITS:
Music: Storyblocks
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+ LAMDA +
This was part of a short-lived experiment to mine interesting tweets to animate. I’ve always struggled to find a way to enjoy Twitter and am forever looking for an angle. I started with this guy’s story about getting the shaft from Google for his opinion about their latest chat bot called Lamda.
I thought his story could use some attention. A.I. is getting hit from all sides lately and this fictitious twist ending I came up with made for a fun revenge story.
The irony is that when I posted this on Twitter it got upwards of 4k views. But, after looking closely at the analytics I’ve concluded the reach was mostly spread…via bots. Takeaway: A.I. is always watching.
ROLE:
Animation/art direction/character design.
CREDITS:
Music: Storyblocks
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+ DONKEY +
This guy was originally supposed to be another sync test. I planned to start with a static, full body pose then move one body part at a time to the beat. Ears first, then a head bob, then neck and head groove, shoulders, arms, hips, and finally the strut.
Once the walk was done though, the preceding actions turned out to be just a good warm up session. Kinda like a baseball player who swings donuts on his bat before stepping up to the plate.
I didn’t put much priority to having a strikingly original character design. I just wanted a long snout so I could show a proper head turn during the walk. I ended up liking the generic look of this clown. Almost like a funny incidental back ground character.
ROLE:
Animation/art direction/character design.
CREDITS:
Music: Storyblocks
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