Thursday, May 31, 2012

"The Adventures of Coconut the Courageous and Pumpkin:" A Few Moments from my SVA Thesis Film

These last few months have probably been one of the most emotionally draining, stressful, jubilant times in my life.  I was able to finish my 9 month old love child from hell, and graduate from The School of Visual Arts with some of the best friends I've ever made, and an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment.

  However, I did not want to leave that school without knowing that I created a legitimate, hand-drawn film inspired by all my favorite animated films.  I was not as open to using Flash or Toonboom, and I believed that I would achieve the best result if I stayed within my comfort zone, which was plain old pencil and paper.

It was certainly more work than I bargained for, and I learned the hard way of the dissonance that happens when you try to bring traditional and digital methods together and try to make them play nice.  I can't say for sure if and when I'll ever venture back into paper animation, it all depends on how much free time and inspiration my future holds i guess.

  After a long, relaxing break from most things animation related, I've decided to revisit my thesis, compile a few of what I believe to be my strongest moments from my "tradigitally" hand-drawn film, and post them.  I grabbed a few of my favorite key and breakdown drawings, and a few layouts from some of my favorite shots.  These are all final drawings, as I didn't give myself the legroom to go back and produce clean-up drawings or ink them.  The drawings were scanned directly into Photoshop and hand painted, to give a Xerox-ish, cel-like impression over my layouts.

I'll have more to come.

Enjoy!