Finished the initial animatic for "Snow Angel"

Snow Angel was initially a demo created by Dave Fedan for Knock Knock Cartoons, many years ago.  The beautiful background work be Dave inspired me to create a film, this film.  Here is one of the amazing backgrounds. Originally, planned as a 4X3 production, we are now setting up the files for an HD roll out.

Getting started on several fronts

Both Knock Knock Cartoons and Horrendous Fiasco is gearing up on several fronts.  IT is building content time and I have been busily creating storyboards, art, and working on animation projects to be released before the end of 2015.  It is really great to get going.

Columbus and beyond

Getting set-up for a big push in both Knock Knock Cartoons land and other ventures.  Knock Knock Cartoons which has laid dormant but active for a number of years, will once again be reintroduced to the Ohio and national market.  Both Knock Knock and Horrendous will be active but will work on different ventures in animation market.  KKC will focus on traditional and corporate markets and HFC will push the old animation envelope.  Look forward to updates.

Background for a project in house. About 90% complete.

Still have to extend to accommodate a pan and make some tweaks.  Heavy influence from Maurice Noble

Character Sketch in Illustrator

2014 Blogfest

Well, it is time to start blogging again.  It has been almost a year and I am gearing up on many levels.  2014, will see the launch of many projects and the beginning of the year of Gav.

About ready to do some new work

I am traveling soon, down Savannah way to use the great facility at SCAD one more time.  I am working on a new direction and will be posting some art soon.  For now, here is a frame from the ill-fated "Where There's Smoke...There's Bob. (which recently has been digitized and will be up on this blog soon at well.

Some sketches from the sketchie book

More from Alex the Bear

Now winner of
***Winner of 3 bronze Telly Awards (Children's Audience, Sound Design, Not-For-Profit)

Along with the Addy!  Raking in the awards.  HA!

Gorilla

Here is a mock up of a design I am working on...It was a quickie, made in about 5 minutes without a drawing. It will get more attention if the client likes it.

Remembering Knock Knock

Here is a picture of many of the people who worked at the Cleveland studio of Knock Knock Cartoons. I was fortunate to work with and know some incredibly talented people during our 12 years there. Pictured from the top left, L. Todd Myers (Todd, Todd, the Ink god, great designer, director, this guy was crazy good), Big Gav, Dave Fedan (Dave, Dave, the Inking Knave also crazy good at everything), the great Tom Parker, Melissa Heltzel (the best writer and assistant ever), Cody Wood (Great talent), Anthony Judge (Frans Hals), Ed Zimmer (of the black nail polish), Sarah Curry (of the red lipstick), and Mike Chipchak (one talented guy). Not pictured unfortunately, Valerie Totire (Ms. versatility), Ben Smallridge (a phenomenal digital artist and animator) , Bev Chiara (one of the best cel painters I ever knew), Bridget Ginley (wonderful watercolors), and Pants Sechrist (this dude rocks, big rocks).

From the GAV Production Days

OMG. I think everyone who has been in the animation business long enough will have the pleasure and pain of doing an animation job so bizarre that it defies any known logic. I believe as animators we all come across a job that solidly ascertains your place in animation whore history. Back in the early 90's, GAV Productions, my first company, had its day in the blistering sun of the "job that time forgot". THE FOOT JOB. It was a 20 minute film for diabetic foot care and the main characters were feet, feet with faces on them. My favorite was the all knowing, Professor Foot, complete with moustache and wire-rimmed glasses. There were other characters, primarily a male and female lead, characters on human ankles (only one ankle) who would walk into screen and educate us about the trials and tribulations of diabetic feet. Yes, it had it's unusual requests from the client, like make sure the mouths did not look like cuts or wounds (an issue for diabetics who have characters on their feet) and make the character action as natural as possible (again an odd request considering someone in animation LALA land is wearing a pair of glasses and a moustache on their ankle). The job did have couple wonderful advantages, it forced and taught me to draw feet, and we got paid. Other than that, I am still trying to forget.

This is why I love 2D!

I was rummaging through some work in my studio today, getting rid of some old work and came across a scene from "Good Wheel Hunting". I realized (as I always do) why I love 2D animation so damn much. It is that wonderful combination of a graphic image and a character pulled to the limits but still "designed", and still expressive. 3D is fine, but it cannot do this, it is never graphic and it is rarely random in terms of dimension and proportion, you just could not build a model that would successfully create this kind of effect. 2D can be so amorphous. Love that. I could go on and on, but I will let the pictures talk and shut my fat mouth.

Microbes and Monsters

Here are some sketches for a for a old pitch. Still like the idea and just have to redevelop it someday. It was originally called "Dew Dropolis" and was about the adventures of three single celled animals in a single drop of water.

Winter Man Animation

Still Frame

The sequence below is pretty quick but it still represents the most involve "vector art" animation I have ever attempted. Sorry it is a bit hard to read in this web video.

Is 2D dead?

No, it's just starting over. It's a whole new animation world out there. The days of inking and painting cels are gone, and that is not a horrible thing. Cels were extremely difficult to work with, organize, and keep clean. I was lucky to have some remarkable people working for me over the years, thank you, oh powerful universe. Knock Knock could produce some very innovative styles even with the limitations of an acetate world. Todd Myers and David Fedan were master inkers, Bev Chiara, one hell of a cel painter. All those talents are still valuable, but there are thousands of styles to be explored now due to that digital thing that seems to be happening everywhere. The digital age that gave birth to 3D animation, that has changed photography forever, and that has now changed 2D production as well. 3D had to innovate since it's inception and now it is 2D's turn. Programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects are all getting more sophisticated. It would have been impossible to create the image above in cel work. Well, maybe not impossible but would have been a huge pain in the ass. It probably would have taken most of the day instead of ten minutes. As 2D artists, we must continue to innovate, create new images and styles , we are at the beginning of a whole new art form and even though old production techniques still have some value, we now have the tools to finish without limitation.