The Bunyip Festival

It is said that hidden away on the island in the middle of Lake Lorne, there lives a Bunyip.



Though he is a friendly Bunyip he only comes out once a year, because he's a bit of a hermit like that.
And so, every year, he walks from Lake Lorne, through the town of Drysdale, to one of the local schools.



This is what I grew up with. For the first four years of my schooling I went to Drysdale Primary school, where every year we'd join with Clifton Springs Primary School and have a great big fundraiser. And those photos above are actually the main street of Drysdale. Those painted 'footmarks' have been commonplace in that town since before I can remember. The Bunyip's right up there with the Easter Bunny or Santa down in good ol' 3222. It seemed a lot cooler growing up, but according to Mum it was.

But it's great, and I still enjoy it. There's cake stalls, a silent auction, bouncy castle rides, go carts. The local fire brigade come along and let kids wear the helmets and put on the sirens. It's great fun!



And let's not forget the all important sausage sizzle!



Best of all, you get to MEET the BUNYIP!



That's me on the left with the Bunyip, and Mum on the right with the Bunyip.
Truth be told, it's usually a grade six kid dressed up in there, but the whole thing is great fun!

Oh, and it's not the full Bunyip festival experience if you don't get your teeth stuck together with toffee from the cakes stall.



Anyway, that was my Saturday morning.
Hope everyone had a great weekend,
-Daniel

High Distinction

Heya everyone,
Sorry for the sudden lack of blog updates. I got a bit sick for a while there and everything came to a stop. Stupid virus...
But, am much better now and back at work.

Bit of a lunchtime illustration. Someone I know made a hip-thrust gesture while expressing her confidence of a High Distinction she's hoping to get at uni. (you know who you are...) Thought it'd be a a fun drawing to get back in the swing of things.



Anyways, hoping to get back into Illustration Friday and get to cleaning up that animation I'm working on so more posts to come soon.
Hope everyone's having a great Friday,
Weekend ahoy!
-Daniel

Bike animation - WIP 1

Hey there everyone,
Here's an update on that animation I talked about a while ago.



I thought it'd be a fun exercise to see how complex and refined I could get a shot of frame-by-frame animation without the constrains of deadlines and the inevitable 'eh, close enough. Onto the next...'

This is the finished rough layer. I've found I've been slightly adjusting timing and poses as I clean up, but this is what I've been working off. O, and don't worry. They aren't nekid or bald. Details like that come in the Cleanup stage.

I must admit that I cheated a bit in that I started cleaning up before the last part of this was roughed out. And as it is I've deliberately put in blank keyframes near the end because a) I find doing too many in-betweens in the rough stage leads to disasters of my own doing; and b) leaving them as holds makes the flickering clash with the other character layer.

I've been slowly working on this since between Christmas and New Years, and am liking my progress. I've cleaned-up the key poses up to the bit where the girl is thrown upwards, and've already discovered some things I'll need to work on in the future. Proportions being the main one.

But, it's all a learning process, and as I said I am happy with how it's turning out. (Though haven't yet decided whether I'll leave it on two's or die a thousand deaths and do it on ones... hrmmm, decisions)

Anyways, I hope everyone's evening is being a splendid one,
and may your immediate proximity be filled with scrumptiousness,
-Daniel

Geeking out

Christopher Lloyd is coming to Melbourne for Supernova and as a big BTTF fan, I'm sporadically geeking out about it as the date draws nearer.

So, I totally got my geek on this weekend and made a couple of time-travel t-shirts by cutting up large iron on sports numbers.

On the left is the Flux Capacitor from Back to the Future and on the right is the Season 5 Dr Who logo.


I'm definitely going to wear my Flux Capacitor T for one of the days.
I'm just hoping I don't freak out too much or loose my (already pretty hindered) ability to speak if I get to meet him.

Back to the Future has definitely imprinted a LOVE of time travel in me. To the point where I'm a little ashamed to have never watched any Dr Who until last year (thankyou ABC iview!).
I've watched all the new seasons, and have some old episodes waiting to be consumed, and am LOVING it!

Okay, I'm gonna stop now.
Need to tone it down for work tomorrow. Don't wanna push being the office eccentric any more than I have.
Hope everyone has a terrific Monday and a funderful week!
-Daniel

*Edit: Oh, and I know the Dr Who T should've been more of a TARDIS blue, but Best & Less didn't have any XL's left in that color, so I had to settle for navy. That said, 2 shirts for $15! Awesome!

The Little Johnny Movie

Heya everyone,
From August through November of last year I had the great opportunity to animate on the Little Johnny Movie!

(Heads up. The trailer's NSFW)


To quote the website:
"Produced by Instinct Entertainment in association with Studio Moshi, 'Little Johnny The Movie’ celebrates the wrongest jokes ever told. It‘s a coming of age story that’s brimming with irreverent humour, larger-than-life characters, and crackling action to boot!"

It'll be screening throughout the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this April and I'm super excited to see it all together on the big screen. All the ticket info can be found here.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend,
-Daniel

IF: Swarm

My submission for Illustration Friday. Theme - Swarm



Yay! as many poorly drawn spaceships as I could think of!
Totaly not an eco-message. Just a fan of grumpy planets. :)
(My apologies to Star Wars, Star Treck and Firefly fans. Especially the ones who can tell what some of those blobs were meant to be.)
Hope everyones having a marvelous Tuesday,
-Daniel