webbot15

Nerd Trivia Relex

2012-01-12T10:51:00.001+11:00

Hey everyone,

Been cleaning out and packing up my apartment and found this that I never posted...

Yup. I'm sure we've all done it.

This was from an actually situation back at the banner ad place. I finished up there at the end of last year and have some very very VERY exciting stuff lined up for this year. Hence the packing of the apartment.

Sorry, I will tell you soon. I honestly will. I just feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment and...
Just, don't worry. I'll tell you soon.

Hope you're all having a great day,

-Daniel

Happy 2012! (Or: what happened to you doing something a day for December?)

2012-01-05T21:34:00.000+11:00

Hey everyone,

Welp, guess it goes without saying that I, in fact, did NOT complete a post for every day of December.
I made 18 posts and then... well.. stopped.

OH! Happy new year, by the way! It being 2012 now 'n' all. Hope everyone hand a splendid Christmas/Holiday/End of year break/Whatever. It being summer here the wether went really blisteringly rubbish for a couple of days, but it's quite pleasant now.

Oh, I got an iPhone recently. As a christmas/going away present to myself.

I did a terrible thing to it though...

I installed Garageband onto it...

And then this happened... In all it's multitrack reverb-heavy stereophonic goodness...

Dream a little Dream of me - original by Mamma Cass

So yeah... that's me singing (I call it singing because that what it most resembles) and playing the uke.

There's also a feature that lets you have the audio run through a virtual amp, so my uke sounded like an electric guitar for parts.

Anywhoosle, I'm going to try for some sort of regularity to posting, but it seems every time I define a timeframe it all falls apart.

So yeah, expect stuff, but don't expect when. But soon. Hopefully...

Hope you're all having a great day,

-Daniel

Dec Daily 18 - Swamp Molusk

2011-12-20T23:46:00.001+11:00

Okay, I'm totally cheating on this one, but I can't stay up any longer. This is a mocumentary I made back at university. This was made back in 2007 if I recall. It follows the trials of the rare (and suspicioulys basketball looking) Swamp Mollusk.

Wow... I forgot how prevalent 3:4 aspect ratio was back then... And how crappy the upload was.
And yes, that is me trying to sound like David Attenborough/Stephen Fry.
...sooo very tired....

I give up. This is all I have tonight,
Have a great tomorrow everyone,
-Daniel

Dec Daily 17 - Space-Gal 3

2011-12-20T22:34:00.000+11:00

Seriously, just don't mess with her.

Gonna leave work for home. Fingers crossed for another post form there because I have my laptop back!

...uuurrrggg... sooo tired...

-Daniel

Dec Daily 16 - Dropping the Ball

2011-12-20T19:40:00.000+11:00

...

I think the thing I find hardest about drawing any sort of comic is that as an animator you'd have dozens of frames to show actions or impacts, even changes in gesture during dialogue. In comics you get one drawing. That's it.
I think I needed to show the ball in contact with my face... or maybe not have the ball flying towards me at all... maybe... I dunno. Practice makes perfect.

So yeah. I've well and truly dropped the ball on this Daily December thing. Between work suddenly going mental and everything else going even more mental (not to mention Christmas) it's just been a bit impossible for me.

But I'll do you a deal. It's 7:30 pm and I'm currently still at work. For every job I finish tonight, I'll also do a blog post.

Regardless of if I make it to 20 or not before midnight, after this I'm gonna consider my Daily December challenge 'up to date'.

Catch you in an hour or two,

-Daniel

Dec Daily 15 - Dino Sketches

2011-12-16T17:17:00.001+11:00

Heya everyone,

Just some dino sketches today... Pencil and some photoshop.

I missed yesterday's post sorry. I will catch up.

Stuff is happening. BIG stuff. Kinda nervous to talk too much aboot it at this point but all going well, I'll let you know soon.

May this Friday vomit awesome and fantastic-ness upon you

-Daniel

*Edit - oh, and Laptop's still outta commission. Really getting angry about it now. Hopefully get it back by monday

Dec Daily 14 - woah

2011-12-14T18:45:00.001+11:00

whoah...

to be continued...

Dec Daily 13 - SpaceGal... again

2011-12-13T19:39:00.002+11:00

Hello again!

Officially up to date now!

SpaceGal again, this time made pretty with colors and inks and stuff.

Don't know her name yet, but I'm quite comfortable with the 'Gal' in her title.

Because she has Sass. It doesn't show but she'd totally slap you upside the head with her sass.

Laptop is still getting fixed though... Apparently the logicboard is at the store they just need to install it.
Fingers crossed for getting it back tomorrow...

Hope everyone's Tuesday was swell,
-Daniel

Dec Daily 12 - SpaceGal

2011-12-13T13:28:00.001+11:00

Hey howdy hey,

So, the plan is: A blog post now AND a blog post after work to make up for missing Sunday

It's SpaceGal. Fixing stuff in space. Stuff that should work, but ins't by the look of it.

Hope you're all having a fantastic Tuesday,

-Daniel

Dec Daily 11 - Tricera-skates

2011-12-12T17:33:00.001+11:00

Super quick today guys, I'm meeting a friend for dinner

It's a girl riding a triceratops on rollerskates.

Pencil, paper and whatever colored connector pens I could find on my desk.
And don't worry, I still haven't forgotten about yesterday's missing post. I'll make it up soon.
Have a great day,
-Daniel

Dec Daily 10 - Limericks

2011-12-10T13:09:00.001+11:00

Heya all!
I found an internet cafe near home, but alas, have no visuals to post.
...well, that's not entirely true. See I made a video last night of me singing with the intention of posting that, but it's so very terrible that I decided against it.
Instead, for today's post, I'll give you a limerick:

A cupcacke was found on the floor,

of a room that housed a large boar.

T'was sprinkly and pink,

But boy did it stink,

As it's filling was meaty and raw.

The Boar was crazy indeed,

It thought itself as a steed,

It'd gallop around,

Its mane combed and bound,

and only on dice would it feed.

...riiiiigh...
Marginally better than a video of me singing, but if I don't have anything better for tomorrow I may have to resort to the video.

We'll see...
Hope everyone's having a great weekend,
-Daniel

Dec Daily 9 - Green Green Green

2011-12-09T17:20:00.001+11:00

Happy Friday!

A quick sketch done on the back of some banner amends at work.

I've found a really nice brand of pencils for roughs. (link)

They're big and fat like my wacom stylus and they're designed not to have the lead inside shatter if they live in the bottom of your bag. Also, it's fun to choose different colors to rough in.

Sorry for the huge swings in post quality but I'm just a but on the flat side today. Probably because I stayed at work till 10:30 last night finishing yesterdays post.

Maybe...

And my laptop's still not back... so weekend posts'll be interesting...
If I had any foresight I'd've done extras and time delayed them. But that would require organisation. Something I very rarely have.

Anyways, have an awesome weekend!

-Daniel

Dec Daily 8 -The Siblings Shanahan

2011-12-08T21:35:00.000+11:00

Hey there Dudes and Dudettes,
Today's illustration is...

Katie and Steven (Shaggy) Shanahan are barrel loads of awesome. Katies Webcomic Shurb Monkeys is fantastically funny, as is Shaggy's Talking to the Camera.

Sounding familiar? This is probably because back in July I posted about their kickstarter project Silly Kingdom. Welp, it's now 5 months later and the comic has not only been made, but made awesome.

Check it out.

These guys do amazing work. I could go on and on about how inspiring they are.

Oh, here's the original scan with photoshop scribbling over the top. Originally it was going to have a big evil u-stream chat thing in the background, but I couldn't get it to work.

The above was then inked in Flash and colored in Photoshop.

That's me for today,

Hope you've all had a super day,

-Daniel

Dec Daily 7 - Zoetrope

2011-12-07T12:48:00.001+11:00

Hi Diddly dee,
As mentioned before my laptop's getting fixed, so I've had to find alternative ways to animate.

Made from a bin from officeworks suspended from my microphone stand by an old shoelace. And because I used a whiteboard marker I can re-use it.
The great thing is that not only does the bin have the slits pre-made, it also allows for exactly for a 16 frame loop.
Hope everyone's having a great day,
-Daniel

Dec Daily 6 - Me, pretty much

2011-12-06T17:03:00.001+11:00

Hey howdey hey,
Just a quick one tonight. Sketched up uickly before I leave work as I'm going to watch Student Films at the Astor tonight.

Self portrait of my looking rather blankly at my work computer.
Only a couple more posts till I've posted 100 times!
Hope you all're having a splendid week thus far,
-Daniel

Dec Daily 5 - DINOSAURUS

2011-12-05T19:21:00.001+11:00

Afternoon awesome guys 'n' gals,
Looks like I'll be posting from work over the next few days (week tops) as my poor overworked laptop is off getting diagnosed and such.
Poor sick li'll thing... :(

Anyways, today I bring you... A DINOSAURUS!

The plan as it stands is for myself and Miss Marta Tesoro to get ourselves a table at next years Melbourne Supernova.
Currently, I have no actual plan as to what wears I'll be peddling, but was thinking of doing a series of illustrations on a theme or something, so I asked someone who always has a cool and interesting answer. Daniel aged 8-12.
And what did Daniel aged 8-12 say? Dinosaurs, Magnets, Outer Space and Volcanoes. So at this point, I think I'll make a book or something for him.
And you know, I think he'd like the above picture.
Catch you all on the morrow,
Have a good one,
-Daniel

Dev Daily 4 - Curves and Braddock

2011-12-04T23:30:00.001+11:00

Hey Howdey Hey,
Quick plug before today's illustration.
A friend of mine David Blumenstien has turned his weekly comic Showman? The Bret Braddock Adventures into a trailer for Movie Extra WebFest (whose prize is $100,000 to make a webseries).
It's a tale of a man with more money than sense trying to make a kids show.
...Then less money than he promised.
A bunch of us pitched in with animation and backgrounds and I also had the great opportunity to voice one of the characters.

Head over and check it out.
It'd be awesome if you could vote for it too. The Bret Braddock Adventures

Today's drawing was an attempt at drawing a curvier woman. It was pointed out to me that all the females I draw have a very similar body type, so I though I'd try drawing someone a bit hippier.

I'm happy with it as an illustration, though again I think she turned out very similar to what I usually draw.
Hope everyone's had a great weekend,
Catch you tomorrow,
-Daniel

Dec Daily 3 - A crazy couple of days

2011-12-03T23:59:00.000+11:00

Heya everyone,
Sorry this post is a tad very late. It's been a bit mental since yesterday morning...

It's all still a bit of a jumble but the main points seem to include dancing to almost collapse, cardboard constructed battle armour, lawn bowls, bowties, car boots and ukelele playing.
...yeah, that sounds right.

It was wonderful catching up with so many old friends, and singing on public transport with new ones. Drinking and bowling with work colleges, and daggy dancing and singing yourself hoarse with your family.

Sorry if my clarity's off. It's almost four in the morning.
And as much as I would've loved to've gone to that warhouse party, I honestly don't think my aching head would've made it very fun. Also I would've been far too worried about someone getting hurt in the boot of the car. I could think of nothing worse than something like that going wrong.
oooookaaaay... sleep time. Definitely.
Catch you later today for more fun and excitement!
-Daniel

Dec Daily 2 - Sir Robot Pants

2011-12-02T10:04:00.001+11:00

Morning all,
My sleeping patterns have become non existent, so I've taken to sleeping next to the window and leaving it open all night. It seems to be tricking my body into thinking I'm camping, so I'm waking up refreshed at the first light of dawn.
Better than not at all I suppose.

Anyways, I got to work crazy early and this is what popped into my head.

In other news, my awesome little brother is graduating tonight from Highschool. Pretty much any time you've heard drumming in anything song related I've done. It's him.
Hope you're all having a splendid Friday,
-Daniel

Dec Daily 1 - Mandrake

2011-12-01T22:45:00.001+11:00

Well hey there!Day one of doing a post a day for December.Tonight I saw Dr Strangelove for the fist time. With the Astor Cinema less than walking distance from my apartment I now no longer have an excuse not to've seen such films.

My favourite character was Captain Lionel Mandrake of the RAF. He was bewildered, but not stupid, and I really liked that.

Plus he had a fantastic mo. I mean COME ON! That mo was amazing!
Well, I seem to be off on a rolling start,
let's see how tomorrow goes, shall we...
G'night everyone,
-Daniel

Pollenatin 'n' Penetratin'

2011-11-30T16:46:00.001+11:00

Hey howdey hey!
This month, Loop De Loop teamed up with YEAH (Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS) and celebrated with the theme of Condoms. This is my submission. A musical Public Service Announcement about the benefits of wearing a condom. It has sock puppets, awkward pauses and references to 'junk'.

And yes, I both wrote and sung the song. The drummer from Rise from Ruin was kind enough let me record his drumming for this. Also, he's my little brother, so I would've told on him to Mum if he didn't.

In similarly related news, it's Spring. And the trees near my apartment are spreading their seed.

In other other news, I'll be attempting a blog post every day for the month of December. Whether it be a drawing or animation or something else, I don't know. But it'll be something.
Hope you're all having a grand day,
-Daniel

Scribbles, Ukulele and a LOT of text

2011-11-06T02:23:00.002+11:00

I've just come back from watching the Back to the Future Trilogy on the big screen. And as well as revelling in how arse-kickingly awesome those movies are (Seriously, Robert Zemekis used to make cinema. Unlike the whatever it is he tries to make now), it really took me back to the childhood roots of who I am. (This is gonna be a text heavy flashback, so feel free to scroll down to the pictures and video. Seriously, don't feel bad. I'm guilty of it too.)

Growing up the chubby asthmatic kid I was (and continue to be) I wanted to be Doctor Emmett L. Brown. He made soooo many cool things out of his garage and was always so enthusiastic about everything. He could do anything, and science was his tools to creation.In grade three I was rocking up to school with solar kits and crystal radio sets, by grade six I'd fixed and revamped a rotary style phone in a classy classy wooden box case. And who has two thumbs and used to sit behind the portables tinkering with a radio he disassembled and re-assembled into his lunchbox? Yo...

Oh it was great fun. I even went on a two day science camp thing in year nine where we learned about robots and made borax based slime (No more crummy cornstarch based gunk for us!) Then something interesting happened. All the while as I'd been sciencing it up I'd been drawing and doodling and at some point I realised a fantastic truth. Leaving it on paper is SO much easier than actually making it work. Even looking back at it now, animating a frog turning into a hair-dryer is infinitely simpler than getting ti to happen with science. Even on ONES it's be easier.

Long story short, Back to the Future I, II and II plus laziness equals the animator you see today. Oh, here's a sketch dump before I bury you in text again.

I dunno... I guess I've been thinking a lot about myself lately. As it turns out I've been making banner ads for a full year now and the void of creativity that comes with it has been taking its toll. A fantastically wise person pointed out to me recently that I brighten up when I talk about animation, and I do. I really do. The high point of my Friday at work was when one of my colleagues who's recently become a dad didn't know what the 'ladybugs picnic' animation from sesame street was. At which point I found a link to it, wrote a short speil on Bud Luckey and concluded the email with a link to Pixar's Boundin'. (which he also did)

Following that high I (well, once work ended) I rode around until I was good and lost, found a park and recorded the following:

Uke's bring their own sunshine to things. I've been practising a lot more lately, especially walking up and down Chapel Street.Anyways, my venting seems to be loosing momentum and direction. Both very good things for a vent to loose. I'll end tonight with an image I've had on my drive for a while now. When I first made this I was too scared to post it anywhere, not for fear of criticism, but for darker and more ridiculous reasons. Reasons that've been ranted about enough in other forums.Enjoy that those reasons are gone! I certainly do :D

Hope everyone's having a great weekend,I promise, next post'll be back to regular scribbly drivel.-Daniel

Monster Loop

2011-10-18T00:08:00.000+11:00

Hey howdey hey!So this is my loop for Loop de Loops theme of 'Monsters'. This theme was probably about two or three months ago... sorry. Just hadn't had a chance to upload it.Voices kindly donated my my brother and his girlfriend.
Actually, while I've got you here, my little brother is a wicked awesome drummer. He's helped me out a couple of times with drumming for my animations and such. here and here are good examples.
Well his band recently recorded an ep: http://risefromruin.bandcamp.com/ It rocks pretty hard. You should check them out :D
Hope everyone's having a great start to the week!
-Daniel

You can't waste a perfectly good beard #4

2011-10-13T00:27:00.003+11:00

Heya everyone,
Sorry for the lack of blog updates for the past...month...
Things've been really hectic and I'm only now just reclaiming my life.
Quick rundown of the past 20-ish days: I've moved out of home and into an awesome shoebox in the middle of the city, I'm in the middle of learning new songs on the Ukulele (going as far as trying to put steel strings on a uke. It sounds awesome!) and I'm animating on a kick arse pilot (outside of regular boring/regular-income work)

Oh, and I also grew and shaved off my beard. Which brings us tooooo...

You can't waste a perfectly good beard, Video number 4!

Shot on a Canon 1100 DSLR. Audio recorded on a Behringer Podcasting kit hooked up to Audacity.
Had some real fun adding extra layers of sound effects and actually replacing the whole middle sections audio from scratch. (bathroom fan was on...)

I still haven't posted my animated monster loop from two months ago, so expect that soon. Also spooky loop'll be coming up soon, as well as video's of me covering songs (hopefully well, possibly badly) Also, now that I have my own place, I should get to draw a lot more.

Anyways it's about time for bed.
Hope everyone's having a truly fantastic week!
-Daniel

Work Sketches

2011-08-17T12:57:00.002+10:00

Between banners by day and animating by night, I've kinda neglected my blog a bit.
Also sleep. Been neglecting sleep.

Here are some sketches I've got up at work done between searching the server for fonts and restarting Flash.

Hopefully I'm falling back on track and'll be posting more stuff soon.
...ish...

Hope you're all having a great Wednesday,
-Daniel

Purple girl

2011-07-22T12:00:00.001+10:00

Had a bit of a play with this one. Originally a full body inked sketch I did a LOT of tweaking and cropping in photoshop.
Also tried to choose colors I usually wouldn't. Purples are not colors I usually default to, and I found it really hard not to make her hair a more natural red and her top a green or blue.

Because I only posted yesterday, I'm gonna try and time delay this...

...>tinkering noises<....

Okay, in theory, this should post at 12:00 on Friday (Melbourne time) FIngers crossed.
Hope everyone's having a great day!
-Daniel

Space and Dinosaurs!

2011-07-19T12:36:00.002+10:00

Got a bit sick of colors so today's post is coming at you in greayscale.
It only just occurred to me that a better common factor could've been Space-Dinosaurs.
...one can only dream...

Have a great Tuesday everyone!
-Daniel

People doing awesome things who need our help

2011-07-17T07:58:00.007+10:00

Heya Everyone,
I've got some more sketches and animation coming but I thought I'd plug some really cool projects.

Silly Kingdom at Comic-Con

Brother and sister team Katie and Shaggy Shanahan have been collaborating on comics for a while now, and they rock at it.
People who know me has probably hear me talk about them at least once before. I couldn't decide on a favourite stip to show you, but here's an idea of the wonderfulness that is Shrub Monkeys

Well, they're currently in the process of making a new comic and are launching it at San Diago Comic con and are raising funds (and dishing out swell perks) over at their IndieGoGo page.

Andrew Davies: Run Melbourne for Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is the only specialist cancer hospital in Australia. It also houses the largest cancer research group in the country.

Andrew is doing a truly special thing here by doing a 10km run for this cause. It'd be great to help him get to his target of $1,000. Every little bit helps.
His fundraising page can be found here

SMBC Theatre Goes to Space!

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) is a daily comic by Zac Weiner and Weekly video(SMBC Theatre).

These videos are hilarious and what they come up with every week with no budget is fantastic.
They've started a Kickstarter page so they can create a fully fleshed out web series, SMBC Theatre Goes to Space.

Request 4: hello kitty jesus with slaughter mandibles and diamond exoskeleton

2011-07-09T11:20:00.001+10:00

Request Number 4 for Sebastian Berto: hello kitty jesus with slaughter mandibles and diamond exoskeleton.

Just a quick upload today since my laptop is dying. Badly dying... Sporadic shutdowns kinda dying.
Hope everyone's having a great weekend,
-Daniel

Request 3:Zombie Jesus

2011-06-30T14:44:00.000+10:00

Request number three for Allira Ebony: Zombie Jesus!

I've found I need to look into something that's between a fineliner and a sharpie. Something that lays down a bit of ink too...

For the fun of it I tried roughing out in colored pencil and inking straight over the top (with afore mentioned fineliner and sharpies). I went a bit overboard with the border, but it was fun getting the nice effect with a super thick, slightly running out sharpie. gives it a nice texture.

Removed the blue with photoshop after scanning. ...and you can see the old arm that wasn't working well. Not a strong enough silhouette.

Hope everyone's having a great Thursday,
Don't let the lightning bugs into your harddrives,
-Daniel

Youth animation, scribbles, and why I haven't done those requests...

2011-06-24T16:45:00.004+10:00

So, sorry for the lack of...well, everything, but I've been super busy the past few weeks.

Firstly, I was hired by 'Committee for Geelong' to make some short animations for a presentation relating to a project for helping out youths with troubled upbringings.

It's not the usual tone I work with, but I think it worked out pretty well for the timeframe I had. It was really interesting making something dramatic. The music track is 'A Time To Mourn' by Charles Schlacter from royaltyfreemusiclibrary.com.

Also I've been flat chat animating on a pilot, which has been super dooper fun!

...and I know I haven't gotten to the rest of those drawing requests, but I'm getting to them! Really I am.
I just need to sleep a bit first...

in the meantime, here's a couple of sketches I scribbled.

Hope everyone's having a great night,
-Daniel

Request 2: Vegetarian Meeting

2011-06-01T22:28:00.005+10:00

Request number two for Sandra Chiang: yeah i want a rotten onion man meeting cherry radish lady, please!

Had a lot of fun tweaking the colors with this one. Getting a nice balance of pastels and textures 'n' stuff.
And yes, I've decided to do them in the order they were requested, though I've gone through and rough sketched/thumbnailed all of them in some way shape or form.

Anyways, should probably get some sleep, or something like it.
Hope you had a great Wednesday, and catch you all soon,
-Daniel

Request 1: Evil Panda II

2011-05-30T23:58:00.007+10:00

Request 1 is done! eleven more to go.

Michael Lombardi: "Draw you and me reunited at last...in battle against an evil panda bear in a funny hat"

Okay so the image doesn't show us currently in battle with the panda, But it's a movie poster so it infers that the movie is about us battling the panda. Don't know why our weapons of choice are cutlery (or why/how this is a sequel), all I know is THAT DAMN PANDA STOLE THE FANCY HAT! And we're out to seek justice!

Hope everyone's had a great Monday,
Tomorrow night, Loop screening at loop bar!
-Daniel

Rocketeer and requests

2011-05-27T18:50:00.003+10:00

This week's been like a dream. More specifically: it's been like I wasn't sure if I was asleep for most of it and I've come out of it feeling confused. Yup, dreams are like that. But guess what!?
ANIMATION ENSUED!

This is my submissions for Loop-de-loop, a monthly animation challenge. A rocketeer and his not so carbon neutral traveling accomplice.

I'm really happy with how this turned out. The run cycle has a bit of sloppiness to it (mostly because the legs change proportion I think) but it was my first real attempt at blasts of fire, which I think turned out pretty well. And thank to my little brother, Chris, for his awesome drumming.
It'll be screening at the loop bar next Tuesday as part of Loop-de-loop. For more details just follow the link back up above the video.

And in an effort to draw more, I've recently taken on some requests. Below is the list and I'll be posting them here as I does 'em.
Which'll be much easier now that my loop is outta the way :P

• Michael Lombardi Draw you and me reunited at last...in battle against an evil panda bear in a funny hat
• Sandra Chiang: yeah i want a rotten onion man meeting cherry radish lady, please!
• Allira Ebony: Zombie Jesus!
• Sebastian Berto :hello kitty jesus with slaughter mandibles and diamond exoskeleton
• Jc Reyes: draw little johnny actaully being funny..... take that!
• Timothy Merks: a giant overweight man being chased by a little leprechaun
• Ben Grimshaw: a voltron-like character fighting a giant grandma, on a volcanic planet
• Pol Sigerson: a live squid coming out of a plastic bag in zero gravity.
• Aaron Burton: you stalking the original Where's Wally in a bid to replace him
• Nicholas Lynn: "A man who ponders life in a world with space dinosaurs"
• Lana Hampson: Rod dancing
• Ben McEwen: Draw yourself drawing Grimshaw drawing Marta drawing you...

So yeah. Expect more stuff to come.
Hope everyone's had a great week and will ave a truly spectacular weekend.
-Daniel

(This blog post was brought to you by the Geelong regional railway station. Think nowhere, Think Geelong)

Animal-Hair

2011-05-22T17:28:00.002+10:00

Donated plasma yesterday, and did some sketching to keep myself from falling asleep. Something about having blood removed from your body, run through a centrifuge, then run back into your body four or five times makes me kinda sleepy.

Girls with animals for hair. They're not wigs, it's more of a symbiotic relationship.

Also in there is the little symbol from the monitor for 'blood coming out' and 'blood returning'.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend,
-Daniel

Fred

2011-05-18T18:08:00.005+10:00

So Seth MacFarlane now has the rights to rehash the Flintstones the other day, and the facebook-space and twitter-verse exploded into an animation fuelled gastric upset of recoil and shudderment. (I may be exadurating a little...)

That is until the ever wise Aaron said "instead of complaining about a reboot of a classic, I thought, well how would I do it? Any sketchy pals want to have a go at The Flintstones redo too?"

So this is my go at it:

Hope everyone's having a magical Wednesday afternoon,
-Daniel

Kid-eating Horse

2011-05-14T17:26:00.006+10:00

Heya everyone,
Long time between posts, I know...

Here's just a quick flash sketch of a kid-eating horse suggested by Marta...

Not to be confused with a kid eating horse...

I'm in the process of making a loop for the new LoopDeLoop, but we'll see...
Hope everyone's having a great weekend,
-Daniel

Copics, you say...

2011-04-16T23:06:00.002+10:00

I decided to try out copics (or at least, some markers that I presumed were copics). I've never really used them before, but I kinda like the way you can color with them without it being to streaky. Still used a fineliner for the detailed bits.

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Kinda ran outta go for a while there.
But I'm hoping to get back into it.
Hope everyone's having a great weekend,
-Daniel

The Bunyip Festival

2011-03-29T00:46:00.004+11:00

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

2011-03-25T13:05:00.003+11:00

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

2011-03-08T18:15:00.004+11:00

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

2011-03-06T20:43:00.006+11:00

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

2011-03-02T22:54:00.006+11:00

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

2011-03-01T13:00:00.004+11:00

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

At the moment

2011-02-21T09:51:00.000+11:00

Hey everyone,
Hope you all had a great weekend 'n' stuff.
This is something I finished a while ago, but couldn't show you because the site wasn't live.
Where I'm currently working, I was asked to create a short animation sort of detailing the process we go through to make web banner ads. (my job is essentially the guy in the blue)

You can watch it here as it's an embedded .swf.

So yeah. Though I it took a while to finish, I didn't have much time to do it as the banners were the priority, hence there's a LOT of reuse and the characters switch between frame by frame and tween every now and again. But it was fun! And got to more or less board the whole thing up myself.

Molto bene lunedi per tutti, and I hope you all have a great Monday.
Good luck for the week,
-Daniel

Cavegirl

2011-02-18T21:23:00.001+11:00

A cavegirl has joined the mammoth in the bathroom at work.

Happy Friday everyone, possibly the best day of the week!
-Daniel

IF: Sweater

2011-02-18T07:34:00.002+11:00

My submission for Illustration Friday. Theme - Sweater

Happy Friday everyone!
May your chores be few and your chillaxing be fantastic.
-Daniel

Office Extras

2011-02-17T13:06:00.005+11:00

Hey everyone,
Thought I'd post some of the stuff I've put up around my computer at work.

Ella Spork. Made from a spork, paper, fineliner and whiteout.

Ah yeah... I seem unable to resist finished toilet rolls now... There's just so much potential!
This is a toiletpaper mammoth. He has no ears 'cause he's all about doin', not listnin'!

Hope everyone's having a grand Thor's day,
-Daniel

IF: Reverse

2011-02-10T20:46:00.003+11:00

My submission for Illustration Friday. Theme - Reverse

Okay, so for whatever reason, I thought this weeks theme was 'Rewind'. So I started making the following comic based on that theme...
But then I saw a submission, and realised I was very much mistaken...
So yeah, this is the would-be-submission for the imagined theme of 'rewind'!

Tonights blog update comes to you from Beav's Bar in Geelong.
The vibe is great, the staff are friendly, but most importantly the music is AWESOME!!!
I've been here for about half an hour and I've heard 'jeremiah was a bullfrog', "sugar sugar, by the archies" and am currently listening to "10cc - Deadlock holiday". If it were any closer to my iTunes library, the next song'd be 'walking on sunshine' or the theme to dogstar.

Happy Thursday to all, and to all a good Cider!
-Daniel

(edit: The next song was Dizzy, by Tommy Roe! Sweet!)

Pen Hair-clips

2011-02-08T12:59:00.002+11:00

I'm in dire need of a haircut, and've been using pens and sharpies to keep my hair outta my eyes.
Just a quick rough muck around during lunch.

Hope everyone's having a great Tuesday arvo,
-Daniel

(oh, that's not meant to be me, that's meant to be a girl. Though practical, the pens holding my hair back looks a bit creepy on a dude...)

IF: Surrender

2011-02-02T20:28:00.005+11:00

My submission for Illustration Friday. Theme - Surrender

Inspired byt the fact that it was CRAZY HOT yesterday. Almost 40ºC!
Lineart in Flash, color in Photoshop.
Textures leftover from my uni major project.
-Daniel

Morningsworld

2011-01-29T20:32:00.003+11:00

Hey everyone, just a quick post.

I little while ago I was asked to take a photo for a website, All the mornings of the world.

The idea was that on monday, january 24th 2011, at 7:59 am, a whole bunch of people from all over the world took a photo.
This was my contribution. I was on the tram on the way to work, in the rain.

It was really interesting to see the other photographs people took, especially the ones in the same timezone as you.
Here's the link again. Check it out if you have a bit of time. (due to the added hour of daylight savings, mine appears in +11 timezone)
http://www.morningsworld.fr/

Hope everyone's having a great weekend,
-Daniel

Sketch Dump

2011-01-27T13:01:00.004+11:00

Howdey folks,
The portable office that is my backpack was getting a bit heavy, so to lighten the load I've digitised one of the full sketchbooks that was in there. These are the best bits, photoshopped together with textures and shading.

These date from about September through to December of last year, give or take.
Popper posts coming soon,
hope you're having a great Thursday!
-Daniel

IF: Chicken

2011-01-21T12:53:00.002+11:00

My submission for Illustration Friday. Theme - Chicken

Lineart in Flash, color in Photoshop.
Texture from Lost and Taken.
-Daniel

S'not playing

2011-01-19T12:43:00.002+11:00

Quick and tough animation done during lunchtime.
Hope everyone's having a phlegm and mucus free day,
-Daniel

Beard Video 3

2011-01-18T00:01:00.003+11:00

Hey Everyone,
Tracey's coming back from holiday, so I thought removing my face scraggle'd be a good idea.

And now my head hurts, so I'm off to bed.
Should go back and count how many times I slapped myself in the face, but that can wait for another post :)
Hope everyone had a great start to the week,
-Daniel

*Edited using Quicktime Pro and Audacity.

Frame by Frame

2011-01-14T23:43:00.003+11:00

Heya everyone,
Just a quick post about a bit of animation I'm working on.
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 a cleaned up image of one of my favourite frames with the rough underneath.

It's not going to be finished for a while, but I wanted to share anyway. I'm about a third of the way through cleaning up the roughs (of which, the end still needs a bit of work)
At 13 seconds, It may be a bit short to submit to festivals and the like but -shrug- we'll see.

Hope everyone's having a great start to the weekend,
-Daniel

Oh, while I've got you here,
As some of you may or may not know, The state of Queensland here in Australia has been completely devastated by floods.
If you want to help out the relief appeal, you can find the site here.

IF: Deja Vu

2011-01-13T12:10:00.001+11:00

My submission for Illustration Friday. Theme - Deja Vu

I don't know why, but Deja Vu made me think of mustard...
Hope everyone's having a great Thursday,
-Daniel

The Gordon Recognises Geelong Banner Ads!

2011-01-10T22:51:00.003+11:00

A little while ago I did an animation for the Gordon Insitiute of TAFE

Well, they recently asked me to make some banner ads for the The Geelong Advertiser frontpage! They'll be up in all their banner ad-ed-ness from today until the 20th.
I found it exciting!

Coincidently, banner ads are my full time job at the moment. It was kinda funny like that.

Hope everyone's having a great evening,
-Daniel

IF: Resolutions

2011-01-06T23:08:00.003+11:00

Illustration Friday submission for Resolutions.

ahhhh... nothing much like a play on words
And who says the word "Resolutions" for the first week of January has to have implied meanings anyway?

Hope everyone's having a great evening,
I'm gonna try and post more things soon.
-Daniel

Headphone proximity

2010-12-27T21:00:00.002+11:00

Discovered that I can reach the fridge and still have my headphones on!
Can also reach the lightswitch the other side of the fridge if I switch it with my foot, necessity being the mother of invention and all...
Happy tomorrow everyone!
-Daniel

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-27T20:53:00.002+11:00

Merry Christmas! One and all!

Sorry it's a bit late.
I hope everyone had a SPECTACULAR day, full of food, family and fun!
And wrapping paper! Mountains and mountains of the stuff, as far as the eye can see...

All the best,
-Daniel

IF: Mail

2010-12-22T23:21:00.001+11:00

My submission for Illustration Friday. Theme - Mail

Hope everyone's having a great evening,
-Daniel

The Gordon Recognises Geelong Magazine

2010-12-18T10:40:00.003+11:00

Not long ago I made an animated short for The Gordon Institute of Tafe. And they were kind enough to send me a copy of their magazine with stills of it all over the cover!

Also a postcard.

Hope everyone's having a FANTASTIC weekend!
-Daniel

Quick Lunchtime Junk

2010-12-16T14:58:00.003+11:00

...because someone mentioned 'Ray-Gun' and my brain is permanently in pun mode.

Hope everyone's having a great Thursday,
-Daniel

Slowing to a stop...

2010-12-14T13:44:00.003+11:00

Okay, it seems I've well and truly dropped the ball on the Christmas illustration. I'm not sure when I'm going to update it again... hopefully soon.
Also given up on my topfest entry. I'll either start again or not do one because idea I currently have just isn't working.
Hopefully start again... We'll see...

In the meantime, here are some real estate agents. Jon Smith and Jane Doe.
I hear their service is No.1 in their particular suburb, with over something-or-other years combined experience!
WOW!

Hope everyone's having a great day,
-Daniel

IF: Prehistoric

2010-12-10T12:49:00.002+11:00

Quick and dirty submission for Illustration Friday.

It's a Dorcas Clarendon. I go past an intersection of these two streets every day, and all I can think of are Dinosaurs.
May or may not get to add to the Christmas illustration today. Work is super crazy busy.
I'll try though...

Hope everyone's having a great day,
-Daniel

Days of Christmas - Day 9

2010-12-09T23:25:00.001+11:00

Just a quick one today. Installed the oven.

hope everyone's had a great day,
-Daniel

Days of Christmas - Day 8

2010-12-08T13:18:00.001+11:00

A table and plates. Food's getting closer!

you can't really see the plates from far away though...

Hope everyone's having a great day.
-Daniel

Days of Christmas - Day 7

2010-12-07T12:56:00.003+11:00

Not very Christmassy, but a kitchen (eventually) means FOOD! Yummy delicious food!
Though the addition of perspective guides has revealed how terribly off the back wall was.
Also, looks like we haven't seen the last of the kids' home-made decorations. I can only imagine the giant pile of paper scraps left in the wake...

Hope everyone's having a great day,
-Dnaiel

Days of Christmas - Day 6

2010-12-06T13:40:00.002+11:00

Because not all of us feel like getting up early.
I'm finding I'm getting up later and later every year. Based on last year, I'm guessing I'll be up around 7:30 / 8:00.

Yay for .fla files!
Hope everyone's having a nice ease into the week.
Don't go working too hard :D
-Daniel

Days of Christmas - Day 5

2010-12-05T16:40:00.003+11:00

All abord the Christmas ornament express!

I don't know why, but steam trains and Christmas've always gone together in my head.
When I was really little, my parents and I were in a local craft/nick-nack store, and I saw this fantastic christmas plate.
It had a completely decked out Christmas tree with a little town and a train around the base.
I must've picked it up or something, because I somehow managed to drop and break it. My parents were none too impressed with having to buy this broken plate, but mum glued it back together when we got home.

These days it lives on my bookshelf.

Also here's a close up of the passengers. (Just wondering, but who else made clothes peg reindeer at school/kindergarden?)

Hope everyone's having a great Sunday,
-Daniel

Days of Christmas - Day 4

2010-12-04T18:16:00.002+11:00

Happy Saturday everyone. Hope you all got to sleep in and rest and stuff.
The Christmas themed television content has really kicked in at this point. 'The Santa Clause' was on last night. I'm thinking of making a point to watch 'Jingle all the way' this year, just because. And you just KNOW one of the networks'll air it.

I have to be careful how I add to this tomorrow as I left the most current .fla at work on Friday.
I've got Fridays jpeg in there temporarily, but I miss the freedom of shifting stuff to make the composition work better.
Oh well. That'll learn me. ...learn me good... T_T

Hope everyone's having a great evening (and survived todays heat...)
-Daniel

Days of Christmas - Day 3

2010-12-03T12:43:00.002+11:00

A snowman made of sand on a beach with gumnut eyes? Yeah that's right. I went there!
I felt the room needed to be defined, and though I'd LOVE to have a white Christmas, it just doesn't feel right drawing one. Good ol' Southern Hemisphere!

On another note, I'm attempting an animation for Tropfest. Animatic's more or less done (minus sound). I'm just hoping it makes a bit of sense. -shrug-

Hope everyone's having a fantastic Fruh-fruh-Friday!
Weekend Ahoy!
-Daniel

Days of Christmas - Day 2

2010-12-02T12:57:00.002+11:00

There's always that person that can't handle the suspense and just simply HAVE to know what's in EVERY present!
(you know who you are)
Little Suzy couldn't even wait 2 days... dear oh dear...

Hope you're all having a great day,
-Daniel

IF: Savour

2010-12-01T19:38:00.002+11:00

My submission for Illustration Friday. Theme - Savour

Hope everyone's having a great evening
-Daniel

(By the way, photoshop + bus travel = queeeeezy.... guhhhh...)

Days of Christmas - Day 1

2010-12-01T13:00:00.002+11:00

I realised yesterday that it's 24 days 'till Christmas, so I thought I'd start a christmas illustration, and add to it every day leading up to Christmas.

Day one - The tree. Christmas hasn't really begun 'till you've got your tree up. We don't have ours yet though...

Hope everyone's having a great day Wednesday!
-Daniel

Balloon Test

2010-11-30T22:35:00.005+11:00

I've been thinking for a little while now that animating a balloon character would be fun. It'd really let you concentrate on expression and line of movement.
I quickly animated this during lunchtime and did a batch process with photoshop on the balloon layer. Compositing had to wait till after work.

What I found surprisingly emotive was the silly little knot at the end of the balloon.

On a slightly related but kinda not note, the RMIT BA-AIM graduate screening was tonight. (that link is to the graduation of a couple of years back. But you get the idea.)
Holy crap-spackle! Some of the animators coming up through that place have me worried for my future employment.
If I can ever find some of the animations I saw tonight on the internet, you can be sure I'll post them here. There was one where a character fluidly did her makeup and fixed her hair WITH HER FEET! It blew my tiny little mind.

Hope everyone's having a great evening,
-Daniel

Manly

2010-11-29T18:53:00.002+11:00

A friend of mine, Tim Merks, started a bit of a competition to see how manly a poster we could come up with.

This is my manly poster.

A few of you may recognise him. Most of you will not. He's appeared one other time in my work...

...urgg... Issues...

Hope everyone's having a great evening!
-Daniel

The Gordon Recognises Geelong

2010-11-29T18:05:00.005+11:00

Yay! Three weeks of bumpy train travel and food court office space and it's finally done!
I was approached by the Gordon Insitiute of TAFE late October to create a 30-60 second animation promoting getting your skills assessed and certified. The Geelong Advertiser was also a media partner in this endeavour.

It was really fun to get back and do some frame-by-framing, though I forgot how much longer it takes. (and how much more the result is effected by bumpy train travel)
I even had a go at some effects animation!

My little brother helped my out big time by supplying some wicked circus beats for the music (which I butchered with my dodgy half-learned accordion and recorder playing)

You can expect more frequent posts now that this little chestnut is completed.
Hope everyone's having a great evening,
-Daniel

IF: Sneaky

2010-11-23T06:55:00.008+11:00

*Edit: Sorry for the double post on Illustration Friday. One of the links doesn't work. Congratulations on clicking the live one! Hooray!

Like an idiot, I forgot my wacom stylus at home yesterday. So for this weeks Illustration Friday I whacked out the 'ol sketchpad and scrounged up whatever markers I could find in the bottom of my bag on the way home last night.

Each of the colors is a different sheet of paper, because I still wanted to be able to play with the colors and layers in photoshop. The window of the train made an excellent lightbox.

But it didn't make much sence without a background, so I made a couple of extra layers this morning.

She's sneaking all the chocolate out of the firdge.

Hope everyone's had a great start to the week,
-Daniel

Tracey and the cat

2010-11-15T23:06:00.005+11:00

Tracey has a cat. The cat's name is Gil.
He's a very proud cat. Some say looks quite regal.
That's why it was so funny when Tracey glomped him from behind one day. The expression on his face was priceless!

The cat also has a facebook page. Trace's gunning for 40 fans for him (because it's a round number apparently) So go ahead and 'like' him, if you feel so inclined.

IF: Burning

2010-11-14T22:37:00.004+11:00

My submission for Illustration Friday. This week's topic's 'Burning'.
Hope everyone's had a great weekend!
-Daniel

Starry Blanket

2010-11-12T13:39:00.001+11:00

Another lunchtime Kuler themed pic.
Happy Friday everyone! Hope you're weekend're gonna be great!
-Daniel

Tracey cooking Bolognese!

2010-11-09T13:37:00.004+11:00

Another kuler themed illustration.Tracey cooking Bolognese!

Roughed out on the train, finished up at lunch.
Hope everyone's having a great day,
-Daniel

Lightning

2010-11-08T00:28:00.003+11:00

Breaking in my new Wacom Bamboo with a Flash Illustration.

I've just read all the Scott Pilgrim comics (WHICH"RE FRIGGEN AWESOME!) so I think it came outta that.
'Twas also fun to use the 'kuler' extention in CS5. Limited pallets really make you think about how you use color.

The bamboo's not bad. Not as fancy as an intuos, bust still pretty damn good!
Also doubles as a trackpad, which is good since I'm used to my laptop.

Anyhoo...
It's late, and I gots me work later this morning,
Hope everyone's having a good one!
-Daniel

Portrait of Tracey

2010-11-06T08:30:00.004+11:00

A portrait of my sweet wonderful girlfriend, Tracey, based off her current Facebook profile pic.

We've been going out for almost 5 years now (5 years exactly later this month actually) and she's just the greatest!
She was one of the main characters in my first real aniamtion back in highschool, and has been there with me though thick and thin, good and bad, yummy chocolate and the dodgy kind.

She's great, and I love her! Just wanted to say that.

More face de-fuzzying

2010-11-04T22:33:00.004+11:00

I'm trying not to make this blog about my beards, but I accidentally let it grow again.
And then I couldn't NOT try another video thing. But then I couldn't think of anything, so it got bigger....
Bottom line is, I've got a new beard video to share. I think this one looks more discomfortable than the previous.
Discomfortable? Surely that's not a word. -shrug-

BONUS DRIVEL! Me being an idiot in front of the camera! Hooray!

Hope you're all having a great evening,
-Daniel

What is a bicycle?

2010-10-28T19:21:00.003+11:00

As previously mentioned, I've stared a new job.
In the past I've caught metro trains from Southern Cross station to get to work, but as my new work is in South Melbourne I've decided to get in a bit of exercise and make my own way down there by means of the Melbourne Share Bike Things.

They're pretty good. You swipe your card, take a bike, ride it to where you want, dump it at the next station.
The bikes only have 3 gears (which sucks hard!) but besides that they're easy to ride.

What I'm finding difficult, nay HORRIBLE, is navigating Melbourne traffic. Mainly, am I a vehicle or a pedestrian?
Both options seem ridiculous to me.
Between my lack of stamina and my 3 gears, I'm far too slow to compete with cars. Yet surely I'm too fast and cumbersome for the footpath.
...I think I'm rather screwed either way...

Please, if you have any advice or anything, let me know, because my morning and evening commute just became a whole lot scarier.
-Daniel

(On a smaller note, it turns out I can't make it from South Melbourne to Prahran and back in a lunch break)

New job, new desk, new pictures

2010-10-28T19:09:00.003+11:00

Well! What a week it's been so far!
Started my first week at my new job creating banner ads.
I haven't tweened so much text in my hole life! But it's good. The people there are friendly.

There is one thing though...
Maybe it's from years of filling up sketchbooks, but I just can't seem to tolerate large spaces of white. So, in preparation of this upcoming October 31st, I decided to populate my little corner of office space.

Also, my preoccupation with snot, phlegm, mucus and most forms of congestion seems to be continuing.
There's just something intriguing about the way it holds together with itself. It'll stretch and squash, but'll always return back to it's original shape... weird...

Hope you're all having a great evening,
Coming up next; cycling, Melbourne, and the convergence of the two.
-Daniel

DIY Shirt Prints

2010-10-23T17:13:00.009+11:00

I've been meaning for a while to go through some of my old (and slightly grubby) t-shirts and put stuff on the front of them. (to cover the afore mentioned grubby)

The tricky thing is finding something you feel strongly enough about to have plastered on your shirt all day. So this first one is simply the (aproximate) hexadecimal RGB value of the shirt.

After trying to take photos of the shirt and getting an average value and comparing it to the shirt, I ened up taking the value from a character I'm animating at the moment with very similar colored sleeves.
It would've be slightly off due to lighting, shadows, and fading over time anyway.

Because I don't have any screen printing equipment and couldn't be bothered waiting for fabric paint to dry, I used a giant iron-on sprot number from Lincraft and cut it up. For the record, zeros give the most useable surface area.

Wakkaville's going to air!

2010-10-22T00:09:00.004+11:00

big news! Big New!! BIG NEWS!!!
The first show I ever worked on is airing this weekend!
For a while there, it didn't look like it was EVER going to be broadcast... but luckily I was wrong!

For those of you in good ol' Australia, It's airing on Channel 9 at 10:30 this Saturday, right after the Fantastic Dogstar!
And'll hopefully be on every Saturday!
I'm super pumped! A whole heap of super talented people worked on this show and it'll be great to see all our hard work come to fruition.
>squeeeee!<

Hope you're all having a FANTASTIC day/night/whatever!
-Daniel

Weekend Stuff

2010-10-17T00:40:00.002+11:00

Desperately trying to remember to post stuff...

Though it's currently very cold and grey outside, we are most definitely in Spring.
...trust me...

Hope you're all having a great weekend!
Catcha on the flip side!

Three, it's a magic number

2010-10-12T20:06:00.004+11:00

Another "I Love Charts" submission.
The lyrics to Blink Melon's "Three is the Magic Number" graphed and charted out.
Hope you're all having a great evening,
-Daniel

*Edit: I'll do you one better!

Workstation Sketches

2010-10-05T13:59:00.005+11:00

Random Sketches from around my workstation at work.

Vintage Arcade Machine

2010-10-01T14:15:00.002+10:00

A little while back my good friend Christian showed me a bizzare blog of color photographs from 1900 Russia. What the photographer did was take 3 seperate b&W photos, each with either a red, green or blue filter over the lens. These negatives have since been composited together to create beautiful color photos of ye ole Russia! Seriously, check this stuff out.

I couldn't get the ingenuity of it all out of my head, so I tried the same thing (mostly the same thing) using a digital camera, cellophane and our good friend photoshop. This is an out of service arcade machine in the ping-pong room at work.

And these are the 9 layers of photos used to create the image. I ended up only using the three full color photos to control luminosity.

Snot Monster

2010-10-01T09:49:00.003+10:00

My entry for Wacom's 4th Anime/Manga Character Design Contest

There was a spate of colds going around the office at the time, so a Snot Monster seemed appropriate. Also, it quite often felt like there was some huge mass of sentience oozing from your septum.

:D

A time almost forgotten

2010-09-22T23:01:00.008+10:00

Here we are!
I take you back to a time long ago, when VHS tapes ruled the land, and 16:9 was a crazy-mans fantasy.
Not one, not four, but THREE poorly made animations created by myself and my siblings.
And by animations, I mean there's some animation in it... Anyway, you'll see.

I think that background's meant to make it look like a forrest... Also, we worked out we couldn't animate and talk at the same time, so we improvised.

This is my attempt at some serious animation. I think I tried copying the character design from chicken run. Tried...

Probably the most thought out and containing the most animation. Also, an intentional camera move! Crash zoom ahoy!

Hope you're all having a great day/night/inbetween,
-Daniel

Backwards Compatibility

2010-09-19T14:09:00.003+10:00

I'm currently putting together a video for my Sister's 21'st, and this is the setup I've got going to get VHS footage onto my laptop. The video camera in the middle can't actually record onto mini DV tapes anymore, but can still work as a webcam and (fantastically!) can have RCA input and Firewire output simultaneously!
Workarounds are awesome! Anyways, stay tuned as my first ever stop motion is also now captured to digital format, and shall be hitting the interwebs very soon! ',:)
Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend,
-Daniel

In the Jungle

2010-09-15T09:02:00.004+10:00

This was my entry for the Melbourne Animation Club's August theme of jungle.
I was working on this on the morning train to work and one of my fellow regulars was horrified at the ending I chose. I like that the hunter is British, and has a cup of tea ^^,