Saturday, February 09, 2008

Recent Flash animation

Here's some animation I've done recently. I can't seem to get anything other than a mp4 to playback properly in youtube. Any quicktime format that actually looked good would only playback t like 3 frames a sec. I don't know how some people post animation that actually plays back ok with you tube :(. Anyway. Here's the first.






This was a little piece of animation that I did for Chuck Gammage. I had a week to complete it and clean up and color all the backgrounds. It was pretty intense. At the end of it I was working 18 hour days with a 34 hour straight non-stop work marathon at the end of it. I'm afraid that last sc might have suffered because of that. Can you spot which on it was? But it got done on schedule.. Just. The client was showing it at an event the were hosting on a friday at 7. I deliver the final cut to Gammage at4:30 on friday. Just enough time for them to burn a dvd and courier it to the client. Even though it was a tight schedule, I'm glad I did it. I think there's a shot or 2 in there that will make it on my reel. And hell. I basically animated a 1 minute short in a week.







This was a commercial that I animated for Moses Media. They basically gave me the concept and i did the boards and animation. Shout out to my partner in crime Troy Little for painting me a wicked background. it really brought the whole thing together. I wish the compression didn't make the beast look so crappy. He was the high point of this fro me. He's kinda of my homage to every Final Fantasy / rpg I've played. I guess he's my Bahamut / Behemoth :). It was just fun animating all those muscles. And yes.. that's me drawing away in my basement studio at the start. Everybody loved the spot. Even if I did think it looked less like a commercial for a video game course, and more of a spot for an animation course. And then the inevitable happened...






Holland college showed it to some game people who thought it was lame because it wasn't 3-d. Now. Did I think it sold the concept of "come take a course in video gaming"? Not so much. But I didn't think it was "lame". But I guess it's not good unless there's 3-d involved. So Moses Media had to get another artist to 3-d it up in the end.
I think they were more bent out of shape over the 3-d add on than I was. :) As long as I got paid the client could do whatever they wanted to my animation. Gotta give it to the Moses Media guys (Jason & Beryl) they were a blast to work for. Every time I gave them a decision to make they always went with the one that would look better. Not everybody does that. And it deserves mentioning. I'd work with them again without hesitation.

So that it what I've been up to lately in this world of animation. Have a good weekend!!




16 Comments:

At 3:49 PM, Blogger 1 said...

I cannot believe you animated that much in a weeks time....wow! it turned out great too, timing and everything. :O)

 
At 11:36 AM, Blogger murrayb said...

wow Jason you kick all kinds of ass,
That Gammage spot looks great!
reminds me of the old pink panther shorts.

do you and Troy teach at Holland? If so I have hope for the future, if not wow talk about your false advertising.
the rebuilt 3D looks pretty bleh compared to your sweet animation. Still, a great spot.
you have a plug on cold hard flash.

 
At 11:43 AM, Blogger Jason C said...

Hey thanks guys. Didn't even know about the plug on CHF. And I check that site everyday :)
thanks.

 
At 11:47 AM, Blogger Jason C said...

Ohh.. and no.. We don't teach there. I wish. Teaching has always been in the back of my mind. I'm dangerously under qualified for something like that though :). I think I lack the people skills required.

 
At 10:46 AM, Blogger Duker said...

Hey amigos!!!
Hope everything went fine since last time we talked.

DUUUDE!!! your latest stuff is killer,and you know I would'nt say that if I didnt thought so.It is great ,and even as a guy who doesnt like upa ,flatstyle,your stuff is really appealling .I love it.You are really making a good name for yourself .keep doing the good work and can't wait to see the next one .Keep me in touch

Say hi to the familly
Seb and caro

ps I am still waiting to see that adam racoon animation of yours;))

 
At 11:00 AM, Blogger Jeremy said...

Yeah I agree, this is awesome! I haven't been around in a looong time but its my loss. You are doing some awesome stuff! Congrats Jason!

 
At 12:58 PM, Blogger Jason C said...

Thanks guys.

Hahah..I actually boarded out a piece of Adam Raccoon animation... The I decided to focus on my own stuff instead of someone else's..

I have a couple of things boarded out.. one in the midst of boards.. Even one or 2 ideas with animatics started.. But they all kinda go on hold whenever I get to the stage that I actually need to find time to animate.. usually 'cause I need to spend that time trying to make $ :)

But I am working on a few micro shorts.. Like maybe only 15- 30 sec long.. So maybe they'll actually get finished :)

 
At 12:55 PM, Blogger dcmackinlay said...

Great work, Jason. Nice to see your latest. And really nice to see you're getting some exposure.

 
At 2:10 PM, Blogger Jamal O said...

Jeez,

Sorry that must of sucked for them to edit it like that.

The 2d ending is much better.

 
At 3:45 PM, Blogger Ron said...

Great job! Fantastic work!

To get a smoother playback in YouTube, I'd suggest to re-render as H.264 (1000 kbs), not sure if PC's version of quicktime pro has that render option, but it always makes for very clear and smooth-playing animation for youtube to digest.

 
At 5:02 AM, Blogger Jason C said...

Thanks for the comments guys. And thanks for the tip on you tube posting Ron. I'll give that I try next time.

 
At 1:18 PM, Blogger BenL said...

Hey Jason, I saw your stuff on CHF! Great job. I noticed in the comments that you said you were handed some great storyboards to animate from. I was hoping you could post the animatic you created from them, or just the boards themselves. I am really interested in seeing how detailed the boards were after your comment. I'm trying to get a better handle on storyboarding myself ;)

thanks in advance, and I cant wait to see some more of your work.

-Ben

 
At 4:26 PM, Blogger Mukpuddy said...

Great clips dude, love the upa styled one!! Great blog too!!

 
At 5:45 AM, Blogger Jason C said...

Hey Ben,

The boards were already in animatic form when I got them. So everything was pretty much timed out. I'm not sure if I can post them as they are not my artwork. But really. In alot of spots I just used the board drawings as my extremes. So most of the poses are still in the final pretty much as they were.

But yeah. It really did help to have solid drawings to work off of.

 
At 2:23 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey i'm looking for a freelance Flash animator to do a job for me - I sent you a message on youtube as well.

you really should put your email address in your profile here if you're available for hire.

thanks

my email is muttATrogers.com

 
At 12:21 AM, Blogger SteveLambe said...

Damn Jason.....those are awesome. You're a one man animation army.

 

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