Doug Wilson

Doodles

2011-11-28T06:07:00.001-08:00

Not had much time for working on the comic recently. Done a few character sketches while waiting for playblasts etc. at work tho.

2011-10-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

The past weeks Von Spleen comic running on my website is something I did a test animation for when I was still considering turning this into an animated short film. I thought it would be interesting for anyone reading the comic to see the animation.

I drew this story and animated this clip almost 2 years ago now, I’ve kind of moved on from it but I still want to put it all out there as it’s still an interesting little story. So if you want more just visit www.dougwilson.co.uk every Mon-Wed-Fri for a new page of the comic.

How to make comics

2011-10-04T03:04:00.001-07:00

I’ve been reading a how to draw comics tutorial by Jonathan Lemon who creates Rabbit’s Against Magic. I’m always interested to hear process information from other cartoonists and this was quite helpful in working out my own working method.

http://www.rabbitsagainstmagic.com/how_to.htm

I was intrigued as to how he lays out his comics into the different panel sizes/variations in layout and unfortunately he doesn’t go into detail about how he does three panel and other sized strips. I have found a method for myself and created all the possible template I will need for my new project. Even sketched out the first strip the other day and will try inking it as soon as I can print out the rough.

Building worlds

2011-09-29T06:54:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to put into my next comic strip project. I’ve found a lot of my work has been a little too left-field and weird and consequently hasn’t really connected with many people.

So in my new project I’ve been trying to build a story around real life events/characters. Not totally a journal comic because I will stray pretty far from reality at times but I am trying to write about things I have experienced and witnessed.

I’ve noticed that the true stories I’ve written out both in comic and text have gotten a much better response than anything else I’ve worked on and I’m keen to see if I can harness that kind of writing into a comic strip.

It is interesting trying to figure out how far to abstract the reality. I was talking it through with my girlfriend and she pointed out that I was getting too high brow with an idea (a character with multiple personality disorder) and I realised that I need to keep the overall idea quite basic so that I can apply any and all events/situations onto the characters. I still think I can use that idea down the road as a storyline but it doesn’t need to be a main character trait. The basic characters need to be simpler so they can fit into any story I give them.

More sketchbook

2011-09-27T07:14:00.001-07:00

Getting used to drawing the characters in various poses. Generally designs tend to get simplified the more you draw them, I want to have drawn these guys a lot before I start doing proper strips. It'll always evolve but I want to get any major changes out of the way before I start.

Sketchbook

2011-09-22T07:59:00.001-07:00

Here's a sneak peak at my new project, the three main characters and a possible title. Much to do but enjoying working toward something again. Currently writing out scripts/storylines/gags and figuring out a structure. Fun!

Character designs

2011-09-20T06:03:00.001-07:00

Some more character sketches for the new project.

2011-09-16T02:59:00.001-07:00

Some more sketchbook pages. Hand poses and character posing. Working on a new comic idea which will show up on my website in the near future. I will be posting more development stuff in the next couple of weeks. Just trying to fit it in around work and life!

2011-09-15T06:37:00.001-07:00

Here's some development artwork i've been working on for a personal project. Was looking at some jamie hewlett artwork for inspiration on the car design.

Cloudbabies

2011-09-13T08:18:00.001-07:00

This is the project I'm currently working on at Studio Liddell. More news and info to come!

2011-09-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

Bloodwhat comicbook is now available through Lulu.

£12.

Please share
http://tinyurl.com/3lul46m

2011-08-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

I've recently started a new job at Studio Liddell in Manchester as character animator on a childrens TV series. Can't reveal anything about the show but will post any work/info when I can. In the mean time I am fired up for doing my comics stuff again and I think being in a creative atmosphere at work will help me get more done on the side. Plus I have a half hour commute in the mornings which I'm hoping to utilise for writing/brainstorming ideas. Watch this space!

2011-06-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

Working on some animal shots and some fight scenes for a new reel focused on VFX and games animation. This is something I have very little experience of so it's fun trying something new and expanding my horizon's a little. Video reference seems to be the mantra from most people in the VFX world so I have studied lots of reference footage and cut together a couple of parts for this shot. Think it's going well but the polish is where it gets difficult. I really want this tiger to look and feel real.

2011-06-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

I have been drawing a lot more recently. Hopefully building up to a new film/personal project. I wanted to do some background studies and tests so I took a journey through Flickr and drew some random images. These are both traditional pencil and coloured in photoshop. They bear no relation to the upcoming project. More on that later. Just exercising the drawing muscles at the mo!

2011-06-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

2011-05-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

2010-09-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Bloodwhat is now availabe for pre-orders via IndieGoGo: http://www.indiegogo.com/Bloodwhat?a=34040&i=shlk

Help me raise funds for my next comic book by pre-ordering it. There are different levels of involvement from just buying the book to getting a printed credit in the thank-you section and your very own original artwork from the comic. Thanks for looking. Please share.

2010-07-27T04:04:00.000-07:00

Bedwitchery Poster

I offered to do a free poster design for a local amateur dramatic society. Since I've been getting the watercolours out recently I decided to use them for this aswell. I thought it came out quite nicely and a bit more proffesional than their previous posters. Unfortunately they decided to go with another design so that's what I get for being charitable! In the end I think they just grabbed an image from Google image search and pasted their own info underneath it which I wanted no part of as it is obviously infringing someone's copyright! I guess since they are not really doing it for profit they can get away with it to some extent but I still can't understand why they didn't go for this poster.

2010-07-22T06:45:00.000-07:00

Humphrey's Corner

Humphrey's corner by Sally Hunter is a mini business empire based around these little elephant characters she based on her own family. They started off as greetings cards and have been licensed into books, clothing, furniture and everything else imaginable. Quite an inspiring story for independent artists. Anyway I did these art tests for a portfolio submission to the company when they were hiring illustrators. I was unsucessful but I'm quite pleased with how the watercolours (above) and digital watercolours (below) came out.

2010-07-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

Website Design

www.dougwilson.co.uk has had a re-design recently. The site has been constantly evolving from the moment I launched it but this is the most substantial change I've made. I wanted to add a bit more personality to the design. I've made the menu bar quite playful and amusing and hopefully having that same link panel across the whole site makes navigation a little simpler.

I also wanted to add hand written notes explaining a little more about what I am trying to do with the site and it's contents. I wanted to back-up the handmade, personal aspect of my work in the design. The idea for the blurb on the homepage came after listening a TED talk by Simon Sineck on how great leaders inspire action. A very interesting lecture.

2010-06-08T05:14:00.000-07:00

Freelance Concept Work

The image above was done for a local graphic design agency, they were looking for some cartoony designs to pitch to their client. Unfortunately the client didn't really know what they were after so I put loads of work into something that I eventually didn't get a penny for. After they rejected the above image they gave the feedback for something more ICONIC. So I developed this next set of images:

They were quite quickly roughed out but again they didn't go for it. I thought I would put them up here to show some of the things I've been up to on the freelance front.

2010-05-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

Bristol Comics and Small Press Expo Roundup

We had a great time at the con, the reaction to all our comics was very encouraging and we sold enough to make it worth doing again. Thanks to all who bought books from our table! Learnt a lot about how to improve for next time. For a first con experience I think things went very well. Met a lot of other creators and managed to ask some people about books and printers etc. Should help for making the next book. Below are links to some of the interesting people I met.

http://www.dirtyrottenfred.blogspot.com/
http://smoo.tumblr.com/
ttp://www.dirtpony.com/
http://www.c2d4.com/
http://enolianslave.deviantart.com/
http://www.williehewes.com/
http://www.karenrubins.com/
http://theetheringtonbrothers.blogspot.com/

I wish I had more spare cash to buy up all the interesting looking things people had! Especially the etherington brothers humongous skecthbook. Maybe next time around I'll have a little spare change to splash around. I spent a lot of the quiet moments of the con skecthing so here are a few...

2010-05-13T03:27:00.000-07:00

Drivin' Dinosaurs

Thought this was a fun idea for a set of illustrations. Gonna give myself little briefs to do so I can keep adding to my portfolio. I'm considering doing prints of these to sell at the convention. I don't know how popular they'd be... I will see what people's reaction is like online first. Less than two weeks to the Con!

2010-05-11T01:58:00.000-07:00

More Girls

Trying to think about interesting colour palets for these pages. Trying out just using pencils with no inks on the top image. I think I prefer having the variable line-weight with my brush pen but it does give a more subtle feminine quality to the drawings.

2010-05-07T01:50:00.000-07:00

Pinup Girls

I wanted to take a break from comics and animation etc. and just draw for the love of drawing. These are all referenced from image sources. I suck at drawing girls so I need to practice anyway. I think I am going to try to do more life drawing and post it up on the blog.

2010-05-04T03:43:00.000-07:00

Freelance Animator/Illustrator/Comic Artist

I have been freelancing in multiple areas for sometime now. A lot of my time is spent working on independent projects that will hopefully generate enough interest in my work to give people a reason to hire me to do work on their projects. So far I've found I am forever making plans for things that don't happen. It can be incredibly frustrating but the advice given from people who have succeeded in most art related subjects is always "Never Give Up!" So I continue to apply, email, and generally badger people relentlessly. I currently have about 4-5 possible freelance jobs in the pipeline and they are all on hold for various reasons.

Anyway I thought I would put down a blog post detailing what I do in the hopes that someone out there has a use for me! Please get in touch if you have any work that might benefit from the below skillset. http://www.dougwilson.co.uk/ dougwilson83(at)hotmail(dot)com.

Freelance Animation

This is my Animation Show Reel, I have experience working in Maya, 3DSMax and Toon Boom on Film, TV and Independently Directed projects.

Freelance Illustration

Cartoon illustration using Photoshop, Illustrator, or good old Pen, Ink and Markers. I can also provide character design, and background design.

Comic Artist

I have spent the last 2-3 years writing, drawing and self publishing independent comic stories.

2010-04-29T01:36:00.000-07:00

Bloodwhat 1st Anniversary

That's right, Bloodwhat comic started exactly one year ago today! The very first post on the old wordpress site was 29th April '09 and I thought it would be a good idea to look back and see how far this strip has come.

Tommorow's update will be strip #150, and just this week I have finished writing the script to the final conclusion of the story. When I started out I was planning a series of animated shorts, but I soon decided to make a comic and never looked back.

Obviously the comic is based on a computer game and it is one that my brother and I would play over and over when we were younger. It still held it's appeal over the years and with PC emulators and PSP's we've always been drawn back into playing it again at some point. For some reason this game was just hugely immersive and addictive so I am very happy to have created this tribute in the form of parody. I would suggest anyone reading the comic should try to get a copy and play through it... although maybe it is one of those things that requires nostalgia.

This was the first ever strip

And this is the One Hundred and Forty Ninth!

I think my drawing has improved a lot, during the process of drawing the strip 3x a week I have simplified the characters and boiled down the designs to fewer and fewer lines. I think my storytelling has improved dramatically too. I am now building up longer storylines that will unfold over the next few weeks. It is a gag strip and I try to make it funny every update but sometimes I like to break up the pacing and try something different. In #149 for instance there isn't a punchline at all, but it is building up a recurring story with Murlack having found a walkthrough guide to the game. I think when I eventually compile all these strips into a book it will be a very satisfying read through and that has always been my end goal.

I have learned a lot from making this strip, I often hear the advice handed out to create something that you would want to see... This without doubt is purely something I am doing for my own amusement and it seems like a few people might be enjoying it with me.

If you would like to leave Bloodwhat a birthday wish by leaving a comment or sending me an email I would really appreciate the support. dougwilson83(at)hotmail(dot)com

Read a years worth of comics here!

2010-04-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

Bloodwhat Mini-Comics

I've been busy making mini-comics for Bristol spexpo. These Bloodwhat books contain 40 strips and are bound with a hand-drawn unique sketch on the cover. I'm hoping the original art aspect of these mini's will attract people, there are only going to be 16 copies of these so if you want one come early! Or not, I doubt I will sell out all weekend! Still if you're a fan of the comic this is a nice little collection and something to keep you quiet until I can sort out a proper book.

2010-04-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

K-9Lives Book2

Look what just arrived in the post! K-9Lives ClueClucksClan. I'm very happy with how this second book has come out. The cover design looks much better than the first one, feels a more cohesive design and has a nice fake barcode on the back which I'm particularly proud of. I stole the idea from NobbyNobody at www.odd-fish.net but gave it my own twist. I'm feeling ready for my first convention now. I should have a lot of stuff on the table, including a few T-Shirts and Mugs (pic below). You can order the books from my online store http://www.dougwilson.co.uk/store.htm Or come see me at http://www.thefallenangel.co.uk/spexpo/exhibitors.php in Bristol May 22nd-23rd.

2010-04-20T02:24:00.000-07:00

Promo Postcards

Here's the final designs for the free giveaway postcards I'm taking to the comic convention next month. I think it is a cool enough image that people will want to keep it and then it has two sample comics on the back which should appeal to everyone. I was very conscious of wanting to put the most accessible strips on the promo material. I ordered 100, I've no idea if that's enough but going to my first convention is all going to be a bit of a guessing game.

2010-04-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

So with Bristol Small-Press Expo just around the corner, I decided to get crafty so i'll have something other than books on my table. After a wander around hobbycraft we found something called Shrinkles which are new to me... Basically you draw on them like a kind of paper sheet. Put it in the oven and they shrink/thicken/plasticise! So I stuck a whole in the top and robert's your father's brother we've got handdrawn, limited edition keyrings and add to that a little Fimo wrangling, we've also got desktop figurines!

Marvellous.

This ones head fell off... rather unfortunate. Glued it back though.

2010-04-07T03:34:00.000-07:00

K-9Lives: Episode 3

I must be streamlining my process of making these... this one took a day and a half less time than episode 2. So hopefully I can get Ep4+5 going soon and then I will put together an 8 minute film, cut together with Episodes 2,3,4+5. That's the plan at the moment anyway.

My previous experience of taking Episode 1 to film festivals was that it was too short a film to really grab people. I think the idea of K-9 takes a while to sink in with people. It is a bit weird and surreal so perhaps several episodes together will let them grasp the concept better. Also I think each of these films is improving as I go. So hopefully given the success of the first one I should get a good festival run out of the next film.

I am also busy with other comics work and preparing for a convention in May so we'll see how soon I can get going on the next episode...

2010-03-01T07:22:00.000-08:00

K-9Lives Episode2: I thought I would post some background info on the making of this film. It has been almost a year since the first episode and that in no way reflects how long each one takes to make. But I have been busy inbetween, working on another comic strip Bloodwhat which is up to 124 strips! And The Von Spleen Experiment which is a graphic novel in progress.

The K-9Lives comic strip has come to an end in its current format. Now I'm hoping to make the most successful stories from the comic into animated episodes for the website. When I have about 5/6 episodes I will edit them together to make a 12-15 minute short film which I intend to submit to festivals and hopefully develop some further interest.

I found the work of David O Reilly quite an inspiration for this method. His film "Please Say Something" was created in 30second episodes online and went on to win all sorts of awards when the final film was finished.

Episode 2 took me 2 weeks to produce, working full time (with some late nights). I always planned for these films to be quick and simple... because I wanted to see the finish line. Rather than spend 20 years working on an idea that may have been flawed from the start, working like this lets me see my finished work and learn from mistakes and develop and progress.

2009-11-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

Character Animation

Blocking Second Pass (part 2)
I have taken the second part of the sequence through the same process I described below. This time however I filmed some reference footage for the first shot because I was not happy with the blocking. I recorded myself repeating the dialogue several times on my webcam until I got a few interesting gestures. I especially wanted to get rid of the "For Me..." gesture where he put his hand on his chest. That just seemed too obvious and in fact when I acted it out, that was the last thing I would do when saying those words.

In fact it still needs some tweaking because I haven't captured the second part of that gesture properly, but this is looking much better and more interesting than before. Now I could do with some feedback before taking it further.
Next Installment: Splined

2009-11-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

Character Animation

Blocking Second Pass (part 1)

Here I have taken the first few shots of the piece through the second stage of my blocking process which adds breakdowns and inbetweens to further define the actions. Hopefully you can see that working in this way allows you to build up a nuanced and complicated performance from a very simple foundation.

At this stage I am generally not even touching the facial expressions or lip-sync. You want the performance to work without, so don't add it until you're happy with the physical acting. There are points in this where I want Karl to be thinking to himself and you can already see that coming across just because he stops looking at the other two and sort of retreats into himself physically. Ricky is quite manic and so his character is fast moving and dynamic but the other two are both quite dead pan deliveries. It should make a nice contrast and also it allows for some more subtle acting. It can be quite tempting in animation to over act but when a character is not moving, generally it means they are thinking. And that is when an audience starts to get drawn into a performance or character when they see a thought process stirring up inside.

Next installment: Blocking Second Pass (Part 2)

2009-11-26T07:12:00.000-08:00

Character Animation

Blocking (first pass)

I've transferred my thumbnails into 3d now, and as you will see it has already changed quite a bit from the initial sketches. I found that some of the poses needed pushing for clearer silhouettes and also you start finding nice contrasting lines of action in the body and head when you are flipping between the poses. I like to pose out my shot with the keyframes next to each other before I time them out along the audio so you can do the 3d equivalent of flipping your drawings.

I have changed one of the camera choices from the animatic too beacuse I needed to frame the characters a bit differently. Some of the acting/pose choices have evolved here too. I am constantly acting it out in my head and getting up and doing little gestures to see what might work better for the character. Some people would shoot reference before starting to block out the shot but I like to get quite well into the second pass blocking before I shoot any reference on something like this. Really I will only use that to get ideas for where I can refine and add extra realism which comes much later. It's important not to get bogged down in details at this stage. For now I'm happy with the first pass and where it is leading... you might want to get some feedback at this stage or show it to your director to make sure you are getting what you want from the keyposes. Even though I have blocked it very simply it is important to have some idea of where you are going to elaborate on actions in the next phase.

Next installment: Blocking (plus)

2009-11-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

Character Animation

Thumbnailing
Now that we have our shots layed out we can go into photoshop and rough in some thumbnails. We have the characters basic positions in the frame and we can run through some rough acting/pose ideas to get things rolling.

This has the advantage of being able to try out ideas and experiment a bit without wasting time posing the rigs in 3D. Sometimes I would just use pencil and not bother scanning them in and putting it together like this but I thought it would show my ideas better.

Ok, so for first pass thumbnails we have some interesting ideas developing here. We've got enough to take into MAYA now and begin fleshing out these poses. I like to keep things loose throughout this process because I find I can feel out stronger poses and acting once we are in 3D.
Next installment: Blocking

2009-11-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

Character Animation

Breaking Down Audio/Camera Animatic

The first stage in my process is basically layout. I take the characters into the 3d environment along with any props and models I may need. I set up the characters sitting around a table as I wanted to make it feel like this dialogue was part of an interview (I may elaborate on the gag further down the line). So two guys interviewing and one interviewee. I sit them down in a neutral pose and then go in and set up some camera's that will determine the shots I want. With this done I take a render of each camera angle and then edit them together in After Effects to see how the sequence will break down into seperate shots. Here is the video of that edit:

I think this is a pretty good pacing for the sequence, keeps things interesting focusing on different character's at various points. Obviously the more you know about cinematography the better you will be able to set something like this up. You should be aware of things like the 180 degree rule so that things are clear and readable. At various points we are not actually looking at the person who is talking which will give me a chance to animate reaction shots which will add to the cinematic feel. I may add changes and subtle zooms etc in MAYA but for now this does it's job and gets the ball rolling.

Next installment: Thumbnailing

2009-11-24T03:51:00.000-08:00

Character Animation

Software/Rig choice
Now that we have the audio file, we need to decide what we are going to animate with. If like me you decided to specialise in animation then you may not be able to model and rig your own character. That's ok though because there are a multitude of rigs out there built by clever people who do have those skills and are willing to share their generic/practice rigs for us animators to use. Just don't go using them for commercial or profit making films.

Here are some of the rigs I found at 11 second club. They have a great website where you can enter a character animation competition each month. Some rigs are better than others, the three in the middle of the above picture are the ones I have chosen. Partly because I have used them before and know they work well and partly because they fit the characters of the dialogue.

As you can see I have chosen to use MAYA. This is the program I am most comfortable with but there are a multitude of choices around. The best bet is to decide based on the industry standard software of the field you want to crack into. High end character animation almost always uses MAYA. Games animation would be 3DS Max. Investigate the companies you want to work at and see what they use.

2009-11-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

Character Animation
A look at the process and progress of an animated scene.

It has been a while since I animated a really juicy dialogue shot in 3d animation so I've decided to create one as a centre piece for my show-reel. Since I always learned a lot from seeing other people's working method I thought I would also document it on this blog. I will try to go into as much detail as I can. Before we start I suggest you look at my current show-reel.

Picking the audio
To begin with you have to pick a piece of dialogue to animate. This is a very important part and there are many options. The industry standard method of creating a piece of character animation for a show-reel is to take a clip from a film or TV show or similar source, and animate a short clip in your own unique way. It is down to personal preference but you have to consider who you want to see it and how they may react so don't have anything offensive or nasty. I try not to pick anything too well known, if it is from the latest blockbuster film then your audience already has preconceptions of the audio. And if you're trying to out act Robert DeNiro you might come away looking a bit silly.

I have picked some audio from a podcast that I listen to. It is from the Ricky Gervais podcast and features Karl Pilkington and Steve Merchant. It is quite well known I suppose, but it has only ever been in audio format so you don't know how they would act it out themselves which gives me free reign to invent a performance.

There are a lot of clips I could have gone with but I narrowed it down to this 39 second clip. It has some very interesting rythm's and beats in the dialogue which is what you should look for and also it inspired me (probably the most important thing) and made me laugh. I would suggest a shorter clip if you are just starting to animate. About 10 seconds is good. But I want to go for something that requires some different camera shots and movement. We will see if I have taken on too much!

2009-11-13T02:52:00.000-08:00

I want to share some links that have been keeping me inspired over the last few months, most of it is comics related... some animation related. All inspiring artwork and thoughtful blogging. So in no particular order:

http://jason-brubaker.blogspot.com/ Jason Brubaker is working on an independent graphic novel called Re-Mind which looks stunning and I am following the progress on and off.

http://scottmorse.blogspot.com/ Scott Morse is a Pixar story artist I believe. I first found him through his graphic novel Ancient Joe which I'd recommend by the way. His blog is full of artwork he does outside of work. I have no idea how he finds the time!

http://rawlsy.blogspot.com/ Darren Rawlings working on a graphic novel. Agent Orange. I don't know how close to completion it is but the development work is fantastic. He also has a cool webcomic, The life of Rex Bunyan.

http://www.rice-boy.com/ Yet more graphic novelly goodness from Evan Dahm. This one is epic and I've barely scratched the surface. Will probably just get the book when I can afford it but I like to check out the site now and then to see what's new.

http://www.chickenhare.com/ Chris Grine's new site launching soon with Chickenhare 3 which is being released as a webcomic. He is a published comic creator and yet he's decided to release this latest book online. Perhaps that means publishing on the web IS a potential money maker. Hmm.

http://animondays.blogspot.com/ I love this site for an inspirational monday lecture. Davis B Levy has created several tv series and even published a book on how you can do the same. It is quite New York indy scene orientated but very interesting none the less.

http://tedtheterrible.com/?p=36 Fun comic about a kid in school who tries to be a super hero.

http://cocknbull.net/ Foul mouthed but often hilarious comic about a chicken (cock) and a cow (bull).

2009-11-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

My plans to update the blog regularly have faltered again... I need to integrate this more into my website so that everything is easily updatable. Anyway my comic K-9Lives is coming to a close I think. It is just not keeping me interested enough to continue and there are other things I feel would greater benefit my time. I am considering taking December off from updating all my comics anyway so that I can come back fresh in the new year.

I recently attended FLIP '09 and took part in a portfolio review session. Basically 6 animators volunteered to display their show-reels in front of an audience and then receive an in depth critique from a panel of industry experts. It was a valuable experience and after the initial rush of nerves I quite enjoyed it and felt that the feedback given was well thought out and useful.

This is the showreel I cut after the feedback. I am currently searching for either freelance or fulltime work in animation. I am hoping to animate some commercials or idents for tv/online portals. I am always on the look out for high end character animation too so if you are an employer or interested party feel free to contact me. Details on my website.

2009-07-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

Hitchcock's Spellbound

Watched Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound last night. It is worth watching because it has some nice ideas and a fairly good story about a mental institution, psycho analysis and repressed guilt. Unfortunately I thought it was far from his best. In many ways this is a very generic 40's film that feels very dated now. Some of the story drags and the music - unlike say Psycho which is iconic - is again generic and dull. After watching the film I read an interview with Hitchcock and he echoed some these things himself. Apparently he had a producer who had some influence on the film and therefore it is not pure Hitchcock. A Salvador Dali dream sequence is a nice touch although it is not quite as cool as it sounds. Cinematograpy wise there were some nice moments. When the leading couple share their first kiss he cuts away to a long corridor of doors opening before fading back to the kiss. It was a nice metaphor opening up the sub-conscious mind and memory that kick-starts happenings in the story. Also later on in a plot twist moment (I'll leave out spoilers) the leading lady is in a crisis and panic, suddenly you see some classic Hitchcockian shots and cinematography. It really stood out in this moment and then he is put back on a leash.

Overall score: 60%

2009-07-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

A birthday card I did for my Nan, a huge horseracing fanatic!

2009-07-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is the kitchen at my Nan and Da's, I had been practicing drawing with skewed perspective. Fun to do.

2009-07-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

I sat and sketched my garden one afternoon, I need to do some more of this. I drew it straight down in ink which I prefer because you have to be bold with it. Coloured it in photoshop, toyed with the hue's for variation's. This was one sample.

2009-07-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

Haven't been blogging much of anything lately. Lots going on behind the scenes but haven't been drawing stuff that I can post yet, it's all very hush hush. Also busy with the webcomics. This was a kind of mood board for a sports comic freelance pitch. Didn't get it, but I like some of these.

2009-06-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

K-9Lives Episode1 from Doug on Vimeo.

2009-05-15T03:35:00.000-07:00

Comics Roundup

K-9Lives - The comic is back and running after the hiatus and things are going well. With the animated short going round festivals it is advertising the comic around the country. Last week I came up with a topical Swine Flu story that fitted in nicely with the theme. The Dog goes to Mexico to try to infect the Cat with flu... Ending with the CDC tracking them down, and an underground resistance group of pigs who've joined forces with refugees of the bird flu and BSE epidemics who defend them from the CDC patrol! http://www.k-9lives.blogspot.com/

Bloodwhat? - My new comic, at it's core is a parody of an 80's dungeon adventure game, but it will go further than that and I will develop the world and characters into unique stories and situations. With 13 strips up so far it is early days but this is going strong and I have a good buffer built up so I should be able to keep the updates regular. http://www.bloodwhat.wordpress.com/

The Von Spleen Experiment - This is very early days in production... I was developing this as an animated short but the story kept growing and growing and ended up being beyond my ability to produce independently at the moment. So I am translating the thumbnailed story skectches into full comic pages. The hope is that I can generate interest in the story and characters through the comic first, eventually print a book and then see whether an animation would be viable afterwards.

And with all these projects going, I am now slightly burned out... I need to go out and have a beer, chill out and re-charge the batteries so I can get going on all these projects.

2009-05-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

At the weekend I made it down to the Worthing End of the Pier International Film Festival to see my film K-9Lives play. It was a really nice fest and the people I met were extremely nice, helpful and encouraging. Thanks to Roz and Linda for their kind words and for selecting my film for the competition. Go see http://www.eotpfilmfestival.org.uk/?q=node/25 to see what pipped me for best animation... Concragts to Carl Medland for winning an award for his film My Beauty. There were some really good films so it was just an honour to be screened. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the awards ceremony but I recommend the fest for next year, and hope to have another film there!

2009-03-31T00:49:00.000-07:00

Rocket Jo (France 3)
Uploaded by Tele-Loisirs

This is the TV show I worked on in France for 6 months... It is showing now on French TV and will hopefully come to England? Or maybe DVD soon. For now though there is an episode on Daily-Motion. This one was animated by Christophe.

2009-03-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

Storyboard Comparison (read bottom to top)

I thought it might be of interest for some people to see the story sketches I did for the animation below. As you can see I work very roughly, on various scraps of paper. I find it is easier to get ideas on paper if you are not feeling too precious about the result, It doesn't matter how it looks to me... so long as I have the idea. Then if it needs re-working I do that when I approach the scene in animation.

I chose this shot as the first animation test because I was happy with the shot, I knew it would be in the film.... wheras some other things in the film are shifting and changing still. I have probably half the story worked out, with the rest roughly mapped but needing some things adding. At the moment the story reel is running about 6-8 minutes and we're about half way through I think. So probably it will end up being about 12-15 minutes. I have about 1 minute of finished animation, so we're on our way!

2009-03-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

Animation Test second pass TVSE from Doug on Vimeo.

I have been working on this shot for a while, trying to get the visuals to my taste. It takes a long time cleaning each frame of all the dust and debris that the scanner picks up. I need to see if there is a quicker way but for now I think this is how the film will look.

2009-03-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Festival Update:

K-9Lives Episode1 has been selected for screening at Worthing End Of The Pier Festival.

The screening is on the 30th April.

2009-03-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do all the shadows rendering in pencils, I really prefer the look and it means I can spend more time at the drawing board which I prefer to staring at the computer screen. The comments from Sketch Tavern by Spagetthi016 and Dozer (dont know their real names!) were very helpful and I've made a few improvements on these shots.

2009-03-12T02:51:00.000-07:00

I went off the grimy look of the previous B+W stills so I did a cleaner crisper version here. I also added colour to the yellow wires... This could be a god way of doing B+W and still having some visuals pop in colour on certain items.
I've posted my concept stuff at Sketch Tavern and just got an in depth critique on some of these stills, I'll post up the altered version soon.

2009-03-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to define the visuals for the film, this is where I take some stills and try endless variations of colours, photoshop effects, chop and change different things. I'm quite likeing the black and white style.... I have always been drawn to B+W but haven't utilised it in any of my films yet. It seems like quite a big leap to take colour out of the picture. I do think it will fit the style of the story tho.

2009-03-10T04:33:00.000-07:00

Early Animation Test for The Von Spleen Experiment from Doug on Vimeo.

For your viewing pleasure........ a veeery early test on The Von Spleen Experiment. I'm planning on using this very rough pencil style, the colours kinda rough too. I'm using a shadow layer which will take much longer to paint but I think it looks much nicer. I want to get things rolling with this project and don't want to hesitate too much.

2009-03-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

It's a bit early for poster design but I wanted to do a sorta concept sheet, with the main characters and the title. I can put this with the pitch materials but basically I'm making this without funding anyway.... so it's just for fun.

I actually started animating the first shot yesterday! It will give me a chance to try some things out and define the style, and I've picked a shot that I really like to start with and it's a lot of fun so far. I'm still storyboarding it but since I don't like getting bogged down in one area I'll move about onto different departments (storyboard, background, layout, animation, colouring etc) as and when I get the inspiration. That way I'll always be fresh.

2009-03-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

Character sheets for my new project "The Von Spleen Experiment". I have had this project in slow development on story, character design, etc for about a year now and it's beginning to shape itself into a ready for production project. I am planning on getting some close friends to contribute some work in their particular fields of expertise, partly just to keep things interesting for me. I am planning a 6 month schedule for this which is 6x that of my previous film "K-9Lives Episode1". I think it will be important to aquire some outside assistance if only to keep my own inspiration levels up.

Unless I get some freelance work this is what I'll be working on for some time now so expect more of this to come over the following weeks.

2009-02-26T04:21:00.000-08:00

Watch the trailer for my short film K-9Lives Episode 1 on the film's IMDB page.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1358980/

Be sure to give it a rating after you watch!

2009-02-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

Festival Update:
K-9Lives Episode1 has been selected for screening at "Shorts on Walls" as part of the Flatpack festival in Birmingham Sat 14th March.

Check my website http://www.dougwilson.co.uk/ for further details, and I'll keep updating on the blog about any other screenings.

2009-02-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

5. Refined. More reference for parts that I wasn't happy with, elongated for a longer vertical pan. Experimenting with colour in photoshop.

4. Colour. Inked up a version based on the previous sketch, and coloured digitally.

3. Rough sketch. Looked at photographic reference for various elements to get more depth to the piece. Developed the composition a bit further.

2. Developed thumbnail. I've been looking at forced and extreme perspectives and I tried to incorporate that into the composition. Thinking about a possible camera move around the scene too.

1. Initial thumbnail: I knew I wanted a street with a doctors surgery sign. Town in the distance. The road was going to be very hilly here.

I wanted to give an idea of the process for this piece. I'm working on backgrounds for my new film project, it starts out with rough little thumbnails that are really not very good..... then I think about the composition and elements that I want or don't want. Then I take a look at some reference photo's, etc. Gradually it develops into something quite interesting.

2009-02-20T03:58:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a birthday card for my cousin, a massive star wars fan!

2009-02-19T09:48:00.000-08:00

Someone at sketchtavern pointed out that I wasn't drawing any ladies! So I took steps to right that..... I've always struggled to draw girls and it's time to put the effort in so I can draw them without reference. These are almost exclusively from ref.... Unfortunately google referenced not live ref!

2009-02-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

Just loosening up with some pose pages for the characters in my new project. Referenced some of the poses from elsewhere and just shoved my characters into the poses, finding that quite helpful.

2009-02-17T01:55:00.000-08:00

Playing around with some animation background styles for an upcoming project.

2009-02-17T01:49:00.000-08:00

2009-02-17T01:43:00.000-08:00

Been joining in the draw every day in February challenge on www.sketchtavern.com

I'll post a few pieces that I like.

2009-01-28T01:09:00.000-08:00

Festival Update:
K-9Lives Episode 1 has been selected for competition at Athens Animfest in Greece! The Fest is in March, I will post more info when they confirm the full line-up of films. Hopefully the first of many, fingers crossed.

2009-01-13T03:40:00.000-08:00

K-9Lives Episode1 is now fully completed, it took near enough a month to finish. I'm just sending it off to every animation and short film festival I can find at the moment. Hopefully it will find an audience somewhere and I will be able to make more episodes.

One comment I got from my brother after watching the film was that it reminded him of 70's children's cartoons.... I hadn't really thought about the audience when making it, I just knew I wanted to see it, but I suppose it would play well to children.... although in today's climate of censorship and protecting children from even mildly edgy content it might not find a home on the bbc! I take the comment as high praise indeed because that era of british children's television is widely regarded as a golden age because of the inventive and unrestrained creative mind's at work. Those 70's creators are a definite influence on my work partly due to their independant spirit many of them making films in their garden sheds! Just shows what can be achieved without the help of millions of pounds and big corporations. In fact that should be obvious really.... what IS amazing is that someone like Pixar can make such great films in SPITE of the millions of pounds and big corporations.

If you are interested in the film you can find the Press Kit on my website www.dougwilson.co.uk containing stills from the film, synopsis, director's bio, filmography etc.

I will keep the blog and website updated with any festival screenings and where you may be able to see the film in the future.

2008-12-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

2008-12-19T02:33:00.000-08:00

Quick break from the animation, I've found some old pen drawing's I did.... This one was a cariacature of some guy. Thought I'd slap some colours on and make a series of these.

On another note, I was thinking about something yesterday.... In animation we tend to get bogged down in doing exercises, I don't know if this applies to other artform's but when your learning you do the bouncing balls, flour sacks, walk cycles, dialogue shots etc to learn and improve. I think a lot of people in animation are forgetting to break out of this routine though. People spend years animating to dialogue from films and tv shows, but that doesn't show anything outside the skill of animation. I have done the very same thing but at the end of the day I feel the need to create something original that will stand on it's own.... It's a matter of working within your own limitations. You have to accept the level you are at and create something using the skills you already have. And ultimately by doing this (in my case a film) you will learn and improve in the process and when you are done you will have something that can both showcase your skills and hopefully entertain.

2008-12-17T04:05:00.000-08:00

This is a pencil test for a run cycle in my new film K9-Lives. It's based on my webcomic of the same name. You-tube doesn't seem to run it very smoothly but you get the idea. I will post some other tests and frame-grabs as I go along. I have almost completed the animation of the short....I am editing together the animatic so I can decide on any changes before I start colouring. I am going for a very limited style of animation because I feel that I can create some nice films in a short amount of time and really develop my film-making skills. I have been working in animation for almost 2 years and I'm finding more and more that the endless refining and tweaking to get full animation is a rather dull business. I prefer dealing with the broader strokes of storytelling, cinematography and gag writing, letting the animation be rough and less developed. At the end of the day the only way to become a good film-maker and to learn the elements of good film is to MAKE films..... make mistakes and move on to make another film where you will make one or two less mistakes. So this is the first film since my graduation film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVW-zaY1Tbw&feature=channel and I plan to make many more.

2008-12-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

K-9Lives - Animation production

I've been working for a few days on stage 2 of my independant animation career, making an animated short from my comic K-9Lives. I always planned to make this as an animation and saw the comic as a good way to storyboard it. There are a few ideas that I couldn't put into the comics as I set myself a strict structure of telling a story over one week (5 panels). Above is a background for one of the new elements in the story.... An exterior shot of the Animal Shelter. This gives you an idea of the style of the short.

This is a frame from the animation, as you can see I'm not using the same inking style as the comic... that's because I'm not inking it at all. I'm animating the whole thing in pencil on my lightbox.... and in scene's like this where there is action and fast pace I am using a very sketchy fast paced drawing style. I absolutely love seeing construction lines and the hand of the artist in animation so all those bits will be left in too. I came across a problem when I animated reservoir reindeers, when importing into toon boom (my animation software) I lost the aesthetic quality of the pencil line. Fortunately I've caught that problem and changed my process a bit. The plus side of this approach is that I can animate at a very fast pace. After about 5 days of production I have just over 1 minute done. The short is probably going to be about 2-3minutes in total length so I should be able to get it done and send it off to festivals in January.

2008-12-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share some of my influences and go through my most "Influential Moments" in film.

Fritz the Cat: This crow character is introduced to us in a seedy bar room. He's a pool shark (actually he's rubbish at pool) but the way you introduce a character is very important in films.... and this pays off big time later on.

About 20 minutes later Fritz is leading a revolt in the streets and gets the pair into a riot with the police. Shots are fired and our crow friend is hit in the chest. The gun shot is replaced with a shot of the break on a pool table. We see him bleeding and kneeling on the car, then cut back to the pool table and the pool balls bouncing represent the beating of his heart slowing down until the black 8ball which cracks and we zoom out from his black pupil.
This moment had a profound effect on me and I have been constantly thinking of ways to bring this approach to film-making into my own projects.

2008-12-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

Reservoir Reindeers is my first step towards independant animated film-making, a christmas card for an alternative audience. I got the idea for the card when I was in the second year of university and actually animated it back then... I didn't finish it in time and I don't think anyone ever saw it. 3 years on and I've worked a couple of animation jobs in Scotland and France, looking back it was quite poorly executed but I still really found the idea of it funny. I decided to use the project as a testing ground for some films I've got in the works and it turned out to be a good idea because I've refined my process a bit, got an interesting christmas card that can act as a sort of calling card for future projects, and I'm now starting production on phase 2 of my independant animation career.

2008-12-01T05:15:00.000-08:00

Check out my new website at www.dougwilson.co.uk

2008-09-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

Subjugated (working title)
Definition - subjugated adj : reduced to submission

Quick character lineup.

2008-09-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

Just trying to get the hang of drawing the characters and tying down the structure. I want to keep quite a loose feeling to it though, I've been reading a lot of things on John K's blog about individual style showing through in animation and that is definitely what I love about 2d. The Simpsons had some great animation in the first few series before they "figured out how to draw the characters" and then lost all creativity and spontinaity.

2008-09-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

I don't want to give out much info on this at the mo, it's more so that I can show my friends who will help me on the idea. Hopefully will start production on this as a short film in January, with the plan to make several films in a series if there is sufficient interest in it at festivals and on the net etc.

2008-09-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Some pose sheets for a character I've been working on. This is stuff from a while back, been re-working the film idea the last week or two. Will post up the newer stuff soon.

2008-07-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

Just outside my bedroom window is this baking hot red roof which is home to a couple of lizard fellas.... I will have to try to tame them and give them some food.

2008-07-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

Fete Nationale today which means a day off! Its damn nice lazing around this garden.

2008-07-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

This was my room for a couple of weeks while I searched for a permanent place, the people I was staying with were very musical and lent me a guitar which was great....

This is my new place which I will be sharing with two girls.... It seems very nice so far and has a cool little garden and patio area, no guitar tho! I'm actually getting withdrawal symptoms.

2008-07-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

So thats about it for my first days wandering.... I've been here for about 2 weeks and haven't photographed anything since! Far too busy working.

2008-07-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

2008-07-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

The guys head in this pic is Herge, the creator of tintin... or so i'm told.
The town hall
The museum.
Stained glass window in the museum.
Painting in the museum.

2008-07-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Still from my first days walk..... it was a hell of a walk I kid you not.

2008-07-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

For someone like me who loves grafitti this town is amazing... the french just seem to have art and comics and animation in every part of their lives. Fantastic

2008-07-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Charente river, some buildings and views near where I work. The building with the blue door is 2d3d animations where I'm currently animating on Rocket Joe!

2008-07-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

These pics are from my first weekend in Angouleme just wandering around the city and looking at all the amazing artwork that is just all over the place... It is the second biggest animation city in France, second only to Paris and its a very small place to rank so highly on the animation map. Very bizzare.

2008-05-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

John K is starting up production on a new series and is giving an open call to find people who can work on it as storyboard and layout artists. He has been giving free tuition through his blog for a while now and I've been following it picking up nuggets of wisdom. Thought I might aswell throw down some efforts to see how much he tears it apart!

2008-04-10T01:35:00.000-07:00

Visit the home of my new web comic at http://www.k-9lives.blogspot.com/

2008-02-08T03:50:00.000-08:00

I've been over at www.sketchtavern.com again recently joining in on their february sketch everyday challenge. These are my favourites so far.

2008-01-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

2008-01-28T10:42:00.001-08:00

2008-01-28T10:21:00.000-08:00

2006-12-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

More rough's for the green dragon calendar. They are showing them to the commitee tommorow and they'll decide whether they want to use them. I think they're more likley to go for the cartoony ones. Apparently the others are too subtle!

2006-12-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

Just found these in an old folder... I love the cartoony version!