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.

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...

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

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)

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)

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

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

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.

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!