Paper Pirate Bride

Two of my animation friends got married this year and because they are better artists than me, I was setting myself up for failure if I were to do my usual illustration-as-wedding-gift strategy. So, I tried my hand at paper cutout illustration which was really fun. The only thing I neglected to do was take a good photo of the finished piece, as I was literally gluing the last pieces together while the taxi waited for me outside. We tried to get one photo of it at the reception though. Haaaa.

The bride loves all things pirate and the pattern on the tail is supposed to be a tattoo the groom got recently. The dragon is wall-eyed and herpdederp and probably drunk.

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*edit: I found a few more process photos that I forgot I took:

Here's a bunch of animation I did that I found on the interwebs. Good for kids! Enjoy!
 I still dunno why the renders are so saturated... :S 

Yoga Pretzels Trailer

I animated this trailer at Global Mechanic in the summer of 2010.

Barefoot Books wanted to bring to life the characters from their Yoga Pretzels card series to encourage children and their parents to do yoga together. I did most of the character animation and with the AE team, we tried our best to retain the painterly feel and charm found in the illustrations.

Kendo & Cake

This was a gift I drew for my friend's wedding last weekend. He loves kendo and cheesecake and his wife loves to cook. It's pretty special to see a longtime friend get married.

On another note, I've started drawing on paper again and have completely neglected to unpack my Cintiq from it's box since I've moved. Paper, you are swell, you can never be replaced!

Famigros

A few months ago, I helped Spin Animation with this commercial for Migros in Switzerland. I animated the amusement park in the background, some of the characters in the concert scene and inbetweened the main character's flip in the air. Due to the language barrier, I have no idea what the commercial is about. I guessed that Migros was a bank, and then an insurance company, but the Google machine says it's a supermarket. Neats.

Shank 2 Game

Shank 2 is a beat 'em up, side scroller game I helped out with last year at Klei Entertainment.

For the most part, I animated game objects and background elements. So if you see a barrel, boat or box smash into pieces, I might have animated it. Maybe a structure crumbles or an organ flies out of a corpse. I might have done that too. Water, broken jeep, killing contraptions, doors, cocaine, squid - I might have drawn and animated it. It was a big change from doing character animation, but it worked out well considering I broke my non-drawing wrist a week into the contract. I had to get pretty inventive to animate with one hand.

I did get to do one tiny bit of character animation for Corina, where she is shooting an uzi gun while perched on a side of a wall. That was the most fun.

If you like blood and guts and blood, you'll probably like Shank 2. Check it out on Steam, XBOX or P3: http://www.shankgame.com/ Shank is one angry dude.

Ten in the Bed

Here's another one for you kids. I did this some time in February for Franfou Studios and Super Simple Learning. I don't know why the colours are so incredibly saturated...!

Elephant Balloon

2011 Sketch Journal

One of my favourite personal projects of 2011 was my 2011 sketch journal. Each day, I tried to draw something meaningful that happened to me. Now that I can look back on the entire year of sketches, I'm surprised how eventful and noteworthy it was!

It retold me of old friends moving back into town, so many babies being born, getting to be a hand model (ha!), learning the ukulele, getting stuck at the border, Japan's earthquake/tsunami, milestone birthday, a Canadian shift in politics, first time freelancing full time for the whole year, working on my first commercial(s), Vancouver Island's little earthquake, deaths of major leaders, Canuck's Stanley Cup run, the devastating riot, the Wall of Hope, a handful of meaningful vacations, revisiting the past, 2 major colds, breaking my wrist(!!!) and a milestone anniversary. There are SO many stories in this tiny 2.5 x 4 inch sketchbook.

I'm not one who has warmed up to being too personal online, but here I share with you some random pages from my sketch journal:

(If Blogger opens the image too small, just right click and "open link in new tab".)

I hope you enjoyed some of that. I'd love to hear from you all who frequent my blog and show up on my blog stats ;) Please say hello and I wish all of you a very happy and meaningful 2012!!!

Here's my new 2012 sketch journal.