Michael's bloggy blog!

Star Wars

2011-11-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

I gave myself a couple of rules before doing these:

Paintbrush only, no lasso or selection tool to fix things

No erasing or using 'undo'

No zooming, the size you see em was the size they were done

One layer only

Use as much reference as I want but no eye dropping colours.

Took more time than I'd hoped but I had good craic doing em!

Mokepon!

2011-11-06T15:50:00.000-08:00

I can explain........ bah!

Hell hath no fury...

2011-09-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

2011-08-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading this, and it's just finished being made!

http://www.bohemiandrive.com/comics/npwil/1.html

It's fantastic

Bleh!

2011-05-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

This has been a long time coming. I did a quick picture of this guy way back (which is further down the blog, and a horrible picture i might add) and said I'd make a model of it, better late than never! Good craic messing with sculpture again, it's pretty rough but I hope to do more and improve. Done with modelling clay and a penknife.

Some different angles:

The Amazing World Of Gumball Sneek Peak

2011-03-11T01:59:00.000-08:00

I've been dying to talk about this new show so it's great to see Cartoon Network put up a sneak peek, I worked on it for about a year and a half doing 3d animation, compositing and a tiny bit of flash. It's hilarious... enjoy!

Drawing Inspiration

2011-02-25T06:03:00.001-08:00

Hola! Drawing Inspiration is a short film directed by Wesley Louis and Tim McCourt. I know Wes and a handful of other people involved with this film from working on The Illusionist with them so I was happy to help out with a small bit of animation for it. The guys put a lot of hard work into it and I'm happy to say that it's turned out to be a very beautiful looking film so give it a watch and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOVo7k15uyE

There's also a blog with lots of cool art and pre production stuff so take a look.

http://drawinginspirationproduction.blogspot.com/

Hello Handsome!

2011-02-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately this is inspired by a real photo of me... ladies, form an orderly queue please!

bus sketches

2011-02-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

I decided to stop being a lazy bastard so I bought some sketch pads and am now learning to draw again! Mind you, I'm sick of drawing the back of people's heads.

Showreel

2010-11-10T17:30:00.000-08:00

11 Second Club

2010-11-09T16:01:00.000-08:00

Yo! Been awhile since I posted anything, been pretty busy working on Gumball but anyway... excuses, excuses! I submitted this to the 11 Second Club last month, many hours work but delighted to say that I came in 10th place so... whoop whoop!

The Illusionist Website

2010-06-08T03:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.lillusionniste-lefilm.com/#/home

I worked on this film for about 2 years and I finally get to see it next week in Edinburgh which I'm so excited about! The website has plenty of clips so check it out and enjoy!

Tina come get some ham!

2010-06-01T03:06:00.000-07:00

Ah hoi hoi, we have a little gallery going on in work where you can do a picture and put it up on the wall so this was printed out in a5 and framed. It's the first time I've seriously tried to do a caricature so I think it was wise to go with someone with very distinct features like Napoleon Dynamite. It's a pretty rough around the edges but I'm fairly happy with it based on the amount of time I allowed myself to do it, roughly 2/3 hours. Hope you dig!

Illusionist trailer

2010-04-15T08:29:00.001-07:00

At long last.... http://www.catsuka.com/news_detail.php?id=1268779054

It's been on the net for awhile now, I just haven't gotten around to posting it. Speaking of the illusionist, I was in Glasgow last weekend and I met up with a couple of peeps who I worked with on it, many laughs were had! Great to see you guys again... you know who you are!!

Muddled Comic

2010-01-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

My pal and a friend of his do a comic together called Muddled Comic. It's a good laugh so check it out, I've added a link to it on the left hand side of the page.

The Amazing World of Gumball!

2010-01-03T10:32:00.001-08:00

This is a picture of the show I'm animating on at the moment. Boulder Media are making it for Cartoon Network and I'm doing 3d animation, such as the 2 characters looking at them over the fence. It's a great show and very funny so I'm dying for it to air on TV... but that's a long way away!

You Buy Now!!

2009-12-30T10:36:00.000-08:00

I saw an ad on TV the other day for Just For Men. It was basically the same as this without the blatant slogan at the end but gave off the same message. It made me laugh.

This is also the 1st piece of completely traditional work I've done in ages!............. except for the colour in the background which I didn't want to waste me markers on..... ah nuts.

Katie Kate!

2009-12-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

This was for Kate's 1st birthday, she's my niece, happy birthday missus..... I'm done painting babies!!

Baby!

2009-12-30T10:20:00.000-08:00

Did this for a friend of the family, it's her grand daughter. Babies are hard to get right cuz there's less creases to break up the face.

Cowboy

2009-10-21T14:02:00.001-07:00

Quick sketch done with gimp which l'm trying for the 1st time (download it, it's great!)

More Illusionist

2009-07-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

Yo, some more screenshots from 'The Illusionist' have surfaced on the net, as you can see it looks pretty damn nice!... still no idea when it's coming out though. Thanks to Kenny that I got a hold of them which he got from Catsuka.

Happy Saturday!

Gizzlefrizzle!

2009-07-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hola! I've been a naughty blogger for the last couple months, I haven't uploaded anything in far too long. SO....... living back in Ireland now for awhile, it's pretty cool except for the lack of funds coupled with higher price tags for everything! Missing all the Ink crew back in Dundee, great bunch of people and never a dull moment... hope yis are all dandy!

Anyway, I painted this back in May for my girlfriend Carol who, as of yesterday, I'm with 3 years now or 1096 DAYS!..........meow

Hope you dig!

ps it was for her birthday

Mortal Kombat

2009-04-08T00:46:00.001-07:00

Yeah so this painting turned out a lot different than the one I started with which you can see further down the blog. I liked the way the old 1 was going until I went to bed then looked at it again with fresh eyes and hated it so I started again and this was the result.

I wanted a cool light source from 1 side and a warm light source from the other. So when I decided to start again I realised that the reason it went wrong the 1st time was because I didn't do any research, I just launched straight in and started colouring based on my own ideas of what it would look like... *slap* bad Michael!

In the end I found what I was looking for in a Father Ted episode where Ted and Dougal get lost in the very dark caves and lo and behold there's a shot inside the cave where Ted is lit by 2 lights... a blue light from 1 side and a red light from the other. Examples can be found in the weirdest places!

Blue n yeller!

2009-03-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

Work in progress but felt like posting something, been looking forward to painting this for awhile. Careful clicking on it, it's big... it's bedtime so I don't have much else to say!

pup animation

2009-03-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

CLICK ON THE VIDEO WHILE PLAYING FOR THE UNCROPPED VERSION!!

yo yo, been working on this for awhile now, i'll probably go back and add a more interesting background and shadows at some stage but for now i'm done.... looking forward to moving onto something new. enjoy and critique away!

The Illusionist

2009-03-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

So we're all working like mad to get The Illusionist finished at the moment. Not a lot of info about it available but some pictures showed up recently on the net so here they are!

This one's been on the net for awhile though

whoot!

2009-03-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

Quick update, I typed the name of my student film, Footprint Lake, into google for the craic and I found this:

http://faculty.dundee.ac.uk/237/international.jsp

Pretty chuffed about it heehee!

oh yeah and thanks Wes for mentioning me on your blog!

Peace

fan art

2009-03-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

quickie post, fanart galore... hiyyyyaaah!

boogie-woogie

2009-02-25T16:14:00.000-08:00

just doodling one day and came up with this, i'll probably clean it up and paint it at some point.

Bleh!

2009-02-25T16:04:00.000-08:00

These are the evil Buff aliens, sworn enemy of Spifton and Spectro!! got my hands on some modelling clay (thanks bob) so gonna make this guy in this pose. I like the idea of him being disgusted by a cute lil bunny or a kitten.

Pow!

2009-02-25T15:46:00.000-08:00

So I created this guy waaaaay back around 94/95 when I was about 11 years old for a comic me and my pal made which we won 1st prize in a create-a-book competition. I was big into Calvin and Hobbes at the time so spaceman spiff was a big influence hence I named him spifton (took me ages to come up with that name!). The teenager posing next to him was my friends creation, he's called spectro and they fought the evil Buff aliens who I'm gonna post a picture of in awhile. Good fun going back and redesigning him after such a long time.

I was pretty shocked when the incredibles came out years later........... meh, coincidence.

Off The Wall

2009-02-22T17:36:00.000-08:00

Helped 2 of my pals out a few months back with a film they were doing for their masters, I did the shot where the graffiti monster starts running and the shot immediately after where it falls over the boxes but not the awesome particle effects that follow unfortunatley just the character animation. Very intersting project to work on cuz certain animation had to happen at a specific time, a limitation I've never had to deal with but I enjoyed it. And cuz it was blended with live action which was awesome! Please check it out!

Enjoy

Off_The_Wall_vfx from Off The Wall on Vimeo.

tobias (work in progress)

2009-02-22T17:32:00.000-08:00

another work in progress, the voice is tobias from arrested development... one of the best tv shows ever made! i used a generic rig i got from the internet, when it's finished he'll be in a bar falling off his stool....... drunken swine!

note to self, next time don't do the lip sync before the body, bad practice..... apparently!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z2KvRN2iKo

Puppy falls down! (work in progress)

2009-02-22T15:03:00.001-08:00

this is a short piece of animation i've been working on after work for an hour or two a night. done in flash, pretty happy with how it's going..... until I have to add in the ears and tail *bites fist*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-TKY2KoPww

Footprint Lake

2009-02-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to my student film which I made in my final year at University of Dundee. It was hard work and I was running into problems almost everyday but a good experience nonetheless, enjoy!

http://imaging.dundee.ac.uk/animation2007/movie_11.html

untitled

2009-02-22T13:27:00.000-08:00

Yo, haven't updated my blog in awhile, having some trouble getting stuff to work properly... seems to be a pretty temperamental website especially with videos! When I figure out how to do it I'll upload some more stuff. In the meantime here's some big feckin robots whoot!!!

http://uk.movies.ign.com/dor/objects/948398/transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen/videos/trans_fallen_tlr_021609.html

Pup study

2009-01-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

I've an idea for short piece of animation with a puppy so I did a little research.

Zing!

2009-01-27T14:28:00.000-08:00

Lifedrawing

2009-01-27T14:25:00.001-08:00

Does what it says on the tin.

Deviant art stuff

2009-01-27T14:02:00.001-08:00

These are some pieces I posted on my dev art page that I wanted to bring over here cuz I don't hate them yet! They range from fairly recent to pretty old.

This took way too long to get to this stage and it was late so I never finished it.... dunno what he's supposed to be doing......... checking his watch maybe.

Just practising portraiture, I was trying to get the hang of making it actually look like the person I was drawing or painting so I thought Jack Nicholson would be a good one to do cuz he's got such a unique face.

I did this a good while ago..... with a mouse......... it was difficult.

Greyscale, lensflare, kachowwww!!

This is Death from my first student film 'The Last Stand'. I modelled, texture and rigged him but he's not my design I'm afraid, Steve McCarthy gets dibs on that one.

Me Da!

2009-01-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

I'll start with this since it's the latest thing I've done. Did this at the weekend, my dad has been nagging me to do a portrait of him for months and since it was his birthday this weekend I finally did it. Done in photoshop and took about 8 hours including distractions (phone calls, playing with belly button fluff etc.) I'm pretty chuffed with it. That's it for today, I'm going to bed.

Greetings!

2009-01-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

Ah well hello there, finally got around to starting a blog so.... dunno where to start! Probably just gonna bring some of my deviantart stuff that i still like over here so it'll be some old stuff getting posted and then.... I'll see........... *pop*