It all started with this, a simple brainstorm. I guess i could have come out with more ideas if i just had the time, but the proposal deadline happened to be just after the assessment.
It’s good though, because it makes you think quite fast and avoid the clichè.
From those, i restricted the selection to two main project ideas: Archeopteryx and It’s a cat life
It has been a while since the last time i’ve drawn something complete using digital tools. I had already posted the working in progress for this, but here’s the final version.
The character belongs to Dragonflame95 on DeviantArt
So, here’s my final outcome. Some movement’s are completely wrong, but at least i’ve managed to finish everything in time.
All the digital drawing were made using Paint Tool Sai and a Wacom Tablet. The cutouts were coloured and drawn traditionally and animated with Dragon. Everything was then edited with Final Cut Pro.
Once I got the narrative sequence approved by my teacher, i worked on the character design. I looked around for a particular breed which would have match perfectly with my story and that happened to be the Greyhound. Yes, they’re great when it comes to run, but as soon as they reach your home’s couch, they will lie there sleeping for hours.
This was the final character design:
For this project we had to concentrate on sounds and choose some of them from a list provided in our course’s handbook. We had to link at least three sounds with three pictures (always listed in the handbook) in a creative way. A narrative sequence wasn’t necessary, but i found it useful to link sounds and images which wouldn’t have worked all alone.
As always, i started with some brainstorms.
and then i moved on with the storyboard:
This was a collaborative project where we had to mix photography, animation and live action. Our group was made just by animator, although one of them shoot all the live action sequences and took the pictures we used as a background (and did the editing as well!).
The project’s aim was to create a documentary-like piece which aimed at giving informations. After many attempt to get a clear idea, we focused on the problem of insomnia, which is kind of persecuting us now.
We’ve found this website where lots of people suffering from this desease were publishing their stories. We originally selected three of them, but due to time problems, we’ve been able to produce two of them.
I did most of the hand drawn animations, but without the help of the other members of the group, i would have never finished it in time.
Here is our final outcome:
My Dog Tulip is an american indipendent animated movie directed and entirely animated by Paul Fierlinger and his wife Sandra.
It is the story of a man, J. R. Ackerley, the author of the homonymous book, who’s in costant search of a friend which he cannot find among humans. By chance, he comes in posession of a german sheperd that is everything but the ideal dog everyone dreams of. Despite this, Tulip becomes Ackerley’s best friend and true lover.
This movie is really impressing considering that such a huge amount of high work quality is being made by just a couple of people. Fierlinger is an award winning animator who as worked as a free lance artist for most of his life, while his wife is a fine art painter.
When working on this film, they used to sit at their own desks in the living room and draw on the computer using a Wacom tablet. Paul would have spend even 16 hours animating, due to insomnia problems. What really made him stay awake, though, was his devotion for his work.
I’m a dog lover, and i couldn’t miss this movie! I’ve been drawing dogs since i was very little, and it has become an obsession. I reckon Fierlinger style for drawing dog in this movie does not really matches my usual tastes, but i admire the result he has achieved in portraying dogs’ behaviour. I’ve read some comments about people who didn’t like the style of the animation because they considered it too storyboards like. I totally disagree. As i am getting more into animation, i understand that an animated featured does not need to have a famous label to be considered great. I think those people do not understand it, and keep considering widely known studios like Disney and Pixar to be the only one able to produce a worth movie. Obviously, and fortunately for people who work on indipendents movies like this, that’s not true.
I must confess i found the film a bit weird at first, but then started to apreciate it. You definetely want to give it a try!
Trailer:
