Happy Halloween!

Animation Principles class at Woodbury University 2014, Guest Lecturer: Tim Burton.
Plus, Can you pick out the student who also works as Mickey Mouse at Disneyland?

WatchCat in Progress!

I thought I would let you know about a new web series I'm working on called "WatchCat". Every Wednesday, I am posting a "Making Of " blog entitled: The WatchCat Files. Without spoiling our first webisode, Its a little behind the scenes and attempt to document the animation progress of this project.

So take a look and see what you think. Any comments or suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated...

You are the client! : Your Choice

Last Week, I invited everyone to pick one of 10 possible rough cartoon character designs. I promised not to mention any names, only which number got the most votes and asked, "Which Cartoon guy do you like and why? " The real Client already made their choice and Thanks for all the emails, Wow!

Ok, here are some of the results...

 Choice #   1  =   42 picks

 Choice #   2  =     5 picks

 Choice #   3  =     0 picks

 Choice #   4  =   28 picks

 Choice #   5  =   37 picks

 Choice #   6  =   13 picks

 Choice #   7  =   94 picks

 Choice #   8  = 138 picks

 Choice #   9  =   17 picks

 Choice # 10  =   12 picks

Thanks again to all 387 of you for sending in your choices. It was great to hear from all of you. One person chose the guy in the middle, under #4, which I completely forgot to give a number.

The real Client chose....

And as soon as I receive my first payment, I will clean up this choice and have a final design for the Client to approve. And so, as they say in France, " Le chèque est dans la poste !"

You are the Client!

Does this ever happen to you? You are working on your own project with a deadline you hope to reach when suddenly, an outside job opportunity comes along. Now you have to drop everything again and work on this other project, which is paying for your time and expertise.

Recently, a short commercial has driven up to my front door and needs my animation help. Its a small car commercial spot which involves two important things. 1) Design a cartoon version of an actual car dealer and 2) Animate the entire :30 spot in October.(ha!)

First, when starting a job you need to find out all the information you can about what they want, when is their deadline and how much will they pay. Once you have some of this info, you need to put together a bid or an estimate of how much time and labor it will take you to accomplish the project. I'm skipping over all this stuff since this is not a business blog and going right for the animation process stuffing.

I will mention that when I bid on this job, it was a totally different idea when my bid was approved. Luckily, even though its was a different idea altogether, the new idea was a lot simplier than the first, but does involve some character designs and rough storyboarding.

Most large studios or ad agencies have a storyboarded concept and character designs already to send off to the chosen animation studio. Smaller places don't.

The client sent me a photo of a real Car Deal guy, who I'm suppose to create a cartoon version of and so, experience has taught me to draw a bunch of rough ideas, number them and let the client decide which one they would like me to do more work on.

And now, You are the client!  

Your Deadline is Friday:10/10/14

Here are 10 possible cartoon characters, perhaps the next Homer Simpson! Which Cartoon guy do you like and if you can tell why? 

The real Client already made their choice, but I want to hear from you!!! You may send me a comment and let me know which number you like and I won't mention your name.  

Vote Early, Vote Often!  Submit by 10/10/14