Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes Plastic Beach Wireframe

Hey avid blog readers! here is a little update on the progress of my Plastic Beach model. I was using this model purely as reference for composing shots in the beginning, but I have to complete it to production standards by the end for use in moving camera shots, such as the planes attack runs on the Island. I am being pulled in several directions at the moment but I will try to update more images and behind the scenes tidbits when I can! thanks for tuning in Gorillaz fans!

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes Fan Video - Russell and Noodle poster (to let you know I am not dead)

It's been a while since the last update on my video, so I thought I would share one now. This is a cleaned up image from the video (added the sky and shading for dramatic purposes :)) I will update more when I can, but things are always hectic for the freelance animators of the world.

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes Extended Clip

Hi all, it's been a little while, but as promised, here is a substantial update on my progress on the one and only Gorillaz Rhinstone Eyes fan video. Once again, this clip is a taste of what has been completed so far, and in no way represents the sum total of my progress. At this point I would say that the overall completion of the entire video sits at about the 30% range.



I would like to give a big shout out and thanks once again to my wife, Yaoyao and her work on the backgrounds and artwork for this video!

Also, if you like that there are fans out there willing to spend time making these projects then check out Frameslinger and his fan video for 5/4, which like mine, is based on an unreleased storyboard video! give him a look!

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes - Boogeyman Ahoy

This week's teaser image is of the almost completed Boogeyman's ship that will be the center of a great deal of the action in this video.  The model as shown here is at about 80% completion, and was made in Maya/textured in Photoshop.

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes - Teaser 2

The second teaser clip from my Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes fan video. This is the same clip that I released an animation test for a little while back, now in a much more finished state. There has been speculation that the clips released represent the sum total of all the completed work thus far, and I can assure you that is not the case. The video is coming along nicely, and the parts I choose to show are purely so that the fans can get a taste for what is in store.

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes - 2D's room Poster

New image for today! This one is special because it is the first to feature a background created by my partner in crime (and wife) Yaoyao. She is going to be helping me out on the video with animation and background design, check out her blog, and give her some of that Gorillaz fan love!

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes Fan Video Teaser

New Teaser is up for Rhinestone Eyes! My Gorillaz fan video inches closer to completion every day! Here is the latest snippet of animation released. These clips are still a work in progress, and merely serve to show the kind of style the video will have when it is completed. Like and Subscribe on Youtube and I will post more!

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes - Cyborg Noodle In Action

A new image from my Rhinestone Eyes fan video. Noodle brandishing her newly made twin Uzi Carbines.

Gorillaz Rhinstone Eyes Test Animation...with Murdoc!

Hi Gorillaz fans, as promised I am trying to update my progress on Rhinestone Eyes as much as possible, so today I thought I would share a little bit of footage. Murdoc, with Cyborg Noodle not far behind, sneak up on The Boogeyman in this shot. The animation was done in Flash and After Effects. Stay tuned for more Rhinestone Eyes news!

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes... Cyborg Noodle has arrived

So for this past week I have been working to get the Cyborg Noodle model done and rigged for my Rhinestone Eyes fan vid, and it came out better and sooner than I expected, so here is a teaser of what to expect! The model was made using Maya, textured in Photoshop (I'm oldschool like that). All thats left to do on her is sculpt her facial expressions, since she is going through some pretty heavy emotions in this video! More soon...

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes: Teaser Poster #2

Due to the overwhelming and lovely response to the material I have put out so far, I thought I would throw up another image as a thank you!

The support for the project has inspired me to work faster and harder to make sure this isn't another film lost to the "someday" files.

Thanks everyone! More updates soon...

Gorillaz - Rhinestone Eyes Teaser Poster

The first official image from my Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes fan video. The mission of this film is to fully realize the amazing storyboard video for the un-produced Rhinestone Eyes music video, completing the storyline for the Plastic Beach campaign. This film is being made by me, purely as a fan of the incomparable Gorillas, out of a desire to see the story finished in the visual style that Gorillaz fans are accustomed to.

* This is a fan video, I do not own anything, all content owned by Gorillaz/respective copyright owners.

Black Stormtrooper 3 has been released!

The third installment of the ongoing Black Stormtrooper series is finally here! I worked closely with the series creator Donald Faison, to create sets and special effects that would bring as much of a classic Star Wars feel to the show as we could, while still keeping it very "Lego". Enjoy!

Hand Made Cigar Box Ukulele

For a few months now, in my spare time, I have been making a Ukulele from scratch, using a cigar box as the starting point. The basic idea is to take a wooden Cigar Box (though you can use non wooden ones as well, resulting in different acoustics), build and attach the neck, fret board etc, cut a hold in the box, string it up and you have yourself a musical instrument! The neck was certainly the most challenging part, as it required the most finessing. First the wood, (which was salvaged from a scrap bin, and so I am unsure of what kind it was, but Birch is my guess from the color) had to be cut at a precise angle, glued, and then cut to rough size with a band saw, planed down and finally sanded to the final shape. Once assembled, I stained the fretboard to give it a little contrast, and then coated the whole thing with a few coats of a polyurethane to protect it. The sound it makes is decent, not quite as loud as my other, store-bought one, but it has a more rustic quality, which I like.

                     

Denis Leary's Merry F#%$in' Christmas

I was a part of the small team of extremely talented folks who put together the illustrations for this book, a christmas tale filled with Dennis Leary's special brand of debautury and delightfully dark seasonal humor! The book is an adaptation of the song taken from Denis Leary's 2004 comedy album Merry F'n Christmas. Denis Leary's Merry F#%$in' Christmas is now available for purchase on Amazon.com or wherever books are sold!

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*Update - Comedy Central just reposted the original, uncensored video. Enjoy!

The Story Of Pines - Watch the full film online now!

Here it is ladies and gents, The Story Of Pines, featuring the music of Alison Sudol. Thanks to Musa Brooker for giving me the chance to be a part of such a magical little film! Please comment, like etc, anything you can to help spread the word about this film!

Preview of upcoming film I worked on, The Story Of Pines

Check out the first preview of the upcoming short film The Story Of Pines for which I was responsible for visual effects and compositing.

The film is a collaboration with Alison Sudol, lead singer of the band A Fine Frenzy, and the film helps to tell the story of her new album "The Story Of Pines".



The film debuts online on October 2nd on Take Part TV, and will be posted here as well.

Wake The F**k Up - Staring Samuel L Jackson

This is a short election piece that I worked on, which stars none other than Samuel L Jackson. I was responsible for the visual effects/compositing in this ad using animation created by Musa Brooker. I really love the piece, as it is a funny, some might say controversial (if you are offended by bad language) way of delivering a message I am passionate about. I feel very privileged to have been a part of it, and hope that it serves as a reminder of all the president has achieved in his 4 short years in office. *update Link has been taken down, here is a mirror. and here is a segment with my favorite news group The Young Turks, talking about the video.

Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes Video - Fighter Plane Render

Hey all, I said I would update progress on my Gorillaz fan project as soon as I could, so here is a little teaser for you. This is the same model of WW2 fighter planes that was attacking noodle in the Melancholy Hill video, and are back to cause trouble in this one! Gorillaz videos are known for fusing live action, practical model photography, traditional animation and cutting edge CGI and I am attempting to stick as closely to their style as possible. Modeled using Maya 2010, textured in Photoshop.

News - Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes Video now in production (by me)

Hey avid blog readers! So after several months of working on top secret projects that I can neither show nor talk about, I thought I would share something that I CAN talk about, and that has me very excited!

Those who know me are aware that I am a huge fan of "virtual hip-hop" UK outfit Gorillaz. Those of you who follow their work know that the final music video from the Plastic Beach phase, the video to accompany the track Rhinestone Eyes, was never made due to budgetary constraints, and rather a storyboarded version put up as the official video. Well I have taken it upon myself to create that video in full animation, purely from a fan perspective, and with no financial gain in mind. It just seems like such a shame that these incredible storyboards were never taken to completion, and that the fans of the Gorillaz were never given the conclusion to the Plastic Beach narative. I will keep updates coming on my progress with the video on this page, releasing screen shots etc as often as I can. Watch this space for more Gorillaz Rhinestone Eyes video news!

Daxter Speed Painting - The First Post Of 2012 (sorry)

So this is a digital speed painting. It was done in about 30 minutes using Photoshop. The aim of it was more tonal study than compositional accuracy. It's kinda whatever but I haven't posted anything for what feels like a decade so I thought this would be a nice way to ease back into it.

Anyone who knows me knows my affinity for the play station 2 generation platforming heroes Jak and Daxter, and so the subject of this painting will make complete sense as my easing back into the world of doing stuff.

Clank Puppet First Animation Test (stop motion)

So despite being super busy for the last few months, I have been trying to do some stop motion animation in my spare time using the Clank puppet I whipped up. This is my first little test, its nothing special really, just the character doing a confidant, robotic looking walk cycle. I will be trying to do more with the puppet soon, testing out it's limitations etc. Will post more when I have a chance!


Animation Test - Clank puppet walk from richard van as on Vimeo.

Clank Stop Motion Puppet

He may be Ratchet's adorable robot sidekick to some, to others he is Secret Agent Clank, master spy, but to me he is a brilliantly designed character which I have been wanting to animate for some time, though I thought I would be doing it in CGI. However I recently installed Dragon Stop Motion on my computer and have been dying to really test it out, so I created this puppet in order to do some broad gesture animations to add to my show reel! I will update with the animation clips once I am finished with them!

New Walking In Circles Episodes

So I have up until now been posting each new episode of Walking In circles as it Debuts here on my main blog. To keep things nice and organized what I am doing now is posting them to the new Walking In Circles page on my blog, which can be found in the pages column to the right. I will be posting all of the newest production art, episodes, Krag Cams and any other juicy tidbits on there for you to check out! Be sure and check back for new content every Tuesday!

Black StormTrooper update!

http://thatsmoo-say.blogspot.com/2011/07/coming-soon-black-storm-trooper-iii.html

Check out this minor photo update hot off of the set of the next episode of Black StormTrooper, coming soon (we hope).

As you can see my good friends Donald Faison and Musa Brooker, as well as my super talented wife Yaoyao are having a ball getting this latest episode on the way, its going to be something else!

Sorry about the lack of actual animation being posted on here recently, I have just been busy on a bunch of as-of-yet-unfinished projects. I promise I will get back to my personal stuff as soon as I can, I still have Lego Lost episodes to make, Cartoon life lessons I want to do, as well as about 300,000 other wacky ideas floating around my brain. All things come to those who bare with me.

Also, as an added bonus for continuing to check out my blog, here is a little sneaky image that will be appearing in the next episode and causing some trouble!

Walking In Circles Episode 1: Party Up

watch it, laugh, sound off in the comments!

Walking In Circles Premiere

Last night I was most fortunate to attend the premiere of the soon-to-be-hit show Walking In Circles. It was quite the spectacle having all of those people in one room knowing just how much time and effort went into the producing of this show, not to mention the financing. It was equally wonderful to see the clearly deserving cast and crew get to take a moment in the spot light, sit back and see what they had made and how well the audience responded to it. I am really proud to be a part of the show and I will update on here when episode 1 is released and for the other episodes as they come out. Be sure and Like the show on Facebook and follow along on Twitter to show your support!

whew, busy couple of months!

http://www.whosay.com/donaldfaison/photos/37268

check out this special preview hot off the set of Black Stormtrooper 3! It is going to be the citizen caine of lego stop motion films.

These last few months have also been made busy by the fact that I have been working very hard on some top-secret CG happenings for the epic web series Walking In Circles, which is set to make it's debut sometime in July, stay tuned for more announcements on that and check out the teaser bellow!
*update* full trailer now available!

BlackStormTrooper

So recently I have not been posting too much, and the reasons are two-fold. Number 1, I have been sending my demo reel out and focusing on gaining a toe hold in the industry, and number 2, I've been working with Donald Faison (IMDB) on his awesome BlackStormTrooper series (!), and that has been keeping me pretty busy. Episode 3 is shaping up to be awesome though! Black Stormtrooper and Jack Move are going to take their first steps into a much larger world! If you haven't yet checked Black StormTrooper out, go to Shundigga's channel on YouTube and check it out! It's awesome for any Star Wars fans, Lego fans, or fans of general awesomeness!

LEGO Lost Trailer

Hey readers, I know that some of you out there were probably as big of a fan of the best (in my humble opinion) TV show of all time, ABC's LOST. Well since the show ended there has definitely been a hole in my TV watching soul that has not been filled yet. As a hobby I started to recreate some of my favorite characters and props from the show out of LEGO using the art of CGI. The aim was to eventually create either a short film, game trailer or movie trailer paying homage to the most finely crafted TV show in history. I got as far as creating a whole bunch of assets, a lot of the major characters like Jack, Kate, Sawer etc etc (none of which are rigged yet) and had to stop due to pressing deadlines and such in other areas of my life, so here is the work so far. I want to call this project temporarily shelved because I really do have a huge desire to finish it, but that will have to wait until some other commitments get taken care of first.
 *Update* Teaser trailer now available. Comments and feedback please!!!

Dharma Van, in LEGO!

Dharma Van wireframe

The plane that started it all; Oceanic 815

The ill-fated raft

"Were gonna have to take the boy"

Raft details. Those are oranges in the crates.