A fun little animation by Russ Cox

 
©2011 Scott Pet|Smiling Otis Studio

I just completed this animation for Scott Pet. They will be using the Flash animation on their new website which should be launching any day now. They sell pet products (http://www.scottpet.com/) but have a special website, Pork Chomps, just for dog treats. Working with them on the animation was a lot of fun since they gave me creative freedom. They wanted the animation to appeal to kids as well as adults with color and graphic look. After several email and phone concepts were tossed around, we both liked the idea of Chomper dreaming of a land of treats.

 

I developed the storyboard which broke down the concept into visual elements.
 
Once the storyboard was approved, I did a the final art in Adobe illustrator CS5. I still prefer doing my animation artwork in Illustrator because I find the tools easier to use but I should start drawing more in Flash since it would save some time. After importing all of the elements into Flash, I first organize the pieces into folders so there are easy to locate. Next the timeline is setup and the images are placed according to the storyboard. Several of the pieces are their own separate animations which allows for a more fluid movement on the main timeline. Plus it is easier to edit if needed. After a first run of the animation, we did not like the change from the city scene to the billboards. It was too drastic so added Chomper taking off into the sky and they flying over the billboards. Once the site is live, the billboards are actual links to subpages on the site. I think the animation turned out very well and tells a little story in under 20 seconds which is not easy to do.

Here is the final video (Please note that I had to convert the video to a format for YouTube so there is a big quality drop off. Keep checking their website to see the better version.)


Next up is the wild and wonderful world of Debbie Ohi.

www.smilingotis.com
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Tick Tock Taylor from Hazel Mitchell

In your bookstores soon will be the first chapter book in a series of four featuring mini cheerleaders!

Written by Anastasia Suen and published by Kane and Miller each book in the All-Star Cheerleaders series will follow one member of the Glitter squad as they practice, compete, make new friends, learn new moves and most of all ... have fun! 

I know I had a lot of fun creating Tick Tock!

Being from England originally I don't have a lot of experience with cheerleading, so it was interesting to research and find out more. I can totally see why girls are in to it. I also had to learn about the moves and the holds for the black and white images in the book.

 I started out with some rough character sketches ...

 

Then I inked by hand with a dipping ink pen because it gives a lively line. You have to be quick though or you get blots.

 I added the grayscale shading in photoshop.

Here are a few more of the interior illustrations:

 

So if you have a young cheerleader or wannabe in your life watch out for Tick Tock Taylor coming soon! Looking forward to illustrating the next book n the series!

Thanks for visiting Pixel Shavings.

See more of my work online at hazelmitchell.com

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http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/HazelMitchellSketchbook

Call back next week to join the fun here on Pixel Shavings with Russ Cox.

Toodles!

Hazel

A Daring Adventure by Sheralyn Barnes

Spring is finally here and my thoughts have turned to greener pastures....and my portfolio. We are less than two months away from the incredibly exciting LA SCBWI conference. Which also means that I have been spending all my extra time since the conference last year trying to tighten up my portfolio with all that I have learned and absorbed from so many wonderful people in the children's book world this past year. It seems that all the valuable information and commentary that I have received has finally begun to sink in and I've had some major epiphanies about my work recently.

One of these epiphanies is just how few children (and human beings in general) there are in my portfolio. As many of you well know, it is filled to the brim with sheep. So, I decided to set a challenge for myself this month and pursue drawing children and other animals with renewed determination. 

I've made a point to hang out at the local zoo on school field trip days so that I can study and draw them both. This has been incredibly enlightening, fun, and a great excuse to get out of the studio.

Here are some sketches of some of the kids....

I also decided that I would use Illustration Friday as my catalyst for making up scenes for my mystery child and mystery animal. For anyone who isn't familiar with Illustration Friday, it is a site that gives you a new topic on which to draw every Friday and you have one week to post an illustration that embodies that topic. 

Of course then I had to come up with a child character and an animal or animals to interact with her/him.  I'm a bit of an over-thinker and like to build special relationships with all the beings in my two dimensional world, so that took a little time. Thanks to the Natalie Merchant song "The Dancing Bear" coming on my Itunes shuffle one day, I discovered my characters and their premise for meeting..... A little girl who has run away to join the circus and a performing bear who wants to run away from the circus. Then I let Illustration Friday call the scenes.

For this first one, the topic was "Asleep"

For the second...."Shadows"

I can definitely see the character development take shape in the second. I'm amazed how much my confidence in drawing the little girl grew in just one week (which is pretty apparent in the illustrations... although I am also drawn to the simplicity of the first). I love having a deadline to work within thanks to Illustration Friday. It's making me work and learn at a faster pace, which is also helping me to hone my computer painting skills. Most of all I am very excited to see what journey this little girl and bear (and Illustration Friday), are going to take me on!

Thanks so much for checking in! See you here next week when Hazel takes the stage for your incredible enjoyment!

www.sheralynbarnes.com

www.illustrationfriday.com

Giant Hugs from Fred Koehler

At the end of this month, I get to spend the whole day in an SCBWI illustration intensive led by Ruth Cummins, Associate Art Director at Simon & Schuster. Our "homework" was to pick three or four pieces from our portfolio that demonstrate our style and the work we'd like to be doing.

Today's post is one of those pieces, a rework of my second favorite from the "Almost Giant" series. I was really happy for this assignment, because the discovery of who we are and who we want to be as artists is a significant achievement.

For instance I've always loved to create work that rewards the careful observer. I like to hide characters and messages in clever ways. I also like it when the whole drawing winks at you as though you're part of the story, too. Mediums and subjects will change from project to project, but a rockstar illustrator can't help but inject his/her character into every piece.

So consider yourself hugged, wish me luck at the conference, and check back next week for a fabulous post from the inestimable Sheralyn Barnes.

 

freddiek.com