More of those scenes and characters all mixed.

Been having fu testing out the creations. Making stories and narratives, here's a little taste.

Characters and Scenes

Here's a little mix of what I've been doing for Whaang.

All Flash, vector based graphics, super lite...

Backgrounds

I've been developing some backgrounds for an online comic client and thought I'd share some ideas. Created in Flash.... they are also designed to give a feel of a place where something could happen. I feel its always the ordinary where the extra-ordinary happens.

Thinking, freedom, creativity and true success.

Flash Artwork

Here's a little look at a couple of characters I've been working for Whaang.. should be going live soon, very excited about it. Users can choose backgrounds or situations, then drop in characters with different props to create there own comic stories, its a lot of fun and a great concept.

Design...

Recently been embedded in Flash illustration and to get me re energized and fresh I go out and cut the lawn or go for a run... Now these two things have recently had great change and given great thoughts.

Mowing the lawn was a chore, I had an anti Eco petrol mower that spread all the dust, twigs, small stones and occasional blades of grass over a mile radius of my garden. The kids, my wife and dog locked up safe inside as I blasted my country location with noise and fumes... NO MORE. I have an old fashioned Hodder der der (Thanks Eddie Izzard) But its more than a leap in ecological gardening, its a brilliant design. When Brilliant designs arrive you know immediately because its form and function in perfect harmony. Its like walking in the park, yes 'G and T' in one hand, kids running around, the grass looking healthy, birds singing and an amazing feeling of really enjoying myself. Another huge design feature, by accident or on purpose, is when you push the mower there is a slight by very satisfying resistance... it kicks in a split second after you start pushing giving you enough time to push with ease before it gets slightly harder and ... it feels really good. Its that simple, immediate bio feedback. Addictive and satisfying.

Now running. The foot. Michael Angelo called it the greatest of designs and now I'm trusting in evolution and my body by running barefoot. The first time just 10 minutes down the track in the woods... I smiled the whole way, it was liberating and I had so much energy. Day two rested as my calves certainly felt the difference. Day 3, 15 minutes in the woods.. feeling really good. So I just started but so far it feels right. After all they were designed for this. Inspired by Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and Barefoot Ted. Its all about thinking, really thinking about why we do what we do.

I know, no Flash in there but it'll all come out in the wash.

Character sketch

Some roughs for Flash characters.

More form the sketchbook.

Some drawing from life and as roughs for upcoming animation/comic site client of mine. All to be done in Flash, but I love the feel of pencil and paper

Characters

Been playing with some seaside characters for a online book I'm animating thought I'd share a few of them. Coming out as an interactive book about seahorses with Tumblebooks.

Characters

Fish in Flash

Kite Boy....

Sketch that led to one of my.. almost but not quite pop up cards....

Sketchbook

Here are some sketches from the sketch book.... Playing with hair styles. They are still in their infancy but I'll nurture them and see where we get to.

More Sketching...

I've had this little character in my head for a while, inspired by my daughter... she's a real free spirit, country girl with a curious fascination for pop music, Lady Ga Ga and Gymnastics... she loves her hair. I created a series of "How I wear my hair". This is one of the early ones. I'll try and upload the rest. As you can see my sketch book is used a lot the other drawings are coming through... but you still can get a good feel of where I'm going.

AND I know, no arms... but I feel it really works.

Sketchbook

I've decided to share my sketches with you.. well with anyone really. So I've started scanning my pencil drawings, these are playing with characters and situations. I guess its all part of master plan... but that will come later. These are pretty rough and you can see ideas being pushed and scrubbed around the outside, but theres still that magic quality of pencil on paper (A nice heavy 3b as well) Nothing will ever replace pencil and paper its such a wonderful sensitive and immediate medium, I love it.

Anyway I'll be posting more from my sketch book. Some are related to my animation work and some for the love of drawing.

Flash CS5 icon play time....

Playing with the new CS5 icons and banner... Just seeing how it would look if it were me. Glad its not me to be honest.

duplicateMovieClip.... where did you go?

OR ... there really is no duplicateMovieClip in AS3. So where do you go and what do you do? I used this alot in AS2, great for developing organic animations and out of synch, natural effects. so I was a little lost in the beginning. Thankfully there are lots of far more talented people than me about so stand on the shoulders of giants to help you go further.

There are many options like this from ~ Senocular ~.  The I came across this at ~ Mr. Doob ~ So clean and simple. I really like it, although it duplicates objects/swf's from outside your file, for me not a problem. You just have to keep your assets in good order. He has some great lab works to play with as well.

If you search there are many ways round it, seems a shame to lose such a useful tool, but I guess its out shone by everything else that AS3 has to offer.

A quick sketch of Obama. Done in Photoshop with my Wacom.

Photoshop fun and biscuits...

Logo fun for You The Biscuit. 

Crunchy, tasty and really good dunked. Hows that for a pitch line...

Animation

Tall Thin Walk. AS3, bones tool is great for limbs and giving that pendulum feel. This is a different style. Wire in mind, just a simple character test.


link to animation here ~ http://www.youthebiscuit.com/play01.html

Not really but almost, Pop-up card.

I guess this is a cross over hybrid model. More of a 'bend round card' than a pop up. I playing with characters and exploring more interesting ways of showing them.

Card, pen and ink and a little glue.