Marked Animation: The Blahg.

Updates Coming Soon

2011-12-15T02:34:00.003-05:00

I've been eating, breathing and pooping work lately. .... freelance!

Updates about everything from work to not-work will get posted on the blahg soon; until then enjoy this handsome sketch.

Some Nudity for Your Tuesdity

2011-11-01T13:31:00.000-04:00

I sketched this up in the wee hours of the morning today... my friend Tim Haldeen recently introduced me to the world of .03mm lead size and cross-hatching has never been more addictive. Maybe it's the animator in me but I love tedious work sometimes.

Looking at it now he looks to me like a strung-out Mark Twain.

Tooooooooga.

2011-10-27T00:15:00.001-04:00

click to enlarge

Been busy the last couple of days coming up with these character designs.

Lab Rats Love

2011-10-12T01:38:00.003-04:00

The End of Summer

2011-10-11T02:18:00.001-04:00

click to enlarge

Here's a tiny sample of some of the design & animation work I've been doing lately in Illustrator. I'll make some time to post more and update my website soon.

*design not actually summer related in context.

Concept Art & Painting in Photoshop

2011-09-20T02:54:00.000-04:00

I took a stab at some concept-arting* for a project last month that involved painting in Photoshop. I haven't done much digital painting yet so it was pretty new to me; I really enjoyed doing it & want to work on refining it more. Just think of all the detailed pimples & vivid in-grown hairs I could paint... maybe if I ever save up enough money to get me a fancy new Cintiq...**

click to enlarge

More on these & what they're for later...

* If you want to check out what beautiful professional-level concept art looks like, check out this great tumblr feed: FUCKYEAHCONCEPTART

** In the meantime, I did take the time to pre-order Wacom's new Inkling on Amazon.com and if you love to draw and are looking for a $200 investment that will change the way you sketch & edit illustrations then I highly encourage you to do the same. I think it will be a great opportunity to get back into hand-drawn animation as well, since there's no tedious need to scan every image.

Hustle 'n' Bustle

2011-09-14T13:22:00.000-04:00

Here's an angry mob I whipped up for a recent freelance project. BONUS: it's animatable!

More work coming soon, work has been all up in my guts as of late.

Off the Air "Dance" Titles

2011-09-07T16:32:00.000-04:00

A good friend & former coworker at Columbia College gave me the wonderful opportunity to do a bit of animation for an [adult swim] show called Off the Air. This episode was about dance, and I was commissioned to do the opening title sequence. It was great to be a part of such an interesting piece of television, and not just endtags this time!

Thanks, Cody!

Irene says Hi.

2011-08-27T20:55:00.000-04:00

Let's see how this pans out.

Officially Freelance.

2011-08-20T18:12:00.002-04:00

That is all for today.

Sketch of My Pep-Pep

2011-08-11T10:00:00.003-04:00

click to enlarge

I drew this last night while watching crappy TV, just as my father would've wanted. Miss ya Pops!

Happy Birthday Rob Cohen!

2011-08-10T18:17:00.000-04:00

click to enlarge

I drew this up in Illustrator today for my friend & colleague Rob Cohen who turned 30 today. I didn't know him during his teen years but I needed to give that hairstyle the homage it deserved. Happy Birthday Rob!

NOW & THEN (...sorry Rob)

Remembering I Can Draw Things...

2011-08-03T12:06:00.001-04:00

click to enlarge

Thanks for the ride back to NYC, Locksley! Time to get back down to business...

BONUS: I drew this on some brown paper during a production meeting today & bumped it up with a few highlights in Photoshap:

"Second Hand" by Isaac King

2011-07-31T18:36:00.000-04:00

I'm on another busy hiatus but hopefully things will be cooling down soon. Thanks to the power of technology I can blog from the comfort of my own laptop inside of a van crossing Indiana (thanks for the ride, Locksley!) and finally get some time to catch up.
I love the art direction of the video above, it's such a great combination of mixing digital mediums that you don't see enough of really. I love the way he handled the translation of the character designs into the quasi-3D environment; very well done!
Until I get back to NYC, I thought I'd post a few links to a few [more] things I've enjoyed via the internet lately:

MUSIC:
Kanye West & Jay-Z "Otis" (WatchTheThrone.com) http://watchthethrone.com/otis/
DoomStarks "Victory Laps" (2dopeboyz) http://www.2dopeboyz.com/2011/07/11/doomstarks-mf-doom-x-ghostface-killah-victory-laps-madvillainz-rmx/
Nikki Jean "La Di Da Di Da" (iTunes)
Rock Creek Park EP oddisee (iTunes)
Ghostfunk EP Max Tannone x Ghostface Killah (okayplayer) http://www.okayplayer.com/news/okayafrica-audio-ghostface-x-afrofunk-mixtape.html

VISUAL:
John K's Evolution of Macaroni (John K Stuff): http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2011/07/evolution-of-macaroni.html
Beavis & Butthead Return (MTV): http://t.co/LnSNvlx
Boob Physics (Babe Lab NSFW): http://babelab.blogspot.com/2010/08/boob-physics-101.html

Locksley Taxicab Promo

2011-07-11T14:09:00.007-04:00

For their upcoming release, my favorite friendband™ Locksley commissioned me to design a 15-second promo to be played on the displays in the back of cabs in NYC, Chicago & Boston. It was a just under a two-day turnaround so I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, but I'm sure most people will be drunk when they see it anyhow.

UPDATE: Here it is as seen in the wild:

Eyedrops Spec Spot "TGIF"

2011-07-07T18:28:00.002-04:00

Here's my latest stop-motion project getting some love this week, I'm fairly swamped with work at the moment so I'll take time to deconstruct it in future blog posts. For now, enjoy! I worked hard on it dammit.

CREDITS: Directed by Mark Phillips
Written by Mark Phillips & Luke Rotzler
Additional Animation by Luke Rotzler
Sound Mix by Dave Wolfe
Voices by Luke Rotzler, Mark Phillips & Marybess Pritchett
Additional Sound by David Pietricola
Produced by Lifelong Friendship Society
Original Concept by JWT

Leo Burnett "Language of the 21st Century" Intro

2011-07-05T15:08:00.003-04:00

Shot on a Canon 7D w/ Dragon Stopmotion, composited in After Effects.

I worked on this project via The Lifelong Friendship Society in collaboration with agency Leo Burnett & artist Kieran Antill for the agency's 2011 Cannes Presentation. The blocks themselves were actually quite large, over a foot-&-a-half across and hand-constructed by the good people of twoseven with wood. It may not look like much but it was definitely one of the more physically challenging shoots I've been on lately, if only due to the weight of the cubes & the heat that day. Riding $10K of camera equipment on a bike across Williamsburg to try to make call time probably didn't help much either...

BONUS: The official website up now: www.AlphabetOfToday.com

BBQ Flyer Design

2011-06-29T14:09:00.000-04:00

I used to do crappy poster designs all the time back when I worked at Columbia College Chicago in the Science Institute. I'd entertain myself by fitting the most disgusting and deplorable imagery I could find into something like an announcement for a weekend teacher workshop. If you don't believe me, find a good picture of back herpes, bump up the contrast & invert the colors and you have yourself a beautiful starry background for your next poster.
Obviously, I've matured tons since then because I left out any such nonsense in this design I did for a BBQ recently:

Coming Soon: New Stop Motion!

2011-06-21T13:15:00.001-04:00

I'm currently wrapping up a couple of stop motion projects that I shot earlier this year, they should be up within the week! In related news, I think I've done enough stop motion compositing for the summer.

Visine "TGIF" Director's Cut

Leo Burnett & Kieran Antill "The Language of the 21st Century"

I'd also like to thank everyone who came out to support at the Brooklyn Film Festival! It was a great year & I'd like to congratulate all of my fellow filmmakers who put the 'tainment' back in 'edutainment'.

I didn't have time to photoshop more people into the audience.

Random Sketches

2011-06-01T12:39:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone -- my apologies for not getting to post more lately, things are busy as per usual. Yesterday I had the pleasure of shooting a stop motion project with a bunch of guys I'd never worked with before in a studio with no AC for 10 hours and it was a blast! Once the post & audio are finalized I'll have something to show. I have a lot of work coming up this week with the Brooklyn Film Festival and the CunninLynguists video, so there will be good things coming up. Until then, enjoy some random drawings I did last week.

Practice Posin'

Pensive Superhero Type

Sometimes you get bored halfway through a drawing and need to mix it up.

"Ci'iy Life" BFF Showtimes Announced

2011-05-20T12:18:00.000-04:00

Hey! Just because you can watch my music video for Oddisee's "Ci'iy Life" for free right now from the comfort of your own internet connection, why not pay some money and come on out to the Brooklyn Film Festival on June 5th or the 7th? I'll be at the 2:30 showing on Sunday, come out & hang.

Attempting Type Design

2011-05-17T13:20:00.000-04:00

I don't really do too much typography design but I was pulled onto a pitch a few weeks back where I had to come up with a few quick concepts. I have the most fun doing character stuff but this was more interesting than I had originally thought it would be (which was somewhere on the 'interesting scale' right around 'doing taxes').

.... and I thought that was CGI: Fantasia 2000

2011-05-13T13:40:00.000-04:00

Hand-drawn animation doesn't get much more detailed than that. Happy Friday!

Ci'iy Life Music Video

2011-05-10T15:17:00.001-04:00

It's officially LIVE everybody. Thanks to Oddisee, Tranqill, & Sam Bair for helping me get this video out & I'll keep you posted for when it's scheduled to play at the Brooklyn Film Festival.

Ci'iy Life x Brooklyn Film Festival

2011-05-06T13:21:00.000-04:00

GOOD NEWS! My music video for Oddisee's Ci'iy Life is an official selection of this year's Brooklyn Film Festival. Stay tuned for more information...

"Enemies with Benefits" Behind the Scenes

2011-05-06T12:49:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the CunninLynguists & Tonedeff for the amazing weekend. I'd also like to shout out Luke Rotzler and Sam Bair (of Locksley) for helping me out on set. Check back for more video-related updates soon. YAL4LIFE.

Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Pencil it In

2011-04-29T15:20:00.000-04:00

My friend Tim Haldeen sent me this earlier today... it's a great little window into the tools & techniques of cartoonists from all walks o' life. As for myself, ideally I like to have a nice mechanical pencil on me at all times & enjoy drawing with just about anything outside of crayons and ballpoint pens. The novelty only lasts so long...
I'm currently neck-deep in many-a-project so I've been slacking on keeping this dog of a blahg, but I've done a lot more digital painting in Flash this week and I have a music video shoot coming up tonight so there will be plenty to see here soon.

Lost & Foundish: Tongue Boy™ Comic Covers (1995-1998)

2011-04-25T20:25:00.000-04:00

If you recognize any of the following drawings then I tip my hat to you, sir/ma'am... we have known each other a LONG time now.

Back in my middle school days I drew comics that I'd sell to friends and other students for fifty cents each. It wasn't a very self-sustaining business model (I think I made about $0.02 profit for every comic sold) but it was fun to do until I started liking girls,.
I started it all in 1994 when I drew my first comic book called Stomach Man #1. The whole story was that a mad scientist was trying to create super organs and inevitably wound up creating a whole army of evil humanoid organs, except for Stomach Man. It was his job to stop them from advancing their evil super organ agenda. Unfortunately that didn't last for more than an issue, and that's where Tongue Boy came in. Up until that point I had been drawing an alter-ego version of myself since the second grade, a spikey-haired kid named Marcus (I never had hair quite like his...). With Tongue Boy all I did was replace his hands with enormous tongues and slapped a poorly self-made costume on him.
I was influenced by many of the irreverent and weird cartoons of the time such as Ren & Stimpy, The Simpsons, Batman: TAS & most notably of all, The Tick, which aired Saturday mornings a few months after I started work on TB. Tongue Boy didn't really have powers in that he basically just had big useless tongues for hands. If they offered any sort of benefit, the tongues acted like big wet bludgeoning objects in which to stop thieves with. There were lots of weird supporting characters as well, but more on that later.

Tongue Boy #1-2 (1995)

When you're young you do stupid things. In my case, I went back and changed the cover of my first Tongue Boy comic book years after it was initially drawn. I didn't even alter it from a photocopy! I just put white-out directly on the original issue I had drawn and made sure it was changed forever. It's actually very close to it's original, but I wanted the shading on Tongue Boy to match with his design in later issues. But still stupid.

Anyway, the first issue dealt with Tongue Boy's origins (his dad accidentally used radioactive waste on a cow tongue sandwich as opposed to mayonaise) and his first victory over evil, in this case being a tiny parasite wielding a telekenetic remote control. I'm honestly not sure if it makes sense as a story -- I'd have to go back and read them and it has been some YEARS.

The second issue of Tongue Boy revolved around Marcus finally getting to meet his childhood television idols, only to find that they've been horribly disfigured due to an accident involving (yup) toxic waste. Desperate for work, these "Mutated Men" (pretty creative so far I know, try to keep up) begin to do work for Perry T. Parasite, brother of the parasite killed in the first book. Unlike his brother, Perry is huge and obtained his large stature due to the overuse of parasite steroids... or something like that. The issue ends on a cliffhanger when Tongue Boy is saved by a new hero...

Tongue Boy #3 (1996 double-issue!)

... that new "hero" was Marcus' best friend Lancy dressed up in his saliva suit going under the alias of "Drool Lad." I thought it fit the theme. While I started out thinking Drool Lad would make for a good sidekick, he was too smart & independent of a character to get swept to the sidelines. In the end Drool Lad became his own hero, and usually the one that would save Tongue Boy in the big fights. While I'm still proud of how I tried to develop my characters at the time, I definitely sucked in the plot department. After a reasonably coherent three-comic story arc, I had Perry T. Parasite succumb to the claws of a randomly introduced stray cat and subsequently all remaining parties went their separate ways. You may remember this very same plot device being used later on in the 2007 blockbuster, Spider-Man 3.

Tongue Boy #4-5 (1996, '97)

One problem with producing small comic books out of folded standard copy paper is that you don't get a lot of room to move the story along. These two comics made up a two-part story that introduced one of my favorite characters, Chia "Rambo" Pet. Back in my middle school days I wanted to make a cool character that could be anything that I wanted him to be. Maybe he wasn't particularly 'cool', but I liked Chia "Rambo" Pet a lot. I had been drawing him since I started Tongue Boy back in '94 and introduced him as a mysterious mercenary-type character that was out to assassinate the father of the new girl at school. One thing leads to another and Chia "Rambo" Pet attempts to blow up the whole city to destroy Tongue Boy & the gang (is it any coincidence that Independence Day came out in 1996 and I looooved it? answer: no) but after some fighting and lesson-learning, everything gets resolved.

Not sure how that part went. Again, it's been awhile.

Tongue Boy #6-7 (1997, '98)

More often than not, writing Tongue Boy was a way for me to sort out all that dumb teenager stuff going on at that time in my life. The crime-fighting superhero aspect of the comic always took second chair to whatever was going on in Marcus' personal life. In 1997 I took a trip to France with my family and worked that into the story arc for the remainder of Tongue Boy series' run. In this exciting chapter, the Earth has been peppered with missiles sent from Mars that contain a mysterious poison gas. This gas manifests itself into large "cloud lawyers"... similar to the bad guy in that crappy Fern Gully movie we all may or may not remember. They were kind of a stupid villain... I think more than anything they just helped me facilitate storytelling based around mass destruction & they didn't do anything remotely lawyer-related beyond wearing ties. You have to keep in mind that not only was this pre-9/11 but also the best years in America to watch stuff blow up on movie screens. Michael Bay anyone? Looking back now I realize that even I couldn't escape those influences... cities just liked getting blowed up.

Tongue Boy #8-9

These comics were both never released. Tongue Boy #8 probably had about a page left of inking to do and #9 was left unfinished. These were both miles beyond the comics that had been released before them in terms of storytelling & layout, but by this time in my life I was moving from Madison, WI down to Phoenix for what turned out to be only a yearlong excursion. That turned out to be one of those "growing up" years of my life (hair gel, shaving, etc), and although I never gave up drawing I did stop making comics on a regular basis. We'll see if I ever get a chance to revisit these characters, they were a very important part of my life.

If I ever get more time I'll try to dig these comics up and scan the pages in... but that's probably on the lower end of my 'if list.'

... almost done!

2011-04-20T15:00:00.000-04:00

Here's a screen from a stop-motion spec piece I'm doing for Lifelong Friendship Society. If all goes as planned it should be done within a week!

Ren Hoëk Faces

2011-04-18T11:24:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I was drawing what I can only describe as incredibly repressed-looking men with a friend for an upcoming short we're working on together. For inspiration I turned to an old episode of Ren & Stimpy called "Stimpy's Invention" directed by John K which originally aired back in early 1992. How has so much time gone by already?
Anyway, for those who aren't familiar this is the episode where Stimpy becomes worried that Ren is always unhappy and thus invents a Happy Helmet for him to wear. I've never seen happy faces drawn with such unwilling intensity & misery... some of these shots made for perfect references:

I'll try to post the full clip when I have some time...

Tuesday Quotery

2011-04-12T11:18:00.000-04:00

... this would explain why the last time I went to the New Museum there was an exhibit featuring piles of rags on the floor.

Ink Drawings

2011-03-31T09:24:00.001-04:00

Lately I've been busier than I'd like to be but I've managed to find a bit of time to keep working with my pen & ink. I haven't been in a great mood either & that generally comes through in my drawings... maybe next time they'll be smiley-er.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

2011-03-28T17:22:00.000-04:00

This is considered to be the oldest feature-length animated movie to still be in existence today and it's available RIGHT NOW on Netflix streaming. I watched it last Friday night and was completely blown away by the craft that went into creating each frame of this film. Even the story is engaging and each character has a sense of purpose; not just to be seen & never heard from again. Just because it's from 1926 doesn't mean it lacks sophistication, and while the animation itself may be a bit rough I can't help but wonder how it looked back when it was initially released. I can't recommend it enough to someone who loves the art of animation.

From Wikipedia:

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (German: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost.^[1] The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action. The original prints featured color tinting.

Bounty: The Raw Footage Part 2

2011-03-23T12:03:00.000-04:00

Here are more animation clips from the Bounty project.

Fun with magic paper towels.

This was actually my favorite shot from the whole project. Our assignment for this animation was to have them flying through the air rockin' out and then end with a wave at the camera. Luke animated the bald dude and I had a little too much fun animating the other scientist doing the robot. We were a bit ahead of schedule at this point so we had fun the frame with random things that would eventually be cut out. There was no sound to work off of for this one so you'll have to use your imagination.

I had a lot of fun with this shot as well. This is basically what happens when you feed an animator enough beer to convince himself that it'd be a good idea to make one of the characters get tired of holding his arm up while freeze-framed. Needless to say, it was cut from the final project.

Bounty: The Raw Footage Part I

2011-03-18T09:26:00.000-04:00

Here is what the animation looked like for the Bounty project before any visual effects were applied to the footage. Today I'm posting mostly shots involving the scientists driving in their car. To give you some idea of the rig we built quick for it, here are some pictures:

... and now onto the videos:

This was the first stuff we shot of the scientists in the car. The funny thing is we both wore white that day and it wasn't until a few seconds into the animation that we realized it was affecting the lighting.

Lesson Learned: Your personal wardrobe can affect post-production in stop motion.

This shot was pretty basic. Just some singin' and PT pullin'.

This was a fun shot because we got to finally try out the rig we built for the car. The script called for the car flying through the air & the storyboards I had drawn up called for spinning cameras and such, so we needed something that would be flexible but would also offer precision. Also, fist bumps.

This shot was fun because not only did we have to animate the characters, we had to have the car tilting lengthwise as well as do a 180-degree spin mid-shot.

I had a lot of fun with this shot. The tiger rig wasn't super flexible to work with but I think I got some good action out of it.

... and if you're wondering, that's an MMA fighter coming out of his mouth.

Bidding Adieu to the Old MarkedAnimation Site

2011-03-16T02:36:00.006-04:00

IT'S OFFICIAL.

Within the next 48 hours my original website will be switching over to a brand-new, much more user-friendly design powered by Cargo Collective. The URL will continue to be www.markedanimation.com, but gone will be the days of my foray into basic (some would say too basic) web design consisting of cut up photoshop documents. I can't tell you how tedious & difficult it was to keep that thing updated, which is why I eventually migrated over to this blog to keep new work coming. My new site will be updated much more frequently, with easy navigation, fast-loading Vimeo video & all the other bare necessities. ~~Check back for an update shortly when it's live!~~

UPDATE: The new site is live: www.markedanimation.com

I beat her to it, Joe!

Marked Animation 2011 Reel: UPDATE

2011-03-14T04:20:00.001-04:00

Marked Animation 2011 Reel from Mark Phillips on Vimeo.

Check that out! I have a Vimeo account now. That's what they refer to as the moxie. ~~Also -- if you happen to be interested and wish to contact me in regards to a shot breakdown please do not hesitate to do so.~~

UPDATE: Shot breakdown is now available in PDF form here (file is approx. 2MB).

Lost & Foundish: "Love You Too" 2009 Compositing Test

2011-03-11T12:41:00.002-05:00

If you knew me or followed this blog over the course of 2009, you'd know that I was very heavily involved with a follow-up video to my 2007 "All Over Again" video for the band Locksley. There were costumes, a big handmade diorama with a marble river, two days of shooting... and so much more that I can't list in detail here.

Despite all the fun & hard work, an ending to the video was never officially decided upon by the band and has been on permanent hiatus since. I'd like to thank everyone who donated their time (Pastor, Genn, Karen, et al.) and efforts to this project, I know there were a lot of favors done for it & nothing more to show at this time than the clip below. It's a compositing test I did shortly after we shot the footage.

Love You Too - Test from Mark Phillips on Vimeo.

There were elements that we shot that we were going to add in later: cardboard butterflies, spinning flowers, etc... if I ever get two weeks off and don't have access to videogames and have no other projects going on, maybe it will see the light of day yet. Just don't hold your breath.

Marked Animation: The Spring 2011 Demo Reel... COMING SOON

2011-03-07T00:56:00.001-05:00

I enjoy compositing my face onto others' for the sake of a good demo reel.

That's right! For the first time in two years I've actually managed to update my demo reel and believe you me (mostly me), it's like night and day between the two. I'm not even going to provide a link to my last reel in this post for you to easily find out of curiosity. You're going to have to dig for that pile of subpar Markness. Unfortunately I can't post it publicly just yet as I'm still waiting for a few of the clips to clear, but maybe if you ask me nice and can keep a secret I might consider giving you a peak outside of the blogosphere...

UPDATE: I'll be posting it to this blog from my brand-new Vimeo account tomorrow.

"Ci'iy Life" Music Video to be released Fall 2011: UPDATE

2011-03-03T09:28:00.001-05:00

If you've been following this blog for some time, you'll know that I worked on & finished a video for one of my favorite hip-hop producers, Oddisee. I've been super anxious to finally get the chance to show it off, but the other day he informed me via Twitter that he'll be shelving it until this coming fall when the weather starts to get a bit cold again, among other reasons. I agree, it's definitely a winter video... but I'm sorry I couldn't share it with y'all sooner! I did manage to submit it to a few film festivals though, so we'll see if that works out.

~~In the meantime hopefully I'll have something to show for myself in other endeavors!~~

UPDATE: Nevermind. Look for it soon!

Character Designs in Need of a Home

2011-03-02T12:18:00.000-05:00

I whipped up these character designs for a paint-on-glass animation for work that never got off the ground. I like them quite a bit though, especially since I managed to combine two cat butts into the top of a head.

click to enlarge

I've been doing more and more illustration work in Flash lately and playing with a few different styles; if I can post more I will soon!

I bought my first pen & inkwell yesterday.

2011-03-01T00:51:00.000-05:00

Why it took me this long to drawing in this medium, I have no idea. I love it. What was I wasting my time with all of these years?

Bieberesque™

I think my linework needs a lot more work. Going to work on that! Work. Also, I've been working on a lot of other things which I'll hopefully be able to post soon. We'll work it out. Stay... swooned.

Lost & Foundish: Concept Work for The Morning Benders

2011-02-17T19:01:00.001-05:00

click to enlarge

I did this concept frame back in 2008 around the time I finished up the 88-Keys video for a group called The Morning Benders. I was introduced to them via 88-Keys, who was a big fan and wanted us to work together. Long story short -- I got the track, we passed a few emails back and forth, I came up with a few pitch ideas and they never got back to me. Ah well. There are more frames and such I'd like to share but I think they could be used again in the future so I'll hold off for the time being.

They ended up getting pretty popular last year with their single Excuses. Incidentally when I was writing this blog and looking at their site, I saw the video they decided to go with instead of my treatment. Here it is!

The Morning Benders - "All Day Day Light" from Jack Ferry on Vimeo.

If only I had thought to dress them all aggressively hipster and then splash ugly randomly-colored text over the footage! DAMMIT. Real stupid, Mark!

Rebranding on the Way...

2011-02-16T14:10:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been thinking about replacing my old Marked Animation logo with something a bit fresher. Y'know... something that's not just the font of Century New Gothic with a bit of red lettering that I scribbled in the middle. The truth is I didn't really like the original logo but thought it was a good placeholder until I came up with something new after I initially set-up & built the website in 2005. Hopefully by the time spring hits I'll have completely revamped the site -- probably through the web publisher Cargo (my friend Mark Theriault has a nice one set up) but will still maintain this blog regularly. I have so much more going on than when I left college that I can't keep my site 'up with the timez' anymore & considering I just updated it with "© 2011 MARK PHILLIPS" for the first time since '09, you can see my predicament.

I've never been much of a logosmith, but I like it. Thoughts?

old

new

Concept Work: The Tree of Analogy™

2011-02-09T17:59:00.001-05:00

I did this concept art for an agency back in October of 2010. It had something to do with the business/client relationship but I'm not sure about what company it was for or what the final product ended up looking like. I wanted to see it through production but unfortunately I was in the midst of too many other projects. There's never enough hours in the day.

Incidentally, if anyone sees where this ended up send me a link!

Marked Animation is now on Twitter

2011-02-04T10:53:00.000-05:00

click on the happy creature to follow me.

Babyface.

2011-02-01T11:08:00.000-05:00

Well... at least it's not Loonatics.

2011-01-25T18:54:00.005-05:00

I was told back when my favorite movie that I've never seen came out that they played this brand-new CGI Warner Brothers cartoon featuring Wile E. Coyote & Roadrunner before the show. Well now it's on the internet and I watched it, and... I guess I'm not sure how I feel about it. I don't really have any ill-will to the transition from hand-drawn to 3D (I mean it's not a process that I particularly care for to begin with but it could be worse), I just think they could've picked a more interesting cartoon to make. Take a look for yourself:

Coyote Falls
Uploaded by duck69. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Okay! You've seen it. Glad you did? Good. Me too. Our relationship will only grow because of it. Let me break down my own personal opinion regarding this cartoon.

What I liked: I think they did a great job of avoiding the stiffness that you see a lot of in CG. These characters stretch and bend and come as close to their hand-drawn counterparts as I've seen. I think the general mood of the short is pretty spot-on too... I mean I guess it'd be pretty hard to screw up a Wile. Coyote cartoon.

They got that swooshin' animation down! Mmmm...

What I ... didn't like: I mean I guess if you don't laugh at the Coyote being hit by a truck the first time you're probably not going to laugh the next fourteen times it happens (I counted). Is that really a great idea to bring to the table for a new Wile E. Coyote cartoon?

WRITER: "Ok, remember sixty years ago when we had that gag about the coyote getting hit by a truck? Let's do that again, but...

DIRECTOR: "... I'm listening."

WRITER: "But we do it 15 times in 2 minutes. That's 30x more laughs!"

DIRECTOR: "..."

WRITER: "... and we'll make it in THREE-DEEEE."

DIRECTOR: "Sold. We'll call it Coyote Falls for some reason."

Also, what better screams 3D ANIMATION better than opening on a particle effect?

Living up to the original's particle effect scripting. Oh you cad, Chuck Jones!

I think what really bothers me about this cartoon is I have no sense of caring what happens to the Coyote. I'm not trying to say that he was ever that relatable of a character and they ignored the depth of his intrigue or anything, he just never gets HURT. He just takes one hit after the other after the other after the other after the other and never shows any sign of slowing down or even a scratch on his body. I know he never technically got hurt in older iterations, but he'd at least have something to show for being blown up or being crushed by a boulder.

It's not like I want to see him get beheaded or anything, but give me a little payoff and a chance to breathe in-between all the bumper denting. Here's what we get instead:

"Who else looks as bored as I do right now?"

A sad-faced reaction shot and a black eye are all I'm asking for, folks. I guess it's harder to render realistic-looking charred coyote fur than it is just to draw it in a cartoon. Maybe they should've just stuck with that.

DISCLAIMER: If I seem to hold Looney Tunes on a pedestal, it's generally because I try to ignore everything that happened with the brand after the early 60's when they moved production to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and beyond. That includes all the weird and cheap-looking Looney Tunes from the 70's, Space Jam, That Other Movie they did with Brendan Fraser, Loonatics, etc. However, I do have a special place in my heart for the likes of Tiny Toons and Tazmania.

Loonatics. Because we're out of ideas.

Yesterday I Fulfilled My Dream of Animating Meat

2011-01-24T11:16:00.004-05:00

I'll upload the video once it's all done.

Work's been picking up again lately but I'll do my best to keep everything around these parts reasonably updated 'til things slow down again.

Also, I've started seeing this poster pop up around subways and bus stops around the city lately, and they wonder why it's hard to get people to respect animation as an art form...

"Toemeo... Blowmeo... Glowmeo... Growmeo... Gnomeo? EUREKA!"

Okay, realistically is there any other way to come up with the idea for that movie other than mispronouncing the word "Romeo?" Do we really need to word puns on one movie poster? What does "a lawn way" even mean? Is that how some people raise their pets? Who was the clever little scamp who also figured out they could fit the shape of a gnome inside of that title's logo? Their mother raised them well. You can tell they paid more attention to the texture on the gnome's feet than they did on the whole concept of this movie.

At least it will follow proudly in the footsteps of other such CGI fare.

Coming Soon: My Personal Favorite

2011-01-20T00:28:00.002-05:00

Very soon I'm going to breakdown shot-by-shot one of my favorite animated scenes of all time. I've been wanting to do it ever since I started this blog and I'm super excited to finally sit down & put my appreciation to writing.

Lost & Foundish: College Animation in 2003

2011-01-17T14:00:00.001-05:00

This animation, "The Breakup" was done for my first animation production class back in 2003 with Barry Young. Since it was all shot on film and there was no easy way to preview the animation paired up with the audio, I didn't have any idea how it'd look or work until the day before the end of class. I think it still retains some charm, but like much of my animation at the time I'm not really sure where I was going with it.
I can't even remember the name of the old-timey analog device they had us record the audio on, but I remember there was a phone jack in it (in case you wanted to tap someone's phone? Maybe?) so I just plugged in my house phone & called my roommate's cell to record the audio for this project. I can't remember how I came up with the sound that the eye makes just before it pops out.

Coming Soon...

2011-01-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

I have some high hopes for this one, folks... (click to enlarge)

Behind the Scenes: Bounty Storyboards

2011-01-14T19:58:00.000-05:00

Here are the original boards I drew up for Bounty back when we started the project. Some of them are pretty close to how the final turned out while others.... notsomuch.

This part got cut from the final which I was totally fine with.

This section also got cut which I was pretty disappointed about.

Having the chance to animate King Kong and a Godzilla-like monster would've been a lot of fun.

UGH the sumo wrestler was my favorite part and I was super bummed they killed him off.

I was proud of my tiger drawing in the second frame.

The Chilean Miner character eventually got changed over to an MMA wrestler. 'Probably for the best.

I mean c'mon it was going to end with them riding that flying sumo wrestler! It would've been like poetry but that's life sometimes.

Jan Svankmajer "Meat Love"

2011-01-12T17:00:00.000-05:00

... an old favorite from an old favorite.

Behind the Scenes: Bounty

2011-01-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

More photos from the Bounty project.

We took a lot of test photos to test the perspective of the lenses. The cardboard in my hand is a car placeholder.

We had to make a couple of trips to the fashion district for fabric. Fish out of water.

Man and Mannequin.

Originally we were making the set green until we found out they wanted it to be white.

Working with canned snow is frustrating. There's no better way to put it without using the [other] f-word.

"Aerial" view of the set.

The snow tiger's mouth.

Luke Rotzler doing some animation tests.

We built our own camera rig for shots that required panning.

Different tree variations

Time for some 'LAPSE.

2011-01-10T09:00:00.017-05:00

Here's a time-lapse video of us working in the LFS Studio from around mid-November to mid-December. There are a few days missing here and there because we were a little too busy at times to check and see if the camera was working, but I think you get the gist of what went down. Weekends are for the weak after all!

... oh and the Kevin Rudolph video made it into the latest edition of STASH! Hell yes.

It'd probably be best not to leave Hans Bellmer alone with your kids.

2011-01-08T08:00:00.005-05:00

Despite the fact that I attended and graduated from Columbia College Chicago back in the mid-aughts, I managed to learn and retain a few bits of information that I found to be useful later in life. During a drawing class I learned about and revered two artists from the last century, in particular. One was Chicago-area artist Ivan Albright (whom I'll write about later) and the second was Hans Bellmer (1902-1975).

From Hans Bellmer's Art Directory biography page:

In the post-war era Bellmer succeeded in rendering the subconscious aspect of sexuality in intoxicatingly hallucinatory dream pictures, working with the precision of the Old Masters and soon supplementing this approach with an infusion of Mannerist influences and beautiful, fluid line which recalls Jugendstil/Art Nouveau.
In Hans Bellmer's mature late work, line is refined to a filigree tracery, the eroticism is even more pronounced, partly because death is now included as the opposite pole of lust.

Like most Americans who enjoy videogames nowadays, I was unwittingly introduced to Bellmer via Silent Hill 2 back in 2001 in the form of these disturbing monsters that moved and groaned erratically.

I chose this over not eating only ramen for two weeks when I was a freshman. So worth it.

Oh, four legged mannequin monster... it wasn't until the following year in art class that I learned it was all inspired by Hans Bellmer. Say what you will about Hans, but thank goodness he pursued art and not something like childcare or social services.

... now go enjoy your Saturday morning cartoons.

Sid Seed, Everybody!

2011-01-07T17:00:00.006-05:00

What I really do enjoy about working at Lifelong Friendship Society is that it gives me the opportunity to meet and work with some very talented animators and designers from all over the place. Sid Seed is a fellow animator on staff that we hired on from Brazil last year and he does amazing work. Seriously, the guy isn't even old enough to legally have a drink yet and he's cranking out music videos like this, starring himself and his yo-yo.

Harald Grosskopf - Synthesist (Excerpt) from RVNG Intl. on Vimeo.

I'm not kidding about that yo-yo. Sid has some SERIOUS talent. The man is internationally ranked in the art of the yo-yo. Just to show you that I'm not hyping the lad up, here's a great video of Sid working his magic out by the East River at dusk (shot & edited by the equally talented, if not in yo-yo's, Pastor Alvarado)

Sid from pastoriii on Vimeo.

Watch out. Sid's comin' through and he's going to be BIG.

Sid, Mark ... and Bridgette.

Armature & Prop Designs for Bounty

2011-01-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

These are the original designs I did for the Bounty spot I posted a few weeks back. Designing the characters wasn't anything new since I've had to make character sheets for animation in years past, but the car was definitely a little trickier since I'm not much of a 'technical' guy. Maybe I shouldn't say trickier, but technical drawings to me are boring to work on. There. I said it. Wait no... maybe I shouldn't say boring. How about, "not as fun"?

... sadly the Chilean Miner never made it into the final piece.

Props to Erika Bettencourt who did a fantastic job of making all of the armatures and being the personification of glue that held the project together.

You may have noticed that the chinchilla was Shake Weight®-less in the final version.

Props to Craig Grigg who blew our minds with making the car look better than I modeled it. The man is a living legend when it comes to props, folks.

More behind-the-scenes to come!

2011: New Year Updatery™

2011-01-06T14:54:00.000-05:00

.... annnnnd we're back, people! Sorry for neglecting to update in some time, I was too busy being lazy. If there's one thing I've started appreciating more the older I get, it's managing to enjoy the rare moments of down-time. Not only did I get to visit my old friend, Playstation 3®, but I managed to make it over to Chicago's Uptown for some holiday time with the fam & friends. It was some much-needed relaxation.

How I Spent My Winter Vacation by Mark Phillips

Despite my best efforts, it wasn't all sleeping and being hungover and subsisting off of a candy & cheese diet! Not counting how many people I helped/murdered in Fallout: New Vegas over the break, I finally managed to finish the oddisee music video that I've been working on and for the most part am very happy with it. Unfortunately I can't post it and show you just yet, but once oddisee gives it a proper release you will be the FIRST (well technically second) to know about it. I know a lot of people enjoy making trailers for their hip-hop videos nowadays but since the video only rounds out to be just over two minutes I'd be giving away most of what happens even if I kept it short (not that Hollywood doesn't do that already). Sooooo you'll just have to sit tight and wait a month or two, brah.

I have a lot to catch up with this blog, so get ready to pretend I'm your mom and check in regularly, dear.

... oh hey it's that thing I've been working on!

2010-12-10T23:40:00.003-05:00

This is Part 1 of why I've been neglecting my friends and cat since October.

I designed the stop-motion characters, designed the car models, was director of animation and, most importantly, played the gorilla working out in the gym.

I have lots of pre-production and lots of animation that didn't make the cut that I'll be posting in the near future.

Part 2 of why I've been neglecting my friends and cat since October coming soon.*

* ... as soon as it's done.

Happy 100th Blog Post!!!™

2010-12-08T01:05:00.001-05:00

'Finishing up a long day at work, but I wanted to get a chance to post this brand-new still for the new Oddisee "Ci'iy Life" music video... coming before 2011 hits.

Chinchilla, Meet Shake Weight®

2010-11-28T12:07:00.003-05:00

I haven't done a lot of stopmotion since college but the year 2010 has proven to be a return to form for me in that regard. From storyboarding to designing characters, props and sets to animating it all once it's ready they've been keeping me very very busy at work. I won't say too much about what it all entails until I have a finished product to show but until then I'll post what I can when I have time.

To get things started, here's a chinchilla exercising with a shake weight.

More to come!

Personable Animals

2010-11-27T12:00:00.001-05:00

I drew these up for another work-related pitch. Still waiting to see whether or not we got the job...

Rejected Concept Designs

2010-11-26T14:14:00.000-05:00

I did these designs for a pitch package at work but we didn't get the job. Ah well! The client was a car-selling website and the idea was to tell the story of a buyer-seller relationship. I designed the characters and backgrounds around the old UPA-style of animation since I had never really animated like that before and thought it'd be fun to do. Maybe next time!

... and for those of you who aren't familiar with UPA (United Productions of America), here's one of their more famous cartoons "Gerald McBoing Boing" from 1951 that won them an Academy Award.

The Critics Have Spoken

2010-11-16T19:41:00.002-05:00

Our music video for Kevin Rudolf's song "You Make the Rain Fall" has seen nothing but glowing reviews on Youtube:

Ocupado.

2010-11-12T13:28:00.000-05:00

I apologize for no new posts recently, especially after I went on a ruthless spree of updates. Lately I've been super busy filling in for Tara Reid's decrepit stomach. New posts coming soon!

Translating to Illustrator

2010-10-28T09:46:00.003-04:00

While I was sifting through a few hundred files trying to find a few templates I had lost in the Great Deletion of 2010, I came across some elements that I created for some concept boards last year for work. While I use Illustrator on a daily basis, outside of some miscellaneous free-hand drawings I don't do a lot of pen tool-based illustration in my own style. If you're not familiar with Illustrator, the pen tool is essentially a way to manipulate vector curves by hand, and usually looks a little something like this.

fun!

It's not nearly as intuitive as illustrating by hand but you do get a lot of control over each of your lines. I think its uses are intended more for design and industrial elements, so when it comes to trying to make something look cartoony with the pen tool you usually get something a bit more stiff than loose. Here's an example of some character work done with the help of Illustrator:

this show is quite good.

Personally I think a lot of this style is like the new animé in the sense that you see it EVERYWHERE and 80% of it looks the same. With the advent and current widespread use of Flash, a vector-based animation program, this style isn't going away anytime soon -- plus it doesn't take a lot of illustration know-how to design some of the simpler characters. Like I was saying earlier, I took a stab at it last year and here are three quick Illustrator illustrations:

I don't hate them but they look too clean to me.

Also if you're curious as to what the elements were made for, they were made for a pitch for this J.C. Penney/Van Heusen football promotion. If you watch closely at the 5-second mark on the video embedded on the site, that was me making my national broadcast debut! You may also notice that none of the elements I worked on made it into the final product (although I did end up animating the whole thing).

Salesman Pete and The Amazing Stone from Outer Space

2010-10-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

Salesman Pete from Salesman Pete on Vimeo.

If Saturday morning cartoons started looking like this I'd definitely start watching them again. Props to the team that put this together... great work on everything (and I do mean everything)!

... and then there's this.

2010-10-21T11:50:00.004-04:00

click to enlarge

I drew these both separately & laid one on top of the other on my desk. After seeing how they stacked up on each other, I thought I'd try combining them. Just some random sketchin' but I think this could be something interesting to explore down the road...

Casualties of Animation: Where'd My Files Go?

2010-10-20T11:52:00.001-04:00

Earlier this week I discovered that my personal work drive at the office had been mistakenly wiped by a freelancer. Everything from the 88-Keys music video to the recent work I've done with Locksley to everything else that I've photoshopped/animated/recorded/etc in past two and a half years was gone in mere seconds .... or was it?

Kind of.

I ran disc recovery software and it recovered quite a bit of information, actually. People told me I was lucky to get the data back... but I think that's only about half-true at most. While I did recover about 234 gigabytes of data; what were once neatly organized files, folders and sub-folders are all now proprietarily named and mish-mashed together.

And there are 1.4 million of them.

Anyone want to be my intern for a few months to sort this all out? Eh?

... sometimes you just need to draw the stress out.

2010-10-15T12:10:00.000-04:00

Caricature Time!

2010-10-14T11:24:00.000-04:00

This year I've been selected to do portraits of all the employees of Lifelong Friendship Society for our annual holiday card that gets sent out in late November. While I generally enjoy drawing faces and giving them a twisted sensibility, I've never delved too deeply into the world of caricature art. It's not that I didn't like it, but I think it had more to do with having to deal with the person you made the drawing for afterwards. It's like having a kind-of-fun one night stand but then having to go out to breakfast the next morning. Too much awkwardness for my young tastes.
When I was at Columbia College in Chicago I worked with an ex-professional caricature artist, and watching that dude crank out drawings was ridiculous. The way he captured which features to exaggerate while still making the person look somewhat human always impressed me. I even had him do the face of Warrick Carter in all those cartoons I got fired for back in the day.
So here I am today, getting some warm-ups started for the holiday card...

still needs some work...

The original handsome.

Oddisee "Ci'iy Life" Screenshots

2010-10-13T17:25:00.000-04:00

I mentioned awhile back (and I mean AWHILE back) that I was working on a music video for one of my favorite producers in hip-hop, Oddisee. Well, I'm still working on it during my free-time and luckily winter's coming back 'round -- so it'll be perfect for the season!

Click to enlarge

I have about 2/3 done... expect the final product "soon"!

Scream Hoppin' 2010

2010-10-13T16:01:00.001-04:00

I did this animation exercise a few months back but figured I'd color it up and throw it on the blog.

... but enough with all that. Lots of new work coming soon!!!

Happy Weekend Everybody!

2010-10-08T18:48:00.000-04:00

Lost and Foundish: Livestrong

2010-10-01T12:07:00.000-04:00

Here's another illustration from my college days. I think the reason I left this off my website was because I had already posted another grotesquely-obese person riding something on wheels... maybe I didn't want to typecast myself.

click to enlarge

Have a great weekend!

Lost and Foundish: WTF Edition

2010-09-30T11:19:00.002-04:00

Back in my college days I did a lot of drawing while I worked as a teaching assistant at Columbia College's Science Institute. It eventually led to some rather unfortunate consequences... but I'll save that story for another blog.

In the meantime, here's one such drawing that I did while in T.A. purgatory that didn't make it to my (old) main site:

click to enlarge

More to come!

Mrs. Garrison, Markified™

2010-09-29T13:09:00.003-04:00

While watching South Park the other night I decided to draw up my interpretation of one of its characters, ~~Mr.~~ Mrs. Garrison...

The original Mrs. Garrison

I'm sorry I'm dwelling on this, but...

2010-09-22T21:18:00.015-04:00

Today while rendering a project I decided to venture onto one of my favorite sites for entertainment news, The Onion's A.V. Club. On it was posted an interview with Legend of the Guardian's director Zack Snyder, the very same of 300 & last year's The Watchmen. I was curious to see if what he had to say about his new film would change my preemptive (and possibly irrationally negative) opinion of the movie which OPENS THIS FRIDAY YOU GUYS OMG. Needless to say that as an animator, I wasn't swayed. Let's start with some excerpts from the interview, shall we?

AV Club: You actually choreographed the fights with actors wearing owl suits, fighting each other. How’d that work?

Zack Snyder: Yeah. When we got to the fight scenes, one of the things was like—these owls are supposedly an ancient culture, and they have a martial tradition that we can’t just make up. It’s gonna look goofy if they’re just clawing at each other. .... We got my old stunt team from 300 and made them put these cardboard wings on and basically fight each other.

One thing about the art of animation is that you get to do whatever your mind can dream up, after all. Unfortunately, the mind can be a tricky place and have a few too many ideas sometimes, so why not just dress a dude up and have owls fight like people? You know what, I've actually seen this before in another animated film which may OR MAY NOT have been a terrible animated feature (skip to about 0:50):

... but in all seriousness that version of LOTR was a terrible animated feature. Back to Zack!

ZS: ... The animators then don’t have to pretend. It’s a real thing they have to work with. I think that comes through in the film.

If there's one thing I hate doing as an animator, it's pretending. UGH IF ONLY I DIDN'T HAVE TO PRETEND THOSE LETTERS ACROSS THE SCREEN IN THAT COMMERCIAL I WORKED ON TODAY LIFE WOULD BE SO MUCH BETTER.
Later on in the interview, when talking about mixing owl physiology with that of a humans (yup)...

ZS: The thing about owls is that they do sort of have this facial disc, which is unlike any other bird. They kind of have a face, more than like a dog or a giraffe. They have this weird, alien face that you can actually make expressive. We really pushed without breaking. I didn’t want it to be a cartoon. I was like, “I don’t want to make a cartoon. That I can’t do.”

Children do hate cartoons, after all. This is one talking owl movie that's not for kids, see? One thing that I think people don't understand about animation in this sense is that it NEEDS to be exaggerated. The physics and the way things move shouldn't act as they do in reality, because then things appear stiff and dull. Here's an example: I recently watched Anastasia with my girlfriend, and while I didn't mind the movie itself I didn't really care for the main protagonists, Anastasia and Dmitri. It wasn't because of their characters or lines, it was just that once the weird-looking villain or the comic-relief-bat Bartok appeared on-screen, the protagonists seemed rigid and inflexible by comparison. Unfortunately I couldn't find any clips readily available on Youtube due to copyright blah blah blah, but I did find these stills online:

"My mouth can only move so much due to the limitations of my movement and desiiiign"

Bartok.

Did you scream when you saw that bat with the dislocated jawbone?! Pretty scary huh?

ZS: So the faux-realistic look was a look I was comfortable with, because this environment feels real. These owls feel real to me. “Now I can make an adventure that feels compelling. The danger is real.”

Ok so just to make sure I understand this correctly, Zack Snyder wanted the danger to be real. He wanted to evoke some suspense in his audience and give them something "that feels compelling." I don't want to call a guy wrong, but let's point out a few inconsistencies with that statement above.

1. You do remember you were making a movie about talking owls, right?

2. Unfortunately the danger is not real as you have just made a series of images that are projected on a screen with accompanying audio. Even then, the only time that danger ever seemed real enough for audiences was in 1895. According to the story, people leapt out of their seats to avoid being hit by the train. No joke.

3. Okay that last one was a bit of a low blow Zack, I'm sorry. I know you were going for "emotions" and had no intention of actually putting the audience in real harm's way. In fact, I've felt my heart rate escalate and felt nervous while watching animation before. Hell, I was straight up scared by this when I was a kid:

Night on Bald Mountain, Fantasia (1940)

Fantasia

4. Back in my high school days I followed the online production diary (if you can call it that by 2000 internet standards) for a film that was to be released in the summer of 2001. My excitement for it eclipsed anything else that had ever come before to theaters, I drooled over every still and video clip that was released for it. I checked their website daily even though they updated it once every two months. I saw it on opening weekend. This is the film in question:

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

weren't

Final Fantasy

5. Seriously man it's a whole 90 minutes of fucking talking owls. Remember when you dressed adult men up like owls and made them fight?I guess what it all boils down to is that Zack Snyder doesn't think like an animator and that I should stop complaining... and I totally would by now if he wasn't directing a high-budget animated feature. Personally, I think he shares the same mindset as most filmmakers in that animation is a different & lesser art than live-action film, and I don't judge him for that since that's a pretty popular notion. You can catch hints of it in his interview, like in the excerpt below where he's discussing the visual effects:

ZS: For instance, say Soren [the film’s owl protagonist] flies into the hollow. I’d say, “If this was a real movie, I’d put the camera low and I’d dolly with him as he comes back.” So that’s the language I used to tell them how to do it, and it worked out really well. There was a point when they created this little bible—the rules, things I liked and didn’t like. Because there’s a lot of trendy things—you never know what the animators will try to whack into the movie.

If only it was a real movie. Maybe next time, Zack... maybe next time.

Read the whole interview here!

From the Sketchbook P.5

2010-09-14T11:22:00.001-04:00

I've been doing my best to work on a more free-flowing style as I talked about in a previous post...

... and then there's this guy, who I've been working on refining for a possible upcoming project which I'll announce at a later date if it goes through:

Mmmm that sadness in the eyes can only mean one thing.

Congratulations to Chris & Jessica!

2010-09-13T13:20:00.001-04:00

Last month I had the pleasure of making a short two-minute animation for my high school friend's wedding. They got married at the Heights Theater in Minneapolis and to fit the movie theater motif they had their friends create short films that were projected at the beginning of the ceremony. I completed mine in just under a weeks' time, working right up til the day before the wedding while staying with my friend in St. Paul. It's pretty random so you don't need to know too much else going in. Hopefully one of these days I can polish up a few odds n' ends so I can put some chunks of it on my reel. Check it out!

... there was also dancing.

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING I HAVE AN AMAZING IDEA!

2010-09-10T13:01:00.005-04:00

... let's all go watch a movie about fucking owls.

pictured above: owls.

Finally -- a movie that really corners the market for those who love owls and the color treatment of Lord of the Rings. Let's all congratulate the team on making everything look awkwardly-realistic. Kids fucking LOVE feather textures, people. I remember when I was growing up watching Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings thinking to myself, "Y'know what? I don't really believe Bugs Bunny could exist in our own physical reality. THIS IS ALL FAKE!" I really had to struggle with that disconnect in life until I was about 14-years-old. Thank you, Space Jam.*
I apologize for the randomness of this rant but I just don't understand how this movie made it into theaters. I should mention that I'm completely uneducated on the whole subject of Legend of the Guardians. I'm assuming it came from children's literature since I can't imagine someone pitching this to a studio as an original idea ("Guys! Owls you guys!"), but at the same time who really cares? If you had the power of sophisticated CGI to create any imagery you could possibly imagine, what would compell you to make it this?

... an owl wearing a helmet, everybody.

It's a movie about owls doing things that more interesting animals or creatures could be doing... like dragons or dinosaurs or hell, what they did back in my day. I think I'm a better man for being ignorant towards this movie. I mean, c'mon... the owls of ga'hoole? So on top of spending $15 to watch a movie about owls, the movie poster alludes to the fact that I'll also have to put up with an hour-and-a-half's worth of some owl language that somebody made up peppered with owl-puns.

You know what I think of when I think of owls? This.

At least in five years' time all the CGI will look like crap.

(because chances are it always does)

* for the record I was also too cynical in my youth to ever watch Space Jam in its entirety. Le sigh.

On the Business of Stiffness

2010-09-10T12:00:00.003-04:00

Even though I was brought up in the school of hand-drawn traditional animation, my drawing style has always been rather consistently stiff and rigid. Everything's sitting in place and/or have very straight structural angles. If you look at some of the old drawings on my website, you'll see 'em all over the place:

Stiff!

It especially comes out when directly compared to superior illustrators, like with my good friend Tim Haldeen. During our downtime at a music video shoot, we kept ourselves entertained by doodling all over the rear of the set.

Mark on the left. Tim on the right.

I still like what I drew, but Tim's perspective and line work suggest much more depth and structure than what I had to offer. Sure, I threw some shading and a roll or two on the neck but if these drawings suddenly came to life, I have a much clearer mental image of Tim's character turning to look at me as opposed to mine. We did this back at the beginning of the summer and it really got me thinking about the way I draw for the first time in years. It's so easy to just keep coasting on what you know and I think I've gotten a bit lazy with improving my style. It has barely changed since college and it needs a good kick in the ass. I'm not saying that I'm going to overhaul it completely, but it'd be very beneficial to both my drawing and my animation to add more and more principles.
Yesterday during a staff meeting I got into some more advanced posing with a doodle which led to the more fleshed-out doodle below it.

loosely based on Jesse Laz

They're still super incomplete but I think they're a step in the right direction. If I know what's good for me you should be seeing more of this in my future blog posts.

From the Sketchbook P.4

2010-09-09T11:00:00.003-04:00

Here are a few images I sketched up while on break last week...

This could double as a self-portrait for me when I've been working too much. I think I might take this design and flesh it out a bit more later on down the road.

This is actually a bit older & unfinished (even by my standards!) but when some friends were looking through my sketchbook they seemed to enjoy it. They said it looked like a weird cross-section of a dude's face. It's something I may explore later as well...

On my flight to the Twin Cities there was a woman who didn't sit down for 90% of the trip. She kept doing leg exercises and pacing up and down the aisle and it was pretty awkward. She reminded me of an older strung-out hippy with an eating disorder and I can only assume that she owned three cats minimum. When the pilot would come on over the loudspeaker she'd stop and strike the pose above.

Here I tried to illustrate a friend's facial expression... I think it's a little too stiff though, I gotta work on that!

I thought I'd revisit the naked-man-animal theme I got into towards the tail-end of college. I think a hamster is a good way to go but I don't think he's exaggerated enough. I'll do additional drawings down the road and maybe get something colored soon.

From the Sketchbook P.3

2010-09-08T10:54:00.002-04:00

For those of you who've known me for a few years, you probably know that I've never really had much interest in drawing attractive women. My philosophy always was that there's enough sexy freakishly-boobed women lining the aisles of every comic book shop and videogame stores already, so why should I try to add my two cents to an over-saturated market?

Well I still really haven't changed my thinking in that regard, but I do realize the benefit of drawing attractive women: it's out of my comfort zone and studying the structure and curves of their faces and bodies can only make me a better artist, right? I took out a few catalogues and magazines we had laying around the office and did a few quick sketches. They're not anatomically correct by any means; I intentionally distorted their proportions but I don't think it was enough to be a 'proper' caricature... they're somewhere eerily in the middle. 'Not sure if I like 'em or not but check 'em out! I'm sure there will be more to come down the road...

This was the first drawing I did with some exaggerated proportions.

Less exaggerated here but I kept the eyes and mouth biggish. 'Probably the better looking one out of the bunch.

This one looks awkwardly like a friend of mine but I think it'd creep her out if I showed her.

The first lesson I learned about drawing attractive women is to NOT make the nose & mouth look like I did above. The cheek action probably doesn't help either.

Kevin Rudolf "Rainfall" Music Video

2010-09-07T10:22:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned earlier, I spent most of July working on this project at Lifelong Friendship Society as animation director. With the time and budget we had, there were only a few instances where we could afford to go back and fix mistakes. On a good day an animation station could crank out 3 seconds in a 10-hour shift, so keep in mind that everything changed animators' hands about that often when you watch it. It all made for a very memorable experience, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The music isn't my cup of tea, but then again I can't drink music now can I?

I just got back from vacation with loads of new sketches and such, hopefully I'll get 'em all posted by the end of the week!

If the link above doesn't work, feel free to check it out on the YOUTUBEZ.

From the Sketchbook P.2

2010-08-17T11:28:00.001-04:00

More sketches!

Inspired by Elizabeth Taylor... not sure why.

This girl's face is actually a caricature of a male animator I work with, not sure why I added an off-target boob-poke.

Recently I've been trying to branch out with how I draw angles on the face... still not quite there yet.

This was a self-portrait I drew at LaGuardia airport in the midst of traveling turmoil and somewhere in the middle of my work binge of July 2010. Seriously I don't even know where that month went... it was exhausting.

From the Sketchbook P.1

2010-08-16T12:32:00.005-04:00

It has been far too long since I've posted new sketches. If there's one thing I need to really work on it's developing more of these into full-fledged colored illustrations, but I hope you enjoy them regardless of their sketchdom!

Regardless of what my critics may think, I am capable of drawing things that aren't immediately disturbing.

I think I somehow channeled Joe Biden's smile into the face on the left without realizing it until I was done.

The guy on the left was loosely based on Peter Jennings, the guy on the right was loosely based on a skinned tomato.

Is there a more thankless job than the snowman maker?

... more to come tomorrow!

FaceMaster: Tim Heidecker

2010-08-13T15:00:00.000-04:00

I've already confessed to my admiration of Tim & Eric in past posts, but one thing I really love about the show is Tim Heidecker's facial expressions in various scenes. All of them beg to be drawn, immediately.

Aren't some people's faces so inspirational? I may make this a regular thing...

Hats off to Yeezy and Graham Holleezy

2010-08-12T15:15:00.003-04:00

If you haven't seen the director's cut of Kanye West's new single, POWER, check it out below!

Kanye West POWER by Marco Brambilla (Director's Cut) from ARTJAIL on Vimeo.

Ohhh... Kanye.

My friend and bowling partner Graham Holly was a lead flame artist on this project. His company ArtJail throw some pretty intensely fun art openings. Check 'em out!

Animatin' for AIDS

2010-08-12T11:05:00.006-04:00

My girlfriend IM'd this to me earlier today calling it a 'cute AIDS animation.' Needless to say I was intrigued...

.... and for those of you who are fans of The Triplets of Belleville, check THIS out.

Catchin' Up on the Cutcha Uppin'

2010-08-11T17:58:00.002-04:00

Where to start where to start where to START.

For approximately the last month I volunteered to be lead animator and do night shifts on a music video production here at LFS. 99% of the video is stop-motion animation, something I've been wanting to get back into since college. We used thousands of beads to make it, along with the most man hours possible on two workstations in a 3-week period. I was becoming somewhat disheveled by the end of it all.

Animating in that style (or hand-drawn, for that matter) was great --- it feels so much more natural and you can do just about anything that your mind can come up with. I'm becoming increasingly more frustrated with digital animation everyday. Yes, it is more convenient, less mess and less costly, but it's so much nicer not having to rely on plugins or processing power for what you want to do. Want to turn a guitar into an angler fish? How about having a guy jump into the frame and suddenly dissipate into a ripple of water? Easy! There's so much more risk involved that gives you such a rush when you see how a shot actually managed to work out well. While the video hasn't made it online yet (I will be providing a link to it when it does), here are a couple of my favorite screenshots that I worked on.

The whole video all clocks in in just under 3 minutes. It's very... rock rappish. For all of you who happen to be fans of beading and Kevin Rudolph, GET FUCKING PUMPED!

More posts coming this week! I can promise you that much, my son.

xoxoMark

Happy Fourth of July!

2010-07-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

Don't over-celebrate yourself, America.

What if this is where you go when you die?

2010-06-08T17:09:00.002-04:00

Imagine if this couple just died in a horrible accident during a trip to visit their in-laws?

Just sayin'.

(actual blog posts to resume soon)

New Project: Oddisee Music Video

2010-04-29T18:15:00.004-04:00

I'm officially directing a new music video for a song featuring the UK artist Tranqill produced by one of my favorites, oddisee. It's for a track off of oddisee's last seasonal EP and won't be a hip-hop video in the typical sense. It'll be more or less (as my good friend Skylar put it) an animated version of something you might find in an Ezra Jack Keats book. Here's a couple of collages that I put together that will get the animated treatment:

... mmmm bleak!

Speaking of not-so-typical hip-hop videos, if you know me then you know I really enjoy Ghostface Killah of the Wu Tang Clan. A lot. I don't really know what I'd ever do if I met the man face-to-face (probably go buy a new pair of pants), but here's a classic from his 1999 album Supreme Clientele. Who else can eat an ice cream cone like that and still retain his... swagger?

NEW BLOG URL

2010-04-27T22:01:00.002-04:00

Hey everybody! I migrated everything over to different servers.

This blog is now located at http://markedanimation.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://markedanimation.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Thanks! See you again soon.

More Hand Drawn Animation

2010-04-27T16:40:00.004-04:00

Still trying to get the cobwebs out, people...

I wanted to try something a little more loose and exaggerated... it's not the cleanest thing ever but I did have fun with stretching parts of him out in the in-betweens.

Monday Love

2010-04-26T15:45:00.004-04:00

"You can find better stories in books and movies. Better illustrations in magazines and on book covers, richer characters in Dickens and in classic sitcoms. Where else can you get get magic moving eye candy but in animated cartoons when they are in top form? - and why do so few places and people want to give it to you?"

-- John Kricfalusi

I was watching Mickey and the Beanstalk last week for some visual reference for a project and loved this scene with Donald flipping his sh*t due to starvation. Check out this pose. Personally I think they could've taken it a bit more extreme but then it might've started looking a little too Warner Brothersy. I do love those fingers!

Also for a sidenote, sometime between now and this Saturday I have to migrate this blog to another URL due to Google severing support for blogger-based blogs hosted on other servers. If it goes down, just visit www.markedanimation.com and you will kindly find direction there.

Happy Friday!

2010-04-16T18:59:00.004-04:00

Here's a chipmunk dressed up as a cop.
Maybe you'll see it on TV, maybe you won't.

UPDATE: You won't.