Scrabblemation

I saw this on Motionographer today... fantastic, fantastic work for Scrabble of all things. Like I didn't enjoy America's Favorite Word Game™ enough already (that reminds me... I left my board at someone's house awhile back so I need to go buy a new one, hopefully I don't have to trip balls in order to do so). Great work by Wizz.
In other news, I'm working hard on trying to get a couple of projects off the ground. I can't discuss things in too much detail since one is still in the stages of pre-pre-production, but the other is a new music video for everyone's favorite group... Locksley! Yup. The boys that gave me the opportunity and put me where I'm at today are bringin' me back for Music Video Part Two (Part DEUX). When I'm not cooking obscene amounts of food for Sam Bair, we're crackin' away at the egg that is creative output. Hopefully I'll have a few more things to post soon as things develop a bit more.

Until then!

M

Mike Judge's "Extract"

via videosift.com

Few people capture the mundane characteristics of every day life quite like Mike Judge. It took me a couple of years to learn to appreciate the man (I thought Beavis & Butthead was annoying when it first aired and it took me a few seasons to warm to King of the Hill) but I think the guy nails it in his live-action work. Office Space & Idiocracy were both instant classics for me and while they may have had their flaws, they really did influence my daily world view, as ridiculous as that might sound.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to his next feature. It looks fantastic.

Marked Animation 2009 Reel

88-Keys ft. Kanye West "Stay Up! (Viagra)"

My boy 88-Keys in his new video for his first single off of "The Death of Adam" with Kanye West. Highly enjoyable... 88's performance sells it for me.

"Please Say Something" by David OReilly

I have a lot to blog about lately, ranging from new website updates to my 2009 demo reel to new work & even to new work that I haven't even been able to work on yet. Unfortunately I've been so busy on a project at LFS that I've been unable to keep up with the blog, but I can assure you that next week I'll be back at it. Until then, check out this great animated short by David OReilly, it's a really great piece of work with a wonderful story and some really mind-bending transitions:


Please Say Something - Full Length from David OReilly on Vimeo.

Kid Cudi "Day 'N' Night" directed by So Me

These folks always do great work and Kid Cudi's new music video is certainly no exception. Also, if you haven't heard much of Kid Cudi yet DOWNLOAD HIS MIXTAPE HERE. It's great! That guy's gonna be big in a big way.

Lifelong Friendship Society 2.0

Lifelong Friendship Society's brand-new website went live today, with an all-new flash interface, work reel, and a slew of projects we had archived on the servers. Check it out here!

Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job!

Season 4 is currently airing every Sunday night (Monday morning I guess...?) at 12:30 AM EST

Watch it. Even if you hate it.

Illustration in 2009

When the new year came and went around a month-and-a-half ago, I decided to be more of realist when it came to making resolutions for 2009 and quickly shot down any personal goals of traveling more, wasting money on frivolous things and/or cutting back on my drinking. Instead I opted for two other ideas: learn the 3D program Maya and get back into illustrating on a more consistent basis. As my friend Mark Theriault has graciously reminded me, getting into Maya is a whole new beast in itself with a whole new world of technical issues & frustrating problems, so we'll see exactly where that taco will take me once I gather up the nerve to eat it.

Man with Finger Mustache ⓒ 2009 Mark Phillips

Illustration, on the other hand, is what got me into animation in the first place and was something that I did nearly every single day of my life until I was out of school. Drawing saved me from the hellish boredom of countless math classes & even earned me my first car. After perusing my website statistics on the fine internet service known as Google Analytics, I found that although it was the least updated of all of my pages, Marked Animation's illustration section actually received the most traffic out of any other page on my site. Thus, last week I began scribbling away again when I would get the chance and came up with some new material that will make its way onto the interwebz when I update everything soon.

Morning Breath featured in the March 2009 issue of Complex Magazine, which I receive in the mail for no reason since I never subscribed to it to begin with

Speaking of illustration, you should check out the work of the fine gentlemen at Morning Breath. They've done some amazing design work and chances are you've seen the various products of their labor floating around all over the place (one of the more recent pieces that comes to mind is the cover art for TV on the Radio's highly-acclaimed album, Dear Science). Earlier in 2008 LFS and MB were supposed to work together on a music video project for the group known as N.A.S.A. but the project unfortunately never materialized beyond pre-production. Regardless, I've kept in contact with them and hopefully a collaboration of sorts will come to fruition in the coming months!
... Plus I feel the need to prove myself to Doug (pictured on the right), who is one of the few people that I've met who can drink a beer faster than me in a casual setting. That, people, is called talent.

Chester French

The music video for their single "She Loves Everybody" premiered yesterday on MTV. It's a great song, take a listen if you haven't gotten the chance to yet.