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

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

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.

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

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...

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™

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

click on the happy creature to follow me.

Babyface.

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

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

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.