A Random Collection of Works by Tom Davis

Fun With Flour Sacks

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:24:00 +0000

I've been trying to get used to drawing and animating with my Wacom Bamboo tablet lately, so I thought to myself "why not get a little practice and have fun with the old flour sack to boot!" And so it was. Here's some quick gestures that, while simple in nature, I think are quite appealing. In addition, I did a little line test animation of my flour sack. I really wanted to do an exaggerated cartoony scramble/run and I think it turned out nicely. Who knows - maybe later down the road I'll clean it up and make something more out of it! (That's the beauty of doodling - no commitments.)

Flour Sack Line Test from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Make Friends, Play Tennis TV Spots

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:28:00 +0000

Two TV commercials I animated for Midtown Athletic Club/Real Art Design Group. I was responsible for all animation and visual production of both 15 second spots. All animation was traditionally animated with pencil and paper for client approval, then scanned and cleaned up/vectorized in After Effects. Directed by Andy Nick. Original concept/design: Arturo Gigante and Debbie Kasher. Sound design: Adam Haroff (adamharoff.com). Production-side project management: Matt Zolman. Client-side project management: Todd Blair.

Make Friends, Play Tennis - Porcupine/Balloon Animal TV Spot from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Make Friends, Play Tennis - Astronaut/Alien TV Spot from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Something Older and Something New

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:32:00 +0000

Last week I got the chance to do a short little animated header for our Real Mart website at work. It was a quick little job, nothing major - and my direction was basically "Just spend a few hours, do something cool to animate these product thumbnails onto screen and have fun with it!" It's funny how sometimes the littlest pieces of a project can be the ones you enjoy doing the most! I didn't design the layout (I think that was Jenn Gobrail who designed it) but I came up with the idea and wavy-line style and popped this together:

Real Mart Holiday Flash Animation from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Go on over to Real Mart - http://www.shoprealmart.com - and do some holiday shopping!

It also occurred to me recently that I had a really nice motion graphics/animation sample just hanging out here on my desktop that I worked on over a year ago! Real Art did a campaign for KMart's Fab 15 Toys for the Holiday Season. I got to do a lot of motion graphics throughout the entire campaign - and a bunch of design work, too. But this little segment is the part I'm most proud of. I was responsible for the design and animation from concept to completion of this segment while Ron explains the affect the Fab 15 Toys are having on kids. I think it turned out pretty cool.

Fab 15 Motion Graphics from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Hey - both of these were done for successive holiday-related projects... what a coincidence. I must be in a festive mood! Happy Holidays!

Some Scraps - Doodling During Render Time

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Here's some scraps from my doodle-pad I did today just before lunch. I really like this playful little guy! Hmm... Scraps sounds like a fitting name for him. Maybe I'll animate him soon...

My New Animation Reel and Website Is Up

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:03:00 +0000

If you've been following along, you may already know that almost two years ago I went back to school to really iron out my animation chops. I've recently graduated from Animation Mentor in the 18 month Character Animation Program, and I've decided - along with posting my new Animation Demo Reel - that I'd go ahead and to a total "reboot" so-to-speak. I've launched a new Portfolio Site where I'm keeping my current reel along with samples of my illustration work. From time to time I'll be posting new work here on the blog and on my site, so please subscribe and check back once in a while to see what's new!

That being said, I'm going to send you on over to my spankin' new website to check out my new reel and then some!

Click here to check it out: www.tomdavisart.com

New Lighting and Compositing Test

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:21:00 +0000

I've been trying to get my head around lighting and compositing across my 3D applications (in this case Cinema 4D) and After Effects. This weekend I threw together this little test. To me - this is feeling just about right. Once I get this concept down, I plan on animating characters in live-action footage.

Lighting and Compositing Test from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Facial Poses

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 21:03:00 +0000

This term at Animation Mentor, we were required to find facial poses that conveyed a clear emotion and mimic that emotion with the Bishop character. It's really a fun exercise and helped me wrap my brain around facial posing. Here's some of the poses I did that I feel were pretty strong!

Something Else...

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:01:00 +0000

You might have noticed if you watched my previous post that there's a couple picture frames on the wall in the background. I created a couple "paintings" in photoshop yesterday morning that I'm going to de-saturate a little and put into those frames when I come back through and do my final render. Jenny flipped out about these and really like them, so I thought maybe they were worth putting up here. I had fun doing them b/c I gave myself about a half hour timeframe to complete them! Hope you like!

Some Fun Stuff I'm Doing

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:10:00 +0000

Butterfly Animation - Process

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:47:00 +0000

Here's a little animation exercise I've done this week on my week off from work. I've included the thumbnail sketches I started with, the pencil test, and the final colored version... just to show my process from start to finish. Hope you enjoy!

The Thumbnails:

The Pencil Test:

The Final Colored Animation:

Something I'm Working On...

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:13:00 +0000

Details soon to come... but I'm loving the direction this is going so I thought I'd post a teaser!

Animation Mentor Class Two, Assignment One

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:23:00 +0000

Here's my first assignment for Animation Mentor Class Two: Psychology of Body Mechanics with Instructor Dimos Vrysellas. The assignment was to have the Ballie character descend a few stairs. I added some hop to his step to give him some character, too. I'm really happy with how this one turned out! More to come soon!

Animation Mentor Class One

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:06:00 +0000

Animation Mentor Progress Reel: Class One Basic Foundations from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Here's my progress reel for Animation Mentor Class One: Basic Foundations with Don Kim! I feel like I've learned a ton this term and I couldn't be happier with AM's program. I'm getting ready to start class two, so check back in 3 months when I post my second progress reel!! A couple notes worth mentioning: these are Maya playblasts, not full-on renders... the same files I turned in for my assignments. Also worth mentioning, there's no physics engine stuff, rigid bodies/soft bodies or collision objects or any of that... this is focusing on learning the basics and hand-keying everything! Anyway - hope you like!

Christmas in ... June?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:50:00 +0000

OK... so last Christmas I gave my wife, Jenny, what she's been hinting at for years - Peanuts lawn characters (to put in our yard at Christmas-time)! Like a throwback to the 70's I drew these guys out on particle board, cut them, and painted them and gave them to her for Christmas! These guys are roughly 4 feet tall (with the exception of Snoopy being a little smaller). Jenny's way more saavy than I am regarding stuff like this so she ended up weatherproofing them recently while I took the opportunity to photograph them. My neighbors were impressed that I didn't trace or stencil these guys, and I assured them that's not my bag... nor is weatherproofing evidently. But yeah... if you're gonna make your wife something cool for Christmas - never, ever, EVER trace them ... jeez, really?? I will say, though, that mine are not the only hands that touched these guys... my son, Forrest helped me cut and bondo the rough edges, my 7-year-old, Willy, and my neighbor friend, Joe, "helped" me paint them, my daughter made sure mama was out of the house long enough for me to work on them, and my son, Dylan, helped me hide them all winter long! (so yeah this one was a team effort.)

Animation Mentor Stu Poses

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:58:00 +0000

As you many know I'm currently attending Animation Mentor and am now in the last week of class one! (Woohoooo!) One of my favorite things we did this term was "Stu Poses". It's where we're assigned an emotion or a physical state of being and we have to then sketch the figure in 10 or more quick gesture drawings... then we select our favorite and put our character, Stu, into said pose. It's a really fun exercise and although there's no motion involved, it's a HUGE building block for what we're about to be getting into from here on out in our classes and in our animation careers. So here's a couple of my favs from first term. Hope you like! Oh - and later this week I'll be posting my Progress Reel from term one here for all to see as well, containing more Stu poses and a bunch of animation assignments I've finished... so check back! (Sketches by hand - obviously - and Stu poses done in Maya using AM's character and rig.)

Crazy Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:41:00 +0000

Here's a peek at some concept work I'm doing on a fun new project I'm working on at Real Art! Not going to go into any details right now - but I'm having a blast concepting this out and thought I'd share a couple of my favorites. Enjoy! (Photoshop and Cinema 4D, by the way.)

Daily Doodles

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:27:00 +0000

Puddlecutters!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:19:00 +0000

Man I totally forgot about this drawing till I stumbled across it searching for something else! What a nice surprise! A couple summers ago a couple buddies of mine wanted to buy mopeds, chop them, and start a moped gang. I thought it was a funny idea and quickly scribbled up this Roth-inspired mascot for the Puddlecutters! (I think I'll stick to riding my Silverado rather than the downgrade to a tiny bike... sorry guys.)

Meet Winston!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 04:52:00 +0000

What can I say? I thought it would be fun to do a new spin on an old favorite!

Some New Art for Art's Sake

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:29:00 +0000

While waiting for a render at work the other day I decided to get out my pencil pouch and do some doodling. I ended up with a nice little superhero character and decided to clean him up this weekend in illustrator and photoshop. Check him out!

My Old Biz Card!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:24:00 +0000

I was just doing a little housekeeping here on my blog and realized I hadn't posted the illustration I did for my (now defunct) business card. Yeah - I'm not actively tattooing right now but the illustration I did for this card should not go to waste!

Starting a New Chapter

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:15:00 +0000

I'm not sure if I should really call it "starting a new chapter" or more appropriately "picking up where i left off"... either way - it's a change for the better! I've decided to switch gears and get back to my true love - character animation!!! Yep - for anyone who knows me, this won't be a surprise. I'm currently gearing up to start classes at AnimationMentor.com beginning in March, and from here on out, my blog posts will largely be illustration work, animation work, and stuff of that general flavor. I hope you stick around to see some of the exciting work I put out over the coming years... it's been a long time comin' and I'm pumped and ready to really get back to what I love!

Check out AnimationMentor.com to see the AMAZING work their students are cranking out in the student showcase reels!

Dawn's Phoenix

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:24:00 +0000

I'm so happy with how this tattoo turned out I figured I'd share it in as many places as possible! So if you're a Facebook friend of mine or a fan of our studio's Facebook fan page, you may have already seen this one... but hey - can there really be too much of a good thing?

Thanks for giving me freedom with this one, Dawn!

A Few Recent Tattoos

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:54:00 +0000

I've been posting paintings and non-tattoo artwork lately and figured maybe it was time to post a few of my recent tattoos! I'm really happy with how these turned out and am energized and ready for more! Hope you like them as well. (Note: the hula girl is based on a piece of traditional-style flash by M.D.Howse of Spider Murphy's and was my first TRUE attempt and american-traditional.)

Hula girl and rum barrel on Rob Anspach June 2010, Snake and spade on Jason Brandt May 2010, and Angel on Mike Brandt July 2010.

Blue Buddha Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Davis) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:16:00 +0000

Recently I was asked by an old friend if I would do a painting for her husband for a Father's Day gift. Here's what I ended up with! Happy Father's Day, Frank!