Beswick's Sketchbook

Animation backgrounds and bosses getting smacked with fishes.

2013-04-14T19:54:00.005-04:00

I've been working on this animation little by little. I'm mostly confident that I can do the linework, but the backgrounds and color are what I feel like I will really struggle on. I ended up going from values to colors slowly.. and mostly at random.

Here was a little animation that I did for fun over the weekend.

The Boss. 33.3% Hitler, 33.3% Wario, 33.3% Robotnik.

2013-03-05T01:25:00.001-05:00

Trying to flesh out this character because, honestly, I have no idea what he really looks like from multiple angles. And frankly, I suck at drawing anything from multiple angles. Like this hair.

I was doing gesture drawings and looking at various animations while doing these. At one point I got frustrated cause I couldn't find fat models to draw from so I found an elephant sitting.. and it seems to be one of the best I drew. lol

Staring at Le Royaume also helped a ton. The hair of the King character changes with his mood.. and I thought that was amazing.

I'm still slightly unsure about this character.. Sometimes he looks like Hitler, sometimes Wario, and when I try to make him look angry by moving his mustache, he looks like Robotnik. I like that his expression comes from his mustache.. but I'm failing at giving him emotion with just that. I don't like showing his mouth, like the middle right face, but I'm lacking ways to move his mustache to give it real emotion.

Also worked on some backgrounds.

Color tests and gesture drawings.

2013-02-02T00:30:00.001-05:00

Doing some color tests for the boss's office. Also some gesture drawings and an attempt at more dynamic poses.

Homeless man rips his business suit off and jumps out a window.

2013-01-27T23:48:00.000-05:00

I'm too slow when it comes to finishing things. I've got two animations to finish.. this month? Can I make that promise? Who knows.

I've kind of fleshed this idea out, finally. It's not perfect. From here on I could fix everything like shrinkage of characters and nonconsistent faces. Make some awesome backgrounds.. figure out the colors, probably taking a page from the people that made Le Royaume or The Reward.

I've also got some sound design classes at coursera.org starting tomorrow. Hopefully I'll make some music and sounds that'll be moderately okay.

Week 2: Cars.. and, buses that turn into trains to fix perspective?

2013-01-25T21:07:00.001-05:00

Struggled. Now I know what I need to work on. Reflections, perspective, and outside lighting.

Lighting Week 1: Batties, deckers, and methuselah syndrome.

2013-01-24T18:09:00.001-05:00

I find myself bouncing back and forth between moderately good and horribly bad paintings. After the previous painting I moved onto the hobbit one, and I struggled with the color until I dropped that to black and white and worked from there.. and then that too I gave up on.

Then I started working on this bladerunner shot after reading James Gurney's Color and Light half-way through and taking notes. By the end I was pleasantly surprised with what I had, but oh boy.. I found it kind of troublesome managing and keeping track of all the cool grays.

After that one I moved onto the next reference fairly quickly. I chose a simple one because I wasted a bit of time and needed to finish these 5. lol.. This one turned out less than awesome. It feels so flat.. and it's definitely unfinished.. but I don't know where to go next with it.

Week 1: Lighting

2013-01-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

Here's my third lighting study and an unfinished fourth that I'm struggling on.

I'm pleased with the first one from Inglourious Basterds. The scene in general is extremely interesting with the big circle window and the red dress. Got a little lazy toward the end and decided not to do the desk or the mirror frame. lol

This second, unfinished, one is from the Hobbit.. aaand I started it in color but was struggling so much that I decided to just drop it to black and white and work on it that way. And I know it's just a lighting study, but I also don't like that I lost all of the angles and flattened the image. lol Will he get frustrated and throw his painting into the recycling bin or push forward and finish it like a man? Tune in next time to learn the answers to these questions and more!

Effin' Light.

2013-01-19T21:07:00.000-05:00

Sara Gross on Google+ posted an awesome list of suggested weekly art assignments and I'm extremely excited to do them.

Week 1 is to study lighting by doing 5 paintings from movies or shows with good lighting. Frankly, I need this.. I'm not very good with light, form, or color.. and even though I bought both James Gurney books, Color and Light and Imaginative Realism, I haven't taken the time to really go over them and practice what it teaches.

Here are the first two.. both of them are from Inglourious Basterds.

Narcissistic bosses require your attention!

2012-12-22T06:20:00.000-05:00

Storyboard(ish): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XFQJU98lFtA

I haven't thought about sound design yet. I have no dialogue planned. What should I do? Bad sound design would probably destroy even the best animation. Should I just do some wah-wah charlie brown noises for when characters talk? Elephant noises when they yell? Should I record my own sounds with my DSLR and sticks of celery? Piano?

The only part of this animation I hadn't really blocked out was the end.. partly cause I've been jumping around trying to figure out what to do. lol I've decided that he'll snap out of his laborious day dream and come face to face with the furious narcissistic boss who clearly doesn't have his attention. He'll try to get him to sign the contract again, and while remembering his day dream.. the protagonist will stand up, cause a ruckus, climb on to the desk, rip his interview suit off, push the statue out the window, and jump out into the wilderness in his underwear. Freeze frame of him jumping out the window. End.

I had fun just drawing the background for this guys office. lol I imagined he just had statues of himself everywhere.

Any critiques of how this animation is done would be welcome. I'm aware of certain things.. like the timing could be better, the character is definitely not the same shape the whole way through, yatta yatta.. but I figured getting a critique now would be beneficial.

Heres a slightly adjusted scene that I've already posted. I tried to get the timing better and decided not to make any more block cycles (laziness?).

Any bloody idea how I should do the sound for this? I have no dialogue in mind. Will it be just grunts and groans, wah wah charlie brown noises? The trumpet noise an elephant makes when a character yells?

Weight, Push, Pull, and Flying.

2012-12-14T05:14:00.000-05:00

Working on one of the previously mentioned projects. I swear, the amount of time i spend being productive is extremely embarrassing. I need deadlines.

This is a segment from the animation. I need to work on timing and.. figure out ways to blend the little block pushing segments together. I'm glad I'm finally getting some weight practice in.

Various rough ideas and animations.

2012-11-05T16:41:00.002-05:00

I've got two projects to finish and I think I like both of them.. but I would like some opinions to see what others think I should do differently. I'm also currently just reading up on Drawn to Life and The Animator's Survival Kit because I feel like I've forgotten some of the principles of animation.. in regards to animating people in the way that I want to.

I started this before i was sidetracked by the summer. Heres the original post: http://www.joshbeswick.com/2012/07/storyboard-and-character-sketches.html

These are just some really rough sketches.. I definitely need to rework some things and I'm struggling to find a way to connect some of the animations toward the end together. Aside from that I'm loving TVpaint and the camera function.

I scribbled this out the other day.. The idea is that this guy starts working for works sake and eventually finishes a giant statue of his boss.. but in turn he's become old and has spent his life attaining someone elses goals. I had other images in my head for it, but I really need to practice rotating things in space.. i'm horrible at it. lol

Other than those projects, I've done a Halloween thing and a simple request from a friend.. Even if they're kind of bad, at least I have a better understanding of TVPaint.

This animation exaggerates what I remember about my childhood Halloween.. being forced to go to church and dress as Moses or a lamb and put on plays about the bible. Being told "Don't come dressed as anything scary!" lol I think in the future I'll avoid doing stuff involving religion..
Heres the original post: http://www.joshbeswick.com/2012/10/fighting-inactivity-with-2-year-old.html

This was the first thing I did in TVPaint.. it's really simple. A friend asked me to make something involving this tank called the Starship.. and it had to do with that song 'Starships are meant to fly' or some shiz. I think it's a Katy Perry song, so I certainly wasn't going to use it in the animation.. just pretend it's playing. lol

I really need to look into creating my own sounds for these animations.

Fighting inactivity with 2 year old ideas.

2012-10-18T20:00:00.002-04:00

My summer was wasted, yet again. Many a game was played, many a laugh was had.. but now it's back to business.. fighting off urges to check facebook, youtube, google+, and reddit in a disgusting never ending loop while I work on a Halloween animation that I originally wanted to animate 2 years ago.

Various Daily Drawing Challenge sketches

2012-07-18T03:25:00.001-04:00

Storyboard and character sketches.

2012-07-17T17:58:00.001-04:00

Been working on an animation. It's mostly about this hobo character who is always scheming for.... stuff. I imagine he's sort of like a mythological trickster, always joking around, pissing people off.

I want it to start out with the question "Why do they call you Jungle Buzzard anyway, Hopkins?" and the main character, Hopkins, not really wanting to answer until he spots a pile of items he can steal.. leading to him telling a West African myth, Anansi and the box of stories, purely for distraction purposes. Each animal Anansi captures in the story correlates to a hobo around the campfire. The snake gets tied to a stick, and so does a hobo.. the leopard falls in a hole.. etc.

Eventually someone will catch on, like the inch tall fairy at the end of the story will end up being humongous and take Hopkins out of the little dream world he's created to see the big guy just walloping him to the ground and knocking all the supplies he was attempting to steal everywhere. Then somehow they'll all realize a jungle buzzard is a hobo who preys on other hobos.

Added some temporary audio to a storyboard for timing purposes, and then started designing some characters. I'd be greatful for any comments on this.. been getting an awful lot of backpedaling from people who are afraid to give an honest opinion. Comments that actually specifically say what you didn't like are best. Was it too slow? Did it make sense at all? What would you change?

Here are some character thumbnails.

And here are some refined-ish characters.

Day 22: A video game character.

2012-07-10T00:08:00.000-04:00

Skull Kid from Majoras Mask

I recently bought Color and Light by James Gurney to learn color theory.. and also read these two articles: Kecleon Color Theory. Color theory principles and practice. Overall, I think they've helped loads. Though, I haven't started making my own color palettes yet. Still, I wouldn't be able to do this without these articles.

Hobo Hopkins and the story of the Sky-Bitch.

2012-07-08T06:27:00.001-04:00

This was day 18 of the drawing challenge, Comic, but it got out of control.. now I want to make an animation/motion comic type thing. Heres what I have so far. Tell me what you think.. any criticism this early on is awesome.

Day 15, 16, 17, and 20 of drawing challenge.

2012-07-08T06:22:00.003-04:00

Day 15: Your Spirit Animal
I chose either the coyote or the fox because they were both represented as tricksters by ancient myths. I'm not exactly tricking anybody, or even cunning or full of wisdom.. but I do tend to act foolish, funny.. etc.

Day 16: What you wanted to be when you grew up.

I remember drawing Garfield all the time and people saying "he's the next Jim Davis". So I somehow got it into my little kid head that I was actually going to replace him. lol

Day 17: Something sentimental

Day 20: Boba Fett or Darth Vader

Did a little color study after reading some articles too. Also ordered James Gurney's Color and Light which should get here around Wednesday. Yesss.

Day 14: Theodore Roosevelt as.. Heavily Armed Teddy Bear on Moose!

2012-07-01T22:58:00.000-04:00

Theres clearly something wrong with my color profile or whatever its called. I just got Photoshop and it's doing the same exact thing Corel Painter does. Light beige grays turn into pitch black blues when I save them as jpgs.

Day 13: My Dream Job (30 day drawing challenge)

2012-07-01T01:42:00.000-04:00

Click to enlarge!

Space is a wide open vacuum thats always expanding.. and I'd feel claustrophobic as hell in space. Not to mention I almost puked while on a ferris wheel. I'll stick to drawing astronauts puking in space, thank you.

Day 11 & 12: Reptar and Stephenson

2012-06-29T22:14:00.000-04:00

My choices were The Dinosaurs from the TGIF show "Dinosaur", Dino from The Flintstones, Yoshi, or Gozilla

Day 11 - Most Influential Person

Day 11 is below day 12 because I didn't like it as much. lol I didn't know what to do for this one. This is hardly someone who changed my life and molded me.. and I honestly feel silly for just drawing him because I only read one book of his. But the book Snow Crash got me interested in reading about mythology, ancient Mesopotamia, and Christianity/Islam/Judaism a bit more. It's probably the one thing that has changed most about me recently.

Or it might just be Tenzin from The Legend of Korra. He taught me how to air bend.

Also used Google+'s Hangouts on Air feature to record a sketching session and send it straight to my youtube account. Later on I downloaded the clips and edited them in premiere pro. Was extremely nice. If you want to see how often I go back and forth and then eventually give up on value/color:

Drawing Challenge Day 10 - Useless Superpower

2012-06-28T01:30:00.002-04:00

Look, it's Tea-Time! He's a master of disguise because of his knack for creating royal hats out of thin hair. He can also materialize rather nasty tasting cups of tea. Though, like many heroes and villains, he too has a weakness.. his kryptonite is the fact that he can only use his powers at 5pm in the UK.

Drawing Challenge Day 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

2012-06-26T11:19:00.004-04:00

Day #4 - Favorite Muppet or Jim Henson character.

I don't have a particular favorite.. so I googled a bunch that had an interesting style to them. I had a list of Clifford, Pepe, Crazy Harry, and Animal.. but I decided to go with Sweetums.

Day #5 - Favorite Musician or Band.

I went with Bear McCreary. I don't know if I like the soundtracks because I liked the shows.. but I feel extremely productive when I'm listening to, say, the Battlestar Galactica season 3 ost.

Day #6 - An Idiom Literalized.

Day #7 - Favorite Movie Quote.
I couldn't remember many quotes from my favorite movies.. so I decided to watch one that I thought was funny. Role models.

Day #8 - Favorite Animated CharacterI was going to go with just Ren and Stimpy, but I also find Adventure Time to be pretty damn hilarious. I don't know if that makes me immature or not. lol

30 day drawing challenge!

2012-06-21T14:35:00.001-04:00

I've been procrastinating. I'm a molding potato.. and video games have taken over my dreams. So, I'm going to ween myself back to productivity with this 30 day drawing challenge that some friends of friends of friends have started on Facebook.

Day #1 - Self Portrait

Day #2 - Mythological Creatures. Frost Giants? Or just giant vikings?

You can tell I waited till the last minute and just started scribbling. :(

Day #3 - First Album/Co

If I ignore the Christian albums/hymns I had forced on me as a child, the first real album I remember buying was this WCW soundtrack. I didn't even watch wrestling that much.. I just remember randomly grabbing Final Fantasy 7 and this off a shelf. Was the first time I really listened to Metallica or Limp Bizkit.

In A World Where the Internet Doesn't Exist!

2012-03-30T03:21:00.000-04:00

I really want to get this topic out of my head.. and what better way than to show a gopher bashing it's own brains out before buying a scammy cable television package that provides him at max 2 hours of quality content a week?

I think it's kind of ridiculous what people pay for when it comes to cable television. Sometimes I think that the only reason people buy it is to have something to mindlessly flip through after work while saying "1000 channels and theres nothing on!"

The whole package plan thing requires you pay around 100-200 dollars a month.. or less if they pull you into a contract with a bogus discount. That money doesn't even go to a specific channel or program you enjoy. I read somewhere that ESPN/ESPN HD gets 4 dollars of your bill no matter what. Meanwhile, say you like the SyFy channel, 21 cents goes to SyFy a month. Your 21 cents doesn't pay for specific programs you enjoy.. and the company is more likely to pay for the cheaper project.. like reality TV. Lets not even go over what happens when your favorite show goes on a 4 month break after 6 episodes. Reality shows and winter olympics? Ugh.

You could support your favorite TV shows more by just paying 2.99 on itunes each week (assuming that apple doesn't take some ridiculous amount of profit from selling the episodes). And you'd save massively.

At this point with the technology we are capable of it's like these cable/satellite companies are really just scamming everyone. I can't even see a younger adult who understands the internet even intelligently paying for a package plan. It's a waste of your hard earned money.

Heres a great link on the topic: http://afrodaddy.com/shelter/cable-tv-overpriced-scam-there-are-other-options

Gopherk yourself cable/satellite providers. Lets move on to digital media now.

Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones

2012-03-13T01:22:00.000-04:00

I've been working on color theory and value.. but I could still use a lot of advice! The only books, dvds, or sites I've found on the subject are Practical Light and Color with Jeremy Vickery, Color Theory: The Mechanics of Color with Richard Keyes, and This ImagineFX tutorial. I also feel like these Force books (Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators, Force: Character Design from Life Drawing) have helped me loads in just generally drawing.

Here is Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones.. I personally can't see the likeness at this point, but I've had others say it does look like her. lol Also recorded the entire process and upload it to youtube.