Simon Cottee Animation

Quimby Character portrait

2012-02-02T14:00:00.001+10:00

Something I drew over my lunch breaks! took too man, need to speed up.

Obscure Star Wars fan art

2012-01-07T13:32:00.000+10:00

Here are two of my favourite star wars characters! Muftak and his adopted daughter Kabe.
Complete with Aurebesh writing.

Character Portrait

2012-01-04T21:12:00.001+10:00

I've been playing a pen and paper RPG (WFRP 2nd Ed.) game with some close friends for almost 3 years now, the other week my character from the beginning died. We have never lost a player character before, granted he sacrificed his life in madness to act out the orders of a rogue brain damaged general and destroyed an levelled an entire industrial district with a lot of dynamite.

So, I just rolled up a new character, all using random dice rolls and a really intricate background and personality generator. So here is Pedlar Gordler the naive Seer.

Boatmurdered SHEESH

2011-12-31T15:02:00.000+10:00

So we have gotten all of the organisational stuff out of the way for boatmurdered. We've been annoyingly busy with graduation and then Christmas! But I'm personally going to dive in at a comfortable pace this week.
To warm up I was going to draw up a new wallpaper, here is the rough composition.

Dorkly Diablo Animaiton

2011-12-13T13:25:00.002+10:00

Here is a freelance project I recently finished for Dorkly.com
I worked with two other uni friends Troy and Tom.

Was fun!
http://www.dorkly.com/video/28510/dorkly-bits-how-diablo-destroyed-tristram

Cool Animation Dump

2011-11-09T12:28:00.000+10:00

Still doing my shading, I'm taking it easy post the frantic crunch.
Here are some great animations worth sharing!
Zoologic, an old favourite of mine!

My friend Sharnee just put me onto this one:

Sébastien Tellier - Look from Record Makers on Vimeo.

AND Tom Ward threw this one at me, amaaazing. Be sure to watch full screen.

Les chiens isolés from CRCR on Vimeo.

And Tom and I are starting to ramp up Boatmurdered again! WOO!

Film Submitted

2011-11-07T02:08:00.004+10:00

So my film the wedding is all submitted for the screening and I'm practically on holidays now. But it aaaaaint over. I'm now shading the film, something that I didn't get time to, it's going pretty quick, I did 3 scenes in like half a day so that's cool.
I could probably finish it off tomorrow if I work hard. I also inbetweened a tiny bit more and am going to redo my credits and tweak some other things.

OH and I'm now looking into film festivals I can submit to.

Film FINISHED and Demo Reel

2011-10-31T21:59:00.001+10:00

Hooray! My film the Wedding has been completed, now I need to sit on it and work out what I can do with it regarding film festivals and the like.
We have to present our work and demo reels and stuff immediately after finishing it, so here is a kinda goofy demo reel I busted together in a semi delirious sleep deprived state. It cracks me up so I'm happy!

the wedding post pro

2011-10-28T11:03:00.004+10:00

Here is two post comp tests. I think I will go for a mix of the two, as the second is a bit too digital for me, I don't think I will use the Depth of Field either.

The Wedding Colouring progress

2011-10-23T20:00:00.001+10:00

colouring colouring colouring.
I have been working like literally non stop from 10am-3am for 3 days in a row now. I've never worked so hard on something, it's great! I've been home alone for 3 weeks now too so I've gone a little weird, but I'm having so much fun. It's frantic to get this thing finished.
Here is a quick test for my colouring! I'm a bit more than half way through the colouring now thank god. Then it's comp city. I want to do a shading pass, but we will see if I have the time and how quick it will be.

The Wedding Colouring

2011-10-20T12:24:00.000+10:00

Ok, I'm prepping to colour my animation in TVPaint.
I only just then finalized my character colour palettes. Here they are!

I was playing around with using the "official" Griffith University red, but it's a bit too light and weak.
YOU HEARD ME GRIFFITH.

The Wedding CLEANS DONE

2011-10-19T21:49:00.001+10:00

OH BOY! Huge milestone today. I finished all the animation! Cleans dooone. It took forever jeesus, haha. I've basically been working non stop for 2 weeks now, like from the moment I wake up till sleep.

Now it's time to try implementing the music and start my colouring tomorrow. Only 12 days till the film needs to be completed so it's absolute non stop work madness at the moment. I hope I can finish the colouring by in 4-5 days. God I hope so.

Here is a commemorative drawing of all of our uni films, done by my boy Cameron.

The Wedding Update

2011-10-11T13:26:00.000+10:00

I am almost finished my cleans, it's been an intense clean journey I will tell you what.
Then I'm onto colouring.
My musician vanished which totally sucks, but luckily I managed to get onto a fantastic French musician who I think will be much better than my original one!
Sound stuff is also going ahead and I had a skype meeting with my radical sound guy Dan Brumm.
Here is a sample image I had to produce for a EPK (electronic press kit).

The final coulouring style will probably be a bit different, as I'm using TV paint to do it.
This was coloured in Photoshop

The Wedding BBW and Backgrounds

2011-09-11T18:08:00.000+10:00

I've got 2 more scenes to do some degree of rough animation on and my animatic is completely locked down now, which feels great! I've also been trying to work my way through all these backgrounds, there are like 50.

And here is some BBW walk test!

Wedding Background progress

2011-08-22T18:51:00.000+10:00

I have been working away on my film, making a move on animation and backgrounds.
Today I've been experimenting with background styles and dimensions so that I can have some cool camera moves if I need to.
Here are some of my experiments.

And here is a (slightly) moving background test:

I had a great meeting today with film editor Mary Stephen and it was really rewarding and helpful!
I will finalising my animatic tomorrow and sending it off for score and sound!

How to make a Homunculus

2011-07-31T19:13:00.000+10:00

I'm back at uni in my final semester now.
I'm doing an Illustration for Design class, where we get weekly assignments.
This is my first week one!
The brief was: Create a Diagram.

CLICK FOR FULL SCREEN

Dorkly.com Comic

2011-07-21T11:54:00.002+10:00

HI! I was visiting family for a week.
I finally got around to getting an iPhone also, so that is pretty exciting!
I just discovered Kerbal Space Program, an indie game where you build rockets to launch into orbit. It uses real physics too! It's still in really early stages, but the core that is there now is crazy fun. I'm really interested in the world that is developing around it. I was inspired to draw some fan art. Mostly because of Riess's AWESOME art work that has become the loading screen

Another Dorkly Comic.
I already have another one to work on. And lucky me it is League of Legends themed! I have been playing crazy amounts lately.

Click to fullscreen

sketchin

2011-07-05T23:53:00.000+10:00

Tried something neat and had an online sketch jam with some buddies. It was a one hour speed sketch with the theme "white walker king". Mine turned into a goblin thing.

Also here is a new comic I did for Dorkly.

Art n Clan n Projections

2011-06-25T15:15:00.000+10:00

Bit of a whatever I've been up to update.
I'm working on a short little pixel sequence at the moment and learning TVPaint animation software!
It's interesting to use it for pixel stuff, as it is a bitmap program, rather than vector, so you can actually animate at a true pixel level. Learning all the shortcuts for it and the interface has proved complicated, it's very unique in it's layout and shortcuts. Frustratingly unique.
I'm considering using it to colour my film.

Here is some concept art for a side project I am doing. Hammertrots!

I've been researching medieval architecture a little, as my house mate just bought a buncha castle and siege warfare books!

Hey, check out this awesome car mounted projection animation thing. Very very cool.

run by vjsuave from vjsuave on Vimeo.

New Dorkly.com Comic

2011-06-21T13:17:00.002+10:00

My latest comic for Dorkly.com is up now
(I don't write these, just draw them from assigned scripts).
http://www.dorkly.com/comic/17257/gritty-mario-kart-noir

Final Ass* Animation Done (*assignment)

2011-06-17T22:45:00.000+10:00

This was an intense little animation to finish in time. The colouring ended up being tedious, though I watched about 6 episodes of Red Dwarf while I did it, so it was cool.

I wanted to colour it in photoshop, but that technique turned out to be too time consuming on my schedule. I still plan to colour my film with that technique though.
The dialogue is Bill Hicks. Animated in Toon Boom.

I've also just gotten into League of Legends. I blame Jouste and his amazing daily high 5 drawings.
It's free to play so give it a shot!

Necromancy!?

2011-06-10T19:27:00.002+10:00

I've been playing around with an "idea" and trying to flesh it out and weave story arcs and character profiles into something. I think THIS project could be pretty neat, the problem with it is it's not for anything. IE not for uni, not for work, just a personal project that would require a buncha effort. I really want to give it a shot though, I have some ideas for distribution.
I won't mention what the idea actually is until I've done the initial stuff for it, that way I won't "talk it out" too much.

Click for a BIG OL version

REGARDING MY UNI FILM:

We had another pitch a few days ago, this time to the head of school and another lecturer. The response was really good. Some students had a rough time with questions and interrogation over theirs, so I was pretty relieved. A guy I had in mind to narrate my film dropped out which is a bit of a bummer, but that's ok.

So I am thinking I will do it myself... again. Just record it with a bit more "personality".

I'm almost up to ACTUAL animation on it. I'm just doing a short animation project at the moment.

Dorklin

2011-05-29T18:42:00.004+10:00

I have an irregular freelance illustration gig for Dorkly.com at the moment.
Basically drawing up comics from scripts they provide.
LIKE HERE

And here is some real ROUGH ROUGH animation keys of uni related stuff.

Pokemon and Sperm

2011-05-16T15:58:00.000+10:00

That title is a bit weird I understand.
The pokemon plague ravaged through our house a while ago and I ended up doing a bunch of stupid Pokemon pictures on some image boards, but never compiled them. So here are some of my favorites.

Click for full res

I've also been working on a uni project for a short film pitch that involves pixel art, sperm and eggs. All will become clear later. But for now, here is some concept art.

on the film front I am currently trying to lockdown and locate a great voice actor for my narration. I've also been sharing my animatic with as many industry people as possible. Been getting some great feedback.

Character redesigns, animatics and shaving

2011-05-08T12:02:00.001+10:00

Hello hello. Lotsa progress has been made of late.
I have my animatic in a real good place. Basically it is the first final candidate animatic. I've been showing it to classmates and trying to get as much feedback as possible. I am also about to send it off to a bunch of industry animators to try get their feedback too! One point I am still trying to make my mind up on is my narration. I just worry it is currently my weakest point and may need to look at finding a proper narrator real soon. Stressssful!

I have also shaved my moustache, sideburns and got a haircut as I am having my "Beardstones" or facial hair milestones linked to my film, so I got my animatic done so now I'm fresh and clean to grow my beard until my film is finished. It's going to get rough...

I have also been revisiting my character designs and updating them. I find they grow organically as I do my animatic and end up drawing them a bunch. The biggest change is perhaps the wife. I also just had an idea for a new hairstyle as I never liked my old one.

And I updated the boy a little, to make him looser and gave him tails.

I've been diving back into pixel art and tried recreating my characters as just a warm up exercise