Tuesday 25 March 2014

Comics and Animatics

Like most kids who grew up before video games, I read comic books and watched cartoons. I evolved in my tastes, from the basic good guy vs bad guy super heroes in tights to ruthless bandit barbarians to the anti-heroes of the Watchmen.
 The thing I like most of the comic world evolution is the incredible range of story telling, writing and of course the art work, which is the same for animation.
   My cousin who is an amazing writer and producer in Hollywood (NCIS Los Angeles, Jag, E.R. to name a few) was writing a script for a live action series and asked if I could do a comic book teaser. I immediately jumped at the chance.
 I can't go into it too much (confidentiality things) but it's set in WWII. I'm a history buff so I really got into researching the uniforms, equipment and settings.
The challenge was converting a script for live action to comic book.
That and doing it using a Wacom tablet and Photoshop. I prefer traditional pencil and paper but thought this would be faster. Took a few pages before I got the hang of it. Went for a more realistic rough feel over the more traditional north American style in hopes of the viewers easier seeing it as live action.
  After that was done (10 pages) my brother (also an artist/animator and director) took the comic and made it into an animatic which I have included below.

So here's a few pages ofwhat I've done and the animatic made by my brother.
Hope you like it.

T.S.








  





Sunday 16 March 2014

Frankenstein

  My apologies for not posting sooner, has been a hectic few months. I plan to never be this absent again.
    I've always been a huge fan of the classic horror stories. Not sure why but I think they were scarier but also had a human element to them, they seemed to be more the victims in a sense.
Frankenstein or should I say his monster was the perfect example of that. Gentle being turned monster from the mistreatment and ignorance of others.
     The real scary part of it for me is the idea of bringing life back to the dead (even though we all might wish we could at some point in our lives.) Most of us I'm sure wouldn't want to use remains of different people to do it.
   But the idea does have artistic curiosities (Now I'm seeing where the scientists get their urges from)
So I've been sketching some ideas for a monster which I've posted below.
Much of my inspiration comes from the novel Frankenstein's Diary. Fantastic view from the Doctors perspective.
As always I welcome any comments.
Hope you enjoy it.

T.S.
   "I am Legion, for I am many."   (from Frankenstein the True Story in reference to his being made of different people.) 
                                                       
                                           The monster, learning to walk using apparatus.

                                        Had fun researching physicians tools of the 1800's.
A great way to learn anatomy.