Update update update

 'Ello' ello. Just doing an update before I crash for the night. I've made some progress on this short and I'm happy where it's going. Not to mention that an extension was given on the project so it's just that much more to take it to the level I want it to be at. Don't have any pencil tests to upload at the moment but they may come soon. For now here's the finished background from the previous posts with a composite of how the character will look against it. The line style isn't final, I'm thinking of doing darker values of the colors for the line around the hair and skin because it's a little closer to the style I was going for. But, again, this was just to see how the characters looked in the world.

(Also to note: She is running her finger along the rim of a coffee cup in this scene but it did not make it into this test.)

Also just wanted to show some progress I've made on a portrait of Jeff Bridges I'm working on as an illustration assignment. This is done in Prismacolor pencil. First time I've used them in many years and in this kind of approach. I'm pretty happy with it. Really liking the fact that I'm getting exposed to some different medias lately and have the ability to quickly adapt to using them and executing some fun pieces with them. 

Keep on keepin' on

Was the only one working in the studio today. It felt kinda nice to be alone with my thoughts and I like to think it helped me to concentrate a little more but still would have rather had some animation buddies with me. Currently I feel like I am struggling to keep on schedule with this short due to the limited time I've had to work on it but I'm trying to remain optimistic that I'll get it done on top of my other projects (see my 3-Dimensional Worlds blog to see what I'm working on in that area). Got a few seconds cranked out today of pencil tests, only have about 5 more seconds to finish up which should be relatively easy from a motion standpoint. The hardest part is getting the acting right.

Also managed to do a little more to my background I posted last night and did a composite test to make sure it is working for my scene, which it does (good news!). It's nice how therapeutic it can be to just work on something that isn't animated sometimes even if it's apart of the same project. That's what I love about animation as there is ALWAYS something to do.  Not sure I mentioned in in the last post but I'm going for a UPA style look for these backgrounds as I like the simplicity and funkiness of the shapes and colors but also the detail lines that go into them.

Well this is awkward....

Finally getting around to posting to this thing. I've been severely lacking in that department but blogging is something I've never been too into. Anyway, currently working on a project promoting a film festival. We're going for a vignette of shorts about 10-15 seconds long each. Here's an example of a work in progress background for a French cafe...