Inamel Lives!

He keeps popping up in the strangest places!

Cut Chemist- 'Spat' (2006) Part 2

About a year and half had passed since the video production stopped. It had always been an itch I couldn't scratch, and had wished I could get back to it at some point. In mid 2006 at a benefit I was involved with, I ran into Luke.

After talking a bit, he'd told me he was hoping we could pick up where we left off, which was the best news I'd heard all day!. I had a pretty clean plate in terms of work, so, it was a go. I was surprised how much work we'd finished the year earlier, so, it was almost half done in terms of art. We just needed to settle on a character style and movement. I tried to manage the expectations a bit more this time around, and Luke seemed pretty happy with things.

The trickiest thing was trying to figure on the 'mouths' and the mannerisms. Since these characters weren't going to sing or do much moving we really had to emphasize the movements as best we could, to give a sense of character. The animators I'd brought on did an amazing job at some of the subtle movements. Once the 'mouths' were synched to the scratching noises, we were almost there.

Luke ended up being really happy with the finished product, and would play it during his performances while he performed the song live! Truly amazing. It ended up being a great experience and offered up a lesson for me in persistence.

The Road To Serfdom

This was a series of cartoons published back in the early 1950's. It's based on a book of the same name written by economic theorist (and Nobel Prize winner) Friedrich Hayek. This was during the post war 'Keyensian' boom , which I'm sure you hear a lot about now (the basic premise that government SHOULD involve itself in an economy). Hayeks ideas were more akin to "government should NEVER involve itself'. Basically the Republican theory which limits itself to interest rate adjustments. You could argue that's what led us into the current mess we're in.... You be the judge.

Cut Chemist- 'Spat' (2005) Part 1

Once upon a time I submitted an idea for a Jurassic 5 video. It was a Schoolhouse Rock/Rap educational video , and I'd sketched all the guys out. I got no response, but a year or so later, a mutual friend introduced me to Lucas McFadden (Cut Chemist) who was looking for a video for his upcoming album.

He had the idea to have two 'turntable people' having an argument, as the song itself was an instrumental, with scratched noises and exclamations. I came up with a bit of a treatment and animatic, including the two characters, but involving a lot of arbitrary animated elements and scenes, that would offer up a 'jazz' sort of approach. Luke was pretty adamant to sticking to just the two characters on screen. We met halfway, by allowing me to keep some of these elements at the beginning of the video.

Settling on a character design for the Turntable Guy was a whole different matter. Luke submitted a design (upper left), and I'd come back with something a bit more streamlined, and 'animatable'(middle). We went back and forth on this for a while until other projects came up, and Luke wasn't happy with the designs thus far. We'd decided to stop the project...(continued).

Making It Rain

A current project has me adding some rain to otherwise sunny exterior shots. A bit of a challenge, as, rain and fire are 2 of the hardest elements to animate.

This one...

Probably needs no introduction. This came from the development drawer.

Joshua Hoffine

A series of great actual art-directed photos, using no digital effects, are making the rounds. Joshua is a photographer from Kansas City, who speciallizes in the especially macabre. Check out HERE for more.

Figurine art

An upcoming project has me rendering a 3D version of notable performer. Pretty interesting, as I'll be taking initial skecthes and transferring them into actual 3D schematics. Sort of like a virtual sculpture.