Floyd County Productions is hiring!

Hey followers! To those of you interested in joining us at Floyd County Productions here is your chance :) Copied this post from one of my coworkers blog to share with all of you.

JUMP ON THIS.

Floyd County Productions is looking for studio artists to add to our Archer, Chozen, and Bigfoot crews. We’re seeking Illustrator key frame animators, ToonBoom animators, Flash animators, storyboarders, and background painters. If you:

• have training in animation
• are proficient in Adobe Illustrator, ToonBoom, Flash, or Photoshop
• can undergo a trial period in-studio, then subsequently relocate to Atlanta, GA (trial may or may not be required, depending on the position)
• have an online portfolio and/or demo reel
• greatly enjoyed the above image

Then send your full name, resume, portfolio/reel URLs, and what positions you’re applying for, to macdonaldfloyd1@gmail.com and I will send it along. Please ask if you have any questions or concerns. FIRST DEADLINE FOR PORTFOLIOS IS SEPT 9TH. A second round of portfolio gathering may follow, but it’s best not to rely on that possibility. There’s no guarantees, so dive in

Dial W for Wallace & Gromit: Hitchcock’s influence on Wallace and Gromit films

Hey everyone! I was going through some of my old files from school and I stumbled upon my first quarter term paper. It's not perfect but hey for a first draft I think it can hold some water. Oh Master's degree making me think and and analyze and write and junk. Please enjoy. You can also click here to view my presentation that went along with the paper for more pretty pictures.

***Mandatory disclaimer***
So this should go without saying but it is the internet after all. If anyone out there stumbles across my paper and decides to expand upon it or use some of the ideas I proposed cite me as your reference and shoot me a message. Thanks!

Pacific Rim!

So my wife and I went to see Pacific Rim Sunday. Was the story amazing? Not particularly. Was it long? Yeah I mean it's 2.5hrs.....but fuck! I had a freaking blast watching this movie and it honestly didn't feel long. I love Mako, Gieszler and Gottlieb followed closely by Pentecost. But the movie really is about Mako so I had to do a "partial" fan art of her! I haven't done fan art in a long time and I am honestly quite busy so I just cheated and painted her eyes and hair for my computer wallpaper :D

Mako Mori (1600 x 1200) Feel free to use for your computer. I would be honored!

She is a really cool character and her back story is far more interesting than mister plain toast action hero lead Raleigh Becket. Her story is beautifully shot and I think it takes the pie in the film.

I got myself a job!

I seemed to disappear then reappear depending on what my school scheduled was but that is all over now. I graduated in June and had a short week off before starting at my new job. I am super amped about landing a spot on the flash animation team at Floyd County Productions!

I have been there just over 1 month and it has been an incredible learning experience for me so far. I had a spell of self doubt and some intense anxiety questioning my skills my first month at work. But that has nearly passed by now and I need to just enjoy the fact that I got to help on episode 1 of Season 5 Archer! Probably my favorite show on television right now so what's to panic about? We have started pre-production on Chozen which is where I will be animating.

During my first 2 weeks I was lucky enough to catch a super fun project and worked on some inbetweening and clean up for a few of the lead animators. I can't say what the show was BUUUUUT I will announce here on my blog when I can and be all "I animated that hand!" and "Cleaned up that action!" just to claim what little involvement I had on the project...hahaha

Thumbnail Color Script

So while one of my teammates worked on the storyboard the other was putting it all together in the first rough cut animatic. I was tasked with the color script for the film. So I took the storyboard thumbnails and painted this quick and dirty color script. Pending some tweaking we are in week 4 and will hopefully begin production this weekend. Time to start animating!

Another New Film

Working this quarter on my second film we are currently calling it "Red". It is a biographical film about Robert Goddard. The only requirements for the class are the following.

1. An "abstract" biography
2. It must be mixed media
3. Stay withing 1-2 minutes

So you can check out our production blog over at jimcowjaz.blogspot.com. I will try to post work here as well.

I will be lead character animator on the film! It is my first so wish me luck. Below you can see two of my concepts for the environment and the character design of Goddard at multiple ages.

At first we were going to have the character as a paper cut out but we are slowly moving away from it as we develop the look further.

My first concept was a paper sketch of  a cherry tree then a digital painting on top.

Second concept is using photo textures composited together then some Photoshop painting. Another team mate is exploring watercolor skies that are looking pretty sweet.

New "logo" for self branding

Hey long time no post! I've been busy of late but wanted to throw something up on the blog to show I am alive and kicking. Our first assignment for portfolio class was a logo design as part of our self branding. Below you can see my final direction along with the simple animation I will include during the title of my demo reel. I wanted to explore an illustrative story with my "logo" so I have these abstract thoughts sprouting from the box guy's head. Oh and what's the ladder for?  Click here for my resume! using this new style direction.

Done in Flash. Just some fun straight ahead animation :D I will layer what I have cycled to make the animation fuller like the static illustration.