Mar Theater Model

2D/3D Composite project.

Final Projects

I know no one reads this, but I'm trying to stay on top of it and keep posting when I can. Why? I don't know. Now that I think about it, it doesn't really make sense. But I guess I get to use this as a private diary or something. A reference maybe? I dunno. As long as I don't start writing about random stuff, crushes, or how I got beat up on the playground today, then it should remain my animation blog.

Okay so now that that's out of the way, it's been a few weeks since I successfully finished my two summer classes. Here are my final projects for each class.

The first is a stop motion using the puppet I made some weeks earlier.


And the second is a portrait of Billy Mays that I drew in charcoal.



I start summer classes in a couple weeks, so I'll continue to update as I accomplish things!

Poor Pedro

So far, this is the coolest thing we have done in my animation class! I just finished my puppet for my next animation and I think he looks pretty neat. His name is Pedro and he is a French mime. Pedro was created when I was still in grade school and didn't want to pay attention in class. I started drawing these short two drawing comics. The first drawing Pedro would be miming something, and then in the second he would die from it. For example, he would be inside an imaginary box, and then suffocate. It was a rough life for Pedro and my immature mind, so that's why I called the comic Poor Pedro. Anyways, here are some pictures of him! Hopefully he stays together for my animation which I will be posted once I finish.

Pixelation and a Lip Sync

Two latest assignments from class...a pixelation animation and also a lip sync test. I used my truck driver character from my cutout animation for the lip sync test, as I did not have enough time to make a whole new one...Also if you notice, the truck driver character is from a drawing I posted a couple posts back. Enjoy!

New Animations!

As usual I have been extremely busy with class, however that means that I'm cranking out numerous amounts of animation! Unfortunately, I'm only doing just that, cranking things out. I'm not spending as much time as I want to on these, and I think they could be so much better, but we only have about 3 days to prepare and shoot each. That's not enough time! I need more! Anyways, here's three different bits from my last two weeks.


Chalk Animation


Cutout Animation


Clay Animation Tests

Boxing Day

Alright...I've been INSANELY busy with these online classes. Like madness. I haven't had time to do much of anything except projects for my classes. Fortunately one of them is an animation class, so I'm definitely benefiting. Also my creative juices are being sucked dry by internet vampires and 3 day deadlines. It's rough, but here's my first assignment from class. It's a stopmotion featuring some boxes, fans, and lamps.

Characters!

So sorry for the lack of posts, I've been incredibly busy since I got back from California. By the way, the trip was incredible! I'm still going through pictures and videos we took- there's so many! Anyways I thought I would share a couple character designs I've been working on for some story ideas I have brewing. They aren't finished, but I thought I'd at least show my work in progress.

I've also just started AAU online class, so be prepared for an onslaught of projects!



Here's your cliche tired truck driver!


And this is an old lady named Ethel!

Road Trip Info!

I was planning on doing this in facebook, but there's an odd bug roaming around and it ate all my notes and is preventing me from writing any more. So I decided to post all the info here, and post this on facebook! Ha!

Me, Michael, and Jordan are embarking on an insane round trip adventure to the west coast with a primary destination of San Francisco this Tuesday. That's TWO DAYS AWAY. The offical name for this road trip is:

The "Chris, MP, and Ted's Excellent Adventure May Never Have Another Epic Chance To Occur During The Timeframe Of Their Lives Due To Future Commitments, and When They Planned It Out On Mapquest it Ended Up Looking Like A Crocodile Head, Showless" Tour

Stops along the way include:

The Big Texan Steakhouse - Amarillo, TX
The Bonneville Salt Flats - Salt Lake City, UT
The Grand Canyon - Tusayan, AZ
The Hoover Dam - Boulder City, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Mount Rushmore - Keystone, SD

among many other things and also a slew of California coolness. Due to the epicness of this trip, we have decided to bring everyone with us! via the internets! Here are a few ways to follow us on our journey:

Twitter! We will be updating this most frequently, so if you want constant news, be sure to follow us if you have a twitter, or just check our profiles!

Chris: www.twitter.com/chrisroman
Michael: www.twitter.com/lookitsmp
Jordan: www.twitter.com/jordanblaskey

Facebook! Be sure to check our facebook for video and photo updates! (Chris Roman, Michael Plese, Jordan Blaskey)

Youtube! If we post any video updates on youtube, they will most likely be under my channel at www.youtube.com/chrismroman

Flickr! Photos may also be uploaded to Flickr! Here's my photostream!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28524619@N05/

Well that's all for now. Like I said, be sure to follow twitter for continuous updates and also links to external sites if we post anything elsewhere. We leave Tuesday, May 19th and get back on the 29th!

Here's the map!

Coming Up Next

In my previous post, which I posted some 5 minutes ago...I mentioned that I am done at Columbia, which is true. I don't lie. Trust me. Maybe.

I thought I would kind of outline my plans for the next few semesters, so that you all know, and in case I forget I can use this post as a reference.

In June I am starting summer classes at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. However, I am doing this online from my room, in Illinois. Sad I know. I'm taking a figure drawing and an experimental animation class, which should be pretty cool. I should have some nice drawings and other weird things to post here. At the moment I'm not sure what I'm taking in the fall. I know I'm taking a computer animation studio class and two other figure drawing classes, and also a history of visual effects or something or other.

I'm taking all these classes online for now, and in the spring I will most likely continue. However, I'm going to try and reapply to Ringling College of Art and Design this fall to see if I would get into their animation program. I tried this in the winter, but missed the cutoff date.

So that's the plan right now. I hope AAU has better instructors and more interesting classes so I can build my portfolio and fill this site with useless, but cool, things!

-Chris

The Amazing Zack (Pencil Test)

Finally! After many weeks of drawing I have completed my pencil test for my first short drawn animation. It's called The Amazing Zack. Check it out and I'll let you know what's up next for the finished version.



For the finished version I'm going to clean up some of the animation and fix a couple of the holds. I would really like to paint some of the backgrounds on cells, but I'm still figuring out how that will work with the layers I have right now. There's just so many drawings I don't know if I'm going to be able to touch them all up at this point, but maybe over the next couple months I'll transfer them all onto cells and paint them.

I feel like the transition from the long shot of the hat on the ground to the close up of Zack inside the hat is a little jarring, so I might animation a short "3D" sequence of the hat spinning around to reveal Zack inside.

Well that's all for now!

Chris

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody! Here are some pictures of some cookies and eggs I made this year.

News, Big News!

I am currently in the process of transferring schools! That's right, I am leaving Columbia in the dust as I head out to the west coast in search of opportunity, and a better computer animation program. I'm off to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California! However, I'm going to stay at home for a year to save on living expenses and take online classes. But then! I will head to the north woods of California, in no-cal.

I'm in the process of working on two projects. One is my final 2D animation for my animation class. I still have to do about 200 drawings in 2 weeks. Yeah. I'm also working on a short 3D animation that I made to kind of test out some different movements.

Both of these should be finished by the end of this month so stay tuned for that.

Whoever is reading this at least. I don't think anyone does. But oh well!
-Chris

Metamorphosis Pencil Test

I'm currently working on my next project, which is a metamorphosis animation. We picked one image and then received a second image at random and had to morph from one to the other. I picked a cupcake and got a picture of some dude weight lifting. I thought it was kind of funny.

I have a pencil test completed and will be coloring for the next week or so. I'll post the final project when it's done!



My friend Jordon is also in my animation class and since we sit next to each other, our images morph into each other. So just for fun we decided to edit them together to see how it would look.

Connect: My First Animation!

Hey everyone! I have finished my very first animation! It's an object animation project for my Animation 1 class. It's mainly stop motion, with a couple animated backgrounds that I did. It was only supposed to be fifteen seconds long, but I had the idea before the project was assigned and I wanted to complete the story. Enjoy!

Pancaked

This project needs it's own post because it was quite the insane adventure to get it completed. I think just about everything went wrong with this film, from camera problems to lighting issues to reshoots, freezing temperatures, and hours and hours of cutting and splices tiny bits of film. But despite all that, we finished!

My good friend Jordon Hoeft plays Brian, a middle-aged man with no time who finds an empty slot in his busy week and decides to treat himself to a plate of tasty pancakes. Unfortunately, a simple goal proves unattainable as his day of relaxation turns against him.

click here to watch the HD version of Pancaked at youtube.

Previous Work

So I mentioned in my last post that my previous concentration was directing. I took a class for that major last semester called Production 1 where we used an antique camera called a Bolex. From this class I created two short films and DP'd on one. They are all shot on 16mm black and white reversal film. Since I don't have a huge amount of animated work to show you at this point, I thought I would share these!

This is my first film, called Gifted, shot in Grant Park.


I was the Director of Photography on The Date, directed by Jamie Gallant.

The Story.

I have recently began an exciting journey through the world of animation, and I thought I would take you all on the ride with me. I'm currently a sophomore at Columbia College in Chicago and I used to be a film major with a concentration in directing. Unfortunately that really didn't work out so well, as I found myself becomming very frustrated, annoyed, and unhappy with the direction I was going. I blame it on the pretentious Columbia film students. And the film cage. Man that place made you want to end your life. Or one of theirs. Anyways!

I did some soul searching you could say and through a break in the clouds my life's mission was revealed to me through a fantastic animated film by Pixar called WALL-E. I won't go into how amazing I thought this movie was or what specifically blew my mind, but I will summarize my feelings. I never really thought about the possibilities of animation as a film medium, but after I saw Wall-E it's like a blanket was lifted off my head and someone then slapped me saying "Look at this! You could do this!" And I replied back, "Hey, I could do that!" And you know what, I'm going to!". I still love film, but what I love most about it is story telling. I could always be a writer, but there's no color in writing, no shapes, no images! Of course you could argue that all these things are present in the words, which they are, but I need something more concrete! Pixar has really nailed storytelling through images. Every single film is a masterpiece and one day I hope to become a part of that team.

But first, I must learn. I literally JUST started my first semester of animation classes and thought that I'd start up a blog and post my work, and when I graduate I will hopefully have a really nice timeline that I can look back on!

So, won't you join me?
-Chris