Harpy Gee animated short.

March 3, 2018, while I was tabling at ECCC, the Harpy Gee short I'd spent two years in development with Nickelodeon went live on youtube.  I'm still over the moon this exists after all these years.  Everyone I worked with at Nick on this project was amazing and supportive, I'm so glad to have had this experience!

This past Thursday, I found out they had passed on bringing it to series.  I'm ok with this decision, I'll be able to continue writing and drawing the comic, and will be able to finish the story.
Only a few years ago I wouldn't have believed any of this would have been a possibility, seeing and hearing these characters move and speak after all these years just makes me smile.

Thank you thank you to all those who supported and believed in me, I made it this far because of you.
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💚 My storyboard animatic.  I've learned so much since the first time I pitched Harpy. 

💚 Links to designs and gifs from the shorts! 💚

GIFS!

DESIGNS!

💚 Twitter Moment with details and extras from the production! 💚

💚 Harpy Gee short crew:
I was the director, storyboard artist, and character designer.
Writing help/script by Dani Michaeli
Extra character models by Kathryn Marusik
Prop Design Katie Pambuku
Character Color by Claire Lenth
Background Layout by Amber Blade Jones
Background paint and Color script by Chu-Hui Song
Kind Execs and others who guided me Audrey Diehl, Phil Rynda, Gabe Swarr, Glen Murakami
Animation studio is Maven in South Korea

💚 Voice Cast
Harpy is Kamali Minter
Opal and Pumkin is Ashley Spillars
Humphrey is Jason Spisak
Ash is John Omohundro

 💚 HarpyGee.com  💚

Ye Olde Stupid Animatic

While chatting with a close friend on the phone last night, we noticed how quickly the last few years have passed.  We both have been busy, she's started a new job a year and a half ago, is managing an etsy shop, and recently was married!   While discussing upcoming opportunities, and old forgotten projects, we realized my old pitch was now four years old.  I haven't worked on it for almost two years, there was some interest, but it just wasn't meant to be.  Honestly, I sort have forgotten about it.  

It's been long enough, that I just see it as an awkward cobbled exercise.  When this was made, I hadn't storyboarded in six years, since college. And during college, a teacher and a couple of classmates had made comments that I'd never be a board artist.  So I was dumb and believed them.

It wasn't until there was interest in this pitch, that I had to bite the bullet and try storyboarding again.  As bad as this is, it was probably one of the better hurdles I attempted, it gave me a little bit of confidence back, and new opportunities presented themselves.  Poor Harpy was left behind.

So below was the attempt at putting an original story together.

Harpy Gee

Synopsis:  Harpy, Opal, and Ash live and work at an Item Shop.  They're no longer children, not quite adults, and have moved to this town to begin finding their roles in the world.

Characters:

Harpy: An elf that cannot use magic, considered a grave handicap in her home country, she's been sheltered all her life.  She lives and works at the Item Shop, but also will take any odd job around town, regardless if it's teaching, ballet school, or scrubbing the castle floors.  Nothing is too mundane or adventurous.  She's doing her best to make up for lost time and stay optimistic.

Pumpkin:  Harpy's goblin cat.  He is indestructible, and will eat anything.  Luckily he is lazy and sleeps most of the time.  He's also her living suitcase, she keeps her important items, clothing and weapons in his inter-dimensional stomach.

Opal: A witch doctor from a large family of pig ranchers.  She doesn't like dirt, but since she has to dig up most of her potion ingredients, she wears gloves and a bandana.  She uses her shovel to fly, since she also needs it to dig.  She likes anything that's cute, and her helpful ingredient smelling pet pig, Truffle.

Ash:  A knight in training.  He thinks highly of himself, and regards the others as children.  He secretly collects playing cards of famous knights.  He tries his best to act like what he knows what he's doing, but half the time ends up embarrassed.

Humphrey:  The prince of the kingdom, he was sent to live at his uncle's castle in town.  He doesn't like being outside or sunlight, and would rather write sad poetry or read about battles that end in failure.  His uncle regularly sends him out to take Peepers, the royal dog out for walks.


There was a script I had to act out to a roomful of strangers, so there was some dialogue.  Good luck watching it without it!  It's really stupid!

Harpy animatic from 2008

Music was graciously provided by the One Ups.  You can purchase the music directly from them

Comic Con and Billie's Ancestors

Comic Con 2011 was exciting.  It was great being able to meet up with friends, the yearly San Diego summer break for nerds are always a chance to see old friends.  I still missed a lot of people, the floor is just too big, and with other events happening in the city I wish I could just clone myself.

I picked up a ton of beautiful new books, along with meeting new people, and new opportunities.

Thank you to all who took the time to visit our panels and stopped by for the signing Sunday.  The children's book panel on Saturday was full, and I hope it was helpful to those who came.  Making a book and project of your own can be a daunting task, but it's a wonderful feeling to have a completed little collection sitting in your hands.  Good luck to those who attempt the journey!

On Sunday I was signing at Tr!ckster, and was very happy to trade art with many talented people who came by.  I have to really thank the kind people that were running the pop up store.  I'm so very grateful to have had the chance to sign books and meet people from around the country and the world.  I had the lucky chance to meet an animator and artist I truly admire.

Yo Yoshinari stopped by with a copy of Billie, it was the high point of a week that was already amazing.  He was nice enough to give me sketch of Canti and Gurren Lagann.  I gave him a small sketchbook, but it was left accidently during the confusion of the signing.  Anyone out there have a way to contact him so I can send him a Thank You?  I hope I wasn't embarrassing, I was just very happy to meet him.  :)

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Now onto some old art that I showed at Saturday's panel.  Sorry I was a mumbling mess, I was really nervous.  Luckily everyone else had their game together!  Major thanks to Mike Collins, Eric Haeger, Eric Gonzales, Beth Sleven, and Steph Laberis!  Go bother them if you want to see what they presented.

Billie grew out of my 4th year film from college, in 2002.  The year I graduated wasn't a great time for 2D feature animation.  I was fully aware I'd probably never get to animate professionally, but not sure which path I should take once school was over.  I tried my best to learn all I could, and attempted to go into illustration.  I also had no idea on how to prepare a portfolio for TV animation, or even what type of jobs were available. Worrying about all these things was physically exhausting and I was burnt out before I graduated.  "Ooney Corn" suffers from severe Senioritis.

These crude scribblings were from 2001, first semester, when I was planning and trying to figure out what I wanted to make for my last film of my college life.

After graduating, I was one of a lucky few who found a job.  It was at a 3rd party video game company.  I think I acquired an ulcer there, it was extremely stressful. After nine months, they laid off most of their animators.  I didn't have any family or friends close by, and was feeling pretty lonely. So I decided to dump all my new free time into figuring out what my senior film should have been.  Felt it would be the best to make something positive of the situation.

In 2004 I was fortunate and found a job on "Teen Titans".  My coworkers at the time suggested I put  sketchbooks together for Comic Con.  Stuart Ng Books was nice enough to carry "Banana Cat", and Immedium contacted me if I'd like to make a children's book. I had an idea for a Scarecrow Princess, but I couldn't get the story to work.  It felt really forced to me.

About the time I figured out that I couldn't draw that story for 36 pages, I drew some unicorns for "The Unicorn Show" at Gallery Nucleus in 2006.  They were too much fun too draw, and they merged into all the drawings I had made after school.  

I wanted to make a book for my family and friends who'd stuck with me for so long, and I also wanted it to be for anyone who loves unicorns.  Young and old.

I made thumbnails and a script to pitch to my publisher.  These aren't part of the final pitch, just thumbnails.

I stopped working on it when I was unemployed 2008-2009.  Taking tests to find a paying job was eating up most of my time, and I also tried pitching to the Cartoonstitute.  I actually made a full animatic with music from The OneUps.  Even though I didn't get that final approval, it forced me to try story boards again, and it was enough to help get storyboard freelance.  Michael Chang was nice enough to let me try storyboarding on "Batman: Brave and the Bold".  Once I was working and learning new tricks, I redrew the layouts on Billie.  I had about four pages fully markered, but had to push the book back another year.  I was in two of my close friends weddings, and Batman was a high maintenance guy.  My publisher was very understanding and rescheduled my book.

These are all the colors I used just for Billie. I had a set of colors for each character figured out to keep them consistent.  I tried anyway.  XP

Not sure if I touched on any of this during the panel.  I blocked out what happened -_-.  I was also going to show a WIP trailer I had been working on for Billie.  The trailer was put aside last spring when some interesting events happened at my job.  It's all very good news, I'm just going to extremely busy these next few months.  Happiness!!!

In the meantime, here's the trailer I hope to get back to some day.  I drew the boards quickly in photoshop,  edited them together in premiere, and used the movie file as a guide.  The scenes that are animated are still rough.  I used the paint brush in flash, a rough pass, and a clean up pass.  I want to try coloring it in photoshop, but it's time consuming.  Maybe someday.

The music is WIP by Mustin and Kunal Majmudar of The OneUps and The Bad Dudes.  Please visit them and tell them you love them!!!!  

Sorry for the wordy post!

2009 is fun time.

Here is a bday present for a friend. His name is Professor Tibbles. He is an intelligent kitty.


Thanks everyone for the nice compliments on "Love Shine". I hope more people will try making their own films. The hardest thing to do is find the time, second is dealing with computer troubles, but alot of the fun is getting through problems and actually seeing it come together. It was really nostalgic to be spending time on a film, I really enjoyed making them in school, and hopefully can make some with my friends in the future. It is good to know that it can be done without having to work at a fancy studio, although that would be nice. What work I had gotten last year, most I couldn't post. It feels good to be able to have something to show for the past year, no matter how crude it is. I can at least keep animation as a hobby, no matter what happens. Never going to make another minute and a half short in two weeks again. That was REALLY STUPID! I did not sleep, and got a huge knot in my back that hurts! Also the pay is horrible!
Here is some stuffs, since some people wanted to know how I put it together.
"Love Shine" sketches and oddities, andframe grabs for anyone into that sort of thing.

Here is the animatic I used as a guide. I did make some chicken scratch thumbnails in my sketchbook first. Then I drew it in Photoshop, dumped it in Premiere, and dumped it in Flash as a guide. It's pretty gross, but it's an easy way to keep on track. Hopefully it doesn't offend any board artists that actually know what they are doing.



Here are a bunch of random videos, because it is 2009.

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Some Christmas photos that will be boring to people who aren't related to me.