Tricky E

Cartoon Network idents

2012-02-03T10:32:00.000-08:00

Here's some idents I worked on with the talented team at Karrot :)

Post one...

2012-01-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

I wasn't actually going to post any of this stuff (there's going to be a lot of it incoming). But Tegan told me to. It's probably a good idea...there's hopefully going to be a steady progression of improvement!

Quick life drawing!

2012-01-15T15:09:00.000-08:00

A few quick sketches from the final life drawing session at Karrot Animation. The studio has grown so much that we no longer have the room for it!

Chemical Plant Zone

2011-12-30T07:55:00.000-08:00

My newest illustration for the website, Zone Zero. I'm working through one image for each level in the 16BIT games.

This is my original sketch. I was going to have sonic peering over a ledge at Tails, laughing at him, but I didn't want him resting on his elbows again like my last image. So 1 quick sketch later...

Then I'll go in and put everything on model...I also changed Tails' expression. They don't really pull those kind of mouth shapes in Sonic

Some rough colours....

Then the fun bits....

If anyone has any ideas on how I could improve this, let me know!

Just Chillin'

2011-12-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

This was probably for something at one point. I dunno. I forget.

A Badly Animated Re-post

2011-12-15T15:43:00.000-08:00

An image for the AIB jumble blog, the topic was GRAD FILMS. THIS IMAGE IS SO TOTALLY LOADED WITH MEANING! OH MY DAYS! See? See? Sally is trying to coax Wolf into improving himself via the ol' animation pencil, and Wolf is showing off, going for it, holding a wilting rose representing what he was and what he will become. OH MY STARS THAT IS SO DEEP.

Sonic CD fan art competition

2011-12-15T15:32:00.000-08:00

The Sega Blog just ran a Sonic CD fan art comp. The rules were simple, depict a scene using the Mega CD game, Sonic CD, as a basis. Here's my entry which won me a copy of the game (which has just been re-released on XBOX XBLA) and a soundtrack CD.

I knew I only had one evening to do my entry, so I had to work fast. I was sketching a few ideas, and drew this little action scene (below). I knew from the start that I was definitely going to use Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, as they both made their debuts in the game. I was about to start cleaning up this image when I decided against it. I figured there'd be a truckload of entries all looking the same, with Sonic racing or running away from Metal Sonic.

I couldn't bear the thought of having the same image as 100 other people so I came up with the "After the Battle" scenario (top of page). I hope you like it! Maybe one day I'll spend more than an evening on it and go in and render it properly!

P.S Some of the top prize winners were absolutely fantastic (they get a signed CD soundtrack). Check em out!

NEARLY a pitch...

2011-06-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Whilst working with the wonderful team at Karrot, I thought it'd be a good idea to throw a pitch their way. It was an idea for an animated kids series.
It would've been a series with the same tone as The Animals of Farthing Wood in the way that main characters would actually die and it would be quite dark in places.
It wasn't a full blown pitch, it was more of an opportunity to see if they guys at Karrot liked the idea enough for me to develop it.
Then the movie Attack the Block happened...

My series would've focused on the adventures of a group of kids making their way across London under a full blown alien invasion. The similarities between my idea, dubbed SE15, and Attack the Block were pretty superficial. But they both feature teens against aliens and they're both in London.
I wanted mine to be a pretty real London, with council estates and everything, but UNLIKE attack the block, my characters were not assholes. They were just innocent kids trying to reach their parents on the other side of a semi destroyed London.
The main draw of my show, was that the kids were practically invisible to the aliens. The aliens saw pretty much as we do, i.e relatively poorly, but on top of normal vision they could "see" brain patterns. Brain patterns that only existed in adults, making them far easier to kill. Once night fell, the kids were basically invisible. The overall story would've depicted the kids being the ones responsible destroying the aliens.

In order to have enough images to show the guys at Karrot, I enlisted the help of Tegan (to design the girl and the kid), Rufus (to design their car and alien attackers), Marc (to paint a background of London) and Ibs (to creat a fox for me) (everything else I did on the weekend before). Everyone did a fantastic job, and I'd like to again thank everyone for their work, I really appreciate it.

Here's the pitch slides I used which you can click on to view. There's more after the break...

Followers of this blog my recognize the title of this pitch, SE15. It was also the title I gave to the grad film that I didn't make. This is simply because it's where both of these were set (the London postcode), as it's where I grew up and have a strange affection for despite being a bit of a dump. I didn't really consider actually calling this one SE15, it was merely a working title.

Making a graduation film...

2011-06-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

My graduation film is now live in slightly higher res on youtube now too.

Instead of talking about the whole process of making this film, I thought it'd be easier if I just made our team blog public for all to see. From there you can go back in time to our first posts when the project was just a concept. I started the blog over the summer before term in order to get a head start. I knew we had a lot to do on the film so I wanted to invite the team to start early if they wanted to. I think everyone did. I wanted to get the storyboards and animatic done before term started, which I did. But as you'll see, the version I planned over the summer was almost entirely unused (mostly because it was utterly arse). SO we mostly went back to the version that I pitched in the 2nd year.
I haven't edited the blog in any way, and it was never meant for public consumption. As a result it's chock full of bad language and insults, and some pretty bad drawings (mostly from me). I hope you enjoy it!

My grad film; Badly Animated now live

2011-06-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

Here's my grad film which I directed. I made it with a team at the AUCB, full credits in the video link.

You can read more about it here

More Storm

2011-05-08T11:33:00.003-07:00

See previous post first.

This was it's standing on the first morning...

After only a few hours, I thought this was pretty amazing, but it went on to do much more.
There was a time when it was the #1 top favourited video in film and animation for the month, and at one point, it had over 50 honors (unfortunately I failed to get a screen grab at that point).
the film now stands at way over half a million views, with over 17,000 "likes" and over 3,000 comments. I think that's pretty good for a 10 minute long beat poem!

I still find it absolutely amazing that we are living at a point in time when you can make a respectable looking film at home. A few of the shots that you see in Storm I made on my crappy old PC, that threatened to choke and die every time I tried to preview what I'd done. The space shot and the one that precedes it for example.
DC asked me to make it look as appealing/beautiful as possible. As he asked this, I knew I wanted to include a penumbra, which also meant working out how to do it (luckily I'd already been thinking about it for a while and wanted an excuse to try it out)

Its actually really easy (create a duplicate of what ever you want to cast a shadow, make it black, then add a radial blur (on zoom). There. That's the only trick I've got up my sleeve. Now everyone knows how I did it. I guess I'll be unemployed now.)

I'm still working with director DC Turner at the moment on something new, which I'll be able to post about later in the year.

Until then, I'll try and post some blog posts that I plan to do for fun...

Storm the Movie, online in the morning!

2011-04-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

For those that don't know, Tim Minchin is a comedian (a fantastic one in my opinion, and he recorded a wonderfully intelligent beat poem called Storm. I've been working on the animated version of it for a few months now and it's finally going live on youtube tomorrow. (EDIT: now)

Here's a couple of images of stuff that I've done.

I did a whole lot more of course, but you'll just have to watch the film won't you?
I was heavily involved in the making so it's hard to quantify what my actual job was, but there was some animation, compositing, storyboarding and a bit of character design.

T'was directed by DC Turner, and produced by Tracy King. Making it has been an absolute joy and I'm so happy that iot's finally going up for everyone to see. It was one of those projects where the end goal was never far from sight, but there was ALWAYS that one more badnik jumping up from that final bridge to prevent you making it. And yet, it was never anything less than a delight to work on. I am very grateful to have been a part of this project and I'd like to extend my thanks to DC and Tracy for their continued hospitality...

This is gonna be big....

I'll follow up with a report on how big...

Clapham Life Drawing 2

2011-02-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

A second helping of some of my life drawings from the Clapham sessions. It seems I can't seem to settle on a style...

Emerald Hill Zone

2010-12-15T15:46:00.001-08:00

Being so busy at work has meant I may have neglected my duties as site artist for the website Zone Zero. Well here's my next piece, Emerald Hill Zone. The first from Sonic 2 and so my first to feature the deadly parasite, Tails.

Life Drawing at Clapham

2010-11-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

I've been going to the fantastic life drawing sessions in Clapham. After looking at Tegan's recent life drawing, I realized how much I missed it. I also like all the life drawing that Emilie posts, wonderful stuff.

So here's some of my stuff. There's loads more but scanning is a real pain...

We have had some fantastic models too, making it all the more fun!

Details about the life drawing here

UPDATE 22/8/2011: This class no longer runs.

The Christmas LUSH commercial

2010-10-21T03:37:00.000-07:00

I worked at Karrot Animation on this commercial. We used old Victorian etchings, and meticulously cut them up into animatable parts. Here in this video are the parts that I animated. Follow the link above for the full commercial.

Working on this was an absolute blast, and I hope to return to Karrot to continue work on their children's series when production starts

Lush credits
Directed by Tom Werber
Production Team:
Harj Bains
Rufus Blacklock
Ricky Earl

Lift in Maya

2010-09-27T03:53:00.000-07:00

Been a loooong time since my last post, I've been very busy animating at Karrot Animation for an advert for LUSH. I'll post my bits on that as son as it's done. In the mean time, here's a short animation exercise made in Maya

JULY 11 SECOND CLUB

2010-08-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

Julys competition was a toughie. Very subdued dialogue and not much scope for gags....

PROCESS:
First thing I did was write down the dialogue and pick out important points. "What have I got Harry?" is rhetorical. She's making a point, which is "I've got nothing". I wanted her acting to reflect that, rather than the fact she's asking a question. "I do them" seemed quite resentful to me, like she hates the fact she does them. I had her angry on this line for my first few passes.

Then I thumb nailed kinda what I wanted to get, and composition. Then I got the all important video reference. I filmed myself doing the line over and over. I think i did this in 2 sessions over 2 days (I'll post that too if anyone cares). I found that indicating toward anything for "bed" and dishes" seemed very unnatural to me. I didn't point anywhere at all. Many entires that I saw on the forum indicated all over the place. I wanted my character to be doing something rather than just talking to herself, so she's trying to feed her fish. Uta Hagen gives awesome acting lessons, and in one of them she demonstrates how a character can be in the middle of something but then the dialogue can become more important than the action and they stop doing it. That's what I was going for when she gives up on opening the tub. She's kinda forgotten what she was doing because her mind has wandered to distant memories of long gone friends.
I then thumbnailed again, this time from my reference. Picking out key points and exaggerating key poses, and ensuring silhouette clarity.
Next, it was time for maya.
Getting her to hold the tub with one hand then the other was quite messy, but I think it worked out well.
All along I got as much critique as I could.

Overall I finished 70th. I was disappointed, but it was a VERY busy month (the busiest I'd ever seen!), and I got some good critique too. I finished in the top 30% which I think is pretty good.

Scrap Brain Zone

2010-07-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

The sixth in my level pieces for website Zone: 0

The final artwork I'm doing for Sonic 1, onto Sonic 2 now.

This is the furthest I've deviated from the original designs so far. But seen as though the music from Scrap Brain is so obviously inspired by Bladerunner, I wanted to pay a little homage too, though hopefully it's still recognizable as the original level.

The grad film that never was...S.E15 STORYBOARD

2010-07-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

Before I pitched Badly Animated, I was also toying with the idea of making this. It's about living in the city as a kid, and how the urban jungle becomes a playground. It's is also about how an event can end your childhood. The former is semi-autobiographical, the latter is not.

I learned after drawing this how amateur drawing arrows on storyboards is. You should just draw new panels showing the movement, rather than indicating it with an arrow. Which means a lot of these would've dropped in detail. But hey, I was having fun.

Corfe Castle

2010-06-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

My ladyfriend's parents are visiting for a week, so day trips abound! During one to Corfe Castle, I ran off and drew this.

I added colour later, but I prefer the ink-only one. I've included both here just to justify spending time on it!

More Zone:0 artwork! SPRING YARD ZONE, LABYRINTH ZONE and STAR LIGHT ZONE!

2010-06-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

I am doing one piece of artwork for each level in the Sonic games for the website Zone:0. Here's Spring Yard Zone recreated in 3D!

Here's the actual level

And here's Labyrinth Zone...

And Star Light Zone...

The Making Of Badly Animated

2010-06-02T11:30:00.001-07:00

There's work in this "making of" by myself, Tegan Jephcott, Mark Storer and Alex Cameron

Artwork for Zone: 0

2010-05-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

Zone: 0 is a Sonic the Hedgehog website, a pretty well made one too. A real labour of love for what at the moment is one guy. I thought I'd offer my services as site artist. I am doing a piece for each level. So far, Green Hill Zone and Marble Zone!

P.S I painted the far backdrop on green hill, but completely lost interest in doing the same for marble zone. So I ripped it from the game instead

CG Showreel

2010-04-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Still a work in progress, needs a little more polish....

Saturday Night at the Movies

2010-03-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

Drawing from the flicks

Shawshank, Full Metal Jacket, and Ol' Jimmy Stewart, Rear Window

Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom competition

2010-02-14T04:32:00.001-08:00

I really really really wanted the joystick for this game! So I entered the competition to win one. I had to design a character for the Capcom Vs. series fighting games. I figured it'd be judged by men so I went with the hot chick angle. Most of the entries thus far are all generic anime guys with troubled pasts looking for some kind of revenge, some even with big swords. I knew I didn't want to take this route.

I always loved the idea of Gen from the Street Fighter Alpha series and Street Fighter IV. You could hit all three punches or all three kicks and he'd change his stance, giving you access to completely different movesets. I wanted to extend this to 3 stances, one for offense, one for defense and one to take the piss out of your opponent (like Dan. It's such a great idea, having a character to show off how good you are that you can win with such a weak character with more taunts than actual moves)
That got me thinking, what kind of person would have these three separate fighting styles? Someone with a split personality! The mask idea was to give a visible cue to the change. I originally had her store the spare masks on her back, but after a conversation with a friend I came up with this far more pervy idea. I didn't really want to do the whole sexy girl thing, but was talked into it! I WANTED TO WIN DAMMIT!

Well, I did win, came third, meaning I got the stick, a copy of the game and a signed poster. Pretty damn awesome, there was some stiff competition

Mini sketch dump

2010-01-29T15:24:00.001-08:00

Sketch Dump...soon?

2010-01-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

Maybe a sketch dump is overdue...I'll do one soon...probably.

Lip Sync CG animation to music

2010-01-02T10:58:00.001-08:00

I love this song, so decided to animate part of it. The Matches, "Between Halloweens"
CG animation done in maya using the MooM rig, everything else done in Photoshop and After Effects.

Christmas CARD

2009-12-17T12:21:00.001-08:00

Yeah yeah I may have already posted this on the AIB blog. Sue me.

Amara's Birthday Card

2009-10-31T12:54:00.000-07:00

My niece's 2nd birthday!

Character test!

2009-10-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Some expressions here, testing out the rendering we'll be using on my grad film and seeing if the character "works". I'm going for a Warner Bros style on the character design (that's why I stole a Bugs Bunny model sheet!).

Almost a Production Still

2009-09-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here's what I got for my grad film so far...this ins't the whole picture...missing a rather large CG element. Hand painted background going for a mix of styles. I wont post much for the film at all, and certainly not enough for people to get our story and steal it! Thanks to Teegs for rendering the character, would've done it myself but I lack a Wacom.

Fully rigged and textured

2009-09-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

TAXIMAN TEST from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

Souf's birthday card; mistakes...

2009-08-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

So here's the illustration I drew for me ladies birthday card. (still no Wacom so coloured in pencil). Just her and a puppy. Some of it is ok, I constructed the person o.k, but ran for some reason, gave up when it cam to the dog. The dog isn't exaggerated to the same extent as Sofie so I think it looks odd. Also her hand is horrible.

This morning I could see this card peeking put behind another birthday card on display, and the only thing I could see was the top of the head. I think this could've been better.

In yellow is how it is. In green is how I think I should've done it. I think having the fringe going forward would break up the blandness of the head silhouette and add a bit of variety to the form, rather than one oval on top of another...

CG Taximan...

2009-08-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

Build him for my film...need to finish him, and make the car shiny shiny....

Bad C.G animation

2009-08-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

lip sync from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

Only one is guy is animated here. I think the lip syncing here is spot on for the main guy but the acting and animation leaves a lot to be desired. It kinda just goes from key to key without much attention to overlap or anything fancy.
The other one here....well...this is what happens when you spend too long on something...

lip sync 2 from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

Animation for grad film; I.O

2009-08-06T04:29:00.000-07:00

Whilst in the first year, I got a chance to do some animation and cleanup for the graduation film I.O (Input, Output). This one is meant to portray someone turning on an appliance in a world where nobody really cares about wasting energy.

This one is a background character in one shot. I did a whole lot more but I don't have the files!

The film can be viewed in its entirety here

Title Sequence animation

2009-08-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

Title Sequence (animatic and final) for Curious Minds from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

Here is an animatic and a final version (FAST FORWARD THE CLIP TO 00:43 TO SKIP TO THE FINAL) of the title sequence that Harj Bains and I made while we were on work experience at Dibulitoon Studios, Spain. We were given total creative freedom and with the ideas, the only thing we had to stick to was the cut out style of animation, under the directors request. Everything else was all us.
It is for a kids science show, unfortunately I don't have the version with music...
Made in After Effects and Photoshop.

Almost Recent

2009-07-29T02:19:00.000-07:00

Concept work for a rather feminine dragon. This has a rather horrid silhouette, his hand blends into his shoulder on the left. I should have had the arm come out a little bit and created a little negative space between the hand and shoulder...
This one was the title page for an assignment I was given before I started the first year. We had to storyboard someone brushing their teeth. ( I guess it was an exercise in making something dull look exciting.) I may or may not have recycled the dog in a more recent project.
Ideas for a title sequence I worked on in Spain. I never could be bothered to colour the girls. Much more interested in the cheetah (which has incorrect spots)

OLD ANIMATION, SHORT FILM; THE TXT

2009-07-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

The Txt from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

A short film I made in 2002

OLD ANIMATION

2009-07-15T11:29:00.001-07:00

Taximan from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

This was an exercise into sound syncronisation. Heavy influence from video games on the design here; the buildings inspired by SNES Starwing and the car ripped off from Crazy Taxi (made in 2002)

Feet

2009-07-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

Some of these are mine, the short ones are Sofie's. Her feet are crap to draw because they are short and flat, so no matter how good I think I am, they always look wrong! A good craftsman always blames his models

Hands

2009-07-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Just a few hand sketches here. I still struggle with these things we have attached to the end of our arms. If they were not so useful, I'd cut them off so I'd never have to draw them again

Random life drawing

2009-07-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

All from life. The kitchen one was a challenge, waiting for Sofie to return to that position so I could carry on my drawing. Probably should've just taken a photo, but where's the fun in that?

BACKGROUND ART

2009-07-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

This is the character I designed for this background, below...

I'll be the first to admit that background is not my strongest point. In fact I hate doing it, but I think these are okay...

Self Portraits

2009-07-14T09:14:00.001-07:00

Painted on the trusty DS
I do like drawing this way...nice and quick with a black pen, then getting the tone from bleeding the ink out of the lines with plain water

The one on the middle on the bottom row is my favourite

Still going through the old work...still lot's more to come

Zero Suit Samus suit failure! And the jump/lift animation

2009-07-06T23:29:00.000-07:00

A geeky fanboy picture of Samus from the Metroid series of games. There won't be any more, I promise
Drew this during a life drawing session on the trusty Ninendo DS using the Colours program

first year exercise, the jump from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

first year exercise, the lift. from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

First year assignments, the lift and the jump.

2009-07-06T23:24:00.000-07:00

A portrait and my hand. Portrait in watercolour pencil (BLACK...NEVER USE BLACK! Actually I quite like using black) and hand in dip pen and ink

C.G van

2009-07-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

From my blueprint to the final (untextured) model. Including full interior with working radio.

Old Animation

2009-07-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

first year exercise, the sack drop from Ricky Earl on Vimeo.

The classic exercise, the sack drop, followed by a hasty exit off stage.

2009-07-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Drawings from the Guggenheim in Spain. Sitting on the hard-ass floor. The figure you see at the base of the one in the middle is the size of an actual person, these things were huge.

2009-07-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

Pretty Random selection here, just posting some favourites from what I have available here at home

2009-07-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

A Giant Anteater, an ostrich an some humans

First post! Old stuff

2009-07-06T08:04:00.001-07:00

Quick'uns of the missus
Did this one straight into a grey wash of ink without any construction, trying to look at only the shadows and their relationship to negative space