When I had begun drawing Pilgrim, I got this idea for another project. All along the process of drawing, I kept the ideas coming for this project. That project is the script I'm currently writing, and developing.
When that project was just in the idea phase, it felt really fresh and cool and all in all a very positive thing to think about. But I had to finish Pilgrim first, before I could dive into this new project.
And now I'm in the middle of writing it!
Something that I've noticed is that when an idea of a project is still in the idea phase, it's all very positive and feels very inspiring. But when you finally are going to realize it, it can sometimes feel like an uphill climb. Why is that?
Here is a sketchy answer: To realize something takes a lot of work. You have to get going even if you don't feel like it... When you realize a project, you are doing just that, realizing it. The idea goes from the idea plane into the real world. As an idea the project feels ideal and great. When it transcends, the ideal aspect of it gets a bit flawed. In your writing it just isn't that smooth as you first thought, or if you are sketching it, the characters just don't feel ideal, they're ok, but not ideal.
I think it's a difference between the idea and the real. The idea is always going to be great and kind of unreachable. The real, is always going to be a compromise between various skills, patience and time.
I don't think there is something wrong with this, I think it's just the way it is. Just because you (or I) don't always get to the ideal phase in our realization, doesn't mean that our work doesn't have any quality. In our reaching for the ideal, we will continue to get better and improve on our skills.
It's kind of philosophical, when you think about it!
Take care!
fredag 24 januari 2014
fredag 17 januari 2014
Finally and Sometimes it just happens!
Finally I'm going to get a real palm grasping of my new projects. I've been busy with an exam this week, so it feels great to finally get going!
Something that I'm currently wondering about is what I'm going to do with this blog, since I will probably not have that much to show during the following months. What I'll be doing is to write, and I'm not sure that will be so interesting to watch, snippets of text... Maybe it will solve itself somehow, maybe it will be musings on writing that will be the topic the following months.
Sometimes it just happens, some weeks before christmas I got the great news that some illustrations that I did for an upcoming quote book, will get published! Somehow the book got printed, and next week the 25th there will be a release party at Serieateljén in Gothenburg, be there or be square! It came as a complete surprise that the project finally got going, and I'm really happy that it got printed.
Take care!
Something that I'm currently wondering about is what I'm going to do with this blog, since I will probably not have that much to show during the following months. What I'll be doing is to write, and I'm not sure that will be so interesting to watch, snippets of text... Maybe it will solve itself somehow, maybe it will be musings on writing that will be the topic the following months.
Sometimes it just happens, some weeks before christmas I got the great news that some illustrations that I did for an upcoming quote book, will get published! Somehow the book got printed, and next week the 25th there will be a release party at Serieateljén in Gothenburg, be there or be square! It came as a complete surprise that the project finally got going, and I'm really happy that it got printed.
Take care!
fredag 10 januari 2014
A new year, with new projects!
This week I've slowly begun to make heads or tails of my upcoming projects. I've also begun to look at the inspiration for the projects.
Take care!
onsdag 18 december 2013
Some pieces of animation!
Well, there has been quite some time since I updated with some animation, but today there will be some animation!
During my internship we were approached by a newly formed production company that were going to make a tv-special about heavy metal bands and concerts. They wanted some animation, although the payment was... a small detail... however, me and my colleague Bosse decided to make some animation for them. We decided to make them as quickly and as "cheap" as we could. In other words I tried my very best to make limited animation work for me. As I've written here many, many times, it's a process, and today I'm going to share that process with you!
The assignment was sketchy to say the least and we got free hands to develop it as we saw fit. The contact with the production company has been... scarce... and the project has changed a couple of times during this summer/autumn/winter...
Metal1
This was the first animation that I did for this assignment. It's a cycle, and it's what happens when you've been headbanging all night long...
Metal2
This piece was based on one of the crew members, again it was easy and fast, and kind of worked, I like it. Unfortunately she left the production so they could not use it. My intention with this animation was to cut to it during an interview or something like that.
Metal3
We had to our disposal some pictures of heavy metal fans, and I found this rock-chick that is so bad ass and cool, that I wanted to animate her. I had still the notion of limited animation, and I tried to solve the issues of the staticness of the parts that doesn't move, here is one of the last linetests that I did. It's a cycle, although I didn't take this idea further...
Ny metal3
...but before I threw it in the bin, I tried to make it with more movement and with a clearer or more simple character.
Airguitar
I wanted something that was easy and clear and also told a story, this piece of animation do all that! I've noticed that I recently has strived for a simpler drawing technique, to find the character without unnecessary details. Maybe I took it to far, but the production company liked it, and this piece of animation was delivered to them.
Hammer of Thor
During this project I looked at what I found fun and interesting about heavy metal, since I'm not that into heavy metal myself I could look at it with fresh eyes. I found some videos of headbanging that was fun to watch so I made some animations with that. Here I've also added the hammer of Thor! What you see here is a linetest and not the finished animation. The finished animation was delivered to the production company.
Singer headbang
This animation also features headbang and hammer of Thor. This is also a linetest and not the finished animation. This animation was delivered to the company.
And that is all my heavy metal animation at the moment, the latest I've heard from the production company was that they enjoyed the animations and that they are going to release the show on youtube, when that will be I don't know, as I said earlier the project has changed somewhat during my stay here...
But it's not over folks.... there's more!
I've also done some animations for a project based on the renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch.
Liedemon/scythe demon
This animation is based on one of Boschs demons from one of his paintings, this animation is featured in a short pilot for the film project, it's a cycle. Here, I also wanted to make it as easy as I could.
Flygande groda/Flying frog
This is also a demon (I think) that I found interesting, and animated it, it's also featured in the pilot, it's a cycle.
Uggla/Owl
This is also a character from a Bosch painting, just a simple blink of an eye, it's also featured in the pilot.
The project is en route, although the financing is a tough nut to crack. The storyboarding has begun.
The Animators Workbook
Many years ago I had an internship at Pennfilm studio in Malmö. The animators there talked about this book by Tony White, The Animators Workbook. I did one of the assignments and found it very rewarding. Later during my education I got the book and browsed through it now and then and did some exercises, this autumn I returned to the book to really try and nail one of them!
This is the first linetest with all of the animation. I developed the exercise somewhat and treated it as a production. I gave the idea some serious thought, wrote a script, made sketches, did a storyboard, drew the keydrawings, worked on those, cleaned them up, and then the inbetweens. I sent this piece of animation to a friend that I pester with such things... He gave me some input that I took to heart, which is shown here:
I did some small touch ups here and there, most notably on the walk, when the character walks in from screen right. I also did some tooling about with the timing and the pauses which is seen here:
This is the final linetest of the exercise to date. I've got some small things to ponder, maybe I'm done with it, maybe not, I haven't decided yet. The main question is, is the character alive?
Is this all then you ask? Nay, I say!
These last weeks I've been nibbling on Maya, the cgi animation tool/software, it is a dozy... It's so complex! When I explained to one of the members here in the workshop, what it was like for me I said this: it's like drawing a picture, with a pencil, but sometimes you have boxing gloves on, and sometimes not... Anyway, yesterday I made this animation and kind of thought that I had gotten the hang of it (it was my fifth day with the software...;-), the animation was not done, but I felt a playblast was in order. So I did one... (Important note, this is my first cgi-animation ever, besides one small tidbit at animation school...!)
Walking_block_man
It did however not move in the manner I had expected it to... I noticed that the speed of the playback when you are animating does not have to be the same speed when you do a playblast... so basically I've made an animation, along the wrong conditions... I'm probably not the first that have discovered this, the hard way... Well, when I saw this I just laughed silently to myself...
I guess John Lasseter did NOT feel a disturbance in the force when I worked on this... or maybe he did... like.... "Ouch..."!
The block_man is featured in the book Introducing Autodesk Maya 2012 by Dariush Derakhshani, and is part of the resources to that book.
Well is that all then... yes it is, for now...
Take care!
During my internship we were approached by a newly formed production company that were going to make a tv-special about heavy metal bands and concerts. They wanted some animation, although the payment was... a small detail... however, me and my colleague Bosse decided to make some animation for them. We decided to make them as quickly and as "cheap" as we could. In other words I tried my very best to make limited animation work for me. As I've written here many, many times, it's a process, and today I'm going to share that process with you!
The assignment was sketchy to say the least and we got free hands to develop it as we saw fit. The contact with the production company has been... scarce... and the project has changed a couple of times during this summer/autumn/winter...
Metal1
This was the first animation that I did for this assignment. It's a cycle, and it's what happens when you've been headbanging all night long...
Metal2
This piece was based on one of the crew members, again it was easy and fast, and kind of worked, I like it. Unfortunately she left the production so they could not use it. My intention with this animation was to cut to it during an interview or something like that.
Metal3
We had to our disposal some pictures of heavy metal fans, and I found this rock-chick that is so bad ass and cool, that I wanted to animate her. I had still the notion of limited animation, and I tried to solve the issues of the staticness of the parts that doesn't move, here is one of the last linetests that I did. It's a cycle, although I didn't take this idea further...
Ny metal3
...but before I threw it in the bin, I tried to make it with more movement and with a clearer or more simple character.
Airguitar
I wanted something that was easy and clear and also told a story, this piece of animation do all that! I've noticed that I recently has strived for a simpler drawing technique, to find the character without unnecessary details. Maybe I took it to far, but the production company liked it, and this piece of animation was delivered to them.
Hammer of Thor
During this project I looked at what I found fun and interesting about heavy metal, since I'm not that into heavy metal myself I could look at it with fresh eyes. I found some videos of headbanging that was fun to watch so I made some animations with that. Here I've also added the hammer of Thor! What you see here is a linetest and not the finished animation. The finished animation was delivered to the production company.
Singer headbang
This animation also features headbang and hammer of Thor. This is also a linetest and not the finished animation. This animation was delivered to the company.
And that is all my heavy metal animation at the moment, the latest I've heard from the production company was that they enjoyed the animations and that they are going to release the show on youtube, when that will be I don't know, as I said earlier the project has changed somewhat during my stay here...
But it's not over folks.... there's more!
I've also done some animations for a project based on the renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch.
Liedemon/scythe demon
This animation is based on one of Boschs demons from one of his paintings, this animation is featured in a short pilot for the film project, it's a cycle. Here, I also wanted to make it as easy as I could.
Flygande groda/Flying frog
This is also a demon (I think) that I found interesting, and animated it, it's also featured in the pilot, it's a cycle.
Uggla/Owl
This is also a character from a Bosch painting, just a simple blink of an eye, it's also featured in the pilot.
The project is en route, although the financing is a tough nut to crack. The storyboarding has begun.
The Animators Workbook
Many years ago I had an internship at Pennfilm studio in Malmö. The animators there talked about this book by Tony White, The Animators Workbook. I did one of the assignments and found it very rewarding. Later during my education I got the book and browsed through it now and then and did some exercises, this autumn I returned to the book to really try and nail one of them!
This is the first linetest with all of the animation. I developed the exercise somewhat and treated it as a production. I gave the idea some serious thought, wrote a script, made sketches, did a storyboard, drew the keydrawings, worked on those, cleaned them up, and then the inbetweens. I sent this piece of animation to a friend that I pester with such things... He gave me some input that I took to heart, which is shown here:
I did some small touch ups here and there, most notably on the walk, when the character walks in from screen right. I also did some tooling about with the timing and the pauses which is seen here:
This is the final linetest of the exercise to date. I've got some small things to ponder, maybe I'm done with it, maybe not, I haven't decided yet. The main question is, is the character alive?
Is this all then you ask? Nay, I say!
These last weeks I've been nibbling on Maya, the cgi animation tool/software, it is a dozy... It's so complex! When I explained to one of the members here in the workshop, what it was like for me I said this: it's like drawing a picture, with a pencil, but sometimes you have boxing gloves on, and sometimes not... Anyway, yesterday I made this animation and kind of thought that I had gotten the hang of it (it was my fifth day with the software...;-), the animation was not done, but I felt a playblast was in order. So I did one... (Important note, this is my first cgi-animation ever, besides one small tidbit at animation school...!)
Walking_block_man
It did however not move in the manner I had expected it to... I noticed that the speed of the playback when you are animating does not have to be the same speed when you do a playblast... so basically I've made an animation, along the wrong conditions... I'm probably not the first that have discovered this, the hard way... Well, when I saw this I just laughed silently to myself...
I guess John Lasseter did NOT feel a disturbance in the force when I worked on this... or maybe he did... like.... "Ouch..."!
The block_man is featured in the book Introducing Autodesk Maya 2012 by Dariush Derakhshani, and is part of the resources to that book.
Well is that all then... yes it is, for now...
Take care!
fredag 6 december 2013
Aftershock of Pilgrim
Last weeks update was some sort of a capstone for the Pilgrim project. I'm still very proud of the fact that I finished it. I wrote that Pilgrim was an important story, at least for me. I've been giving it some serious thought, and to give you an idea of the weight of the importance I would have to say that if I'm never going to do a comic again, if Pilgrim was my only attempt at making comics, then I'm very glad that the only story I told was the story of Pilgrim. (looking at that last sentence, I do like the commas...) But hopefully there will be some more comics from my pencil...
A friend asked me if there's going to be another story, with Pilgrim. As of now there's not going to be another adventure. Pilgrim has always been some sort of a one-shot, but if I get an idea that works, Pilgrim might return!
Today I'm going to have a look at my current projects!
Speaking/writing about current projects! I might have some headbanging animation news for you, yes, it's been quite some time since my last update that featured animation. This autumn I've done some pieces of animation that might be featured in some sort of a tv-show. Currently it's quite sketchy, but when I get the news, you will to!
This week I've finished another piece of animation, that might end up on a new demoreel, some time in the future...
Take care!
A friend asked me if there's going to be another story, with Pilgrim. As of now there's not going to be another adventure. Pilgrim has always been some sort of a one-shot, but if I get an idea that works, Pilgrim might return!
Today I'm going to have a look at my current projects!
Speaking/writing about current projects! I might have some headbanging animation news for you, yes, it's been quite some time since my last update that featured animation. This autumn I've done some pieces of animation that might be featured in some sort of a tv-show. Currently it's quite sketchy, but when I get the news, you will to!
This week I've finished another piece of animation, that might end up on a new demoreel, some time in the future...
Take care!
fredag 29 november 2013
Pilgrim's done, what now?
This post will be some sort of a summing up of the whole experience with Pilgrim. There might be some tooting in my own horn, but that's what blogging is all about, or is it? Well, you've been warned! In preparation for this post I've read the earlier posts, so I've taken a trip along memorey lane, you might say.
Pilgrim has been very educational to me. I can't say that I'm an expert cartoonist by now, but I can say that I can tell a story with comics.
This monday I had quite the experience. I had printed all the pages and the for- and afterword, put them all in a binder. Later in the evening I read the comic from cover to cover. I hadn't read it all for a year and a half. I've only read the chapter that I was working on. To my amazement it worked! Well, I have to say that I'm biased, or part in the crime, so to say. But it was quite the experience to read it all, and seeing that it was ok. I mean, how would it have felt if it didn't work, then I've put time and energy on something that didn't work, talk about anti-climax!
Also this week I've been thinking about if I did the right thing by doing the comic now. Since this has been such an important story, maybe I should have done some smaller things first and then returned to this project. But I think like this. The reason it has been made, is because of the importance of the story. If I only did some smaller things, to get to learn how to work with the medium, than I might have not come to get going on Pilgrim. So I think that I made the right decision to do Pilgrim now. The learning experience that it has been has been a bonus, that I'm thankful for!
Script
I put some time and energy on the script, to get the pacing of the story right. When I think about that process it went smoothly. I tried different types of structures to tell the story, before settling on the current one.
Drawing
I always enjoy the sketching of a project, the uphill climb here has clearly been the clean up. It feels like you are re-doing something that you've already done, and that's never fun. But sometimes I'm very cunning, so I could trick myself into doing the clean up, by using the colored pencil! Or as they say, every idea is good except the bad ones!
Inking
Inking has been the steepest learning curve on this project. But that has to do with my earlier attempts at inking, that wasn't that successful. Where the drawing was full of life, the inked drawing was stiff and lifeless. But all along this project I kind of took the inking to my heart. Given off course that I'm basically a tracer, but that has to do with the fact that I've colored the pages, if the comic would have been in black and white the inking would have been quite different.
Coloring
This work has also been smoothly, except for the first pages... When I was coloring the first chapter, I noticed that I hadn't "closed" all the lines, so when I had been sitting in front of the computer for maybe twelve hours I had only done 3 half pages... The coloring for the later chapters went much more smoothly.
Publishing
I've used blogger and I don't regret that at all, it's easy to use and as a comics publishing tool it works fine!
What's going to happen now, with Pilgrim?
I'm currently exploring if there could be an analogue version for the comic. Other then that I'm thinking of doing a cover and a back illustration. As I've written before there might be a translation into English, but I'm not there yet. So there are some things that's going to be done, but for now, its done!
So what's going to happen now?
Well I'm going to take a short break, I'm going to do some smaller things. But my pipeline is filled to the brim with cool stuff. Actually I've got these concepts that I'm going to work on, starting 2014.
1) An ensemble drama about some characters in a small town. It's about following your dreams... Script is done, the character design is next.
2) An action adventure set in the 1930s. The concept is done, the writing's next.
3) A horror/thriller story. The concept is done, the writing's next.
In preparation for these projects I have some inspiration material that I'm going to read/watch.
So that's it for now, Pilgrim's done and not just done, it's donelly-donelly-done! I'm really looking forward to the next projects. I think they are going to kick some serious derrières!
Take care!
Pilgrim has been very educational to me. I can't say that I'm an expert cartoonist by now, but I can say that I can tell a story with comics.
This monday I had quite the experience. I had printed all the pages and the for- and afterword, put them all in a binder. Later in the evening I read the comic from cover to cover. I hadn't read it all for a year and a half. I've only read the chapter that I was working on. To my amazement it worked! Well, I have to say that I'm biased, or part in the crime, so to say. But it was quite the experience to read it all, and seeing that it was ok. I mean, how would it have felt if it didn't work, then I've put time and energy on something that didn't work, talk about anti-climax!
Also this week I've been thinking about if I did the right thing by doing the comic now. Since this has been such an important story, maybe I should have done some smaller things first and then returned to this project. But I think like this. The reason it has been made, is because of the importance of the story. If I only did some smaller things, to get to learn how to work with the medium, than I might have not come to get going on Pilgrim. So I think that I made the right decision to do Pilgrim now. The learning experience that it has been has been a bonus, that I'm thankful for!
Script
I put some time and energy on the script, to get the pacing of the story right. When I think about that process it went smoothly. I tried different types of structures to tell the story, before settling on the current one.
Drawing
I always enjoy the sketching of a project, the uphill climb here has clearly been the clean up. It feels like you are re-doing something that you've already done, and that's never fun. But sometimes I'm very cunning, so I could trick myself into doing the clean up, by using the colored pencil! Or as they say, every idea is good except the bad ones!
Inking
Inking has been the steepest learning curve on this project. But that has to do with my earlier attempts at inking, that wasn't that successful. Where the drawing was full of life, the inked drawing was stiff and lifeless. But all along this project I kind of took the inking to my heart. Given off course that I'm basically a tracer, but that has to do with the fact that I've colored the pages, if the comic would have been in black and white the inking would have been quite different.
Coloring
This work has also been smoothly, except for the first pages... When I was coloring the first chapter, I noticed that I hadn't "closed" all the lines, so when I had been sitting in front of the computer for maybe twelve hours I had only done 3 half pages... The coloring for the later chapters went much more smoothly.
Publishing
I've used blogger and I don't regret that at all, it's easy to use and as a comics publishing tool it works fine!
What's going to happen now, with Pilgrim?
I'm currently exploring if there could be an analogue version for the comic. Other then that I'm thinking of doing a cover and a back illustration. As I've written before there might be a translation into English, but I'm not there yet. So there are some things that's going to be done, but for now, its done!
So what's going to happen now?
Well I'm going to take a short break, I'm going to do some smaller things. But my pipeline is filled to the brim with cool stuff. Actually I've got these concepts that I'm going to work on, starting 2014.
1) An ensemble drama about some characters in a small town. It's about following your dreams... Script is done, the character design is next.
2) An action adventure set in the 1930s. The concept is done, the writing's next.
3) A horror/thriller story. The concept is done, the writing's next.
In preparation for these projects I have some inspiration material that I'm going to read/watch.
So that's it for now, Pilgrim's done and not just done, it's donelly-donelly-done! I'm really looking forward to the next projects. I think they are going to kick some serious derrières!
Take care!
fredag 22 november 2013
Pilgrims' done!
Pilgrim is now done, and not just done, it's done-done! It's complete! It's finished! It's done!
Please feel free to have a read:
http://pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/
What's in store for me now? We'll just have to wait and see...
Take care!
Please feel free to have a read:
http://pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/
What's in store for me now? We'll just have to wait and see...
Take care!
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