Monday, December 15, 2014

Never Not Funny Fan Art

Hey Everyone.  Happy Holidays! My favorite Podcast for years has been Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo. His good friend Matt Belknap is his co-host and another long time friend of his, Pat Francis, is a guest/co-host several times a season.  Every year on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) they have a 12 hour marathon podcast called the PARDCAST-A-THON for the charity Smile Train.  I was able to get tickets this year. The Never Not Funny Pardcast-a-thon has raised more than $500,000 to help more than 2,000 children around the world.

I was super excited to go and thought to do a drawing of an incident that happened on the podcast a few years back. Jimmy was trying to get some thoughts across and Matt and Pat were talking over him. We've all had that time our best friend wouldn't shut up and we wanted to throw something at them, well Jimmy had a mic in his hand to do just that. Pat and Matt didn't know what happened and Jimmy stormed out.  After a short break Jimmy was back in the room and they were all laughing at what happened. I had this image in my head for quite a while so I scrambled to get it done by the Pardcast-a-thon hoping to get it to them somehow.  Luckily I was able to approach them afterward and I thanked Jimmy and gave them the framed drawing.  They seemed to like it, I'm hoping that's the case.  It's the least I could do for all the laughs I've gotten from them.

I highly suggest you check out the podcast.  Here's a link to Never Not Notes which has a recap on that particular episode: Never Not Funny Episode 523. Scroll down to 40:00 to read about the mic throw.  Never Not Notes has almost all the episodes logged there. You could also find a link there to get that individual episode. Lucky for me the website author Darryl Asher posted enough pictures on the webpage for me to see what they were wearing and haircuts and such.

The text and banner were done by Eric Firth. I wanted to use a Logo that had already been done for the show and I thought his was the best for the picture.  Of course the characters were done by me.


UPDATE:

This was just posted the other day on Never Not Funny's Vine account.  Click in the lower right for sound.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Family Guy Pencil Test Animation - Der Kommissar



Hey Folks,

I came across this clip on my computer today.  Back when I was on family guy as a revisionist I got to do some pretty fun pieces of animation.  This bit here was a take off on the Falco video for "Der Kommissar."

I got the video and exports the key poses to use as reference.  The tricky part was to animate the puppet like it was a marionette where the motivation of movement was coming from the strings and not from the character.  I always was marveled when i'd see that in Pinnocho, and here I got to do a little of it myself.  

http://youtu.be/pCfehiAYLIs - Family Guy Clip

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja Rough Animation Using Toon Boom Storyboard Pro


I was working on a scene the other day that had quite a bit of animation in various stages.  I thought it would be fun to share the process. Some of the poses started out extremely rough, almost indiscernible. Movement comes first. You can see how I clarified things and also use the software to reuse or repurpose bits of drawings to make life easier.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Pete Venkman Ghostbusters Collboration

Hi folks!  Long time no post I know.  The pace over at Randy Cunningham has been relentless. Not much time or energy for outside projects.  I did squeeze out some time the other day for a drawing I signed up to do.  It's for a Ghostbusters collaboration that @patrickfedo threw a call out for.  He's a big Ghostbusters nut and I couldn't pass up throwing my pencil in the ring.  I thought I might have had to pass but I had a little extra free time the other night.  I took a few screencaps on my ipad, did the initial sketch on paper, scanned it in and finished it up in Storyboard Pro.


The Summer Ghostbusters came out you couldn't go anywhere without hearing the Ghostbusters song or seeing something about the movie.  I must have played the cassette of the soundtrack hundreds of times. Watched the movie dozens of times when it came on HBO, then VHS, then DVD.  Now it's on Netflix streaming. Back then there wasn't the internet and mobile devices to barrage us with an over saturation of entertainment.  You didn't have the next best thing at your fingertips to distract you from the experience you just had. A movie stayed in the theatre for a few months if it was popular, and Ghostbusters was. Films that were big permeated society for weeks.  Only one or two big movies were out at a time.  

It definitely was something that shaped my view on entertainment and film. Saying it was a big deal to me as a kid would be an understatement.  Few things hold up from childhood and THE BOYS IN GREY more than hold up. They are timeless.



Here's the transcript of the scene from Ghostbusters:

(Carnegie Hall - Outside) 
(Dana and a male Violinist exit the Hall.) 
Dana: I don't know where they get these guest conductors. Someone should tell him that it's not going to do much good to scream at us in German. 
Violinist: Well, I don't think the man is competent to conduct a major symphony orchestra. 
(Dana looks up and spots Peter.) 
Dana: Um, could you wait here a minute? 
Violinist: Uh, sure. 
(Dana walks over to Peter.) 
Dana: Dr. Venkman, this is a surprise. 
Peter: That was a wonderful rehearsal. 
Dana: You heard that? 
Peter: Yes. You're the best one in your row. 
Dana: Oh, thank you. You're good. Most people can't hear me with the whole orchestra playing. 
Peter: Hey, I don't have to take this abuse from you. I've got hundreds of people dying to abuse me. 
Dana: I know. You're a big celebrity now. Do you have some information on my case? 
Peter: (indicating the Violinist) Who's the stiff? 
Dana: The stiff happens to be one of the finest musicians in the world! Now do you have some information for me, please? 
Peter: Sure, but I'd prefer to give it to you in private. 
Dana: Why don't you tell me now? 
Peter: Well, okay. I found the name Zuul for you. (reading off a piece of paper) The name Zuul refers to a demi-god worshipped around 6000 BC by theƖwhat's that word? 
Dana: Hittites. 
Peter: Hittites, the Mesopotamians and the Sumerians. 
Dana: (reading) Zuul was the minion of Gozer. What's Gozer? 
Peter: Gozer was very big in Sumeria. Big guy. 
Dana: Well, what's he doing in my icebox? 
Peter: I'm working on that. If we could get together Thursday night, I'm thinking nine-ish, you know, we could exchange information. 
Dana: I can't see you Thursday, I'm busy! 
Peter: Miss Barrett, you seem to think there is something wrong up here in your mind that says: he enjoys taking his evenings off and spending them with his clients. No. I'm making a special exception in your case. Because... I respect you. It's corny but I respect you as artist. And as a dresser, too! This is a magnificent coordination you have going here today. 
Dana: All right. I'll see you Thursday. 
Peter: I'll bring The Roylance Guide and we'll eat and read! 
(Dana goes back over to the Violinist and they begin to walk off.) 
Violinist: So! Who the hell was that? 
Dana: Just a friend. 
Violinist: A friend? 
Dana: An old friend. 
Peter: (yelling) Right, I'll see you Thursday! I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you, sir! And I'm glad you're feeling much better. You're still very pale, though! A little sun... 
Violinist: What's he do? 
Dana: Oh, he's a scientist.