Calliope Animatic

This was a group project to digitally illustrate one of Neil Gaiman's Sandman stories. Our team was called "The People" and it consisted of Francois Hebert, Phil Sheather and Steve Milne...well and myself of course :)

The process for making this animatic was first to brainstorm on the style that we wanted to convey. We decided on Film Noir style, as we felt it reflected the mood of the story and we also found it visually inspiring. This was followed by storyboarding, image sourcing and production hours. The last bit was to add music, which Steve handled beautifully. Production was done using AfterEffects.

Semester 2: "Form and Object Studio" with Toby Whitehead

Two pages from Calliope

The Brief
Examine two pages from Neil Gaiman's Sandman story Calliope. Read the script carefully and then interpret the story visually in the format of a graphic novel spread.

Illustration Outcome

Pencil Sketches

Inked and Lettered
Semester 2: Form and Object Studio with Gail Rogers Perazzo

May: Inspirations & Observations

This is the May issue of Inspirations & Observations, my monthly list of 5 things that inspired me, and 5 things that irritated the eye.

Inspirations

1. Life Drawing. I've been taking life drawing lessons at COFA to make animation and design process more hands-on, and I fell in love with drawing the human body in the process. Here are some instructional drawings by A. Loomis:
   
   
   
   
2. Neil Gaiman Sandman series. Totally inspiring, dark and accurate when it comes to portraying human nature. I was especially moved by "A Dream of a Thousand Cats"
   
   
   
   
3. Christopher Hart. I think he is the greatest teacher of comic drawing!
   
   
   
   
4. Cupcakes. I've been baking cupcakes for fun after seeing Cupcakes On Pitt store on my way home
   
   
   
   
5. Knitting - room shoes. Another one of my little projects...still in progress though
   
   
   

Observations

These are the things that didn't sit with me so well this month. It's mostly focused around usability and paying attention to your client's needs (mine in this case).

1. Xbox 360 setup and menu. I have recently purchased the Xbox (mainly to play Guitar Hero) and it felt like I needed a master's degree to set it up.
2. Western knitting pattern notations. It's interesting that I can understand Japanese patterns without speaking a word of Japanese, but when it comes to the American/Australian patterns I am having a really hard time. And I assure you that I can read and write English :)
   
3. Finsbury Paper uses iStock photos to illustration their collateral! And it's using some of the most popular images too. As soon as I received the magazine I felt, "Hm...I've seen these." Of course, a quick search on iStock revealed the answer.
   
4. Paper mail. Please, don't kill the trees for advertising!!! Send me a clever e-mail, and I might just open up my wallet.
5. Digital print shops, in this case Snap Printing. It was one of the most exasperating experiences trying to print 5 pages in the morning, which I needed that afternoon. I refuse to believe that printing has to be so complicated...but who knows, maybe it is. I did learn a lesson though: print the day before, save yourself hours of agony.
   

Previous months

• April: Observations & Inspirations
• March: Observations & Inspirations
  
• February: Observations & Inspirations
• January: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly