:: pale christmas ::

it's finally done!!! merry christmas homies!!!

:: time for beany ::

HOLY CRAP!!! i just dropped a decent coin on amazon to pick up the beany and cecil special edition dvd...but geez...it's friggin awesome! all the excerpts of clampett michael barrier uses on the golden collection dvds come from this beany and cecil dvd. it's insane. people like al pardo, mike carlo, and bob rutan better get in touch with me about checking it out!!!

also for those who haven't seen, check out this interesting article by milt gray [conductor of aforementioned interviews] on clampett and jones:

milt gray on clampett

[i'm gonna post some drawings soon too...]

:: what a TOOL ::

hey i've been posting a lot! it makes me feel like i'm getting crap done! this morning i thumbnailed the first 2 scenes of my picture [i like sayin picture, it sounds less pretentious than film...and more old timey]. i'll clean up some panels and put em up!

and it's called paper al, i think the egyptians invented it recently? i can't remember. i got a newer tablet but i still feel like i can deal with paper better!

i'd been using this ticonderoga blue pencil you can get at staples for sketching, but when i got to the light table, the lead was way too hard and i couldn't see the drawings underneath [maybe i should buy real animation paper, but i won't be able to fit that in a bulk scanner for testing...] i switched back to col erase and now i'm working with a plain old graphite 2HB because i can draw faster with the softer lead it seems. is that something you guys find useful too? i found these bob camp animation notes on goober sleave's blog [kevin langley] and it looks like he uses a really soft lead in the sketches. it's a lot of the preston blair stuff condensed, with a couple other concepts. here's a link to kevin's post with the notes:

bob camp animation notes

i think team katbot had mentioned having some similar notes passed on to them from destefano? my envy for team katbot still knows no bounds!

:: srsly guys ::

so you know i'm not lying:




i'm trying to nail character design and some decent poses then i'll start remembering how to animate again and go between the poses. these still may need work, but i'm getting started! i got in touch with an amazing band about helping me with sound and i'm betting i can send them my raymond scott music and they'd play it! CHOICE!

:: i solemnly swear ::

i solemnly swear:

to make a film timed using bar sheets and a metronome, collaborative storyboarding as writing, to utilize exposure sheets, proper breakdown notation, to make something with not a convoluted dialog heavy story, but mostly comprised of things to make people laugh...and to do it on paper...

i thomas sebastian smolenski, on this day of december 1st 2006, solemnly swear to make a gag cartoon within the year.