Toniko Pantoja - ROUNDHOUSE PUNCH

Gazelle run cycle

2011-12-08T19:49:00.001-08:00

To be frank and honest, the run cycle for animals (depending on the speed) isn't as hard as to an animal walk, a human walk or a human run, since most of the legs don't switch every other time.

Although in this run cycle, I did screw up with some of the spacing, timing, and I should have made the head arc forward than just an up and down

Mermaid and Dolphin... with a ukelele

2011-12-05T11:15:00.001-08:00

There's something a lot of people should know about me.
I'm a very cheesy guy.

Some dialogue tests I did

2011-12-03T18:44:00.001-08:00

Throughout this whole semester, I got the opportunity to learn a lot more about character animation in terms of control, performance, and acting. I would like to become a traditional and digital 2D animator (Although I do enjoy 3D animation as well), so therefore I am continuing to allow myself to learn everything I can - it being Visual Development and Design, Story, or simply animation. In fact, I don't know whether I want to do Story or Animation.

So here's something for Sue Kroyer's animation class:
"Sirs stand you all out" (Guys, go out)
"I pray you give me leave" (Please leave me be)

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

The line is from Kenneth Branagh's 1995 Hamlet, one of my favorite shakespearean interpretations to films ever, so this is kind of a little tribute to it. One of main criticisms I got earlier my Film Workshop mentor, Chris Sonnenburg, was that he moved to much like a human and if I were to use a cat like creature - celebrate the fact that it's a cat. In this one, I made his paw sheathe out in this one, but in the earlier versions he just snaps his paw below his waist which was too human of a gesture. One of the teachers at Cal Arts, Matt Williames, told me to focus more on the gesture since it doesn't read to clearly, having more body movement, and having more interaction with the dagger he is holding. Make him utilize the dagger as he says "I pray you give me leave" to make it more threatening. It's weird because like in the movie, he faces a character in front of him, then another one beside him. Not many people read that, so I should thumbnail another little bastard behind him if I am to put this in my demo reel.

And here's another thing I did. It's based on an old test but Chris said it was too crazy, so I wanted to learn more about control in animation. Animation is not just making things move in flowy or crazy ways, but its learning to be economical with the energy maintained in the characters.

Here's a test I did based off John Travolta (my new take on the Grease character) but I'll definitely need to finish more of his dialogue some day...

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

In an earlier version way before this, he just said words and moved around like crazy, and I would get the comment "Too much." I needed to tone it down. Understand the character. What is he communicating to Sandy, and to the audience? How does he do it? How much energy or thought is he putting into it? Chris told me to think of specific words that the character says, or the feelings and portray it with careful beats. Losing Control was the hardest because I tried to imitate the real footage where he takes his jacket off to convey that, but I tried to re do that and maybe make himself comb himself as if he's trying to maintain his 'greaser cool'.

Funny thing about this little test is... I'll never hear the end of it from my classmates.

Some Layouts

2011-11-20T22:38:00.001-08:00

Here are some things I did for my layout class lead by Dan Hansen. Again, I lack the patience to have a completely finished painting - which I attempted with the orange robot one... Whenever I start polishing or tying this down, it just kills the energy at times...No excuses though, I'll still have to figure my way around it.

48 Hour film - The Good, The Bad, The Prickly

2011-11-13T18:41:00.001-08:00

A film me and my friend Michael Piazza turned in for the 48 hour film... You can tell which parts I animated if you know my style.

Halloween Speed paint and stuff

2011-11-04T00:03:00.000-07:00

And a silly shark guy.

Fire Starter

2011-10-26T02:16:00.001-07:00

Based off a buddy named Gabe

A few caricatures of my classmates

2011-10-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah... Caricatures of some of my classmates. I ran out of charcoal and large bond paper the other week, so I reverted back to computer A4 paper, a sharpie, and a Colerase pencil.

Galaxy Trio?

2011-10-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketches for Andy Suriano's Galaxy Trio assignment.

For those who don't know the Galaxy Trio, its a 1967 Hanna Barbera cartoon about these three super-human powered heroes: Vapor Man, Gravity Girl and Meteor Man. For a show that has realistic proportions, drawing style and a 60s fashion sense, it was definitely a major challenge to try and bring these designs to my style, with my chosen proportions and... today's trend? Bah.

Uhu uhu uhu

2011-10-04T01:47:00.000-07:00

I animated my friend Stephen Levinson for my Head turn and react assignment for Sue Kroyer's class.
Usually I just animate key poses and twos, I never really thought about frames of fours - so I'm actually trying it out more traditionally.

LOL.

2011-09-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some character designs from Andy Suriano's class. We had to design a milk carton, a pear, and a banana. The pear and the bananas were easy to think of, but the milk cartons - sons a bitches.

The milk carton guy is hard because he's just angular and straight shapes. As you can see in these milk carton drawings - I was really just trying to get shapes and gestures down - no construction.

Early sketches of the characters

The Banana guy is based off those rap artists in the early 90s with their tall cuts.

Oh yeah, me and my pal Gabe were trying to figure out how to simplify or caricature the animator Glen Keane. I think his was the most successful (if he bothers to upload it online). Here are mine done in Sharpies.

Someguy

2011-09-18T22:57:00.001-07:00

Here is a design based off me.

Brianne

2011-09-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Concepts for a film idea. I was wondering whether I wanted a boy or girl protagonist for the next project.
I had a design in mind, a girl with a pony tail wearing a sweater or a full on jacket. She is supposed to be some sort of cashier for an art shop, that's what I had in mind.

And if you are wondering, yes, Frankie Foster from Imaginary Friends is an influence to these designs.

Well, I still have yet to explore. But whatever.

Some abstract valley

2011-08-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

Here's another speed paint inspired by a photograph with a similar composition... I guess I have this sort of abstract approach to doing these type of things, since i try and focus most of my energy on depth, lighting and emotion rather than technical polishing (which I really need start working on.)

Cold n Lush

2011-07-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

Getting back into that whole speedpaint phase again... Used references from online photos, but also had my own take on the subject. I realized I need to stop using green and blue all the time.

11 Second Club entry

2011-07-01T02:37:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! Here's my entry for the June 2011 Eleven Second Club!

Crayola dragon

2011-06-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Concept art for a possible second year film...
I think I'm developing a style where I really depend on the background tone and color.

Film Poster

2011-06-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the film poster to "Serenade to Miette", composition wise totally inspired by film posters of the 1930s to 1940s, since that's where the film is set around. It was first a thumbnail I never got to finish until now. Lately I have been heavily inspired by the composition and color choices of Kevin Dart, so I'm minimizing my color palette to find two to three main colors that really compliment each other.

And here's an abomination I found in my external drive... A very early design of the main character Milo.

Gross.

TD and TP

2011-06-20T02:02:00.000-07:00

A little something about these two.
Based on my friends, Thahn Dang and Taylor Price

Bukah Pintu

2011-06-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

I think the Uncharted series is simply one of the best ever.

I love stylizing characters that are meant to look realistic, and giving them some edge. I tried to play with the shapes and poses so that it matches the personality of the original game characters.

Possible Style for next film sketches

2011-06-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

I don't have a solid idea yet, but here are some drawings for what I have, or had in mind! I want to go for a style: not exactly the flash lineless style, but shapes and lines supported by textured gradients I don't know if it makes sense.

And heres something I recently colored!

Life Drawing May 20 2011 + 2nd year film doodles

2011-05-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

Life drawing...

To me, technical life drawing is overrated. Then again, expressive and artistic life drawing is also overrated. Although I think this, I do it.

Because either way, it's fun stuff.

And here's some thoughts process on a 2nd year film? My ideas will always change, but sometimes, I like to be loose and come up with stories and ideas.

I think I will have a female lead for my next one. Not sure yet.

The Red Cat (My part)

2011-05-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

My portfolio

2011-05-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here is my general animation portfolio... Since I had no idea what I wanted to go for.
At the moment, I'm more towards Visual Development and Animation

but story is something I've been slowly taking an interest in.

Serenade to Miette (online)

2011-05-01T11:06:00.001-07:00

Watch it here

Wow the more I watch it, the more I can pick up my shameful mistakes. hahaahahahah...

Serenade to Miette - Screengrabs

2011-04-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

Something for my film composer

2011-04-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

For Phillip Wareborn's orchestra score!

Animation Midterm test

2011-03-22T02:03:00.001-07:00

Yeah.. we had a midterm assignment in Animation class today...
So we had to pick two words, and animate a character from a model sheet.

My words were uhm... "Floppy Rage."

Production pipeline for "Serenade to Miette"

2011-03-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

In all honesty, I'm kind of disappointed that it didn't turn out like the graphic iconic monochromatic feel I had planned out, that was seen in the animatic. So next time and next year, those are the things I will focus on. I'll apply more of that sepia - tonish feel in the final film, a long with a lot of overlaying layers of masks.

The process to the film is that all the animation is done with colerase and 4B-6B pencils, which are then scanned and colored by hand on Photoshop. Man this process really bites, but it does contain so much more raw energy than what a lot of pure digital films have. I might not use paper for my future films here since I do aim to have finished and longer films...

Sketchbook February 11 2011

2011-02-12T03:51:00.000-08:00

Above are patricia's characters for her Sheridan portfolio.

We were trying to figure out it's poses

I really felt weird figure drawing on my sketchbook this morning

Film characters 2

2011-01-25T23:12:00.000-08:00

Here's I guess the promotional picture for my film?
With a new goldren retriever character that plays an important role

Oh and here's a random animation practice! Scott Wright, my animation teacher is awesome and totally motivates me - but I swear to god that guy is up to... something.

Sketchbook update Jan 13 2011

2011-01-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Playing with shapes and designs, especially in the random car thumbnails.

Now that the break is over, I really need to push things...!

Animation - Small Tests + Finding a language

2011-01-11T03:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some animation tests from project DF.

In character design, I sat stayed around after class with my classmate Leon, who was showing his film character designs to Rik Maki. I was listening to the conversation, and I remember hearing Rik Maki telling Leon to find a language that works for him, and possibly him alone. Find a language of your own in drawing...
Scott Wright, my animation teacher did mention the same thing when it came down to animating characters, where he gave examples of how other people he worked with animated, such as some would draw the contour straight on, some with the exact construction of how the model sheet shows, and some just started all the way back to primitive shapes.

So yeah, I need to have MORE structure in my work.

So I did some animation tests of my own to find a language that kinda worked for me, which was in order
1. Animate the wild gestures
2. Animate basic shapes such as spheres, boxes
3. Go back to each frame and add more complex shapes
4. Go back to each frame and animate smaller details such as eyes, mouth, hair, etc.

Background for Jimmy

2011-01-11T02:32:00.000-08:00

Starting to color backgrounds for that Jimmy animatic I did a while back.
Also, here are some drawings from good the old Serpent's concept.

Speed paint practices

2011-01-11T02:09:00.000-08:00

Here's a speed paint I did a while back and forgot to upload.
I've been practicing in become a lot more diverse in colors, and experimenting with the idea of choosing and blending earthy with none earthy colors to make things feel more natural and alive... I dunno, hah.

Visual Development... or speedpaint, concept, I sometimes lose track of the difference because the way I approach these things is mostly the same So all in all, they feel alike to me.

Various Walk Cycles

2010-12-14T00:57:00.000-08:00

Tyrannosaurus Rex Walk Cycle from Toniko Pantoja on Vimeo.

Miette Walk Cycle from Toniko Pantoja on Vimeo.

Coming soon:A red cat with a green bag

2010-12-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

The concept art to my part in this collaboration.

Basically here at Calarts, the 1st year seems to developing a collaborated animation, where each student animates their part with the character, and tries to match it with the next animation.

I was given the number 2 in class.

Cats n Horses

2010-12-07T02:42:00.000-08:00

For Rik Maki's class, we submitted cats and horses for our second to last assignment.

So in summary, I guess the best parts he liked were the expression of the horses, and the female cats - and he said that the anatomy for the horses need to be defined more, and some parts shortened. It's all good

Cat thumbnails

2010-11-30T23:40:00.000-08:00

It seems that my teacher wants cats and horses for our next assignments. Did thumbnails in class for the cats...

Cats can hiccup and fart at the same time.

Observational + Cafe Sketches

2010-11-30T23:37:00.000-08:00

Cafe and observational sketching is a lot of fun, and is very useful in understanding drawing both interpretively and technical - even in gestural form. It's something I do from time to time, but my sketchbook is mostly filled with rough sketches for bigger assignments. So, here are some of the ones I am proud of.

Some of my classmates:

Takehiro Nishikawa (http://tn-portfolio.blogspot.com/)

Jason K

Michael Piazza (http://michaeldraws.blogspot.com/)

Jason Reicher (http://jasonreicher.blogspot.com/)

Hallie Willson (http://halliewilson.blogspot.com/)

Leon Alexander

Check these guys out.

On the upper right, you can see a huge tally. That represents the number of time my Contemporary Literature teacher says "RIGHT". In this count with a 1 hour lecture by him, it was 160 times. I shit you not.

So here you see again my literature teacher and my classmates:

Zach Nock

Taylor Price (http://taylor-price.blogspot.com/)

Jacob Streilein (http://jcstryline.blogspot.com/)

And so yeah... went down to the little area down the street and sat in Starbucks. Drew with Taylor. Ate Subway. Watch south park. What a way to spend a few days of thanks giving weekends.

Nicholas Marlet inspired monster's inc. design

2010-11-30T23:23:00.001-08:00

So, one of our in class assignments was to draw our own monsters studying from Nicholas Marlet's model sheet. These are some of my studies.

Imaginary Friend (calvin and hobbes influenced) part 1

2010-11-30T23:21:00.000-08:00

So, another assignment was to come up with a new version of Calvin and Hobbes... That's a harsh and impossible assignment since something already made so great can be so hard to turn into our own versions. Two of the drawings are missing, but I am waiting for them to return from the class.

Corpse Bride/Tim Burton inspired character designs

2010-11-30T23:18:00.001-08:00

Assignment from Rik Maki's class. Draw ghouls in the corpse bride style; adults, children, and animals in a creepy ghoul way. I think I did okay... I guess.

Main character designs for first year film

2010-11-27T23:50:00.000-08:00

In the original script, their names are "Jack" and "Christine" but I re looked at their origins in the character bones I wrote, where Jack came from an Italian Family and Christine came from a french family.

I changed their names later on to Milo and Miette.

More art will come of this concept.

November 2010 Life Drawings

2010-11-26T18:12:00.000-08:00

Tried to mix in technical aspects and interpretive aspects of life drawing once again... I prefer to keep my short gestures loose and fluid - since I'm not trying to construct something solid in under a minute, and more about capturing the energy of things.

...Life drawing is so jokes.

My 48 Hour Film for Calarts 2010 + Hints of future projects

2010-11-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

The theme was coat hanger... At first, I was like "Hell no - this thing is stupid and super time consuming where I'm at now."

Here is my 48 hour film for calarts 2010
Bullies and Coat Hangers

I don't know how it evolved, but I soon spent most of the weekend finishing it. Crunch time... lovely.
I'm pretty happy that I did it because I got to see the technical issues I faced during its creation before I start production on my first year short film - which is currently under the project name:

"The Irreplaceable Milo" (aka Tale of the Illusionist)

I honestly cannot tell you what it will be about right now, since I am currently following a rule I made for myself, which is never give away a project unless I am sure of it's completion. All I can say is that this one is simply about Illusionists. The one I stated is what I am spending most of my attention to.

"Faisal" (aka Until the end, I stand resolute for you)
is a film idea I have that I would like to work on for my fourth year (this will propably change sometime), which is about a loyal dachshund, it's master and a wolf that walks beyond mirrors in a library.

There's of course the completion longing for "Jimmy" which I will color someday... and then there's an idea I recently conceived called "Behind Turquoise Eyes" which is about a bird that teaches a bird woman to fly. So many ideas, but so hard to choose the right one. It's just some ideas I like to express out

A visit to the zoo...

2010-11-13T02:46:00.000-08:00

Here are some sketches I did in the zoo with just a ballpoint pen and a pencil.
I need to literally re-understand structure.

Short drawings for each, since we had to move fast

I should have utilized with different mediums I brought with me...

Life Drawing so far....

2010-10-29T01:12:00.000-07:00

Well guys, It's been half the first term already. Being someone who's been through Sheridan and Calarts, its interesting to get both sides of life drawing expectations from both schools.

I'm possibly too interpretive for Sheridan, and maybe too focused on structure in Calarts. Sheridan really stresses on line quality, proportion, and construction while Calarts is more explorative and experimental. I think this also has something to do with the two degrees being different. Sheridan's animation couse is BAA (Bachelor of Applied Arts) while Calarts is BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts). Most of the life drawing teachers here, are complete fine artists. Although they do teach anatomy and structure, I can tell they hate it.

There are weaknesses and advantages to both teachings. In Sheridan's animation course, you really understand form, proportion and line quality, a huge HUGE biggie in animation. However, this can limit you in the way you draw and design characters, environments, etc. It still happens to me, I start drawing things as a stock symbol. In Calarts, you really get a sense of observation, design and interpretation. This is exceptional and super important for design, composition and exploration - giving new takes on characters. This gives you new ways to solve problems. The down fall to this: they don't want you to focus on structure. Your drawings will suffer having solidity in them without them. Thats a huge problem when it comes to animation. The program still sees itself as experimental.

There's always this debate of sheridan kids seeing calarts as "too artsy farsty" (which i can agree) and calarts kids seeing sheridan as "too constricted, playing by the rules" (which i can too agree)

It's like saying Sheridan prepares you to work in studios, while Calarts prepares you for innovation and invention. Both have their own ways of problem solving. That's what I learned.

I'm sure the schools can learn well from each other.

So in other words, both schools have their ups and downs, so its always best to remain in the middle ground with this situation. As far as where I'm at, I suck at life drawing. My drawings at calarts are too "boring", and if I were in Sheridan it'd be too "artsy fartsy". Anyways, I shall upluurrrd.

My attemps to academic drawing. (AKA My attempt to the Sheridan way)

Structure, structure, structure... Line quality, line quality, line quality...

For me, the sheridan way is my time of purely studying the model. Looking at proportion, shapes, form, construction, etc. My life drawing classes is 6 hours long, I use the first three to do complete studies. Most of it is just lines and a lot of gesture work. I also study arrangements of the face, and specific body parts.

Most of these were done between 30 seconds to 5 mins for each pose/face/figure. The last 2, I think they were 10 mins? I can't remember.. For this section, I mostly use a conte stick (a sheridan favorite) and charcoal.

The interpretive way (The Calarts Tradition):
In other words, f*ck the rules and f*ck around. Explore and make design choices...

So yeah, there's me with barely any structure. Now this is interesting because I am getting some really exciting design choices and approaches. I'm using any medium I can find, like a twig and some ink, or drawing with my none dominant hand. The rules that I learned in Sheridan does not apply, and I am making some crazy choices.

The interesting ting about Calarts' life drawing course is that they want your models to have story. Story, character, narration etc. If they are wearing a witch costume, dont draw the witch in the costume, draw an entirely different character or something. Even up to now, I find this insanely hard.

Well, there's that to this entry.

Birds

2010-10-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

Here are my bird designs for Rik Maki's class.

I should have been more explorative - and pushed shapes further.
Here is what I have so far (and in all honesty, I've had it with all these birds.)

The bird and the... underwater thing

2010-10-18T02:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some more character design assignments! The assignment was a beautiful girl (in other words, hot dayumn babe) and another character that was.. ugly.

Was watching a few musicals while drawing this.

and the owl is so influenced by my classmate Jason Reicher.

Decided to design a hero for this concept

Character sketches for first year film

2010-10-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

Some concepts for my first year film's main lead. He is a rookie street illusionist.

Sushi Set Character Design

2010-10-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

Characters out of sushi set, such as the dragon roll, the rice ball and... shrimp ball on a stick? cheerios.

Character Design - Mice (Pot and Pan)

2010-10-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

For Rik Maki's character design class, we had to design two characters that are mice.

Both have to somehow contrast, or foil each other, and our designs have to show it.
I finished this a few weeks ago, and some of my character designs are still either on the wall, and being held by the teacher. These include some more mice drawings, and the old man + baby character design.

Art direction for Jimmy

2010-08-26T02:06:00.000-07:00

Currently, the first one is pretty much the decided style for Jimmy's adventure.

The short will retain a paper n' pastel feel with the use of textures and drawing styles of the background.

Most of the environments include locations set in South East Asia, but there will be places set in Eurasia, the middle east, etc.

If I feel like it, I will add the cut out 1 minute of the full song by Utada Hikaru, adding places from Europe. (I have images in my head of a chocolate castle in Switzerland, the canals of Venice, and a French mansion covered with roses and mirrors)

I came up with the descriptions for the characters
Jimmy (the tiger cubscout) is referred to the 'little Asian tiger that explores the world'. He's supposed to be Singaporean Chinese. Jimmy is raised by a Bear Master Scout, who's Canadian. Jimmy likes to think he's a bear at times. His real parents are a mystery, but I added pictures of them in the animatic. He is a big fan of his foster dad (the bear master scout), Steve Irwin, and Indiana Jones. His dream is to become a master adventurer.

Miki (the siamese/birmese cat) is descent of Cambodian, Thai, and Burmese blood (though she was born in Burma). The flower on her head is sometimes made fun of because she's a girl, and stereotypically she wears a flower clip by her ear. It's supposed to represent a symbol of her royal heritage in Cambodia, but decides her dream is to climb the highest mountains on foot.

And so I drew a sketch of them when they reach their dreams

Filipino Animation

2010-08-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

I have been asked an uncountable number of times for my opinion based on Filipino animation.

Now before we jump into this topic, I have to say my pride for The Philippines has died down slightly quite recently. Oh, and its not about Filipino animation at all.

By the final days of August in 2010, there was a hostile hostage situation which was lead by a former police officer named Rolando Mendoza, who seized a bus with chinese tourists. I don't know too much on what happened, but what I hear is that the shootout lasted for many long hours, some hostages were killed, and Rolando Mendoza himself was shot down by a sniper rifle.

From the internet sources I've been looking at, everything seems a bit too one-sided. The media pinned Mendoza as the only villain in these articles - causing a lot of hateful and stir reactions by the public, both nationally and internationally. The stories I've seen depict Mendoza as a dude who took over a bus, killed some hostages wanting to get his retirement benefits since he was expelled from the police force for extortion and stuff. Don't get me wrong, I think there's still no excuse for Mendoza to involve innocent lives just to get heard, it's totally unacceptable. The Philippine police didn't do a good job either. They were indirectly taunting him by sledge hammering the windows of the buses (so fail by the way..) causing Mendoza to go in a psychological epidemic. From what I have seen, its as if they showing him he has no chance of survival at all, and therefore he could have fought out of survival's sake, but snapped.

Funny thing is, they sniped him after he shot a cop... after a bunch of hostages died.

Now back into topic.

I can't say much about Filipino animation, but I'll put in my comments about it as well as some footage of it.

Ibong Adarna is The Philippine's first animated film made around the 90s, and from what I know, its based off the legend of the Adarna Bird, who's crap can turn people into stone. Aside from that, this video is totally Filipino. When I think of Filipino, I think of cheesy elements that Philippine movies will have, such as music that sound like Christian songs. But hey, we are a Catholic deprived country. To me, its nothing at all spectacular to be the country's first major film project. Don't misunderstand me, I think this is an accomplishment in the country and that it only recently started growing from here.

So from the footage, the visuals are really weird, but some shots I really like because they feel like paper cutouts, giving a story book impression. I think if you look at the 2d animation alone, it looks okay - but because its blending with weird 3D background animation that doesn't match to well with the character animation, it gives a very uncomfortable sight of unsteadiness. The whole thing feels like a CCD thing. You know what, I'm pretty happy they came out with his because their later films seems to have vastly improved...

This is Urduja, another film based off a Filipino legend about a warrior princess of some village. Almost 10 years after the release of the Adarna bird, this is a huge step of improvement in the animation industries of the Philippines. The film itself, as well as the trailer here, its still very Filipino with the story structure and the humor given. Filipino humor mostly involves the exaggeration of the acting and the dialect, mixed with some Pinoy expressions but that isn't a bad thing at all. The visuals look pleasing, albeit looking like Mulan and a lot of Disney flicks, its got a pleasant color palette and some really beautiful background illustrations. So all I can say is that its far better than what they had 10 years ago.

A back story to this project, it didn't do well in the box office. I'm not sure what kind of reviews this film has gotten, but judging from the trailers, I can kind of see why. The trailer here doesn't show any new invention or take in the film, or doesn't exaggerate a certain interest. The trailer (and another one I didn't post online) mostly focused on the love life, the two goof balls, it made the movie seem bland. A bland, a replica of another concept that has been done several times. I'm pretty sure this film was decent. A lot of filipino films are decent. It's just the way they market things in the philippines, that needs to change big time.

Now this one is called Dayo, released a year after Urduja. Out of the three films the Philippines has released, this one takes the winning cake in my opinion. It's about a kid who meets a friend who's literally in half, and enters a magical world called Elementalia. Obviously, the trailer makes it for kids. The reason about my opinion is because the film overall, has a charm that the two other films didn't have. What I liked about the concept of Dayo is that it isn't being pretentious, but rather vibrant about their designs. It definitely does not look as technically advanced as Urduja, but there's a lot more fun in it. From this, I feel the makers really loved what they were making, their behind the scenes footage proves it too. (looks really fun to be there too). The concept, the work and the idea has a lot of entertaining value, and some interesting character designs they pull off in the Elementalia world. This would actually work well as its own tv show alone.

So my overall opinion about Filipino animated films, I can't really say much since there's only three they have ever made. However from the ten year gap, I can see some pretty good signs on where the industry is turning - and I wonder what there next film will be on.

My finished animatic

2010-08-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

Jimmy the tiger cubscout animatic

Watch it here!!

Various Old Tests

2010-07-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Tests for Dusk's Flight and Serpent's Grave

Click here to view

I have been working on a secret animatic lately which stars Jimmy the tiger cubscout!

More designs and stuff

2010-07-26T09:22:00.001-07:00

Designs for Josh in the teenage werewolf collab. The final chosen design is none of these, but selected by another talented artist from joined artist, mistchiff.

Thought I would just upload an old speed painting. This is based off my old animation, One Wing Rush - which is about a kid who likes a chick named Amy. This is the aftermath that doesn't show in the animation. I tried some filters to somehow make the image feel retro, since the setting of the animation does take place in the mid 80s.

And on the other hand...
A chibi Barziguard (Bruicie)

I might turn this into a T-shirt design.

Character Designs - Royal Rumble & Teenage Werewolf

2010-07-13T04:37:00.001-07:00

Royal Rumble is a long lasting animation collaboration, where users contribute characters, select teams, and make a story out of them. Their fates are decided through decisions held by the team.

Joined Artists 3 is on their third royal rumble, with the same topic as the previous ones, Pirates vs. Bounty Hunters. Some of the users, each have already submitted character designs. Here are the pirates for this time's royal rumble

Here are various character designs for a Teenage Werewolf collaborated skit that Joined Artists also has in store.

Singapore 2010 Drawings

2010-07-10T02:46:00.000-07:00

Had to renew my Visa for Indonesia, and to do that I have to be out of the country, and reenter since I am no longer under my father's name as a minor. Therefore, I am visiting home as a visitor nowadays. Although I am not Indonesian myself, it's still quite sad to think sometimes.

So we went to Singapore. That rocked because me and my twin brother got promoted for a suite room. I got so excited that I ran and jumped on the bed - but I missed landing on the bed so i scraped my knee on the carpet and injured myself.

Prisma Color Pencils:

Hotel ballpoint pen.

Sketchbook May 2010 part 2

2010-07-10T02:37:00.000-07:00

This sketchbook was developed primarily on my way back home from Canada... Five babies surrounded our seats during the 20 hours flight. I've been traumatized.

I can do a perfect imitation of a crying baby now. 24/7

This page was actually in color, but I decided to scan it in black and white, since the colors looked a bit too intense on my sketchbook, and that it's clearer to see with no color.

Sketchbook May 2010

2010-07-10T02:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some studies and observational sketches I did during my early part of my summer..

Cursed Chronciles

2010-06-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

A drawing I did for a friend in Indonesia!

More lines to be colored

2010-06-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

Stuff from the Dusk's Flight Project.

Some Line Arts

2010-06-22T07:13:00.000-07:00

I've been focusing more on my line variation, weight and quality than doing stuff in color

Joined Artists... 3!

2010-06-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

Joined Artists...

http://joinedartists.org/

This is the website I have to thank for making me want to go into the animation and movie field as my primary goal. 2 years ago, this website died down, and during those times I moved to Canada for a year and tried to get into a couple of schools. It's a great website, mostly for animator's though - but if you're an illustrator and need some critique, it's an awesome place to get other mouths heard.

Anyways, here's what I've been doing recently for that place!

Here's a couple of characters made in Joined Artists 2 (the old site.) Mine is in the middle - he's from my Dusk's Flight concept.

I contributed a page for the box man zombie collaboration. It is what they call a "popcorn" type of game where one artists draws a page, then the next draws the following. It all started with unicomics, a user in JA3 and from what I know at this point, this is the latest page.

Made my character spin. Spin round right round.

Tribute to Hanna Barbera on the second hand

How to train your dragon fanart

2010-05-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

I have to say, that film touched an inner childhood within me. I have to thank Chris Sanders, and the people at Dreamworks for this.

At the same time, I again redrew old characters I made in the past. They were first drawn during my middle school times, and here is them now!

More lifedrawing

2010-03-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Haven't been doing this for a while now!

Accepted to Calarts

2010-03-17T00:17:00.001-07:00

woooooooo

I have been accepted to the Calarts Character Animation Program. I have to say I am quite proud of myself, and it looks like the hard work paid off.

If I do get accepted to the Sheridan animation program, then I will also have to say that I will be quite proud of myself, and look at all the hard work... that will pay off.

Work is hard and hard is work...

whichever way, it pays off.

Anyways, sweeee.

Sheridan animation portfolio storyboard frames

2010-02-28T00:34:00.000-08:00

Object and room line drawings

My storyboard

Sheridan animation portfolio character design

2010-02-28T00:32:00.001-08:00

My character for the portfolio, a tiger cub scout named Jimmy

Animation Portfolio sheridan hand drawings

2010-02-28T00:31:00.000-08:00

Animation Portfolio sheridan for 2010 life drawings

2010-02-28T00:23:00.000-08:00

Portfolio for 2010-2014 Animation course! Hopefully it will manage to get in...
Personal work coming soon!

Life drawings:

Thundercats Lion-o

2009-12-13T23:44:00.001-08:00

This is the original Lion-o

This is my modern take trying to retain features found in the original 80s show

watercolor and conte

2009-12-13T01:22:00.000-08:00

Life drawing water colors

...and back to Conte!

Gouache

2009-12-06T17:05:00.000-08:00

Painting in flats is not my favorite thing - but I shall learn to master it!

Gouache paintings for 2d design class...

Redrawing.. Again. Serpent's Grave

2009-12-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

Early 2009 - The design used in the trailer that was released in Jan 5 2009

Late 2009 - Experimenting in a different style

Extra

2009-12-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

Life.. Drawing...

80's Dusk's Flight

2009-11-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

If I made the Dusk flight storyline during the 80's decade, it would look like this.

Evan and Haley if they were designed in the 80s. Evan is one of those characters sucked into a fantasy world, a formula repeated and most common in the 80s. In the original design that I did, he's a 16 year old who wears a 90's baggy jacket (Note that he's not from the 90s, but is inspired by the style) with a modern hair do.

In this 80s rendition, Evan is a typical 16 year old, so if he were in the 80s, he would always be wearing his school jock jacket, a common suave hair do and a structured face. In the fantasy genre and in the posters, the sword is the most symbolic thing you'll see. Evan doesn't have a sword, but in this pose he carries a pocket knife to carry out the 80s cliche. Haley is the typical heroine, who, doesn't wear much. 80s is also another period where heroes were very stereotypical, where the heroine would wear little clothing - it was a craze. The feathers on her shoulder are somewhat inspired by the on going shoulder pad hype in the 80s.

The 80s buff characters were pure testosterone. Lots of muscles, and clothing is scarce (well, in the fantasy genre) so people right now would question whether they were gay or straight. Brucie's character is strong and tough guy sense, but he looks more like beast than a human. The design here was inspired by thunder cats, a popular 80s cartoon where the characters looked just like human, but with feline features. Here, there are more "man" attributes than there are with dragon/ogre bits.

Been watching too much 80s cartoons like he-man, pole position, transformers, etc, captain n, etc - and have been exposed to 80s fashion due to the 80s movies being shown on the local tv.

And besides, Dusk's Flight is originally inspired by the fantasy genre and craze during the 80s!

Original Design (2009) of characters:

Demo with prospective students 2

2009-11-21T16:21:00.000-08:00

Same day with prospective students...

Ed changed to a chef wardrobe, and did some very creative poses.

20-40 mins. Around that.

2-6 min

5-10 mins

1-2 mins each

1-2 mins each

Demo with prospective studnets - Ed (Cowboy)

2009-11-21T16:17:00.000-08:00

I had to do some demo life drawings to prospective students at Sheridan in the Art Fundamentals area. It's weird having a ton of peeps over your shoulder when doing gestures...

The model's name was Ed, and it was costume afternoon. First session - Cowboy.

Final 30 min

5-10 min

1-2min gesture each

There are a ton of newsprint I didn't bother to upload > : U

An okay day

2009-11-21T16:13:00.001-08:00

With more life life life. Important stuff!!

Still life color collections!!

2009-11-18T23:40:00.001-08:00

Here are four paintings of the same objects, each with a different subject/topic.

Phobia

Radial

Order

Whisper

This is my first experimentation painting with the two color schemes.. The colors were a crimson red and a primary yellow. A lot of people liked this one, but I didn't like it as much as they did because the perspective is off, the color receding outwards is all off.

Life drawing change

2009-11-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

You know, I should just make these life drawing stuff weekly...

Watercolor

2009-11-15T10:23:00.001-08:00

Got back into watercoloring, and I have to say I'm in love with it once again...
It's supposed to be me!

More life drawings continued

2009-11-15T10:20:00.001-08:00

Continued...

More life drawings

2009-11-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

Yep did a few more.
This might sound quite homosexual of me, but I really need more guys on my newsprint paper. It's always women and my hand feels like it's in a loop everyday.

Badassery 2

2009-11-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

More badassness of kiddie shows!

Badassery

2009-11-08T00:53:00.000-08:00

Been making badass versions of children's favorite programmes...

Steve and Blue from Blue's Clues...
Barney the purple dinosaur...

UUuuugggh.

2009-11-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

An ultimate portrayal of my siblings

2009-11-01T01:22:00.000-07:00

Zoo Sketches

2009-10-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

Reindeer

People at the trainstation to the zoo

Snowy Owl

Speedpaints

2009-10-31T09:38:00.000-07:00

For backgrounds. Will finalize later on:

Life Drawings 2

2009-10-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

More life drawings! Experimenting with both conte and pastels.

Serpent's Grave + Dusk's Flight

2009-10-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

Experimentation in finding a 'style'. Yeah, my style is constantly changing and I can't stay still.

Still life painting

2009-10-31T09:14:00.001-07:00

Yups!

Life Drawings

2009-10-31T09:01:00.000-07:00

Recent Life drawings! Experimenting with different styles!

Faster gestures. The first two are 30 seconds to 1 minute, the last is 5 minutes each.

I've been experimenting with different styles like blind contouring, clean lines, squigly, all sorts really.

Lip Sync Test

2009-10-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

A test for Dusk's Flight animation test

Watch here

I know, it's months old but it's the most recent animation work I've done - and I haven't done anything new in a long time.

Restarting this blog

2009-10-31T08:58:00.001-07:00

I will restart this blog with lifedrawings and... stuff - to keep in track with my work! I will also post my animation work too here!