Private SNAFU hits Amazon's shelves!

After much work, toil, and eager waiting the day has finally arrived. The DVD put together by my teacher and good friend Steve Stanchfield, "Private SNAFU Golden Classics" is finally done! I played a small part in the title sequence, boarding it out and then cleaning up the animation done by Mark Kausler. It was a joy to work on and watching Steve painstakingly restore each and every SNAFU short from it's 35mm film copy was both educational and inspirational. The cover art for the DVD was produced by Eric Goldberg, with the background done by my good friend Mel Miller.

Jerry Beck has graciously plugged the DVD at least two times on his famous blog Cartoon Brew! The latest of which hosts a video Steve let me upload to my Vimeo Channel; a special features commentary piece done by Jerry himself.

Private SNAFU, Golden Classics: Jerry Beck Special Feature from Patrick Stannard on Vimeo.

Link to the Cartoon Brew Post below:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/dvd/coming-snafu.html

You can purchase this amazing DVD at amazon.com. It will be under "Private SNAFU Golden Classics".

In other news, I have also been busy helping my friend Mel McCann out with her film "Flight" of which two animations I have done are now featured in my latest demo reel.

Demo Reel 12/14/2010 from Patrick Stannard on Vimeo.

Added to this I have finally finished the boards for a local feature project "The Littlest Angel", and may be brought in for revisions later. I apologize for the scant postings, but hopefully this blog post will demonstrate just how busy I have been.

Now, off to walk for graduation! Best of luck to everyone!

Portfolio and Ottawa

With Ottawa nearly here, I've been scrambling to put together a professional portfolio that showcases my work. I ended up creating two. The larger 8x11 portfolio shown below allows more space for sketches and process work, while my smaller 4x6 portfolio shows off my finished pieces only.

PORTFOLIO

Puzzle Sketch and Vampire

Showing off my independent illustration and attention to design.

SNAFU

My former teacher, friend, and animation director of Thunderbean Animation brought me on to help him develop animated title sequences for the release of the "Private SNAFU" DVD. In order to get a good idea of both the character and construction of SNAFU, I stepped through many of the films and rendered the drawings in an effort to capture that Warner Bros. Style.

Sketches

Some of my favorite sketches from my sketchbook.

"Because it's There" and Red Riding Hood

A poster promoting my 3rd year film "Because it's There" a story about a little boy overcoming his fear of heights, and a concept sketch for my rendition of the "Little Red Riding Hood" Story, set in a post apocalyptic setting.

Life Drawing

Drawings done through independent Life Drawing sessions held by both the school and friends.

Leprechauns

Leprechaun designs based off of the most ancient myths I could find about them, whilst adding some aspects of Norse animals to the mix. Brandishing long red coats, tall tri-cornered hats, and goat like eyes, these are the type of Leprechauns that will leave you without your skin, rather than try and promote sugary cereal to you.

ARMS Masters: Hunter Concepts

My good friend and project lead Mike Winn, commissioned me to produce concept art, story boards, animation, and shadow modeling for "The ARMS Masters project". This design for a bounty hunter, aptly named Hunter, is influenced from panthers, tribal tattoos, and the Hyena Men of Africa. Details were toned down to prepare the designs for animation.

11 Second Club: Herbert and Gloria

Placing 9th out of 158 entries in the June 2010 competition of the 11 Second Club, "Herbert and Gloria" features a sloppy tiger and a sophisticated Ostrich amidst their quarrels at the dinner table.

Sketches

Some of my favorite sketches from my sketchbook.

Environment Design

For a story concept involving prehistoric mammals and their rise to technological feats while riding dinosaurs, this environment showcases a lava distribution and thermal steam power plant that helps turn the gears of war for feuding tribes of prehistoric moles.

"My Dad the Giant": Emilio

Concept and animation sketches taken from my film "My Dad the Giant." Emilio is an 8 year old child searching for acknowledgement from a father who's far too emersed in his work to pay attention. Emilio's design is based off of a candle stick, with bright colors and upward direction to help him feel light and full of energy.

Father Sketches

Sketches of my father in caricature.

Caricatures

Caricatures of friends, strangers, and Marty Feldman.

"My Dad the Giant": Brianelli

Concept designs for Brianelli, the father character in my film "My Dad the Giant." In contrast to Emilio's design, Brianelli is designed to feel massive, slow, lumbering, and imposing. His heavy brow and arms are an effort to make him feel serious and intimidating. Deep set eyes needed to be flexible to reveal his softer side when he has a revelation towards the end of the film.

Big Bad Wolf

Concept design for the Big Bad Wolf in my rendition of the story "Little Red Riding Hood" set in a post apocalyptic setting.

Animal Sketches

Animal sketches done while attending the Detroit Zoo.

DEMO REEL

Demo Reel 10/2010 from Patrick Stannard on Vimeo.

Taught in the ways of the interbutts!

Inside joke alert! Interbutts is Mel-speak for the internet.

My friend Mel Miller has often astounded me with her knowledge and expert handling of the many intricacies of the internet. Promoting her work on multiple sites, blogs, facebook accounts, print shops, and linking them all under one a similar style and main website hub. Meanwhile her boyfriend and my roommate Niles, has largely been absent from the vast seas of information, only recently braving the waters of the internet with a dingy of art to show. Thankfully Mel has agreed to take him under her vestigial wing and teach him "The ways of the interbutts."

I have taken it upon myself to try and promote myself over the over saturated information highway known as the internet. With two art gallery sites, a few forums, my website, and this blog I hope to allow prospective employers to browse my art and contact me with ease.

To conclude this blog-post I will shamelessly self promote myself as well as Mel and Niles.

Mel Miller's Internet Stockpile
Facebook: Mel Miller Art
MelMillerArt.com
MelMilelrArt.blogspot.com
Vimeo
Youtube.com/user/anathemasremedy
Anathemasremedy.Deviantart.com
Print Shop

Niles Bontrager
Vermillion42x.Deviantart.com
Nilesart.blogspot.com
Vimeo

Patrick Stannard (Me)
PatrickStannard.com
KiltedAnimator.blogspot.com
Vimeo
Youtube.com/user/lorddirk
DA Page: LordDirk.deviantart.com
Commissions Page: Pats-Commissions.deviantart.com

...That's all folks!

Pats Commissions

In light of rapidly decreasing funds due to an upcoming festival, portfolio prints, returning text books, paying graduation fees, business cards, and a slew of bank loop holes, I have decided to open a new DA page. Pats Commissions is an account devoted entirely to freelance and commission illustrations, and possibly animations. I have yet to set up a pricing policy, but I have plenty of good advice on the subject, courtesy of my good friend Mel Miller.


The page is designed to show off a variety of work that is both high quality and entertaining to look at. I plan to charge somewhere between student and professional prices as to not scare off potential commissioners while still allowing me to earn the respective amount of money for my artwork.

Mini Portfolio

In an effort to save money and still be able to pass out portfolios, I was turned onto an interesting type of miniature photo album that can be purchased for $1.20, by my good friend Kate Burk. The standard size for images that can be placed in these albums are about 4x6. I created around 17 portfolio pages so far, some meant for two page spreads, and I will probably only make around 20 in total. It is an interesting practice to create pages for a miniature portfolio as it really forces me to be selective in what I put in and how I display my artwork. I opted for a brown paper look, as it's something I've been fond of ever since I bought my first toned sketchbook. It also has a nice texture to it that I find appealing.

















I wanted to show variety, though I am sure I could benefit from drawing more females, environments, and animals. Other than some life drawing pages I believe the production is complete. It's an interesting experiment and I am eager to see what responses they get at Ottawa.

Portfolios and ARMS Masters

Its been about a month or two since my last post. My time has mostly been taken up by ARMS Masters work and the new search for jobs. I'm refining my portfolio for animation and illustration and starting to think about presentation a bit more. The Ottawa animation festival will be my main focus in these upcoming weeks as I prepare to hit up the job fair as well as the animators picnic if possible. In the meantime I will continue to work on ARMS Masters while trying to find a small part time job to help pay the bills and get food.

Below are some color model sheets of some ARMS Masters characters.

Seth: The deceptive villian of the series. My concept for him was a mixture of Peter O'Tool's portrayal of King Henry in 'The Lion in Winter' and Mr. Freeze from "Batman: the Animated Series".
Mountain Monster Form: A character created by Mike Winn, the director of the project, in his most raw form. Mountain is supposed to be able to morph into his 'true' form. I took the name literally. This is an early concept and will need some major revisions before he is ready for the show.
Bounty Hunter: This is the revised version of the Bounty Hunter who is supposed to attack one of the main characters 'Tyr'. A mixture of raw animal power and a cold cunning intelligence, I used a panther for inspiration on his face and body type while referencing a band of hyena taming gypsies in Africa for his outfit.

For my portfolio I continue to experiment with themes and interesting visuals that say something about me, are iconic, and can trigger the memory of any recruiter looking at my portfolio. So far I have come up with these three designs.

Using one of my paintings as a background and playing with the title a bit. It may be too busy for a portfolio cover, the idea being a quick and memorable image to entice the viewer to look further.

A more fun approach with an attempt at focusing on my animation instead of my illustration. Again I am not a graphic designer so my knowledge of tight composition is limited. This cover might require a better understanding of graphic design in order to pull off effectively and to not look sloppy.

What to people call me when they don't know my name, "that guy in the kilt". Using one of my favorite sketchbook images along with an extreme close up of my kilt for texture, I attempted to create a simple but effective design that says something about me.

I'm not really sure where to go with this, so any comments, questions, and critiques would be greatly appreciated. :)

ARMS Masters: Vis Dev

I have recently been working on some tie-down animation and concept work for the ARMS Masters Project. Currently I am working on designs for a bounty hunter type character. The design is in it's roughest stages and has some direction but not much. I've attempted to grab inspiration from current designs I find appealing. The look that most popped out to me was that of African gypsies known as the "Hyena Men". They wear an assortment of cloth and metal with large Hyena's harnessed to chains that they parade around as pets and use them for entertaining trick shows. Combining that with the look of a black panther, and bikers, I've tried to design someone who has the potential to be extremely threatening but also coldly calm when the situation calls for it.

Ford Museum, and Podcast

One of my summer classes is "The History of Modern Design", and I must admit I had a huge misconception about what the class would entail. What I have found out is that designing a piece of furniture, or tool, or vehicle or even house is very similar to designing a character. It comes down to a balance between functionality and aesthetic appeal. A character that looks pretty but doesn't reveal anything about his personality can feel shallow, and a car that is aesthetically appealing but doesn't function well won't get bought.

We went on a field trip the the Henry Ford Museum, though I would call it a museum in the loosest way. The building houses a huge assortment of collected items, all from different periods, designers, and cultures. There is little to no information given about the objects, and often they are just grouped together in sections like "stoves", and "Airplanes". Even the sections aren't really organized in any particular order. Stoves were placed right next to model doll houses, and furniture lead into a section of giant electrical generators. As my teacher said, "The whole experience is kind of schizophrenic." The upside of the experience was that it put more burden on me, the viewer, to dive into my knowledge of design and figure out what each piece really was. All in all it was a great experience and I'd love to go there again. Below you will find some pictures of the experience.






Next we have the podcast. As I said earlier I was interviewed for the Stratton Foundation's inspirational podcast. You can find the podcast at thestrattonfoundation.org. I talk about how I got into animation, who were my inspirations, how the Disney internship affected me, and I try to give out some useful information to any prospective students out there who may be listening. The Stratton Foundation not only provides funding in the form of scholarships for students like me, but also hosts inspirational podcasts and has useful information for any student trying to further their art. I highly recommend checking them out.

Zoo Drawings & "My Dad the Giant" Trailer

Been away for a bit, but don't think it was so I could slack off. ;) My film is still going as planned, and I'm almost done with the full animation. Some scenes need some tweaking before tie down, but overall the film is looking nice. While I've been working on my film I have also taken up some more zoo drawing trips with my friends. They were right, drawing animals is very addicting.

I will also be doing another dialogue animation test with internet friend and very talented animator Beatrice who's blog you can view by clicking her name.

Below you will find my drawings and trailer.






The Trailer is for the Stratton Foundation, to accompany a podcast Doug Stratton hosted with me. Check it out on July 17th, and make sure to explore the site at the http://thestrattonfoundation.org/.


I have not been in contact with Tyler Scarlet for some time, and until then I will not be updating my "My Dad the Giant" production blog. I like to host both backgrounds and animation when I make updates. Once I receive the background I will update with animation as well.