Welcome 2017

Since I don't get around to doing blog updates as often as I used to, I figured i'd compile a few late 2016 update post. So... going backwards in time, here we go!!!

First of all, Happy 2017! 2016 has been a great year for me artistically. Finished lots of personal art goals and I was happy to have gotten a few mini animations completed. I've gotten back to doing animations just for fun, taking only a day or two to crank something out. Not sure if I will ever go down the road of a film project like Alien for Christmas again, but who knows!

Here is my New Years animation called Burst out of Your Shell. It's a simple statement that we should all shed our skin each year and start something new!

Burst Out of Your Shell 2017 from Dave Pryor on Vimeo.

Right before Christmas, I updated Alien for Christmas (which you can watch on Vimeo) with an all new HD version of the short. It was really starting to show it's age with the 640 format - so it was overdue for an update.

Alien for Christmas from Dave Pryor on Vimeo.

Now that I'm using Instagram much more than the blog, I put up a widget at the top of the page that shows the latest posts. This way, the blog stays a little fresh, even when I'm not updating it here.

In early December, I was part of 2 gallery openings at Gallery 1988. One was "The Coen Brothers show" (which you can see more detail on in the previous post below), and the other was "Another art show about Nothing" - a show dedicated to one of my favorite shows of all time, Seinfeld (which, coincidently, we have been working on a slot game at work for Seinfeld for the past year!)

"The interview"

Ink on paper

I chose to do an homage to one of my favorite episodes to a bit where Kramer and Newman work up a scheme to have the homeless pull a rickshaw cart around New York City. A fun moment when Kramer and Newman perform ad-hoc interviews with the 3 candidates that shows up - one of which wanders off right at the start, and another that ends up just running off with the cart!

I was using a new ink stain technique on this image - so if you now own it from the show, a fun fact that this is the first time I worked in this medium. I really wanted this to have a personal quality. 

Here are a few more images of the process:

At thanksgiving I had a chance to work up a couple fun bear-eating images. Who doesn't love a good guilt-snacking furball? 

After seeing "Fantastic Beasts" - I worked up this Bowtruckle image below - loved this little guy and how he would hide under Newt's lapel in the movie!

On November 19, I was part of an art show at Creature Features in Burbank CA dedicated to "MYTHBUSTERS"! What a treat. The show, curated by Chogrin, and featured a select group of artist works that featured portraits of Jamie and Adam from the show.

"Cheers!"

11x14 - Digital

My piece showcases, from what I was told by the curator, something that never happened in the shows history - Jamie and Adam dining together. Another thing it showcase is a drink that Jamie created called 444 - a mix of 4 fruits, 4 veggies, and 4 grains. I thought it would be fun to have these 2 cheering each other for their awesome success! The art is now on tour as part of a Mythbusters exhibit. Check out the review of the show on Nerdist

On November 18 and 19, I had the chance to experience CTN and DCON for the first time. Both conventions were fantastic, and I came home with more that a few bags worth of artwork and artist cards to enjoy.

CTN gave me a chance to talk with many folks that I normally only get to see online, and a chance to rub elbows with may of the industry professionals that I admire, and worked with on previous occasions. 

DCON was a real artists show - independently produced works (art, shirts, toys) from a wide range of passionate creatives. The price was right - only $10 to get in, and just about anyone who wasn't at CTN already was located here. 

In November, I took part in the Back to Bits project, a multi-animator effort that collected GIFs from animators and showcased them as an homage to the games of yesteryear. This is the first "volume" of the show with (hopefully) more to come. This effort is curated by Jerry Liu.

My animation - The Life and Death of a Marble - based on the Atari game Marble Madness, ended up being a little long for the GIF format - but you can see my directors cut here

The Life and Death of a Marble from Dave Pryor on Vimeo.

On November 5th, Gallery 1988 feature "Postcard Correspondence" - a show entirely dedicated to postcard art that you could buy and use as cards to display  - or better yet - mail to your friends! My piece featured "The Blues Brothers" at christmastime, and was aptly title, "Let the Good Times Roll". I was inspired by Elwood's tiny apartment in the movie, and I loved the idea of the brothers sharing that space at Christmas.

"Let the Good Times Roll" 

5x7 Postcard

And one of the biggest moments of 2016 - Cubs winning the world series! It doesn't get better than that for a Chicagoan. 

Geez - I have more to get to - Inktober, the Wonka show, SDCC... I'll need to do the rest in a post update when I get more of that precious time! 

-Dave

Alien for Christmas

Here is the video just in time for Christmas! Enjoy!

Alien for Christmas from Dave Pryor on Vimeo.

Little Big Shots - Sydney Opera House

My speaking engagement at the Sydney Opera House was a delight! The festival directors, Chloe Boulton and Nick Place, were more than gracious and really know how to orchestrate a top notch touring festival. The kids at the screening were treated to an excellent array of films from around the globe. Even though the age range was between 2 and 7, they would have eagerly stayed for more films in the program!

Early morning at the Opera House

The festival was held at "The Studio", one of the more intimate theatres within the Opera house

The crowds lines up - waiting to get in. It was a sold out show.

Interior of the theatre as the audience takes their seats. Many kids filled the space by sitting in the open area in the front of the screen.

Festival Director, Nick Place and Me (Dave Pryor)

The next stop on the Little Big Shots tour is Geelong

Geelong Performing Arts Centre
50 Little Malop Street

Geelong October 03, 2009: 11-11.50am: Big shots, small packages 2 Short films for kids aged 3 to 8 (well, OK, you may have missed this one, but December is still coming up!)

December 02, 2009: 9.30-10.30am: Big shots, small packages 2 Short films for kids aged 3 to 7

"Alien for Christmas" hits Sydney AUS

On September 13, AFC will be playing at the Sydney Opera house as part of the "Little Big Shots" film festival. The great news is that since I get to travel to AUS for work a lot, I will get to be there and speak at the showing! So if you live in Sydney and follow my blog, please plan on attending - it should be a memorable one.


Sydney Opera House is Australia's leading performing arts centre and one of the most recognised (and photographed!) venues of the modern world.

- Sydney - September 13, 2009: 10-11am: Big shots, small packages 2 Short films for kids aged 3 to 7

- Swan Hill - September 16, 2009: 11-11.50am: Big shots, small packages 2 Short films for kids aged 3 to 7

COMIC CON 2008

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for making the trip to San Diego so memorable. I'm so grateful for all the positive feedback I received from all who watched the movie or checked out my artwork. Anyone who decided to buy a book, print or buttons - extra thanks for liking the work enough to own it for yourself - it means so much to me. Lastly, thanks Bob for the teamwork, inspiration, and just being a good friend.

Time for the art social of the year. When you are strolling the floor this year, check out the dudes dressed in Orange and Green - The combo art book from me and Bob Rissetto, Inner Workings will appear for the first time in San Diego, as well as some extra treats, like Inner Workings collector button sets. Stop by booth F5 to pick up your copy and say hello!

I will have some prints available too. The first 2 in a series of "Big Robot" images, RED and BLUE will be available for the first time.

Lastly, "Alien for Christmas" will be showing on a repeated loop for all to see. I'd love to have you come see it in person and talk about the process of animated film making!

And what would the Con be without friends around you? Check out the booths of these awesome artists from Chicago!

Javier Guzman, Tae Young Choi, and Bruno Werneck

A BEVY OF BUTTONS

Hi everyone. Comic Con is getting closer - and if we get to meet there, maybe you'll get to pick up one (or a bunch) of these stylish Alien for Christmas buttons! All handmade for that personal touch. Collect and trade!!!

Thanks

What a busy month! With the end in sight for AFC, I'd like to give thanks to the folks that contributed along the way. Below is a peek at the credits from the film.

First of all, without the creation of the brilliant song "I Want An Alien for Christmas", I never would have had these images running through my head. Thanks go out to "Fountains of Wayne" (Chris Collingwood, Adam Schlesinger, Jody Porter, and Brian Young) for creating such a catchy tune. Probably one of the only songs I can listen to hundreds of times without getting tired of it. Thanks to the management company QPrime for the permission to use the song.

Then there's the living Flash machine Bob Rissetto. Without this guy, who knows when I would have picked up using Flash as the end-all/be-all of animation production. Thanks for all the support along the way buddy!

"Teeny" Dan Segarra, I appreciate the help with animation on the opening scene. Nice subtle touches from a top notch animator.

Joe Merideth, thanks for the help and advice with the animatic when I needed an expert opinion.

And my wife Heather, I love you and thanks for continuing to be my biggest supporter :)

On the Post End, Ron Fleisher and Dennis Keeling have openly offered their help and services getting this project though the technical hurdles. My sincerest gratitude gentlemen.

Now all that's left is to master the HD images. I really look forward to seeing this in Hi-def one day.

Lastly, thanks to Chewbone Animation and B.J. Crawford for giving me the extra push to wrap things up!

Animation Phase 1 - Complete

Hey all,

Over the holiday break, I finally put together the entire first cut of the film. All the scenes are now animated, and I'll be prodding some folks for feedback over the next few weeks. There is so much that I would like to go back to and tweak, so I need to know what parts really need some attention, and what parts aren't worth stressing about. I know that some festivals will not accept a film that has already been shown on the web, so unfortunately I'll only be able to show this edit in person. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

AFC Update

Animation continues on AFC - Just really slowly. Additional projects, work, and clubs give me about an evening a week to work on this. Most of the main animation is done - mainly just some appendages left to add. Hopefully a full film cut is due before Christmas. Maybe I'm dragging my feet because I like having it as a project in the cue - I'm sure there are all kinds of psychological reasons for it :) Thanks friends for continuing to ask.

Scene 45

With the startup of the Outsider Art Club, I've been dividing my time into tiny bits - spreading it across multiple projects. I spend about 2 evenings a week still working on AFC, so there is still progress being made. The newest news is I finished scene 45 this week - which is exciting because I now have only one scene left to animate! I can almost smell the doneness. The shot itself doesn't look so new. It's just a shot back to Santa, looking embarrassed, pulling the Alien out of the stocking and handing it to the boy (o/s).
Here's a little look back at the evolution - from storyboard, to Flash symbols, to finished shot.

Stocking Stuffing!

Here are the latest stills from the finished animation - Santa suffs the Alien into the stocking - but both notice something just out of shot...

Hard to sleep...

In the wee hours of Christmas Eve, a dark shadow moves across the bed of a small boy. With all the anticipation of presents ahead - it's only normal that the boy was sleeping lightly - and awakened by a mysterious shadow that moves through his room from the open door. This scene is now a wrap - kind of cute as the boy wakes up groggy - a few stills from the finished shot.

Some Updates

Here's the AFC stuff I've been working on since the last post -

First off, I needed to add a little more life to the street scene. I animated three generic shoppers to walk by in the background.

After the street shot was complete, I had to go back to this toy store window scene and give the boy a size reduction. It was a low angle shot that was supposed to have a little forced perspective - but in the end he just looked fat. The image on the bottom is the boy after the fix.

While in LA a week ago, I painted up the BG for this scene and finished the animation a day ago. I'm back to working on the end sequence of the film - this shot was an easy one. The boy does some subtle breathing as we truck in on him in bed. This immediately follows the reindeer on the roof scene.

Here's the shot I'm currently working on. The boy, peacefully asleep in bed, wakes up suddenly as a dark shadow passes through the light of his open door. I hope to finish this one up soon!

More soon!

Finally coming to a close on this one - Just a few missing details.

THESE FEET ARE MADE FOR WALKING


Thought I'd share some process today. Maybe there are some Flash beginners out there that may benefit from some tips. In the beginning of this shot, the family walks forward in perspective into position. Since the Dad's walk is fairly basic and steady, I can save a lot of time by using symbols that gradually scale as he gets closer. After I make 2 keys and scale the body towards it's final pose, I can make tons of keys throughout the movement to simulate the up and down motion and various follow thru action (like the hat and the present bow). The feet are a different story. I draw a perspective line that shows roughly where the feet would land as he walks forward. I then loosely draw in Flash - frame by frame - the positioning of where the feet need to be Here you can see I drew the foreground foot in red and the background foot in blue. This helps from getting the feet confused. In this image, the onion-skin mode is on so you can see the sketched images overlapped. I scrub through the shot until I feel satisfied, then I use a few symbols that were pre-prepared for the shoes and move them into place over the rough digital drawings. This is also done frame by frame. In this case, I could get away with using about 4 symbols for all the needed foot shapes (You can see the final shoe symbols in the final foot position). After the shoe walking is complete, I hand drew the pants (legs) into place frame by frame to get the proper perspective on the complicated movement.

This next shot starts out with Santa hiding out behind part of the landscape. He pops his head out and observes. The camera trucks back to reveal some playful action between two of the alien inhabitants. The whole planet is like a large school playground - where playing and having fun is the primary activity. This scene and most to follow involve more character animation - so the updates may take a little longer as I work on these shot by shot.

X-Sheets

I spent the evening filling out X-Sheets (or dope sheets) for the remainder of the film. You don't really need to use these much anymore, but I still really find these helpful for guiding me through the shots. At this stage, I concentrate on the beats and plan out all the action. The storyboard animatic was cut directly to the music, so following this is a must. I don't animate with the music track so I use these to verify all the important areas where I can't fudge the action.