#mixtapemonday 7/13/2015

Thought it might be cool to occasionally post some mix tape action comprised of stuff I listen to while working. The track list links sends you to the iTunes store. 

About the Archer gifs

When looking through the Archer gallery, you will see a bunch of rough animated gifs like this:

These are the keyframe animations that the illustrators create for the character animators. Once the animators have all the parts they need, they will fine tune the action by rotating parts to fill in the gaps between each keyframe. This method of "puppet animation" provides animators the elements needed to create fluid movement using minimal drawings. For example - a 2 second traditional animation would need up to 60 frames(drawings). The same 2 seconds above was created with 7 drawings.

New website smell.

Last spring, I had a catastrophic data failure that resulted in the loss of a substantial amount of digital work. This included most of the source files I used to make the prints for the print shop. After a year of sorting 2 TB worth of files named like "file00000x.psd", I finally made good progress in getting my digital self in order.

The last 2 weeks were spent preparing files for this new site. Moving forward, the Gallery sections will hold finished work and this blog section will be used for general work in progress updates and a place to collect other non-artsy stuff i've gotten myself into over the years. The shop currently has all the surviving print-worthy images from previous years. I also have a new product listing for "Archerizing" portraits using the same tools that we use on the show. The new site also comes with the option of pushing content to various social media outlets. 

Now that this is done, I have about 2 weeks to relax until it's time to start season 7 of Archer. I'll be going back to the illustration department this season. Design was fun, but i'm better suited to be in the bullpen working on keyframe animations. 

Doctor Claws

A friend told a story about going to see X-Men The Last Stand in theaters. He overheard a mother naming all the characters for her young child. The best was her name for Wolverine, who was now known as "Doctor Claws".