Another Animation Pencil Test

This time a lil of the ole walk and run cycles. Just for grins and giggles. All leading up to my return to a new short film. Stay tooned.

Quickie Pencil Test

I had this posted on Facebook. Thought I'd put it here as well.

A quick pencil test for a lil personal piece of animation I'm doing.

My Films on youtube Check em out.

In case you havn't seen them yet take a look on youtube to see edited versions of
some of my independent animation. I did it all on these films. Wrote, directed and animated every single frame.
http://www.youtube.com/user/snaaus2000

I'm proud of these lil films because they fly in the face of what we're told daily by Hollywood
idiots. "There are no new ideas"
"Animation is too expensive"
" I don't get it. "
Well the last one may be true. They just DON"T get it. Anyway. Go see what can be done with a couple hundred dollars and some imagination.

Returned From Disney World !

Loved it, loved it, loved it ! They get everything so right down there. From the buildings to the transportation, background music, and customer service. What can I say that hasn't already been said way better? If you can afford it then treat yourself and go. You will not regret it.

Still alive on Blogger....

but you'll have a better chance at finding me on myspace ! Look up actetatesplace. (From my old handle on the drawingboard.org) Just throwing up a quick pic in case anyone cheeks this out. In the meantime my comic is finished and ready for purchase.

One of my films...enjoy ya'll

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHZn4R94JtI

Greeting Cards.

Some of you may already be familiar with these, but what the heck. I like them alot. I think they show off her personality better than some of my other illustrations of the same character. They are from a series of greeting cards I would like to get to the public one day !

Wow, sorry to cut things short but it took forever just to get this one image on. Sheesh ! I'll be back with more I promise.

I'm Back !

This is a logo I did last fall for a store down in Federal Hill in Baltimore. The shop owner is named Juls. She's really nice. Visit her shop and buy something nice for yourself. She has my art on her shopping bags and clothing tags as well ! Yaaaaaaa, I'm sorta famous.

Next up is a tip of the hat to the older days of pin-up magazines from the late 60's and early 70's. Kinda cute eh?

Okay, So I caved, here's why...

As both of you know, (Yes the 2 people that actually read this !) I was going to cancel it due to lack of interest on both parts...me and the audience of none, but....
I was reading some new profiles on myspace from 2 different Stephs. One in California, one in Germany and I was so overwhelmed with their talent and goodwill toward other artists that I figured I should not only keep this blog but update it as well. Thanks to both of you. I decided to put some of my artwork here that I don't have on myspace just to avoid being repetitive. Okay give me a few minutes to grab some drawings off my pc and stick them over here. Be right back.

How I Work

I get ideas from all over the place. I used to write alot of them down, but over the years I came to realize that I didn't have to. The ideas that I really like keep coming back to me while the other dissolve away somehow. When I get an idea, I usually sketch it very loosely with pencil and paper, just playing with general shapes and sizes. Then I put it away and go do something else for awhile. I'll come back to it hours or even days later and it will be more apparent to me as to what should be done with it. More shadow? An indication of a background? What? It's here that I really like to improvise and doodle. Alot of times there are some nice surprises. Sketches develope that start to suggest a story or a feeling. The fun is that I don't plan it, so it's just as much a surprise to me as it is the casual viewer. The other thing I've done in the last few years is to work on drawings in a series or set. I'll take a very loose idea and then draw it 4, 6, or 10 different ways until I capture the look I was going for. The cool part is that I sometimes end up with multiple drawings that suggest a theme or even a sequence of events that I had no idea existed until I looked at the completed set of drawings !
When I pick a drawing to color I either go with gouache paints or scan it in to the p.c. and use photoshop or whatever is handy there. I came across gouache about 7 years ago doing animation backgrounds. I love it. It can be as transparent or as opaque as you want to make it. it's really rich and colorful.
Here's some past samples.

New version of Blogger?

Hey guys...how 'bout a frickin break huh? I havn't figured out the old version yet. I still can't get the damn thing to come up on a google search either so give it a rest please. Thanks.

Where no man has gone before.

I couldn't resist ! This piece was inspired by watching the old Trek and seeing all of those bright primary colors and skirts that barely covered an ass. I've posted this piece on some other sites as well, but figured what the hell...might as well have it on my blog ! The background painting was done in gouache, the girl pen and ink, then scanned into photoshop for coloring. Klingon ships in brush pen. Gotta love the classic Trek.

Recent sketchbook pages !

No these images are not from the nifty-neat sketchbook available for sale, but simply samples from my daily or weekly doodles. The first one is a page of spaceship designs for a comic idea of mine. Details to come ever so slowly...

Next up are a few pages of babes, some British, some cute, all yummy !

Sketchbook has arrived !

After much running around to local idiot printers, I finally have the thing in my boney little hands. For the low, low introductory rate of just $7.99 you...yes, YOU get a 16 page booklet of B & W Frank art. Complete with color front and back cover. Be the envy of your friends as you peruse the super funtabulous doodles inside. Okay enough hype. I just have to relate my frustrations with the print/copy shops around here. It took a full week to get it stapled. Here's the gripe. I went to Office Depot to have the color cover done. I asked if they could staple it. No the woman told me, "You'll have to go to our store on Rt. 40 for that". I go to Rt. 40. "Can you staple this?", I ask, "No" is the reply. He explains that his stapler could never penetrate such heavy card stock. "Perhaps", he suggests, I try Kinkos. I call Kinkos. Nope, can't do it. The machine's down. "When will it be fixed?", I ask..."uh..don't know..maybe, like Tuesday?" Next I try a (No pun here)........ Staples. Believe it or not they say that they can do it! I go in and take a sample booklet with me, where what to my wondering eyes, it staples it ! With....get this......
The very same stapler that the Office Depot idiot assured me wound never work ! Amazing but true folks. Now step right up and put your order in.

A picture is worth a thousand words.....

or a couple hundred when adjusted for inflation ! After a rather verbose description of early influences it dawned on me that I still surround myself with these treasures for inspiration. Here in no particular order are some of the things in my "room". Still hard for me to describe it as a studio for some reason.

Belated Introduction and Background Info.

Hi to everyone who drops in here. A few paragraphs of background on what brings me to this point in my artistic life.
My early childhood was filled with wonderous images from movies, comics and cartoons. My best friend's grandmother was the manager of a movie theatre in Arbutus Maryland. The Hollywood. She even lived in an apartment build next to, and over the theatre ! Needless to say, I saw tons of cool movies for free at the Hollywood while growing up. In no particular order. These are some of the films I remember seeing there.
101 Dalmations, Snow White, One Million Years B.C., Thunderball, 2001: A Space Odessy, You Only Live Twice, Golden Voyage of Sinbad, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea...you get the picture. I'll never forget seeing those two green glowing "eyes" of the submarine, Nautilis heading straight towards me on an enormus movie screen with that weird sound effect that sounded suspiciously like the tasmanian devil spinning round in any number of warner Bros. cartoons ! These were the films of my childhood at the "movies". Television was a whole 'nuther ball game. Sure there were movies on T.V., the best of which were shown late on Friday and Saturday nights. This is where our local "Ghost Host" theatre was run. These were all of the old Universal and Hammer horror pictures. They were great too!
As for cartoons, my favorites were Tom & Jerry, any Tex Avery stuff from his MGM heyday, Jonny Quest, and The Jetsons. Warner Bros. stuff was always funny. Disney, just plain beautiful. Other favorite T.V. shows were Batman, The Green Hornet, Lost in Space and other Irwin Allen fantasies like Land of the Giants. Cool stuff. Loads of colorful sets and special effects. Hot looking babes. Great music scores. The music alone was awesome on these shows. They had people like Al Hirt, John Williams, Neal Hefti...I mean come on. When was the last time a T.V. show had great background music? I guess thats why I am not a big T.V. person these days. The shows are boring
Thats a little background on what I was doing as a kid. My dad used to take alot of 8mm home movies of my brother and I goofing around at christmas. Well once I found out that Ray Harryhausen had made skeletons walk all by their self through the technique of stop-motion photography, I just had to try it !

One more time !

I have figured out how to post both my written stuff and pictures !!!! Yippeeee ! However, I still can't get this adspace thing right. I'll keep fooling with it. The trouble with all of this, at least to my way of thinking is that as long as I am here typing and clicking and crap, I'm not working on artwork ! So I only devote about an hour ...two at the most on the "net". The rest of my time on real art stuff. Which brings me to my topic. The sketchbook !

My first ever sketchbook should be finished by the end of this week. I'll post some more pictures of exactly whats inside later on. Untill then check out a token image. See you soon.