Here is the poster to my senior thesis. The tagline may come off as a little corny, but it definitely fits the plot to the film. At first, I was going to make a wooden framed border appropriate for the time period but soon lost interest when trying to make that look convincing and not just a standard wooden border. I did want to have the landscape in there and to make the scale relationship evident of the "Bad Guys" to our hero and his noble steed, ironically cowardly hiding behind him. To make it more detailed, I made the characters more rounder and dimensional by adding in shade levels to their ski, clothes, etc. Then when completing the color process, i went in and added another level for each character and gave that sketchy "rough" look to them. I love how the drop shadow came out under the title and wish I had done that for the closing credits in the final cut, but the version that will be playing will just be as good.

Here is the finalized "Drag Sequence" in the film. This is where the "Goofy" comes across what appears to be a beautiful lady randomly in the desert and then turns out to be Roy in disguise. Realizing how foolish he is deceived, the goon tries to shoot the horse but is then bonked on the head by Johnny with a rock and come crashing down to the ground. This scene took quite sometime, but when looking at a rendered version of it, it looks terrific I think.

Here is the shot of the "Speedy Hispanic" running combing the desert for his fellow bandit and just what exactly is responsible for making the noise. This scene will definitely be one to grab the remote and go frame-by frame to see the timing on this guy. Plus now in color, it gives the viewer an aspect of the body parts that are in motion.

Here is a short clip from my film. In this scene, Johnny has discovered the hiding place of the bandits and is now thinking of a plan to take them down. I couldn't resist not doing the classic "Light bulb" cliche when he got an idea. He'll then use this light bulb and throw it over the boulder, making it startle the bandits from exploding like a grenade. That would be my Tom and Jerry tribute as to when they would use simple house hold item to hurt each other and the sfx would be extreme. For example, one getting hit in the face with a shovel may sound like they've been shot. Although seeming short for a clip and considering the time since my last blog you would think i'd have more, rest assured there will be more clips coming very soon. Enjoy!

Here are some key frames from Shot #31. This is where Johnny, the boy is challenged by the main villain to a one-on-one shoot out. he throws the gun on the ground near him when he's (Johnny) is tying up the Speedy Hispanic. I wanted to have him pick up the gun and have slight trouble with adjusting it to his pant loop.When acting out the action at my desk, I even stuck my tongue out and thought that would be a nice touch to add some comedic fashion in this climatic scene. But when attaching his firearm, there's still  the determination of a young boy.

#1

# 7

# 13

# 19

# 23

# 27

# 31

# 35

# 39

# 43

# 51

# 57

# 61

# 67

Here is the rough animation for when the "Speedy Hispanic" is sent out to find what caused the noise in the first place and why is it taking the "Goofy Guy" so long. Here you will see the use of speed lines to give the character some extra character. To me he is a man that gets the job done as fast as he possibly can, even if it means making a mess. Don't let his cute and friendly appearance fool you. Underneath that bandanna lies a sinister grin, and only standing 4' 2". He's quick to the draw and wanted in 5 states. The test when looking at it, may seem like nothing but when cleaned-up, color and sized in after effects with the BG, it should be one of the coolest shots in the film. Enjoy!

Here are some still frames from my film. I'm really happy to see how my characters look in color and still achieve to give that pencil test performance from the earlier stages. Sometime when color is applied to characters, it can cover up or even "weigh" them down more than expected. Now when looking at the final rendered frames, one could say that the drawings themselves are a bit too sketchy. Well that's what i was going for. I've always been fascinated when Disney when to the Xeroxing process and finally the audience could see the animators actual drawings, not someone else's clean up down the pipeline. It'll have the look of  101 Dalmatians- The Rescuers'  era but still have that full animated movement. I hope the audience when viewing the film wont think that I was just being lazy when cleaning the drawings up. There's always something special when seeing a character move and you can still see the eyelines or a couple of gesture lines left over from erasing. To me its educational because you can see how that animator was thinking when trying to pose the character a certain way.

Whoever said that being the "Straight Man" you could be the funny one. that always puzzled me. Sure you needed someone to tell the joke and take the pie in the face, but your could still give a memorable performance to the dull "role". Here are a few pencil tests of the townspeople and their individual laughs when Johnny says that he can bring in the bandits. I gave each person in town their own laugh. I'm such a nerd when it comes to making a personality for a character. The first one is a young lady that is still in the process. She's about 92% done. I gave her a childish one compared tot the others. A girl who's about 15-19 years of age. The second one could be the girls mother by looking. I gave her a stuck up "I think I'm better than you" style. The lone man is a caricature of my fellow colleague Andrew Tomaka. Sometimes when he's being sarcastic, or just for the hell of it he'll actually laugh and enjoy himself. The two middle aged to senior citizen men are caricature of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two legendary Disney animators. I pictured that their actions would be how they were in real life; real good buddies. I plan on having one more character , a Mexican with a bulky sombrero. when clean up and color are done, their scenes in the picture are completed.

Being upset. the Goofy Guy raises his gun in preparation of shooting Roy, but is clunked on the head from the back and then collapses to the ground. As the camera lowers, the audience sees Johnny holding a rock in hand.

When the girl's veil and hair is blown off by the wind, revealing that the lady was Roy in drag the whole time, but is oblivious to what happened, we cut back to the Goofy Guy who will just be a still image, witht the excption of a twitch on the lower lid.

After the jaw dropping, the camera will cut to the bottom of the dress and pan up to her face that's being fanned. Then it will be a close-up of her eyes bashing her eyelashes. We are then back to the Goofy Guy who is bashful and then howls. To make it even more funny, I decided to pay tribute to Tex Avery and especially his cartoon "Red Hot Riding Hood" where the wolf character howls uncontrollably.

So here in this sequence, the Goofy guy is sent out to see what or exactly who caused the disturbance, and in doing so, his attention is whistled by and he is in the presence of a beautiful lady. His jaw drops in comedic fashion. I plan on having a cash register like sfx for the part.

Week #4 now! almost a third done with the semester. Little nerve wrecking. Things are still going like a steam locomotive for me and my progress. I'm actually impressed on how much footage I'm producing each week, even within a few hours at the computer in a day's time too! Yesterday I finished animating the main bad guy in Shot#18 and just finished the body turn on the Goofy Guy when he's being called upon. Tonight I will animate him getting up and investigating just what exactly made them startled. Toon Boom is still coming through strong. My strategy is to animate as much as I can early in the week, and come Thursday-Friday, cleanup and color in Toon Boom. The coloring is faster than I'd imagine it be. when all said and done, it will just be me, After Effects and a $#!T ton of colored cells to place/ time correctly with appropriate backgrounds. Then at each time give the rough cuts to Jeremy and have him score and together we'll place the sound effects.

Here is a still frame of rough animation from the film. It's when Johnny, the little boy discovers by climbing on a boulder, he discovers on the other side is the bandits camp. As you can see there are timing numbers and notes for me telling me whats a still frame body as compared to parts that will be animated. I'm always fascinated with looking at old rough animations and looking at their timing charts and to go by them frame-by-frame and observe how each part moves or counteracts with each other.

So heading into Week#3, still having strong confidence level for making a film worth proud of. I'm currently working on Shot#14, where the little boy and his horse discover the hideout of the bandits, as they are unaware that there cover is blown. Also today I was experimenting in Toon Boom Harmony. With this program now becoming the main source for excellent 2D and even the blend of 2D and 3D, inking and coloring will go bye in no time, as to compared with a pain-staking Photoshop assembly line process. I roughly sketched the boy and horse and went through the color swatches and found their correct matches. started with the bad guys but soon put that away to get back animating. To me the bad guys will be the most fun and if so difficult because although they are one group of the toughest bandits alive, they each have their own take/ personality(s) on how to handle things. The big guy will be a goofy lump of mass, the speedy Hispanic is a guy who wants to do everything in a quick rush with as little mess as possible. The main bad guy I want to establish a stylistic approach to him as he is one of the less broader characters in the entire film. I think i can pull this off with all the knowledge and history I've absorbed throughout my animation learning.

Well Folks, this is it. The last hoorah! I'm am now only weeks away to graduating with a Bachelor's in Fine Arts (Animation). A lot has happened over the the course of my four years and now I get to apply that knowledge in my "Senior Thesis". It will be a western that I created up two semesters ago, featuring my character, Li'l Johnny, who by which I created in freshmen year character design class. I cannot wait to display my talents in this short film and have it played in front of a live audience. This will be a "Tradigital" hand-drawn animated film using several techniques. I will first get the basic movement down in DigiCel Flipbook and when that is over, transfer those files into Toon Boom Harmony for the final line/ and color. Once that is complete, I will be doing nothing but compositing those images in After Effects. I have my good friend Jeremy writing what should be a great score, considering the base piece we came across and can use to help shape the other scenes in the movie. So here I will leave off my first post of the semester and get back to work. Talk to you guys soon!!!