last friday i spoke to design, illustration and animation students at Ball State and afterwards i gave a quick 45 minute stop-motion demo to a group of animation students.

here is the 3 second 75 frame animation made during the demo.

the demo addressed common issues and questions in basic stop motion, from measuring movements, shooting on 1′s or 2′s, frame rates, basic wire armatures, what to animate and what not to animate, acting out a movement, etc.

here is a close up of the meat, which was an object of curiosity during the demo. its made from play-dough ‘the red meat’ and plastalina which made up ‘the white fat’

thanks to design professor Fred Bower for inviting me and providing the above photos of ‘my better side’ and animation professor Andy Beane.

for those of you familiar with my recent post about the piece i created for HOW magazine’s current self-promotion issue, you might recall this little character who didnt make the cut for that particular project. i had a feeling he would make his way into an image one way or another. just didnt figure it would be quite this soon.

references that tie back to the days when i spent time at RISD in the nature lab, convinced  i was going to be a scientific illustrator.

it is backgrounds like this that allow me to scratch that need to paint that still creeps in the studio now and then.

looking at this final image i am sure that the scientific illustration community is pleased that i didnt make the cut into their field.

I was honored to participate in this year’s benefit for the Penfield Children’s Center in Milwaukee WI. I created one of the 3 posters that will be auctioned off to raise funds for the center. Catalina Estrada and Emiliano Ponzi created the other two images.

The event takes place Sept 11 2010.

here is a bit about the Croquet Ball:

For 15 years, the Croquet Ball has raised significant support for over 1,400 children at Penfield Children’s Center.  The event has contributed funds to renovate the Special Care Nursery at Penfield and support children and families through the Family Fund.

here are the sketches i submitted to the great crew at Cramer-Krasselt:

here is the color study i created from the approved sketch.

the final poster.