TKP: Leading Ladies (Line Art)

The leading Ladies of the Kemono Prophecy: (L-R) Raven, Remedy and Akinah.

Three characters very near and dear to my heart and 14-year-long creative musing: the leading ladies from my TKP original story concept, Raven, Remedy (Yes, Anathemas Remedy, to my curious DeviantArt watchers) and Akinah. It was an absolute joy to be able to sit down and draw them properly again. I'm equally excited to color this... and do an image of the leading fellas from the series as well, soon!

Cheers, and as always, thanks for viewing!
♥Mel

Bloomies!

My first post-CCS summer has officially begun! I have been, quite graciously, been contacted by a number of perspective freelance clients, this first week or so post-graduation, and am amidst the process of seeing which job pans out first - all are quite exciting, so I'm thrilled with the prospects. Meanwhile, as I am taking a roughly two-week break from Caravan's production to refresh my mind I, for the first time in many, many months, am able to do artwork for FUN! It's exhilarating! I decided to kick off some portfolio-building personal pieces with a request for a friend. My roommate and good buddy Patrick Stannard drew some fantastic caricatures of the two of us and our roommates, and asked if I'd color it for him. I couldn't resist. Below is some of the process, as well as the final piece!

Above is the drawing as I received it - Pat's beautifully gestural under-sketching and all. From left to right: Niles Bontrager, myself Mel Miller, Pat himself, and Kerry Newill.

As gorgeous as the under-sketching was, I needed clear line work to really get the color to work at its best, so, away it went. Here's the lines as they'd appear in the final image, after nixing the Red channel.

Choosing colors was made particularly fun, as I was able to base them all of stuff my roomies and I actually own. It personalized the piece all the more. Above - the flat colors! Somehow, that phase always takes me the longest.

And finally - the final piece! I love the results, and it was incredibly fun and relaxing to work on as a whole. A great way to kick off my post CCS art-life, for sure. Thank you for lending the lines to color, Patar! ♥ Also, major kudos for the resources: Mayang's Texture Library, and DeviantArt's Rawox for the Photoshop brush of the Detroit city skyline. And to Coldplay for ever conceiving of "Life in Technicolour II" as it was on repeat habitually the entire time I was coloring this. Damn, I love that song.

So yes. Four quirky animators living under one suburbanite roof. Personally, I think we'd make an ace animated sitcom ;)

Bless you, roomies. Bloomies.

♥Mel

Caravan Updates as of 05-16-10

Caravan Official Trailer (Updated!) from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

Caravan's first official trailer, (Now with two new shots!) compiled both for the CCS 2010 Senior Show, and for use by the Stratton Foundation, who was recently kind enough to award the film and myself a generous scholarship. A film (Concept, Animation, Backgrounds and Color) by Mel Miller. Compositing by Niles Bontrager. Music by Larry Larson.

Well, it's official - I'm now an alumni to the College for Creative Studies. My graduation was positively wonderful; I'll post an entry on it here soon. While I'm taking a week or two off of Caravan's production for some much needed rest, I'll be diving back into the remaining clean-up, color and final composite soon enough, with the goal of completion set somewhere amidst late September 2010. For the moment, however, below are the links to the latest updates and entries on the film's production, as seen on Caravan's official production blog, including "After the Tale: Roadside Rest," a recently finished concept illustration, as seen below the links.

• Transitions

• Caravan Official Trailer (Updated!)

• "Mel-Style" Caravan

• Roadside Rest (Flat Colors)

• Roadside Rest - Final

"After The Tale: Roadside Rest" 2010

-Mel

CCS 2010 SEO Show Setup

So, tomorrow, I gradate from CCS. I couldn't be more ready, let me tell you. The past week has been spent laboring over getting my space set up for CCS's 2010 Senior Exhibition show. I found out very recently that I'd been granted, quite kindly, the spot of runner-up to Senior Select for the year for the Entertainment Arts department, so I've had a rather large space to fill. I think, in the end, things shaped up rather nicely indeed. Here's a couple of shots of my space for the show, and I'm sure there will be more where that came from soon enough.

The full set-up, along with a ridiculous blinking me, care of my buddy Patrick.

Close up! The table includes Caraan's production book and my portfolio. All prints and original drawn images are either framed or matted, and everything on the wall is available for purchase.

My recently completed piece, "After the Tale: Roadside Rest;" both the original line drawing as well as a color print of the final image.

A couple of drawn frames from Caravan, as a large-scale print of "Polly Want A Soliloquy?"

It's a Mel! Completing show set-up after a good 20 hours of preparatory work makes Mels very happy indeed.... yeeeah, I'll stop talking in third person now. Yick.

Here's to tomorrow's graduation!
-Mel

Demo Reel

Mel Miller Demo Reel from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

My latest demo reel. All animation, layout and color by myself, Mel Miller. Compositing on all color shots by Niles Bontrager. Music provided by Kevin McLeod from http://www.incompetech.com 3D character rig provided by Dale Meyers.

-Mel

Caravan Updates as of 05/03/10

Caravan Official Trailer from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

Caravan's first official trailer, compiled both for the CCS 2010 Senior Show, and for use by the Stratton Foundation, who was recently kind enough to award the film and myself a generous scholarship. Music by Larry Larson.

The semester has finally, blessedly, ended, and I'll be graduating in a week. Caravan's production, however, will likely span through September - I'm looking forward to diving back into it after a brief but much-needed break. For now, below are the links to the latest updates and entries on the film's production, as seen on Caravan's official production blog, including the first version of an official trailer for teh film, seen above.

• A Cornucopia of Happenings

• Thank You, Stratton Foundation!

• The Traveler's Camp (Soundtrack)

• First Official Trailer (And To Do's!)

• I kill trees for fun.

♥Mel