Back from Ottawa 2010

 Another year, another wonderful stint at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. While I admittedly felt that the selection of films this year was a slight bit more timid then in years previous, it was an excellent time none the less, and the films that did stand out were stellar, as always. It was a great event, with great people - I met so many awesome animators - professional and student alike - caught up with old friends. As always OIAF delivered, and good times were had by all. I thought I'd share a collection of photos taken form this year's flimapalooza. Enjoy - my mates and I sure did! :)

1) The Television trolley markers returned again this year, rebuilt and schnazzy as ever. 2) How I spent the majority of the festival this year - screening dozens of animated short and feature-length films. 3) Niles and I enjoying breakfast at the fabulous Cora's.

1) Ottawa being positively lovely at dusk. 2) Heading into the bustling Byward Market late-afternoon.

1) I was fortunate enough to snag an interview slot with Disney during this year's Animator's for Hire event. 2.) My pass! :)

1) My roommates were also, consequently, my hotel roomies for this year's festival, which was great fun :D Niles, Patrick, and Kerry! 2.) How animators start their morning: Doodles and a hot cuppa Joe.

Disney Feature Animation's Patrick Osborne talks about his work on Tangled.

 1) Myself and my other half - OIAF 2010 gets official Nerd Approval. 2) The latest addition to our animated household. 3) Niles and Patrick, and a whole lot of silly to go around.

I also wanted to mention that I was fortunate to get pulled into a studio feature project recently, and it will have the brunt of my attention over the next few weeks, so my posts here may slow just a bit. However, commissions are back on and in-progress, so keep an eye out for those as I start posting those up once again!

Cheers,

Mel

MMA Vlog 001: Portfolio Madness!

My 150th post to this humble little blog begets its first video blog post. Do excuse my intensely haggard, under-slept appearance/voice here - it's been an impossibly busy roller coaster of a past few weeks in general, and the lack of rest is definitely whooping my butt by this time of the morning. Anyhow! Here's a quick update on what's going on at the moment (Swimming in portfolios! Eek!) and what'll be coming up soon. It may also be an interesting look into self-promotion for animators/artists, as I know I've got quite a few art students watching. :) I hope this is helpful.

This Vlog mentions:

• OIAF 2010
• Niles Bontrager
• Patrick Stannard

Cheers (And I swear, I'm going to go get some sleep now),
Mel

Mel Miller's Demo Reel

Mel Miller Demo Reel 2010 (v2.0) from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

Here's my current Demo Reel as of 10/15/10. Thanks for viewing!

Music has been made available through Creative Commons Liscensing by Kevin McLeod of http://www.incompetech.com

Reel Break-Down Information:

Mel Miller
MelMillerArt@gmail.com
www.MelMillerArt.com


CREDIT LIST:

Shots 1 through 3: “Cabin Cat” (2008)
Description: Kitty rolls his eyes as Trucker cries, “Well maybe none of this is really true...”
Contribution: Animation, Layout, Character design.
Additional Credit: Audio clip from HBO’s Six Feet Under.

Shots 2: “Riot Eye Shot” from ARMSmasters (2010)
Description: Riot glances up menacingly.
Contribution: Clean Up Animation.
Additional Credit: Rough animation by Mike Winn. Color, Compositing and SFX by Niles Bontrager.

Shots 3: “Aeslyn" from ARMSmasters (2010)
Description: Aeslyn Head Turn.
Contribution: Clean Up Animation.
Additional Credit: Rough Animation by Mike Winn. Tie Down by Patrick Stannard.

Shots 4: “Tyr” from ARMSmasters (2010)
Description: Tyr hammer swing.

Contribution: Clean Up Animation.
Additional Credit: Rough and Tie Down Animation by Mike Winn.

Shots 5 through 15: “Caravan” (2009-2010)
Description: A selection of completed shots from my short film currently in production, “Caravan.”
Contribution: Direction, Animation, Concept Design, Layout and Background Illustration, Color.
Additional Credit: Compositing and SFX by Niles Bontrager.

Shots 16: “Nanmia” (2008)
Description: Nanmia peers about warily.
Contribution: Animation, Character Design.

Shots 17: “Pup Romp” (2008)
Description: A floppy puppy run test.
Contribution: Animation, Character Design.

Shot 18: “Something Terrible” (2009)
Description: Basic Man does a double take, spotting something terrible across the way.
Contribution: Animation.
Software: Autodesk Maya.
Additional Credit: Rig by Dale Myers.

Shot 19: “Not Chinese” (2009)
Description: Basic Man recieves some shattering news from his off-screen friend.
Contribution: Animation.
Software: Autodesk Maya.
Additional Credit: Audio from Season 1 of Showtime’s Dexter. Rig by Dale Myers.


Cheers,
Mel

Mini Portfolio 2010

This year's Ottawa International Animation Festival is quickly approaching - next week, in fact! So, as per every year, being a repeat attendee of of this awesome event, I'm compiling new versions of everything - Business cards, portfolios, and demo reels alike. Below is the mini-portfolio I'll have about half a dozen of to hand out to interested parties.

More soon,
Mel

Prints for sale!

It's official: I now have a myriad of my artwork online and available for sale as prints! If you'd like to own some of my artwork by aren't yet ready for commissions, or you are simply awesome and would be kind enough to help a gal out, please check out my new PRINTS galleries at Imagekind, which include both illustrations & photography!

Prints, framed and matted artwork, and greeting cards are available.

Prices start as low as $9.50 and & $11.40!

All proceeds go to helping me buy food/keep from living in a cardboard box, and are genuinely appreciated!

ALSO, if there are any pieces of mine that you would like to be made available as a print that is not yet seen in the gallery, please feel free to let me know! All print requests can be sent to melmillerart@gmail.com. I'm sorry, I cannot legally add fanart to this gallery.

Thank you for your support! 
It helps more then you could know ♥

-Mel

Color Design & Snack'em Back'em

The Bloomies Return!

Patrick recently doodled a sequel to the original "Bloomies" drawing of his that I lent color too, so once again, I'm having some fun with this drawing as well. How could I resist? He drew three quarters of our household as their favorite critters! I make a mighty cute penguin too, if I do say so myself.

This time around Pat did flat colors himself for me to start with and gave me open reign to tweak them as I saw fit, which actually ended up being an extremely interesting exercise. It's interesting to see how two different brains approach similar color patterns of the same image. Thought you all might find the comparison intriguing as well. Oh! I also started to build kitty-Niles a viewable cat ear and whiskers, to hopefully push the fact that he is indeed a kitty a little bit further, as opposed to a squirrel or a lemur or any other myriad of things he could be otherwise. I'll be finishing the colors to both this and "Waking the Big Dogs" soon, amidst commissions.

Also! Since I really do enjoy the "Snirf and the Snack'em Fox" background as its own stand-alone piece (One I'm planning to place in my environment/layout portfolio soon) I thought I'd share it here as well.

Currently, I'm working on Dana's commission of her elegant leopardess, Snow. I'll have more to post on that quite soon, no doubt. Thanks for viewing, everyone! ♥

Cheers,
Mel

Snirf and the Snack'em Fox

Epic Nomming in 3... 2...1...

A fun, colorful, rather whimsical commission this time, of the perpetual cat-and-mouse antics of Snirf the Coyote and Big Blue Fox. Unfortunately (Or fortunately, if you ask the dastardly Snirf) little Blue is about ready to lose this game big time.

The chance to use animated poses and such lively colors completely made this project for me - I love it. I'm also quite excited to note that I'll be doing another image of these two lovely characters again in the near future. Definitely looking forward to that! Thanks again for the commission!

As always, I am currently open for multiple different types of commissions, including these full-color full-body character illustrations with environmental backgrounds. Detailed commission information can be viewed here. Folks interested in commissioning me are welcome to contact me at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom. Thanks so much!

Cheers,
♥Mel