2014 Design & Illustration Portfolio

  

Hi all! Here's my latest pass at a general Animation Design and Illustration portfolio. Click each image if you'd like a closer look. If you have any questions or are interested in hiring, feel free to contact me at artbymelb@gmail.com. Thanks for viewing! -M

ARMSmasters and Flight on Kickstarter!

Hi everyone! My apologies for my quietness and relative inactivity over the past few months. I've had the pleasure to be hard at work on a rather large scale project, and it has had my nose to the light table for as long. I'll be able to tell you more about this soon - I'm quite excited!

Also, great news! The animated action-adventure ARMSmasters project has returned for round two on Kickstarter! We have 30 days left in our fundraiser, and we have already reached 40% of our funding goal (Thank you SO SO MUCH to everyone who has already contributed and gotten us this far, we are elated and incredibly grateful!) So the momentum is strong. We have a bunch of exciting new updates to our production blog as well (Link below) which include new concept art and multiple proof-of-concept storyboard animatics.

If you would be so kind to check out the new Kickstarter, spread the word and lend if you are able, we would really appreciate it. And again, a HUGE thank yo to everyone for so much support. You guys inspire us daily!  

The ARMSmasters Kickstarter

The ARMSmasters Production Blog

The Official Website

Also of note, my talented friend and fellow CCS alumni Mel McCann now has a kickstarter up for her traditionally animated short film, Flight. Mel is a wonderful gal, and this film has a ton of heart and skill packed into it - I would love to see it reach its funding goals! Check out Flight on Kickstarter here!

Cheers,
Mel

Tyr In Action

Here's another quick collab with my buddy ~mikewinn - his drawing and flat colors, my lighting and shading of Tyr, one of the main characters from The ARMSmasters Project.

Want to see more of Tyr in action? Help us reach our funding goal on Kickstarter for ARMSmaster's animated pilot episode! (You'll get some awesome swag for your donation as well!)

I ended up unexpectedtly having quite the ARMSmasters ART weekend there - added some snapshots from my Art-and-XFiles-o-thon below.

Thanks, all!
-Mel

ARMSmaster's Aeslyn: Magic Caster

Another collaboration with Michael Winn - this is Aeslyn from The ARMSmasters Project. Mike drew and flat-colored this one, I added shading, lighting, and VFX.

For anyone who has not yet had the opportunity, I'd like to encourage you to check out our fundraising efforts for this animated pilot over on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/760823342/the-armsmasters-project-the-animated-pilot

It's an exciting opportunity to not only make this action-adventure animation a reality, but to support Michigan artists and our local film industry.

How do Kickstarter donations work? Here's a great explanation from Mike:

Kickstarter is a crowd source funding website where you can back creative projects financially.(No withdraws happen from your bank account until after the end of the funding deadline)

As a result: If you have intentions of backing us and haven't done so - it's actually a good idea to just go ahead and pledge. You can always adjust your pledge amount afterwards and it helps push our project further by increasing our backer numbers and our current figures. The more backers we have and the higher our totals the more we get noticed, so please back us sooner rather then later if it is your intention to do so. :)

Thanks again!

- Mel

ARMSmasters on Kickstarter!

Hi everyone - great news! I am proud and excited to note that The ARMSmasters Project has officially launched onto Kickstarter!

We've set a goal of $25,000 to enable us to produce and finish a short film which will double as a brief animated pilot and introduction to the ARMSmasters animated series. We are extremely excited as well as ambitious because we want to be able to share this project with the world at large and expose what we've been working on to a wide audience.

With the help of backers, we will be able to truly focus on getting ARMSmasters developed with the attention to detail and the quality that it deserves and also in a -timely- manner, uninterrupted by the needs of other projects stepping in. Success on Kickstarter is a game changer in a lot of ways and we have high hopes it will open up many doors and enable us to push forward on this effort and on future ones as well.

 Please pass the word around and help us. We're going to need all the help we can get. We are going to be diligently campaigning on a weekly basis through our social networks and on as many sites as we can find that will allow us to push this project ahead. Furthermore, the ARMSmasters Production Blog will be updated more frequently now - on Monday's and on Friday's - to continue to keep you up to date on our progress and to share the plethora of back logged imagery and information we have to show you. So here's to a successful Day 1 Launch and a count down to seeing what we can accomplish.

Thanks everyone!

 -Mel & the AoA Team

The Littlest Angel on DVD

Great news, everyone! The film I had the wonderful opportunity to be a lead storyboard artist on, The Littlest Angel, is now on DVD! This movie was wonderful to work on. It's an adorable holiday film for the little ones - a cute, kiddo-friendly Christmas movie with a great message. Do check it out!

I'll be posting some of the storyboards I contributed to the film soon. For now, below is the official trailer, as well as a couple of stills from shots that I boarded. You can also check out a number of clips from the movie over at ToonZone - I boarded the first half of "Halo" and the entirety of "Escape." It's a thrill to see them both completed!

Storyboards soon!

-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

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

Flipbook Reel 2010

Mel Miller Flipbook Reel 2010 from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

In recent years, CCS has been putting together extra promotional materials to get its students' work out into the field a bit more. Last year was a print book, this year, and more appropriately planned I think, is a digital collection of works they've donned the Flipbook. In addition to illustrations, I also submitted this quick reel of 2d hand-drawn and 3d computer animation. Thought I'd share. The music has been provided under Creative Commons licensing by the very talented and generous Kevin McLeod from http://incompetech.com - said music wasn't added to the submitted reel, but I thought it was rather fun to at least have some extra sound included on a net-posted reel.

More again soon,
Mel

Not Chinese: Character 1 Final

Source dialog clip is from Dexter, in a conversation between Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee) and Dexter himself (Michael C. Hall):

"Yo, what's up with you today? You're throwing off my Chi."
"...You're not Chinese."
"I'm not?"

So, it's official! Not only have I survived a full semester in a rather intense Maya animation course at CCS, I genuinely feel like I've thrived in it, despite my initial devout stubbornness when it came to the program itself

The last day of class, and indeed the last critique, was, to be perfectly blunt, awesome. We had the opportunity to have our work critiqued by a professional animator, a great fellow by the name of Glenn Parsons from Kinetic Post. Knowing how busy ANY animator is professionally and personally, it was wonderful for him to take the time to come out, view, and critique our work, as well as openly answer any questions we had about the industry in general. Thank you, Glenn!

He had some great suggestions on the clip I did for my final piece as well: I will be going in and working on them to help improve the animation, as soon as I've gotten a couple of day's rest (Today is the last day of a very long, very hectic semester) The critique:

• Show more weight and purpose in the character's step. This could possibly be achieved by having him stepping into the scene from the very first frame.
• Anticipate more into the "I'm not?" to further emphasize the character's emotions. This could be done with a clearer curve: more emphasis on a reversed curve in his spine.

Over all, I'm very pleased, I have to say. It feels fantastic to now have a base of knowledge in not one but two methods of animation - and knowing I'd love to do either professionally.
-Mel

Big Love: First 3D Dialog Test Continued (EDIT)

(UPDATE) Sure enough, I couldn't resist tweaking this thing further! In the above latest edition, I toned down the movement off his hands as he says "Big Love", fixed a rogue middle finger and better aligned an eyebrow to his forehead. LOL, yes, ladies and germs, tedium is our specialty here in the animated world. But what the hell, it makes things pretty. I'm game!



Here's the latest phase of my first dialog test in 3D. At this point, I'm quite enjoying the motion and character acting as a whole - the fellow looks positively up to no good. I'll undoubtedly tweak this more at some point, but for now, it's back to Caravan!

♥Mel

Big Love: Dialog Test WIP1

Our latest class exploit in Maya is a dialog test which, when done, will include the character's full range of gesture while speaking to the clip of our individual choice. I was really intrigued withe the stage-by-stage progression our professor showed of his example animation, so I thought I'd post my own progression with the project here. The first pass of the test is to be limited to blocking out of our dialog's mouth movements and the mouth movements only... unfortunate only for the fact that it only took about 10 minutes to accomplish. Hopefully my classmates find keying dialog as simple\fun as I did here as well.

There's something oddly soothing about syncing animation to Hugh Laurie's voice. Ironic, given that House is such a cantankerous bit of a thing.

The line: "Big Love.... have I humiliated you in the last half hour?"

More to come,
-Mel

KAFI 2009 Clips and more 3D Animation

Hark, a blog update!
Have a swanky photo of a bunch of nerds (made of awesome!)

CCS's Team NerdFighter at the 2009 KAFI Cartoon Challenge (L-R) Kate Burck, Mike Blaszkowski, Steve Stanchfield, Patrick Stannard, Mel Miller (Me) & Niles Bontrager.

Hi everyone - hope you're doing well. I believe I mentioned I was a member of the CCS representative teem at the 2009 Kalamazoo Animation Festival International's Cartoon Challenge - An event wherein each team had 4 days to create a fully animated, fully finished 30 second PSA. I recently finally got ahold of the final clip we, as Team NerdFighter, had created and thought I'd share a bit of it. Below are all clips I had various parts in creating (see the bottom right corner for what's what) I do appologize for the compression of the video here, Blogger's being rather silly this evening.

Mel's Clips from KAFI09


Also up are two more 3D animation tests I've done in Maya over the past couple of weeks. The first was an emotions test - we were to pull an emotion or state of being out of a hat and portray whatever we received. I had "Tired". The second animation was to be our take on a double take. I imagined the character at a rather sophisticate party, having an intellectual conversation with a colleague... before his attention is snagged away entirely by a streaker who, quite frankly, has no business being naked in public - ever!

Tired Guy


The Streaker


More again soon.
Cheers,
♥Mel

Dabbling in Maya

I do apologize for the lack of posting as of late, guys. Anyone who has been hip-deep in independent film production knows - it's an insanely busy trip! I've been working tirelessly on my senior thesis film, Caravan, and am making great strides in getting it done. Conversely, however, every inkling of my time has gone towards it. This will pay off, though, in the long run, Lord willing!

This semester I'm also trying my very first attempts in 3D character animation in Maya. A traditional 2d, entirely hand-drawn animator by trade and training, getting past the software barrier and getting into the immediate coldness of moving objects around in a matte gray digital space has been quite the challenge. Slowly but surely, however, I'm starting to warm up to the medium, and the hard work (and hair pulling) is beginning to show positive results. The above is a playblast of my latest test - the Basic Man rig, created and modeled by our professor, not I - lifting a heavy boulder.

-Mel