Gallery Show Photos

As noted in the previous entry I've been given the chance to display my work in my own little gallery show in the Entertainment Arts department hall at the College for Creative Studies for the next couple of weeks. In addition to a couple dozen images (including frame-by frame clean-up animation sequences) there are two reels playing on a digital tv, one for animation, one for illustration and concepts. Here's a couple of photos of the setup.

Prints of various illustrations.

Part of an animated sequence, frame-by-frame.

The majority of the images, including the digital display.

Last and most certainly least, my haggard, sleep-deprived bum, with the entire set-up. Photo snapped by my professor, Chris Carden.

Cheers,
Mel

Gallery Show, and Thanks!

For anyone interested and in the area, I currently have a small gallery show on the third floor of the Walter B Ford building at the College for Creative Studies, which has been receiving very positive feedback so far. I'll post photos of the setup here soon.

Cheers,
Mel

Caravan Updates as of 03-29-10

More New Caravan Shots 3-30 from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

Progress on Caravan is continuing to come right along. Spring break saw to the closure of all of the rough animation on my to-do list, and I'm right back to clean up, color, and final composite. Finished 5 shots this past weekend, and as always, it feels fantastic to see those completed clips. As per usual, here's a quick-link list to the latest progress on Caravan, via entries over at the Caravan Production blog, including the above reel of more completed shots from the film.

• Everybody Likes ol' Charlie

• Quirk's New Cover

• Patrick's HoobleDoodles

• Peaceful Mia (Rough Test)

• Shot 26 Progression

• Pat's Mia and Hoobler

• More New, Completed Shots!

Cheers,
Mel

Poltergeist and Mook

A quickie from my overly-uneventful pre-Spring-Break proctor shift on campus. This here is, along with the previously posted Velocity, another new character I've been considering for my Nexus series' line-up: 12 year old Geist and her little goopy goulie buddy Mook. I keep giggling that it sort of looks like she birthed poor Mook here which was hardly on my mind when I sketched out the poses. Moreover, she's supposed to be creating\manifesting the thing from her hand, as her spiffy comic book powers allow her. We'll pretend it looks like that instead.

Yet another all marker and micron image from a sketchbook named Quirk. The base marker sketch to this was particularly rough because I had no idea what I was going to draw when I began. I am pleased though that I'm getting faster drawing like this. So far so good - the exercise is proving effective! I hope to get speedier through these exercises to help me pick up a bit of pace with Caravan's cleanup in the coming weeks. Here's hoping!

For the record, her hair isn't nearly the intense teal blue you see here - I envision it far lighter - ghost-like. Such is the nature of my hilariously limited marker collection at the moment, however. I make do ;)

I'm on spring break this upcoming week. A large portion of that will be spent completing all remaining rough animation on Caravan and hopping right back into clean-up and final composite. Updates over on the film's production blog will likely come of that. Ill be keeping with Quirk doodles as well, for the sake of sanity (And hopefully skill\portfolio strengthening too!)

More again soon,
Mel

The Young Guru

Another installment from Quirk. This is TKP's resident forest guardian, The Guru, in his much-sprightlier years. Another piece drawn entirely in Prisma markers and Micron pens - no pencil or eraser involved.

-Mel

Maxiim in Markers

A side-character from my TKP series, Maxiim, from my latest outing in my new sketchbook, Quirk. Max here is yet another attempt at drawing entirely in Prismacolor marker and Micron pen - no pencil and eraser involved.

The Art of Quirk (Post 001)

It's been ages since I've last challenged myself to keep a proper sketchbook - not out of my desire to do so, but out of sheer lack of time, what with having a 6+ minute film to create for my thesis. I decided this past week, though, that it was not only more then time to try, but needed, simply for the ability to draw things outside of Caravan, and excise the ridiculousness that routinely runs rampant in my mind.

So, I bought a sketchbook and a mitt-full of markers. I named said sketchbook Quirk. From here on out, Quirk will be filled primarily in marker-and-ink drawings where I will not allow myself to erase, and push myself to draw faster, and commit more readily to line. So far, it's been a fruitful production.

A Cynic's Life For Me

A teensy bit of a self portrait. Anyone who sees me on a daily basis can pretty much count on this outfit or some variation thereof. Ah, the predictability of animators with nary enough free time to consider that fashion... stuff.

'Guin and Carl.

'Guin discovers Carl, the stupid-happy turnip. Boop.

Inkster, PP, and V

Inkster the creepy comb-over Octopus (Originally doodles for my roommate's awesome "Draw an octopus!" challenge) Velocity, a new-ish character I've been considering for Nexus, and the Pillow Puppy.

WTF

My other half Niles and I had a dinner-out-n-draw-weird-shit date Saturday, and decided upon the following odd combos to doodle: A rabbit and a chimp, a lemur and an armadillo, and a goldfish and an old man.

The Gully Draconis

Dragon-esque creatures in my TKP series are called the "Draconis" species, and they are comprised of numerous types. Little forest-dwelling Dracs (roughly the size of your living room coffee table, are a breed I'd not yet drawn. Despite some proportional fail brought on by making myself draw as fast as I could swing it, I enjoy how this fellow turned out.

More again soon,
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

Caravan Updates as of 02-17-10

A Glimpse of Caravan from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

I'm on the very cusp of having Caravan's final animation halfway complete. As a whole, I'd wager that the film's work is almost 3/4 of the way done, which in a good realization to have made, for sure. As per usual, here's a quick-link list to the latest progress on Caravan, via entries over at the Caravan Production blog, including the above reel of more completed shots from the film.

• Caravan Girl

• 2 Down, 4 to go! and Wacky Fanart

• Another Glimpse of Caravan

• Half Way There :)

More again soon,
-Mel

Wolfen Dom and Chey (Lineart)

I once again reached a point where I needed to doodle something that wasn't a 10 year old girl (whoo, Caravan!) And settled with doodling Dominic Drowe and Cheyenne Valkyrie from my Nexus series (Dom being the black haired fellow, and Cheyenne the gal in this previously posted image) in their wolfen forms as a means of taking a wee bit of a break this weekend. I'll color this one soon as well.

Good news on the Caravan front: I now have a good two minutes 10 seconds of the film completed. That's over a quarter of what will be the final product, a quarter of the way into my semester. I'm right on schedule! It feels awesome.

More again soon,
-Mel

Caravan Updates as of 01-26-10

Composited Caravan Clips from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

A couple of recently composited shots for Caravan.

The usual drill: Here's a quick-link list to the latest progress on Caravan, via entries over at the Caravan Production blog, including the above completed shots 003, 019, 030, 031 and 040 the final in the film.

• The Clean Up Process

• Caravan: Mia Runs Into Camp

• Composited Caravan Clips

• Kelsey Clean-Up

• Production Photos (Pt 2)

Onward and upward,
Mel

Sheol and Kali by Ren52 - Colored

Sheol & Kali - Winter Walk. Sheol and Kali strollin' through the winter woods.

Since I was stuck in Photoshop coloring animation for Caravan all weekend anyways (We completed 6 new final shots - I'll update the Caravan Blog with them sometime tomorrow) I slipped in a little color job on the side.

The above line art is by my good buddy and talented artist Renee Atkinson - she was kind enough to draw my character Sheol and our friend Kat Bongard's character Kali from our Matihao Whenua concept. I could not resist coloring this - Ren's artwork is always a joy to render. So, voila! Thank you again, Renners! ♥

♥Mel

Caravan Updates as of 01-12-10

Shot 081 - Returning to the open road.

Caravan's entire collection of 64 backgrounds are now complete! I'm now in the mad dash to complete its animation, alongside my other half, Niles', diligent and entirely awesome work in compositing the whole shebang together - he's already completed two and is slated to compile more shots this weekend. Here goes nothing, as they say! That said, here's a quick-link list to the latest progress on Caravan, via entries over at the Caravan Production blog, including the above completed background from Shot 081 - the final in the film.

• Latest Inspiration Tunes, and Updates

• The Closing Shot

• A Juxtaposition of Homes

• Shot 030 WIP

♥Mel

Caravan Updates as of 01-08-10

After a much needed break over Christmas, Caravan's production is back in full swing. Here's a quick-link list to the latest progress on Caravan, via entries over at the Caravan Production blog, including the above completed background from Shots 036 and 040:

• Caravan Shot 19 WIP

• OMG TREES! (Part 2)

• Night Backgrounds Complete

• Change of Seasons

• Peaking Tension Through Light

• Colors of Fall ♥

♥Mel

Polly Want a Soliloquy (Completed)

I was dead determined to get at least ONE portfolio image done this break. Success. Between that this far, and a couple of images for a freelance commercial project - time well spent. I'm back on Caravan background this evening as well.

That said, here's "Polly Want a Soliloquy" completed (above) as well as a couple of steps in its color progression (Below.) The story behind the image, as posted previously:

I picked a bit of the characters' story that always gives me a bit of a giggle: Wherein Reagan realizes, after much prolonged skepticism, that Rook is telling every bit of the truth about the pesky, yellow-eyed Corvid that has been following him around for days... He talks. Vividly, no less. Reagan shrieks. The bird, Dymitri, looks incredibly smug at startling the inferior bipedal specimens. Poor Rook just continues to look wholly disturbed.

Color Progression:


Steps Shown:

1. Simple flat colors.
2. The addition of textures, including a couple of awesome Public Domain poster designs.
3. The completed render of the background, sans characters.
4. The completed render of the image as a whole.

And now, for a slew of Caravan work!
♥Mel