Chipper Charlie

A quick image of Charlie from my Caravan production blog (Check it out for much more on the film!)

I do love Charlie Kavenaugh - little Kelsey's father. He's the sort of dorky dad who tries to be cool, despite the fact that he, quite implicitly, is not, by any little kid's standards... At the same time, he's too irresistibly adorable not to have a soft spot for.

As a side: I want that hat.

-Mel

Official Caravan Production Blog

My senior film (which will undoubtedly dominate the next many months of my life) now has its own dedicated blog! In it, I'll be keeping tabs on my progress, thoughts on the project as well as posting images that won't see the light of day on my art blog here. Please feel free to have a gander, follow, and tell me what you think!

The Caravan Archives!

Cheers,
Mel

On-Model Mia

If nothing else, life is unpredictable. Shortly after my previous entry, my last surviving grandparent passed away; As one could imagine, the remainder of my summer break was quite the instance of upheaval as a result. I've since begun my senior year at CCS, and the production of Caravan is again underway. While much more art is to come, here, for the moment, is (finally!) a properly on-model orthographic of Mia Talbert. (Greatly improved from the rushed and hilariously off-model ortho previously posted as part of her otherwise acceptable model sheet!)

Stay tuned (And thanks for sticking with me!)
♥Mel

Regrouping after the fallout.

In the span of so few months, I have watched my family lose practically everything, been homeless, nearly lost my grasp on any feasible financial ability to complete my senior year at college, found work, wrangled needed financial aid, found, rented and moved into a home, and took on a summer class, to boot.

Needless to say, I have been ungodly busy. Art has set to the wayside while I simply try to survive, as I haven't the luxury to simply sit on my ass and artistically procreate in the carefree manner some seem to think I should (and to them, I simply have to laugh.)

However, things are finally beginning to calm, at least for the moment. From now until the beginning of my respective senior year classes in the fall, I will be picking back up on the production timeline that was so abruptly yanked out from beneath me on Caravan - I am immensely excited for that. For now, here's a few random tidbits from the Matihao Whenua project - the only two images I've been able to consider properly in weeks.

More to come.

♥Mel

On the Hunt

Another digital mixed media piece for Matihao Whenua. Grimm, withe her "adopted" little sister Sheol and biological older sister Moxie, on a summer afternoon hunt.

Mechanical pencil line art and soft-shaded digital colors for the characters, and as with the last piece I played around with a mix of photomanipulation and digital paint for the background. Roughly 12 stock photos were included in total.

Stock imagery credit (and humble thanks) go to the following stellar resources and stock artists:

http://barns-en.deviantart.com
http://Stock-Stuff.deviantart.com
http://bobbistock.deviantart.com
as well as CGtextures.com

As always, thank you for taking the time to look :)

♥Mel

Moxie in Whenua Forest

Grimm's older sister Moxie (yup, she officially has one!) on the outskirts of the Whenua Forest... and finally with a concrete design. More on her soon - I'm wildly attached to her already.

A piece helping to push me through an utterly intense art block, caused by super busy happenings including but not limited to Animation competitions (what an experience!), having had to fight to the teeth to secure my senior year at college financially (check), find proper summer work (also a success), and searching for a house to rent in this lovely economy (Still on the hunt)

But I digress.

Moxie. I think she's incredibly reflective of my somewhat voracious, pithy, hardened take on things as of late. She's had to work like hell for everything she's got - and she's still fighting.

A digital multimedia piece: pencil line art, digital coloration as well as a photomanipulation/digital paint mix for the background.

Thanks for viewing, guys. You rock. Hope you're well <3

Stock Credits (and humble thank yous) go to:
Deviantart's Moonchilde-Stock, maliniaq-stock, and Momotte2stocks
As well as a number of textures from CGtextures.com

♥Mel

CCS 2009 Year-End Review Reel

At the end of every semester, CCS faculty reviews each student's work and progression throughout the year. Each year, I compile a Review Reel highlighting everything I've done for non-liberal-arts classes. It has, most definitely, been a very busy year.

All visual work seen here is by and copyright of Mel Miller 2008-2008, apart from: Animation assistance on shot four of "Cabin Cat" was provided by Patrick Stannard (http://kiltedanimator.blogspot.com/) Line art for the Code Monkey backgrounds were dawn by Niles Bontrager (http://nilesart.blogspot.com/)

Music by Kevin McLeod, which he has graciously provided for public use under the Creative Commons License. Check out more of Kevin's wonderful resources at http://incompetech.com

♥Mel

Mel Miller Spring 09 Demo Reel

A slightly older version of my current demo reel, the newer of which, having been retimed in areas - images get more air time, for example) will be posted as soon as I get the opportunity and time to sit and render it out in a net-friendly size (It's original to-DVD setting is currently somewhere around 6 gigs!)

♥Mel

Caravan: Mia Ref Sheet & Environment 1

More Caravan concept art! Above is the first official character model sheet for Mia Talbert, and below is the Talbert Farmhouse where she and her father Ethan live. I will be working on the production of this project continually throughout the next four months and beyond, so keep and eye out!

♥Mel

Cabin Cat: 3/4 Clean-Up Animation

Cabin cat, with the first three shots in clean lines. I'll definitely be completing shot four as well, as soon as time permits. This was from our first project from this semester in Tech 3 - which was also, consequently, our first multi-character, multi-shot dialog test. Ted the Trucker faces the harsh truth about his beloved kitty. Dialog clip is from Six Feet Under. My buddy Pat Stannard co-animated the kitty in shot 4.

♥Mel

Caravan: Mia Tie-Down Animation & Code Monkey

On the plus side of things, I genuinely loved the other two of three assignments in Tech 3 this semester. Here is the fully animated, tied-down test for the keyframe test I posted here on 03/27/09. The assignment required us to have a character react to our classmate's plastic pig "MacGyver" which was had to come into the shot from the top left corner, and leave through the top right. Mia here doesn't notice said piggie until he hits the ground behind her, is startled by him at first, but quickly becomes irritated for invading her personal space after she gets up to investigate him. He's promptly punted from the shot. Mia, for the record, is the main character for my Senior Thesis film, "Caravan" which is currenctly in production. This was my first shot at animating Mia in order to further get to know her character.

It is wholly worth noting that Caravan is teh second short film I have had a part in this year. The first was "Code Monkey," which I digitally rendered 30 backgrounds for. The film is now complete, and I'm absolutely thrilled with how it has turned out. When I get the permissionfrom the short's director, I'll post some of those backgrounds here as well.

♥Mel

Scotty Gets Punchy: Tied-down Animation

One of our more, shall we say, "repeat-offender pain in the butt" assignments this semester was for the class to create multiple 30-second animated commercials. Given how ungodly busy CCS students are at any given moment, the assignment and how it was run ended up being a total snafu (as I knew it would from the get go.) I'm tremendously glad it is over. That said, here's the tie-down animation for one of the commercials' characters, Scotty. Scotty is a very angry 10-year-old boy. In this particular scene, his imaginary friend Samson swoops down, lands on his head and flies off. Scotty attemps to punch him but misses. Samson animation was by Kate Burck - if/when I get the two composited together from her, I'll post that here as well.

♥Mel

Caravan: Secondary Cast & Mia Key Test

Hello everyone! Here's some of the latest progress work on Caravan. Up top is the character line-up for secondary and background characters in the story, and below is a quick first jab at roughing out movement for Mia Talbert in keys. Our current assignment in Tech 3 has us having a character react to our classmate's plastic pig "MacGyver" which is required to come into the shot from the top left corner, and leave through the top right. This is my initial pose reel for the assignment - clearly lacking mister piggie himself just yet. Needless to say though, Mia doesn't notice him until he hits the ground behind her, is startled by him at first, but quickly becomes irritated for invading her personal space after she gets up to investigate him. He's promptly punted from the shot. This key test will eventually be animated in full: I'll post the finished result once it's completed.

♥Mel

Caravan Main Character Lineup & Sketches

More initial concept work for my senior thesis film project, Caravan. Thanks for viewing! There will definitely be more to come.

♥Mel

"TKP" Concept Art

Update: I received comments from a couple of people telling me that they were unable to full view these images - sure enough, the HTML was quirked beyond repair. You should be able to view them now, however. Thanks! ♥

My latest portfolio pieces, created for the first half of the semester for my "Advanced Environments and Characters" class. Below is concept art for my original personal project, "TKP." All images and characters are copyright 2009 of Mel Miller, and are part of a pitch for an in-depth animated or graphic novel series.

Environment: Trias

Character: Anathema

Character: Damien

Character: Bellicose

♥Mel