A look back...

For this film....honestly, I haven't been able to dedicate the amount of time or attention to it that I would have liked to. I've been extremely busy with concept development for my senior film, a 2-D effects animation class, working 20 hours a week, being in a relationship and battling alcoholism. That's a lot of things to do at once.

Even though I'm happy with what I have, I would have preferred to have understood how to use flash a little better, having more shots, and actual action in my film, and having it be more presentable over all. Right now, it certainly lacks any professionalism, though I don't think it's too bad for my first time using flash. So, if I was going to do it again...I wouldn't. I would do something else much better and more practical in flash. Since I didn't know the medium, I did not design my short around the use of flash...and that's the biggest thing I would change.

Yay

I'm so relieved to be done with that!

I'll probably keep using this blog for animation stuff, so take a look every once in a while if you want to!

The Farm

Done!

Well, I'm really tired, but I'm done with it. I'm pretty pleased all things considered. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

The only real problems I ran in to were with the final version of the film looking bad. Premiere did this weird thing where it kind of cross fades every frame and makes it look bad. Hopefully I can fix that but I also made .swf files that look really good.

So, I hope you enjoy it for what it's worth. Thanks for watching!

Change of plans!

well, turns out, gun violence, even in a satirical animated short, is not acceptable for this class.

So...

The ending of my film has to change.

I'll probably just have to have the fascist slap the farmer in the face. That's kind of lame. Not a strong ending whatsoever. Doesn't really get across the point I was trying to communicate. But oh well...rules is rules.

Background and Fascist

Productive Class...

What's New?

Nothing.

Done with midterms now, and pretty exhausted. But from here on out it's balls out hard work in all three classes. I feel ok for where I'm at now, I just need to finish up my pre-production, including, character design, back ground and some other animation components. Then I can start animating! I'll keep posting progress as it's completed.

rotoscoping 2

puppet jump two

Farmer Character Model

So here's the farmer.

I really like him.
Tell me what you think.

Story Board First Draft

So this story board is no where near production standard, but it gets the general idea across.

I also have a basic script for you! Yay!
I can sense your overwhelming excitement!

So it will open with our farmer/peasant and the narrator will introduce him as a generic character that could live any where in the whole world. But today he's in for a special treat! He gets to learn about types of government/economic systems! Neat, huh?!

Well, the first one to approach the farmer is a capitalist from America, who's all smiles and apple pie. Waving his flag, he tells the farmer, that he could trade the things he makes on the farm for money which he could use to buy anything he wanted. He goes on enthusiastically to say that the farmer could work hard his whole life, fill his life with possessions and odds are he will probably die unhappy, and unfullfilled!

The second one to approach is a socialist with a very admirable mustache. He informs the farmer that he should be working very hard on his farm. And regardless of how hard everyone else works compared to the farmer, the government is going to take all of the goods he produces and distribute them among all the people of the country. (And just between them two, most of it actually just gets hoarded by the government leaders.)

The third and last to approach the farmer is in a military uniform and very strict looking. It's our friend, Mr. Fascist! He approaches the farmer and they look at each other silently for a moment.
The fascist says, "Knock knock"
The farmer asks, "Who's there?"
"Fascism."
The farmer replies, "Fascism wh--," but before he has the chance to finish, the fascist pulls out a gun and shoots him in the head.
The fascist says, "Don't ask questions."

And that's pretty much it.
Yay for satirical violence!

Rotoscoping-01

I don't know what's with those vector dots...
This quality is terrible for some reason.

Whatever.

Clown Jump!

Bouncing Ball 2

Bouncing ball one

For Real Premise

Ok seriously...

Here's my idea.

A practical explination of types of gov't.

I saw a poster once that i thought was hilarious. It had a headline for each type of government (socialist, capitalist, fascist, etc.) with a drawing under each and a short description.

What I want to do is an animated interpretation in a funny, truthful, thus inevitably dark explanation of government.

One man will be the "average citizen" and he will stay on screen. Different gov'ts will be represented by the leaders of certain types of countries approaching him and interacting with him.

As an example, the last part will be a man in uniform approaching the citizen and saying

"knock knock"
"who's there?"
"fascism"
"fascism wh-"
BANG!!! (the leader shoots him for asking questions)

So that's what I have so far. Please give your ideas.

Characters

Mojizu.com

http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=2de1f8a0-5979-40b6-94c5-8d9971dfef50
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=187f647e-6b54-4657-8eb7-3d1364b8e8de
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=5db97950-28c6-407a-b561-7edb51d63b0e
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=cf0eb048-6735-408f-9fe7-be67b060d0fa
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=b2144d2a-b8d3-4cf6-bffa-f9eca77846a3
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=137f98e2-ccf3-4504-8d3e-16da5d3b56ef
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=9fa5d005-ce3f-4c2c-ac2c-21e165ff6ac6
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=65c98aa9-1060-4e3b-92f8-0ce4d2061ecf
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=662fb052-4949-4890-a0c7-ca35b1bca6ab
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=5612864c-9344-4105-ab58-3802dfe0bc7d
http://www.mojizu.com/Pages/zoomer.aspx?mjcode=24de99c5-09b7-4ee9-b066-2828432b574f

Proposal

For this short film project, I am very interested in making a comedy piece. I don’t know much about flash or it’s limitations, but I am always interested in the idea being funny, and the possibility of concept, editing, visual appeal, and good sound making a good piece of work.

I would like to use simple characters with a strong design element. These characters should be scary looking but still have a cute, interesting and funny look.

The types of stories I want to tell are ironic, satirical tales with lots of black humor. I think the most effective stories disarm the audience with humor, and then at the end, strike the audience with an important idea. I like to deal with mostly mature themes, and inappropriate things that are funny but people think are wrong to laugh at…but I’m not out to offend anyone.

I don’t necessarily have a story planned out…that generally takes a longer time for me to nail down. But I do have good guidelines on what kind of thing I want to do. So I will continue to work on ideas for the story, and have something more solid soon.

Self Portrait

This is a self portrait from a while ago. I've always had a thing for Robert Crumb, and I used to have chops...

In my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful animated pieces. Outstanding in concept and execution, this is the perfect example of animation as fine art.



Who doesn't love this? It may not be original, but this is right up my alley. The idea that if you are clever and funny as hell, it does't matter what the drawings look like as long as they have some appeal. I also like things old school. Analog!

Introduction

My name is Austin Yerrick, and I am a student of animation. I am now a senior at the Savannah college of art and design, and I am very excited for my last year here at the school.

I am severely impaired in my ability to spell so please forgive me in advance. I love 2-D animation and all I really want is to be able to make a living off drawing for the rest of my life. I am from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I am the youngest of three boys.

My influences are broad and I enjoy a large variety of art. Music plays a large role in my life and I love death metal so much, I often fall asleep listening to it. A steady diet of Batman: The animated series, Calvin and Hobbes, early Metallica, [Adult Swim], and Chuck Palahniuk novels have brought me to where I am now...art school.

I appreciate irony, and I would have to say my favorite thing is to make people laugh. Using animation and my sharp(ish) wit, I hope to entertain a few people and have fun doing it.

This is the driest, most boring thing, I have written in a long while. I hate writing about myself, and if you are as dis-interested as I am, I don't hold it against you.