New Short Animation

So I'm working on a new short animation, applying what I recently had an epiphany about last week. I've completely written the story already and am about to move into storyboards. To give you a feel for what the animation will be about I'll post the first paragraph of the story as well as a bit of concept art I had completed today. Enjoy!

The dead squirrel laid by the side of the road, flattened except for his tail, which pointed straight up, then left, and then back up again. As the cars passed by the squirrel’s soul rose from his dead body, slowly lifting up. His soul mirrored that of his body, flattened except for his crooked wiry tail. Moving from the side of the road into the trees, he marched slowly to some unknown destination. In the woods a bird, completely spherical, bloated by the sun and head of the day joined him. Next came a deer, who would have seemed perfectly healthy if his head wasn’t twisted completely around to face his rear. The last to join this mutilated soul parade, marching through the woods in the middle of the night was an orange tabby cat whose two halves of a body were being held together only by his intestines. They marched on in a single file line under the full moon, passing by a pond that gave no reflection of the souls of the flattened squirrel, the bloated bird, the twisted deer, or the two halves of cat.

Hurray Textures!

If you have seen my artwork then you should know my love of textures. Today, I'm sharing that love. Here are some high quality scans of some of the recent textures I'm using in my work.

Eric Carle's Blog

I am so excited for this find because Eric Carle is a huge inspiration for me and my work. Here it is Eric Carle's blog which is truly fantastic. A little insight into his world and what he's been up to.

I'm particularly excited about this post of his.

This may even inspire me into creating a short children's book (primarily illustrations, I'm not much of a writer). There could be a few ideas floating around up here in the old noggin.

Paper Toys

Heave over to the Small Imaginings Blog for more information.

Find and Animate

During my unemployment I must continue to work on animation. That's easier said then done but I've broken it down into the simplest formula I can think of.

"Find a story and Animate it"

My problem is that I'm not thinking filmic enough. When I think animation I think of my Hypermedia class in which one individual cut out character can be used through the entire short film. If I'm going to make an animation I have to think like a film maker.
Not every character image can be used throughout the entire film I'm going to need to see the front of the character, the side, the back, his feet, and his hands. Each scene is a new piece of art work, consisted of individually created images for that scene. If it's a class project, sure, using the same character repeatedly makes sense with a deadline. Not if you are creating something worthwhile.

(This would be my epiphany here -->) I have to take a story and create the story boards as if it were a film and then animate it. You can't let the animation dictate the story, the story should dictate the animation.