Backgrounds

Okay, so I was messing around last night trying out some one and two point perspective drawings. I did a concept image that I call, "Two miles from Calkwin" (Link to image).
I have another test drawing that I followed along with Mark Crilley, author and illustrator of Miki Falls and Brody's Ghost, his Youtube here.

I'll continue doing these and working on a bit animation in the coming days, I also have some Skyrim to play, not to mention New Girl and Mad Men to watch.

Keep it locked right here, people!

Yo, guys!

Hey guys! I'm back in the Office, now! Hope your Christmas break was as fun as mine! Now just looking forward to the New Year. According to the Chinese (Probably not, though) 2012 is the year of the Seagull! (I am just making this up) So this means that it will be an awesome year for Chris McEwan Animation! (This is true) Tell your friends! And thanks to my Secret Santa for the Hello Kitty ruler! Love it!

So I'm just easing back into things for the time being. Going to get some stuff down on paper, like background designs and the likes of that.

Looking forward to having some stuff to show you all in the New Year!

Keep it locked right here for all things Flash!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Okay, it's been put together REALLY fast, so it's not all that awesome, but it's something I got the idea for and just plugged away at it. If I had more time, I'd have made something really good, but this will have to do.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, Y'ALL!

Keep it locked right here!

http://www.swfup.com/view/kpt2 <---- THAT'S THE LINK! COPY AND PASTE!

Forum Sigs.

Here's one I've made for a forum I use. It advertises this blog, and it contains my Paintball team's logo, plus my username. It's basic, but it gets the point across. I could add some animated elements into it, easily. Have a light flare across the text of my username and stuff. Just small things, as I'd have to upload it as a .gif file. But if I was to make it into a website banner, there would be some obvious changes, text, size, stuff like that, but the animation would be able to flow a bit more openly, more showy and what not.

S'up, guys?

Okay, it's been kinda busy of late. Christmas is coming, so I've been busy stressing over that, then there's the wrapping of gifts... But to get my manga/anime style to go really good, I've decided my gifts this year will feature a limited edition, one of a kind drawing for each person! So far they are looking really good, if I do say so myself! Also, coming soon, some Chris McEwan Animation commercial work! If you need anything, like forum BBS sigs, Flash for a website, anything at all! Just let me know! I'll gladly take a punt at it!

Just thought I'd give a bit of news for you all, keep you up to date with my goings on!

Keep it locked!

Drawing and news.

I drew this today! It's of Mike, Jess and Me. Modelled from a photo we took yesterday when we went to see Jess while she was up from Plymouth. Thought it was a really good photo of the three of us and a great excuse to draw in an anime style (or practice, anyway.)

Really happy with how it turned out, but since I don't have a scanner, getting a good copy of it can be quite tricky...

But this will be making it's way into my Portfolio. And speaking of Portfolios, I've been working a bit more on the Storyboard I've been making. I think I'll do a test animation of it soon, so I've got two versions of what I'll be making for a final piece.

Keep it locked right here, people!

Photoshop and Flash

Drawn by hand, inked on Photoshop, coloured in Flash, edited on Photoshop. Congar and UltraV from War Of The Monsters(PS2)

Storyboarding

Made a start on some Storyboarding. I quite enjoy doing storyboards, and I prefer it to script writing, in terms of getting my ideas down. It will also help me for creating a portfolio.

The storyboard is for It Takes A Town, beginning with someone driving into Calkwin, the setting of the series.

Keep it locked for news and updates.

IT TAKES A TOWN

Right, so I've been messing around on Photoshop, seeing what I can do on it, and I came up with this! A sweet little title card featuring the skyline of the infamous Upper Barresdale of Alnwick. The place that started this whole endeavour!

It's been a while... Again...

Okay, it's been a while since I've done ANYTHING, but it's seriously not my fault, okay? It's EA and Dice's fault. Damn Battlefield 3.

Just had a look in one of my old notebooks for some old Flash stuff from over the years. I remembered that I made a list of sketch ideas. Most of it, well, practically all of it, was senseless tat. I suppose "Waiting For a Bus" and "Shagging on Facebook" would be funny if I wrote something with it, telling me what the actual joke is...

But there are a couple classics, like "Watching You Sleep" and "Bono Gets Vertigo" (Note, I hate U2 with a passion) which will find their way into circulation. It got me thinking about more of my old things. Like the Barresdale cartoons (The first of which is linked in a previous post) which was one of my more popular cartoons (in fact, I'd say the most popular) from the Alnwick North days.

I was thinking that taking it and the idea of a 7 day series of the residents of "Barresdale", but focusing more on recognisable characters more than just swearing for the sake of it. The moody charva, the unpredictable drunk, the game obsessed geek, and placing them in a world that never leaves the town of {Insert Obscure Name Reference Here}. Coming from a small town myself, I know how the inbred underbelly (No offen-Ahh fuck it. My old stuff insulted more than half the people who loved it...) of society think. The town is a bubble that they will never leave. Even by me making an animation about a small town, I'd be using my experiences of growing up in Alnwick as a base, so I've never left it either, in a way. Funny how the place I hate ends up being the setting for something I love, really.

What I was thinking of doing was having these characters tell their story through a series of sketches, some that interlink, some that don't. Some surreal and totally off the wall, but happening along side the sketch prior to it, and following. Everything is happening in the same universe, but at the same time, separate. Like, one sketch might have zombies mauling the town and Bob gets killed by Ben. But in the next sketch, Bob's sat in the pub flirting with the barmaid and Ben's in the back, on the bandit.

Going to get to work on it. Syndicate is going to have to wait.

When I first started animating, I had a really shoddy style, but my jokes had people in stitches. I then began to upgrade my style. Making things look better, add detail. But that led to more difficult animation, which made me do basic animations for lesser jokes.

Now I have the skill to make good looking stuff and decent animation to boot. Plus my warped sense of humour. Now THAT'S a winning combination.

Keep it locked on here, guys! I'll get a Website one day, too.

Nothing to show today, but...

I did work on some Flash. Been a bit busy today, though, so nothing that really warrants a showing. Keep it locked on here, though. I'll have something soon.

So, why not check out some of my old stuff in the post previous?

Cool, guys and gals!

Old Flash

Had a look online for some of my old stuff, and this is what I've come up with: (Click names to open link)
Seabat1: A loop featuring a Seagull flying around to Black - Wonderful Life
Seabat2: Another loop featuring a Seagull flying to the High Octane chords of Muse - Nights Of Cydonia
Seabat3: The last in the trilogy where the Seagull has emerged victorious to the enjoyable sound of Cure - In Between Days

Resident Evil: The Zombie's Thoughts: A look at the original Resident Evil game, where it is made much more difficult with the Chris Redfield Character, which I joked as the zombies were wearing Kevlar. WARNING! Strong Language.
Starsky And Hutch - Alt Ending: An alternate ending, in which... Well, just watch.
Noel Edmonds - Body Harvester: Noel Edmonds, once a mild-mannered TV host, now a psychopathic body harvester. Noel is attempting to buy a TV from his local Comet.
Doctor Eh?!: A very early animation of mine, in which Daleks gain employment in the Education system. Be warned, the drawings of humans are terrible and the intro is long.
Resident Evil - Crank Game: A jack in the box game I made a few years back. If you are familiar with the Resident Evil games, you'll know the Hex and Square cranks had some odd uses. I think this is the oddest.
Barresdale1: The film that launched Alnwick North.

Me on Facebook.

Okay, I got rid of my (Anti) Social Facebook profile and created a new one, specifically for animation. If you've got to this blog, there's a good chance you've already been on that page, but for those of you who haven't, it's here!
www.facebook.com/cmanimation
Hope to see you all there!
My best,

Getting back into Flash

Aww, man, this is great! I've not been this excited to do Flash in a long time! At work, all I think about is Flash. I get home and the PC is straight on, Flash being opened and I graft away at it. I've been looking at my last upload, and it's looking like the best thing I've made yet! And it's only a few seconds long!
I think this blog has been exactly what I've needed to get myself sorted out.

Take it easy, guys and gals!

Starting Syndicate

Hey, guys! Been working on some Flash for you!
I've got a load screen at the start, so when it loads, it will automatically start to play.

CLICK HERE FOR ANIMATION

It's only the start, but I thought I'd show you a sneak peek at what is to come! Hope you all enjoy!

Intro Reworked

I've fixed some stuff on the intro, the sun reflection, the sound loading
HERE

ACTUAL ANIMATION!

So, at work today, I managed (again) to turn the topic of conversation to Seagulls. Damn, I love them. Then I got an idea for an intro for Chris McEwan Animation.
So here it is!
The CMA Intro!

Flash'd!

Okay, so my hatred of Illustrator has been documented here, so I'm going to show you some more Flash Tests. Here, I'm working on the character style. It's a revised version from my previous upload (As shown HERE) and documents progression as to how I've got to my final choices.
FLASH DRAWING TEST 2
So here it is. Top pair are the rejected drawings. I found them to be too cartoon-like, fat faces, big hair, not what I'm going for. But the face shaping changes from the Top Right, to the Top Left (The order I drew them). This led to a rounder shape, thinning on the chin, as would a real person's face. I gave the agent short hair, and in the Bottom Right, gave him a goatee, to see how he'd look with it. I like both, so I don't know which to go with... Help?
Leave comments to let me know, or if you see me in person, I'll be pestering you give me your opinion.

Next, I'll be drawing the EuroCorp uniform, essentially just a Trenchcoat, but I'll be putting the black combats and boots on them, just to give them a rounded off uniform. From there, I think I'll start the Animation process. Do a scene, see how it goes.

Keep checking back, guys and gals!

Cheers,

GAH!!!

I fucking HATE Illustrator. It just makes no sense at all. Useless fucking thing. It's got nothing on Flash. Nothing at all. Urgh... I could do with a zombie apocalypse right about now...
My best, Chris

Drawing

Okay, it's been a while, but stuff's been coming up. I've found the time to do a concept drawing of a character, though. He's quite African in dress, so I'm thinking of having him as a rival Syndicate member from the "hero" Syndicate as it were, the EuroCorps.
I hope you enjoy it! Please leave feedback!
The feet look dodgey, and there's a very poor attempt at perspective on it

I'm going to put it into Illustrator and do a digital drawing of it. If it works out, I'll post it on here.

Cheers! Enjoy the picture, and sorry for the poor quality. I don't own a scanner, so had to use my phone.


-Listening to: Nicola Roberts - Lucky Day

Dudes and lady dudes!

Just got a delivery there, containing some lovely American foodsyuffs. Twinkies amd Chocolate Lucky Charms. Awesome.

So, I'm going to hit some more Dead Island now. Been planning some Syndicate stuff, which I'll be working on tomorrow, along with going for a run, drawing, animating (hopefully, if the drawing goes well) so I may just be showing an animation test! Exciting!

Much love!

Have you ever had one of those days?

What a fucking joke. I really do hate my job. I know everyone says that, but really, I REALLY hate my fucking job. Bane of my existance. Fucking Hypocritical cunts. CUNTS.

But anyway, I've got Dead Island to play. See you later.

Drawing1 - Syndicate

Okay, For my Syndicate project I want to start, I've done a quick drawing, mainly just showing the art style I'll be using. It's very cartoon style, but I think it'll work. It's just a rough draft, so I'll be redoing it and tidying it up as I go along. I'll have to tinker with the smoothing effects on Flash, and get reacquainted with the Graphics Tablet, too, as it's been quite a while. I'll also be doing some concept drawings for this, which I'll no doubt upload as I do them. Possibly even with a digitalised copy, too.
So, click here and see it!
Like I said, it's very rough around the edges, but I'll work on that as I alter settings and get more comfortable with the tablet. It's a top half body shot, showing some of the trenchcoat and the Agency issue Five-Seven pistol.

More on it as it develops!

Hold onto your hats!

I'm about to boot up Flash and attempt some drawing.
I'll show it when I'm done, or whatever.

A bit about whatever,

Going to start designing a website soon, then figuring out how you go on creating other blogs with Word Press, buying a domain name, uploading everything, making a name for myself. Awesome!
That's going to be either fun, or insanely tedious.
But anyway, I'm on the Battlefield 3 Beta, so I'm going to play some of that now.

Much love to my now three followers! Hey, Sarah!

Much love, peeps!

Another day, another follwer!

Okay, so I'm noticing another follwer! The ever so lovely Joanne! Thanks for following! I hope to be able to show you some animation soon!

On that note, I'm in the motions of getting a website domain name, making a website and what not. It'll give me another platform to showcase some stuff, link it into this, although I'm also looking at using Wordpress and running my own blog stuff from that. I'll sort it all out, though. Don't worry!

Things seem a bit better on the whole stress front. Keeping calm and stuff. So don't worry.

Keep cool, guys!

First Follower!

A big thanks to McVeigh for being my only follower! I've had a few profile views, which is great, too! I'm looking forward to having some animation for you guys at some point.
Currently, I'm having some shit at work and it's got me in no mood to animate. Really, I'm just pissed off to no end. Things just stack up and stack up and spill over, leading me to go fucking mental. That's not what I want to do. It'll cost me my job. But it'll happen if I keep getting pushed.

Bah...

I don't want to leave this on a down note, so I'll just say this;
I look forward to my second follower :)

First Post!

So, this is my first post for Chris McEwan Animation.
So, as you can guess, I want to be an animator. I currently use Flash Pro CS5. It's been a long while since I really animated anything worth showing, and when I look back, what I had showed was not all that good. In recent years I've got lazy and hardly done anything. It's a shame, really. I had a tremendous talent for creating animations for my jokes and spent practically all of my High School career animating. I even made a bit of money by doing things for a club in the town I lived.
Nowadays, I try to draw using my graphics tablet, but it never comes out right. I need to get back to it. I have so many ideas for things I want to create. From "Reasons To Be Miserable", a short series about the highs and lows of working in Retail, through the eyes and over-active imagination of a disgruntled employee, besotted with a co-worker (I've got episode outlines and the basis of Ep1 Script down). Then there's Dead Night, a zombie animation that has been through so many rewrites, it's not even resembling the first incarnation of it, then named Chitch Of The Dead. And more recently, I want to show my love for the game Syndicate, by Bullfrog, by creating a couple episodes based on it. For those of you who don't know the game, it's a Cyberpunk strategy game set in the future, where Syndicates run countries and are warring over global control. It's full of Augmentation and mission planning. Check it out.

I would love if this blog was discovered by some other budding animators, or some prolific doodlers (of which I also am), or, Hell, just ANYBODY!
I want to update this as often as I can, showing drawings, animations, anything I do, and recieve feedback and tips on how to further what I am doing.

Okay, to give you something to look at, the below picture is a sort of Self Portrait.It's a character from "Reasons To Be Miserable", who is based on myself. That's how I'd look if I was a cartoon character.





Thanks everyone!
I hope to see you again!
Maybe I'll have some actual animation, too...