Production begins

Although I am sure there will be changes to the animatic and adjustments to the story, I am happy to announce that I have finally begun animating.  I hope to have all the animation for this film finished before next year and look forward to getting another independent short finished.  The character designs are complete, totally in the style of Dave Fedan, the art director for the piece.  He has such an innocent and appealing style, it will be a challenge for me to keep another's work in character. 

Never a challenge for Dave who was the greatest chameleon I have ever worked with.  Dave could do your style better than you could do your style.

Little progress

2016, was a tough year to make progress on "Snow Angel".  I went into the animatic again, and made a few story changes, but other than that, not much happened.  Here is hoping that 2017 brings some light to the process.  Lots to do.  Here are some designs tossed around for the characters.

Snow Angel Update

The production of this film is one of the weirdest experiences of my professional animation filmmaking life.  Snow Angel started as a style demo back in 2000 or so.  Always loved the work that Dave Fedan did and for some odd reason, I always felt there was a story there in this little demo piece about a snowball fight.  Dave and I tossed around a couple of ideas over the years, and we both acknowledged to one another that it would be great to do an expanded version of the story.  The only problem with that is that we didn't have a story.

Fast forward to a year ago, where I decided to sit down and do an animatic illustrating an idea I had had years ago about the film and see what I could save from the original idea as well make it better, if there is such a thing.  Over the past year, I have revisited the idea and the animatic several times and I did something I had never done before, I sent the animatic out to a bunch of close associates and asked them for feedback.

Typically, I have worked in a bubble or at least I remembered I did.  Actually, sending the animatic to a group of trusted artists, friends, etc. filled a void that I had forgotten was there.  The void of a studio.  I miss Knock Knock Cartoons studio and all the people that worked there.  So it became obvious that I was just trying to recreate that feeling albeit remotely to get people excited about a direction and then hear where they felt it could be improved.

There is no bubble, that popped.  There is however the gift of ideas, to improve upon my creative.  We will see where that goes and if I am the right person to tell this new story.

Working on finalizing the animatic

By the end of today, I am hoping to finalize the story of Snow Angel.  I have edited, added, and adjusted the animatic several times over the past 6 months and I have one more hurdle to leap over and see if it is finally a finish line.  I truly believe it is essential to be sure, when doing this type of animated production.  If the animatic isn't interesting than there will be nothing to save it.  That's the goal, to make the best film possible.

I have more than taken my time with all the pre-production as this project has lingered for quite a while, then I hit on something, now it is just time to make sure it's right before moving on to animating the damn thing.  I hate going backwards.

I will probably post a teaser sometime soon and then get to the real work.

New Background from Dave Fedan

Here is a new background from the amazing David Fedan, yes there are more adjustments to make, but it is getting there.....Going to be animating soon.

Production starting soon.

I am looking forward to tackling this project.  I have been busy setting up a place to animate (which is interesting since my wife and I downsized) and really get back to my "roots" as a 2d traditional animator.   I will also be filming short video instructional videos about my process which I will be posting on Facebook, You Tube, Vimeo, and this blog.  Stay tuned.

Animatic Complete

Production on our short film, Snow Angel is about to begin.  With the help of many creative associates, we have finalized the animatic for this 2d traditionally animated short and are excited to begin animation production by the first of February, 2016.

Snow Angel has been on the proverbial "back burner" since Dave Fedan designed and animated the original "demo" back in 2000 (give or take a year) at Knock Knock Cartoons Ltd., LLC, an animation studio in Cleveland from 1994-2004. 

Here is just a taste of the backgrounds originally produced by Dave.  As you can see these backgrounds were originally designed for a 4X3 screen.  We are now redoing or adjusting these backgrounds to fit an HD format.