New canvas.

Well as human beings we have searched for surfaces to leave our mark and express our ideas, cave walls, canvas, Chapel ceilings, paper, ipad's and now. at last the bike wheel.

Monkey Light Pro

Great little invention a fun canvas to explore not just with static images but animation as well.

Logo

Playing with vector logo roughs...

Tear it up.

Working on a little effect for an animated book. Just ripping paper... I've simplified a few things as it happens quite quickly and the eye makes up for things that aren't really there.

Let me know your thoughts.

Walking

I've been working on the walk of the Hairy Diary girl and came up with this little gait... almost dance like. Not sure I'll stick with it but I like it. Let me know what you think.

You'll also notice the usual Flash CS5 export to Quicktime problem... yep, artifacts. Its a known issue and very VERY annoying. There are ways around it check out my next post.

Animation test

Working on the the character form My Hairy Diary and working out how she might move and how her hair works. This is a really small test, just to get a feel. Let em know what you think.

Rotoscoping animation

I have been playing with some quick sketch rotoscoping. I like the effect. Some German Wheel animation.

New swag in the bag.

Just to let you all know that finally I have my online store for my illustrations and designs. They are all available on groovy products to drink from, to wear and to play with. Go over to Cafe Press and check it out, I'll be adding more as we go along and if there is something you'd like I'd love to hear it.

http://www.cafepress.ca/martinvarallo

First off the press is Green Bird and Orange Horse, I know, such original titles!
Enjoy and look forward to hearing from you,
Martin

Bug chair

More playing with chair ideas, they've been bugging me...

Vector Illustrations for animation.

I've been having a quick play with chair ideas, prompted by a client request. So if you were a small creature wouldn't you love to sit on a banana?

Hairy Diary moves into the digital realm

I have been preparing my character form "The Hairy Diary" from pencil (Coloursoft) to digital. ALso been playing with backgrounds, more for feel and colour than actual situations. She is being prepared for animation and I working on rigging her.

I love this work of love. 12 drawings a day for 4 years... superb artist. Bursting with life, energy and ideas. Pen on paper.


12 Drawings a Day - 12 Dessins par Jour from Denis Chapon on Vimeo.

Stop Motion Animation

Its so refreshing to see stop motion animation, especially in this digital age. This is really sweet...


Hudson - Against The Grain from Dropbear on Vimeo.

Bricking it!

I really like this piece of physical skill for a couple of reasons; 

1. its a skill I knew a lot of circus artists would love to have, it must have taken a while to perfect his technique. He even has the failed attempt to add tension.

 2. Its not in a circus. Its just everyday life. Its for a purpose that isnt entertainment, but the seeds are there...

The cat is sleeping

The cat has come on and found some colour. Still very sleepy and furry.

More pre sketch sketches....

Some more sketches for the book or the animation oh what the hell Both!.

Sketching the book

My children's book is coming along... and in doing so lots of other ideas have come to the fore.
Here are some early illustrations for the Hairy Diary.

Thoughts and doodles

Been a busy bee recently, lot's of admin, preparing my masterclasses and workshops in comedy, character development and improvisation. (if anyone is interested please contact me). I've been writing them also for animators as well as theatre students and professional actors and performers.

Speaking of animation I spent a fantastic weekend down  Montreal at the Cinametheque for a masterclass by PIXAR. Matthew Lhun was superb sharing his vast knowledge of 'story'. What I found amazing were the links and parallels between Animation and or film and creating shows and acts. Character development and physicality is a huge part of the animation process at Pixar and for us clown/actors as well. So my creative juices are flowing and all the things that needed to be reinforced, were.

My book is slowly coming, having two kids at home means my work rate has slowed a little but it is moving and soon school starts. Some little sketches...

Sketchbook

We have a bird nesting in one of hanging baskets around the front door.

My wife found a nest in the basket and brought it out for the kids to see.... later I saw a bird flying in and out of the basket.. hhmmm I thought, thats nice... later still I thought, wait a minute maybe she is building another one (Dont ask me why I thought like that, maybe they just love to build) I went to check and there were two little eggs... Aaah

Then the click moment. She made the nest to lay her eggs in it! WOW sometimes I'm surprised I can get out of bed in the morning. Anyway we replaced the nest and managed to get her eggs in there without touching them with our hands. So now she is very happy sitting in her nest.

Mind you we really played with her head. Nest, no nest, eggs, eggs and nest ?!?!?!?!?!?! So in tribute to all feathery things...

Animation for Kilimandjaro

Just did a simple little animation for my wife's mother. 

She is climbing Kilimanjaro and raising money for Mira and organisation that "works to help disabled individuals lead their lives independently as functioning members of society. We do this by providing dogs bred and trained to respond to their adaptation and rehabilitation needs."

Good luck Marie Claire...

Here's the link to the animation ~ http://www.youthebiscuit.com/marieclaire.html

Animation in an App ~ Task Dude is out!

Well at last the anti procrastination app is out... took 10 long years of distractions... No not really.

I did the illustrations and animation for this neat handy little app. I think its a great idea as we... OK, I always need an elbow in the ribs to get back on track. You can download the app here ~ http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taskdude/id428891160?mt=8&ls=1#

And the developers web site is here ~ www.inspirapption.com

Hope you enjoy it!!