RubberOnionBattle - 6 from 2016

Here is my compilation of entries from 2016's #RubberOnionBattle challenge. I only ended up completing 6 of the 12 monthly challenges.

It's made in Flash with the exception of the "hammer" scene which was made in the app Flipaclip.

Cheers!

Assorted 2D bits - Royalty free green screen animation

In no particular order here are some animated bits from my 2016 #RubberOnionBattle submissions. These were created in Adobe Flash with the exception of the "Hammer" shot which was created in the mobile app Flipaclip.

Feel free to use these clips in your own projects and send me a link so I can see what you've come up with.

You can download the video here: http://bit.ly/2p2pmPu

Happy remixing!

Assorted Aye-Aye (10 years on)

Hey,

In 2007 I was studying hand drawn animation at Freelance Animation School. 

For my final year project I was developing a 2 minute cartoon short called "An eye for an Aye-Aye".

I never finished the cartoon but I did work on it on-and-off for a few years, experimenting with different software.

Well 10 years on, here is some various production art from over the years.

Model Sheets & Style guides:

Hand drawn then cleaned up, scanned and coloured in Photoshop.

Early concepts and designs:

At this stage I knew I wanted an adversarial relationship with a man getting tormented by a small, adorable animal.

The animal was a non-specific Cat/ Racoon type creature which had made itself at home in the mans apartment.

These early style concepts were based on Looney Tunes cartoons.

You can see some of the mans poses are from Wile. E Coyote and Sylvester the Cat while one of the animals poses is from the Chuck Jones cartoon "Feed the kitty". 

Then the title came to me and the settings and characters came into focus.

Fun fact: "An eye for an Aye-Aye" is also the name of an episode of 'The Sylvester and Tweety mysteries'.

"A beard and racoon cartoon" was an early concept for Aye-Aye.

Development:

 False advertising:
I would love to work the characters of the Aye-Aye and Tim Portans into a cartoon one day but as it currently stands I will simply say...

Rest in peace "An eye for an Aye-Aye" 2007 - 2017.

Cheerio!

Kiwi Model Sheets

Hey,

Here are some designs for a character of mine, Keesh Kiwi... He's a good egg.

Notes:

- His design is inspired by the Looney Tunes and Woody Woodpecker.

- I wanted his beak to have a distinct shape. It can be difficult to keep the mass of his beak the same between frames and drawings.

- Kiwi birds have whiskers which I wanted in the designs.

- Kiwi birds don't have tails or teeth but Keesh Kiwi does.

- These are from 2009 and 2010 but I still draw Keesh from time to time.

- In the 2009 concepts, Keesh has red stars swirling around his head. This is a reference to the four red stars on the New Zealand flag.

PS: It was Facebook memories that prompted me to post these images.

Cheerio!

Worst Video Game - #RubberOnionBattle

Hey guys,

For April the theme for #RubberOnionBattle was 'Worst Video Game'.
You can see my submission on Instagram and Newgrounds.com or embedded below.

I decided to try an animation in the style of a video game from yesteryear.

It was my first time working in Pixel Art (thanks to the Pixel Tools v2 extension), I enjoyed it and found it to be pretty forgiving. You can download Pixel Tools v2 at Newgrounds.

Walk Cycle... what Walk Cycle?
I decided that not having a walk cycle animation would help crown this as the worst Video Game.

Look out for the compilation video featuring all the submissions coming soon.

This could be the worst video game. Music: "After dinner jazz" by mathgrant. #rubberonionbattle April. @rubberonion

A video posted by Jeff Cook (@aperturejam) on Apr 29, 2016 at 9:30pm PDT

If you're on Instagram, Show me love! ♥♥♥

Music:
After-Dinner Jazz by mathgrant
I was searching for Chiptunes tracks on the Free Music Archive and was thrilled to find this piece. It's perfect as I was looking for something casual and non-epic. It has a real catchy bounce to it.

Thank you mathgrant!!

You can hear the full track or listen to other tracks by mathgrant at the links below.

After-Dinner Jazz (mathgrant) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

My development work:

Here are the development sketches and some experiments with Pixel Art.

Pixel Art:

I used Pixel Tools v2 as a clean up tool for my rough animation... although the final version doesn't have any character animation. 

Don't blink!

An animation test for #rubberonionbattle. #pixelart #pixel #animation #walkcycle #loop #hypnotic

A video posted by Jeff Cook (@aperturejam) on Apr 9, 2016 at 5:12am PDT

Cheers!

Robot Coworker - #RubberOnionBattle

Hey,

The March theme for #RubberOnionBattle was 'Robot Coworker'.
You can see my clip on Instagram or Newgrounds.com.

Theme: Robot Coworker My March entry for #rubberonionbattle. A bit of a rush to get this finished as I'm going out of town for a few days. #Robot #Coworker #robotarm #animation @rubberonion #kitchen #Cartoon #toon

A video posted by Jeff Cook (@aperturejam) on Mar 29, 2016 at 5:56am PDT

March had 9 entrants, which you can check out in the compilation below. They're all great and worth checking out.

My Development:

Pencil sketches from the beginning of March. I looked at Chef Skinner from Ratatouille for inspiration of the Head Chef. I was also thinking of celebrity Chefs during the design process.

Indie animator Rob Yulfo also picked that the Chefs dialogue was inspired by Doctor Zachary Smith from TV's 'Lost in Space'.

A layout of the kitchen scenes.

A layout of the Human Resources scene.

Bonus features:

You may have noticed that the kitchen hand is from my January clip 'Casual Friday gone wrong'.

He's had a change in career to a role where he is attempting to chop a Rubber Onion... I know, I know.

Outside the Human Resources meeting room there is a Comic book featuring 'Tom Plumb: Bathroom warrior'. Also known as one of the useless superheroes from February.

One of the looky-loos in the kitchen is this Rat, who is so chilled that he's in the exact same spot when we next return to the kitchen.

Fluffy Kitten Teamwork Motivational Poster

Cheers!

Superhero with useless power - #RubberOnionBattle

So the February theme for #RubberOnionBattle was 'Superhero with useless power'.

Theme: Superhero with useless power. My Febuary entry for #rubberonionbattle. #Superhero #Hero #HeroLanding #animation @rubberonion #Bathroom #Cartoon #toon

A video posted by Jeff Cook (@aperturejam) on Feb 29, 2016 at 12:53am PST

Also on Newgrounds.com :D

 Here's a compilation of the February entries and they are hilarious.

Vote on the most useless super power on YouTube.

My Development work:

#superhero #Sketch and #design work for February's #rubberonionbattle

A video posted by Jeff Cook (@aperturejam) on Mar 3, 2016 at 6:07pm PST

Pencil Sketches 

Digital Sketches

The Concept which basically got tweaked into the final character model.

Layout

I went back to a character I designed for Botur's Fight Squad and used his orange janitorial jumpsuit as the basis for the Bathroom Warriors super suit.

You can read more about the work I did on that project here and see other designs at the Squad Blog.

Cheers!

Star Wars Uncut - Empire (2012)

Hey,

Today, from the files of the old and abandoned...

I found some of my old development work from the fan collaboration Star Wars: Empire uncut from back in 2012. 

So what is the project about?

Star Wars Uncut is a crazy fan mashup remake of the original Star Wars movies. It is the brainchild of Casey Pugh, a developer dedicated to creating interactive experiences on the web. In 2009, Casey was inspired to use the Internet and an ever-ready pool of passionate Star Wars fans to crowdsource the classic film Star Wars IV: A New Hope. This pet project turned into a labor of love and creativity on a large scale. Nearly a thousand fans came together to participate and the resulting movie is equal parts fun, kooky, and dearly nostalgic.

So, I picked 2 scenes and didn't get very far with either of them. It was a lot of fun though.

SC117 - "Why do we have to cut these things so damn close?".

This scene was from the Battle of Hoth.
I had the idea of using dialogue from Back to the Future with Luke McFlywalker joining the battle in a souped-up Delorean.

Here's a clip of the Lip-Sync along with some concept art.

"Why do we have to cut these things so damn close?" Part of an unfinished scene for Star Wars: Empire uncut in 2012. #animation #behindthescenes #lukeskywalker #martymcfly #starwars #bttf #empirestrikesback #backtothefuture #lipsync

A video posted by Jeff Cook (@aperturejam) on Feb 16, 2016 at 12:22am PST

SC284

This was a scene with Luke and Yoda on the Dagobah system.
Basically just Luke walking around and Yoda frowning and looking disappointed.

This scene didn't get further than rotoscoping over frames from The Empire Strikes Back.

Luke Skywalker rotoscoped for Empire Uncut. Or The Seven Skywalkers.

Here is a teaser trailer for Empire uncut... You can also watch the full Star Wars and Empire uncut films online.

Star Wars Uncut: The Empire Strikes Back TEASER from Star Wars Uncut on Vimeo.

Hopefully they announce Star Wars: Jedi Uncut in the near future as I've got some unresolved Star Wars business that I need to get out of my system.

Cheers!

Instagram

Hey,

While I've been away from the blog for many years, I've found time to post regularly on Instagram.
You can find me here.

Please check out my page to see photos of places I've been and the occasional behind the scenes bit.

Just a short clip after a long weekend. #animation #cartoon #wip #digitalart #workinprogress #behindthescenes

A video posted by Jeff (@aperturejam) on Feb 1, 2016 at 2:48am PST

I'm feeling creative and inspired after the last animation, I've started working on another clip. #animation #cartoon #wip #digitalart #workinprogress #behindthescenes

A video posted by Jeff (@aperturejam) on Jan 28, 2016 at 2:05am PST

Last nights exercise. #behindthescenes #workinprogress #wip #animation #cartoon

A photo posted by Jeff (@aperturejam) on Jan 28, 2016 at 1:49pm PST

Thank you for a fantastic year. Happy holidays to you and yours. #2015bestnine🌟 #montage ✌🐣😊🔑🐊🎁🍰 #Dinosaurs, #sunsets and #railway shots.

A photo posted by Jeff (@aperturejam) on Dec 30, 2015 at 1:30am PST

Send a few hearts my way :D ... It is Valentines Day after all.

Thanks!

2016 - #RubberOnionBattle

Hello,

It's me... with my first blog post since the end of 2012.
In short, I'm starting to feel creative again for the first time in many years. :D

I've also updated the URL of this blog to be more in line with my other social media accounts.

#RubberOnionBattle
Freelance animator Stephen Brooks aka Rubber Onion decided to "throw down" an animation challenge to animator Rob Yulfo but soon invited anyone who wanted to participate.

So for January 2016, we got the first #RubberOnionBattle. It was a lot of fun, especially because it got me creating a little short of my own.

Basically, anyone who wanted to participate could. They had to create a 15 second short before the end of January and upload it to instagram. The theme of the shorts was Casual Friday gone wrong.

Check out my short below and compilation of Januarys entries below that.

Casual Friday gone wrong.

 
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/669603

RubberOnionBattle Jan 2016

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/670053
or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiVXf2nfJNw

The February challenge is now underway and you can find details on Twitter and Instagram. 

Join in.

My Development work:

See the Rough layout and the final frames.
I've left the edges of the image in so can see where the background gets cropped in the final animation.

There were originally going to be more gags, both in the animation and scattered throughout the background but I felt the scene was getting too busy and cluttered.

I was sad to cut the Rubber Ducky as well as a potential action figure from the desk.

In fact the original punchline was going to involve electrocution but I decided to go lowbrow and lift a gag from Caddyshack instead. 

Cheers!

Aye-Aye Model Sheets

Here are the Model sheets and some poses for my cartoon "An Eye for an Aye-Aye".
These designs were created in 2007 for my Student film.

Model Sheets

Pose Chart