Blathering Blatherskite!!!

When I was a kid, I thought Gizmoduck was the coolest. He had such an awesome techno-suit filled with all sorts of mind-boggling gadgets.

 He even got to activate his suit by cursing! How cool was that?

Man, when I was like 6 or 7, I wanted to be Gizmoduck so badly.

(yes, I had a mullet)

 Problem was, I didn't have a beak, and I wasn't allowed to swear. So I decided to make my own suit. 

I had it all worked out-- white t-shirt with the logo drawn on it, cool 1992 sunglasses, my sister's Barbie car (to act as the tire)...

...and for the arm-band thingies? I needed something long and white... my dad's socks were perfect!!! I would just cut up four or five pairs. He wouldn't mind, right?

I must say, the costume came together better than I expected. I looked just like Gizmoduck! I was ready to save Duckburg! I hoped my dad would like it.

When he walked in, his reaction was better than I could have dreamed!

He started swearing!

I was sooo excited!
I knew that at any minute, a high-tech suit was gonna come bursting through the door and he was gonna become....

GIZMODAD!!!

But that's not quite what happened....

The Illusion of Life

So in the Animation Program at BYU there's a class for sophomores to take called "The Illusion of Life". It basically allows for exploration into any four of eight or so different fields of animation while keeping a single story/set of characters in mind. It's pretty awesome, but WAY intense-- at least 20 pages of research and reference are expected for any assignment. It's great though because it really helps to get you in the mindset that the pros are in-- always learning, always exploring.

So here is my character line-up:

Some storyboards from the story:






I got to explore anatomy for one of my characters and for a horse. Here are a couple of images from that assignment:



And here is the pencil test featuring Joss, the main character of the story:

Joss from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

Storyboards from Real Life

Storyboarding Final

Click for a larger image.

Rats!

Some quick sketches of different rats for a storyboarding project.

Multipanel Assignment

Welcome to the Program

Yeah, I haven't posted in forever because I've been more busy than I thought possible. The Animation Program is a blast! I've got some awesome classes from some incredible teachers. I'll post more in the next few days, but here is my character design for Kelly's Intro to Storyboarding class.



His name is Sheldon. He's a reindeer that can't fly.... and he likes to make toys (thus making him an outcast of sorts among reindeer).