omanablog

Grande Pictures Presents...

2012-01-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

I've been struggling to find an entity under which to release Spirit Lake, my first feature. Originally it was to be the flagship film from a studio that I started in Milwaukee (Studio Bib Simmons). I got balls deep into the project and they all but abandoned me so that wasn't going to work. I was playing with "Omanaman Pictures", which has been the guise of my portfolio (omanaman.com) for the last 10 years. Ironically I just took down the latest version of the site and have it forward to this blog. I couldn't give a rat's butthole about maintaining a website, or much of that work anymore. Omanaman Pictures doesn't have much of a ring to it either. I tried to put "A Joe Shakula Film" and leave it at that, but I don't have an inflated ego and don't like my name all over everything. I prefer to lurk in the shadows, and once the job is done fade into darkness (or my next project).

After a year in Los Angeles I found myself turning into the type of demented clown that the town tends to turn people into. Shallow, jaded, desperate... I had to go, that definitely isn't me. Being trained in the hobo arts, I was quickly able to fit my belongings in a blanket tethered to knotted stick of oakwood, and I was bound for Central America.

The other day I woke up from a deep, wine aided slumber, put on my board shorts, wandered about 125 meters towards the beach, and jumped into a warm bath of crystal blue ocean water. As shiny fish scattered around me, I lay floating on my back in the surf while tiny waves splashed over me and washed the morning away...

Playa Grande, a sleepy little surf town on the Pacific coast of Guanacaste has always been my second home. The town is like family and since my arrival my desk has been Fernando's sushi bar at the Ripjack Inn, a clear deviation from the sweat hazy, slave like working conditions of Los Angeles. My plan has always been to make my next film down here, so it seemed like a natural choice to name my new picture label after a place that defines who I am. Spirit Lake will be released as a Grande Pictures Presentation, with several more film projects in the works. Below is a little video jam I put together to introduce my new baby... enjoy!

Señales | Signs from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.
music by altos
production by joe shakula

filmed in Playa Grande, Costa Rica
edited at Fernando's sushi bar at the Ripjack Inn

omanaman 2011 Year in Review - No Love in Los Angeles

2012-01-19T19:21:00.000-08:00

Alright, I did find a little love in Los Angeles in 2011, but quickly f'd it up... I arrived in Tinseltown in late 2010 with the sole purpose of finishing a feature film project that had consumed the previous two years of my life and a very large sum of dollar. When I arrived, I received the full Hollywood treatment and within a couple months had this great new life. I was working at an amazing studio for some big clients, met this awesome lady, had my own pad and a sweet Jag to cruise to the beach in, lived right across the street from the dispensary, etc. I was living the dream. Unfortunately, my pre-LA baggage quickly caught up with me and I realized I couldn't really enjoy any of it until I resolved my past obligations.

Total burnout on this gig. Never got to try the the pancakes.

Six months later, fall of 2011 I had thrown all my efforts into finishing Spirit Lake, as well as earned a giant sack of gold doing commercial freelance work. In the process I had abandoned my personal life, making just about every bad decision I could throughout the year. Depressed and heartbroken, it was impossible to get my feet underneath me in LA. I burnt out bad on my last few freelance gigs and I returned to Milwaukee for the holidays bitter and broken. As I hung out the window of my childhood bedroom late december, burning a spliff, blowing puffs of smoke into the frigid air and reflecting upon my year in L.A., I finally gained some perspective.

Total burnout on this gig too. Insurance is a scam.

I flew into LAX on New Years Eve. Flights were cheap and I couldn't give a shit about any party I was missing. I woke up January 1st, 2012 with no hangover, just a clear head that didn't want to remember 2011. Spirit Lake was finished. I was physically unable to spend the long hours meeting the demands of post-production in LA. I wasn't there to whore my talents out to the advertising industry and I found the social scene to be circus-like, full of posers, donkeys, and douchebags (I met awesome people too). I wanted to travel, drink wine, do art... and live on the beach.

Playa Grande, Home Sweet Home

10 years ago on a whim, a friend and I bought a one way plane ticket to San Jose, Costa Rica. I returned to the states four months later knowing I had found the one place I belonged. I've returned many times making it my home away from home. Not wasting any time, I liquidated what few assets I had, geared up a mobile production studio, stuffed up my backpack with t-shirts and surf shorts, and again bought a one way plane ticket to Costa Rica (which apparently you can't do anymore, I got jabbed at the airport for a return flight.).

A few weeks into my adventure, I've finally decompressed, and closing the deal on a Tico hut in Playa Grande. I am drawing panels for a pitch on a graphic novel, and getting Spirit Lake ready for release, putting together a number of promo videos and tweaking the two trailers to perfection. My next two film projects are planned for Costa Rica so not going anywhere soon. 2012 can't go wrong.

Spirit Lake ; trailer 1 - Liam's Haiku

2011-12-21T14:17:00.000-08:00

Finally, after 3 years I can start promoting this film. This is the first of two trailers... the second of which will be released shortly after the new year. Trailer 2 features all the great animation and vfx that have consumed my soul for the entire year... stay tuned!

Spirit Lake - trailer 1 ; Liam's Haiku from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

Description:Wayne Speedstock is the glib & assertive top sales agent of Duplimax, maker of the Midwest’s elitist copy machines. During a reluctant weekend retreat on the surface of Spirit Lake, Wayne discovers the frozen corpse of Liam Smith, salvaging his wallet as the body sinks to the icy depths. Wayne soon becomes entangled by a series of similarities, realizing that Liam is not just a stranger, but the man who has been wooing his girlfriend Sabina through a series of letters that had been mistaken for his own. “Professional Investigator” Alden Stevenson soon arrives in town to find out all clues about the disappearance of his best friend point to Wayne. When Wayne begins sharing the same dreams with Liam, it begins a journey into himself, that leads back to the mysterious depths of Spirit Lake.

Chasing your dreams over the edge...

2011-11-19T15:51:00.001-08:00

Autumn is a good time of the year to collect your thoughts, and rethink your existence. In November of 2009, I had a major episode coming to terms with spending 20K and a year of my life shooting a feature film, and having no plan on how I was going to turn the 50+ hours of footage into a finished edit. The day after my last shoot (December 10th, 2009), I packed up the Duplimax mobile and headed to California.

In October of last year, I had another profound moment after completing a finished edit of Spirit Lake and realizing I had an even bigger mountain to cross finishing the 6 dream sequences that were essential to the plot, and turning this gorgeous disaster of independent filmmaking into an presentable movie. I was scraping by in San Diego at the time and figured the one place I was going to make it happen was in Los Angeles. In November 2010, I landed a gig at an amazing studio in Culver City called Paranoid.

In March, after grinding away at Paranoid for months, I earned my spot on the roster and had gotten permission to use the awesome resources of the studio to work on Spirit Lake. I also was able to move off of the air mattress on the floor of Nate Polzin's living room and into my own pad. I had finally found a way to finish the film... but not without selling the rest of my soul.

When my filmmaking obsession began in the spring of 2008, I had a life built up around me from 30 years of living in the midwest. I had a loving wife, beautiful home & nice shit, supportive family, lifelong friends, a social life. I taught my craft at a university, and had a steady stream of freelance design work based on a hard-earned reputation. I started a film & animation studio in Milwaukee (Bib Simmons, 2008-2010 r.i.p.) and recruited a group of bright young talented artists. Spending a year on my previous solo project (Escape from Gizemboob, animation - April 2008) and being rejected from all but one film festival (thanks Ross), I knew I was going to need help. When our first studio project (Backwoods, film -june 2008) was an success in almost every way, I had the feeling we could do anything together. After a couple more worthy efforts over the following months (Dr. Zolo P.S.A., animation - August 2008 & Magic Pen, film & animation - November 2008), I had the confidence to take it to the next level and the studio had began production on the feature length film Spirit Lake in December of 2008.

Nearly three years later I sit here in my chilly Los Angeles bachelor pad... listening to Beethoven radio (not usually my style), sipping red wine, and trying to articulate in this blog post coming to terms with the fact that there is nothing left of my life except finishing this movie. I'm pretty sure that even my dog hates me right now.

Dream Sequences; why animation turns my face white...

If the edit of Spirit Lake would have been shit, I would of fudged these dream sequence animations and pushed the movie out over a year ago. But last October as Nate and I watched the edit, we realized we had something special. This wasn't another deranged flop like my animation work. Spirit Lake was special and I had my opportunity to make a serious statement as an animator and filmmaker. I also understood the most challenging work lay ahead.

I burned a lot of bridges to get this movie finished... I eventually learned to turn my back on people in order to get things done. I'm not apologizing for any of it, except in March of this year, as I began to work on these dream sequences I burned somebody I respected too much, who didn't deserve it, and for all the same reasons. Angry and delusional about what I had done, I gave up on a personal life in Los Angeles, developed a bitter, entrenched, isolationist attitude, and completely enveloped myself in this animation work. There was no other way I would ever get it done.

Since, I have completed the six dream sequences, around 45 seconds a piece. Each from start to finish took about 3 weeks. Most of the work took place between April and September at Paranoid. As I finished a draft of each dream sequence, I was able to apply what I had learned to the next. After cycling through all six a few times, they started to congeal and reach the same level of finish.

All of the elements in the dream sequences are real. I would describe my technique as video animation. I don't generate any source, nothing is artificial. The smoke, fire, water, ice, etc... are real elements I mash together using special effects magic, much like your brain mashes together your memories into dreams. The beginning of last month, as I previewed all six drafts, I got an inclination that the end was near.

Visual Effects and Video Matte Paintings, make it stop!

Below is a series of what I call Video Matte Paintings, which I created from the mountains of extra footage I had from Spirit Lake, combing up to 8 different layers of footage. As I reached this stage I realized that I have become a vfx master over the year and I was able to change pretty much any element of the movie I didn't like, and tweak things on a whim.

I completed drafts of all 6 dream sequences in September. Next remained the much less intimidating challenge of conforming 90 minutes of live action and 6 minutes of animation, plus a series of visual effects shots and cleanup work, which included stabilization, de-graining, and color grading.

Original crappy footage

Are we there yet?

Spirit Lake is now in post audio production. The super talented Alex Ma is cleaning the dialog and adding sound design. There are plenty of finishing touches still being made as all of the elements of the film are now complete. As we arrive at a final version around the end of year (yes, 2011... for real), the musical score, already written, will be integrated into the film. My last item of business will be the title and ending credit sequence, which I am still holding on on help for...

Big aspirations don't come without an equal amount of sacrifice... I don't usually talk about personal or emotional side of my life, outside of my work. Normally that's all there is, and I've learned that suppressing emotions and giving up on friendship was the only way I would get this done. Over the past 3 years, I've destroyed too many relationships. My only friend here in LA? Nate Polzin, lead actor, Spirit Lake...

This fall, as I stomped out the last few embers of compassion left in my soul, I came to the realization I was going to finish this film. Making Spirit Lake had exceeded my expectations in almost every way. My life isn't a joke... I felt validation. But as the 3 years of life consuming work and determination comes to an end, I find there isn't much left in it's place.

So, now I have to start a new life, in Los Angeles, with a budding career, and a feature film... I hope I can get over it. It's just you and me Spirit Lake (and Nate), here we go!

Surviving Carmageddon, a week in Three Lakes, & good omens...

2011-07-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

They made a massive hype in Los Angeles about closing down the 405 freeway, supposedly diverting some 800 million zombie driven automobiles into the sidestreets of every neighborhood and onto my front lawn, or something like that. For this very reason I left over 2 hours early for a flight to the midwest for my annual family summer vacation in Three Lakes, WI. I arrived at LAX over two hours early. Carmageddon was another bogus media scam. I did get some good time in at the airport sketching away at some character designs and miscellaneous observances.

One major project that I'm working on is something I can mention nothing more about than it's got a publisher attached and if they like my boards, I will be commissioned for my first graphic novel! The idea of doing all that illustration makes me salivate. So far my character designs are looking good. I've rattled off about 30 different versions, and of course I can't possibly share any of it. What I can share is this super cool LORDS OF THE MEGACOSM illustration featuring Dr. Zolo and the Qualiped Similax 2000PZT.

I often produce my most inspired work in such a relaxed state, and I was hanging out with good friend and Dr. Zolo voice actor Mark Strothmann. He regaled me with stories of previous travels across the Upper Peninsula as we headed to a podunk pit stop on the shores of Lake Superior called Marquette, jamming John Frusciante and taking in the tiny mountains all the way up. I would describe the people in that town, and neighboring Ishpeming as "special". Their unique physical state of being probably has something to do with all the Beef-a-Roo restaurants and Pasty shops, all claiming that they "Are way fucking better than those other guys!" I think there were about seven of them throughout town. Mark took me to the best one... I ordered a turkey sub.

People eat here.

As we cruised down Main St., there stood a teenager with balloons taped all over him, the long transmorphable type, and a handmade sign taped to his chest with the words "Bonnie's Balloon Emporium" written in marker. Next to him danced a giant orange apple... I think the costume was faded by years of usage, and was once a glorious red. At least the costume encompassed his head and he was able to hide his shame. I think he was selling insurance.

You can get almost anything in Ispheming... mmm, fart.

As we reached the final leg of our journey, we came upon a youngling black bear eating grass on the side of a nearly vacant wooded road. The last time my spirit crossed with that of a black bear was probably over 10 years ago in the very same region. That was an epic trip, and followed it many great things. As our car pulled aside we exchanged glances for a short moment, as well as positive energy. He went back to eating grass, we continued on our way. What a great sign as I take the next month off to finally finish Spirit Lake. Good times are ahead.

Plug & Spirit Lake updates!

2011-06-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

There are great things going on in Los Angeles all the time. My blog writing is not one of them. I've been much too busy doing animation and visual effects for a plethora of projects. The two at the top continue to be the forever in post production feature film Spirit Lake, and the science fiction short Plug. If I could only find a way to freeze time, these projects would be completed instantaneously and I could display them to you now. Unfortunately I don't possess that sort of power (yet), but I do have some very nice progress to report on.

All it takes for the mind to create a dream is a few moments of deep sleep. For me it takes dozens of hours of gently massaging video footage into something ethereal and surreal. Last fall I wrote a blog about a particular dream sequence involving Ned the tortoise and a green screen shoot.

The green screen session. November 2010. Santiago Munoz (left) and Joe Shakula (right) capture Ned the tortoise for a dream sequence in Spirit Lake.

http://omanaman.blogspot.com/2010/10/animation-test-spirit-lake.html

Below is the finished version and a preview of one of six of the animated dream sequences in Spirit Lake. As these are completed within the coming weeks, production will be rounding out on the film and I can start thinking about a premiere. At this point, the 5 minutes of animation in Spirit Lake has taken as much production time as the 90 minute edit. Chew on that info nugget.

The other great news this week is Plug, teaser 2 is officially online. The science fiction short has wrapped on principal photography as is now moving into post production. On the teaser, I handled a number of effects shots including the two binocular views, and the close-up of the damaged robot face. I am deeply proud of this work. I am also extremely impressed with everything that David Levy and Hatem Benabdallah have put together at this point. The finished product is going to be bad ass and I see a feature film on the horizon. They currently posted a video on kickstarter.com and are raising some funds. I will be helping on additional effects... stay tuned on this one for sure.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1068245015/plug-stunt-vfx-fundraiser

Spirit Lake Dream Sequences, Plug, and Polish radio

2011-04-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

I finally have some time off this year and have been getting caught up on old projects while starting new. I am appearing on Polish radio tomorrow at 8 am (pacific time) for a new program hosted by Spirit Lake actor and comedian Martin Kraszewski, who currently resides in Warsaw. I promised a blog article so he could forward the listeners on to see some of the work soon to be discussed. We will be speaking in English, so you can have your Polish translator take the weekend off.

The majority of this available time has been taken up by recent production on the dream sequences for Spirit Lake. In March I was able to shoot all the green screen footage with actor Nate Polzin. I have a green couch and some green boards and can easily transform my living room into a studio. Below are some screenshots of production. There are six of these babies and plenty of work to go, but most of the heavy lifting is over.

The other side project I have been working on is a sweet ass science fiction short film called Plug, being produced out of Paranoid here in Los Angeles. Everything I have seen up to this point has been amazing, with crew currently in the middle of shooting. I am currently working on some effect shots for the second trailer, out in May. Below is the first trailer.

omanaman 2010 Year in Review, part 3 - Playa Grande, Slaying the Beast...

2011-02-08T01:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, this article is my wrap up to the 2010 omanaman - Year in Review... a little late, but better than never. Plus, I've been uber-busy. I just wrapped directing a commercial with a super rad studio here in Los Angeles, and am currently cranking away on more. Not much time for leisure these days. I left the last article hanging as I was about to go to Costa Rica for the summer to begin editing Spirit Lake.

I arrived at my favorite place in the world, Playa Grande - Costa Rica in mid-June of 2010. Something about the air soothes my mind... I don't think I had a moment of stress my entire trip, except for when a giant wave snapped my longboard in half and almost killed me. I had actually woken up that morning in the middle of dreaming about big rolling surf. My immediate decision upon waking to hit the water was almost one of my last.

Don't try big gnarly surf with a longboard.

Except for this little mishap, and perhaps driving through the mountains at night with no headlights with the Manimal behind the wheel, I had achieved perfect peace of mind and began both editing my movie and a series of documentary style shorts I was planning to use to pitch my next film.

One day I walked out of the trail onto Playa Grande to meet a crowd of people drawing attention to some event in the water. As I drew closer, there was a group of people trying to aid a beached whale back into the depths. I quickly unsheathed my Flipcam and joined the effort as the documentarian. After hours of efforts, the result were inevitable. I left before the creature washed ashore... I'm not interested in any harsh realities, only good filmmaking. It was an intense experience and a legitimately heart driven effort. Below are the results of my own efforts on the flip.

Delphin Ballena - Playa Grande, Costa Rica from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.
This 16 foot "Dolphin Whale" washed up on the beach in Playa Grande, Costa Rica during the summer of 2010. It was sick and dying from a bacterial infection. As well intentioned the people helping it were, I think it just wanted to be out of its misery and move on to the next world.
http://costaricahoy.info/nacionales/zifio-encalla-en-el-parque-nacional-marino-las-baulas/58292/

The nature in Costa Rica is awesome, in fact it kicks the ass of nature pretty much anywhere else in the world. They have just about every type of deadly critter imaginable down there; Dengue fever carrying mosquitos, pit vipers, scorpions, giant black tarantulas, praying mantis, and whatever other Indiana Jones style insect you can think of. There are also herds of cow that rome aimlessly, and packs of Tican mutts who roam with a purpose. As you can see below, nature often clashes in this wild jungle...

Cow vs. Dogs episode 1 from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.
One ferocious cow and three scrappy dogs duke it out in an epic battle for the ages.
starring Charlie, Bonita, and Lucky Dog from the RipJack Inn.
filmed in Playa Grande, Costa Rica

You meet a lot of amazing people in Costa Rica. It takes someone high in character to move to the jungle and live the life. One of the characters I met along the way was Hermes. A Venezuelen painter and surfer, he scraped by in Playa Grande selling his art, fixing boards, and who knows what else. One day he was painting local handyman Tim Schneider's brand new TukTuk Taxi Cab. I had to get the process on film. Below is the best and final of my Costa Rican mini films.

Hermes Paints a Tuk Tuk from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.
Playa Grande handyman Tim "Schneider" commissions local painter Hermes to put a Tico flavor to his newly acquired TukTuk Taxi.

Making these movies prepared me for the big edit of Spirit Lake, plus are going to help me pitch the next of two film ideas slated for this fall (2011) in Costa Rica. One, a documentary about an undisclosed subject, and second a fantasy action adventure film which will be an homage to what Indiana Jones 4 should have been. We all need something to wash that horrible piece of donkey shit from our memories... this film will be it and marketed as such. I also plan on bringing back much of the Spirit Lake cast (Nate Polzin, Martin Krazcewski, etc...) to fill the non latino roles.

Aside from all the fun, I got some serious work done during my summer in the Pacific jungle... I finished a pre-edit of Spirit Lake. I returned to California for the fall, and finished a complete edit by October 2010. I had invested about 16 weeks over five months. Exhausted, and literally brain-dead, I spent November in Milwaukee and Chicago collecting ADR and preparing for addition post production elements, including the score and color correction. I also completed a series of animation tests for each of the many dream sequences. (The composite work on these sequences is currently being handled here in LA by a crack team of production warriors, as well as the titles sequences.) By the end of the year once again I was hanging by a thread financially and was on the verge of assuming a hobo identity, when I began work at a super fucking sweet studio that has been keeping me busy, and fat with dollar since.

2011 is going to be a very good year...

Yes I'm Still Working on Spirit Lake

2011-01-15T00:26:00.000-08:00

An original poster for Spirit Lake... The release date says November 2009! Hahahaha, wishful thinking.

I just passed the two year mark for production on Spirit Lake. The idea was incubating in my brain sometime in December of 2008. I was hoping to finish by the end of the year but my empty bank account demanded that I seriously began pursuing work. Until about 6 weeks ago I had been spending as much time possible on post production and living like a peasant king.

I've already heard from several people that they have "Spirit Lake blue balls"... so do I, trust me. I am ever so close. The soundtrack is currently being scored in Milwaukee, WI with the uber-talented LMNtlyst. I am wrapping up an assload of animation and composite work that makes up the animated dream sequences, with at least another 15 solid days of production work left. Also, ever since I stuck my head into the job market here in LA, I have been landing some extremely killer gigs. Believe or not my skills are highly sought after here...who knew? I am directing my first tv commercial this week for a huge client... so now I have the allure of getting smelly rich to battle as well. The Jag does need a new paint job.

The long wait might bother me, but the more I put into Spirit Lake the more amazing the film becomes, and it has easily become my greatest work. I do get frustrated on occasion, as I am very anxious to share with everyone, but I refuse to rush through or compromise anything at this point. So I am going to say February. I had planned to have all of January to finish up but things keep falling in my lap that are too juicy not to scoop up. My plan now is to have all of February to polish it up. Either way a great film is on its way... stay tuned!

omanaman 2010 Year in Review, part 2 - Lords of the Megacosm & the Kiosk to Paradise

2011-01-07T16:50:00.000-08:00

By Spring of 2010 I already had 3 short animations under my belt for the year, and for the two months prior I had spent every spare second preparing to pitch Escape!, the animated science fiction series that I had been crafting for eons. I was ready to kick some serious ass but was just scraping by due to the debt that I had racked up to film an indie feature the year before, and I had barely touched the over 50 hours of footage sitting on my hard drive.

Flashback to the late 90's... when I was about 20 or so I began writing my first feature film. It was an untitled epic science fiction drama and it was my wind down activity before I went to bed a few nights a week for a couple years. It eventually got stowed away in the vaults of my mind until last fall. As I was pulling Gizemboob out of retirement, I remembered my old story and pulled out my notes. When I swapped out the main character with my new protagonist, it provided the perfect back story for the reinvention of Escape from Gizemboob. The combination of all these years of writing provided me with a mountain of substance to work with, and I eventually massaged all this awesome material into a science fiction super-drama so epic it will blow your mind out of your ass. As the Lords of the Megacosm storyline for season 1 was coming to completion, I was overworked, exhausted, and in desperate in need of some backup. I was only going to get one shot at this and it was obviously not the time to pitch this monument of achievement, so in June of 2010 I shelved Gizemboob once again to put my focus where it should have been all along... a feature film called Spirit Lake.

Broke and burnt out, I turned my attention away from low paying animation and back onto some cherry design work so I could earn a little mountain of cash from which to launch post production of Spirit Lake. By the end of May I had designed and programmed a kiosk for Cisco and Johnson Controls through one of my favorite agencies back in the Midwest and had bought myself a couple months of my own time to begin the edit of my first feature film. Because of the magnitude of this undertaking, I decided to spend it in the one place on this planet I have the most peace of mind... Costa Rica.

On my way to Latin America, I made a quick stop off in the Midwest to vj at what has become my favorite annual video gig, the Pump Dance Pavilion at the Milwaukee Pridefest. This year the Black Hoodies had a 50 foot LED wall to play with. One thing about the gay and lesbian community, no matter where they are, they know how to throw a party. We lit it up for 3 days in June 2010 at the coolest freak show of the year. Below is a promo video I made of the event... Shot on a HD Flipcam, it was the first of many mini editing projects I did to warm up to editing Spirit Lake.

The Black Hoodies do a 50' LED video wall from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.
The Black Hoodies... the legendary video performance group from Milwaukee, WI get crazy on a 50' LED Video wall at the 2010 Pridefest at the Pump! Dance Pavillion, Summerfest grounds.

next: omanaman 2010 Year in Review, part 3 - Playa Grande, Slaying the Beast...

An Afternoon on Underwood

2011-01-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

During the summer of 2010 I bought a lens package ( Letus 35 Extreme with 4 lenses of various millimeterage) for the filming of Spirit Lake. I was hanging out with my Mom while testing them out and took a bunch of footage of her and Luke (their dog) while she prepared dinner on a lazy June afternoon.

I wasn't able to go home for the holidays this year. I booked a rush job at a sweet little studio here in Los Angeles and pretty much worked straight through Christmas and New Years. Because my Mom's birthday is the day after Christmas, I wanted to give her something this year that wasn't just another sweater, or cooking vessel, or whatever a grown man buys his mother for a gift. Missing home, I dragged out the footage I took last summer and crafted An Afternoon on Underwood, a video homage to a special place in Wisconsin. Cutting through all that footage was a great way for me to spend some time at home with family. Unfortunately I didn't get any footage of my dad watching football and drinking beer... sorry Dad. Ironically enough I had Skype family Xmas... I got to watch my family eat prime rib on my laptop. The future is definitely here.

omanaman 2010 Year in Review, part 1 - The ADA

2010-12-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

2010 has easily been the most productive year of my entire professional career. It was also the first year I was not gainfully employed by anyone but myself… go figure. Independence can be an extremely motivating factor. I would estimate that I averaged no less than a 60 hour work week for the entire year, but when you love what you do and you are your own boss, it quite often doesn’t feel like an effort. A true artist lives their work.

The Animation Dance Association

I wrapped filming of Spirit Lake on December 10^th, 2009. The next day my car was packed with what little belongings I had left, and I wasn’t looking back. After years of struggling to find any legitimate opportunity in film or animation in Milwaukee, I had finally made the opportunities myself and gained the knowledge and knowhow, as well as the portfolio to take my game to the main stage, Los Angeles, California.

When I arrived, I had plans to launch the studio I formed in Milwaukee on the back of Spirit Lake, the indie feature I had shot the year before, and Escape!, an animated sci-fi comedy serial animation I had been developing for over 10 years. I also had 3 studio members coming out in May to fill in our animation team. The stars were aligned. My major concern was that I spent the entire previous year shooting a feature film, and it had been even longer since I had done any serious character animation. I was entering the most competitive creative environment in the entire world, in one of the most demanding fields, and I was way out practice, not to mention, I really missed doing animation.

The first gig I picked up in January 2010 was for the Animation Dance Association. The ADA, started by Alexander Visilkin, a wealthy Russian animation producer, was a competitive website where teams of animators faced off in a daily showdown between two dance themed animated shorts. Each team had a captain, and there was a nightly live broadcast where they would present the clips and a winner was announced based on the votes tallied from the website. It was an insane stroke of genius, and a perfect venue to brush up on my abilities. By May I had completed 3 animated shorts for the ADA, and I was back on top of my game.

Glinty McElwee's Night Out; And How He Got His Gold Back from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

The first short I was assigned was to be broadcast on St. Patties day and needed to include a dancing Leprechaun. I came up with the character named Glinty McElwee, the Dirty Leprechaun, who spends all his gold on a night of debauchery, and gains it back by dancing an Irish jig. I based the character on an old buddy and party legend who had earned the title of “The Dirty Shamrock”. I was pleased with the results, and it was a great reminder how demanding producing quality animation is. This particular commitment took me in excess of 4 solid weeks, from concept to completion. Unfortunately, the animation never competed on the website… the ADA was in between seasons when St. Patty’s day arrived. What brilliant planning on there part.

Freaky Farmer from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

The next short I completed was an uber-ridiculous comedy called Freaky Farmer. Written by ADA collaborator and Cardinals team caption Bryan Jackson, it was a fun little parody involving a salacious encounter between a horny pair of hillbillies and their unfortunate barnyard friends. For this animation I was designing and animating 5 characters and two settings, as opposed to just a dancing leprechaun. Because of the increased character load, this project kicked my ass getting it out before deadline, taking me easily over 6 weeks to complete. Again, I was pleased with my efforts and ready to step it up again.

The Action Newz Minute with Joe Cardinal - Episode 1 from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

The finals short I created for the ADA was called the Action Newz Minute with Joe Cardinal. It was a Soup style clip show that ripped on the animations and team captains from the weekly live broadcast. Where the previous two animations were absent any significant dialog, the Action Newz Minute was all jokes and all dialog, featuring myself as the voice actor. I had come up with a similar concept a couple years before and actually had the art and animation files created already. I was able to retrofit the old work to my new concept. Because the majority of artwork had been completed, I finished the episode in less than 10 days. To date this has been the most pleasurable of my animation projects. It includes some of my best comedy, and it didn’t require all the heavy demands of the previous two animations.

The ADA had plans to pick this up on a weekly basis which quickly fell through as the ADA website unfortunately changed its format in June. Someday when I get the time I plan on revisiting this character... I wrote an additional 6 episodes that could easily be translated to an entire season.

coming up... omanaman 2010 Year in Review, part 2 - Lords of the Megacosm & the Kiosk to Paradise

Freestyle Animation and A Business of Flies

2010-12-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

One day in the fall of 2003 I illustrated this strange tube-like contraption (seen above) which became the inspiration for a 3 minute short animation called A Business of Flies. I saw a lot of movement in this drawing, so I threw it in After Effects and began working away. 5 months later I was completing what I now reflect upon as a freestyle animation jam. Not a bad way to spend an entire winter in Wisconsin. I essentially made this animation up as I went along, with no regard for order or narrative.

I did a number of tests as animated gifs that are scattered about this post... one of the bi-products of digital animation. The art files were eventually brought into After Effects as frame sequences. The strange thing is that I'm not able to find any other animation tests. Its possible they were all destroyed in a fit of disgust and rage. Maybe I just needed more space on my hard-drive?

I did just about everything wrong during the process. I was working on the original G4 Sawtooth Mac with a 17 inch monitor. The movie file is 500 x 375px at a framerate of 16fps... huh?! Horsepower was an issue, but I had no pressures or restrictions and the results are fun and ridiculous. I learned quite a bit about the technical side of digital animation and after this little project, I was ready try some dialog and character animation.

I made this entire animation without music, beyond what was playing on my itunes. I then handed it over to the super skilled guitar master John Vold for some ear candy, who put a tripped-out jazzy coating around my sweet and nougaty animation core. You can check out the results below.

A Business of Flies from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

Automatic Dialog Replacement, an essential weapon in any filmmakers arsenal

2010-11-30T15:34:00.000-08:00

Just yesterday I completed the final session of automated dialog replacement (adr) with the always charming and gorgeous Amanda Shalhoub, the lead actress in Spirit Lake. After being buried in the studio for months looking at my actors faces day in and day out, everyone I met up with for a post audio session felt like family, which might be weird if I hadn't developed genuine friendships with these people over the course of making this movie.

Amanda Shalhoub as "Sabina" - Spirit Lake

When I approached the production of this movie, I had little to no budget for sound. Often we were filming with poor weather conditions, loud ventilation systems, heavy traffic, the sounds of donkeys braying in the distance, etc... I didn't have the budget to shut down entire restaurants and fill them with extras. I got the corner of the restaurant during there busiest dinner hour until 4am when the staff checks out. On every shoot I got the best audio possible with the forethought that there would definitely be some adr and I only chose the scenes in Spirit Lake to adr based on absolute necessity. Its hard to recapture a truly genuine performance.

Luckily for everyone, the days of needing a massive budget to do a quality production are over. Technology has caught up to the point where professional tools are available to anyone. I could have easily hired a studio for the adr sessions, but then I would have to get all my actors in one place. Unless they lived in an exotic local like Cambodia or Poland, it was easier for me to go to them and bring the necessary equipment for a professional recording session. I own a high quality usb microphone that plugs right into my laptop and interfaces with Final Cut Pro. I can bring up the clips and have the actors watch the footage and record right into the timeline. Using this technique we can replace and test the new audio immediately, which is extremely helpful when trying to get an actor to re-create a performance. To get a similar ambiance I suggest recording in locations that match the scene, when possible. Otherwise, all you need is a sound neutral room and you can touch up the rest in your favorite audio editing program. Sounds easy, but it took Nate Polzin and I three days to complete his adr, which consisted of just a handful of scenes. Without the price tag of a rented studio, we were able to tweak it until perfect.

Going ape shit!

2010-11-30T11:24:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd throw this fun illustration up that I did earlier this year. I have trouble doing an illustration without seeing the opportunities it creates as an animation. Eventually I planned on animating the chaos, with corpses littering the landscape, people fleeing terror... Who wouldn't want to see a giant ape consume a bus full of people like a box of nerds!? I think this was heavily inspired by the old arcade game Rampage! It would be fun to do my own, pencil drawn variation of the game someday.

Designing A Title Character; Graamulas Epsaan

2010-11-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

Graamulas Epsaan (grom-yoo-laz ep-zon)

Earlier this year I penned the storyline to the first installment of Lords of the Megacosm, a science fiction, action adventure comedy space opera based on the characters created in the Escape! Miniseries first released in 2008. More of a character study, Escape! is an intimate adventure starring our protagonists Professor Gizemboob, Dr. Zolo, and Qualitex, and it does little to reveal the massive world in which these characters exist… the Megacosm. While we refer to outer space as the universe, in this world it is split into two entities, the Megacosm (the physical universe), and the Metacosm (the metaphysical universe or spirit world). This story follows the amazingly powerful entities that inhabit and rule over the Megacosm.

The first installment of this series is subtitled “Graamulas Epsaan and the 5 Seeds” and it introduces the story’s primary antagonist and uber-villain, none other than Graamulas Epsaan. Former b.f.f., wingman, and colleague of Professor Gizemboob, he becomes a great emperor and powerful warrior. The story begins as an epic battle ensues that will determine who will rule over the Serpent Vortex, a massive black hole at the center of the galaxy. A still fully intact Professor Gizemboob, extinguishes the battle as he inadvertently destroys the entire Galaxy, and Epsaan with it… so we think.

As the story unfolds, Epsaan returns for revenge and the Lords of the Megacosm throw down for another super-epic adventure. Over 10 years in the making, Lords of the Megacosm; Graamulas Epsaan and the 5 Seeds is easily the most visionary, ambitious, and developed work that I have ever penned, and it’s just the beginning. I have the storyline written for the prequels, and where The 5 Seeds leaves off, the possibilities are eternal. Now that the foundation has been laid, it’s time for the real fun and primary purpose for having all this great story… character design!

When I examine all the visual opportunities I’ve created for myself with Lords of the Megacosm, I nearly collapse in ecstasy. I could easily spend the next 80 years sketching concept art, designing characters, and visualizing this world. Unfortunately, the demands of doing post-production on Spirit Lake and my enslavement to the dollar have forced me to preclude any artwork for the series to my leisure time. Always in development, Lords of the Megacosm still provides the vehicle for my most inspired work.

As I come to completion on the new and ultimate design for Dr. Zolo, it’s time to step up to the next great challenge, our titular character Graamulas Epsaan. Two things need to be known when approaching a character design. First, know your characters primary personality traits. Epsaan is intelligent yet manipulative, wisely maniacal, overtly impassioned, and endlessly determined. He is of the Megacosms greatest forces. Next, know your characters physical traits. To start, Epsaan is aged and battleworn. He wears a device on his forehead that covers a symbol that if gazed upon will put you under his control for the remainder of your existense. He also wears a chained earring that dangles a small creature from the side of his head. In addition, I have always envisioned this character as tall and gangly, yet powerful and stoic. Knowing these things should give any committed craftsman enough ammo to start cranking out some serious concept design.

To get my mechanical pencil warmed up for some beautiful illustration, I normally begin by sketching other successful character designs. Sometimes characters of my own, and other times I’ll pop in some animation and start sketching the characters on the screen. In this case I resumed my non-sexual man crush with Duke Togo and sketched out his visage while he hunted his victims and tagged some hentai honeys… always inspiring. When you draw a great character design, it gives you insight into what makes it successful from the artist’s perspective. Starting with the signature pair of eyebrows, drawing Duke Togo is a breeze. It’s the type of defining element that I search for in my own designs, but for Epsaan, it was Duke Togo’s intense gaze that I was looking to duplicate, not his eyebrows. When I applied his eyebrows to my Epsaan designs he looked remarkably similar to Mongo mastermind, Ming the Merciless, an obvious inspiration for this character. Sometimes it takes a few sketches to shake off your influences. After a late night draw-a-thon, I was able to fill a whole page in my sketchbook, and ended up with some sweet design.

The results:

The next stage in the process will be to choose the best few designs and complete a full body version of concepts. The selected design will be digitized, colored, and textured in Illustrator, and then prepped for an animation test. It’s not uncommon for a single character design to take in access of 50 production hours, especially when dealing with primary characters.

The Evolution of a Character, part 002

2010-11-03T02:02:00.000-07:00

Until I completed Escape! The Epic Miniseries in 2008, I had yet to do any serious character animation. I had several character based animations under my belt, but nothing with any dialog or strong narrative. Being a self taught animator, I knew that mastering dialog and story was the next step in the progression. Escape! was to primarily be a character study with the purpose of inventing personalities and a world by which a serial animation can be based upon. In that sense it was a valuable success in development of the series, and as a result I determined that the Dr. Zolo character was still my biggest challenge.

Zolobolaneotryonis (Dr. Zolo) was the infant son of the emperor of a race of beings that shared a single, telepathic stream of consciousness. Moments before his planet was destroyed, he was sent through a porthole to the other side of the Universe, being the lone survivor of his race and thus sole possessor of the entire consciousness of his people. He is found floating through space by an ancient order of space wizards who discover his secret and declare him as their future king.

When I began animating Escape, this back story had yet to be developed and I knew little about Dr. Zolo beyond he was a flunky space wizard with supposedly "amazing powers too fantastic to believe". It was a good start. Because I was developing the story while I was doing the animation for Escape, Dr Zolo went through several revisions before the completion of the animation.

Escape! Animation Test 001 from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

The first design seen in the Escape! Animation Test 001 video above, was closer to the original comic. Dr. Zolo has a blue pill shaped body with wiry arms and legs, but a small black nose and absent the signature unibrow. I was too many months into animating Escape when I realized that this design wasn't cutting it. In fact I hated it, along with my robot design and the all dialog I had written, and eventually everything else. All of my efforts had seemingly resulting in what had looked to me like a big steamy animated pile of dogshit. Four months prior I had quit a very well paying job at an Interactive Agency with the purpose of pursuing a career in animation. Now I was feeling out of answers with little motive to go on... the creative force inside me had expired.

After a few weeks of self loathing and despair, I noticed that my creative fires were beginning to return. I had fought tooth and nail, given it everything I had, and I was defeated... I could be proud. It was the end of November and I vowed not to touch the animation until the new year. Once I had a chance to step back and recuperate, I was able to gain perspective on what I had learned and why I had failed. Having this knowledge had motivated a return to the animation with heightened intensity, knowing I was better equipped to kick some ass.

Escape! Animation Test 002 from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, the next design for Dr. Zolo was not an improvement. Seen in the Escape! Animation Test 002 video above, I can't really say much about this clip beyond that it's stupid and that I must have been ill that week. I'm almost embarrassed to show it. The reason that I do is because my frustrations at the time caused me to subconsciously lean a little to heavily on one of my very favorite animated characters growing up... Stimpson J. Cat.

A frame from A PSA with Dr. Zolo. Long lost brothers?

Ren & Stimpy had a profound effect on me as a teenager, as I was smitten with almost every element of the show. It was the work of John Kricfalusi, Bob Camp, Billy West, and rest of the talented super-geniuses at Spumco that made me want to be an animator and pursue my own series. It was only natural that it's heavy influence would both reveal itself in my work, and needed to be shaken off as I matured the series. As my designs digressed, Dr. Zolo adopted the big nose and pudgy frame so characteristic to Stimpy's design. Zolo's behavior and dialog also became more childish and inane. Dr. Zolo's defining characteristics, his bulbous antennae and lighting bold unibrow were being overshadowed by his obvious influences. The resulting Dr. Zolo in Escape! The Epic Miniseries is a worthy effort, but still shy of completing its evolution.

Escape! - The Epic Miniseries, ep.6 from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

Earlier this year, I wrote the storyline for Lords of the Megacosm; Graamulas Epsaan and the 5 Seeds, which is based on the characters developed in Escape. Over 10 years in development, the series is as epic as a science fiction action adventure space opera can potentially get. The Megacosm's (the physical universe) most powerful entities battling for its ultimate control on a scale unfathomable to the majority of mortal minds. The story will culminate itself as either a 6 episode mini-series or a 2+ hour feature film. Now that Dr. Zolo has a clearly defined existence, his design is ready to assume its ultimate form, which will be revealed in part 003 of The Evolution of a Character.

Escape! The Final Release

2010-10-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Escape! - The Epic Miniseries, ep.1 from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

The earliest art files I have for the Escape! series are from early 2003. It was originally called Ziglepigle go to Holomewl, and began as a wordless comic strip. Working full time jobs as a designer and production artist in the web and product development industries never quite allowed me enough time to get any serious work done, and after too many years hunched over a desk working for the man, I vowed never to work another office job again. The summer of 2007 I quit my cushy, well paying design job at a hot downtown new media agency and took on teaching work at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, as well as freelance to pad the coffers. While my pay was taking a huge cut, the amount of time I had to commit to my animation work had increased significantly. From late summer of 2007 until May of 2008 I spent every spare second in my studio creating and animating Escape!.

Its first incarnation was a single 11 minute episode called Escape from Gizemboob. While deeply proud of the accomplishment, the animation is a lot to swallow all at once. It was hard for me to get a grasp on the characters at the time, because the concept was underdeveloped and I didn't know the hell they were doing. Last year I repackaged the 11 minute episode into 10, 30-45 second episodes, and called it "Escape from Gizemboob, The Epic Miniseries; In the Volvulus of the Beast". Wordy. In this version the episodes were too short and left the viewer confused and empty.

Professor Gizemboob - Lords of the Megacosm

Finally, after over 7 years of tooling around with this one animation, I present the for sure final release of Escape! The Epic Miniseries; In the Volvulus of the Beast. Still a bit wordy on the title, but easily in its most complete and palatable form as 7, 1:30-2:00 minutes episodes, plus the PSA with Doctor Zolo. The series is now an excerpt from the first installment of Lords of the Megacosm, which will culminate as either a feature film or a 6 episode series some time in the future.

Spirit Lake Website Update!

2010-10-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

Go check out the updated Spirit Lake website! It's actually a revision of the first website I released for the movie way back in 1983... Also, if you haven't checked out the newest trailer, just move your eyes 2.5 inches down from this message and push play.

Spirit Lake Trailer - A Hole Between Worlds from Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

Spirit Lake; Editing a Feature Film

2010-10-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

In 2008 I spearheaded production of 4 short films... 2 animated and 2 live action. I had the support of a group of semi-commited and talented young filmmakers and animators called Studio Bib Simmons. and together we proved we had what it took to accomplish great things. When a weekend excursion turns into a screening at Cannes Film Festival, you know you can do some awesome shit. Unfortunately for us, the short films we had made were little more than practice and weren't going to earn us a steady income, or a revenue stream for making more movies, or hydraulics for my Scion xB. It was clear that the only way to break into the movie making business was to make a feature film. Not only could a feature provide us with a revenue stream for making more movies, but most importantly the knowledge needed to make quality movies.

One year later I had written, produced, and shot an entire feature length film called Spirit Lake... with help of course. I wrapped filming on December 10th, 2009... on the 11th I packed up my car and was on my way to California with a harddrive containing over 40 hours of footage. It was the American dream... shooting a movie on sweat and grit, then going to Hollywood to sign a huge 100 million dollar multi-picture deal with full creative authority. That might be a little ambitious, but I had a few contacts a great movie ready to be born.

10 hours of blizzard on Devils Lake, WI - February 2010

When I started filming of Spirit Lake, I perceived I had the support of a studio... Two months into filming my DP / editor quit on me and my original crew had vaporized into the ether. By summer I had a new, far superior crew in terms of film-making... its not hard to find people who are hungry for opportunities in this business. In the fall of 2009, for the final shoots of the film I retired my first team of Miggy Downs and Nate Wunn for my original crew, hoping to inspire them to jump on board for the post production of Spirit Lake. There was a incredible film in the making.

Shooting Spirit Lake easily was the most stress-ridden 10 months of my human existence. I would describe independent film-making as "extremely fragile". One thing goes wrong and the whole bottom drops out for the shoot. Rescheduling is both common and painful. You have to be resilient, resourceful, and a constant revisionist. I suggest that if you take on this task, you are in a sound state of mind and not going through divorce and having your reliable income slashed by 2/3's. Needless to say, I was super fucking happy the day we wrapped principal photography on Spirit Lake. Post production was where I feel most comfortable, and I was excited and relieved about this next stage.

Final Cut Pro screenshot, "Buying the Boat"

For post production of Spirit Lake, there were 6 animated dream sequences, a title sequence, an animated ending credit sequence, color correction, sound design, and about a dozen composites and effects shots, as well as the monstrous task of carving all that footage into a 90 minute edit. By mid January I was faced with doing the entire post production of this movie myself, with nobody I trusted to turn any of this work over to. I could see this movie in my head... I had lived it. Nobody was more qualified.

Final Cut Pro screenshot, "the Sales Assault"

I edited Spirit Lake in Final Cut Pro on a Macbook pro laptop computer. I shot it in 1080i on tape using a Sony HDV Z1. I also purchased a Letus 35 lense adapter, a set of lenses, a pull focus, and a rail mount to attach all of this sexy equipment to the camera. I have all of my footage contained on a 1TB external hardrive that I back off on daily intervals. I began the edit January of 2010. In February, I switched focus for several months to develop Lords of the Megacosm, a serial science fiction animation. I resumed editing from May until the end of September. Over that time I invested about 12 weeks worth of production hours into completing a finished edit.

Larry confront Alden about his investigation into his missing friend.

I haven't edited anything even near this massive, and I was fairly intimidated. It was like I was a rookie QB playing in the Superbowl. I expected the final runtime to be 90 minutes, I hadn't edited anything longer than 11 minutes. To loosen up and stay in shape over the summer I made a series of video shorts based on events I was experiencing in my life. I spent June and July in Costa Rica, so there was plenty of stuff to get on film. It also helped me get away from the movie for a few days without losing my stride. I began editing Spirit Lake by loading all of the footage into Final Cut Pro. I then made a bin for each scene of the movie. Next, I sorted all of the footage into then appropriate bin. I then began what I call a pre-edit, which was going through all of the footage and picking out only the best cuts. I would place these cuts into the time-line and sort them in layers according to the quality of the cut. It took me six weeks alone to do this for the entire film. I finished this phase at the end of July, just as a power surge in Playa Grande fried my logic board. It was a good time to take a break and enjoy some surf before entering the next phase of the project.

Final Cut Pro screenshot, "the Date"

After the pre-edit, I went through scene by scene and produced a rough cut. I found that jumping around the movie and editing contrasting or like scenes together, rather then edit the scenes sequencially helped keep the process fresh. I was lucky to have very good footage that I never got tired of watching, so I never got sick of the movie itself, just some of the tedium involved with editing some of the longer scenes. After the rough cut, I placed each scene onto a master time-line creating what I considered a pre-draft. After weeks of laying in music and sound, tweaking the transitions and each individual scene as a part of the whole, I had a finished draft of Spirit Lake. It was the middle of September 2010 and I was in a happy place. The performances and flow of the film had exceeded my expectations. Two more weeks of polishing and I had a finished edit.

Spirit Lake is now in its final stage of production. I am am currently working on 6 animated dream sequences that I have cut down to 4 minutes, which includes the ending credit sequence. A draft is in Milwaukee being musically scored by the ubermensch of groove, the LMNtlyst. The source files are also in Houston being color corrected by Maggie Aguirre, and in Chicago being formulated into a full trailer by the incorrigible Miggy Downs. Spirit Lake is slated for a November-December release.

Animated Gifs are awesome.

2010-10-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

I began my professional career in the arts as a web designer. One of the archaic tools we used to use to add some flare to a website was the animated gif. I used a handy little app called Image Ready that allowed your gif file to have multiple frames. On each frame you could turn on or off layers in your photoshop file, move layers around, etc... It was a supercrude version of an animation program, but it was fun and easy. This was my introduction into 2D digital animation.

The great thing about the animated gif are its limitations. It teaches an artist and aspiring animator how to create an effective sequence with a small number of frames and just a few attributes. If you can create something interesting, funny, or captivating with the resources provided by the animated gif, then you are definitely ready to step it up to the next level and do some real animation.

From the vaults... what the?!

The animated gifs I created were about 12-16 frames each. The art was created in Adobe Illustrator, exported as a psd preserving the layers, and brought into Image Ready, which sadly no longer exists in the CS line of Adobe software.

The above gif titled "Commuter Nation" was 16 looping frames with over 50 animated layers. After creating this one, I decided I had maxed out the creative potential offered by the animated gif. Image Ready and I kindly shook hands and went our separate ways. Shortly after which I began my love affair with After Effects.

Golgo 13 is awesome.

2010-10-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

I was blown away to find this amazingly awesome series on the Netfilx instant cue. My first encounter with Duke Togo was with an imported Japanese Nintendo cartridge when I was a kid. The game sucked but I've admired this character ever since. Created by The Answer Studio in Japan, I particularly like this organization chart and those empty office pics... it looks like a very sterile place to work. Of course the animation in this series is delicious. Superbly animated and directed... the soundtrack is perfect, and there's a liberal serving of hot Manga babe action every episode, which run the usual 22 minutes. I particularly like the variety between each episode, which are self contained. There are cleverly 13 episodes in this series, but there should be more damn it. Conclusion? I want to be Duke Togo.

An Animation Test; Spirit Lake

2010-10-03T22:43:00.000-07:00

While 2009 was the year of filming Spirit Lake, 2010 has been a year of post production. I began the edit in May, which took about 12 solid weeks spread out over a 5 month period. By mid September I had massaged over 40 hours of footage into a 90 minute cut. Currently, the edit is in Houston with the talented Maggie Aguirre being color corrected and in Milwaukee being musically scored by my usual co-conspirator, the LMNtlyst. I plan a whole other posting on my experience editing a feature film... but for now, lets focus on the always awesome weekend activity, the animation test. And yes people, a good animation test should at least take up your whole weekend.

Ned the tortoise... the star of the show.

The feature film Spirit Lake has 6 dream sequences that are shared between the two main characters. These dream sequences will be composites and animations, and feature many of the characters in the film, one of which is a rescued tortoise named Ned. The first step in creating each of these animations is to produce a test in order to establish both the process and aesthetic of the finished animation. If you are working with other artists this step will be necessary so you can provide proper direction to your teammates. After a successful test is completed, the source files can be organized and passed off to other production artists working on the project. This is often a fun stage of the process... it should involve a free flow of creative energy and innovation. It can also be frustrating if the gears aren't clicking and it's not unusual if your weekend animation test ends up looking and smelling like a pile of dogshit. The more I master my craft the less this seems to happen to me. Lets take a look at how my latest excursion turned out.

A simple green screen setup can go a long way.

A brief description of the "Hungry Ned" dream sequence is that Ned is alone and searching for food. He keeps seeing food in the distance, but as he approaches the food dematerializes. He eventually collapses from exhaustion. Having to either hand animate or do a digital rig of these characters could easily take me the next eight years, so I set out to do a blend of video and animation, allowing the actors to do the bulk of the work. On Saturday, fellow Spirit Lake animator Santiago and his cohort Ed joined me for stage one of the animation test, a green screen capture of Ned the tortoise. We went to the art supply store and bought two 3' x 4' foot green poster boards and set them up against a wall. Spirit Lake will be in HD 720p resolution, so I used my HD flipcam to capture footage. Above was our very simple set up using a few hallogen lamps, with a focus on minimizing the amount of cast shadow by Ned. This makes it easier to key out in After Effects. We took about 20 shots from multiple angles, all about 2-10 seconds a piece.

After I transfered my videos from the flipcam to the hardrive, I threw them into After Effects and began to search for an interesting sequence that I could use for a test. It didn't take long before I found a tasty cut about 5 seconds long of Ned approaching the camera. I keyed out the background and placed in a few textures in a 3D environment for the floor. I then found a photo of some grapes for the food that is escaping Ned's grasp. After some heavy layering and polishing, I produced a nice little 6 second sample. I expect the final animation to be about 10-12 composites. This test is the equivalent of one of those composites. Check out the finished sample below.

Joe Shakula on Vimeo.

The Evolution of a Character, part 001

2010-10-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

From "A Public Service Announcement with Dr. Zolo", 2008

To kick off this blog, I am going to start out with my very favorite subject and the area of which I excel to become a true master, Character Design & Development. There's no better place to draw example from than the series of characters the reside in the world of "Lords of the Megacosm", an epic science fiction action adventure comedy drama that I have been developing my entire life. While LOTM has gone through a number of revisions and iterations of it's own, I'd like to focus attention on a personal favorite character of mine, Dr. Zolo (Zolobolanoetironis), simply because this character has been evolving heavily throughout the development of the series, and has presented a number of interesting challenges... He is currently going through yet another revision and will assume his ultimate form for the latest installment of LOTM, Grammulas Epsaan and the 5 Seeds. Let's begin...

The wordless comic that LOTM evolved from.

I began developing the artwork for LOTM back in 2003. Much of my early artwork is experimental and without a narrative. I was always looking for people to collaborate with, so I drew this comic without any title or text and emailed it to a writer friend with directions to fill it in. Eventually this comic evolved into the first miniseries called "Escape from Gizemboob; In the Volvulus of the Beast". As you should notice, many of the defining elements of Dr. Zolo are in place. The pudgy blue body, the blobular antennae, and the dainty limbs. Below is a study showing the expressive potential of the character design. When designing characters I heavily consider the challenges behind animating that design. I search for elements that allow me to maximize the expressiveness of the character, without adding a huge burden to the animation process. For example, Dr Zolo's antennae are quite useful in enhancing his expressions and are fairly easy to animate. His tail was much more difficult to animate and essentially served the same function as the antennae. The tail did not move on to the subsequent design.

Early Dr. Zolo character study

As I brought this character design into After Effects and began to run a series of animation tests, I ran into a number of hangups... I will discuss these hangups and show a number of failed test animations in part 002 of this series.