After Tai-Shan Schierenberg

Love this guy.

For Harriet

I have a load of old mixes I made for the ill-fated iMix Club.

Hopefully I'll find time to make a new one by the time I have

recycled these. This was my first, pedestrian attempt.

♫ Melancholy Mix

Gonzalez - Overnight
Neil Young - Man Needs A Maid
Dustin O'Halloran - Opus #12
Steve Buscemi & Bronson Dudley - Korea/Career
Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage
TV On The Radio - Modern Romance [Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover]
The Earlies - Wayward Song
Dennis Wilson & Rumbo - Lady
Jeff Alexander - Come Wander With Me
Max Richter - Written On The Sky
Neil Young - Do You Know How To Use This Weapon / Organ Solo
Radiohead - Motion Picture Soundtrack
Gorillaz - Hong Kong
The Boats - Jumble
Milosh - Something Good
Elizabeth Cotten - Shake Sugaree
Wilco - How To Fight Loneliness
Sigmatropic (feat. Akis Boyatzis) - Haiku 14(a)
Elliott Smith - Bye

Return to life drawing

Results of yesterday's life drawing class I tried in Bethnal

Green. Nice class, great space, and tea on tap. They even

had real, non-savers biscuits. One of the organisers allowed

me to have the session for free in exchange for this drawing

of her dog. What a brilliant monetary system.

Drawings from Apulia

Another find

Last one - an old sketchbook I had totally forgotten about.

It is mainly full of napkin doodles that are of no use to man

nor beast, but must have seemed worth holding on to at the

time. There's a few nice things in there. Here are the things

I find least embarrassing.

Graham Greene

A long time ago I did illustrations for an exhaustive reprint of

Graham Greene novels by Random House. You can still find them

but most have already been re-printed with tedious photographs.

What's strange is that they seem to have taken photos of the exact

things I had chosen to draw and replaced them all like for like.

Is this plagiarism? Probably not, just insulting.

I did hundreds of drawings and never saw them again. But I just

discovered these in a folder, which were never used. They're a bit

stiff but hey, I was young and didn't know better.

Unused drawing for Ways of Escape.

Unused image of the author.

Your posture is-

We're cleaning the offices. Before social services

quarantine us. Finding all sorts of rubbish, including

this drawing.

I have absolutely no recollection what it is for, but I've

put it on the 'keep' pile.

Just in case.

It may come in handy.

Ink sketch

New logo I gone done

Onwards music

The music in Onwards was by my very good friend Dan,

aka Caribou.

Buy his record immediately.

He allowed me to do his sleeve once, The Milk of Human

Kindness, which was a privilege:

Notes from the back of the sofa

Just returned from Hockney's gallery in Salt Mills, nr.

Bradford, and feel thoroughly enthused about drawing again.

Having a rest post-Coldplay has been a good recharge. I've

been spring-cleaning too, which is a huge effort, but very

positive. I've even been backing up. Inconceivable.

Here's some Onwards debrief material I found.

Lots of speculation this "started as drawing, then goes 3D",

"was done in Flash" and so on. In fact it was all 3D, post-

treated to look so much like James' ink drawings that even

his mother couldn't tell them apart.

James is well versed in making technical drawings for his

toys, so he drew up this. I sketched in the joint locations so

this guy would later do exactly what I said.

James is an impressive, competitive runner. The original

plan was to run the marathon in a suit Nike custom made

in Portland. James then proceeded to thoroughly bust up his

leg and that idea evaporated. However some brave chap ran

on his behalf, and here's proof:

#47. Yellow Thing

"What is that thing again?"

From the very start I decided that if this was going to be a film

about running then the movement of the run in question ought

to be actually good - not some 'animation' run cycle. Despite

James' injury, it made perfect sense to base the character's

movements on his. I wanted the character to be James.

I shot footage of James at the gym, running on a treadmill,

then working through his stretches. This was the basis of

all the animation. I didn't use motion capture because Andy

Serkis bought up all the ping-pong balls in the world and

extorts a premium.

Instead I painstakingly scrutinised his movements and got

the character to resemble, as close as I could, James' cadence.

Compared to James' other characters this guy is generally of

human proportions so the movement translated quite

naturally. Most of the problems involved ensuring that his

enlarged hands didn't thump himself in the face.

Later, I filmed reference of myself as well, blowing snot.

Finally, my big break.

Mia appears a little too enthusiastic in her role.

While I built a library of movements I also began to build

the world around him. Cubes stood in for trees while I

blocked in the camera moves. I'd render low-quality

movies of the shots and drop them into the edit, replacing

the animatic.

These work in progress movies show it coming together.

See if you can spot the embarrassing mistake.

I was constantly updating and tweaking to ensure that the

movement flowed from one shot to the next alongside the

music. I also had to making sure his feet fell on the beat in

each shot to maintain the synchronised rhythm.

James would come over and eat all my biscuits in exchange

for pages and pages of drawings. I lost count of how many

trees he drew. Every drawing was then scanned and a matte

made. These dressed the scene.

I had to be careful that James drew everything at te right

scale, so there was consistency to the line thickness. Other-

wise the wizard would do us in.

These were rendered out and the running man was done

separately. That was a job all in itself.

Secret revealed!

Well its all done.

For various reasons, the hardest job we've ever done.



Very happy it is all over but also very happy with the result.
The journey from brain to screen is littered with pitfalls and

rarely does the end resemble the start. But this one worked

out pretty well. There's always things you want to change and

letting go is hard, but it is done and it has flown the nest.

Time to relax.

Went to test-screening in the cinema this week surrounded by

record company people who have appeared from nowhere and

are all wanting to hold the baby. Totally flattered by their

enthusiasm and seduced by seeing our work on the big screen.

If you are going to the Odeon after Monday 20th July then keep

your eyes peeled.

Top Secret!

Here's what I am working on at the moment.
Unfortunately, strict confidentiality prevents me from revealing
who it is for.

'Onwards' sketchbook 2

Scan of of my working sketchbook for the storm sequence. I drew
this beside a pool in Palm Springs. Sounds glamourous, but
moreover it exhibits my complete inability to relax.



Notes in red are changes discussed with James in light of the
animatic I made, which I will post shortly. Pencil are time
references for certain moments to hit to keep in time with the
music. This shot lasts over a minute, but was far more difficult
to orchestrate than it appears.

In particular, the camera move broke my little dick in two. Far
easier to sketch beside a pool than actually make 'real'. It rises
behind tattie-head to reveal the vista, (on cue), overtakes, spins
backwards, accelerates downhill, pulls up square, drifts wide,
then does a giant barrel-roll while changing to a distorted lens
length to end up beside his striking feet, then rushes into the
portal behind him.

Normally this is the sort of shit that makes me demand a refund
from the cinema manager because Peter Jackson was drunk on it.
But here, your honour, I was trying to convey the feeling of a
flowing, uninterrupted stretch, where you suddenly sense your
feet moving beneath you, cycling unconsciously.

Who is controlling my legs?
Don't know.
Don't stop.

The tiny thumbnails were me working out how to animate
lightning, given James' style of drawing and the strict three-
colour palette. In the end I ripped some home movies from
YouTube, studying them frame by frame to work out a sequence.

Hopefully, as with all of this, you don't think about it.

'Onwards' sketchbook

A lot of people are claiming 'Onwards' was rotoscoped. It is very
flattering, since that is not how it was done. I'll post some of the
work-in-progress stuff I have over the next week or so, explaining
the process.


This is my working out how James drew the cross-hatching on his
drawings so I could match it in 3D. I had a fixed light source
acting as the sun. The hatching texture had to rotate to the correct
angle, depending on the relative angle of camera>man>sun.
Quite tricky, especially since the distance between hatches also had
to change depending how close the camera was to him. There was
also a second pass of hatching to match the way James' drawing
style.

I had a similar problem with the thickness of the main outline: it
had to remain the same thickness now matter how big he was in
frame.

Hopefully you don't even notice any of this shit happening when
you watch it.


I got James to quickly sketch the character and colour him in. The
numbers and arrows are my annotations of the order and direction
of all the strokes he made. I used this to recreate James' drawing
for the start of the animation.

We wanted the animation to be as close to James' ink drawing as
possible, so this attention to detail was imperative. Anal? Moi?

When I draw, I always seem to draw the nose first. I am sure Freud
would have something to say about that.


My thumbnail storyboard of the crow sequence. One of the most
satisfying parts of animating for me is putting a cross through a
completed shot. But I can never resist crossing out the shot I am
working on before it is finished, negating all pleasure.

I have the same lack of control with advent calendars.

Man, I look tired

Onwards interviews:

Ever Onwards

Here's a long gestated project I did with my friend

James Jarvis.

Made with the kind support of Nike, who, under

James' canny guidance, embraced the project

without succumbing to any usual product-launch

or tie-in.

It was very refreshing to work on a project with a

realistic deadline and without clueless interference

from an over-cautious brand.

So, kudos to Nike.

But mainly thanks to James: twas a pleasure.

Here:

Free music

Here's a mix I did for lovely Mia.



♫ All The Ladies

You can download it, but regretfully you can never marry me.
Sorry.

Josephine Foster - Wehmut
Soap&Skin - Brother Of Sleep
Santogold - Lights Out (Diplo's Panda Bear Mix)
Stina Nordenstam – People Are Strange
The Dø – On My Shoulders
Feist - It's Cool to Love Your Family
Joan As Policewoman - Christobel
Barbara Morgenstern - The Operator
Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone (Metronomy Remix)
Jenny Wilson - Summer Time - The Roughest Time
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Hysteric
Bat For Lashes - Daniel
Calico Horse - Idioteque
The Innocence Mission - Sweep Down Early
The Bird & The Bee (w/Sia) - How Deep Is Your Love
El Perro Del Mar - Inner Island

For Mosse

I have no idea how I will get this blog back on track, what with
the rapturous arrival of Saul. However, I will persevere in good
time. For now, a card I made for my good friend Mosse, the
mastermind behind this blog in the first place.

Back

Wacom.

Front

Wacom.

Life Drawing 009

Life Drawing 008

Life Drawing 007

Life Drawing 006

Life Drawing 005

Life Drawing 004

Life Drawing 003

Life Drawing 002

Life Drawing 001

(S)crappy

Holla Back, Auerbach

Pinky

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