Thanksgiving Cartoon Challenge

I’ve been meaning to post this for a bit. I spent Thanksgiving with my dad’s side of the family that includes a 9 year old cousin of mine. She challenged me to draw any cartoon character she could think of. Since we had no internet, I had no way of looking up reference and it became a very interesting test of my own memory about current cartoon characters. She even drew Spongebob for me from her memory! 

Big Book Give Away!

The Appy Ladies are giving away five copies of my animated children’s e-book The Pick-up Princess. Be sure to share this with your friends and try to get a free copy yourself! http://theappyladies.com/the-pickup-princess

woof.

Arya Stark Charcoal

Felt like playing with charcoal yesterday morning. 

familiar sci-fi faces

Dr. Who and Star Trek characters. 

new brush warm up doodles

found a new brush today and so i did some warm up sketching. here's the brush: http://stumpypencil.blogspot.com/2009/11/return-of-stumpy-pencil.html

Wild Dogs and Jumping Girls

Nice Teeth Contest Victory

My character Crab Tree placed 2nd in the Nice Teeth comic contest recently. Good job Crab! http://ashleylange.deviantart.com/art/DYOI-RESULTS-403501891

I made a comic to celebrate.

The other two in the comic are the 1st and 3rd winners. 

My old friend Era

Sketches of an old character of mine, Era (and Huan in the bottom image). Just wanted to try some redesigns on her outfit. No one should live in clothes designed by a 7th grader forever.

(c) me

bear and boat and thing and what?

just something weird as a break from my senior film work.

Danny Doodles

It was a Danny Phantom kind of night.

Danny: "Um, Sam? Don't you think that maybe I should handle this one?" 

Tucker: "Dude! Don't be messing with her mojo! I want to live!" 

Crab Tree and Bunny

I decided to participate in a contest for the comic Nice Teeth. You had to design a character that would live on The Island. Check it out: http://niceteethcomic.com/

for those who can't read that small of print:

"Crab Tree is a spicy lass from the depths of The Island. Kind Islanders label her stature as “toad-like”, unkind Islanders just call her fat and short. Crab has a bad attitude and persistent frown, but she does get along with a few islanders. She appreciates the “honestly stupid” and regards the “uppity types” with contempt. Especially those who read. Crab can’t read (who cares about a bunch of swirling letters?). She isn't stupid, but she only trusts her own mind, and believes that those who trust in books are people to watch out for.

Crab met Bunny when he was just a tiny Tree Thing. Tree Things, native creatures of The Island, usually only grow to be 27 inches. Bunny, however, somehow managed to grow the size of the trees Tree Things are supposed to inhabit. Crab and Bunny are best friends as he is very often the only one who will listen to her three hour rant about the benefits of toast in every day life. They live together in a comfortably large house Crab built with Bunny specifically in mind."

Bereft Poster

I went ahead and made a poster for my senior film: BEREFT.

I can't believe this actually happened...

Other than some minor tweaks I'll have to work on while animating, my rigging is done! HUZZAH! I'm currently reworking my animatic and it's truly nice to be away from the highly technical stuff...for now. I can't believe that a couple weeks ago I was stressed about loosing my rigger and having to end my summer vacation early so that I could go down to SCAD and hopefully put something together before school started! I went from having half a facial rig and no body rig to a fully rigged character capable of the Loony Tunes style animation I'll be going for in just 2 weeks! Pardon the pat on the back, but I think I deserve this one. *pat* *pat* 

Demon New Test Poses

I  got far enough with my skin weighting yesterday that I was able to do some test poses. Here are a couple for you to enjoy. And if you're wondering who this little guy is, he's a part of my senior film. You can watch the animatic (a sort of pre-film) here . 

everything (c) me

body rig (c) AbAutoRig 

more rigging doodle breaks

The skin weighting continues.

Rigging Doodles 4

Today's break doodles 

Toad Patrol character (c) it's owner which is not me

Rigging Doodles3

More doodling during my rigging breaks. 

Demon Rig Process

I have been getting a surprising amount of rigging experience lately. Some how I've manage to almost rig my whole senior film by myself. All that is left is my little demon guy (who is one of the main characters). I've spent the past week adding more flexibility to his face and now I'm working on his body rig (with some very special help from abAutoRig). Right now I'm in the process of painting his weights (see here for an explanation of what that is and my feelings about it) Wish me luck! 

testing various poses his face can achieve

adding lots and lots of stretching capabilities....with some frightening results...

painting weights so that the skin moves properly when the animator animates it. 

Rigging Break Doodles 2

Yesterday's break doodles. Just a bunch of nonsense.

Rigging Doodle Breaks

I've been working on some rigging in Maya for my 3D senior animation film and to keep myself sane, I took a couple of doodle breaks. Here are the results. 

Space Kids Sketches

edit: you can look at the sketches a bit closer on my deviantart page 

I've been working on a lot of different story ideas this summer and this is one of my newer ones that has quickly gained a lot of favor with me. I love sci-fi and I've always wanted to do my own sci-fi series that focuses more on the children of a starship than the adults. That's kind of what I have going here. The main character is a young alien girl who is new to the corporate starship. The starship belongs to a very large energy corporation that requires some of it's industrial processes to be done in deep space (partially to expel the waste product into deep space away from inhabited planets and partially because the refinement process needs to be done in zero gravity). On top of it's industrial production, the ship also takes on other company contracts (so they might pick up something for another corporation if they are on the right side of space). 

The main story doesn't focus on the ship. It focuses on a few of the children on the ship and their every day lives as a part of this moving lab. The new alien girl eventually befriends the human girl that I have also sketched here. While the alien girl is trying to be a bit more conformist and safe, the human girl is a wild child who wants to stand out. The main conflict with the alien girl lies in the fact that she is a part of a race that has been recently known to commit acts of terrorism. So her mom wants her to fit in with the other children and be seen as unthreatening, while some of the other children are a bit frightened or angry at her for what a few of her people have done. 

It's all very much a work in process, I haven't quite nailed things down yet, but I'm really excited about some of the ideas I've been coming up with. Hopefully there is a future for these characters, so far they've been a blast to work with. 

all characters (c) Debbie Scheller 2013

The Trio

These are three characters from a story I'm currently developing. It's sort of Wizard of Oz-esk. The toad was actually a prince that was turned into a toad by a witch at a particularly boring party. He's trying to find the witch to be turned back into a prince, or at least a frog (which is way more kiss worthy than a toad). Following him are his two companions: a fish that wants her memory restored and a large cat who wants thumbs so that he can at last fulfill his dream of playing the violin.   

Just like Dad

I'm allowed to post this now that Father's Day is over. It's an illustration I did for a client who has an adorable little boy who wants to be just like his dad!

Spring Quarter Finals Are Here!

Have you ever just reached that point during finals where you slip into a coma and just stare at your work? Because that's where I'm at right now. Just one week left until summer! Gotta keep it together!

Happy Mother's Day 2013!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, but especially my own. My mom is one of my best friends and I can't wait to be road tripping home with her this summer. This year she requested a cat picture, so I did a color sketch of a line drawing I did while observing some of the Savannah cats. Happy Mother's Day mom!

Also, be sure to pick up a copy of my new animated e-book "The Pick-up Princess" available now! animatedchildren.biz

We've been featured!

A big thank you to columnist Andrew Heller for his article about me and my work in the Flint Journal this past Sunday! http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/aheller/2013/05/andrew_heller_little_things_ca.html

I'm truly blessed to have supporters in Michigan. I did this sketch of him to say thanks the best way I know how. Thank you everyone and be sure to pick up a copy of The Pick-up Princess today!

Pick-up Princess website: http://www.animatedchildren.biz/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BalloonCatAnimation

THE PICK-UP PRINCESS IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!

My first ever animated children's e-book is finally here! The Pick-up princess is a story about a little girl who imagines herself to be a princess. The queen, her mom, has ordered her to pick up her room. But the princess has other ideas. Pick up your own copy of her adventure today!

Find it in the app store: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-pickup-princes/id633484028?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

A big thank you to everyone who has been supporting myself, my crew, and my cousin through out this whole process. I don't think I was ever without a loving person to moan at about how hard something was being, how annoying flash was, or any other complaint I might have had. And through it all, I was constantly told to keep going. I hope The Pick-up Princess finds it's audience and success. But I've learned so much from my time on this project, that I feel successful already.  Thank you everyone!

1!!!!!!!!!! Featuring Katrina Elzinga

THE PICK-UP PRINCESS ANIMATED E-BOOK LAUNCHES TOMORROW! I can't believe it! The anticipation has been enormous. Today we look at the final crew member

 Katrina Elzinga: Author

Katrina wrote "The Pick-up Princess" when she was about 6. I was 14 at the time and we decided to do a self published paper book where I provided the illustrations. Our effort was marginally successful. Jump forward to a year and a half ago when I was wanting to do an animated e-book; a revamp of The Pick-up Princess was foremost in my thoughts. I think the writing is great and I hope our efforts inspire Katrina to continue writing. Stay smart Katrina! 

2!!!!!!!!! Featuring Cassandra Trissler

2 DAYS REMAINING until our app goes live! Today's drawing is brought to you by Rough Animator and Colorist Cassandra Trissler. Be sure to check out her portfolio site when you get a chance: http://www.cassandratrissler.com/

Cassandra's animation was one of the hardest to clean up, but also one of my favorites. She had a really subtle scene and she just ran with it to produce animation that was very smooth and touching. Her style has always intrigued me for being soft and beautiful. Even her comical pictures are often desaturated and create a sense of quiet. I love that about her and her work. Stay beautiful Cassandra! 

3!!!!!!!! Featuring Sean Ward

ONLY 3 MORE DAYS UNTIL OUR APP LAUNCHES! I'm jumping for joy, you guys!

Today we feature Colorist on the project Sean Ward.

I met Sean during a particularly late and frustrating night at my school's animation building. He noticed that I was about to punch a hole through the computer I was using and came over to suggest that I not do that. We ended up quoting SNL skits for the rest of the evening and I've been following him around ever since. His excellent word play and acceptance of my constant spewing of Monty Python skits make him an invaluable friend and I was so happy to have him on this project. Stay "What chyo' swattin' at" Seanicus!