GOODBYE/HELLO/TUMBLR

Finally set up my tumblr, only two years later.

Not sure if I'll keep updating here because I feel like blogger has been a bit sparse the last couple of years (somebody prove me wrong!). I've probably jumped onto the tumblr train too late
but like, you know, whatever.

To check it out follow this link: davidtolugraham.tumblr.com

I guess that wave is a hello and goodbye.

Thanks for the 7 years.

Modern Stars

Another trio for you folks!

What are they looking at?

Ever thought it might just be you?

Hardball IV

Looks like it's a standoff.

I like that gif comics are a thing,

and this is just me trying out that thing.

Also, it was about time I made another gif wasn't it.

You know what they say, gifs are good. 

Now that's alliteration, despite what Steve Wilhite thinks.

Pour Cyclist

You are looking at a rather dramatic (and gif'd up) scene from a story of romance, 

self discovery and vehicular coming of age.

It's over guys. Last month saw the end of my cycling comic strip!

In case you missed it, you can read the whole thing on Cycle Camden's Facebook page. 

So if you're still wondering what happened to this poor chap, and if things gets better for him, 

what are you still doing here? GO READ IT!

#100

Ok so..... Thanks for sticking around!

Finally got here, Post 100. Only took 4 and a half years!

I know this isn't a big deal to a lot of people, but getting here is a rather nice thing for me.

As a personal celebration I made this little gif. 

Thought it would be interesting to see what one of my older characters from the start looks 

like loosely animated by the same hand today.

It has been a wonderfully self-indulgent process I must admit.

Man, flowers in the wind take a long time to animate.

I've got much more work to show you, here and elsewhere! I got a tumblr you see.
Might migrate there, or might keep both blogs, we'll see what happens I suppose!
I'll update both for the time being!
But yeah, keep your eye out for that.

I'd like to say more, but I feel like I've gone on for too long already.
Hopefully the future work shall speak for itself too.

Once again, thanks to anyone who has stopped by and had a little gander over the last few years.
As a thank you, here's snippet of the best thing I heard last year, enjoy:

P-P-P-P-P-P

Hey there, I'm still alive.

Here's just a glimpse of one of the few things that have been
preoccupying me the last couple of months.

I've been extremely busy lately, so much so that I've finally skipped a month of blogging,
which I had a personal vow not to do.

C-C-C-Combo Breaker and whatnot.

You won't hear much from me here until the end of November,
for more information as to why, click right here.

Might seem like it came out of nowhere, but yeah, it's all about Pixel Art,

I've almost finished writing about it, so now it's time to make some more.

On that note here's some awesome Chiptune.

On a completely unrelated note, Happy Halloween!

Our Lethaby

Ok so...



Yes, this is what that was all about.

This animation is a response to the "My Lethaby" project we had recently, in which we had to create a form of moving image that celebrates the Central Saint Martins Lethaby Building located on Southampton Row. We are leaving the building for King's Cross next year you see.

The aim was to display the building as even more beautiful visions, so that the world outside of Central Saint Martins would appreciate the beauty too, a beauty that it has taken many time to fall in love with. It also displays the students' nostalgic thoughts as they mentally prepare themselves for the KX move.

We were working in pairs this time round, indeed this is a collaborative effort with Kenny Yu. I must admit this animation isn't what I'd usually come up with, and it may be the first piece of moving image I've ever done that isn't narrative based,
about time eh.

Now to end with a few still moments:

Supernature

Ah, the last couple of weeks have been pretty damn intense, but what else should I expect from moving image.

This time we were creating 30 second films using pixilation under the project title "Supernatural." For those of you who don't know, pixilation is basically stop motion with people, I didn't know that myself until a few months ago.

Here we go:




If spaghetti westerns...


...had involved deities...

...they may have looked a little like this.

We were working in pairs again, and luckily I got to work with my good comrade Caspar. It was pretty cool spending time both in front of and behind the camera! We spent two sleepless nights living on a rooftop in order to shoot this, along with many more sleep deprived days & nights working. I think all our work paid off. Caspar and I made a good team.

At the start of the uni year I was so focused on specialising in illustration... but the more work I do I find myself not looking so out of place in an animation studio. It's gonna be quite tough choosing between illustration and moving image, as I'm besotted with them both.

Packing Pixils

This week we became pixil-pros.

Got some cool stuff coming round a near corner awfully soon.

Cindy's Secret

A couple of weeks ago I had a moving image project

We were working in pairs this time, and with a little luck I was paired up with my friend Katy, we spent 2 weeks working feverishly, day in day out on a 20 second animation on the theme of a secret.

We were given 4 words to work with, Extravagant, Bag, Sad & Radio. At the first sight of these words I never suspected we'd come out with anything as odd as this:







The guise of theater...


...followed by flying pigs & steam-punk radios.

I would put more screenshots up, but I fear it'll ruin the animation for people who like to read the full posts first...

Cindy's secret is no more.

Yeah that's right we named her Cindy, it's not like we went a little mad through two sleepless weeks, became attached to the character and thought up a name... honestly... We were just working, I mumbled something and Katy replied with "Did you just call her Cindy?!" And so the name was born.

I'm so glad I shared that story with you.

Bug Rolls

Today (well if you wanna get all technical on me, yesterday... sheesh), was the last day of term, and what can I say, it's been great, yet typically I've basically shown you none of the work I've done. Right now I'm playing catchup, and as you've probably worked out that's a regular occurrence here!

So yeah, a month ago we had a group animation project, we had to create a 10 second animation based on a pet peeve. So we went with my friend Caspar's obscure hatred of toilet paper hanging the wrong way in bathrooms.

Enjoy 10 seconds of pure toilet critter madness:

Despite it being at 20 frames per second the animation didn't take as long as I thought it would, well it didn't seem to, time flew right by. The sounds a teeny tiny bit off, as we recorded it the day before we filmed it, and didn't really get a chance to refer to it whilst we animated. Ah well, I still think it works pretty damn well. Take note of Caspar's "plop" sound at the end... I still can't figure out how he does it!

Now a couple of things:

I fear I may have gone a little over the top with the storyboard...



Naturally I found myself illustrating quite a bit for this animation.

This was the first time I'd ever done collage stop-motion, and I loved it! Hope to do some experimenting with that in the near future.

Computerboy Sleeps

So, it's 4am, and now seems to be the only time since last week I've been awake, free, and it's not too noisy from the rain to record that video I was talking about. Finally did it, so enjoy!

Now, a few points to clear things up:

• I lied, I didn't do it in a week, it was more like 2 days...

• I hate my voice too.

• It's drool, not jizz.
  

So yeah, just to summarise:

No noise: Computerboy Sleeps.


A little noise: Computerboy flinches.


Too much noise: Computerboy pissed off.

Now I know you got it the first time, I just really wanted to put these drawings up.

FOR LAYERS: THE FIRST CUT

Here it is, the final outcome, We Are Finally Cowboys’ first music video for their first single, “For Layers”

This is what I like to call the “First Cut”

Why “first cut”? Well, some parts didn’t quite make this cut you see.

I drew so many frames….

…but due to time constraints I couldn’t fit them all in the animation for the deadline. Also the song For Layers is two minutes long; you’ve only seen and heard the 1^st minute.

For the foundation exhibition I used my space to basically advertise the music video and let people listen to the full song.

I’ve decided to continue with this project in my spare time, bring back the deleted scenes, and animate the final minute of the song. I’d like you to see and hear my full vision; it’ll be worth the wait.

I promise.

WE ARE FINALLY COWBOYS

The seeds were planted, the band was conceived, the stars are born.

Meet “We Are Finally Cowboys"

Introducing...

Davvy Fantango.

The bastardised arrogant and deluded lead singer stereotype. Donning an eye patch and a Winehouse-esq beehive, he proclaims that his odd skin tone is down to an intentional all over body “zombie-chique” tattoo – but there has been rumours it was down to a bizarre tanning accident. This guy has tattoo of himself on his back, need I say anymore.

...and...

Terabite.

Davvy’s brother, the eclectic recluse behind the music. Wears a mask in a bid to have some spotlight yet still remain anonymous. Personally he thinks the mask is pretty cool. When it comes to media attention he appears to be in a constant state of “coming of age”.

Together they are the indie/synth/western/powerpop/megapop phenomenon "We Are Finally Cowboys".

Hopefully you’ll see these guys a lot more in the future.

When the band concept was complete I set about looking at the process of lip-syncing and the effects of phonetics…

…then began to bring the characters to life.

Lipsyncing test using Davvy Fantango and a line from the Marmaduke Duke song Kid Gloves.

Animation test with Terabite.

With their latest single, "For Layers" soon to be released, they needed a music video...

More on this project ridiculously soon.