Ariadne

These are preliminary sketches for a cultural project which aims to involve the inhabitants of a large elderly's people institution in the south east of The Netherlands.

I have been asked to create a virtual character, Ariadne, which is the identity of the site, custom built for this project to enhance and stimulate communication between the 700 and more people living in this place.

She is the hostess and the mediator, and accompanies you in the various phases of the login and profile making, participates in the online discussions and the uploading of stories by the members.
This character is based on a real woman, Eva van Welzenis, who acts out her role as Ariadne and periodically visits the institution to initiate the slow process of bringing people together who have very little or no computer knowledge.

I have drawn her and defined her look and style, as well as using very flat, plain colors to be used as the main color palette on the site. It was quiet difficult to think of a character that is not 'hip', but still has a presence and 'feels' comfortable.

After this process I have imported all the illustrations in Flash and made simple animations, moving gently her head sideways, looking up, pointing, showing some photos or writing. The animations were very tricky and much more work that I originally planned, and that meant adjusting head positions or add face expressions directly in Flash to make her 'flow' from one pose to the other, which I have done with different degrees of succes. I will upload the animations as soon as I am finished. This kind of work is quiet unspectacular and laborious, nothing any commercial person would be interested in, but the process of understanding how a character which is very much steeped in reality can be made to move on the screen has been a very learning experience...

Heavenly Goddesses

I found this amazing book on Bhuddist art, I just could not resist its huge reproductions of these incredibly detailed sacred paintings, they are such an inspiration...I am thinking to make a ledge on the wall so that it can be displayed in all its glory, a sort of mobile poster setup...and the all family loves it! :-)

Essential Chomsky

Definitely a must-read....

Groping in the dark

Spring is almost here and underground creatures are beginning to stir from their winter sleep deep down in the bowels of the earth...

Madd poster

I am planning to make a webcomic, time and energy permitting, and here are the main characters. Madd is the woman, she's a hippy liberal type that wants to save the world but only cares about herself and Dudu' is a rabbit which has divine powers, she will change Madd's life forever. The dog is also female and her name is Bo.

Cave girl

She certainly enjoys her popcorn in the cool shade of her cave...

Walk-Cycle (In a hurry)

Finally I have made the first walk cycle for this character, (click on the image to view it) which was great fun to do and helped me to understand a few things: I imagined in fact that I was going to shape tween the legs as I thought it would be quiet a straight forward movement but when I tried it soon became apparent that I had to tween it frame by frame....last but not least, I have changed the movements of the legs from the previous model sheet. I did this because I think the legs bending so much and the fact that she's dragging her feet gives a better sense of the character.

I have to add the left arm, which swings wildly over her head, and then a cool moving bg...I have a track in mind for the music as it dictates the rhythm of the walk, but for the moment this is as far as I am....

Dudu' the goddess rabbit

Dudu', a cute female rabbit rescued from an animal lab by Madd, revelas herself to be some sort of divine entity. This is a preliminary model sheet

In a hurry

I have started to develop a character which I hope to animate in Flash at some point. Here are the first stages, a 3/4 walk and a sidewalk, I think it is a good starting point to then import it into Flash and add the in-betweens, but as I have not done it before I have to try it first. Any suggestions are welcome...

I colored the front leg fucsia to see better its position, because she's in a hurry (yes, I know, strange but true she IS a woman), one of the many local characters in my neighbourood....The arms will be animated once I have a good walk cycle, so will be the face expressions.

What do I eat today?

This sketch was made for a sneakers and toys exhibition here in Rotterdam organised by Leyp.

It incorporates a prehistoric man being confronted by some very hungry dinos. The main character is actually a Trexy Toy and the whole visual was turned into a sort of mini display. I was running so late with finishing the piece that I did not even get the chance to take any photos!

I think i will take this sketch further drawing all the characters and finishing the color scheme.

The President's New Clothes

These are screenshots from an animation I have made in 2006 based on the famous tale 'The Emperor's New Clothes' by Hans Christian Andersen.

It is drawn entirely in Flash, storyboard included, between concept and execution it took me about 3 weeks. It was great fun to do but very time consuming; I think using Illustrator to design and then import everything into Flash may speed up the process or maybe I am too sloppy still drawing in Flash....I enjoyed working with a subject matter that is very serious and urgent as human rights. The difficulty is to remain visually sharp and have a strong concept as you struggle with form and content.....

You can watch the animation here.

Eccomi

This will be my visual gymn, where throwing punches and getting a bloody nose is all part of the fun...