Sam Lewis

LoopDeLoop - October 'Spooky'

2011-10-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

I've finally managed to find time to enter the Loopdeloop animation competition.

I think disabling my Facebook account for a month might have helped with the productivity side of things, but came back to get me when I wanted to annoy all my friends into voting for me.

I just had to make do with some good old fashioned email spamming.

Porter Davis

2011-10-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

Animated this little TVC for Victorian home builder, Porter Davis. I never really got into miniature model building as a kid and now I'm even less inclined to do so after animating tiny cows and boats for 6 days straight.

I'm quite happy with how everything turned out in the end, even though a decent chunk of animation had to be cut to keep it under 30 seconds.

Special thanks goes to Tim from Visual Jazz for taking care of all the After Effects work and for buying me fruit, all the other guys at Oh Yeah Wow who put in hours of work building props that were only on screen for a couple of frames and to Darcy for being forced to believe in me because he was in another country.

Music Matters - Eskimo Joe

2011-09-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

I animated the stop motion elements for this little clip about Australian band, Eskimo Joe, as part of the Music Matters campaign: http://anz.whymusicmatters.org

The clip uses a mix of stop motion and flash animation with a bit of rotoscoping thrown in for good measure (my left arm makes a house crushing guest appearance).

All the 2D animation was done by Oh Yeah Wow's resident creative super freak, Jayden Dowler, who was also responsible for sculpting He-Man and Skeletor.

I may have to steal his brains at some point...

Made for China

2011-09-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

The head of animation at my old university in Queensland commissioned me to sculpt a replica of the pirate from my graduate film Here Be Treasure. Apparently there's a massive animation college in China that QCA has made friends with and they wanted examples of student work to take overseas as part of a guest lecture from Australia.

Rehashing old models is always a great indication of how far your sculpting ability has progressed and it's something I really enjoy.

...especially when the university is footing the materials bill.

All India Radio 'Rippled'

2011-08-11T04:53:00.000-07:00

Possibly my favouriteanimation project to date since starting work at Oh Yeah Wow back inOctober 2010.

Created for Melbourne based instrumental band All India Radio, theclip for Rippled essentially involved running around abandonedwarehouses (and a bread factory) waving coloured LED torches in front ofexpensive cameras for hours on end while trying to avoid nesting pigeons,chromers, overly enthusiastic night photographers and security guards whoreally couldn't care less.

The process took just over 6 months to complete.

The only part I didn't enjoy so much was standing knee deep in muddy water attwo in the morning trying to animate a giant blue cat.

Here Be Treasure Premieres on YouTube

2011-04-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

That's right!

After two whole years of stuffing around, procrastinating and general I-can't-be-botherness, I've managed to upload my graduate animation piece to the Tube of You.

It's been quite a while since I've watched the whole animation from start to finish and I'm pleased to report that it no longer makes me cringe remembering the 5 weeks of 9am-11pm days animating in the darkest corner of the stop motion room at QCA.

During my sudden surge in productivity, I also uploaded a bunch of my other animations and short films - including, but not limited to, a creepy rendition of Spike Milligan's 'On the Ning Nang Nong' and a fight between a jar of Vegemite and Peanut Butter.

Enjoy!

Art vs Science 'Finally See Our Way'

2010-12-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

Finally! Something worth blogging about!

Actually there's been heaps of things, but I was far too busy moving to Melbourne in search of animation work ...so busy in fact that I didn't even have time to blog about moving to Melbourne in search of animation work.

Long story short: Moved to Melborg from Brisvegas. Started work at Dee Pee Studios. Just finished animating the new single for 'Art vs Science'. Am now famous on Youtube.

Check it yo!

Showreel

2010-06-18T06:56:00.000-07:00

Trailer

2010-02-05T03:49:00.000-08:00

Post Production: Still Frames

2009-11-25T20:19:00.000-08:00

Not Yet Dead

2009-09-23T19:55:00.001-07:00

Nope, not dead. Just really, really, really busy.

Since my last post I've managed to...

- Tweak the storyline (crab is now an octopus)
- Finish all the animation
- Colour balance the stills
- Get angry at After Effects for not exporting properly
- Complete 1055 frames of clean up in photoshop
- Edit the shots together

...and find out that all my uni friends think I'm living in the stop motion studio.

Which is only half true.

Needs More Pirate

2009-05-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

I've decided Eric the pirate just wasn't 'piratey' enough, so I've gone and re-designed him ...again.

The main things I altered were his body, limbs and eyes. Giving him a solid body really helped to get the 'piratey' aesthetic. Changed his eyes so he didn't look like an Aardman ripoff.

Initially I chose blue as the colour scheme, but eventually changed it back to the original red as it will stand out better on the yellow background. Apparently red and yellow colour schemes make you hungry.

Really happy with how the model turned out. I think he transferred from sketches to fabrication quite nicely. Although, his boots look like terracotta pots.

Armature Building: 1st Attempt

2009-05-31T07:05:00.001-07:00

Armature Building: Research

2009-05-31T07:04:00.002-07:00

If stop motion was a religion, this would be it's bible.

Possibly the most extensive book on puppet animation to date, this book covers topics from building armatures to job searching tips. It also has comments from leading stop motion animators such as Jeff Newitt (he's so dreamy).

Essentially, it's more delicious than sliced bread.

Eric Gets a Makeover

2009-05-31T07:04:00.001-07:00

Now that I've got a story, I need a pirate. I liked the simplicity of original Eric's character design, so instead of a complete rebuild he's just getting a facelift. Namely a beard, some boots and possibly a bandanna.

Blood from a Stone.

2009-05-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's only taken me 6 months, but I've FINALLY settled on a story for my 3rd year film.

Working Title: 'Treasure'

One Liner: A pirate finds a treasure chest.

Synopsis: A pirate following a treasure map comes across a large red ‘X’ marked on the ground. Excited, he whips out his shovel and starts digging. After a while his shovel hits something solid and he brushes away the sand to reveal an old wooden treasure chest. The pirate lifts the heavy chest out of the hole and breaks off the lock with the end of his shovel, before opening the lid. There is no gold inside, but instead a giant hermit crab. It uncurls itself and crawls away with the empty treasure chest on its back.

The End.

Short Synopsis

2009-04-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

A plasticine man named Eric becomes suicidal after deciding he can no longer live with being a generic, colourless (off-white) character. The only problem is that being made out of clay makes him pretty much immortal. No matter how hard he tries, Eric just can't off himself. After a number of failed attempts (Jump, Gun, Guillotine, Noose) Eric is finally able to find something worth living for.

Script Idea - 3

2009-04-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

A cartoon character with suicidal tendencies.

Generic Eric

2009-04-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

Sound Check

2009-04-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

I’ve managed to find myself a sound designer, which is quite madcore because sound isn’t really my forte. Said sound designer goes by the name of Sprott... Adrian Sprott who is a fellow student studying at QCA and likes making noises. Our first meeting was mostly just an excuse for pizza and mountain dew, but we did discuss possible treatments. Kinda need a story before we can talk about sound design in more detail.

Script Idea 2 - 'Cooties'

2009-04-08T20:48:00.001-07:00

What if Cooties was a real disease?

Script Idea 1 - 'Manwich'

2009-04-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

A man is making the most perfect sandwich ever.
Every step is carried out with the upmost precision, even going as far as measuring the exact width of bread slices with a ruler and symmetrically aligning the cheese. Finally after hours/days of work the sandwich is finished. Man stands and admires his work, picks up sandwich and is about to bite into his masterpiece... when his arms fall.

The End.

Inspirational Inspiration

2009-04-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

While out looking for inspiration one day on the internets’, I came across three stop motion films which reflect the kind of animation I want to make for my 3rd year. Two of those films were by Aardman (naturally) and the third by the Lauenstein brothers who hail from Germany. All these animations have amazing animation quality and revolve around a simple theme such as love, equilibrium and religion.

Loves Me, Loves Me Not - Jeff Newitt

Adam - Peter Lord

Balance - Wolfgang & Christoph Lauenstein

Nonsensicalness

2009-04-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

I like nonsense rhymes. There’s just something about the complete lack of logic in them that I find delectable. For experimental animation last year I made a film called ‘Ning Nang Nong’ based on Spike Milligan’s poem and had almost as much fun making it, as I did watching people’s reactions to it. Creepy is a pleasant change from cute. In thinking about possible ideas for my film I collected a number nonsense rhymes and other verses which amuse me:

PURPLE COW
I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.

ONE FINE DAY
One fine day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight,
Back to back they faced each other,
Each drew his sword and shot the other,

Now one was blind and the other couldn't see,
So they chose a duck to be referee.
A deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came to arrest the two dead boys,

A paralysed donkey passing by,
Kicked the policeman in the eye,
They fell right through a glass brick wall,
Into a dry ditch which drowned them all.

If you don't believe this story’s true,
Ask the blind man he saw it too.

THE CROOKED MAN
There was a crooked man who walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse.
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

Hi Ho Silver!

2009-04-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

I've decided to go it alone this year. Being (one of) the only stop motion animator at QCA I believe it will be easier in the long run if I just do my own thing. This way, I retain complete creative control over almost every element in my film and it also means I won't drag anyone else down if it all goes to hell. Plasticine doesn’t keep well in fiery infernos, so fingers crossed that won’t happen.

Project Brief

2009-03-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

Students will be required to produce a major animation project over the semester which will entail group collaboration on a topic of their own choice. Individually each student will choose to specialise in one or a number of creative roles within the production team and is to sign a contract on that basis.

This project may or may not link with 3108GFS_Y2 (Animation Project 2) in semester 2. Students are required to keep a Project/Team Blog to which each member is to contribute during the semester. This is to document the production progress for others to observe and as a selfreflective process.

The diary/blog will include draft script ideas, details of crewing contacts, production notes, daily research, weekly self-assessment of production plan, references, developmental sketches, and other relevant notes.