Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Stopmotion Experiment

Well, I have the stopmotion bug again! Its been a long time since I've done anything stopmotion. I have been getting inspired lately and getting the books of the shelf that I have on the subject. I created this little test animation, its a bit rough but the main aim was to get back into the feel of animating real life puppets.



Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

When it comes to creating a graphic novel I find myself feeling at home "scripting" the comic using thumbnails. I've tried writing a script but in this case I have found thumbnailing preferable for this project.

Of course, I developed the story with a written outline and from there used the thumbnails to visualize the story. Below you can see a couple of pages with my thumbnails. I drew them quite tiny and made notes beside them.



From  there I took the small thumbnails and actually started to draw larger roughs into a small notebook.


In the end I just found my self creating roughs directly into the computer. I love drawing with pencil and paper and wish that I could have done this project by hand and then colour them on the computer. The reality is if I want to complete this project in a reasonable amount of time, keeping it digital will speed up the process.

I am glad that I have so much to reference with the thumbnails and roughs that I have already done, which is the majority of the story. Its good to have this foundation to work on as it gives me a lot to consider when  finalizing a page. 



I don't want to spoil my story too much so I've just given a little example of my inked work and some colour work. Colouring is turning out to be a big challenge and I have still not completely decided what style of colouring suites my inked work.





You can follow The Legend of Judiah blog here



Monday, June 4, 2012

Here is my first post from my new graphic novel blog http://legendofjudiah.blogspot.com.au/


Hello and welcome to my first official post on The Legend of Judiah Blog! Yes, I am yet another artist with a background in animation developing that passion for bringing their stories to life in the graphic novel format. My graphic novel and this blog are both a work in progress and it is this work in progress that I want to document.

Making a graphic novel is no easy task, as one soon finds out upon embarking on such a project. For someone like me with my animation background it seemed like a pretty simple plan, you have a story, you write the script, you draw the thumbnails and best of all NO ANIMATING, just draw the pictures! Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love animation and animating, but somehow a graphic novel seems a lot more achievable than even a short animation, which in some ways it is. That being said, just as much thinking, planing, writing and re-writing goes into this process as animation. This thinking and planning has been going on since 2007.

It is my hope that this blog will be a place for those who would like to read independent graphic novels to come and check out my little contribution to the scene as well as receive helpful comments and suggestions. It is also my hope that others find inspiration for their own work, just as I have through reading other peoples blogs and online graphic novels.

Most of all this blog and graphic novel are my way of entering into the online community of independent graphic novelists. It won't be perfect, but I'll do my best...I really want to do this story.

Currently, I have started inking and colouring and will hopefully be uploading pages shortly. One thing that I do want to do regularly is post about where I am up to, what I'm up to, and what I am currently being inspired by.

I will leave you with a few sentences of what my graphic novel is about. If anyone has any links to articles about writing log lines and such, or even your own way of writing short sentences about your comic I would love to read them.

Here is what I have so far:

Small town sheep detective, Joshua Ramsees, is at his witts end chasing around the notorius Clive Brothers on their biggest crime wave yet. The trouble is they disappear without a trace! The only clues Joshua can find lead to the unthinkable, wolves just don't exist! Will Joshua find the answer in a story that most of the town only consider legend? Is the Legend of Judiah their only hope?

Well, although I have not uploaded much as yet, I at least hope this little introduction will spark your interest to follow my blog as it can get quite lonely working on your graphic novel. 

Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully I'll see you again soon! Please come and visit the blog  http://legendofjudiah.blogspot.com.au/

Jason Rodgers 

About Me

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Animator/illustrator/musician who enjoys listening to jazz and drawing animals in coke bottle glasses and jazz hats