Dogs Of War on Patreon (maybe)

Ok I've had an idea. A while back I worked on a graphic novel based on my 'Dogs Of War' series (you may have heard me go on about it in earlier blog posts). I had a go pitching it to publishers (ok, one publisher. Image Comics) but they didn't go for it. I didn't mind (I would have been more surprised if they did approve it) so I moved on.

However, at the moment I've finished my current animation contract and there doesn't seem to be any more work lined up anytime soon. This got me thinking about what else I could do. I recently found out about Patreon.com and it dawned on me that this could be a way to get my ideas out there and earn some money at the same time.

My main hurdle however is exposure. No good setting up a Patreon account if no-one knows about it. Sure, I've got this blog, but traffic - appreciated as it may be, is small. I need to get my name out there. So to start, I'm putting up a few pages from volume one of my graphic novel (one page today, more to follow over the next few days). If you like it and/or know of people that would, then please let them know, post a comment here to say if you like and would support my stuff. Just spread the word! Anything! Validate my existence! Pleeeeaassseeee!

At first I was going to put up the very first page, but realised it wasn't the best sample. The opening sequence establishes the setting of the graphic novel as well as the bad guys. During this point, it doesn't feature any of the dog characters, making things appear somewhat misleading. So instead, I chose this sequence. Stylene (the fox) is established earlier in the story, but this is the point where we are introduced to her team in their fight against the Universal Alliance (the bad guys).

I hope you like the visual style. I'll admit it does come off a bit simple and I know there are plenty of artists who can run rings around me in terms of style and detail, but I hope this is still adequate. When I began work on this, I was also studying a Civil Engineering degree. There was next to nothing going on in the animation industry (in Australia at least) and I needed a fallback plan. I was hoping to finish volume one and have it picked up by a publisher before the end of my studies. I wasn't keen on being an engineer - even though I was doing well in my studies, I desperately wanted an alternative. As a result, this was all a bit of a rush job. Maybe the backgrounds could have been a bit more detailed and spending more time in the layout phase would have helped. I have made a few tweaks - the main one updating the linework from the Pencil tool to the Brush tool (Photoshop users would know what I'm on about), but for the most part I've kept everything 'as is' because I want to get this done and up and running as soon as possible. As for the font type, that's something I created myself. A little untidy, so I'll refine it, but only if I can get this thing up on Patreon.

So yeah. Dogs Of War. I do hope you like it. I would love to be able to work on this as a career. A concern though is whether or not us Aussies can use Patreon. Kickstarter was off limits to us for a while, but now Kicky is accessible by all, but am unsure about Patreon. I dunno. I haven't looked into it.

(Disclaimer: I am aware that there has already been a comic called 'Dogs Of War'. However because it was a comic, not a graphic novel and is no longer in production - having existed briefly in the mid 1990's, I'm hoping I can get away with using the title on technicalities.)

Dogs Of War animation update

Hey y'all,

Just a quick post - Checking through previous posts of mine, I've noticed I made mention that I was working on an animation based on one of my Dogs Of War episode ideas. At present, I have suspended progress. It was taking ages to get anywhere, mainly because I was also designing assets on the fly, slowing the progress of animation. Also, because it was meant to be a half hour episode, that's a huge taking for just one person to do. That and I had been working as an animator for a studio, so I wasn't overly keen to get into more animation after work. I haven't given up on it entirely - I would definitely like to get back to it, but in the meantime it's better for me to work on some smaller projects in order to actually finish something. I've almost completed one, but trying to source the particular sound effects I need is proving to be a bit of a bugger.

LEGO!

I love The Lego Movie. Hell, I just love Lego. During my brief stint home over the Christmas/New Year period, I watched the DVD of the Lego Movie probably far more than I should have. So of course, it spurred interest in buying the sets. This is what happens when you have spare time and a disposable income. I also have an interest in photography, so I decided to take some snaps of a few character pairings.

Jess

Another 'Dogs Of War' character. This is Jess in all her aggressive, ready-for-action mode. I've been toying with the idea of her dual-wielding assault rifles, as a way of distinguishing her from the other characters that use assault rifles, but I probably won't go there. It looks impractical in the way it would affect accuracy and reloading would take much longer than if she just used the one. I opt for the realistic approach. Yes, I am aware of the irony of going for the 'realistic' angle when I'm dealing with gun-toting anthropomorphic animals.

Feeling a little down right now. I received word from home yesterday that our family dog had passed away. As you can see from the date on the image, this was made several days ago, before I received the news. However right now I don't really have the motivation to draw any cartoon dogs. I'm a bit depressed and will need some time to come right again. 

Unstable Housewife - concepting

Some pics of the main character from my 'Unstable Housewife' (or whatever I end up calling it) series. This is a proposed series of shorts I hope to one day get around to making. As the above images suggests, it's a bit twisted. I'm going for a bit of a kitsch 1950's era look (despite the series being set in modern times) I was going to have simple flat colour which would have made things a tad easier in the animation process, but it does make various poses difficult to distinguish (just look at the crossed arms in the above picture. It's a bit of a mess of colour). So I opted to go for coloured outlines, as shown below.

 



I reckon it would be a fun and hopefully funny series and something I could churn out regularly (each episode is only planned to be two minutes in length), but my main hurdle would be to find someone for the voice. I don't know enough people. Especially those with decent voice acting ability and the 'right voice' for the job.

Rovers of the Road

Barking, scratching, uh, something something - I forget the rest of the lyrics - Road Rovers!

This is a pic I did of Hunter and Colleen from the animated series Road Rovers. I actually drew this back in 2012, but recently updated the look (using the brush tool for the outlines rather than pencil. Still coming to grips with Photoshop y'see). Hence the revised date of 2015.

I'm quite chuffed with the result. Nailing the look of characters that weren't designed by
me is somehting I tend to struggle with. Though if I'm honest, maybe the legs are a little short.

This romantic-themed pic is a reflection on the attraction these two characters had which was hinted at in the series.

Just a shame that they waited until the last sodding episode of the series to start developing character personalities. I mean, I like Road Rovers, but looking at it retrospectively, the charcters were just so bland - they had very little in the way of personality traits and the only time they spoke to one another was for the sake of a gag.

I had a look at the last time I posted something on this blog. March 2013? Really? I've spent the last couple of years working as an animator for a TV series. It kept my incredibly busy and hadn't left me much time or motivation to work on my own stuff. Although we have finished the project, there may or may not be more stuff, so while I will try to keep updating the blog, don't be surprised if I drop off the radar again. But two years? That's way too long.

Getting back into the action

Oh this blog update was long overdue.

I’ve been busy over these past few weeks/months. I’ve relocated to another state for a job so I’ve been a bit preoccupied with the move and haven’t had much time to get around to posting blogs.

However now that I’ve settled in, it’s time to get back to work. I’m still working on my ‘Dogs Of War’ animation, but progress is a little slower than I’d like as my job takes up most of my day and it’s an animation job, so coming home to work on my animations isn’t really the first thing I want to do after I’ve spent all day animating in the workplace. Also, I’m still in pre-production, making all the necessary assets. The idea was to get them all done then start on production, but this is taking far longer than my patience is allowing so I’m probably going to just make the bare essentials, start animating and create/update assets as I need them.

Anyway, in the meantime, here are a couple of animation samples of one of my characters. I didn’t set out to create the best animation in these clips, they were really only done to test my character rig style, so please excuse the imperfections. I promise do a better job in my main project.