The Art of Ke7in

4th Year Film

2010-07-14T03:15:00.001-04:00

Natal from Kevin McCullough on Vimeo.

coming soon...

2010-04-02T16:32:00.000-04:00

Electropolis

2009-12-19T22:37:00.000-05:00

Electropolis from Kevin McCullough on Vimeo.

Final Semester of Life Drawing

2009-12-15T23:30:00.002-05:00

Check em out they got clothes on this time!

Film Modelling Update

2009-11-26T02:51:00.005-05:00

An update of film progress, got most of the modelling and texturing done. Some stuff like the bed needs much more detail, but it'll do for now.

4th Year Film

2009-08-11T02:44:00.003-04:00

Here are some character concepts I've been working on for my fourth year film.

My Summer at Neezo

2009-07-31T20:31:00.009-04:00

So after 3 months of interning at Neezo Animation in Mississauga, it's all over. Overall it was an excellent experience. Met some really cool people, and learned a whole bunch about CG animation. In total I animated 3-3.5 episodes of "Antics" shorts, which worked out to about 3.5-4 minutes. Here are a few of the scenes that I animated during my time there. The final shorts will HOPEFULLY be online in the coming months. The videos are really compressed, so excuse the quality and the colours being way off.

Check out Neezo's site for more episodes.
www.neezo.com

Demo Reel

2009-02-10T00:33:00.001-05:00

Action Analysis

2008-12-23T21:11:00.003-05:00

The long awaited first take of my first fully coloured, finished piece of animation. Of course there were issues, and at 4 in the morning they were acceptable. The characters colour is missing on 2 frames and the pole is missing on one, and for some reason when the final was rendered, the fire layer had these weird red squares. I don't know where they came from, but I shall someday.

AA Character Design

2008-11-21T06:07:00.002-05:00

Here's a finalized character design for action analysis. Colour might still change a little.

AA Colour Test

2008-11-18T02:14:00.002-05:00

Here's an update of the action analysis scene, a colour test for the background. I'm pretty happy with it, now just have to decide if I should paint it digitally or the old fashioned way, which I'm much better at.

Stop Motion

2008-11-14T01:27:00.003-05:00

Here's some of the work I've done in my stop motion class this year. We're working up to doing a full walk cycle with one of the good puppets, but here's my first attempt using an old Power Ranger toy.

Reno 911! Caricatures

2008-10-18T22:05:00.006-04:00

Here's some caricatures I did towards the end of the summer, found them as I was going through life drawings.

Action Analysis

2008-10-17T02:49:00.003-04:00

Here's my workbook sketch for how my Action Analysis shot is going to work. Definitely trying to challenge myself with this one, but I'm sure I'll get it done.

Action Analysis Working Reel

2008-10-11T02:29:00.002-04:00

Here's the working reel for the action analysis. Some shots need some serious attention, that will come in time. Still got 9 weeks.

Action Analysis Rough Design Pack

2008-10-10T21:20:00.006-04:00

Here's my design pack for my action analysis shot. I'm liking it so far, just got to figure out how to pull of the actual shot itself.

Frankie Four Fingers

2008-10-04T02:10:00.005-04:00

Here's really the first finished piece of work from this year, and weirdly enough, its from the one class I have that has nothing to do with animation.

More Life Drawing

2008-08-20T22:59:00.012-04:00

Here's some (kind of) life drawings. All of these were done from photos, as unfortunately I don't exactly have a live model on hand for the summer. Maybe next summer I'll have to get a mail order bride. While obviously this is not as helpful as live figure drawings, it has helped stave off the rust. And one good aspect is that I have the advantage of picking and choosing poses, and the time I want/need for each.

But doing these has made me notice how boring and average almost every model hired for us is. I can think of three who actually seemed like some sort of character and weren't just a puppet being posed. These photos at least have a sense of either story or character, something that I think is very under served in life drawing classes. I get that these models are paid much better money, but given the amount we fork out for tuition, I'm sure they could spring for some better ones. I mean if 200 photography students can each find their own models (just to take close ups of their eye), I'm sure with the resources the college has, they could find better ones for us. The fact that I can go through a years worth of life drawings and find the same model in the same pose in almost ten different drawings is kind of ridiculous.

I also understand that when models are as attractive as those I've drawn here, or are better actors, they can probably make better money for less hours. But I guarantee if you asked all 400+ students in our program if they would chip in an extra $500 in tuition for the best models/actors, you would get a unanimous 'yes.'

But for now I think this method is a good alternative. I know that I can't find the same variety of body types, but the variety of interesting poses that actually suggest a setting or character more than makes up for it.

Life Drawing

2008-04-28T23:09:00.005-04:00

Class by class, I'll start posting work from the rest of year two at Sheridan. First up is life drawing. A big thanks to Robin Muller (google him!) for saving us from the administration, and pointing out a whole bunch of things I can do (and started to do) to improve my life drawing, which in my opinion has always been my weakest class.

The Summer of George

2008-04-19T02:04:00.006-04:00

So I've started a second blog, dedicated to my summer work. My plan is to watch at least 1 new movie each day, and then do some caricatures, layout studies and maybe some story analysis in preparation for 3rd year.

I proclaim it to be "The Summer of George!!"

See it here

Beak Sync

2008-04-09T15:10:00.001-04:00

Newest animation, the beak sync. Clip is from Will Ferrel's cameo in Wedding Crashers.

Muzzle Sync

2008-03-03T01:31:00.003-05:00

The product of reading week, my muzzle sync animation. Once again the dialogue is from Dogma, this time from Jason Lee. Tried something new with this one, no light table use at all. Still used the disc and pegbar of course, but all done with flipping. I think it turned out pretty well, so I think I'll keep doing it that way for the time being.

Human Sync

2008-02-12T22:17:00.003-05:00

Here's the latest animation assignment, the human sync. The line is from the movie Dogma, original character design. Pretty happy with it, considering I started from scratch two weeks into the assignment.

And if history repeats itself, Ben Affleck has two days to live.

Mouth Sync

2008-01-25T19:46:00.000-05:00

First assignment back after Christmas break, the mouth sync. Very fun to do, mainly because I got most of it done early and it gave me time to add the extra stuff like the lip cuts/stitching and the video/sound at the end.

And I have to mention that it was done and handed in a full two days before Ledger died. An eerie kind of tribute, I guess.

Walk & Run

2007-11-27T12:58:00.000-05:00

Here's my newest animation, the walk & run. It took roughly four weeks, and hopefully either have a sense of humour and you like it, or you're deeply religious and it offends you. I'm happy either way.

Women

2007-11-01T19:01:00.001-04:00

As every male artist knows, the hardest thing is to draw women, especially their faces. That is without making them look at least somewhat man-ish. So my goal for this year is to get a whole lot better at not just drawing realistic women, but being able to do character designs of them.

So far I'm just drawing celebrities and models from reference, and trying to figure out what makes their facial structure different. After I do maybe between 50-100 of those and can knock them out in 5-10 minutes no problem I'll be moving on to some caricatures. Depending on how that goes I'll do a bunch and move on to completely original character designs of women.

That being said, here's the first batch of attempts. Most are the Transformers chick Megan Fox, with a couple of Adriana Lima (aka some crazy skinny super model), and one of Aeon Flux herself, Charlize Theron.

Weight Lift & Toss

2007-10-21T18:42:00.000-04:00

Well here's my latest animation, the weight lift and toss. I was very happy with the lift(s), but not so much the toss. The timing kept screwing me up, and trying to get the body bag to look like it was slowed down (when it hit the railing before it fell) looks now like it didn't work.

The other tough part of this was the timeframe. Only 2 weeks for this, at the same time several other large projects were due. Couple that with 26 hours at work shifts in the Friday, Staurday and Sunday before the due date meant there was very little sleep this past week. And of course the best part, hearing everyone else in the course complain about the time restraints, while they don't have a job! Try losing 25-30 hours out of your homework time every week and see how you do then whiners!

If you can't tell, its supposed to be a nervous mofia temp throwing a body bag off a bridge.

Wave/Boat/Flour Sack

2007-09-26T20:43:00.000-04:00

Well here's my first animation of the year, the flour sack in a boat, somehow being propelled forward.

This was a 3 week assingment, and surprisingly it took all that time. The wave wasn't that hard, but getting the timing of the boat and sack to match the wave and look believable was pretty rough. Of course is didn't help that I made my wave cycle too few drawings and continually had to squeeze things together and retime everything. Perhaps I'll give it another shot sometime if I have the chance.

Comments are welcome.

Animal Walk

2007-09-06T01:28:00.000-04:00

Here's my animal walk of a hyena. Specifically a spotted hyena. Note for future students, do not attempt to animate the spots in your first year.

Personally I was hoping to do an animal like a polar bear or rhino, something big, heavy and unique. Especially after a trip to the zoo for reference ended in failure because the damn things did nothing but sleep, curled up in little balls. But I think it turned out okay, except for the tail.

Flour Sack

2007-09-06T01:18:00.000-04:00

This one was the final for year one, and was by far my most favourite. We finally had some freedom. I pulled "egg" out of the hat as my object for the sack to interact with.

Seeing as how close Easter was when I started it, an easter egg seemed appropriate. And what better time to mock religion than making fun of the bigger Christian holidays.

Sorry Jesus, you can walk on water, but you can't escape my wrath :P

The original cut of this was 18 seconds, but thanks to time limits I had to cut parts out and speed things up. I still like it, but not as much.

Head Rotation

2007-09-06T01:14:00.000-04:00

My first animation with a real character. Note to self, next time pick one without dozens of hair tuffs that all need to be rotated in three dimensions.

Almost killed myself finishing this, but as it stand right now its probably my favourite.

Book Page

2007-09-06T01:10:00.000-04:00

And more, the book page turn to compliment the seaweed of course.

Seaweed Wave Cycle

2007-09-06T01:02:00.000-04:00

This is my first attempt at the wave principle and animating a cycle. Although I don't like the speed of it, I was surprised that it was actually pretty fluid.

Pendulum

2007-09-06T01:01:00.001-04:00

This is the best of my work for the first project, the pendulum. While now that I look back and dislike the clock design, I'm really happy with the timing.

Bowling Ball

2007-09-06T00:59:00.000-04:00

This is the second animation I did, the bowling ball. I took a lot of time making sure the axis were rotating right, and I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Bouncing Ball

2007-09-06T00:24:00.000-04:00

Here is my very first animation from September '06.

Kinda self explanatory.

Intro

2007-09-05T23:50:00.000-04:00

And God said, "Let there be blog." And there was Kevin's blog. And then God went for brunch with the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny while Kevin updated his blog.