...Puss in Boots... (Animation Test)

This is my first dive into Dreamworks' animation software; EMO. I did this test between taking classes about the various things we do at DW to make our work get into the films. The actual shot in the film was NOT done by me... this was just the piece of dialogue I selected to try things out

-JB

I did this interview for iAnimate with Larry Vasquez after I finished up on Tangled. The interview went more into how lifes experiences affected my movement through the world of animation. A lot of 'real talk' and no fluff...

-thanks Larry

...What is... #AnimationChat...?

- I get a lot of emails from people asking me questions, advice, opinions, & things to pic my brain.  I remember when I was trying to break into the business and days I tried to get into contact with professional animators.  This was a hard thing and I found out that a lot of the people were basically..... how should I say..... a.holes.

- I told myself that if I ever made it that I would be open to guys trying to make their way (one of the reasons I wanted to teach).  It doesn't take that much to extend yourself a tiny bit because everyone has a dream and they are trying to reach it.  Animators are not famous people, so why not try to help if you can.  Granted that there are some emails that come across the wrong way.  "hey..can you look at my Demo Reel!"  No lead up, No hello...just beginning with a question.  I don't ignore these emails, instead I try to help them send the right emails so they can get the response they want.  If you never learned any kind of business etiquette, then how would you know the right and wrong things to do.  This applies to sending anyone a letter, email, or thank you to someone who works in ANY professional environment.

- With that being said, one of the things I try to tell young guys is that you should build a relationship with the person before bombarding them with questions and advice.  This is one of the reasons I wanted to try and do these AnimationChat's.  It is a nice open way to talk and be yourself with a group of peers who are all interested in the same thing.

- #AnimationChat is a place to talk shop and make some new friends!  Look for the updates on Twitter (twitter is basically the fastest and easiest way to get the word out there)

Hope to see you there

Jamaal B

...Marvel Universe Reduxe WIP...

 This is a character from the Marvel Universe: Book of the Dead...  Quincy Harker.  I did a recreation of this character for the website Marvel Universe: Reduxe.

 The site is run by Jon Morris and  I think it is a pretty cool idea and I had to ask him to let me participate.  There werent that many characters to choose from but I thought Mr Harker had a pretty interesting back story...weird but interesting.

 You can see how I work sometimes on a character.  I usually get busy with red or blue pretty rough, but I try to get most of the proportions correct.  I rough in details and then look at images to see how the look in real life (such as the wheel chair and shotgun).  From that point  go in and lay in the pencil... and more pencil.

"...it's over there..."

...I started on this between animating... again releasing the excess out of my mind.  draw..draw...draw...