erikrosenlund

Working with cloth

I'm always on the lookout for interesting cloth textures and patterns. Many of these come from vintage shirts that I own. (I think I've put most of my shirts in a flatbed scanner.) I love how patterns in an image can create a sense of perspective while also not creating clutter. A pattern with repetition doesn't have to distract in an otherwise minimalistic image. Just like how a raster works in print art.

I like how cloth have a very deliberate patterns design while the actual texture ...

The Quiet Birthday Party - Scene 2 Test

This is a test from scene 2 with most of the details in place. We're still missing dirt on the floor as well as a few background details and fixes, but I feel like it's finally starting to resemble the look I'm going for. 

The idea is to use water colors only for things that are out of focus, to simulate sort of a depth of field effect. When more details are needed in the second shot, there is more use of pencil to show what the kitchen looks like.

This also shows my pencil d...

Finding the right style

Working to find the right style for my short film The Quiet Birthday Party. Trying to combine pencil drawings, water colors and cloth patterns and make it all feel like a whole. The last tweaks won't be done until the film is finished, but this is starting to resemble the final look I feel.

Finding the right water color style for the BG

I want to use water color objects to create an out of focus look for most of the backgrounds. I did it to some extent in Falling Letters, but I want to push it even further.

This is me experimenting with chair design. These chairs won't be blue but it's a good color to use when you want to tweak the color later using hue/saturation.

Looking Glass Patreon Rewards

Some examples of drawings patrons can receive as rewards.

Anatomy of a scene from Looking Glass

When making backups of older work I found this short video that I made for an After Effects course I taught way back. I tightened the editing a bit (but it's still a bit long...)

I wish I had shown how I used 3D layers and lights in After Effects to make the animation cast a shadow that I then put in the shot, but that's just a lot more complex to show. Someday I might make a video just focused on techniques for making shadows in drawn animation.

Patron rewards

I'm giving away signed original animation frames from my films to patrons. This is an example from Falling Letters, but you are free to choose from any of my films.

Rigging props in After Effects

I always find cut out objects distracting, so I want it to feel like drawn animation. What's great about this technique is that I can swap drawings if needed to adapt to any scene.

Patron rewards

Patrons who provide me with their address will get an original signed pencil drawing from one of my films in the mail, once the costs for sending it has been covered.

They might look something like the above frame. Let me know if you have a film of preference.

Fake 3D in action

Peeking shots - Head rig combined with pencil drawings

Head rig animated in After Effects and combined with pencil animation. Hands, some hair frames and some additional head turn drawings were added to the digital animation. These are unfinished proof of concept shots, testing out the setup. 

Commissioned work

Thought I'd share this piece of commissioned work. I did all the rigging and animation on the characters for the film clips in the game Pet Rescue Puzzle Saga for King (produced by Cinematic). This was all done with 2D images in After Effects, essentially the same animation technique that I'm now mixing with pencil drawings for my own  films.

Another clip:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMU...

HEAD RIG The Quiet Birthday Party

This is a test of a pseudo 3D setup in After Effects bending pencil drawings to simulate 3D movement. It's all flat but it's made to look like there's depth to the movement. The idea is to mix this with traditional pencil animation when the rig can't move far enough.

Animation test - The Quiet Birthday Party, Scene 2