The Popcorn Sundae team and I have been really busy working on the show. Lots of concept art up on our site now. http://www.popcornsundae.com/production-blog

Just a quick holiday sketch inspired by my Thanksgiving.

Momentum continues to build! Tommy just finished some new concept art for Amy and Pltnm06Ghost has been busily boarding Episode 2. For my part, I've been working on animation and setting up our social media so we have a YouTube channel ​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5k7XLDT8KRQ-J12TVkRVug, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. now.

​You can find all the concept art and video of Ghost's storyboarding process on our Production Blog. More to come very soon!

Sorry it's been so long since I've given any sort of update. After the panel at Archon my team and I had a LOT to process, discuss, and figure out how to implement. Thank you again to everyone who was there for your great feedback, it's really been helpful! We're now in full production mode on  PlotQuest so updates will be coming much more regularly now. 

The storyboards for Episode 1 are up as well as some more concept art and info on our heroine, Ivy. You can find all on our production blog. More art coming soon!

For the past few months a couple of my former students and I have been working on creating a pilot for an animated series. I can't say too much about it at this point but what I can do is show you a couple shots from the pilot.

We completed the animatic back in January and it debuted at the ARTrepreneures Showcase hosted by the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Cortex Innovation Community. The animatic was very well received so we decided to move forward with finishing the show. Because this is a passion project right now, we've mainly been doing this in our spare time, however, I'm happy to report that the pilot episode is in final editing at this point and we'll be scheduling a screening soon. More on that as things develop.

Credits:
Me: Animation, Camera, Clean-up & Color, Sound Design, Backgrounds
Pltnm06Ghost: Character Designs, Storyboards, Backgrounds
Tommy Benoist: Storyboards, Clean-up & Color, Backgrounds
Taylor Gooden: Character Designs, Backgrounds
Music: "Nontinde Vendor Theme" by RoccoW

Students from the Graphic Arts Association will be selling their work at Anime STL this weekend. The students have spent the past year working under the guidance of Neko Pilarcik-Tellez to produce original T-Shirts, Prints, Buttons, Stickers, and Video Game Controller skins. Anime STL is the region’s largest anime convention, drawing over 5000 attendees. Their Artists’ Alley is a juried space and the students beat out some stiff competition to be accepted in. Neko and her students will be there all weekend, so if you happen to be there, stop by and say hi.

The Graphic Arts Association, Fine Art Club, and Photography Club partnered up for a whirlwind tour of Kansas City last Friday. 26 students boarded the bus at 5:30 in the morning to spend the day visiting art museums, galleries, and film / animation studios.
 
In the morning, the students toured the campus of the Kansas City Art Institute and visited the Kemper Art Museum and the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum. Many of my animation students were excited to see the animation and illustration spaces at KCAI. Julia Welles was kind enough to lead our tour group and spend time answering the many questions of my two students who will be transferring to KCAI in the fall.

That afternoon the groups split up to explore downtown Kansas City. Michael Quintero and Christine Giancola took students to the Crossroads Arts District to visit art galleries and photograph the city. Neko Pilarcik-Tellez arranged tours of two animation studios: Wide Awake Films and Intake Studio. At the studios, students got a behind-the-scenes look at how animation is produced for big-name clients like the National Geographic Channel and AMC Theaters. It was a fun day, packed with new experiences for all.

Last night, I received a Certificate of Alumni Accomplishment from the St. Louis Community College Board of Trustees. I'm so honored to have received not one, but two, of these awards in the past decade. I was given the award in recognition of all I've done as a teacher there, in particular, setting up a mentorship program for recent STLCC - Florissant Valley Animation graduates.

For this program, I selected a diverse group of very talented recent graduates. These artists work as my apprentices, helping me with the art and animation on an animated series, as well as other paid opportunities. I was awarded a grant from the RAC which I’m using to pay them for their work. My hope is that this will provide them with a stepping stone to continue to hone their skills and gain professional experience to keep their careers moving forward.

Animation is, by nature, a collaborative process. It's been a lot of fun getting to work with other animators on something we all enjoy.

It was the strangest thing, Alexis Nugent, the College's Marketing and Communications Coordinator emailed me with a bunch of questions about my time in the Regional Arts Commission's Fellowship at the Center for Emerging Technologies which I'd participated in. Turns out they decided to do an article about it and it's actually on the front page of the college's website!

I'm not sure how long it'll be there, but here's the permalink to the story stlcc.edu/Newsroom/2018/January/News4.html Needless to say, I'm very flattered! ^_^