Grrrrr….Omm….buu….lusssss!!!!

©2012 Grombulus

This is what I’m currently working on. Right now it’s a collaboration with Jamie Flam, Vanessa Ragland, Caryn Ruby, Valerie Dambold and whoever else wants to join in on the fun. Initially I wanted a song of made up jibberish that I could make a video to. I wanted to be able to throw in a lot of ornaglyphs and create something that wasn’t a literal interpretation of something else. Later on Jamie and I both decided it would be even more fun and exciting to open up the project to anyone who feels like contributing. Guidelines are below. Let me know if there are any questions!

The Song: You can listen to it here. This was written and performed by Jamie and Vanessa. I just noticed the link is broken so if you want in email me: info@ornaglyphology.com and I will send an mp3.

What I am looking for: Original artwork that is inspired by the song. This can include backdrops, paintings, scribbles, doodles, cartoon characters, ascemic writing, paint splatters, photographs, short video clips (5-20 seconds), etc. I will be using almost everything that gets contributed. And I want to emphasize that all skill levels are welcome! Even if you don’t feel like you are creative please jump in anyways, this will be fun! Be as spontaneous as you want to be. I will be using images/video layered in with my animations to be part of the scenery/atmosphere. The submissions may even influence what happens within the video on my end.

Things to know:

•  Original art only please. Art/photos should be high-resolution (at least 300dpi). Keep in mind that I will be altering and layering the artwork to fit within the video and to create a consistent atmosphere. Email me at info@ornaglyphology.com if you want to contribute!

• As of right now there is no deadline. When I get closer to finishing my art I will have a better of idea of when I need art from contributers!

•  My motivation for creating this video is fun, experience and learning. I have no plans on monetizing Grombulus (except maybe for fundraising for charity, those plans are in the distant future) so there’s no pay involved here. Anyone who contributes will be in the credits.

It’s Here!!!!

Here it is, my first animated music video! Please leave comments and share it! We premiered “Fox on the Town” last night at The Old Town School of Folk Music and Tangleweed played live to the video. It was neat to see it on the big screen and people seemed to enjoy the video. In my head I tried not to pick at it too much and just enjoyed the experience of sharing it with a bunch of people for the first time. For me this was a learning experience and I’m just going to get better from here.

Here’s some history/info about the video: I started learning how to use Flash probably about two years ago. Paul was a regular at a cafe that I worked at so we would chat while he waited for his panini. I found out he was in a bluegrass band and he found out that I was an artist. During that time I told him I wanted to animate music video’s. He gave me their cd’s and I originally chose to do “Mississippi Trashboat” but I think I hem-hawed too long. I didn’t feel ready to start on a big project, there was still too much to learn. Tangleweed used me to create two coloring books during this time…then finally Paul gave me a song and said animate this in 4 months.

I spent about 10 to 15 hours every week  on the project working scene by scene. I didn’t have time to storyboard or do any pencil tests. I did all of the artwork in Photoshop then had to put all of the character drawings in Illustrator so they wouldn’t have white halo’s. Finally I put it all together in Flash. The animation is a literal interpretation of the song. While I was working on this I did see Tangleweed perform live and watched videos of them so I tried to capture their core movements.

My head is still kind of spinning…

Due to a massive amount of business I have been neglecting my blog! Sorry about that. This is an old doodle I created in 2008. I have newer stuff coming soonish (I just gotta take some photos). I figure it’s better to focus my energy on learning After Effects and painting rather than fiddling around with marketing and junk. Here’s what I’ve been up to the past couple months:

* Painting mostly custom portraits and some random small paintings (which I plan on getting in my web store soon).

* Learning After Effects using After Effects Apprentice. I’m almost done with the book and I really think After Effects is much, much better than Flash. The learning curve might be higher but once you know your way around it is so much simpler as far as keyframing. I am looking forward into diving into another project.

* I finished the Fox animation and it will be having it’s world premiere at the Old Town School of Folk Music on July 29th! Tangleweed and Shotgun Party will be performing as well. It should be lots of fun!

* Teaching comics to kids in Oak Park. I’ll be teaching a few workshops through the summer too if you know any interested kids…

Almost there…

©2011 Mindy Fisher

I haven’t posted in awhile because I’ve been plugging away at the music video. I need to have it done no later than two weeks from now so that it can be submitted to a film festival! This week was spent working on the art for the last two verses. Tonight I am going to edit what I have left. I may need more art to fill it in, but I am going to wait and see….not the best way to approach it but I’m down to the wire as far as time.  Next week will be spent editing all of the mistakes. This will be tedious and time consuming but not so bad. So…don’t expect to see anything new on here for a couple weeks!

A Little More Bedroom Scene

©2011 Mindy Fisher

Here’s what I did since my last post…added curtains, a rifle and a nightstand (with lamp). I also started working on some of the character actions. I know that the perspective is pretty wonky (especially with the old lady in the bed) I might fix that if I have time. But this image will be in the video for less than a second so it’s low priority.

The Bedroom Scene

Here is another background for the video. I still need to add a couple details. I want to put in a rifle, curtains and a side table. I also need to be able to make the woman jump out of bed, so the blanket needs to fold over. I also think at some point during this verse Kip is going to stick his head up in the window to sing. I might have John (the guy in bed) dreaming about a grey goose.

Another Goose

Part of a goose for the music video. For this one I only drew one wing and to save time I’m just going to duplicate it and flip it horizontally.

Duck Duck….

I whipped this up tonight…not sure how long it took because I kept getting distracted by youtube videos of ice skating on sidewalks and bon jovi. Pretty much everything I’m using is here except for another foot!

Quack Quack Quack

One of the ducks. There are layers for each of the feet, the wing, the body and the parts of the beak.

a farm scene

Another backdrop from the animation I’m working on…a farm. The green thing in the middle is a pen for ducks and geese (and their heads pop out during the video).