Rough Stuff

Spider Intro

Copyright Spider Marketing, Chuck Gammage Inc.

Spider Intro from Sandra Ní Chonaola on Vimeo.

Heres a web into for Spider marketing. Among other great projects, Animation Director Jason Condon and myself worked on this while employed at Chuck Gammage Inc. I animated the three girls and the character in a blue suit, the rest is his genius.
Huge thanks to everyone who left advise for me in the post below. You guys Rock! I will get around to the changes and will update the post soon. Thanks so much, criticism is always appreciated.

Jog test

Norm's jog from Sandra Ní Chonaola on Vimeo.

yet another test, to keep you bored ;) Tear this one apart people, I'm starting Animation Mentor in January and want to begin at the best possible starting point. Cheers :P

Two posts in one day!

I'm going for quantity here, not quality, mind you. Well this is some idea sketches I done for an animation I was thinking to do. I got the idea when I was walking home one afternoon and there was a kid walking in front of me, totally to cool for school, playing with his Yoyo. He didn't mess it up this much, put it got me thinking 'what if...'. Alas, I realized last night I know someone who done a short based on a Yoyo... Doh! So, I guess this will never see the light of day after all

System melt down

Yep, our server went bust yesterday, so I got paid to pretty much draw what ever I wanted. Tough day, I know... we get 'em sometimes. So heres some sketches I done some memory sketches, some while sitting out having a coffee waiting to get back to work. I also done some roughs or an animation which I have to touch up a little, but will post soon. Have a great weekend folks

Ya call this tea!?

Tea... yummmm... I'm still waiting on Tea Bags from home...REAL TEA BAGS, they ant the same here. Its been so long, I now suspect one of two things have happened, either we got an Irish postman who discovered the delicious parcel and robbed it on me ( the thieving sod will burn in hell ) or its been detained as a suspicious substance and any minute now the drug squad will burst into the office and arrest everyone... since thats where I asked it to be posed to. Either way, I reckon I'll look a little something like this by the time they arrive.

Test # 7 (Updated Nov 6th)

So I took Mel's advise, and reworked the ending. Thanks Mel!

Stuck_v02 from Sandra Ní Chonaola on Vimeo.

Stuck from Sandra Ní Chonaola on Vimeo.

Since this is going nowhere near my showreel, I thought I'd give it some play here. This is test number 7 of me trying to get my head around Maya.

From the Bus Window

A memory sketch of a man I saw the other day, wearing his coat backwards.

On the bus this morning.

Just working my way through those ''1000 bad drawings'' I got in me.

Sketchbook

Stephen Sliver always says ''A sketch a day keeps the competition away''. Well, I dunno about that in my case, but I do draw pretty much every day... even if its just a little doodle. I just dont always get the chance to post it here. I did however bring my sketchbook into work with me today, so heres just a few doodles I've scrawled out recently.... and below, I've added the updated ( finished version ) of the Chef.
I also noticed a few new Peeps over on the ''followers'' tab, so thank you guys sooo much, glad your diggin what I'm putting up. And a BIG thank you to those who've left comments, always nice to hear from new and old Blog Buddies :)


IN OTHER NEWS... We're up and running! Swap Ape Studios, where I'm an animation director is finally open for business, go check us out! Yep, we're the same crew thats bringing you Monstroville :)

Further Chef Development

Updated October 8th

A wee rough I've been working on for a friends upcoming business adventure. Hope you enjoy, see also five posts down for previous development.

Meet Sammy

SLR's resident Mascot:) This is an Ident I done for the up comming TV series Gasp!

Sorry for the sparse posting of late, I'm now animation director at Cartoon Funland, the guys who are creating Monstroville... I still make some personal doodles though, I'll be sure to post soon.

So long ICOM

Yep, I've left freezing cold Canada and its onto sunny Australia for me. Even though its winter... still ant all that cold for a wee Irish lass thats spent nearly a year in sub zero weather.


Well, I'm in the trows of designing turnarounds for the roughs in the previous post. I thought I'd dump a couple of colored Characters, to keep the ol blog alive...till the next time...

sketchbook

''Mornin''

An afternoon doodle.

Testing testing...

Heres a fun little test I've been working on. I wish I could say its my first attempt in Maya... but its more like my third (no, wait a minute, I think its my fourth!). Mucho thanks has to be send out to my buddy Nathan Lindsay, for all his advise...not to mention his unwavering patience.

Update to flow soon... ish...

Sketchbook

Sorry for the dely in posting, but I've been busaaaaaaay.
Heres some warm up sketches I done the other morning. I'm soon to be developing a chef character, hence the theme. None the less, my main aim was to improve my expressions and try to capture a more, believable, real emotion.

D'Wise Guys

Rough Stuff;

Sandy meets...

Once again, the stars aline and I get to meet with incredible artist, that inspire me so much. Theres a few photos, I wont bore you with, but I thought this one was most relevant to my blog. I arranged to meet with Stephen Silver,at Calgary Comic Con and have him critique my portfolio - so chuffed that I did. Got great feed back... more work!... good thing its so much fun!

I was also bIessed with the opportunity to chat with Clay Kaytis (The Animation Pod Cast & Supervising animator of Rhino in Bolt) and Mark Walton ( the voice of Rhino & Story artist at Disney) great guys, fantastic to meet them - they even pulled out a few rough sketches to show me... awesome! I was also delighted to chat with David Colman and Mark McDonnell both are artist whos blogs I keep up with, so was great to meet them in person...all photos on facebook.

Meeting people so into what they do, as I am... just makes me wanna work harder! So expect more doodles on the way... pencil one, I'm told I need more of those :O)

Drunk

Some may have noticed this from a previous post. However it was kindly pointed out that there where improvements to be made and I took it down to scrub it up a bit. I dunno if this versions any better... probably not.. haha...

Aaaah pencils....

Just a couple of doodles I spat out recently

Fun test

Just a wee test for the Baron, I done a while back. For now, trying to figure out the characters eccentricities and quirks.The animation above was the first test I'd done, which I prefer, however theres the more finial one on the production blog with a small difference. We're in the exciting stages of storyboarding and I for one cant wait to get stuck into animating the trailer. Theres a lots of nifty stuff posted over there now, so I recommend going to a peek and see what we're up to.

So I went to the Zoo...

though I've yet to draw a 'post worthy' animal sketch, but I'll get better. Till then, a couple of memory sketches:


A very quick sketch, quickly colored in photoshop: two young girls and a lady listening intently while the Elephant Keeper told us all about a day in the life of the Elephants.

Would you like a side order of fun with that?

YES PLEASE!...

As if my day job wasn't fun enough, I've joined up with an amazing crew to work on a pitch for Monstroville. The above was my first assignment, and theres much more to follow. You can find out more and keep updated by going here. Theres so much wicked stuff to be updated to the Monstroville blog, so drop back soon for more goodies.

Animation Test

Heres a test I done for Fat Kat's Three Delivery show, last year. Its far from perfect – but hey, it got me the job :)

Copyright of Nicktoons & Fat Kat Animation Studios,
Since I'm a big Jakie Chan and Bruce Lee fan, I had great fun on this show. Those old Samuri movies totally float my boat, not to mention martial arts as a whole, working with incredibly talented people... and saving the town from evil demon lords!... tis all in a days work.

Did ya ever wonder

what your life would be like if ya made just one decision differently...


I think about it a lot. I have to say in spite of everything I wouldn't change anything. In fact I'd go as far as to say I'm grateful for all the hardest times I've had to face because they're the ones that pushed me most to achieve my goals. Great things have come out of times when I found myself in circumstances where thought I could never prevail. With news coming from home that relationships are hard, or breaking up...I even found today that somebody whom has inspired me greatly with his positive thinking, is separating from his wife. It started me remembering, I remembered that those hard times where the start of something new, and something better. It gave me the opportunity to grow into what I hope is a better person. I'm sorry I cant be with the people I love during their new beginnings... but here's here sending out lots of love. Sure, we'll all be the wiser for it.

Work, work, work...

Just a little of what I've been working on recently... and a couple of doodles thrown in there for good measure :)





Right - back to it!

Happy New Year Everyone

So I guess its about time I posted something!

This is a memory sketch of an old lady I met on a bus to work the other day.


Rough "runner up" Designes for my Jekyll Character.



I also Finalised my Jekyll Turnaround. Scroll down to take a look.

Fat Joe...

Jekyll Design

After weeks of refining him...I'm finially happy enough with him.

Honey Nut Bee

Here's a little break from the usual: For the most part, I cant show production work on account of copyrights, but this is a little clean up job I did a little while back... I wish this could be better, though it had to be "done yesterday", as they say. So it was my first bash at it. Hope you enjoy it anyways...

Jekyll Turnaround

Character Development

Merry Monday Everyone!

Ottawa Animation Festival

Left to right: Chuck Gammage, nobody, Richard Williams, Eric Goldberg. Outside the special screening for the 20th anniversary of Who Framed Rodger Rabbit.

I have had the good fortune of meeting some of the most talented animators alive today. Heck, I work for one of 'em! And its only thanks to his generosity that it was possible to spend time with the animators and directors that inspire me so much. Chuck inspires me on a daily basis to do my best. However bringing me to the Festival, just gave me a taste of what life could be like if I get be that good. What an incentive to work hard!

Its exciting times in animation at the moment. Theres a lot of things happening. Most anticipated by me is the Up-coming Disney's feature Bolt, And get in earlie, cos theres a super Cars short to introduce it: Tokyo Mater!. Theres also two great Shorts, Disney's Glago's Guest, and Pixar's Presto Both of which I caught a special making of screening at the festival, and they are not to be missed!

There is a life outside of nine to five

... I'll discover it one day...
Its just so hard, when your nine to five, is so much fun! Well, heres a little a what I'm working on when I do get a, crumb, of free time.

Lifeboat Luke!

Well, finally, its here!

Ahh... my first professional job as an animator...The project was split between two companies, I worked on the first batch of scenes, animated in Northern Ireland with Straandlooper Studios (from around episode 7ish). Do check out the show - its so much fun! And for a litte preview have a goo 'ere:
http://www.straandlooper.com/

New City, New Job - New Post!

So this is a fairly rough layout: I'm trying to loosen up a little more with a pencil for my new job. Nope, its not as a layout artist, this is my first layout in about two years, if memory serves me right. But when I was in college, and starting out, I had my heart set on being an Layout artist, its funny how life has different twists and turns in store of you along the way.
I thank God everyday that so far,every turn, has been one for the better.

Computer Crashes & Coffee Breaks

Yep, my computers on its last legs, it would seem… but at least I’ll have more time to draw:

Nana Samurai

A little something I've been playing with for a while now, and just haven’t had the time to clean up. But heres a rough Idea.

New Beginnings

Hey,
Thanks for stoppin by. I know its been a while since I posted; I'm in the trows of moving. Well actually I have moved, from Ireland to Canada. So far, I'm pretty much set up, I just need a scanner to scan my drawing in! I left almost everything back home, I just came with my trusty laptop and a suitcase ( mostly full of animation books...) So do pop back soon, cos I've a back log here to upload!

Keep on bloggin!

Maiko

Maiko: Clean Up

There was a time...

when I had time to post every week, but I seem to be busier now than I was when I had deadlines! Though I have been drawin like a lunitic... I've been focusing more on animating at the moment, but heres one of the drawings I was distracting myself with.

Whoop-ass

Showreel

This will take a minute to load.

Due to copyrights, I could not include scenes I have done on Luke the Life Boat series, or Twisted Tales/Funky Fables show. This will be updated as soon as possible.

Credit:
... and huge thanks to my good friend Massimiliano Lucania, for alowing me animate his beautiful storyboard (final scene of my reel)

A closer duck - I mean look...

I'm in the process of trying to export my showreel, at a reasonably decent compression. So for now, a teaser:

Colour Keys

...and other poses from a short animation I've done for my showreel. Animation of this is posted above.

Yeeee - ha, Mono!

My first attempt at Coral Painter...I also used Flash for clean up, and Photoshop for the background colour.

Yeeeee - ha!

The Weekender

Just a doodle I did last night.

Its a Bloggy small world!

This was a test I done for Cartoon Saloon's Sunk Fu. And I found, through bloging the guy who sketched it! - Mick Harrison :) How cool is that! haha

Life Drawing

Fluffy

The Waiting Room

Here is a short animation I did for my showreel. It was storyboarded by my very talented friend Massi (see links)

Colour Characters

Animation of these is posted above.

Cleaned up characters.

Above I've posed a finished version

Cleaned up Character Designs

I was toying with a couple of styles before animating a friend's storyboard. This was one of them which I really like. However I decided to go with the style posted above.

Forest Background

Garden Background

This is a Layout I done for One Productions on their Dancing Dee Dee production.

Stairs Background

Another Layout I done for Dancing Dee Dee.

Pirates

Random Character Designs

This is one I found recently, but done a long time ago, for a theme over on the work (Boulder) Blog, seeing as its one of the only posts I made, that I actually liked, I decided to give it a home here to. It was titled "Bumgiruirrallpillar".