I built this guy over the weekend to keep up my 3D modelling skills.

He’s based on some rough character designs I did ages ago - he was actually going to be the main character in my original (abandoned) idea for my final year animation project.  The plot, believe it or not, was an eco-themed story about the last robot left on Earth, abandoned by the human race but still carrying out his programming centuries later.

This was long before I’d even heard of Wall-E.  Thank god I changed my project or Pixar would have made me look like a right tit.

Here’s another snippet of super cool animation I discovered recently.

Kevin Dart is a disgustingly amazing illustrator who specialises in 1960’s spy thriller style graphics.  The heroine of most of his personal artwork is the Japanese super-spy Yuki 7.  Yuki has a book out about her, and to launch this Dart and animator Stephane Coedel teamed up to make a trailer in the style of a swingin’ 60’s spy movie.

I love Dart’s artwork but the real star of the show here is the faithful recreation of amazing 60’s film crapness. In particular check out the car scene with the brilliantly faked terrible rear-projection.  The titles, the music, the design, all perfect for the era.  Genius.

“A Kiss From Tokyo” Theatrical trailer from Stephane coedel on Vimeo.

While you’re at it, check out Coedel’s other awesome animations, starting with this one.  Monsters, monsters, monsters.  Why oh why didn’t I do my animation project on Giant Monster movies?  D’oh.

The Amazing Adventures of Kid Cole & Klay from Stephane coedel on Vimeo.

Finally a new finished thing instead of just the usual sketches for you.  It’s a Lusi Sulfura pinup I was working on over the weekend that started life as a doodle.  Pretty happy with how it turned out.

Working on a commission for a music video just now, will post up the results when it’s all finished.

I’ve been working on building a 3D Lusi Sulfura head that’s actually properly constructed for facial animation, lip synching etc.  It’s really just practice for building this kind of complex structure.

Still a wee bit rough at the minute, but you get the idea. Once it’s finished up I need to start building the skeleton rig inside it and working on expressions and lip movements. Wheee.

A new category for my blog.  I think it’s pretty self explanatory.  Any time I find something so good that makes me wonder why the hell I even bother and maybe I should have stayed in engineering, I’ll post it up here.  And that happens a lot.

For the first post, here’s a bunch of animation, since that’s what my head’s full of just now.

First, Please Say Something by David O’Reilly.  I love pretty much everything about this.  It’s amazing how clear the story is given how weird a lot of the effects are.

Please Say Something - Full Length from David OReilly on Vimeo.

Next, Galactic Mail by Douglas Lassance and Jonathan Vuillemin. Just good dumb fun, beautifully animated.

Galactic Mail from Asterokid on Vimeo.

Next, a music video by McBess for his own band.  Both the music and the animation are awesome.  Damn him.

Next, JoJo in the stars by Studio AKA.  Pretty much everything these guys do is solid gold but this is solider and more goldy than most.

Finally, for now anyway, the opening scene from Tekkonkinkreet. Finally… FINALLY a movie with anime quality but its own distinctive visual style and not the standard manga-look.  More please.  Love the character design and especially the background design.  Visually incredible stuff.

More and more and more sketches… actual finished pics coming soon, I promise. Unfortunately my animation project is sucking every last scrap of my free time into itself like a big bastard black hole.

In the meantime, enjoy.

Contrary to my previous post, apparently Wasted issue 2 goes on sale in shops this week, not last week, due to some distribution hiccups.

From Thursday it should be available to buy in your local comic shop.  Until then, you can order copies here.