Louis Hudson's Portfolio Site

Aliens at the Hairdresser’s

Louis — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:57:23 +0000

Click on the picture to see a bit of character animation I did a while ago. The fantastic key poses were done by the almighty Toby Jackman, I did the stuff in between.

Cast for Man In a Cat is Revealed!

Louis — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:41:23 +0000

Kevin Eldon, Josie Long and Isabel Fay are on board for Man In A Cat and we’ll be recording next week! For the full article and extent of my fanaticism over Kevin Eldon go THIS WAY.

How Many Circles Does It Take To Work Out Yorkie?

Louis — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:00:45 +0000

… A lot.
This is just a fragment of the development gone into Yorkie, let alone Man In a Cat. On paper it doesn’t look like all the options were explored, but by God believe me we did! The seed of this whole story came from one picture, that one in the top left of him punching the inside the cat.

From there we had to work out what kind of story this was and how that was going to work best. That got really nauseating. I still think of all the possibilities and the knock on effects. Ian and I came up with so many scenarios, settings, relationships, arcs and loop-da-loops that we had twenty or so spin offs by the end.

After we had finally decided what was best for Yorkie’s future, I had to design him to fit with every aspect of the story perfectly. I don’t normally draw big round eyes, but apparently this is what this film called for. And scale! Don’t get me started! Even the shape of Yorkie’s skull is carefully considered.

This has been in development now for 3 YEARS, and I can finally say that I’m completely happy with it… I think… I do still like the idea that he’s Super Mario at, literally, the arse end of his career. I’ll try get some more bits and bobs of this kind up here, but the ideas phase was was so loose and wordy that it looks more like the random doodled conspiracy theories of Mel Gibson.

Animation & Sound

Louis — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:42:08 +0000

A while back Dave Allen from Animation Forum WM asked me to throw in my two pence worth for an article in Imagine Magazine. So rather than pressing the delete button on those two pence I thought I might as well share them with you.

AFWM – Why do you think animation works so well with music?

Animation lets you do absolutely anything you want, so when it comes to interpreting/accompanying some music you’re limitless. Animation obviously isn’t real-life either, so when people watch it they’re more willing to suspend their disbelief, meaning you can push the boundaries of ‘weird’ or ‘unusual’ a lot more than with live action. Animation can also be used to create purely abstract interpretations of music which can capture the essence of the music in a much more interesting way than more literal imagery can sometimes.

AFWM – What are your all-time favourite animated music videos?

Bit of overload with the choices here but I’m quite indecisive… I think.

• A Color Box (dir. Len Lye, 1935)
For historical context.

•Coffee & TV – Blur, (dir. Hammer & Tongs)
It takes the song and makes it a soundtrack to its own story. Funny too.

• Most of Chad VanGaalen’s videos
Trippy madness, being a good example of how far you can push taste with animation.

• Let Forever Be – Chemical Brothers, (dir. Michael Gondry)

More effects based, but it twists your brain trying to work out how it was done.

• The White Stripes – Fell In Love With A Girl, (dir. Michael Gondry)
Doing stuff no-one would have the balls to do with Lego, although there is some CGI cheating in there. Also shows you don’t need any structure, story or literal interpretation to pull off a video when you’ve got some music to hold it together.

• Feel Good Inc. Gorillaz
Best and most animated examples of the Gorillaz’s videos.

• Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel
Not really a favourite, but that video took some pulling off.

AFWM – How dependent is your animation on having a good quality soundtrack?

Just about any animation could do with some sound, even if it’s just the atmosphere of an empty room or the rustle of clothes. Sound adds extra information to what you’re watching. You don’t NEED sound for an animation to be good, it just makes making an impression a lot harder. On the flip side, if you have bad sound you’ll potentially ruin all the hard work of the animation. I’ve seen lots of work where that’s happened and it’s just a shame. It makes the animation unwatchable.

In terms of music, I try to make the physical acting do most of the work. Inappropriate music, or even any music can interfere with that acting and make it not as strong. But nearly every animator has had times where a character doesn’t move a pixel for over 5 seconds. Without any sound, that’d just be a picture. With sound it’s an emotion, an event or a story. The same applies to abstract animation. The music gives you extra information to bind everything you see together.

For any more videos I like, head over to the Dice Productions YouTube Channel, where I’m constantly favouriting a mangle of pretty visuals, sharp comedy and absoludicrous nonsense.

I may be completely deluded or forgotten good music videos so let me know… Aha, the Aha video Take on Me (with added literal interpretation lyrics). There we go. Well sprinkle me in links to your favourite animated videos.

Thumbnails, Roughing, Clean up

Louis — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:40:25 +0000

A quick video to say hello, and to give you a little insight into how I fit Flash into the world of traditional animation.

The Breakfast Bunch

Louis — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:41:00 +0000

Here’s a picture I made. It’s kind of an allegory for sandwich making in the hood.

Ode To A Shoddy Week

Louis — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:05:42 +0000

Drawn in Flash and crazied up in Photoshop.

After a week of false starts and cock ups what better way than representing it with a shoddy picture. I realised how much I’ve never experimented with the brush tools in Photoshop as I’ve usually made up for this with traditional painting and scans of painted textures. After a while that gets either labourious or repetitve, plus you have to buy the board/card/paper, spend ages waiting for it to dry, fix any wrinkles and you have to tart it up in Photoshop anyway.

I know this is a bit tatty but by gummy this is instant feedback… I could get used to this.

Solidity, Mass, Weight, Decisiveness

Louis — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:23:12 +0000

Patrick Smith says on Scribble Junkies, “In my opinion, these four pages of notes by Glen Keane are the most important guide for any animator…”

Fair enough.

Other People’s Stuff – It’s Oppo!

Louis — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:45:39 +0000

Here’s a fake Nick Jr. series episode called ‘It’s Oppo! Season 4 Episode 14‘, by Tyler Chen. A juicy bit of deconstructivist belly tickling served with a whole mess of pushed-to-the-extreme-poses and beautifully used limited animation. I actually found it hard to tell when the line was crossed from seeminingly genuine children’s television to perverted anarchy. Which only goes to show how good kids have it nowadays.

Apparently this little genius does all of his animation in Flash, with presumably a bum full of After Effects work to build the look. It’s still a bit rough around the edges, but I don’t care, that’s only going to help me develop how to make Flash look beautiful.

Meet the Star – Mrs Cat

Louis — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:11:56 +0000

Whilst the original idea for ‘Man In A Cat’ stemmed from this silly pic (http://tinyurl.com/maninacatpic) the cat’s personality and mannerisms are pretty much stolen from my family’s own massively over weight cat, Lucy Hudson, aka Mrs Cat, aka Fatbum, aka Fluffy Slops, aka Liz.

So cue pointless cat video! My god, I’m actually contributing to this madness.