A Directionless Guide to Running

I started this cartoon shortly before I finished Roach. For a long time I've wanted to do animation about running. As a warm up to this, I did a few running jokes in the Directionless comic strip. Episode 6 of the pilot Directionless series was all about Jeff getting into running and this cartoon is a very condensed version of that episode. I also storyboarded a music video about Jeff and running but it more focused on Jeff and his friends rather than the act of running. So this video took about 2 and a half months to make(it also helps that my freelance project ended giving me time to work on this cartoon), not bad considering my last few videos have been taking much longer.

What's next? Well, I started another "Directionless Guide" and hope to release that in a timely manner but I do not want to release 3 Directionless shorts in a row so I plan on making something random. My wacom tablet broke last week and I had to send it in for repairs but earliest I'll get it back is next week. I won't start my next animation until I get it back. All the current Directionless comics are a pain to make right now BUT I'M TRUCKING FORWARD.

Oh and here is that live action video I directed,



Recognize Giorgio's voice? He is also the narrator in A Directionless Guide to Running!

I haven't forgotten about this blog, I swear!

My last post was in mid-November, ouch. And I didn't reach my goal for releasing a new animation by the end of the year. I keep making my animations more complex which makes them take more time. The Directionless comic recently has a cross-over with Faceless Neil which was fun. I directed a live action video in January that should be posted online any day(it's out of my control).

The next animation I'll be releasing will be "A Directionless Guide to Running". It's about 85% complete. I still have to animate the final scene(rough animation has been complete) and add some backgrounds. I've started doing sound design and am about 1/3 of the way through. Hopefully it will be done within the next 2 weeks. I'm aiming for a mid-February release.

I'm hoping to make "A Directionless Guide to..." a series of shorts. I've already started another one(recorded voices) and I am writing a few more. I hope people react positively to Running, it will make me feel more confident about releasing more but I may release them regardless of the audience reaction(I will try to make each one different so even if somebody dislikes Running they may one about a different subject). 

As for other cartoons....I've started writing out another black and white Directionless short(classical music driven). I may have mentioned it long time ago on this blog, the orignal concept had nothing to do with Directionless. I started to animate it but realized it was going nowhere and dropped it. Then unrelated to that movie I heard a classical song and thought of doing another black and white Directionless movie. I merged the two concepts together and thought I had a solid idea but I still couldn't finish the story. I recently got the inspiration that fills it in nicely. As for non-Directionless material those are harder to come by, my freelance projects filled that void for myself. I still want to do another Way West-esque movie among the many shorts I've mentioned in this blog. 

I do plan on making another Brandon short come summertime(that is a part of a feature film plot line). It's more like a re-imagining rather than a remake or a sequel to my orignal short. I'm redesigning everything from the ground up and so far I'm really enjoying it.