The Animation Art of Brandon V. Fletcher

I'm Back!!!! (Sorry)

2011-07-14T19:57:00.010-04:00

I can't believe its been almost 2 years since my last post. When I was close to the one year mark, I told myself I wouldn't let it happen. Yea....it happened. So, what's been going on for almost 2 years? Well, it's a combination of busyness and laziness. Last, year I was made Lead Animator on the Big Idea portion of Sid the Science Kid Season 2. That meant going to work early, staying late, animating, compositing, episode revisions, storyboard revisions, scheduling, and watching interns like a hawk (I kid). During production, I also had some freelance so that meant working when I got home. YAY!! Then MAD started for Cartoon Network. Shifted right to that once I was done with Sid the Science Kid. Then Sid started again and I went back to that. Sleep was minimal during that period. It was worth it, though. Now, I'm on a break from work. A lot of my time has been spent watching Netflix. Mainly a bunch of Dr. Who, Torchwood, and anything created/written by Steven Moffat. Now, it's time to get back to drawing on a regular basis and hopefully more blog post. If too much time goes by, I give everyone permission to nag me about doing another post. Im serious. Email, Twitter, Google+(here), Facebook, Call, Text, Carrier Pigeon. Anything. NAG ME!!

HULK CAN'T DRAW! HULK ANGRY!

2009-09-26T20:19:00.001-04:00

Oh man. This is why you have to continuously draw. I've been using maya so much at work, I haven't been drawing as much as I should. I've been drawing on the Cintiq for the past couple of days and it has been a struggle. Fortunately, I eventually did some decent doodles. That's right, my doodles have been coming out bad! Still trying to draw a caricature of myself that I'm satisfied with. Still not that happy with any of them. Maybe I should get someone to draw one for me. Also, I've been playing around with painting/color. It definitely feels like I have made some progress. I want to try to do a more finished piece of art of the Flash. I was going for the Michael Phelps, swimmer type physique. I really love the character. I don't know what it is about him. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

2009-09-22T19:04:00.000-04:00

Whoa! It's been 2 months and a half since my last post. I haven't been wasting my time though. Still interning at Bunko learning Maya. Hopefully, I'll post some of my work soon. The exciting news is I finally got Cintiq. I have been feening for one of these for about 3 years now. I finally got my hands on one. It's an older model but I'm happy with it. It was alot cheaper so I saved some money and buy a new monitor (which is GINORMOUS) to replace the one that broke while moving into the new apartment. This will definitely force me to draw and animate everyday. Which will hopefully lead to more blog post. I did one doodle today. Ill try to get one done everyday. Check out the set up. I am most excited.

Jones Beach Doodles

2009-07-06T19:29:00.000-04:00

Here are some doodles I did when I went to Jones Beach this 4th of July weekend. It's been a while since I've been to the beach. It was nice to relax and get some drawing done. Now, back to interning this week learning modeling and animation with maya. Within 5 days, I went from barely touching Maya, to 3D modeling and playing with some animation. My brain is going to explode.

Storyboards!!!

2009-06-06T17:21:00.000-04:00

I really love the pre-production process (character design, storyboards, story creation). I was an animator for about 95% of the time I worked on Sid the Science Kid. I was curious to see if I could handle storyboarding one of the Big Idea sequences. So, I asked my boss to see if he would give me the opportunity. A couple days later, I came into work and there was an episode ready for me to storyboard. I asked what was he looking for in the sequence. To my horror/ excitement I heard the words, "It's up to you. Whatever you want." So not only was I going to storyboard a sequence but I had complete creative freedom. I was terrified. Where do I start? What does everything look like?

So, I sat down, listened to the audio track, and started drawing. The sequence called for a machine that would vacuum up soil/dirt, recycle it, and spray it around so trees can grow. Vacuum you say? I immediately thought about vacuums from the 50's (I love anything designed from the 50's). Went to my best friend the internet and looked up retro vacuum cleaners. That was a good starting point even though the final design didn't resemble 50's vacuums. My boss suggested that I add the googly eyes. That instantly made it look funnier. I do still like my cute tiny eye version, though. You can see the progression below.

Overall, I felt I did a good job. It took me quite a while to finish the boards, due to my paranoia about everything being perfect. I had to do some revisions but that's always expected. Check out the comparison to the final sequence below. Enjoy!!

Sid the Science Kid Ep. 1x28: Big Idea Storyboard Comparison from Brandon V. Fletcher on Vimeo.

Site Relaunched!!!

2009-05-22T13:57:00.000-04:00

Hey people. I'm finally done revamping the site. Yea yea, I know, it doesn't look that much different. Bear with me. I have a new color scheme and new banner. You like? Also, in the sidebar you will find tons of new content, including galleries and demo reel. Feel free to browse around. It feels good to finally have all this work collected and posted. Now its time to send a link to every studio in NY lol. I still have a bit more work ahead of me. I have to finish designing my DVD and get those business cards printed. Then I have to get working another site with Mr. Lingo. Can't wait for that. Ill definitely continue to make post with new art, or whatever is on my mind at the moment. And if you have trouble navigating the site, there is a detailed map utilizing sophisticated GPS technology to help guide you.

Sneak Peek, Part III: Animation Process and a Penguin

2009-04-18T12:08:00.000-04:00

And the post just keep coming. Here is some animation I did for Sid the Science Kid. I was blessed enough to be an animator for an entire season. The clip shows the progression from rough animation (Flash) to the finish product with digital ink and paint (Photoshop). I had to free my mind a little bit to keep myself from concentrating on perfect drawing. It's drilled in your head to have good drawing skills all through school and now I'm drawing stick figures (which has its own problems when trying to rotate in 3 dimentions). When it came to actually animating, nothing changed though. All the principles were still applied. The animation is suppose to look like a kid drew it (Sid). The lines were made to look like crayons and the backgrounds were made to look like construction paper. I did most of the keys and breakdowns for the animation and Maria Baidakova did the inbetweens and some clean up. I thought she would kill me for my drawings being so sketchy, but she pulled it off because she is AWESOME! Oh and enjoy the random penguin. Who doesn't like penguins?

Sid the Science Kid, Episode 1x11 Clip from Brandon V. Fletcher on Vimeo.

Sneak Peek, Part II: Sid the Science Kid

2009-04-17T20:23:00.000-04:00

More goodies! Here is some work I did at Bunko Studios while working on Jim Henson's Sid the Science Kid for PBS. This first batch of drawings is from the Susie's Song section of the episode. Every episode the teacher Susie sings a song about the episode's topic. This episode was about the Sun. The song is simliar to a superhero theme song like the old Spider-man song. The segment is meant to look like a comic book. Super Sun!! I did clean up and the details on the Super Sun drawings. I was told to give it the old school Jack Kirby look with the hatch lines. The second batch is the rough drawings and the final drawing for a shot for the same segment. Don't forget to watch the video to see it all put together. I also worked on some animation of Super Sun running and various other shots. Enjoy!

Sid the Science Kid, Episode 1x32 Susie's Song from Brandon V. Fletcher on Vimeo.

Bunko Studios Reel 2009

2009-04-14T19:52:00.000-04:00

The studio I worked at for the past year just posted their 2009 reel. Some of my work made the cut!! Woo hoo!! Two scenes to be exact. I did some inbetweening at :18 and animation for Sid the Science Kid at 1:17. The rest of the work is from Noggin, Oxygen Network, Hallmark, and various shorts that were done before I got there. I love working there. Everyone is so talented. Hopefully, I will get the chance to work there for season 2 of Sid the Science Kid. Enjoy.

Drawing Sneak Peek

2009-04-14T19:47:00.000-04:00

Hola! I've been hard at work gathering my artwork in preparation for my site relaunch. I still have alot of work ahead of me. By time everything is done, I should have a gallery so everyone can browse at their leisure. Here are a few drawings I took photos of over the past few days. Hopefully I can get more done this week if the weather behaves. I guess spring in NY means cloudy everyday.

Dreaming

2009-04-08T21:08:00.000-04:00

This little guy spawned from a dream I had. I'm in the early stages of the story. Pretty excited. I love new ideas.

Also I cant have a post without a little figure drawing.

The Whole Armor of God

2009-03-23T19:28:00.000-04:00

My good friend of many years Chivas Davis has a indie comic out that he writes, draws and publishes himself. Its a christian comic called The Whole Armor of God. He asked me months ago to do a poster for the comic. I'm just getting around to drawing his characters. Yes...shame on me. But i'm on my new drawing schedule so, more drawings will be forthcoming. This is the lead character Elijah. I may make some adjustments to this Brandonized version. I will also update the blog with info on the comic and his site. Later.

It's been a while

2009-03-23T18:46:00.000-04:00

The time spent away from this blog will not happen again!! Promise. I've been slacking. Updates will be coming more often. I'm sort of on a daily schedule trying to get some drawing in everyday. Also did a huge HDD wipe of my computer and reinstalled and backed up everything. Got rid of some crap and reorganized so I can start filling up this blog with artwork. I did these two drawings below from photo reference from the net. It was a struggle drawing again. Cant let that happen again. I have to keep at it.

LittleBigPlanet....Bub

2008-11-12T22:21:00.001-05:00

I know I'm kinda late with this but LittleBigPlanet was released for PS3 a couple weeks ago. For those who don't know it's a platformer like Mario but it also allows to create your own levels. I haven't played much of it since I'm at work pretty much everyday...even weekends. What I did play is brilliant. The graphics, physics, soundtrack, and overall tone is amazing. You control a little character called a Sackboy (above) that you're able to customize. It's the cutest character ever. Can't play the game without having a huge smile on my face. I did a Wolverine version of Sackboy. Cute and Deadly. Enjoy. Also check out the trailer for the game....Bub.

This is a bit old. I did this earlier this year when I first started working at Bunko Studios. I was going for the conceptual art look and feel. Gotta love doodling after work.

Second Post!!

2008-10-10T19:50:00.000-04:00

Ok I promise the next post won't be titled Third Post!!! This a drawing I did for my profile pic. Its ok. Playing with color some more. I probably will draw another. Slowly but surely more content will be posted.

First Post!!

2008-10-06T20:35:00.000-04:00

So I finally decided to create a blog. There isn't much here at the moment but things will be evolving over time. After months of uncertainty, I finally found out that I wont be able to go back to School of Visual Arts. So Ive just been working for now. Hopefully, I can go back but its not looking good at the moment. Currently, I'm working at Bunko Studios as an animator on Jim Henson's Sid the Science Kid. Unfortunately, productions ends soon and Ill need another job. We'll see how it goes. I'm not sure what kind of job I could get. I have to try to get my work out there and see what happens...hence the Blog!!

These 2 drawings I did while doodling after work on the Wacom Cintiq. MAN I WANT ONE!! I dont know what that blobby thing is but its kinda cute. Really trying to get used to painting and using colors in photoshop. I think it came out pretty good. Of course the generic muscle man. Again...playing with painting in photoshop. This one didnt come out as well. Hope you enjoy. More post coming soon.