Love, Death + Robots Vol 4: The 400 Boys

Blur Studios asked Robert back to direct this episode of the LD+R series. I have worked for Rob off and on for over 20 yrs now, and I can say a lot of complimentary things about the guy.  One of the most outstanding things I've noted these past decades is his loyalty to the crew. On Rob's productions, he has a preferred group of hard working skilled individuals he continues to call back. The schedules might be challenging, but its a good work environment with solid folks.

Recently I was working on some personal animation and I wanted to apply some of the techniques of tones and highlights that Robert uses on his productions. So I asked Seti Erfan (who did some great animated shots on 400 boys) to help me with a one frame tone set up on my own work. On past jobs I directed, I'm used to one tone, one highlight and occasionally 2 tones/highlights on jobs incorporating animation and live action. When I got my animation file back from Seti and reviewed her instructions, I was blown away, as I had no idea the complexity of this technique. Its extensive, multiple layers of tones and some highlights per character, per frame. 

Robert is quite particular on how things look in the end, and what the Animation Assistants do on all these jobs to get the desired "Robert Valley Look" is amazing. Especially on how fast they do it. Sending so much respect to everyone in that department.

I'll post some stills of my shots in the future.

Bond, James Bond

Who was the best iteration of James Bond? Well it's the one you like the best. I was introduced to 007 when I was a kid  by my mom, so I grew up with Sean Connery and Roger Moore. But I think all the actors brought there own flare to the role, and they did the best they could with the scripts given.

This Bond opening sequence was inspired by Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan. I wanted to mess about and educate myself on applying animation to multiple camera layers, mattes and fades with TVpaint. 

Click on the link if you want to see the animation: (click on the lower right to see it full screen)

Dr. Squatch

While searching for things to listen to while I'm working,  The Dr. Squatch adverts would pop. I thought, ok that's a fun logo, which inspired the rough animation below.

Click the image to watch:

Mr Ballen - Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories.

I've been listening to Mr. Ballen  off and on for some time now.  John really has an engaging way of telling stories and I enjoy listening to him while I'm working. It was around 2022 that I noticed he had a logo representing his content which inspired me to do some rough animation incorporating that design. It's only just recently that I have had some time to have been able to finish off those concepts.

2-D FX animators like the very old school Disney bunch, guys like Michel Gagné and my friend Raymond Pang I've always held a great deal of respect for.  But after messing about with hand drawn FX myself, I now have an even greater admiration for those artists. I'll be keeping to the character stuff from now on.

Speaking of respect, Mr. Ballen does a lot of support for the veteran community, people with mental help concerns and many other groups in need. John seems like a really good guy.

Check out his Channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/@MrBallen 

And here is the animation I did with his logo:

CanAm Missing Project

David Paulides is a retired police officer that has a great channel highlighting the cases of individuals that have gone missing often under very peculiar circumstances. Dave has published numerous books and produced a few great documentaries on the subject that you can find at his website.

https://missing411.com/

https://www.canammissing.com

https://www.youtube.com/@canammissingproject

I dont get much time to read due to my extremely challenging work schedules. So I very much appreciate the time Dave takes with his presentations talking about these cases so I can listen while im working. In my opinion he really makes a sincere effort to bring factual context and more importantly a face to these missing individuals.

Occasionally Dave will also discuss mental health topics and is a huge advocate for the support of that subject as well. 

He also loves his dog Huck. She inspired this bit of animation based on the MGM Lion and Mary Tyler Moore logos. Her cheeky side eye at the beginning of most of Dave's videos cracks me up.

Click on the image to see the animation:

Conan O'Brien

I've always really liked Conan, he is fearless with his absurdity.  His old school awkward sense of humor I can relate to and his sincere decency towards people I really respect.

I have observed over the years that Conan has the ability to converse with anyone from anywhere in the language of humor. He combine's the interaction with his quick wit and improvisational skills into something fun and entertaining for everyone present... most of the time. I do get a kick when situations really go awry resulting in his deadpan self deprecating look to camera.

This design is my take based on one of Conan's own drawings of himself.

Click on the space below to see some animation incorporating this design with dialogue from Conan's podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend"

Have a listen to his pod cast if you need some cheer. 

https://teamcoco.com/