The Merry Melony Production Blog

More experiments in color/shading styles. I think this was pretty successful despite the ugly palette. I’d like to do a series of color scripts soon to find some palettes that work for different environments.

# digital painting

# comic

‘Nother panel exploration. Somebody tell this girl to stop checking her cell phone while encased in a frozen ceiling.

Being not very happy with the coloring in the last panel, I had another go at it. I think this is much more successful, some modest tinting helping with readability, plus much less detail, texture and muddiness in the shading. I redesigned the icy asteroid which is working much better (but still probably not final). The characters have just a touch of shading in them. With these exercises I am trying to balance something that looks nice with something that I can color fairly quickly.

When it comes to coloring I am often figuring out things as I do them which takes a lot of time. When I begin this project on the official, I want to have a strong method and a steady timeline.

Trying out some new things with this panel exploration. I certainly like a lot of things but it still doesn’t shine in my opinion. I decided to try out flat colors for the characters and I’m not sure how much I like it. It’s better than the muddy nastiness I was getting earlier. Speaking of muddy, thats kind of how the background turned out. I tried just painting on top of the original sketch to give it a sort of layered, dreamy, textured look, but I think in the end there is just too much information in the background. I think in the future I will simplify the contrast and texture. Also it has become very clear to me that I need to do some designs for the icy asteroid (a recurring visual in the story) as what I wound up with ended up looking like a stupid floating turd rather than something menacing and actually made of ice.) More experimentation ahead!

Hey guys! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated. Between Hatefarm, my girlfriend, and work (we recently started production on our first CG animated feature film, Turkeys, set for release in 2014), I haven’t had much time for Melony. I’m still stuck on the medium I want to do this in — I know branching storylines is too big of a project for me, but I really want to maintain some level of interactivity, and so I’m considering maybe turning this into a game of sorts. I don’t know! Much to think about. But on the other side of things I know where the story needs to go and there is a lot of concept art I can move forward with. Here is some environment design with a little foreshadowing of a new character. I want to clean this up further and color it because I think it’s a pretty solid foundation. Hopefully it won’t be long before my next update.

Work in progress. I found myself unhappy with the comic book coloring style — flat colors and lots of use of black… I’m just not very good at it. I’m experimenting with a new painting style that is relatively quick and maintains a sense of “painterliness”…something I’ve never been terribly good at in the past. Going to color this and give it the full treatment as if it was an actual final panel and we’ll see how it looks. This piece will also serve as some environment design (there is a lot cropped out) and a look at one of the Rabbit’s forms. Should be fun!

Introducing a new character…Big Kitty!

Alright back to it! Got some serious concept art and story writing to do.

I’ve been doing some heavy thinking about not cutting out the interactivity, but cutting out the branching story line. Writing 3 separate stories is proving to be way huge of a task and I don’t want to stumble into My-Project-Is-Too-Huge-And-I-Will-Never-Finish-It territory.

More progress…already wishing I had done some things differently but this is it…time for some forward momentum!

Back from Vacation and time to do some “final” art, starting with Melony. I may make minor adjustments to this, but probably not, as I need to quit dicking around and move forward. My time in Florida lead me to some good storywriting, but overall left me with a sense of Holy-Shit-This-Is-Going-To-Take-Way-Longer-Than-I-Anticipated. That said, the overall story arc(s) are complete, though only as rough ideas. Melony’s character bio is nailed down, and soon her look design will be as well. A fully detailed and colored turnaround is next, and then a new expression sheet! Excite!

A friend asked me what kind of reference I look at when drawing modelsheets and expression sheets, so I thought I’d post some of my favorites here. Good reference is always a must…I have many of these pasted up around my workspace. Even the great Glen Keane believes in learning to draw through “osmosis” and having inspiring works posted around you at all times. If you’re ever stuck, just search “your favorite cartoon character here” and “modelsheet” or “turnaround” in google!

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/27000000/Walt-Disney-Model-Sheets-Belle-walt-disney-characters-27056648-1466-1200.jpg

http://www.traditionalanimation.com/wp-content/gallery/the-road-to-el-dorado/roadmodelsheet2.jpg

http://meridiandream.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/chel2.jpg

http://dreamworks.animationarchive.net/Feature%20Films/The%20Road%20To%20El%20Dorado/Model%20Sheets/miguel1.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oR7sYJzWZ1k/TNoEqWhWNSI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/ZqFcAA12Q3M/s1600/flynnFacial_02a.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oR7sYJzWZ1k/TNoCH1vTP6I/AAAAAAAAAcI/wHIoK8ZwMZI/s1600/rapunzelFACE.jpg

http://animationarchive.net/Feature%20Films/Beauty%20and%20the%20Beast/Model%20Sheets/BELLE05.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5121/5316619470_bc56e2be71_z.jpg

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/27000000/Walt-Disney-Model-Sheets-Princess-Ariel-walt-disney-characters-27044368-1200-1172.jpg

http://animationarchive.net/Feature%20Films/The%20Little%20Mermaid/Model%20Sheets/ARIEL05.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oR7sYJzWZ1k/TNoB5KB9JFI/AAAAAAAAAcE/4xgSX-_NriQ/s1600/rapunzelFACE_2.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ryh07DcsWoM/TN-YqAc8qtI/AAAAAAAAA78/5OTv1cWJxrc/s1600/Rapunzel_Baby.jpg