The Walking ...er.. Driving Dead

Here's some character designs I created for the Zombie level of "Left Lane Looey".
Zombies are fun to draw. I've been enjoying the comics and tv  series " The Walking Dead" a lot lately so it was fun to draw a zombie themed level for the game. The idea of the "Driving Dead" just makes me laugh.

Canadian Made.. Caricatures!

I created some caricatures back in the fall for a tv series called "Canadian Made" airing in Canada on History Television. The episodes are all about various Canadian inventions ( like Trivial Pursuit and the Wonder Bra for example) and the people behind them. They're very well done and a lot of fun to watch.

 Anyway I did a handful of caricatures for the episode "Brilliant Amenities" which recently aired so I thought i'd post them here. I wasn't sure how they'd be used in the episode so it was fun to see them in the opening segment bouncing around etc. The drawings had to be done quickly as it was a typical "we actually need these yesterday!" sort of deadline.  So considering they were drawn so quickly, I'm fairly pleased with how they turned out. I'm no Jack Davis, obviously, and some of these drawings I think are more successful than others, but they do the trick.

 Movie Star- Leslie Nielsen
 


 The Governor General of Canada - Michaelle Jean

 Pro golfer - Mike Weir
 

 Double Olympic Champion, speed skater - Catriona Le May Doan
I had fun drawing her and exaggerating the powerful legs of an Olympic athlete.

 Comedian - Russell Peters
This one i "George Lucased" a bit. His face is exactly as seen in the episode but i didn't like how i drew his body so i quickly made a new one here. Maybe i'll post a before and after so people can see the difference another time. If anyone is interested in that.

 Star Trek's "Scotty" - James Doohan
This is actual the second time i've done a caricature of Scotty for TV. The first time was for an episode of History Bites. I'll have to dig it up and see which one turned out better. I think the other one was the movie version of Scotty.
 

NHL Star - Sidney Crosby
 

 NBA star - Steve Nash
I think this was one of the first caricatures i did for this series. I'm happy with the likeness but i think i could have made a better pose for him.
 

Back from Savannah and animation goodness...

Ok I got back a couple of weeks ago technically, but it's been busy so i'm only getting around to updating now. Anyway I had a blast at the Savannah International Animation Festival this past April. Kudos to the event organizers and all their volunteers for such a great event.

There were some excellent panels and discussions and of course plenty of great animation to be seen.
And I managed pick up an Award for the FoodBanks PSA " Hunger Count  2011" that I animated for Flash Frame Digital Media and Food Banks Canada. So that was definitely a highlight and a pleasant surprise.





Also met a couple of interesting guys, Les Carpenter and Lavalle McGuirk who were there to do a couple of panels and show their animated show they are pitching, "Cracker Land". Lavalle also has a great website on traditional  animation, aptly named Traditional Animation .

Another highlight was meeting Ian Timothy who's "Beaver Creek" was in the same animation bloc as my PSA. He's only 17 and has created 7 or 8 episodes of Beaver Creek, using stop motion, so far.  Each one is close to 10 minutes and they're pretty fun. He and his family even built a studio in their basement to record sound. That's dedication to your craft. So hat's off to him for all his hard work and I hope he continues.

He also created this great little short explaining the Art and Science of Animation.


Currently i'm working on graphics and animation for a video game "Left Lane Looey" that will hopefully be released in the fall. I'll be posting more cartoons and illustrations in the weeks to come. This "sketchblog" has gotten fairly news heavy and not sketch heavy enough!

Cheers!
-Bryce Hallett
Toronto

FoodBanks Canada HungerCount 2011 Animation

I need to come up with catchier titles that aren't merely literal descriptions.
ha ha
 Anyway, I'm very proud to have designed and animated this piece for Food Banks Canada. (Produced by the fine folks at FlashFrame Digital here in Toronto so i could just concentrate on the animation and final composite). Please feel free to pass this animation along and share it around the interwebs. It's not just pretty but also for a good cause!
Cheers!
-Bryce


 English Version
 

Version Français
 

Need a date? Here's an Animated Commercial!

Hey there folks. I wish i could come up with a better title or a witty pun but that's never been my strong suit. Animation is though!

Here's a commercial i designed and animated recently for a dating website.

It was a lot of fun to do some more classical cartoon style full colour animation.

This was a really fun project to work on, despite a really short turn around time, and the people who hired me were great to work with. I have to give credit to Marc Morgenstern, their creative director who did some additional editing on the final piece. I don't know who did the music or wrote the lyrics to the funny song or i'd give them a shout out as well.

There's lots i like about how this turned out and there are plenty of things i would have like to have added or altered had there been more time. That's always the case though. Really fun job.

Anyway. Enjoy!

-Bryce

Great interview with the Toronto Public Library's word out 2009

This interview is a couple weeks old but i've been so busy i only just saw it now.
Ellen Besen and I were interviewed for the Toronto Public Library, as part of their Word Out Teen Summer reading series to talk about animation and out book Animation Unleashed.

Part 1:
Ellen's interview .

Part 2:
Bryce's interview .

I'm especially a fan of all the positive comments form the kids. Makes me happy!
I really should re-read what i type more thoroughly though next time. I could really use an editor! ha ha

cheers!
-Bryce

Another good review and fun times at Kalamazoo.

I've been busy animating today. I'm all pumped and inspired after attending the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International this weekend. It was a lot of fun. I got to speak on a few panels, dust off my student film from years back to screen, and it was well received, and got to hang out and meet many fun and interesting animation types.
(Quick shout out to all the students who competed in the KAFI Cartoon Challenge 2009. They made some really good PSA's and were a lot of fun to meet and talk to. Cheers guys and gals and congrats on your hard work and well made films! It was fun! ).

It was a pretty decent drive from Toronto to Kalamazoo too. The 6 or 7 hours just flew by. Gotta thank Bruce Simpson for the ride!

At some point i'll have to start actually adding sketches to my skethblog again. heh
in the meantime here's a link to a nice review of "Animation Unleashed" i came across while procrastinating.

BC Blogcritics LINK. Thanks to BlogCritics.org and especially Tim Girard for writing this great little review! That made my day.

In lieu of some sketches here's screen shots from "Delica: Counting Stars". A little music video i've been working on whenever i could get the chance that i finally finished last week.
Look for it at the next Delica concert!
cheers!
-Frog Feet