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

Savannah International Animation Festival

...Is where i'll be April 13-14th. Our PSA for FoodBanks Canada " Hungercount2011", produced by Flash Frame Digital and designed/animated by Frog Feet Productions, will be screening there in the commercials category.

The Festival is brought to you by the Animation Hall of Fame in Savannah.  In addition to the workshops, panels and screenings there will be plenty of art on display from the various animated films screened at the fest. So if you are in the area in April come check out the Savannah International Animation Festival and say hello!
 Cheers!
 -Bryce

HungerCount 2011 PSA wins Pixie Award

I must say, working with Flash Frame Digital to create the Food Banks Canada PSA was one of the highlights of 2011. It was just a lot of fun doing the animation and design on their projects and collaborating with them. I guess the fun and effort we put into it all has paid off. Two of our animations, "FoodBanks Canada Holiday Greeting 2010" and "HungerCount 2011" PSA, have won Gold and Platinum 2012 Pixie Awards respectively, for Animation Commercial/ PSA category. Yaaaaay!

 HungerCount was also featured as an official selection at the California International Shorts Festival 2011 In December. I've already linked to these in previous posts so please feel free to scroll down if you wish to see them. 

 So 2011 ended on a pretty high note for Frog Feet Productions and here's hoping for more great things in 2012.

 cheers! 

-B

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I hope every one out there has a great  Xmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Solstice, Festivus... just all around happy holidays folks!
Enjoy time with your families and/ or friends and may 2012 be full of awesome things ahead!
cheers!
-Bryce

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
 

Win! Two Frog Feet animations win Platinum Empixx Awards!

In the tooting our own horn category...( because otherwise who willl?) Two projects we've worked on and helped create have won Empixx Awards!!

•  Firstly: Stan (the man) Olthuis at Sharpshooter Inc. hired us to design, direct and animate this piece for "4carfinder.com" titled "Where's my Car?". It won Platinum Empixx Awards for Animation and in the category: Advertising- Consumer. 

 Written/Directed by: Bryce Hallett
Animation by Bryce Hallett and Jett Atwood
Additional assistance by Anna Oster.
Music & Sound by Matthew Reid 
It was produced by Stan Olthuis of Sharphooter Inc. for 4Carfinder.com.

•  Secondly we won platinum awards for animation and in the category "Direct Marketing" for this spot for Foodbank Canada produced by FlashFrame Digital. The fine folks of FlashFrame Digital had the original concept and hired us to execute the animation and style. It was produced for Foodbank Canada as a special holiday greeting. 

 Animation, design and storyboards by Bryce Hallett, (Frog Feet Productions)
 Sound by Lee Delang, (FlashFrame Digital)
Produced by Mike Welker (FlashFrame Digital)

 So many congrats to all involved on these very fun projects and here's to more fun and exciting things ahead!

  

Foodbank Canada: Happy Hollidays
 

 4Carfinder :"Where's my #$@ Car!"
 

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

BunnyJam Jury Award winner! TAIS Showcase 2011

Hurray us!
During the TAIS Animation Showcase 2011 we were awarded the BunnyJam Jury Award.

Every year as part of the TAIS Showcase they hold an "Anijam" where animators can submit a 10 sec animated piece, using any style or technique, based on that year's theme. This year it was "bunnies". Previous years have had monsters, robots, chickens..etc etc all the entries are then strung together into one big mega animation and shown in the theatre before the main Showcase begins.

The Jury, which selects the best film for the Showcase, also has an award for the BunnyJam and there is an Audience Award for both categories as well. ( Jamie Metzger 's film "Pasa Doble" won the Jury Award for best in Showcase, Aaron Long won the audience award for his film "Fester Goes Fishing" as well as an honourable mention from the Jury and Nick Cross won the Audience Award for his BunnyJam entry. So congrats to all of them and really to everyone who had animation screened at the showcase it was a very good year with some really great pieces.)

Here's the link to our little BunnyJam submission and as soon as their is a link for the complete TAIS entries we'll post it as well.



Emma Lander suggested we animate something using rice or beans so we went to the bulk foods store and got a few things to try out and rice worked the best. It's shot stop motion style under the camera on a piece of glass and a cardboard background using a Nikon D5000 slr and Dragon Stop Motion.

If anyone is interested i can give more specific details of what we did. In all it 6 or 7 hours from initial set up to shooting the final frame.

Emily Shapiro created the music for us on clarinet. Thanks Emily!

TAIS ANIMATION SHOWCASE AND BUNNY JAM THIS THURSDAY!!!

I'm excited for this thursday and want it to come along sooner.
Why?
Because it's the TAIS animation showcase!
it's happening this thursday and i'm looking forward to a bunch of great animation on the big screen form local talent and animators around the world
and also the TAIS ANiJAm.
basically every year TAIS holds an Anijam and then screens it as part of the showcase.
every year its on a different theme. This year it's BUnnies!
basically animators create a 10 sec animation based on the theme , any style or technique and then all the submissions get strung together into a MEGA ANIMATION!

and i submitted one . I made it with rice and beans
come check it out!

TAIS Showcase 2011 on June 23 at the Innis Town Hall
2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto. 7:30pm
$10

cheers!
-Bryce