Michael Amos

Trolley Song

2011-12-31T18:52:00.001+11:00

I'm finally done! I finished Animation Mentor 2 weeks ago and will really miss my time there. The course was amazing, I learnt so much from my Mentors and made so many great friends.

As part of the final class I did another shot with my mentor, Sean Sexton from DreamWorks. His help was fantastic and I really enjoyed putting this piece together.

Hope you enjoy!

2011 Animation Showreel

2011-11-02T16:21:00.000+11:00

Michael Amos Animation Showreel from Michael Amos on Vimeo.

After 2 years of studying at Animation Mentor (I have 5.5 weeks left!) I am really proud to present my 2011 Animation Showreel. Putting it together and working on all of these shots has been an absolute blast and I want to offer a huge thank you to the following people:

My Mentors:
Chris Chua - Pixar Animation Studios
Chad Sellers - Disney Animation Studios
Drew Adams - Dreamworks Animation
David Weatherly - Dreamworks Animation
Victor Navone - Pixar Animation Studios
Sean Sexton - Dreamworks Animation Studios

Along with the amazing ongoing help and additional support and feedback from Bobby Beck at Animation Mentor, Richard Fournier at Blue Sky Studios and Ron Pucherelli at PDI Dreamworks.

I will be at CTN this year showing off the reel and celebrating the almost finish of the course, so say hi and look forward to hearing your comments on the reel.

Santa Claus Animation

2011-09-14T12:55:00.000+10:00

Wow! I just finished class 5 at Animation Mentor. I only have one class left before I graduate and it has really flown by. As part of class 5 we had to animate a 2 person dialogue shot and my mentor (Victor Navone from Pixar) and I picked a fun little piece where I could animate a little girl.

So here is the final shot. Hope you enjoy!

Captain Hook

2011-08-09T08:40:00.002+10:00

Recently my wonderful wife purchased me for my birthday an original Captain Hook drawing from Disney's Peter Pan. How great is she!!

The drawing is signed by Frank Thomas and is one of my favorite Disney characters. I'll be getting it framed soon and will post some more pictures of it once I get it back. The pencil test I put together from drawings posted on the amazing Michael Sporn Blog and I have included my drawing.

Also, check out Andrea's Deja's blog for more amazing Frank Thomas Hook drawings and a pencil test.

Pitiful Bloated Codfish!

2011-07-23T18:38:00.000+10:00

I have just completed my first acting with dialogue shot at Animation Mentor! It was so much fun to finally get to have a full rig with facial controls and to lip sync in Maya which I had not done before.

There are still a few small things I need to tweak, but BIG thanks to my Mentors, David Weatherly at Dreamworks (awesome animator on Kung Fu Panda 2) and Victor Navone (the amazing Pixar Animation Studios animator who just finished up Animation Directing on Cars 2). Special mention to Drew Adam's as well, my class 3 Mentor (also at Dreamworks on Panda 2) who gave me loads of great notes throughout the process.

Let me know what you think!

Animation Mentor 2011 Showcase

2011-06-09T09:33:00.002+10:00

Wow! Great news! I woke up this morning to find out that I have been included in the Animation Mentor 2011 Student Showcase! One of my Robin Hood shots (all 3 shots can be seen below in the previous post) was selected which is awesome news.

A key reason for me joining Animation Mentor was each year seeing the amazing student work showcased in the reel. I was totally blown away by the quality of the motion and acting and really wanted to learn how to do that. So when I started at Animation Mentor one of my goals was to make it into the reel and I am so excited to have made it and be included with such a high caliber of work.

Watch the reel now on the Animation Mentor Website!
Enjoy :)

Some New Animation

2011-06-08T21:55:00.000+10:00

Finally! A new post!
Even though I have worked for the past 15 years in animation as a character designer, 2D animator, background layout artist and storyboard artist I had always wanted to try my hand at 3D. After seeing the amazing work coming out of Animation Mentor and the great Mentors teaching there, I had to be a part of it.

I am just about to finish class 4 and thought I should post some of my more recent work. The first clip is a series of shots done as part of class 3 focusing on body mechanics. I decided to make the theme of those shots Robin Hood escaping the castle.

The 2nd shot is a pantomime that was to display a change in emotion. I really wanted to go with something unexpected... hope you enjoy!

Wicked Witch

2011-02-22T14:39:00.000+11:00

I have always loved witches, in particular the ones from Wizard of Oz and the great Warner Brother's cartoon, Broomstick Bunny.

I did this drawing for my book which was also sold as a litho print at the CTN Expo last year. It was drawn in ink and then scanned and coloured in Photoshop. I had loads of fun designing those birds and her nose kept getting longer and longer as I came up with more ideas for more birds!

Animation Mentor

2011-02-22T14:25:00.001+11:00

Wow - it's late February already and I have not posted anything yet for 2011!

To give you an update on what I have been doing since the CTN Expo late last year; I have been flat out studying at the awesome online animation school, Animation Mentor which I started in June 2010. So far my experience at the school has been nothing but fantastic and I have had some amazing teachers including Chris Chua at Pixar, Chad Sellers from Disney Feature Animation and Drew Adams at Dreamworks who is currently working on Kung Fu Panda 2 - so cool!

So with a new year I have decided to update the look of my blog and added a new page (link at the top) called 'Animation Mentor' where I will start posting scenes as they are completed. I of course (cough, cough) will continue to update this blog with more drawings and photos as well!

CTN Expo

2010-11-21T03:34:00.005+11:00

The CTN Expo kicked off today in Burbank, Los Angeles and Chris Kennett and I have a booth! We are selling books, postcards and litho prints and Chris is showing off his soon to be released children's book, Alpha Monsters which you can be one of the first to have a sneak peak!

My new book, Scary Tales is also for sale for only $10! So if you are in the area come down and take a look at the amazing talent who are exhibiting this year and stop by out booth - T-57 anytime over the weekend.

CTN Expo

2010-11-21T03:34:00.002+11:00

John K - the manliest cartoonist in the world

2010-11-18T17:55:00.005+11:00

Today was one of those surreal moments when you get to meet someone that really inspired and helped shape your childhood. Chris Kennett and I who are in LA for the CTN Expo went over to John K's house - the creator of one of the funniest and coolest TV cartoons ever made... Ren and Stimpy!

We got a tour of John's house and had a sneak peak of some new super secret cartoons that he is working on that will be coming to your TV soon (JOY!) John even did all the voices when he showed us the storyboards!

We then went out for dinner where we ate the largest, manliest sandwiches we have ever seen. Imagine an entire stick of salami fried and chopped up and put into an sandwich and you are about half way there. Chris has entered some kind of salami coma, right now he is passed out with a sick twisted smile on his face grinning with salami glee.

John was good enough to do us some drawings before we left and sign some DVD covers for us. How awesome is that?!

Los Angeles & Disney Studios

2010-11-18T10:46:00.005+11:00

I am currently in Los Angeles for the CTN Expo with Chris Kennett and today I visited my good friend and Mentor Chad Sellers who has just finished working on Disney's soon to be released CG film, Tangled (which looks amazing).

Chad gave us a tour of the feature animation building and then took us across the street to the Disney lot where we walked around the old Disney feature building, Ink and Paint and the Team Disney building. It was amazing to see the old Disney lot which I have looked at in Disney making of films and pictures in books.

So we had a great day and I shall leave you with a photo of a giant piece of macaroni which is the approximate size of a normal serving here in the US!

CTN Expo

2010-11-12T14:43:00.005+11:00

It's coming up fast! Next week from the 19th until the 21st the CTN Expo is on again in Burbank and I will have a booth and exhibiting with my book, Scary Tales as well as some lithograph prints and postcards. Please come and visit me and my great buddy Chris Kennett who I am sharing a table with at booth number T57 (map above).

Chris' work can be seen at:
http://crikeyboy.blogspot.com/

Also, Animation Mentor, the awesome animation school gave away 3 copies of my book on Facebook with the very cool contest and were signed by myself and Bobby Beck - Animation Mentor founder and awesome ex-Pixar Animator. Congrats to the winners,Parker Howell, Francine H, and James Lutz!

http://www.facebook.com/AnimationMentor

Keep checking back and I will be posting more about CTN.

Pixar Animation Studios

2010-11-12T14:26:00.006+11:00

I am currently visiting the US and going to a number of the studios over here as well as the CTN Expo next week. My first meeting was at Pixar in San Francisco and was able to meet up with my friend and mentor, Chris Chua, a fantastic animator who worked on UP and is currently on Cars 2 (thanks Chris!)

The studio is incredible and the passion for their work is the true evidence to the amazing films they make.

More news to come in the following days about my studio visits and the expo!

Scary Tales the Book - Coming Soon!

2010-10-05T11:20:00.003+11:00

I am really excited to unveil my new book, Scary Tales: Nightmarish sketches by Michael Amos! The book will be launched at the CTN Expo in Burbank, LA on the 19th until the 21st of November at my booth (number and location of booth will be announced shortly). And the best news is, the book is only $10!

The book features drawings from some of my most beloved stories, including Jack and the Beanstalk, Jekyll and Hyde and many more (I have to keep some surprises!). If you have been following my blog you will have seen some of the drawings at a work in progress stage, but this is only a small fraction of the work featured and there are pages and pages of never seen drawings!

Please come by and visit me at the CTN expo where you can pick up a copy of the book and I will be happy to sign it for you. I would also love to hear your feedback. There will also be a range of other goodies including postcards and high quality litho prints of some other pieces available.

If you can't make it to CTN this year, the book will also be available online after the expo for sale through this blog. I will post details in the coming weeks. But please feel free to email me to register your interest and I will keep you up to date: michaelamosau@gmail.com

Loads more info and sneak peaks to come over the next few days and weeks up until the expo - hope to see you there!

Animation Mentor

2010-10-05T11:17:00.002+11:00

Recently I finished class 01 of Animation Mentor - the amazing 3D animation school taught by fantastic industry working professionals from major studios including Disney, Pixar (where my mentor works), Dreamworks, Sony and Blue Sky and many more. So far I have had an absolute blast and have really enjoyed learning Maya and how to animate in 3D. I still have another year or so to go in the course, but if it is as fun as the first 3 months I am in for a great ride.

Below is a video of a walk cycle I completed in Maya using the Animation Mentor rig - Ballie. I love the old walk cycles in 2D animation that you see in Goofy cartoons and really wanted to explore and experiment with some of those techniques in 3D. Hope you enjoy!

CTN Expo Sketchbook Ad

2010-09-05T16:06:00.005+10:00

The CTN Expo is fast approaching and I am madly working on stuff for this year as I am sharing a table with a great illustrator and animator, Chris Kennett (check out his work at http://crikeyboy.blogspot.com/)

As part of being an exhibitor at the expo, Chris and I will be featured in the sketchbook catalogue which is given out as part of a cool show bag of goodies when you arrive. My half of the ad features the dodo bird I posted the other day and Chris' side can be seen on his blog (which looks awesome!)

I will post more details over the next few weeks - and if you are keen on heading to the expo you can use my registration code which gets you 10% off the ticket price: AMMIX10. I really hope to see you there!

Swing Shift Cinderella

2010-08-29T21:33:00.005+10:00

I am a huge fan of Tex Avery MGM cartoons, and in particular, the Red Hot series including the amazing 1945 short 'Swing Shift Cinderella' which is where the drawing above is from.

Recently I was able to get my hands on an original drawing by Preston Blair who was the animator of Red Hot on all of the cartoons she starred in. A friend of mine who was good friends with Preston before he passed away bought a number of drawings from him 20 years ago and had him sign them at the time.

I have attached the frame from the cartoon (which you can watch on youtube) as well as a few photos of my new drawing! Anyone that knows me knows that I love animation art (I have run out of wall space in my house) and I have some great pieces, but this is easily now my favorite.

Hope you enjoy!

Stripy Necked DoDo

2010-08-18T17:36:00.005+10:00

Wow - it has been a while since I have posted anything! I have been super busy developing stuff for the CTN Expo later this year as well as a lot of very exciting contract work with some great kids TV producers and broadcasters. Hopefully I can share more soon!

This little guy is drawn with a black fine liner, marker and white pencil. Enjoy!
(and I promise to post more often, ok!)

Giant Pose Sneak Peak

2010-07-01T13:17:00.005+10:00

Working really hard on my book at the moment and I thought I would show a tiny sneak peak of one of the poses of the giant that will be featured. There are many more of these that will be in the book, and I will continue to show you pieces up until it comes out in November. So keep checking back!

Tim Burton

2010-06-25T14:18:00.007+10:00

I went to the opening of the Tim Burton exhibition yesterday at ACMI in Melbourne and was lucky enough to meet him and get his new book, The Art of Tim Burton signed. Tim was a really nice guy, very humble and down to earth, and is always great to meet one of your idols and they end up being nice!

Also went along to the masterclass he held last night which was fantastic. If you are in Melbourne anytime soon, go and see the exhibition.

New Giant Design

2010-06-23T21:56:00.002+10:00

I have continued to develop the Giant as I was not completely happy with his design. I really wanted to push the shapes much further and get more of a design sense in the way in which I drew the hair and arms.

Feel like this is much closer now!

Jack Painting

2010-06-19T10:25:00.009+10:00

I am currently working on my book which will be for sale at the CTN Expo in Burbank later this year and thought I would offer a very small sneak peak to one of the paintings I have done that will be contained within the book.

I have included a work in process so you can see how I took the initial drawing done with a Tombow pencil on paper and then using the new natural media brushes in Photoshop CS5 painted the piece.

I will continue to feature bits a pieces from the book up until the week of the conference - so please keep checking back for more!

One of the poses that I posted a few weeks ago seemed to get a lot of good comments on this blog and friends etc. So I decided to take that pose, blow it up and drawn it with 2B and 4B Tombow pencils on paper. I like the look of real pencil and prefer to work with those initially before using Photoshop to color the work.

I only recently got Photoshop CS5 and really wanted to test out the natural media brushes, so with the drawing scanned in, I made a brush that had a long bristly feel to it and painted the harshest shadows first. This layer is applied as a multiply in Photoshop.

I then painted the light with white on a neutral grey tone. This was done to build up the volume within the drawing. This layer is applied as a overlay in Photoshop. What I am looking for at this stage is a sculpted look to the piece but to still have some stylisation to it.

I then painted the colours on a layer below. This time I made a brush in Photoshop that had more of a watercolor feel to it.

Finally, I added some background texture and the piece is done!

The Giant!

2010-05-31T15:34:00.005+10:00

Well Jack needs someone to kill! So I have been working on the giant for my book coming out later in the year.

I have attached some rough concepts of the giants face along with a first pass on the giant's body shape.

Bit more work to go yet, but starting to like where it is going and it has been a lot of fun so far!

I would love any comments you may have as I continue to develop the design. Thanks!

Jack the Giant Killer - More poses

2010-05-26T11:13:00.003+10:00

As promised, some more expressions and poses for Jack. Really enjoying doing these. I have also started work on the giant, so will post some designs for him soon too!

Jack The Giant Killer - Expressions and Poses

2010-05-25T10:51:00.003+10:00

I am continuing to work on my Jack and the Beanstalk character designs and now that I have finalised the design and costume, I have began to test out the character in a range of poses and expressions. For me, this is the most fun and exciting part as I get to see the characters personality come through and see if the work so far has gone in the right direction.

I did about 40 or so of these as really rough sketches, the took the ones I liked the most (and some are still not totally right!!), put a new sheet of paper over the top and really tried to push the pose, the shapes and angles etc. Then I take another sheet and tie down the drawing and clean it up.

I will post some today and some more tomorrow - so check back to see them!

Favorite Disney Villain

2010-05-24T17:11:00.004+10:00

As a kid my favorite Disney villain was Mad Madam Mim! She was evil, but you could tell she was having so much fun being terrible! Medusa gave me nightmares, but Madam Mim made me laugh (and still does!). The wizard dual is fantastic and the animation throughout this whole segment (and the entire film) is amazing.

So over lunch I did a Madam Mim drawing (the pose is taken from the film).

If I can get past the fear - I will do a Medusa drawing tomorrow!

My Favorite Cartoons

2010-05-13T13:17:00.002+10:00

Over the last year or so I have been collecting up all of the great Loony Tunes and Disney classic cartoons on DVD and have been watching them over and over! Two characters have always stood out to me as favorites since I was a kid - Goofy and Daffy Duck.

The goofy series of "How To" cartoons are amazing. The animation is fantastic and the situations are hilarious. My all time favorite is "How to Play Baseball". I did a few drawings from that cartoon today during lunch while watching it on my computer.

I love both the Campett Daffy and the Chuck Jones Daffy, but if I had to pick, it would be the Clampett Daffy in design and animation ("Piggy Bank Robbery" has some of the best animation of all time!!). Did a drawing of Daffy today as well (pose inspired by those in the model sheets and from another favorite Daffy cartoon - "Baby Bottleneck".)

CTN Expo 2010

2010-05-10T12:55:00.004+10:00

The CTN Expo in Burbank is on again this year and I will be attending as well as exhibiting. It is a fantastic conference and well worth checking out. It includes great artists and talent like Chen Yi-Cheng (character designer on Disney's Mulan), HB Lewis (Designer at Disney, Dreamworks and BlueSky) Stephen SIlver (Kim Possible), Harald Seiperman (Disney's Tarzan) and many many more! Check out the full list at:

http://www.ctnanimationexpo.com/ctnx2010

I will be sharing my own booth with amazing animator, illustrator and good friend, Chris Kennett. Check his work out at:

http://crikeyboy.blogspot.com/

So if you are thinking of attending, I am happy to offer a promotional code which gets you 10% of any 1-day or 3-day ticket if you register before May 31st. The code is: AMMIX10

And let me know if you are going - I would love to meet up with you in person!

Jack The Giant Killer - Character Development

2010-04-23T13:42:00.004+10:00

As mentioned in my last post I am working on a sketchbook of designs which will be for sale later in the year. As part of this I have always wanted to work on and develop characters for Jack and the Beanstalk. It is a story that I have always loved since I was a kid. I especially enjoyed (and still do) the Disney version in 'Fun and Fancy Free' (the Giant was such a happy and fun character) as well as the Warner Bros. version 'Jack Wabbit and the Beanstalk'.

I felt the pervious design was a bit too TV animation stylised and decided to push the shapes and design much further. I started off with the head (and did it in profile as I find that the hardest angle to get right and still look appealing) and I have since begun working on some different costumes.

I see the character as a poor boy around the age of 14. He is much more positive and happier than in the original story where he is a really mean kid! As he is poor I have made his clothes a little small, torn and patched. He has a bag to carry the items that he steals from the giant. I will start to push some of the costume and the props a little further now and try some expressions too to test out the character's range.

Any comments would be great! Thanks!

Jack The Giant Killer

2010-04-07T17:33:00.004+10:00

I am working on a new sketchbook of designs for different stories. One of them is Jack and the Beanstalk. Attached is a rough design for Jack - still needs some further refinement and polish - but is starting to get there!
I will keep posting more of them soon.

Warm Up Drawings

2010-03-24T16:47:00.002+11:00

I love to watch people wait at the tram stop (we have trams that go right past my house here in Melbourne so I can watch them from the front window).

Also love sport - ESPN is always on, so these were done sitting on the couch watching some baseball and basketball.

Allergic to peanuts

2010-03-24T16:42:00.002+11:00

What if you were allergic to your favorite food?

I have recently found out I am allergic to onion and garlic (which is not so fun when you LOVE mexican food). Ah well, at least there is no onion or garlic in chocolate (life would just be not worth living!)

First one for the New Year!

2010-01-05T16:16:00.004+11:00

Another year and my first trip to the zoo for 2010!
Drawn with ink and a fine pen nib, and the first two in pencil - I gave the female rhino a little g-string since it is super hot here!

Looking forward to a great new year.

Missing the Rain

2009-12-24T14:24:00.002+11:00

It's summer here in Melbourne (which is always odd at Christmas with constant images of snow, reindeer, and hot ham and turkey dinners) - and we have been have a hot week between 30 and 40 degrees (about 105 for the US friends!)

I miss the rain already. I did these drawings in the middle of winter. Done with pencil in my sketchbook and then scanned into photoshop and added some scanned drops of ink to give that wet Melbourne feeling.

Bendy Giraffe

2009-12-24T14:21:00.003+11:00

Inspired by my visit to the zoo and watching a kid on the train drink through a bendy straw - I combined the two together!

Giraffe Zoo Drawings

2009-12-24T14:17:00.003+11:00

As mentioned in my last post - I recently visited the Melbourne zoo to draw and take photos. The giraffe enclosure is always a bit hit and miss as it is designed in a way that allows them to hide behind a large wall - so you never know if you are going to see them! Fortunately they were right out front and eating and walking around which was perfect to get a few drawings done.

Elephant Zoo Drawings

2009-12-23T13:11:00.000+11:00

I love elephants and during my latest trip to the Melbourne zoo I spent some time drawing them. These guys were happy to stand still for a while and eat / drink, so I was able to so some with a bit more detail than normal. A baby elephant is due any day now! So I will return to draw the new addition as soon as the new addition is viewable.

Welcome to my Blog!

2009-12-16T21:39:00.002+11:00

Hey there! I am a Visual Development Artist working in Melbourne Australia where I develop animated TV shows and video games. I'll be posting designs, illustrations and drawings from my sketchbooks, so check back regularly to see my work. Hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave a comment!