THE MAKING OF "THE GAMES OF HUNGER"

In case you happened to have missed it, I thought I'd let you know that there's a 3 part making of featurette on "THE GAMES OF HUNGER"
It goes through my entire process of how I make my cartoons from concept to screen.
Take a look  and let me know what you think.








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DRAMA MANIACS BACKDROPS

I recently did some designs for my friend Kim and Reston's Drama school "DRAMA MANIACS"  I was asked to design some backdrops for a couple of their plays that they have planned for the kids.  It's amazing how closely they replicated my designs.  They projected my drawings onto a giant screen and traced them with paint. I'm amazed at how good they turned out. Nice work guys.

Below you'll see pictures of Reston Williams (who was also my composer for GAMES OF HUNGER) painting the backdrops.

If you have kids in the LA area that enjoy acting check out dramamaniacs.com

THE GAMES OF HUNGER is finally finished

After 3 long months of working in the evening and ignoring my beautiful wife and our unborn baby, THE GAMES OF HUNGER IS FINALLY DONE!!!!
A huge thank you to Rebecca for putting up with me. And also to RESTON WILLAMS who went above and beyond to create the epic score that went with the animation.
I hope you all enjoy it.



Let me know what you think.

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT

Thanks to everyone that came out to support us the PICTURE BOOK PROJECT this weekend at CTN Animation Expo.
We sold a lot of books and hopefully raised a lot of money to help the kids in GHANA.
If you didnt get a chance to make it out to the show please go online
and order your book here.

 http://picturebookproject.com/PBP/store.html

It's 66 animation artists creating a colouring book that's great for kids or for adults to enjoy the artwork.

Here's a picture of a couple of us signing the book this weekend

A COUPLE OF IMAGES WHILE I FINISH!!!

Hey everyone,
Thank you for being so patient as this has turned into much more work than anticipated.
But the good news is I should be done soon. I can actually say that with confidence now.
Just gotta do the FX and then sound.

Here's a couple of teaser images to keep you busy.  Thanks for all the great comments on youtube so far.   Hopefully you guys dig the final product.  Don't forget to like us on facebook and subscribe on youtube so you can be the first to see it when it's done.

 facebook.com/stodoestudios
youtube.com/stodoe

BOOK SIGNING AT CTN THIS WEEKEND!!

If you're going to be attending the CTN ANIMATION EXPO this Sunday the 19th, be sure to stop by the PICTURE BOOK PROJECT booth and say hi. I'll be there signing copies of the book that I contributed to with other animation artists. Be sure to get your copy. It's for a great cause.
 

http://picturebookproject.com/PBP/home.html

 

TOONBOOM INTERVIEW

So today I was checking the Toonboom site to see if there was anything new and interesting and I came across an article about myself. I did an interview a while ago with them but didn't know it was published yet. It's a little wordy but I don't sound like too much of a tool. Check it out and let me know what you guys think.

 Check it out here!

FIRST COLOURED SHOT

Well after a very successful meeting with my composer, RESTON WILLIAMS, I came home tonight and got the colour palette laid out and ready to start inking and painting my short. Here's the first shot that I coloured. Now I'm just going to plow through the shots while Reston is composing a kick-ass score to go with it.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Hey everyone, Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've been working long hours on my Hunger Games parody. Still trying to get it done. I'm happy to announce that I just got my rough pass of animation done on it. I'm about to start cleaning it up and then colouring it in. After that I'll do an effects pass on it then sound. In the meantime, if you haven't seen it already here's a video of a couple animated shots. I didn't post the whole thing obviously because I didn't want to give everything away. But it's enough so you can see what I'm doing. Enjoy.

HERE I GO AGAIN!!!

Tonight I finally got to the point where I started animating. It was nice to get back into it. Started off rusty and racking my brain trying to remember how to use the software. I find I wait so long inbetween cartoons that I have to re-learn the software every time. Thank goodness it's a pretty easy program to learn. Anywhere here's and image of the title animation for my newest short that I'm working on. Anyone have any guess as to what I'm parodying? HAHA. I'll try to keep on adding updates like this as I go. Enjoy. Thanks for your support and compliments so far. They keep me going.

FIRST BACKGROUND OUTTA THE WAY

Well I got the first background out of the way for my new cartoon. The good thing is this background will actually be able to be re-used about 12 times throughout the short. Thank god. It took a while tonight to finish but I think it came out pretty well. I started with a rough drawing of it and then did a rough colour key to make sure the colour was right before I committed to the final thing. Enjoy.

STARTING MY NEXT CARTOON!

Well, I've officially started. I figured one way to get my butt into gear was to actually post something. That way there was no turning back. SO here's my rough character line up for my next cartoon.

HULK TRANSFORMING key frames

Hey everyone. So a couple people have requested that I post a frame by frame image of when the hulk transforms. This isnt every single frame or that would be 30 frames or something. But here are the main key poses that I drew to make the transformation. You should be able to fill the gaps in with your imagination. Like I've said in the past I love animating transformations like these. They are so much fun to do in 2d because it's all up to you. It'd be really hard to do stuff like this in 3D for sure unless the rig was set up for you perfectly to do it.

P.S. some of you have asked where my facebook page is. The address is facebook.com/stodoestudios. Thanks for the questions and keep'em coming. Don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel so you don't miss any uploads. youtube.com/stodoe. Thanks for all the support everyone.

EVERYDAY HULK: in the bathroom

It's done. I would like to present "EVERYDAY HULK" Tell me what you think. I have a couple more scenarios planned and will hopefully start them within the week. I'm really surprised this cartoon only took me 5 days to do considering my "HARREY PODDER" cartoon took me 3 months. By the way Stodoe Studios is now on facebook so be sure to go on and "like us" to be sure to get all the up to date releases at facebook.com/stodoestudios Also be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel at youtube.com/stodoe Thanks again for all your support. I'm really enjoying working on these. I don't see it stopping anytime soon.

HERE'S A TINY PEEK.

Here's a little sneek peek at a little cartoon I'm working on right now. I'm going to be making a short series of these. The working title for it right now is "EVERY DAY HULK" It's a bunch of little short parody jokes, much like the Harrey Podder ones. The first one should be done by early next week. So make sure you subscribe to my youtube page (youtube.com/stodoe) and my blog to get the notification when it's done. Keep checking back. I have a lot of these planned.

"PUSH IT" starring the animators of Dreamworks.

Here's yet another silly music video done as a kick off video for Dreamworks' "Animation Day" which was an excuse to get all animators from the Glendale campus and the Redwood City campus together for a day. Did a bunch of activities and even Jeffrey Tambor from "Arrested Development" came in to head up an acting workshop for it. It was a great day. Steve and I were asked to shoot this video to start the day off with a bang. We joined forces with some of the PDI guys Rani Naamani, Scott LaFleur and Carlos Peurtolas. Enjoy.

I GOT MARRIED LAST WEEK

Last week I got married to my beautiful lady, Rebecca. We enjoyed a week away with our families and friends on the beautiful beaches of the Dominican Republic. The trip was beautiful and very inspiring. I came up with this image today because I've been really inspired to draw since the wedding. Hope you like it.

BID ON MY DOODLE!!

It's that time again. Just like last year, I was asked to submit a couple of doodles to auction off in a celebrity charity auction. All money raised by the sales of these doodles will go towards researching a cure for Neurofibromatosis. It's a very good cause as well as you can own original doodles by some of your favourite celebs. Like, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Nealon, Simon Pegg, Bill Nighy, Gillian Anderson, Rowan Atkinson, Martin Sheen, Betty White and MEEEEE!!!!. There are lots of great doodles to look through. Just visit doodledayusa.org for the full scoop. And don't forget to bid on my doodles. Here are the two that I submitted this year.

If my doodles aren't showing up on the website yet. Just keep checking back. I just mailed them in yesterday. They'll be up there soon. Thanks for your support everyone.

FOOTAGE LOOSE

Are you an animator? Have you ever had one of those days at work where things just aren't going well for ya. Then enjoy Footage Loose. A short film created by me and Steve Meyer (a fellow Dreamworks animator) With the help of our friends and loved ones we created this little short over the past 3 weeks for all you animators out there. Or really just about anyone who has had a crappy day.
Enjoy.

YOUANIMATOR TALKS WITH DAVID STODOLNY

YouAnimator.com
I spoke with DreamWorks Senior Animator, David Stodolny - who is one of the most humble and talented young animators in the industry. David spoke about the process of working on feature films and what it's like being in the world of feature animation.

YouAnimator: David, you have been given quite a few of the fighting scenes in Kung Fu Panda 2. How did you become the in-house “fighting expert?”

I would never consider myself the "fighting expert" at all but I did get a chance to do some really fun action scenes such as the shot where Po throws a wolf
into the air and is caught by Viper wrapping herself around the wolf, then landing on Tigress's back and then fighting off a pack of wolves with a sword. It was a lot of fun. I would say that I was given that shot based on the fact that I tend to get shots with a lot of characters done quickly. The shot had about 10 wolves in it as well as Viper and Tigress
and a number of different weapons and other constraints. I believe I was given that shot based on how fast I got another shot done in the movie involving 10 or more characters and a lot of crazy actions.
In this industry what you do early in the movie tends to stick with you for the rest of the project.


YouAnimator: Explain to us what the process of assigning shots to animators is at DreamWorks?

I would like to say that assigning projects and shots is very clear and predictable. However, it really depends on the team your working with and how you prove yourself from the start.
Dreamworks is such a big company that you get to work with a lot of different people. Even if you're the "acting guy" on one movie. You may very well become the "action guy" on another.
It totally depends on the team you have working with you and what they cast you on throughout the film.. Overall though it comes down to what shots are available or "in inventory" Everyone for the most
part works on a couple of acting shots and action shots throughout the movie. But it really does change and evolve over the project which keeps things fresh and exciting.

YouAnimator: Once you’ve received the shots – what process do you usually take to turn it into a finished piece?

Once we get cast on a shot we get "launched" by the director where he/she tells us what the overall feeling or point of the shot is.
We take those notes and inject any ideas we may have an then the whole team agrees on the best way to handle the shot. Then we go back to
our desks and block out our idea in rough version of the scene. We then show the director and our leads and in turn get more notes that narrow
down the performance. We continue to work through this over a couple of meetings. We add details until it's exactly what the director saw in his/her vision.
We get it approved and then it becomes part of the movie.


YouAnimator: You’ve had the chance to work on quite a lot of interesting shots thus far during your not-so-long career already. Do you have a favorite?

I honestly think my favourite shot of my career was in Surf's Up. The first time that Cody meets Lani. He's really uncomfortable and trying to act cool but
his inexperience talking to girls is evident. It was a fun shot to shoot reference for as well as animate. Whether or not I think this was the best shot I've animated,
I definitely think it's one of the shots I've had the most fun animating.

YouAnimator: I have noticed that Canada has a disproportional number of animators in the US industry? What is the secret?

Disproportional as in BIG? haha... I would agree. Canadian animators have always been a huge part of the industry. For years, Sheridan College which is in Canada
has always had a huge part in supplying animators to the industry. Although there are a lot of great schools now that are pumping out amazing animators, Canada has always been an incredible source of talent when it comes to the animation field. I mean it's cold as hell up there. We enjoy staying inside and honing our
animation skills and drawing and acting skills rather than playing outside in the snow........okay sometimes we miss the snow too.

YouAnimator: What short advice would you give anyone who is dreaming about working in the animation industry?

I would say if you love it........DO IT! There are so many of my friends in the industry that said their parents tried to stop them saying there is
no career in it. No Longevity in it. I'll tell you that if you work hard and stay with it there is a VERY successful career in it for you. For instance, I have a friend
who's parents told him he was wasting his time. He kept on applying to Sheridan anyway. He is now the director of a very successful TV show. I bet his parents
are proud as hell of him, as well as never admitting that they ever doubted him. Honestly if you love to create stories and characters, then stay with it. It really
is a really rewarding and exciting career.

David is one of the demo reel judges on YouAnimator. And if you're curious about his demo reel - here it is: http://www.youanimator.com/business-card/1893