A Puppet With CLOTHES!

So, I've been working on a new project (which I believe I mentioned a few months back) and it's been going relatively well.

I've built the armature with new tiedowns and have just partially clothed it.

The tiedowns are ground into a "T" shape which will fit inside a slot in the feet. 

I didn't come up with this design myself, rather, it was devised by Nick Hilligoss! You can check out his tutorial for such tiedowns here.

The clothes that are shown are store-bought, doll clothes which just happened to fit perfectly! 

These are just the basics though. This puppet will eventually have a trench coat sewn over it. Not by ME of course, I can't sew to save my life. I have a friend however, who's mother will be completing the outfit.

As you can see, I'm still quite far from animating. But hopefully, I'll be able to have this entire project done before Halloween.

The Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival

So, some cool news. I've entered Autumn Leaves in the Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival. 
Also, I'd encourage anyone out there who has a short stop-mo film to enter! It's a really cool event and their call for entries is only going to last till September 21st. So, enter now while you still can.
Check out their trailer:

Good News

Ok, I've been really busy for the past few months (and yes, I know that's always my excuse) but I've graduated, been out of town, and looking for a job! Jobs, as you all know, are very hard to come by these days...
More to the point, I, with my newfound freedom, have gotten back into the swing of things. And am currently working on, 1 a new short (the title of which I can't divulge) 2 lots more art, and 3, a new website. Because the short is a closely guarded secret, the only info I can give you is that it will be a spoof of classic horror films, possibly filmed in black and white.
As for the art, I've been working on a series of digital paintings titled "Monster Yearbook."
So far, I've finished Nosferatu and The Mummy. I hope to have The Wolfman, Frankenstein, etc, soon.

Jimmy "Spaz" Nosferatu

Here's an in-progress of The Mummy:

First color layer

The final Mummy

I made a new website/homepage for easier viewing of my work. The site is now up and running, so here's the link: http://santinovitale.blogspot.com/

That's all for now.

Merry Christmas!

So, over Christmas break I put Autumn Leaves up on Youtube!

Here you go:

IlluXCon, Autumn Leaves, and Other Stuff

Ok, I don't have much time, just really quick in and back out, so...

First, we're back from IlluXCon 4 and we had a great time!

I was given the privilege to set up a computer showing my short films. Thanks to the masterminds behind IlluXCon, Pat and Jeannie Wilshire.

This picture is actually from last year, but Ian Miller (left) was unable to attend this year. He was there in spirit.

Me (right of course) and Britt Tolemeo

One of my favorite Thomas Kuebler sculpts, the Geinball Machine (it really works)

I even got to play in the IlluXCon Jam headed up by the great artist/guitarist, Mark Zug!

So, other than IlluXCon news, I'm pleased to inform you that I've completed Autumn Leaves! Actually, everything in this post is old news, I must confess. IlluXCon was back at the beginning of the month and Autumn Leaves was finished the third week of October. I've just been so busy that I haven't really had time to update the blog (plus, I kept forgetting about it too). Either way, that's all the news for now. Except, Autumn Leaves will not be available for viewing for another week or so. It's a really huge file and would probably take 12 or more hours to upload. Until then, I'll try to be more immediate with my posts.

New Show Reel Up

Just here to say that I've updated the "Show Reel Button" on the side of the screen. The latest reel showcases my more recent stuff and a few finished clips of Autumn Leaves! So, feel free to check it out.

Autumn Leaves Now in Full Production

For the past week I've been animating like crazy for the new Autumn Leaves short and things are going amazingly well. I'm already about a quarter (or possibly a third) of the way through the animation and have completed four whole shots!

I don't have any of said animation available for viewing yet, so in the meantime, I decided to post a few pics of the sets and whatnot.

Some ruins in the background - made of green florist's foam.

The set

A close up of the tree man

In this shot the pink screen was still up. I was going to use it instead of a green screen but the color bled into the shot too much and made everything very pink, and generally hard to key out. So I put up a white screen instead and it works quite well.