Character Designs and Modeling

Here are are some of the characters I've designed and taken through the 3D process. These are excerpts from my current portfolio.

Copyright © 2009 Matthew J Killian All Rights Reserved
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Cinema Memoir #44

All Dog's Go To Heaven (November 17th, 1989)

I don't remember a whole lot about this movie except that I left the theater feeling kinda depressed - I haven't seen it since.

I never was into animated movies as a kid. I didn't see very many animated movies in the theater and I would much rather have seen a live action version - an interesting observation considering I'm currently an animation student.

(Image from impawards.com)

Primitive Theater

This was my 2nd 3D animation - it's hard to believe it's been 3 years since I did this. For this assignment we were to tell a simple narrative story using a character made from primitive geometry. It has sound so pump up the volume.

Our goal was to include as many of the principles of animation as possible and to explore emotional change in our character.

Copyright © 2009 Matthew J Killian All Rights Reserved
The images and content in this post are protected

3D Ball Bounce

This is my first rendered 3D animation. Our assignment was to create a scenario involving a ball with personality who interacts with another, inanimate ball.

This assignment was a good opportunity to explore the principals of animation, and was a good introduction to the 3D animation process.

Copyright © 2009 Matthew J Killian All Rights Reserved
The images and content in this post are protected

Traditional Animation

As the banner suggests, this blog is about Artwork, Movies, and Animation. Artwork and Movies have been covered so now I suppose it's time to post some animation.

This is a traditionally animated walk cycle I did sophomore years at Ringling. If you look closely you can tell the character is Gerty from the previous maquette post.

I'm not a huge fan of this - or any other of my traditional animations for that matter - but other people seems to like this one. I think it still needs a whole lot of work, but unfortunately, like most other abandoned works, I'll probably never revisit it - so it is what it is.

Enjoy for now, more to come later.

Copyright © 2009 Matthew J Killian All Rights Reserved
All images and content in this post are protected

The Modern Day Shaman

It's hard being an artist in the world today, especially when my vocation seems so insignificant - almost wasteful - while so many terrible things are happening all around us. I'm certain many artists out there have had similar feelings on this matter, which is why I've decided to post this inspiring quote --

Being a storyteller and/or animator is not only fun, it is an honorable thing to do with your life. The world needs shamans now more than ever...

- Ed Hooks

Perhaps today's artists, writers, and filmmakers are modern day shamans. After all this time questioning the importance of my vocation I really would like to believe what I'm doing is honorable.

Here is a link to the entire article, "Animators vs. Storytellers" which I highly recommend to anyone who is questioning their artistic vocation: http://www.actingforanimators.com/News/

(The quote goes on, "...and it is way past time that we started making animated movies for adults." But that's an entirely different post best saved for later.)