ASIFA-Atlanta's Roll Yer Own 2011

Last week I was informed that my Vampire Mouse animated short was selected to premiere at ASIFA-Atlanta's Roll Yer Own, an independent animation screening. It was a huge event. I knew, however, that I wasn't going to win, but that's not what art is really about. It is just an honor to be recognized by my peers as having made a worthwhile animation. That goes for any art exhibition actually. As great as it would be to win or even place, an artist should just be fortunate that they were chosen to be displayed at all. That's exactly how I was feeling on Friday, June 10th when I headed over to this warehouse that makes and ships coffee to places like Whole Foods. My mom went with me, and this was the first time that she had ever seen my work displayed in public, which was a huge thrill for her. The first time that my work ever got displayed was at an art show three years ago, but she came down with a migraine hours before the show.

I joked about it when we arrived that it felt like this was the underground of animation because we were screening this films in a warehouse. It was a nice looking warehouse, but it was still a warehouse. A strange place to screen films, animated or not. Though when the films began rolling a little after 7 PM the films were so...weird and disgusting that my joking statement may not have been too far off. My film was the second film shown, and I was under the impression that I had given my friend and Vice President of ASIFA-Atlanta, Allyssa Lewis the silent version of the film. I did give her permission to add sound to it if it would increase the chances of it getting selected, but it had to be creepy. The sound was creepy all right because it was the sound version that I had created. I don't know how it happened, but she didn't know that I had sent her the silent version and instead pulled the sound version from my Facebook page. It's just as well because the sound version is way, way better. There were some laughs at the end and applause, which was good, but not enough to insure victory, which again, I didn't care about. I learned that there were more people other than my mom and me who liked that film, and that's what counts. Allyssa would tell me later that the panel who were choosing the films liked that my film was done in the traditional, hand drawing method. I think that my film was the only hand drawing method. There were some 2D films, but they were done primarily in Adobe Flash. I will not touch Flash since we didn't exactly get along well when we were first introduced. Stinkin' code!

As for the rest of the films that shown...well, let's put it this way, there were only two good films that were shown that night. The Vampire Mouse Transformation and SCAD-Atlanta's Jaguar McGuire and His Cat were the best films, and the rest sucked. It's not to say that there weren't some well done animations because there were, but they were either too long like Lost and Found or too gruesome like the one where a beast massacres a bunch of bullies. The latter could have been great if the kid that the bullies were picking on had transformed into the beast, and the bullies ran away screaming, but instead the artist chose the beast to come out of the bushes to help the kid by slaughtering the bullies in the most gruesome ways imaginable. Lost and Found's problem was that it was too long, but the thing was that they had one idea and several artists working to interpret that idea in a variety of ways. The rest of the films were weirdly disturbing especially the stop motion animated film that looked like two penises having sex with each other. My mom thought they looked like two rear ends having sex, but it's disturbing no matter what you saw in it. What frightens me is that there were some films that didn't make the cut. If these twenty or so films were the best, I can't imagine what those that were left on the cutting room floor looked like.

My mom and I left shortly after 9 PM, not knowing who had won, but we had a pretty good guess. There was a lot of applause for the last film that was shown even though it was terrible in my opinion, but apparently everybody else found talking clouds and one cloud being turned into cotton candy appealing. I don't see it. Still, to hammer the one point again, it was just an honor to be selected, and there were some people who liked my film. That's all I want.

Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again




The Defining Moment_Colored

 I finished coloring The Defining Moment last week, and I think that it looks a whole lot more gruesome in color than it did in black and white. Of course, after watching some of those animated films, this scene does seem rather tame. It hasn't really received any positive reaction on Deviantart, and in fact one person who had been "watching me" dropped me. Apparently he liked my work when it was all light and cartoony, but when I show off the darker side of my work, he's offended and drops me. Truthfully...I don't care. I don't care about the watching. I am more interested in the views and who has added it to the favorites.

Another Transformation



The Incredible Hulk Transformation

After working on The Defining Moment, it was time to get back to work on more fanart. While working on It All Started with a Mouse I had several ideas for future projects including the two panoramic drawings featuring DC and Marvel heroes and villains, but one of the early ideas was this one. It features Dr. Bruce Banner transforming, sort of, into the Hulk, and it's one of the few drawings that doesn't have a background to speak of. It will just be red behind the figures. It's interesting that I would do the Hulk because frankly, I don't like him as a character because it would be a tough character to write a story for since he's really not a hero. He's a victim, like a werewolf. I think that it would be better if the stories were written to focus more on Banner than the Hulk, like the television show with Bill Bixby. Still, I enjoy drawing transformations, and if I could figure out how to do it I wouldn't mind trying to animate the Hulk's transformation.

The pencil drawing is pretty much done although I may go over it with a graphite pencil before starting the inking. I'll ink like I did The Defining Moment, over transparent vellum paper that way I can place the penciled piece in my portfolio.

Final Thoughts

It was fourteen years ago this very day, June 15th, that I began my hobby that eventually turned into a possible career in drawing my first comic book story. It was a rather bad attempt at a comic book, and if you looked at it now, you would have never guessed that I was the one who had drawn it. It was just a starting point to my artistic career.

Well, until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!