MBMBAMimation: Torsey

My latest McElroy toon:

Call of Booty, Part IV: Incursion

Yo Ho Ho, viewers.

I took a break from this for a bit while working on some other projects, but here's the next installment of Call of Booty, because I had a narrative planned out and dammit if I don't finish it!

'til next time, folks!

Signing Sentai

I did a bunch of brainstorming yesterday for an idea that's been kicking around in the back of my head for a while. Some time ago I was reading some articles about Anthony "Blue Ear" Smith, and I got to thinking about a character. I've always had a passive interest in japanese superheroes like Kamen Rider, Kikaider, or any of the Super Sentai genre, I love the colorful costumes and elaborate poses and such. When thinking about a hearing-impaired character/hero, I immediately turned to these heroes as sources for inspiration:

I though it could be really fun and interesting for a character to use ASL with the elaborate/pose-like gestures of these heroes. When thinking of powers for a hero like this, I started thinking it would be cool if ASL could be directly incorporated. I decided that the fingers on the hero's gloves would have a glow to them, and that when signing, the hero could create constructs (similar to Green Lantern), or summon tools, depending on what sign was used.

I don't have any titles or names or anything yet, but here's where I ended up, as of yesterday, design wise. I'm still playing around with the idea, but I've had a lot of fun thinking it through this far:

I also did a quick animation test with my idea. Here she is using a sign for "switch" or "alter", which is what she uses to change into costume:

And lastly, some tertiary character sketches, trying to find a "look" that I liked, as well as brainstorming an initial villain, "Mandrake", who has a sonic-boom voice power.

Sonic's Vest

A clip from JumpKickPunch 162, "Snack Attack", where the crew weigh the pros and cons of Sonic's fashion.

MBMBAMimation: Belly Hands

Another "My Brother My Brother and Me" toon, for all to enjoy!

MBMBAMimiation: Slash Fiction

Because there isn't enough My Brother My Brother and Me animation out there yet, and this clip from this past Monday's show struck me so hard.

Call of Booty, Part III: Greeting the Natives

Shiver me timbers, another Pirate post

presenting, Call of Booty Part III:

Don't forget Rico, who is up to no good as well, I'm sure.

Call of Booty, Part II: Land, ho!

Avast, I be posting pirates again! Yarr!

Here be Call of Booty Parrrr-t 2:

Rico's still doing his ninja thing too, I guess. Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!

Call of Booty, Part I: The Proposition

Yarrr, here be me next pirate post.

I have a series of animated GIFs on the way, "Call of Booty", this being the first:

Also, here's some rough stuff! Featuring a "younger" version of my pirate captain character. He's still got both eyes, anyhow...

Don't forget to check out what the hell Rico's doing

Vidja Games!

It's been a busy time lately for videogames, more specifically, busy for me, keeping up with everything!

left to right, starting at the top:

Rayman Legends is a hell of a game!

Beck and Shantae both have Kickstarters going! check out Mighty No 9 and Half Genie Hero

Blastoise digivolves into ultimate.

and my Saints Row character, Fro-ny Stark, packs it in after another game well done. He does, in fact, have both the touch and the power.

Also, here's a bit of Rayman animation. I'm still playing around in flash, doing tests and whatnot to stay fresh/sharp, and Rayman seemed like a simple guy to do, what with him being limbless:

The Pirate's Life For Me

The venerable Hokage, Rico Jackson, and myself have started a volley of artwork regarding the merits of Pirates and Ninjas. Each week we'll be posting a piece having to do with our respective faction.

Obviously I've chosen the winning side: Pirates. I am allying myself with the masters of the high seas, and Rico will be running around in trees, or something equally ridiculous. This will continue ad infinitum (because we didn't really discuss that part...).

Per his request, we're starting with "Selfies". So be it:

also, here's some sketches I was doing along the way:

So if you're dumb and you like dumb things, like dumb ninjas, you can go check out his dumb stuff, too.

Tyler's Animation Alphabet: S

The Letter S:

Sonic the Hedgehog!

Odds/Ends

A few different pieces/experiments. Just playing around with some ideas, and messing around in flash.

Hey everyone, it's Tuesday...

"Hey everyone, it's Tuesday..."

Four simple words, irrevocably changed for me. I miss you already, Mr. Davis

This Ain't No Game.

Tyler's Animation Alphabet: R

The Letter R:

ReBoot!

Tyler's Animation Alphabet: Q

The Letter Q:

Q*bert!

Tyler's Animation Alphabet: P

The letter P is for:

Pokemon!

Tyler's Animation Alphabet: O

The Letter O is brought to you by:

One Piece!

Sketches: Random Animal Gang 6/12/2013

I had an urge to draw some shapey animal characters today, which I don't do all that often. Not much to it other than that.

Tyler's Animation Alphabet: N

The letter N is for:

(Little) Nemo!

Tyler's Animation Alphabet: M

The letter M is brought to you by:

Megaman!

Epoch O'Harah: Larry's Aliases

Being the eccentric young man that he is, Larry often cloaks himself in other personas to express himself. With his new design, I wanted to try drawing some of them out again.

We have "Agent O'Harah", Larry's operative name under the Garden Gnome Liberation Front banner, as well as any other espionage-related tasks

Lawrence is Larry's real name, and this is his home attire. Larry hails from a wealthy family, and as such, puts on airs while at home with his grandmother and grandfather, to keep them appeased.

Larryoharahman is Larry's superhero alter ego. He titled it himself. Somehow, most people still don't know that he and Larry are the same person. Go figure

"Lawless" is the name Larry uses for street fights and any other combat scenario. There aren't many, but he wanted to name it anyway. He's also ripped on occasion.

Cap'n O'Harah is Larry's seafaring and general cryptozoological hunter persona. Call him Ishmael.

Laurentius O'Harricus is Larry's attempt at being a deep, intellectual, philisophical individual. Painted on moustache and all. He creates this image of himself out of envy of his cousin, Kingston Sinclaire III.

Sketches: 5/30/2013

Just doodling some characters. Purchased a Cintiq recently and still breaking it in. More to come as the days go on!

Tyler's Animation Alphabet: L

Been a while, but I'm back on track to finish these up in my free time

The letter L is brought to you by:

Lupin the 3rd!

Epoch O'Harah: Background Progress

Epoch O'Harah: Bear Wrasslin' Battle Royale

Working on making some puppet/rigged animation out of Larry and Kate, in a test scene. I wanted to thumbnail out the scene ahead of time, to give myself an idea of what the acting would be. The soundclip is from Friends.

Epoch O'Harah: First Impressions

I made a "beat board" for myself of the first time Larry and Kate meet:

Kate falls for the old "garden-gnome-bait-in-front-of-the-fake-tree-house" ploy. Larry doesn't take too kindly to those who mess with his gnome friends.

Background Designs

Decided to finish up an old background design for the now-on-hiatus Pirates Life:

Also, here's a sketch of a BG/Layout of an upcoming, quick animation:

Epoch O'Harah: The Main Players

Continuing onwards in my attempt to update these characters/find a look that I like.

Here's the latest attempt.

Character Sketches 4/2/13

Starting to rough out an idea, did some sketches of two characters. Not sure how cartoony I want them to be, or if I want to try something different entirely.

DEMO REEL UPDATE 4/1/13

Finally put the finishing touches on my new reel, time to send it off to some studios!

I'd appreciate any comments or critiques! No criticism, though. Don't be mean.

The Epoch O'Harah, Part II

The now titled The Epoch O'Harah details the life of Larry O'Harah, and his budding friendship with Kate Anderson. It's a slice of a very quirky life.

Larry lives with his grandparents and his younger sister, Lynette. Larry's best friend is Steve Anderson, and his sworn enemy is his own cousin, Kingston Sinclaire III.

a recent redesign of Larry, Kate, and Steve

further sketching, with Kate, Steve, Kingston, and Lynette

The most current form of Larry and Kate

The story is still in the works, but Larry and Kate meet when she and her father are turned out by her mother and forced to live with Steve's family. She becomes a tag-along with Larry, Lynette and Steve's various schemes and adventures to stave off boredom.

Larry and Kingston share a secret, one that isn't ready to be revealed, that provides the "catch" to this cartoony SitCom. For now you'll just have to stay tuned.

The most important thing in this series for me is the rapport and chemistry of it's two main characters, and I sketched these out to convey their dynamic:

So that's where Larry, Kate, and Co. are as of now. I'll keep working at them, and share more as they continue to develop.

The Epoch O'Harah, Part I

The Epoch O'Harah is a story/concept I've been working on for a while. It chronicles the surreal and often supernatural misadventures of an eccentric teenager and the various friends he picks up along the way.

This post, and the post following, have been a long time coming. I've been hesitant to post about this stuff on my blog because they are ideas and characters I've been cultivating since my high school days. Like most concepts formed during said years, they didn't start out as particularly worthwhile or compelling, but I felt (and still feel) strongly about these guys, and have always kept them going, in a hopes that I could make good by them someday.

So here, more or less, is the progression of Larry O'Harah and his friends:

Larry O'Harah, circa 2006

In high school, I made these characters to give myself a playground, to just jot down gags and ideas to test out, and to write stories and comics with. I started with an extremely paranoid, curly haired protagonist who always wore a raincoat because he was afraid of clouds, and underneath always wore a tuxedo "just in case". This eccentric young man eventually became the much more confidant Larry. Once I had Larry I started to populate his life with other characters:

The very cleverly titled "Liphe and Thymes of Larry"

I wanted to make strange and silly scenarios for Larry and his group to get into. Larry was a member of the Garden Gnome Liberation Front, he'd rope his friend Steve and Steve's cousin Kate into his adventures, they'd meet a sword wielding otter named simply The Otter, they'd thwart the schemes of the littlest demon Scoots, Destroyer of Worlds, and much more.

Learn a bit more about Larry, now circa 2008

As I said before, even if these guys had promise, most of what I produced was either hackneyed, didn't make much sense, or just plain dumb.

One of many "gag" strips I made, almost daily, during high school

I wasn't doing much to improve the characters visually, mostly I focused on trying to write funnier jokes, develop better timing and more interesting and or compelling stories. These characters were my playground in that I'd place them in any scenario I saw fit, and over time tried out different ways of drawing, and adding characters along the way.

more and more these characters started finding their personalities, and I started to writing comics and strips. Here is what I deemed the "Leroy Saga", one of the few series of strips I ever actually uploaded online:

And then, once I started college, I put them on the back-burner. I knew they weren't yet good enough, both in aesthetics and writing, to be scrutinized as characters. But I never stopped developing an actual story around them, a world they fit in.

Recently, I've taken to redesigning them, and actually writing something I'd consider as a "pilot" around these characters. Part II will be about just that, and the characters most current incarnations.